Okay, so again, no laundry. Bad, I know. Really starting to dig into the bottom of the drawers now. But I did watch Miracle last night, while waiting for the laundry room to open up. I don't remember the last time I got that into a movie, that I was that involved. I was on the edge of the couch, leaning in, at one point I even was on my knees, leaning on the coffee table, wringing my hands. Been a while since a movie's been that good for me. I never even whipped out a laptop to start browsing or looking stuff up about the movie. It was that gripping. Speaking of computers, well, networks anyway, RCN seems to be doing some maintenance work, so my network connection is done at home at the moment. Went down at 7:24 or so this morning. Just about the time I decided to check the news sites. We'll see if it comes back up anytime soon.

Three day weekend coming up. Kind of a pleasant surprise, cause I always seem to forget about it. Going to the Hot House tonight to check out some jazz with Tracy after going to the Butcher's Dog for dinner. Headed out to Woodstock tomorrow, back in on Sunday, not sure what to do on Monday. Still haven't done laundry, and I'm now gonna do it in Woodstock instead. Just found out that the Jimmy Buffet concert at Wrigley Field is happening this weekend. Should make it very annoying to get around. Ugh. What would Lakeview and Wrigleyville be like if the Cubbies weren't around anymore? As nice? Not as crowded? Boy, plans change. Realized that the Chicago Jazz Festival is going on, so that's free jazz instead of pay for jazz, and getting Indian food at the India House instead of pub grub.

My Uncle Lito passed away today. He was a loving husband, a great uncle, actually, my mom's cousin, which I think made him my first cousin, once removed. He was a great architect and just all around artist. He was also my godfather. He was always tinkering, always tweaking, his home. It was great going to see them on holidays, they lived in Elk Grove Village. He leaves behind my Auntie Luz. But almost every time we went over, something was different, new AV setup, different kitchen, new walkaround deck, different and new decorations. And paintings. He also did some paintings. I think we still have a watercolor of his hanging out in Woodstock. And all the projects he helped with over the years, I think he helped make our deck out in Woodstock, help put up all sorts of things in the basement, including my pseudo home theater. He was a great guy. Quiet, like me. Lefty, like me too. One of the few lefties in the family. Like me. Very caring. Very loving. Very dependable. And smart. He fell down 7 steps Saturday night. Fairly massive head trauma. Was in a coma. Pupilary reflex was nonexistant, for those that know. Life support was removed this morning. Wake is Sunday, funeral on Monday. He was 67. He will be missed.

So that was my weekend. Well, the majority of the weekend. Friday, went to the Chicago Jazz Festival and dinner at India House with Tracy. That was so long ago. Saturday, got my internet connection fixed, went home, went to a Filipino party at a Chinese buffet, did a little shopping with my mom, went to mass, went to another Filipino party, a baby shower at someone's house. Got to play a little with my godson. Fixed my dad's email problem, used iSight to have a video chat with Al and Nicole. Then my mom got the call, and we went to Alexian Brothers Medical Center. Back to Woodstock, back in to Chicago for the DVR install, then back out to the hospital, picking up Al at O'Hare along the way. Then back out to Woodstock. Back to the hospital, then Auntie Luz's for a while. Dinner at Todai. Then back in the city. First program recorded with the DVR? The Bourne Supremacy. But for some reason I lost the HD Tier, ESPNHD, Discovery HD and stuff, so I tried to get it refreshed, and now I've lost all digital channels, like IFC and Sundance. But the premium stuff still works, so recorded and watched 13 Going On 30. I've now got True Lies, Cellular, and Bookies in HD recorded. Went out and watched The Fantastic Four tonight. Just needed to go and vege and just not think or talk or anything. Oh, I forgot to mention, Tracy went down to Baton Rouge to voluteer for CVS. Which is awesome. She left Sunday. I pick her up on Saturday. So life's, well, just a little bit, well, to be honest, like life. This is it. Real, dirty, gritty, and true. Life is short. Life is a gift. Enjoy it.

It's odd, dealing with a family death, yet still living life. Apple released some collaboration with Motorola for an iTunes Phone. I only wish they'd release iTunes for any cell phone, maybe as a Java app, or something else. Would be nice is all. iPod nano (http://www.apple.com/ipodnano) also got released. It's .4" shorter, .2" narrower, and .53" thinner than my cell phone, which I was planning on using as my music player, as soon as I get around to getting a decent sized Memory Stick Duo Pro. Not sure if I want to carry around both, or if I even need to. But the black one would definitely match my phone, that's for sure. Have a definite urge to spend some money, buy something, do something though. Restlessness I guess.

My cable has issues. I'm currently not getting any digital, HD Tier, or HBO programming, all of which was working before I got my DVR, which is fabulous by the way. I watched Cellular last night, which I think was recorded, oh, sometime in the wee morning over the weekend. I've got like 3 movies each day for the next couple days getting queued up as well. Definitely catching up on all the movies I've maybe just had an inkling to see, but never got around to it. Picked up another bottle of wine on the way home yesterday from the Kafka Wine Co. A Malbec. Tracy seems to like those.

The boys came over last night, watched some football, a little bit of Bookies as well. I made some macaroni and beef something or other, which turned out pretty good. Scheduled an appointment with RCN for next Tuesday to try and fix my DVR. Have I mentioned that it's got a much better channel guide? That you can navigate within the guide by your favorite channels? That HD seems to look better, and analog/standard seems to look worse? Headed out to Naperville tomorrow, watch a bit of Chicago Heavyweight Champtionships. Picking up Tracy from the airport tomorrow night. Got the wake on Sunday, funeral on Monday. Nothing else planned.

Wake, Funeral, Memorial Services, all went well this weekend. For those that knew my uncle, it fits that everything went so smoothly. I got to wear a barong tagalog as a pallbearer. Made me look, well, very filipino. Tried to watch a bunch of movies off the DVR, since it got replaced today. Ended up watching Major League, Collateral, and Wimbledon. And now I've got all my channels back. So that's good. I've got all sorts of stuff to record now. Working pretty much the rest of the week. A couple different possibilities for Saturday night, we'll see what actually pans out.

That's right, I'm now syndicated. Since Google opened up their blog search, I decided to quickly hack together an RSS feed for myself, so that I too can be Google Blog Searched. So that's available at the bottom. Just should be the 7 most recent posts. I figured 7's a good number. Got to see Tracy last night, which was a treat. Now she's working nights until Saturday. Otherwise, tried to find all sorts of things to record on the now working DVR. I might have to look into pulling things off the DVR to Oxygen via firewire, but I'll probably just end up sitting around watching TV.

More steps into the weblog present: I added pings to Technorati and Weblogs.com and Ping-O-Matic. Which means, when I update this site, it lets all those other sites know, which means more people and services should know that the page has been updated. Actually, this was done to try and get this included in the Google Blog Search sooner. We'll see if it actually works. So besides an RSS feed, and blog pings, what's next? Comments? Membership? The sky's the limit I guess. Finally made it over to the Library after work yesterday, and started reading Ender's Shadow. Watched a couple episodes of The Thirsty Traveler and Simply Wine and part of Shaun of the Dead with running and having some poached fish with mashed potatoes for dinner. I think I forgot to put The O.C. on the DVR this morning, which kind of defeats the purpose. Oh, I also picked up a couple more bottles of wine on the way home, again from Kafka Wine Co. Might be time for me to get a small wine rack or something. Headed out to Piece tonight with Russell.

You can now find this via Google's blog search. Sweet. Will this mean more page views? Maybe. Do I care? I guess. I mean, I did do all that work, all so that I'm more accessible to Google. I think the next update to this site should be a change to CSS instead of tables. Ended up watching Sky High last night after Piece, still good in the second viewing. I've got lots of TV to watch, thanks to the DVR. And I've got to get more picky about what I record, cause 4 days later I'm already running out of space. But I've already tagged Arrested Development and Kitchen Confidential for series recording. It doesn't look like I'll be saving entire seasons to watch at once, that's for sure. I think I'll try and get The Terminal and Kill Bill Vol. 2 off the list tonight. Gmail has stopped working via my cell phone, so I set up T-Mobile email, which seems to do okay. Weird though.

So this weekend in Chicago? Busy. Not me being busy, but the city. Cubs have home games today, tomorrow, and Sunday. Bears home opener on Sunday. Celtic Fest Saturday and Sunday downtown. And there's a 20th anniversary Farm Aid concert in Tinley Park on Sunday. Wine Crush (http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/36970,0,6766046.event?coll=mmx-home_top_hedsh2o) On Saturday. Okay, maybe that last one won't be so big, but the rest? Crazy. Not sure how much driving I'm gonna want to be doing this weekend.

Weekend seems to have blown right by. To the point that I'm having trouble remembering what I ended up doing. Friday night, went running again, and watched either The Terminal or Kill Bill Vol. 2. The other one I watched Saturday morning. I also ended up making one of those Spanish tapas things, the potato onion omelette quiche thing. It was much better cold. Tracy and I then went to the Old Town Wine Crush, tasted some wine, got some fried cheese and olives, then walked on over to Tsunami for dinner. Got me a sake flight, yum. I actually might be tired of sushi. I may just need to take a break for a while. Then we stopped off at The Zebra Lounge, a tiny little piano bar that seems to be part of an apartment building. It's great. I really like it. Traded drinks with Tracy after she realized that she doesn't like dirty martinis. Sunday went out to Woodfield and had lunch with a couple of Tracy's friends, then did some window shopping. Finally saw and touched an iPod nano. They really are tiny. And they little section that had them always had people crowded around. Crazy. Watched Shark Tale, finally caught the last couple of episodes of Entourage, and a little more of the Fine Living Channel. And I think that's it for the weekend, and I don't think I missed anything. I just heard some good news, that Darwin's is open again, and I'll try and get out there this week.

So Downers Grove is a pretty nice town. Tracy and I went there for dinner at Ballyboyle, a nice Irish pub. Shepard's Pie was great. As was the beer. Then we got some ice cream from Every Day's a Sundae. Another great place. But it was nice to walk around a quiet downtown with a lot of stores and stuff, better than Woodstock. And pretty good Metra service into downtown. Rather interesting. And some nice looking houses. Headed out to Jin Ju tonight. That should be good.

Wow, that title works on a bunch of different levels. Lost a day posting. Whoops. Anyway, Tuesday night went to Jin Ju, great food, as usual. Took a short walk around Andersonville, another nice place. Ended up watching Gilmore Girls and Arrested Development. Only had like 1/3 of a bottle of soju at dinner, but now I've got some in my fridge, which is cool. Wednesday made my return to Darwin's. Felt like coming home, and felt like it was never gone. Next time I won't drive. Probably headed back on Friday. Tonight I'm hitting up Piece for the second week in a row, this time to see Lystra's Silence, Bryan's brother's band. They're driving through tonight. So Lost started up again last night, and I still haven't finished last season yet. Ugh. And I tried and failed and then hacked my way around updating my firmware on my cell phone last night, mainly to get decent video bitrate back, and ended up losing all my settings. Numbers and calendar stuff was easy thanks to iSync, but everything else? Ugh. Besides that, I've gone out every night since last Saturday. That might be a bit much. Especially when, wait for it, I have laundry to do. Ugh. Oh well.

Got a reminder yesterday that there's a 10 year high school reunion type function going on next Friday. I should probably go. Probably. Hopefully headed to Darwin's tonight. Might be headed out to John Barleycorn with some of Tracy's friends on Saturday night. Ended up sleeping instead of laundry last night. Found a bookmark in the borrowed The Bourne Identity that I'm reading from the library, that was a little odd. Weather's nice and cool. Better suited for me. Another trafficky weekend in Chicago, Bears and Cubs both have home games. Again.

It was good. Pretty much caught up on sleep this weekend. That does not mean I can get by with 6 or so hours a night during the week. Another fairly active weekend. Friday night did make it out to Darwin's, again. The Ephemere is a pretty fruity beer, very light. Saturday had lunch at Clarke's, while watching kids get soaked waiting for a show at The Bottom Lounge. Then went to try and look at new cell phones for Tracy at My Guys Wireless on Southport, but it's actually gone. That was after stopping to get some ice cream from Australian Homemade. Found out there's a Dairy Queen on Southport and Grace, which makes me happy. Also stumbled upon Alta Vista Terrace, a short street of townhouses that looks very european. It's pretty cool. After some TV time, went to John Barleycorn to meet up with some pharmacists. Got the drink and the dance on. Had my first Jager Bomb. Sunday, went and saw Just Like Heaven, dinner at Socca, which was actually really good, and finished the night with some more TV, season premiere night and all. I'm definitely headed out to Woodstock for that 10 Year gathering reunion thing on Friday. Other than that, nothing planned for the week.

Yup. I'm a watcher. There's no denying that. I tried to. Last season, quitting on shows halfway through. I still have the entire season 4 of Alias to watch, even as I record the current season. I still have the last half seasons of Veronica Mars and Lost left. I needed to make some more room on Oxygen to record the new Veronica Mars stuff, which moved to Wednesdays and is also being repeated on Sunday nights, so I needed to decommercialize and move the Alias and Lost episodes to another disk. That takes a while. I just realized that I could also record Everybody Loves Chris, since I don't want to do it in non-HD. So besides the old stuff, I just watched Kitchen Confidential and My Name Is Earl. Both solid. I like both. I just like TV. I also ended up watching Taxi (not so good) and Flight of the Phoenix (alright), so I've freed up some more space. I've definitely got way too much getting DVR'd. But I was able to finally do some laundry last night. So it's getting to be October. New seasons, all around.

Worked out last night. That was good. Feeling better. Not that I was feeling bad before. But I've mentioned it before, sound body, sound mind. Or something like that. Anyway, watched more TV last night, Las Vegas and My Name Is Earl. And that would be it. Got a cell phone off eBay, a Nokia 8890. Got a good deal on it, Tracy might end up using it, except that it's really old. The screen on it, well, it's not so good. And it's roughly the same size as my Sony Ericsson K750i, but with a screen that's half as big and displays roughly 262,143 fewer colors. But it looks pretty cool. Too bad the Nokia 8801 is way too expensive. That'd be a pretty nice looking phone. I shouldn't need a new one for at least a couple of years.

So I went to check the weather this morning on Oxygen using Dashboard and while there, I noticed that my recording of Veronica Mars 2nd season opener had a running time of 0 minutes. So I try and open it up, and it freezes. Fine, I'll do a reset, walk away, get ready for work. Come back, it's on the grey Apple screen with the spinner. So I power it down, unplug and replug, and try again. Sweet. This time into Open Firmware. Complaining about some USB issues. So I unplug the hub I was using. Reset again. Grey Apple spinner. At this point, I do a hard shutdown and walk away. I'll try again later, and I'm guessing it should be alright, if not I'll try the usual, zapping PRAM, unplugging PCI cards, and so on, and so forth. And if that doesn't work, I'm not sure what I'll do. I've still got a ton of HD material off the EyeTV, and serving it up shouldn't be a problem, but the editing of newly recorded stuff? That's a whole different issue. Might be time for me to just not have a desktop.

Wow, so September's come and gone. October's right around the corner. It feels like fall. Nice. Oxygen still down and out, although I got the prohibition sign on the gray startup screen this morning. I haven't actually tried to troubleshoot it yet. So got that reunion thingie tonight. I imagine we're only staying for the football game, since Tracy has to work tomorrow. So it'll be a quick jaunt out and back. Cafe Laguardia was really good last night. The food reminded both of us of Filipino food. Just like home. And the Mojitos were quite good. Just another reason I'm living in the wrong neighborhood. I also got to have lunch with Tracy, she came in to the city, which was cool. I believe, she's the first person I've had lunch with in the city besides coworkers. Might head out and watch either Mirrormask or Green Street Hooligans tomorrow with Russell, or just watch some football, or watch both, or find myself at Darwin's, since it's been a whole week since my last time. Definitely try and get Oxygen back up and running, so I try and squeeze out the rest of Lost and Veronica Mars so I can watch the new stuff, and maybe try and get Alias out of the way as well. But that's just a tall order. I really wish I got to have another viewing of Beautiful Girls before tonight.