I had it all figured out. We were going to meet some friends for dinner in downtown Los Gatos this evening at 7pm — that would give me enough time to pick up Leopard beforehand.

So we left home just before 6, expecting to be parked by 6:05. But the traffic on North Santa Cruz was horrible, and going over to University didn’t improve matters. Finally, I detoured to the secret parking lot between Santa Cruz and University on the north side of Hwy 9, several blocks from the restaurant, let alone the Apple Store.

But that was OK; I could easily carry the Leopard box around. For that matter, it’d be easy enough to carry a new Mac mini.

But first we had to get to the store. And even the sidewalks were rather crowded. With dogs. In costumes. And their owners. And people giving the dogs treats.

Yes, it was Howlin’ Halloween in Los Gatos.

We pressed on. And as we crossed Bachman, I noticed something else odd — the stores and restaurants were dark, including the place we had reservations. And they stayed dark all the way up Santa Cruz, past the Apple Store. Most of the stores were closed, but not the Apple Store — they had a long line of people waiting, and every few seconds, someone would leave the store with a bag and a smile.

Since part of my hidden agenda for the evening involved having Diane try out an iMac, I decided to skip the store (somehow, much of the system’s charm would be lost if it was powered down) and accompanied Diane and Jeff to Borders in Old Town, which was brightly lit.

I tried calling the restaurant, but they didn’t answer their phone. So I called our friends, and we decided to try somewhere else, Di Ciccio’s in San Jose. As we left the bookstore, I saw that the lights were on again on Santa Cruz — I called the restaurant we’d planned to eat at and cancelled our reservation. They said, “but the power is back on”, but it was too late.

I hadn’t been to Di Ciccio’s in more than 15 years — not for any particular reason, but then again, there was no good reason to go there, either. The ownership had changed in the last couple of years, and I’d definitely be more eager to go back now. The food was quite tasty, even if the portions were too large; I’d rather have had a bit less food and saved a couple of bucks. We had a Clos la Chance 2005 Pinot Noir, which was very enjoyable, and which was priced quite fairly ($32, versus $30 at the winery or $25 from K&L).

And then we came home. I thought about going back downtown and getting my copy of Leopard, but on further reflection, a walk with Diane seemed like a better idea. And that’s what we did.

(Of course, I haven’t given up completely on Leopard — I’m making a backup of my existing disk so I’ll be ready for the upgrade. Tomorrow. Or Sunday. As John Gruber points out, “no one ever got hurt by waiting a week or two to install a new OS.” But where’s the fun in that?)