Happy New Year and all that jazz. Wish I hadn't gone on hiatus with the blogging between August 1999 and July 2001, then I would have had a nice decade of blogging. As it is, I don't remember what I was doing when the decade started. Anyway, went in to work late after having breakfast with Baniella at Nookies Tree. But still got some stuff done. Picked up Potbelly for dinner on the way home. Watched Death Race to pass the time until Tracy got off work, then drove out to the in-laws for the new year. Watched slideshow of Mike's wedding, and saw some photos from Gabe's favorite photographer and I can't wait to get a real camera. Also possibly figured out which hardware/software solution to use for baby monitoring. Excited about the. Probably get it soon and use it to spy on Tracy, just for testing.

Yes, living in the future, the year 2010. I have no idea what my dreams were of this year, back when 2010 was the future, instead of the present. Still no flying cars, personal jet packs, or servant robots (I don't have a roomba). So the new year so far involved lots of sleeping, hanging out at the in-laws, shopping, and reading. I'm currently on Breaking Dawn, after plowing through the first 3 books in the Twilight Series, starting on December 23, 2009. Read 23 books this year, when I started counting in February. Only book I doubled up on was Soon I Will Be Invincible, probably because it was new to my stable. I wonder what the coming year will bring, and if my reading will increase or decrease with the baby. Or if I count Goodnight Moon for myself. Finally fried up the plantain that was brown enough, and Tracy jerked up some chicken and coconut rice for dinner last night. I made a tiny single Oreo cheesecake yesterday as well, which was ok, but I should have found a recipe, instead of just putting Oreos into a regular cheesecake. But, pretty easy to make and bake. All caught up on Dollhouse, and I'm glad it appears to be setting up for a nice wrap up. More like a nice 26 episode miniseries, than just an open ended tv series. Finally watched Tropic Thunder. Good, but not amazing.

My MacBook continues to limp along. I thought the USB ports were going on me, as the Monoprice USB Wireless Lan 802.11N kept disappearing and reappearing like it was getting unplugged and replugged. But a full days rest shut down seems to have fixed that. But still, fingers crossed for a MacBook Pro 13" updated to the Core i5 chip at the end of the month. Also I removed the Apple TV and the Wii from inside the AV cube and put them on top instead. I probably shouldn't have crammed that all inside, it was a little too hot, and I thought the center channel on the AV Receiver was going. Finally ordered up some cooling fans as well for it, so that should help. If anything it'll help the replacements if the current items break down. The DVR is the hottest thing in there, but since it's a rental, I'm not that worried about it. Tracy made some soup last night, and it filled me up without really filling me up. Mostly volume. Did some exercises last night too, just planks and push-ups, but I don't remember the last time I did push-ups, so that's something. Wondering if anything interesting is coming out of CES this year. It starts officially on Thursday. Just noticed that my birthday falls on Ash Wednesday this year. And figured out over the weekend that our daughter will probably be a Taurus.

I guess. Certainly didn't look like 12 inches of snow will be dropping on the city in the next 36 hours. Hard to take a winter storm warning as an advisory when it spans a day and a half. But duly noted. Good thing there's no driving for anyone involved in the household. Just realized that Tracy can't have snow days from work like she used to when the snow was really bad. No shoveling needed when walking down the hall. I did my part to clean out the fridge last night, eating any leftovers I could find. Also watched Push, again, since Tracy was working last night and I'm in the middle of the Avengers Assemble part of Breaking Dawn. Picked up a couple more movies from Redbox. Disappointed I can't get 9 yet. Lots of anticipation for some reason. Maybe it's just the New Year jitters. CES officially starts tomorrow. Supposed Apple event some time at the end of the month. Just waiting for update products and things to get stocked to spend lots of money, all under the guise of the baby. Also, flights to Vegas are expensive.

So since my MacBook continued to have issues with my admittedly cheap Monoprice USB Wireless Lan 802.11N, I decided to try and put my Airport Extreme card back into the laptop. And guess what? It works find again. Go figure. Again, I just need it to last until Apple releases the mobile Core i5's. Any day now since Intel just officially announced them at CES. Looking forward to what Plastic Logic does for a consumer version of the Que. I'm fascinated by the touchscreen behind the actual screen technique. Would love to see what a paperbook sized version would cost and look like. Speaking of books, I finished up Breaking Dawn last night, and in a effort to balance it out, started The Book of Basketball by the Sports Guy. Reading it on my iPhone is pretty annoying because of all the footnotes. Well, annoying because the eReader software and book format probably doesn't handle footnotes the way they could be handled, like as pop-ups.

MacBook is still chugging along. Snowpocalypse wasn't as bad as I was hoping for. I think Tracy's starting the nesting stage of pregnancy, which means I've got some work to do on cleanup, getting rid of some boxes, doing some file organization. Exciting. Got a package yesterday, the Gilmore Girls complete set, more for Tracy than for me, G.I. Joe: Resolute which they don't sell at the iTunes Store so I had to get a physical copy, Wii Fit Plus and a Thermaltake BlackX, which is a SATA USB HD dock. Just means I can use those 2 1TB HD I replaced in the Drobo for actual offsite storage of important things, mainly iTunes Store purchases and photos, important for when the baby comes around. Headed out to Woodstock tomorrow night. Paid last bit of estimated taxes for 2009. I'll never understand that. Especially the part of getting fined for being late on your estimated taxes. Ugh.

So we headed out to Woodstock to see my parents on Saturday, meeting them after the 5pm mass. And who do I see? Mrs. McCoy, my old 8th grade teacher. Very nice to see her. She looked well. Told her some updates. Then, we went to dinner at Woodstock Public House. On the way to the seats, I see someone that looks familiar. I glance over again and I swear it's a table of some old high school classmates. Seriously. So some more, hopefully inconspicuous, glances, I'm certain it's my classmates, Dana Fortin, Megan Byrnes, Leigh Hadick, and Christy Luciano. So I wander over and say hello. Crazy. It's been probably since high school graduation, over 14 years ago, the last time I saw them. Seriously. Small world. Which of course made me think all about high school, all over again. So besides that little foray into the past, did some shopping. Took advantage of the trade in program and upgraded the Sony Portable Reader System PRS-500 to a Pink Reader Pocket Edition PRS-300. Also got to check out the 3D TV showcase in person. Interesting. Sunday went to Benedict's La Strata, then returns and shopping on the way back in to the city. Got me some fleece pants which are nice and warm. Also, I think Tracy has started nesting so we cleaned out the living room of boxes and paperwork finally. Time to start putting together the nursery.

Dropped by the old home yesterday to pick up mail and run the water. I also picked up a couple lamps that I've been meaning to move over. But I stumbled on an old journal with some entries from SBR '04 I think, which made me think of all my other journals, which I think I just went ahead and tossed. Seriously. I didn't even make an effort to digitize them or anything, just threw my past out. Bad for these days when I feel like reminiscing, but I think good overall for general well being. Leftover ribs for dinner. Watched some of Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, Better Off Ted, Scrubs and the first episode of Undeclared (thanks Gabe!). So many young and promising stars in that pilot episode, including Smallville and Pam Beesly and Daisy. Very cool.

Another doctor's appointment this morning. This was Tracy's blood sugar test day. So I only had a half day, taking the morning off to go with her. We did find the Au Bon Pain at Northwestern Hospital (it's on the second floor). Tracy did get the ok to fly at the end of February, so Vegas here we come. Otherwise, everything was straightforward and normal. Headed out tonight to The Publican to celebrate Akira's birthday. I'm planning on walking over, and also need to drop by a Jewel to return some Redbox movies (Moon (movie) and World's Greatest Dad). Nice to see the sun today. And the weather's warming up, which was also nice.

The Publican is just awesome. Good food. Fresh, wonderfully cooked, so tasty. My mouth waters just writing about it again. The mussels were sublime, the suckling pig wonderful, the country ribs really tasty. Love that place. I think we need to make it either a monthly, or at the least a bi-monthly eating place, maybe try out brunch even. I do have a birthday coming up. Hmmm. I'm not getting a little worried that the GF1 is getting discontinued, but it was only released last September, but noone really has the 20mm kit in stock. Still just waiting for Amazon to get it, really. Also still waiting for Apple to announce new toys. I'm just anxious to help the economy along, that's all. January and February do seem to drag on, at least it's not absolutely freezing, but we do have February ahead of us still. Tracy's working tonight, so got to figure out what to do for dinner.

One of those words that's just fun to say out loud, like an expression of surprise, or like bazinga! Not so good when used with Tracy, because she likes kolaches, which are good, so I had to go out and get some today after all the kolaches shouting. I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but I've started getting and drinking Caramel Macchiatos and I tried my first Cinnamon Dolce Latte from Starbucks today, and I'm liking them. I've definitely handed in my man card for a while. Maybe the super sweet coffee drinks and reading and watching the Twilight series is just preparation for dealing with my future daughter. Maybe I'll even get some baking in this weekend, I want to try a mini cake using those mini springform pans of mine. Also, I don't think I've mentioned that the McRib is back in Chicagoland area McDonald's. Yum. Had one for lunch today. Got a lunch date with Russell tomorrow, headed over to Silver Cloud. Been a while since I've been there. Oh, and a haircut tomorrow too. Besides that, some movie watching, since Tracy's working.

So watched pretty much the entire series of Undeclared over the weekend. That's an amazing show. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Funny and at times a little uncomfortable. The casting director for that show was batting a thousand. Lots of good and funny future faces on that show. Very cool to see. So thanks Gabe. Also finally watched City of Ember. Not bad. I do wonder what the book was like, if there was more to figuring out the puzzle, which I thought there was going to be. I thought it was gonna be a National Treasure but kind of for kids. Not really that at all, and actually, fairly bleak, dystopian future, apocalyptic as well. So yeah, pretty dark when you think about it. Saturday had a nice mandate with Russell. A cheesy sloppy joe and a bloody mary at Silver Cloud was awesome. Good stuff there. Also finally had some frozen apple turnovers, which I found at the grocery store last week. Went to Twist for dinner on Sunday to satisfy Tracy's craving. Did some chores on Sunday too. Got a haircut on Saturday. Started looking into other webhosting solutions.

Well, went ahead and put an order in for a GF1 through Amazon. I saw it was in stock on the Panasonic Website, then saw it come in to Adorama, then 1 day later, no longer in stock at either of those. I assume there's a shipment headed to Amazon and hopefully I'm not too far down the list. I'm really looking forward to having a real camera for once in my life. Should be interesting. Odd to see the sun again. Makes everything much better. Restored my iPhone last night. Seems like the battery's been draining extra fast lately, so I wanted to try the restore, since it supposedly helps. I've already taken off all the media, so it wasn't too lengthy of a process. But after restoring, it's super snappy. Teh Snappy even. But still seems like the battery is draining. Maybe I should start deleting apps I'm not using. Made a mini cake last night. The small springforms work great. Just need to frost them. Kind of feels like one of those easy-bake ovens in terms of size. I wish I had thought of it sooner. Next up I want to make a mini black forest cake.

Just barely. Maybe. My week on call for the data load at work. A little annoying. Otherwise, just watching TV and eating. You know, the usual. I am looking into setting up storytlr on a home machine, and seeing if I can get it working. Kind of a test run on setting up a new webhost. It's not super easy to configure a web host. Put that in the pro column for just going with a webhosting service, instead of rolling my own. Otherwise, setup the second NETGEAR WGR614L Open Source Router finally as a client-bridge. I'm planning on using that for the baby monitoring setup, which the camera is on the way. After that, then getting the software both Mac and iPhone. Yay! Something new to play with. Also frosted that cake I made a couple days ago. Tried a cream cheese frosting, and it's a little too cream cheesy, and not quite frosty enough. Got to go home early and work there, since Tracy forgot her keys when she was running errands today, so just had to meet her after her haircut. Since I was working at home, moved the little breakfast table up against the couch, so I can watch TV without sitting sideways. It's actually a pretty cool spot, if we moved the book cases, or switched out for somehting shorter. Otherwise it's like a hole in the decorating.

I completely understand the poor eating habits associated with stress and/or responsibility. Because of the whole data load supervision for work thing, my lunch schedule has flip flopped. I had recently, last month or so, started having lunch around 11am, whereas before it was like 2pm. But then this week I've been back to the 2pm lunches. Not good. I was starting to like the 11am lunches, with a small snack maybe in the afternoon. Also, I had McDonald's for lunch yesterday, just because it was fast and easy. Because I had to get back to work. It's much nicer when things go smoothly. Battery life on my iPhone actually seems worse now. Just cleaned off a bunch of apps. We'll see if it gets any better. And actually it did, almost immediately. Maybe cutting in half the number of apps that could receive notifications helps, even if most of them were set to not receive any notifications.

Finally got storytlr setup on a test machine. It's pretty sweet. I've actually been trying to use Tumblr to do exactly that, capture all my activity online in a single location, like a lifestream, and FriendFeed does it too, but not nearly as pretty as Tumblr, but Tumblr had a limit of 5 data feeds, while my rolling my own is unlimited. Of course, I had to figure out how to compile php for Mac OS X to get odd things working like pdo_mysql and tidy and mcrypt and I still need to get jpeg and some other stuff working. Of course, I now need to keep track of updates and make sure it's up to date now. Ugh. Maybe I won't start up self hosting. Weekend, except not really, because I'm still watching this data load for work. When it's working fine and completing in time, it's easy peasy, otherwise, annoying. Got to get a plunger that fits the drain on our toilets, since the one we got doesn't. No suction. So we're down to one toilet for now. Played Wii Fit Plus for the first time last night. It's pretty sweet with the groupings. Nice quick and easy exercise routines, prepackaged. Tracy had a request for kolaches again, so wandered over and picked some up from delightful pastries in the Chicago French Market. Ended up getting some tarts too. Supposed to have dinner with Rysa and Jespy this weekend. Otherwise, I need to be around a computer in the afternoon/evenings. Also going to look at baby furniture tomorrow.

Got my baby monitoring system setup, at least temporarily. I can totally spy on Tracy now as she's working at home. It's really really cool. Like seriously, really really cool. And I've only got a single camera setup. Kind of want to invest in more cameras, but then again, it's a very temporary type of system, wireless networking, no hard lines, kind of awkward cable and power and stuff. For the next house. Did some shopping, well, window shopping this weekend. Trying to get ideas for which glider chair, sizes of dressers, decorating schemes and styles, crib styles, and so on and so forth. While at Babies 'R Us up in Niles first ran into Rick Hamada, a co-worker, and then Debbie Jung, an old friend from NU, who I probably haven't seen since graduation, but she is a Facebook friend. So that was cool, and very small worldish. And in the past month, even less, ran into high school friends, now college friends, and now I wonder who I'll run into that I haven't seen for 10 years. Went to dinner with Rysa and Jespy Saturday night at New Reboso, which was fabulous. Oh My God. And now we really have to start moving on the baby prep stuff. 3 months or so left.

Yes, I watched Life Unexpected. And yes, I liked it. I also watched Human Target. Which was fun, but didn't make it on my list. Life Unexpected did. If not the DVR, which it might if Tracy approves, otherwise someday off the iTunes Store. Made hamburgers in the cast iron pan for dinner last night. They were awesome. Just like you'd get from the corner grill. Very tasty. Also first time using a cast iron pan. So weird not washing it after using it. Stopped by the old home yesterday. Maybe I should just forward my mail from the old place instead of walking over to pick it up. Hmmm. Eventually. Started using port forwarding non-standard ports on the Airport Extreme to xenon. I think it helps against the h4ck0rz!1! and script kiddies and stuff.

Do i want one? Hmmm. Thoughts on the Come see our latest creation (January 27, 2010) Apple Event and the iPad device itself. In the half assed method of trying to follow the event via websites or ustream.tv TWiT streams, I didn't see what's so great about it. Watching the iPad video off Apple's website? I'm impressed and now immediately want one. Well, not necessarily immediately. I know what I should do, and that's wait for v2 in a year, but I don't know if I will do that. Maybe I can get an iPad and an iMac instead of a MacBook Pro? And as usually, lots of complaints around the intarwebs, mostly centering on the software side, mostly no multitasking. To that I say eh. Wait and see. Don't really have think about it for at least 2 months and possibly more, by which time I imagine I'll be pretty busy with other things. Finished off The Book of Basketball yesterday and started The Lost Symbol. It's nice to get back to a page turner.

So yeah, I think I want an iPad. Reading all the reactions and analysis gets a little annoying after a while, and I don't want to whine, complain, sound like a fanboy, sound deluded, or under the effect of RDF. My only thought is that it's neither an iPhone or a MacBook. Watched a lot of TV last night, all sitcoms, Tracy made hors d'ouvres for dinner, crab and spinach stuff. I pretty much just ate what I could get my hands on. Weather's freezing, just in time for February. My new camera supposedly should be shipping soon. Would at least give me some new toy to play with. Spying on Tracy with the security camera got old pretty quick, but it is pretty sweet. Working at home seems pretty boring.

Good news is that my new camera shipped out today. Yay! Something new and shiny to play with for a while. Something to make me stop thinking about the iPad. Which is making rethink my whole computer upgrading plans. It's a little annoying. I'm really jonesing for an iPad, and thinking I don't need a MacBook at all, and I've started looking at iMacs, except Tracy says we don't have the space for it. I wish the 21.5" had a vesa adapter, then I'd wall mount it by the breakfast bar. That'd be a perfect place for one, or an iPad. But if the iMac fit and was on a swivel arm, would come in handy for recipes, or playing/picking music, and work on photos. But that's if it fit, and swiveled out of the way. I'll have to try some mockups to see if that works. Headed out to the 'burbs again tomorrow, looking to hit up a Hobby Lobby, Joanne Fabric Store, and a Land of Nod outlet. Tracy's trying to figure out how to organize furniture for the nursery. Sunday she's working, so I'm just trying to figure out which movie to watch, Gamer or Surrogates, or something else entirely. Watched the series finale of Dollhouse, which ended well, I hope. Also finished off The Lost Symbol, which I enjoyed, more so for the ideas presented, than the story itself. Next up is Dealers of Lightning, rather appropriate given the introduction of the iPad this week.

We took another step towards making having a baby: we bought a crib. Finally found one we liked, nice simple lines, a little modern, with a nice drawer underneath, the only issue we discussed for a bit is the color: it's espresso. We had been thinking of going with white furniture, but we're going with the dark, which means the nursery will look like it fits with the rest of the home's furniture. Tracy's had to redo her decorating sheet for color schemes and styles. So that was the big purchase on Saturday. That and fabric for curtains for the nursery. Not sure if it'll end up being cost effective with Tracy making them vs. just buying prefabricated panels. Wait and see I guess. Made burgers in the cast iron pan again for dinner last night. Dropped by the in-laws after shopping on Saturday and picked up a nightstand from Tracy's room and had dinner. Also ended up doing some tech support on an old Windows machine as well. Watched Gamer on Sunday, and put Firefly on in the background. Had to make 2 different grocery store runs on Sunday as well. Hard to believe it's already February.

My first date with Tracy was 5 years ago today at Angelina Ristorante. And now, 5 years later, we're almost 3 years married with a kid on the way. Crazy. Not actually celebrating this year with a dinner at the alma mater. Had spamen for dinner last night, Ramen and Spam, yum. Tracy was working, so just rummaged for dinner. Watched the rest of National Treasure and 3 more episodes of Firefly, specifically Our Mrs. Reynolds, which is really funny with Christina Hendricks. I keep forgetting how good that show is, but every time I start watching the first episode, I start plowing through the rest. So good. So good. And starting to see a little commonality between Firefly and Dollhouse, about loyalty, about morality, about doing what's right. Got a meeting with Jason tomorrow. Really looking forward to getting my camera on Thursday. Started looking into GPS loggers to add location info to the photos. Also have to define workflow/backup strategy for the photos. That should be interesting.

I've added pull-ups to my exercise routine, so it's now planks, push-ups and pull-ups. I got one of those Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar because you don't have to screw anything into any door frames. Works well. And of course I'm sore after not having done pull-ups in who knows how long. It's a nice quick and easy little workout. Also did some additional foot exercises from PT, since my right foot's been acting up again lately. Annoying. But then again I haven't been keeping up on them. Tracy made chicken adobo for dinner last night, pretty good. She had some strawberries from the other day she wanted dipped in chocolate, so we did that too. Watched Scrubs and Better Off Ted. Had a meeting with Jason this morning, and took the Metra in to work from Roselle. Always interesting to see other suburbs. Also had my McRib for the week. Totally excited to get my new camera tomorrow. I can't wait.

Tracy went shopping yesterday, buying more stuff for the baby's room, and she found a mini chair that's the spitting image of our dining room chairs. It's pretty sweet. I don't think it'll get used for a while, but still, severely cute. Still waiting to hear if my camera got delivered today. I'm so excited. And I bought it sight unseen, never played with it, just went by reviews online, which were all very positive. I seriously can't wait to start taking photos. Real photos. I do still have to figure out the photo workflow. I do want GPS logging at some point. I want to do as little hands-on processing, except when needed. Not to mention there's no Mac support for GF1 RAW files yet. Told Tracy I won't get an iPad until I see one in person. She's also told me that her next computer will be a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, whenever her current machine dies. Which might be a while. Will be nice to eventually get to an all Mac household.

Supposedly the camera got delivered today. Yay! So I'll be busy for a while, taking photos. A lot of photos. Sweet. Always fun to have something new to play with. And it's snowing. Didn't really know that was coming. Actually felt a little warm this morning. Finally got Tracy registered at Prentice. We do still need to find a pediatrician. I think we're doing more baby shower registering this weekend. Putting an order in for a comfy rocker for the nursery, which will eventually make it's way into the living room. It's awesome. Gonna try and make it out to see Chuck tonight, but can't guarantee anything. Might also try and make it out to see Karl tomorrow night at bowling, but once again, can't guarantee anything. Not doing anything for the Super Bowl, but will still probably watch it, I think. I should get around to trying to put up the railing by the bar too. That should be interesting to see. Hopefully I don't screw it up too much.

Yes. Got my camera on Friday, been pretty much playing with it ever since. It's seriously awesome. One little thing I like about manual focusing: it zooms in, kind of like real size on the EVF or LCD screen, so you can get whatever you want in focus. That's sweet. Yes, the EVF isn't a good resolution, yet, I find myself using it a lot. Also like the exposure bracketing, since I'm still starting out and have things to figure out. I also downloaded trials of Aperture and Lightroom, and at some point will figure out which one I want to go with. If Aperture had built in support for GF1 RAW files, I think it'd be a no brainer, but since it doesn't, I figure I should make an informed decision. I brought it with as we went shopping, on the prowl for a dresser, ordered up a glider/recliner, found the newels for the short railing by the bar, and some other odds and ends. Got Gale Street Inn ribs carryout to watch the Super Bowl. Cut some fabric for curtains for the nursery as well. Got another OB appointment tomorrow morning, and go figure, it's gonna snow a lot tonight. And we have to take a rush hour bus tomorrow. Sweet.

So we found out our OB is also expecting. We had an appointment, not even with her, but with another member of the practice, but Dr. Williams was there, and showing. We had no idea. But it turns out she'll be giving birth before Tracy will. That's crazy. Awesome. But crazy. And I stumbled upon the fact that a former Facebook friend is also expecting. I guess I really am of that age, where everyone I know is having, has had, or will have babies. In other news, it's snowing. I ended up walking from the doctor's office to work, because I didn't know if the 157 was still running after the CTA service cuts. But it was. I just didn't know though. It was a nice walk. February's getting to be an expensive month, put another Amazon order in for random stuff, and a possible new camera bag. Oh, and all that talk about Aperture yesterday and Apple goes and releases version 3 this morning. I was hoping for updates to the MacBook Pros, but I might take this instead. Also provides RAW support for Panasonic G1s, which might mean GF1 support is coming sooner rather than later. If so, that would tip me towards Aperture over Lightroom. Still have to start it up though.

Another late night working. I imagine something like Q3. Every third week. At least I'm getting better at figuring stuff out, and making tools to make my job easier. Always helps. Kind of waiting for all the snow to melt. Except that it'll probably stick around for a while. I keep think that it's a spring snow, not a mid February, actual middle of winter snow that'll thaw a little then refreeze and repeat until it's solid ice in many places. Anyway, got more camera stuff, a Luma Loop and a Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS Image Tracker from my Sony Points. Just waiting for the SD card reader to get here so I can pull files off the camera. And then see if Aperture or Lightroom works better for me.

So I tried out my new toy, the Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS Image Tracker. Turned it on when I left the house, didn't get a GPS lock until I got to work. Not so good. But it does get a lock when I point it out my work window. So that's nice. I should pull the GPS log off it to see how my commute home was tonight. I switched back to Chromium this morning, after noticing that it has bookmark sync and extensions support. And then what do I find out? Google released a new beta for Mac with bookmark sync and extension support. Awesome. Just started up Lightroom for the first time. Doesn't seem all that intuitive. Next up, Aperture. Another odd thing, I don't seem to be able to sleep for more than 6 consecutive hours. I just wake up. Kind of annoying now, but I'm sure it's a skill that will come in handy soon enough.

Planning on doing some wood working this weekend. Should be exciting. Otherwise, Tracy's working, so household chores. Getting a haircut tomorrow. Probably cooking dinner for Valentine's Day. Watching some movies. Started transcoding the West Wing for Russell finally. After that gets done I need to go through Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City for Tracy before the baby. Gotta have something to watch in at those odd hours of the morning. Of course, got lots of plans on things to update on the computer, but just not sure if I'll get around to it. Really tempted to get the bike out and go for a spin this weekend. Maybe to Home Depot when I need to get hardware to assemble the railing, all 20" of it.

I actually did do some woodworking, and cut the wood pieces to the tiny 20" railing that needs to go in. Now I just have to cut the iron balusters, and find out and get all the pieces to put it all together. So that's nice. I took the bikes out briefly, just to see if they still worked, and they do. Tempted to try again at some point soon, while it's still cold out. Made my first hollandaise, well, kind of. I think the egg yolks slightly curdled, so not quite perfect. Still tasted amazing. That was my contribution to Valentine's Day dinner of steak, potatoes and asparagus. Oh, that and chocolate dipped strawberries. Tried my hand at tempering the chocolate, but don't really have a good thermometer for it. Otherwise, watched the rest of Firefly including Serenity. So good. Dinner Saturday night at Las Mananitas. Finally got some shoe horns for the front and back doors and a few to bring to work. And did some coding for work as well. So fairly busy weekend. Starting to get more and more camera related stuff. Need to find a place to organize it all.

Stayed late at work tonight, not just because Tracy was out in the 'burbs from shopping and having dinner with her parents, but also because I was actually programming and excited and interested in it. Been a while, and it's not even really that interesting of a project, but it's new and exciting. I definitely need to pick up XCode finally. I have a feeling I could be doing more of this, this developing, again. My parents are back from their month long trip to the Philippines. Glad to hear they had fun and they traveled safe. Finally got an SDHC card reader, and imported photos and currently importing movies right now. I think I need to update my import script to import to folders grouped by create date, instead of import date. Makes more sense that way. Oh, and stopped by the Michigan Ave Apple Store, hoping to see what Aperture would be like on a 13" screen, but of course none of the 13" MacBook Pros had it installed. Makes sense. So I tried it out on the small iMac, and seems kind of nice. But I think I'd be perfectly fine with iPhoto '09 or whenever '10 gets released or whatever. And now I'm back to questing whether to get a MacBook Pro or an Air. And when/if I get to play with an iPad before a new computer purchase, I wonder how that will affect things as well. Also played with a Mighty Mouse for the first time. Those things are weird, and would take a while to get used to.

Another birthday, come and gone. Just another day. Work birthday sushi lunch was good. Ash Wednesday mass after work, phone calls, exercises, and more store bought sushi for dinner. And soon it'll be Thursday, and my Dad's birthday. Got my UV Filters for the camera today, which completes my most recent Amazon order. Nothing left in the pipeline for delivery. Oh, and just noticed that Chrome just updated itself while I'm typing this up. Crazy. Nice though. Now really just waiting for new MacBook Pros to get released. I'm just twiddling my fingers, limping along with my MacBook (Late 2006) model. Any day now, to spend more money. My social experiment for Facebook was rather interesting, as only Chris Wall managed to remember it was my birthday. This year instead of just preventing people from writing on my wall, I had hidden my birthday from everyone so it wouldn't show up in the little upcoming events box. So yeah, Thanks Booter.

Woke up at 2am this morning because one of the three smoke alarms within a 5' radius had a low battery warning. That's awesome. Good that we woke up, bad because I'm tired, and bad because we just noticed how close they are to each other, and yes, one of them isn't a smoke alarm but a carbon monoxide alarm, and the two smoke alarms are technically in different rooms, but still. Work's breezing by because of the actual coding going on. Fun stuff. Finished up The City of Ember and moved on to Angels & Demons. I'm starting to sense a trend in Dan Brown's Robert Langdon novels. Tracy's interested in reading the Percy Jackson books, like The Lightning Thief, and I would be too, except the only way to get a digital version is through Amazon. We can't even buy it from the Sony Bookstore, or Barnes & Nobel, so we can't read it on the reader. And I can't get it through Fictionwise, so I can't read it on eReader on the iPhone. Pretty annoying. I actually want to spend the money, but I can't because of DRM. Kind of goes against the purpose, doesn't it?

No definite plans to spend more money this weekend, but that could change, if we head out to get a dresser. We are planning on hitting up Green City Market for some Zullo's donuts, but other than that, nada. Maybe we can make a Home Depot run so I can get the hardware to put up the railing. Or maybe we can start rearranging furniture for the nursery. Or we can watch some movies, TV shows, and eat some food. I think I need practice making espasol before I get roped into making it for the baby shower. We do have lots of financial tasks on the docket, which is a little annoying, but necessary. I wonder if this is the first year we don't have to pay taxes. Fingers crossed.

Finally found a dresser. We were interested in a Young America All Seasons, seemed like good quality, and went up to FurnitureKidz (a Young America Signature store) up in Kildeer to check it out on Saturday. However, it took us a little while to find it, and of course we did some other shopping, and by the time we showed up they were closing in 15 minutes. So we decided to come back the next day so we could look around more leisurely. We did come back with all sorts of random stuff, almost all on sale or clearance, but all for us. Oh, and ate at a Five Guys for the first time. Not bad, but didn't seem all that better than what we make at home in a cast iron pan. Got milkshakes from Steak 'n Shake and watched The Hangover finally, since we're going to Vegas this week. Sunday we go back up, find out about the extra surcharges for delivery to Chicago and over 3 flights of stairs, and decide to go to somewhere closer, like Lazar's instead. Once there we find other dressers of much nicer construction, so we go with something from Pali instead, which is perfect except it's a little tall for Tracy. We'll see if that ends up being a problem or not. Ends up delivery is even more expensive. But we order anyway, because we were tired and hungry. Driving away Tracy realizes that Cribs to College Bedrooms, where we got our crib from, probably has the dresser as well, so she called today, ordered it from there, canceled the Lazar's order, and now only paying for delivery for the dresser and the crib, and the recliner from Bellini. And I think we're done with baby furniture. At least the big stuff. I also realized I had the same dresser/desk at my parents house probably my entire life. Tracy made lasagna last night, and I got to make the pasta, a little unevenly, but still pretty good I thought. Also been watching Arrested Development again. So good. Headed to The Publican tonight. Yum.

The future is definitely wide open. More like a window opening? Change is afoot. Good stuff though, waiting to see if it happens. In other news, I have jury duty again. I say again, but the last time I had to was 5 years ago, so I guess no need to complain. Not for a couple weeks though. But at the criminal courts this time, so that should be fun. Dropped by the old home again for maintenance reasons, which is where I found my jury summons. Took the 135 there. Been a long time since I took that home. Oh, The Publican was good last night, better company than food, but maybe I'm just having it too often, and need to spread it out a little bit more. Or maybe try a couple new places. I've heard good things about Volo. Also weeded Tracy and I off the Whole Foods blueberry pie a la mode fix. Getting the entire pie is just an overdose. Too much of a good thing.

I get to work from home tomorrow. Which makes it easy for Tracy and I when we leave for the airport. Which is nice. Kind of feels like vacation, except I actually have to work tomorrow. So odd. Maybe something I'll have to get used to though. Got a second network camera, one that actually sees in the dark. So odd. Very cool though. Wondering if I need to setup a camera only server or not. Probably just wait and see how long I can last with what I've got. More leftovers for dinner tonight. Watched an episode of Life Unexpected. Checked in and printed out boarding passes already. Still need to pack. I did find some old fake carabiners for like keys and stuff that might come in handy for camera or diaper bags and stuff. Otherwise, pretty quiet. Lots of stuff going on at work, busy busy busy. Some order to the chaos will be coming in the near future, looking forward to that.

So since Tracy and I don't gamble, yet still go to Vegas with family, we've found something to spend money on instead. Room and Board. Last year we figured out we could try appetizers and cocktails while the family gambled at each casino. This time we tried out the Aria Las Vegas, since it was new. And we loved it. Best sleep Tracy's had in a while. And so good we turned down the free room my parents got at Paris Las Vegas and paid for another night there, because, well, a good night's sleep for a pregnant woman 7 months along is absolutely priceless. Very nice place. Bed most of all. Control4 automation system is nice, the automated drapes is very cool, but the control system itself, well, there's some lag time there. Turned me off wanting to implement it at home. I think home automation is the one place where you really can't skimp, and it shows when you do. Also, the new camera held up pretty well I think. Full battery though the weekend. Only around 300 photos though. Definitely still playing with settings, mostly exposure. Also saw that there was a Raw Camera update for Mac OS X that supports my camera now. So I think it's time to finally upgrade to Snow Leopard and iPhoto '09. I'll try and post photos to Flickr when I get them uploaded to the computer. I still haven't figured out a workflow yet. Great to see my family, parents, Al and Nicole, at the annual Abando Vegas Vacation. Good to see the Basas, then the Argaos. No problems travelling, and keep getting to the airport on Sunday too early with way too much time to kill. And also keep going to Vegas when it rains, and leaving when it gets sunny and warm. Also started using foursquare to track where I went. It beat out Brightkite a couple weeks ago, and go figure, it went down on Saturday night. Today worked from home again, and was surprisingly super productive. I had guessed the opposite.

Working from home all this week. Totally throwing off my schedule. I'm a little surprised that both days I've left the house. That and the productivity increase. Odd. I figured I would go the entire week without going outside, but that's a little much. I feel like I need fresh air right around 5pm. Which probably makes sense since I've been in the same 15 feet area for roughly the whole day (I'm right next to the kitchen). Otherwise, I made dinner last night, since Tracy worked the night. Just a simple beef stir fry. I tried to use my mom's Beef and Broccoli marinade for the meat and might have used a little too much corn starch. Tracy made chili for dinner tonight. Also starting to feel a little under the weather, sore and scratchy throat, slight fever, feels like a cold. Started drinking my OJ and water in copious amounts today. Also made some rice crispie treats for dessert tonight. Still want to make a black forest cake at some point, and I keep buying those pints of heavy whipping cream, and I keep letting them go bad in the fridge. One of these days.

Okay, I cede there is a bad point to working from home: it's hard to separate work from home time. That blended a bit over the last day and night when I had to meet a deadline. But still good. I also think having one big screen instead of two small screens is more productive. It's like single tasking, instead of multitasking. Did some errands today, so again got out of the house. Still feel the cold coming on, not quite full strength, but it's not going away either. I am disappointed tha I haven't been posting my new camera photos to flickr on a timely basis, or even at all. It doesn't bode well for the future baby pictures. Also, my online reading is decreasing rapidly. Crazy. And I even started paring down my Google Reader feed list before I started slacking. Again, crazy.

I'm totally off my routine. Well, probably because it's a brand new routine working from home. Also really busy at work, so that's kind of throwing off the hours a bit too. I did manage to not leave the house today. And I actually felt bad about it. I figure I need to schedule walks. For example, tomorrow morning I'm planning on walking down to Belmont to get Dunkin Donuts. Just a little piece of my former life. But first unhealthy thing I'll have for breakfast all week, which is new for me. The cold I felt coming on is, I guess, here. Just up in the head, got a dry cough. Waiting for all the mucus in my sinus cavity to dislodge. Just a matter of time. Stupid Vegas. With the light streaming in through the windows and doors and where I'm sitting at the dining room table and us without window treatments means I get blinded by the sun after 4:30 or so. For now I'm just taping a giant manila envelope from my x-rays and moving it to match the position of the sun. Lo-tech, but works.

Didn't go for donuts this morning, instead cooked up my favorite Pepperidge Farm Apple Turnovers instead. I also made myself a nice hazelnut latte. Third time this week I made an espresso drink. I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of that going on. Gotta stay awake, and I think it's cheaper than going to Starbucks or Caribou Coffee. So even though I didn't go out this morning, I did kind of go outside on the roof deck. Even piped the music up there. I started listening to music while working today. Kind of nice, and the genius iTunes playlists are pretty swweet, especially since I don't know half the stuff in my library. So after a week of working at home? I like it, but I do need to learn to separate work from home. Otherwise, been pretty productive, eating healthier, less physical activity. Hoping it's permanent. Headed to Prentice tomorrow for a Great Expectations class for expectant parents. It's just one day, but it's the whole day. Maybe some shopping on Sunday. And dinner with the boys at Revolution Brewery since Whitney's in town.

Going in for Jury Duty tomorrow. This time at the Criminal Courts. Should be fun getting out there and back. Kind of a bad time, with all the work that's due, but I am a citizen. Gotta do my part. Friday had a cream cheese and sardines on toast for lunch, being Lent and all, and that was a tasty meal. Ended up doing tuna salad for dinner. Saturday went to an all day class for expectant parents at Prentice. That was interesting and fairly informative. Finally got the Mac Box Set and will go about trying to upgrade computers at home finally. Couldn't wait for the next release of iLife or iWork, and with the GF1 being supported now, but only for Aperture 3 or iPhoto '09, well, had to upgrade. So figure on Apple announcing or releasing updates soon. Checking out was super easy at the Apple Store, and makes me sad for all the people waiting in line at the checkout counter. Went to Bricks Pizza for dinner, and it wasn't as amazing as the last time we went there, which was after the Olympic Fun Run, which probably explains why we loved it the first time. Still pretty good I thought. Sunday made crepes for breakfast, headed out to Old Orchard. Met up with the boys for dinner with Whitney at Revolution Brewery. Good stuff there. And I also need to get back out on the bike. Thanks to Tony for the pie. And good to see the guys, but still a little weird. And as far as I can tell the working from home thing is permanent. Going in to work next Saturday to bring my desktop home and clean out my desk. Very very cool. Finally watched Terminator: Salvation while eating dinner from Taco Burrito Palace #2. Good times.

Jury duty was easy. No cases needed any jurors today, so they even let us out early. Took the 60 Blue Island/26th there and back. Took the 145 down with Tracy on the way to her doctor's appointment, and then took the 8 back up. Super easy. Managed to do a nuke and pave on the MacBook for Snow Leopard and now having issues for Microsoft Messenger which I use for work. Very annoying. I thought all these things would have been taken care of by now, like 6 months later, but I guess not. More annoyed at Microsoft. Haven't even tried iPhoto yet for the GF1 support. Ugh. Back to jury duty, didn't venture out, didn't even really leave my seat even during lunch break, just got some snacks from the vending machines. Got there early enough and got a prime seat near a power outlet. It was just us laptop junkies in the back row. No free wifi, so almost all of the time spent on the iPhone. Now that I've got Snow Leopard on the MacBook, I'm tempted to get a new battery to just make it a new laptop. Tempted. Might last me another year then.

Finally got Messenger for Mac working under Snow Leopard. Had to add X509Anchors in Keychain Access. That's all. Ended up having to pull it off the install discs using Pacifist since I screwed up the one on the hard drive. But just that simple. Very very annoying. Very annoying. Otherwise Snow Leopard seems pretty cool. Still haven't used it for anything non-work related. And I'm totally just getting a new battery, and hoping the MacBook sticks around for another year or so. Works well enough for me, and I'm not planning on doing any serious photo editing. Just using what I get. But with a new battery means I get to carry it around with me, and with the weather turning nice, means I could work from the deck. Sweet. Finally getting tax stuff together and ready to send off to the accountant, as well as some other financial todos. A little easier to do when I was working out of the office, because the post office, the bank, and all that is really close. Now I actually have to bike to get to these things. A perk of working from home? Took a break when Tracy got off work and went for a walk. I'll finish up a couple things later tonight, but nice to have that option. Also don't have to get up crazy early to make a 7am conference call tomorrow. Can just roll out of bed. Over the weekend finally got some butane for the creme brulee torch I think my brother got me. It is the most amazing thing ever. I want to torch everything. Like the cinnamon bagel that I melted butter over for breakfast, or the cheese I melted on my ham sandwich for lunch. Seriously, it's amazing. So thanks for that Al.