Thanksgiving was good, if short, at home in Woodstock. Got to fix my dad's TV-DVD player connection. I really have to set them up with something better, such a great TV needs some good signals. HD ready Direct TV system maybe, at least a progressive scan DVD player. Otherwise, the weekend was good, lots of movie watching, lots of sitting on my couch, computer in hand, food containers all around, DVD's playing. Haven't had a weekend like that in a long time. Picked up Leah on Sunday and headed over to Tony's Post Thanksgiving Thanksgiving for more turkey and pie, and then to Leah's place, to find her roommates got a real live Christmas tree. Planned for the week is laundry on Wednesday, but otherwise nothing else except trying to get back on a decent sleeping schedule.

Watched last Sunday's episode. Good to see Rambaldi back in the thick of things. Just a question, if anyone knows, what the computers are they use in the briefing room. They look like tablets, but pretty small. And Syd uses a 12" powerbook. Amusing. Got some cat toys for Freddy and Cheddar. Definitely running out of clothes and really need to do laundry. Going to try and tape the new Celeb Poker on Bravo tonight.

Put in an order for my first iPhoto book. Pretty easy, if slow editing on my 1Ghz powerbook with an iPhoto Library of a lot of pictures. Learned you can lock pages, and then move pages around, independently of how they're organized in the album listing. But still, quite easy. I hope the quality is good enough when I get it. Also used my coffee maker on the timer this morning. Nothing like fresh brewed coffee in the morning. Finally have clean clothes again, just need to drop off dress shirts at the dry cleaners. Leah and I are 3 episodes into the 2nd season of Alias. I wondered what the 47th episode of Alias was and if they did anything special, if it was anything special, or if they're waiting to do something different with the 4th season, episode 7. Hitting some sushi tonight with Karl and Leah. Oh, and Freddy and Cheddar love the interactive toy that looks like a parakeet. Go figure. I forgot to mention that I finished up Neuromancer for my reading, wanted to read Snow Crash but couldn't find a copy, and finally I own Ender's Game and I'm reading that.

So I've started using a new program at work to hook into my cell phone, float's Mobile Agent. It's like the phone computer integration I get with my mac, but for Windows. Someone calls, I get a little window on my screen telling me who's calling, same thing for SMS, but it's not like I get any of those. But still, pretty cool. I've got to reset my phone too, maybe limit the number of numbers that get synched to it, since it's crashed a couple times and now has a whole slew of blank contacts again. Should be a good time. Dinner last night was good. Volkman Loft party tomorrow night, a surprise party on Sunday, and before I know it, the weekend will be over.

While the northeast got pounded by snow, Chicagoland got nada. It was actually nice out, a little brisk, but a good weekend to get out, shop, hold a cup of coffee in hand and join the masses on Michigan Ave. But that was just Saturday. Friday I sorta got my t68 syncing again with my macs. I did a master reset for the first time, so I'm back to a semi virgin phone. Of course that meant trying to get synching back up and running at work, but hey, it didn't go too badly. Saturday night Leah and I went to the Volkman's Loft Party full of ultimate players. Interesting time. Needed some music, that's for sure. Sunday had a surprise party for my old nanny. Then I made Empress Chicken, while good, still wasn't as good as I'd hoped. And finished the night up with some Alias, and disappointed with nothing new until Jan 11. Moved on to Rainbow Six, watching an extended edition of Fellowship tomorrow night.

Okay, now documenting what I know is the issue when hooking up my phone to a winXP box by bluetooth, so I have this info somewhere. I need to a) reserve the bluetooth serial port. b) I can't let the computer look for bluetooth devices all the time (it resets the connection). I guess the first one is the only one that killed me repeatedly. Oh, and I think I'm supposed to let the phone initiate the pairing through the linked devices menu. But it's working, Outlook synching is working, and Mobile Agent is working as well. Now I've got to get back originally to the sync work and home between PC and Mac working. Not going to be easy. Fellowship is a long movie, and dinner at Fox & Obel was really good. I'd actually prefer watching it on DVD in the comfort of my house better, not just because I'd be home, but because I prefer the sharpness of DVD versus the soft film projection. Go figure.

So it finally snowed, Friday I think, a bit on Saturday, and it's turned a bit colder, and so, to me, it finally feels like winter, and December in Chicago. I also got the t68i working well with my work PC. I was able to successfully note when Leah called, even though my phone was sitting on the charger underneath my desk, because a little window popped up telling me she called, and allowing me to answer, hang up, or use a handset. Finally. Thursday was sushi with the Girls (Christi, Elisa, Anne, Michelle, and Leah) at No-Hana, which is a decent cheap place, and Friday was the Market ADvantage Christmas shin dig at Nevin's Live. No karaoke, but still fun. Saturday was Alias, more alias, Bourne Identity that night, some egg drop noodle soup, a quick run to ABT, which isn't so crowded late at night. Sunday was cookie making, both peanut butter M&M's and the chewy made by Leah, dinner at Kate's and more Alias. Bringing the car in tomorrow for a check up, managed to fix a nagging problem where puck kept thinking a door was open, screwdrivers come in handy.

So with the volume of email I've been receiving, I've started using spamassassin along with Vipul's Razor to handle spam recognition. Worked out of the box, debian build, for about 50%. It also did some false positives. So, I found a nifty mutt alias to spamassassin whitelist script. So, only user email from people in my whitelist are not marked as spam. I still glance over, and I'm not doing any auto delete or auto move to spam folders yet, just color indexing and stuff, but still, if anyone doesn't get a reply from me from a really long time, it might be that I've mistakenly put the message into my spam folder. Something I'll check every now and then. I got new phones for home, all with Caller ID, which is good. However I really need to watch the spending. Figured December is a good month, with 41 degree mornings and all that.

It's getting to be that time of the year. The El this morning was relatively empty, on what is usually a pretty busy train. Oh, I've managed to get somewhat on a schedule for the Purple line. 7:28 or so at Armitage, 7:38 or so at Belmont, and somewhere between 7:50/8:00am arrival at Davis. Works out pretty well. But today, even the Armitage bus was pretty empty. Figure it'll be this way for at least the next week or so, at least the 3 days that I'm working. The week has gone by in a blur. Went to the Keg last night for the second time ever, had a drink with Market Advantage's soon to be ex sysadmin. Should be a pretty quiet weekend, sending Leah and Alison off to the airport on Sunday. Plans to see Return of the King on Monday.

This whole Christmas break thing is weird, since I'm not on one. The purple line was quite empty today, but that might be because I was coming up on the 8:30 train, instead of the 7:30 one. Weekend Recap: Alias on Friday along with a quick and dirty chicken tender meal, which would have been stuffed if the chicken was breasts and not tenders. Won Ton soup for breakfast/lunch on saturday, and more Alias, eventually finishing the 2nd season up. Definitely things I wish we get to find out, more Rambaldi stuff, please. Leah and I went and got pedicures, one of my Christmas presents. Dinner with Alison, Leah, and Alison's friend Sarah up in Evanston at the Bombay Garden. Watched the Goonies, made pancakes for breakfast, brought them to the airport, watched Navy SEALS, ate some fried chicken, and watched the Two Towers in preparation for Return of the King tonight. I also got a new digital camera, a Sony U30, another freebie through my Sony Card. It goes everywhere, since it's so small. I also upgraded my home phones to use Caller ID now, which is so much better. I've got lots to clean before leaving Wednesday, along with some additional odds and ends that I should be taking care of.

Return of the King is really that good. All the hype, it lives up to it. Quality. Got stuck on the Holiday Train last night coming down from Evanston. Rather novel, but loud. I'm taking my camera with me everywhere, and snapping pictures whenever I get the urge. The next step is to actually start putting them up on that gallery of mine. Really got to clean tonight.

It was snowing last night as I did some last minute Christmas shopping. Like good show, maybe a tad bit too breezy, but good, sticking snow, filling the air. Very sweet. I did manage to do laundry last night, a couple small loads, the new TV channel showing the laundry room is great for seeing how many machines are available. Packed up and I'm ready to go to LA tonight. I checked in online for once, so I'll see what that's like. Definitely packing light for the long weekend. Managed to sneak in a viewing of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which isn't as bad as the reviews made it out to be. Rather entertaining, I thought. We'll see how updates go through the holiday.

To you and all your kin, family, and friends and loved ones. It's been a very good and relaxing couple of days in LA, eating, watching TV, getting my brother's music. Pretty good. Headed back to Chicago tomorrow. Got lots to clean and organize. Looking forward to SWAT on Tuesday. That pretty much sums it up.

So in my continuing quest for counter terror close quarter combat in movies, I'm in the middle of Executive Decision. I really can't wait for S.W.A.T tomorrow. Simple pleasures. I brought back some empanadas from Valerio's Bakery in LA for my parents; they're really really good. I'm gonna try and figure out how to make them that good. Lots of sugar is my guess. I'm gonna attack cleaning tonight, starting with boxes, and then moving into organization of the data center.

So I haven't been sleeping much. Too much TV or movies or cleaning to do. Popped in 40 Days, 40 Nights while putting a years worth of receipts away. Fun. Chocolate ice cream with Peanut Butter is a good desert. Stocks are funny things, I only have AAPL, KKD, and SNE now. Tempted to sell the donuts to buy more apples. Anyway, driving is easy during the holiday season, as there's noone on the roads comparatively.

Didn't watch S.W.A.T, I'm holding off for a group viewing maybe tomorrow. I did watch Gilmore and One Tree Hill partly. Gilmore is so good, I'd forgotten how good. So many references to current events, pop culture and more. I enjoy the means so much I don't care that the end is just a standard soap opera. Top Shelf tonight, Schaumberg tomorrow, maybe some more movies, and archiving my email. It's the new year.