Living room is done. Well, painted anyway. Probably have some furniture rearrangement in its future. Need to do a little touch up though, the ceiling in spots, the bad trim. Next up the bedroom, but probably not for a while. At least until the trip filled month and a half ends. Friday night tried to get dinner from the ecce cafe, which took a whole lot longer than I thought, but while waiting managed to pick up some Golden Oreos, which are fantastic. Also picked up some more airforce nutrisoda, sort of like Vitamin Water but a soda, and smaller. I like them. The Focus one actually seemed to work for me last week at work. Saturday finished up the painting, had lunch at IHOP, got some candles from Chicago Plant and Flower, watched some TV before heading out to Tracy's for dinner. Sunday headed out to Auntie Luz's to help her out with the AV stuff, wrote up some documentation, picked up my new glasses, did some tax stuff with my mom, got some dim sum at Jockey's Work 'n Roll Restaurant. Cleaned up a little at my place, watched Alfie, had some filipino food for dinner.

The Russells came over first last night, stayed for a bit, liked the paint job, and left around 9pm. Akira and Tony showed up, and stayed till the end of the game. Tips from them: extending the painting to additional walls, keep colors in sightlines. Which translates for me to buy more paint. But overall, good responses. The game was alright last night, not really much of a close or exciting game but entertaining in the dominance factor. Otherwise, a pretty quiet evening. Some issues with the new glasses, they seem to get dirty awfully quickly and easily, and not quite clean with shirt sleeves, so I have to carry around the nice lens cleaner cloth with me. I'm back to carrying a man bag, but not much is in it, just a PSP and a pen really, and now my glasses case.

Boot Camp. Wow. Kind of makes me want to get one, any one, of the new Intel Macs. I need Windows XP for work stuff from home. But I use Macs at home. That would get me the best of both worlds. Just wow. The only thing that's stopping me, it's a beta, the final version will be in the next OS X update, and, well, I don't need a new computer, at all. Kind of makes me hope that Aluminum will kick the bucket sooner rather than later. When I first read about it this morning, I thought it was just a late April Fool's Joke. But no, it's official. Just wow. Shocking wow. Now I definitely won't have to buy a Windows only machine, ever. Last night I had a craving for meatloaf, so a grocery trip later, and recipes from Good Eats, and a couple hours Tracy and I are eating meatloaf. The odd thing about the recipe? Just using the pan to shape it and letting it cook on a cookie sheet. It was good. Really good. And the broccoli steamed in a the bag in the microwave covered with cheese from one of those resealable bags with bac'n bits? Amazing. All prepackaged store bought. And good. But otherwise, a pretty quiet night. The fact that I'm leaving for Italy in 6 days is definitely sneaking up on me. Wonder if there's anything I really need to get.

Stopped by the Apple Store on Michigan Ave. last night. Thought about asking for a Mac mini. Really tempted. Get a new computer, also get a new computer that boots Windows. But I didn't. Maybe in June? Or when Boot Camp goes official with Leopard. Anyway, wanted to get a couple things for the Paganello trip, like a PSP battery and European charger, and a headphone cable organizer, like the Sumajin Smartwrap. Ended up getting neither, but instead a pair of Levi khakis and jeans. Watched lots of buses go by on the way home too. Leftovers for dinner, and some more cleanup/organization at home. So tonight I'll drop by Best Buy for the PSP stuff, since I forgot all about the major consumer electronics store that's relatively close, at least on the way home.

Google Analytics. I signed up a while ago, but finally got the invite code a couple days ago, and enabled it. I checked in on it today, and well, it's amazing. Like wow. Especially the Geo map overlay. Seriously, who's reading this in London? Anyway, it'll be interesting to see after a month or so of tracking. Definitely. Probably should enable it on the Memex side of things as well. But I need to reboot Xenon, which has been acting up as of late. Tried to do some more cleanup last night, had a long catchup phone call with Jessica Jenkins. As for my shopping outing, well, I just don't like shopping in the city, at least for mass consumer goods. Niche artsy things, sure, I like the boutiques, but sometimes you just need a suburban shopping oasis with large parking lots and warehouse sized stores and fully stocked shelves. That's why I love online shopping. I did have a craving for a club sandwich, so I stopped by Melrose Diner and got one to go. Got no plans for tonight or tomorrow, maybe some more painting, maybe some tennis, if the weather's decent. On Sunday Tracy and I are going to see Rent at the Cadillac Palace Theater. I think it'll be my 3rd time seeing it, but 1st time at the Cadillac. Still got to see the movie though.

Time is seriously flying by. Friday night, pretty low key, stopped by Treasure Island for some groceries, ended up eating some trout for dinner. Saturday did some shopping, got some waterproof stuff for Paganello, even though the forecast is pretty favorable. Never hurts to have some. Otherwise, it's finally hitting me that I'm going to Europe in a couple days. Nervous. Apprehensive. But Tracy made me think of it in a different light, that this is my farewill trip, the last time I'll grace the beaches of Rimini. Dropped by the Russells after shopping to see his broken hand and give him an early birthday present, Sky High. Figured he'd need something to watch on the couch. That night we went out with Scott and April to dinner at Joy's Noodles and drinks at The Closet, which I can finally say I've been to after walking by it so many times, and finished the night off at The Tin Lizzie, which I thought was called Tin Lizzie's, but not according to Metromix. Sunday was Rent, which was okay, probably the worst of the 3 times I've seen it, but still a good show. Made me want to see the movie. At first I wasn't really getting into it, just like the soundtrack which I've listened to too many times, but then, it got me. Dinner at Bandera afterwards, and then wasting time at Border's before taking the bus home during the Cubs game instead of before. Other odds and ends: finally picked up a PSP battery, the extended version, at Target of all places. Last one on the shelf. Remembered an old college teammate that used neoprene socks to keep his feet warm and dry during the wet season of ultimate, which made me want to get some instead of lugging around waterproof shoes to Paga.

Last day working for a week. Kind of nice. Still comprehending going to Paganello. Teammates are leaving already. I'm just trying to figure out what to pack and if I'm missing anything and need to get anything. Last night Tracy made some cabbage, bacon, and corned beef dish which I thought was pretty good. She wasn't happy, but she tackled cabbage without a recipe. Got the Sumajin Smartwraps yesterday. Very simple but well made, and will be very useful. Rest of my stuff should get delievered today; a bookshelf, wall candle holders, and a wallfiler. More info when it gets here and gets installed. Headed out to see Tracy tonight before I leave tomorrow. Also to do some last minute suburban shopping. We'll see if I actually do any updating once I get there.

Yes, I'm back. Got back Tuesday afternoon. I'm in the middle of a Paganello recap, so go there for the deets. Yes, I used deets. Well, I guess I can give highlights: first time in 5 trips to Paga that my team won on Monday; I got 1 layout D, so I can still do that; best weather of my 5 trips; already broke my player gift; didn't end up using my PSP for anything because I screwed up the encoding process; and my cell phone worked great in Italy. I am fighting off some sort of cold/flu something, it came up pretty much on the plane ride back from Amsterdamn. So I get back Tuesday, got a gyro and a hot dog, and sat on the couch and drifted in and out of sleep and eating for the afternoon and evening. Had lots and lots to read in Google Reader, and apparently the biggest tech news while I was gone was the release of Google Calendar. Wednesday was work. I do need a spring coat though, maybe something besides a hoodie. Tracy had made dinner, which was nice, some chicken and noodles in a vodka cream tomato sauce. And then an early night, since I still need to catch up on sleep from the weekend. I did manage to get a bit of sun, so I'm darker than usual. Headed to the Duke of Perth tonight with Russell. Good to see Alias back on TV.

Definitely caught something on the way back from Paganello. Not quite the flu, nor is it a cold, it's strange. A couple more days and good nights sleep, and if it sticks around, time for a doctor's visit. Went to the Duke last night with Russell, just love that place, but not the best idea to drink some beer. Watched The Unit as well. And then an early bedtime. Since I was really really tired. I'm also really really looking forward to sleeping this weekend. Like a lot. Oh, I've started reading Kung Fu High School, finally, while I finish reencoding the Las Vegas episodes, and a bunch of movies as well. I do have some more travelling to do in the next month, so it'll be good to actually have some working media for that. No plans for the weekend, just recoup time.

Not sure what it is, but at least I don't think it's strep. Which is good. Felt like mucus build up in the back of the head, ears, throat, but packed in, which leads to a lot of coughing. Not it finally feels like it's moved to the forehead, the sinuses, which hopefully means it's one step closer to getting out of my head. But I caved again and got some cough suppressants. One more day makes it a week, and well, maybe it's time to see a doctor. Other than that, which pretty much limited my weekend to the indoors, Tracy met me out Friday after work for a picnic near the lake. That was nice. Saturday was couchridden. Sunday I actually cleaned the data center some more, to the point that you can sit on the couch, actually see the floor, and get to both closets. I know, impressive. Got around to finally installing Windows XP on an old Dell box I have, and wow, if VPN'ing in to work isn't so much faster now. Watched some more TV, I'm kind of annoyed with the DVR, as I can't make any changes to the series recordings without freezing the box. One of these days when I get everything old watched off of it, I'll do a HDD reset which will hopefully solve the problem.

Yes, I caved, I took some cough suppressant, expectorant, and decongestant drugs. And you know what? It worked. Totally feel better, but still got some coughing. But it's pretty much out of my head, which is impressive. Got the newest version of ffmpegx which has a h.264 encoding preset for the PSP, which is noticeably better than the mp4 encoding I have been using. But I'm not gonna go back and reencode things, it's a small enough screen that I'm not worried that much about quality. Had a Caesar Salad with chicken last night for dinner, relatively healthy, along with some Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream for dessert, and not even the entire pint like usual. Did some more remote tech support and watched a bit of the Bulls. Oh, and finished off Kung Fu High School. Not bad, but I like Ender's Game much better.

Ok, realized I should have done laundry last night instead of sitting around and watching Layer Cake and getting Open Directory and Networked Home folders working on Argon. Whoops. Anyway, Layer Cake was pretty good. Some jarring camera work in parts, but overall pretty entertaining. As always the accent took me a while to get back into, and even then, hard to pick up some of the conversations. Oh, and I totally buy Daniel Craig as the new James Bond because of that movie. With Argon set up finally, can have centralized backups, sync'd home folders, all good things. Very very nice. Getting closer to getting rid of Xenon, finally. Still no luck with Windows XP and VPN and routing for setting up work email. Kind of annoying, but not too bad. Feeling much better, just wish the rest of the mucus would vacate the body. Drove to work since I'm headed out to Tracy's tonight. Odd to be driving again, don't really remember the last time I drove. Kind of nice that way.

Dinner at Panera Bread last night with Tracy, since Cosi was closing at 9pm. Haven't been to a Panera since work moved downtown. But nothing too interesting there. Watched Bones, The Unit, Teachers and Alias. I'm really glad that Alias is back. I'm also pretty glad that there's only 4 more episodes. Although, doesn't look like Jennifer Garner's lost all the baby weight. They usually put her in much skimpier outfits when she goes on missions. Seeing Will again made me miss Kitchen Confidential. I even started reading the book today. So sad. Man that show was good. Anyway, after talking with Tracy I decided to switch to just using an expectorant, instead of the catch all I was using, so I picked up some Mucinex DM. But I'm actually feeling even better today, as more of the mucus is gone from my head. Good things. Just enough time for me to get on another plane and probably get sick, again. So besides that, I get to go with Tracy for a pharmacy CE thing at Sal & Carvao Churrascaria tonight. Hopefully we'll get home in time for me to do some laundry.

Headed out to Las Vegas tonight with Tracy and meeting up with the family. Finally did some laundry last night after getting back from the drug dinner. Vesicare has a great half life. Didn't get anything on the DVR watched though. Did get a shipment of airforce Nutrisoda in though, which is great. Nothing like herbal and vitamin suppliments through expensive soda. Oh well. Congrats to Ryan who successfully defended his thesis. Oh, and I found out that most of Tea & Strumpets that went to Paganello was sick as well. Doesn't surprise me in the least.