It's October and the forecast calls for 3 80° weather days. That's right, 3. I knew it was gonna happen. It's just Chicago weather for you. Should drop down to the 40's next week, I assume, and then fall will be in full force. Friday night used a Dutch Oven, made some beef stew which wasn't too bad. Saturday went out to the Argaos for an engagement party. That was fun. Lots of good food there. Also caught the episode of Grey's Anatomy that we had missed the previous Thursday. It's getting really tempting to just forego this season on broadcast. The no DVR or HD is just killing me. Sunday Tracy and I ventured outside, went down to the Lincoln Park Zoo, walked around for a bit. Eventually made out way back up home and had dinner at Joy's Noodles and Rice. We even made it back to watch the Bears game. Really rough to watch it without a DVR or HD. Anyway, going to catch the Guardian tomorrow night. Not much else.

Driving back from Tracy's was fun last night. Right through one of the many storms that made their way through Chicagoland last night. After watching How I Met Your Mother and Studio 60, I hopped in Puck and made my way to a gas station, since I needed some gas. But the Gas City on 143rd had its lights off. Hmmm, maybe because of all the lightning? So I drive north on Lemont to the other Gas City, pull in just as the sheets of rain come pouring down. Oh, the credit card system is down. Guess I need to pay cash, of course I only have $9 in the money clip. Enough to get me home with plenty to spare. But can't remember the last time I paid for gas in cash. People are also pulling into the station to park, since they don't want to be driving. But I hop back in and drive away, slowly. So yeah, made my way back in. Lots of drivers had their blinkers on, so I pushed the little triangle button as well. No one's going stupid fast, no tail gaiting, no cars in ditches. Only storm related stuff I saw was an overhead highway sign hanging from its structure and the streetlamps were off. But I made pretty good time probably because there was no traffic cause everyone was pretty much going the same safe speed. But fun. I guess I like driving. Got a couple new alarm clocks. Supposedly you could just plug it in and it would set itself, but I'm guessing living in a large condo building somehow prevents that from happening, cause I set it myself. One of them, Tracy's side, has a thermometer. It was a balmy 80° when I first got home. Crazy. Love the fact that the building decided to turn the steam heat on back in September.

Forgot to mention that I'm reading again on the bus commute to and from work. Finished up The Forever War and started The Company (book), both borrowed and suggested by Russell. Good stuff. Went last night to see The Guardian with him and Tracy. Wasted some time beforehand at Target because traffic was pretty much nonexistant anywhere. Tracy got excited because the Pumpkin Spice is back at Starbucks. First time heading to City North in a good while, I had no idea they switched companies. I might have moved it off my list of theaters I like going to. Which reminds me, I should make a trip up to Evanston for the movie theater one of these days, just for old times sake. After dropping Russell off, Tracy and I headed over to Cafe Bolero for a late dinner. Good stuff there. Hated being those people that show up right before the kitchen closes though.

Attempted to make some changes, like trying to get MediaWiki parsing to the Daily Dose. Tried to get through some of the code, even tried it out, but no luck. Might have to spend some more time figuring that stuff out. Would be nice. I was actually thinking of trying out Markdown, but I figured if I could get MediaWiki, then I'd have a nice standard to go with. Might even mean I'd figure out how to do tagging or categorizing. I also got gallery2wiki installed, but I'd like to figure out how to get text aligning done with it. Then I'll start adding images to the Memex finally, which is what it needed. Al and Nicole are heading into town tomorrow. It'll be good to see them.

Not so much. Disappointing news from T-Mobile, in that they will be rolling out 3G services over the next few years but it will be slightly off from global standards. Which means even more not using unlocked phones from Europe, where all the cool cell phones are, here in the States. Very annoying. Well, not that annoying. But at least means I shouldn't bother with a Sony Ericsson K800i, since that's on UTMS that won't eventually work here. So it's a Sony Ericsson K790a if I ever get around to getting a new cell phone. Ever since I took mine apart to try and clean out the joystick, it's been like brand new. Aside from that, completely missed any new TV Shows yesterday, as I had a late night at work. I think I might be giving up on broadcast TV officially. That happens when you miss a show in today's serialized TV world and don't have a DVR and don't like watching bittorrent copies on a computer. The only thing I'm still making time for? Studio 60. But I did manage to catch the episode of South Park about World of Warcraft. That was funny. Really funny. Definitely seems like Blizzard was all about it. Really funny.

Friday night spent some more time on the couch working on getting the MediaWiki parser running on Daily Dose. I'm definitely making some progress in that direction. I was also just biding time until my family came into town, as my parents picked up my brother and sister-in-law at the airport (in town for the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress). Visited with them, over food of course, while waiting for Tracy to come in. After she grabbed a quick bit to eat as well, we headed out to Spoon for a birthday gathering. Definitely interesting, as I never go to places like that. Ended up catching a ride back to the neighborhood with April and Scott and April's brother and somehow ended up at Big City Tavern. After a drink there Tracy and I walked home, stopping off at Melrose Diner for a bite. And that was just Friday night. Saturday was much more low key, with lunch, some internet time, church, a walk along the lake, and a ham dinner by Mom, all with the family. A six-pack, if you will. Sunday, family breakfast before heading out to Woodfield for a little shopping. Al needed some new shoes. I got to peek into the SonyStyle store, where I decided to go with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T10 versus the T50 due to size whenever I can use my Sony Rewards points for that. Also got to check out the Sony Reader in person, which is really really cool. I could also use my points for that, but I don't think it has the eBook support that I'm looking for. I mean, no Harry Potter or Tom Clancy. Anyway, we met up with Auntie Luz and Ate Joy at Wildfire for an early dinner. Then back home, and some couch time, just me and Tracy, watching some more Lost Season 2. I'm definitely back into it now. So much that I didn't sleep well because I was thinking about it too much. Ugh.

So, enjoying the 3 days of fall? Supposed to snow on Thursday. Which is awesome. I don't have any hope for another 80 degree weather before the months and months of winter, so here's to winter hats, coats, and layers. Here's to buses that have the heat turned up so high it's difficult to sit. Here's to steam radiator heating that dries up my living room and almost makes it too hot to sleep comfortably. Yay, winter. Snuck in some laundry last night. I must have forgotten my fabric softener sheets on top of the dryers the last time I did laundry, cause they were nowhere to be found, so I had to use liquid, which was interesting because the washers are old enough they don't have auto dispensers. Belated congrats to all the Chicago Ultimate teams that made it to the big dance. Good to see. Good luck to all.

Made one via a recipe from Rachael Ray. Salisbury steak with cheesy mashed potatos and creamed spinach. Lots of meat. Pretty good. Only thing missing was some sort of fruit cobbler. Maybe next time. Actually made dinner for Tracy and my dad. Al and Nicole dropped by afterwards to use my internet access and to chat. I think I'm bringing them to the train station today so they can get out to Woodstock. Got some more stuff delivered yesterday as well. New remote, which I'm charging and after I set it up will talk about it more. A charging stand and a travel charger for my cell phone. Some misc cord management supplies, and some casual ultimate ReminderBands. Supposed to get a PSP charging cradle today. I should be able to clean up all the cables around the couch now, and all the speaker wires.

Got my new remote control set up last night, a Logitech Harmony 880. Pretty sweet. Much easier to hold than the old remote I had, which was big and clunky. No more hard to read touch screens either. This one's got a nice color, albeit passive, screen that isn't touch screen. But it's easy to read. And it lights up automatically when you pick it up. And it has a charging cradle, which is nice so I don't have to worry about having batteries on hand, or a remote not working because the batteries are low. Not a whole lot to control right now, just the DVD changer and the TV. Only really going to add a DVR, whenever that actually becomes available. That's just like the Sony Rewards site. Supposed to go live back in September, and every couple of weeks they tack on a couple of weeks to when you should check back. Awesome. Figures though. Deadlines are a hard nut to crack for some software development projects. But even when it does become available, I still won't use my points for a DSC-T10 unless it's the black one. I've definitely got the black gadget thing going on now. And nothing else to spend money on. Which is good. Can't wait to get married and have someone to rein in my open wallet. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the single name on my bank account. Started Veronica Mars Season 2 last night. Good quality show. Except the DVD menus are almost exactly the same between the two seasons. Usually, there's a color change, not just different photos of the same characters. Anyway, it beats flipping through analog cable stations.

Yeah, long time no update. Recapping begins all the way back to Thursday night when I got some flowers for Tracy's mom's birthday from City Enchanted Gardens. Definitely some good stuff there. Dinner was an odd assortment of pancit, which is good luck on birthdays, crab legs, and butternut squash soup. Good, but a strange combo. Then Tracy and I settled in to catch up on some TV, starting with Heroes and finishing up with How I Met Your Mother and The Office. Friday night stayed in, since Tracy was feeling a bit under the weather, so cups of tea in hand, we settled in for some Lost. Saturday I drove 2 hours to get out to Woodstock due to traffic and construction, but then spent the rest of the day hanging out with the family. Got some golf tips from my brother, good food from my mom, and good conversation all around. Got to learn the doctors' side of the health insurance racket. Sunday drove back in after dropping Al and Nicole off at the airport, then again, settled in on the couch for a while watching Veronica Mars. Actually left the condo to head over to RWIP when Bryan made smoked beef brisket. Awesome. Also got to see plenty of people that I haven't seen in a good long while. Actually started exercising again this morning, realizing some time over the weekend that I need to start again, and that I don't need to run 3 miles every time, and that a quick little 1 mile run is better than nothing. Headed out to the Duke with Morse and Bender tonight.

So met up with Morse at the Duke for drinks. Also got to see Bender and McKone. Guys I haven't seen in a very long time. College friends. Got some catching up in, before heading over to Buca di Beppo for dinner. Good stuff there. Morse was in town for the American Society of Anesthesiologiests annual meeting. Funny how that happens a week after my brother is in town for the American College of Surgeons Clincal Congress. I wonder what's going on next weekend at the McCormick Center? Actually, nothing, but it would have been funny to see something for the Pediatricians or Radiologists or something. Lots of doctor talk in the last week and a half or so. Finally got an umbrella to replace my old travel sized one, and good timing too. Don't have any purchases planned on the horizon. Started playing with some save the date designs that Tracy had done some work with.

Worked late, just on one of those kicks, getting things done. Did manage to get home in time to sneak in an episode of Veronica Mars before bed. Got up in time to calibrate my Nike+iPod while exercising. At some point while walking to the gym I realized I could have just gone running outside, but whatever. I think I'll give myself the rest of October before I try and hit the pool again. Just the right season to dry my skin out in the pool and outside in the wintry cold. Headed out to the burbs to see Tracy tonight, who went dress shopping today on her day off. I think we're supposed to hit a Bridal Expo, whatever that's for. We're currently working on Consultants, or Weekend Coordinators, and might check out another florist tomorrow.

Ah, a Bridal Expo. Interesting. Well, not that interesting. Well, maybe a little interesting. You sign up, you walk through, you have little booths set up along this winding path that leads to a stage for the fashion show. Bonus points for the cake places with samples. But I think it was pretty small, maybe 4 or so vendors, well, maybe 5-6 vendors per wedding sphere; flowers, cake, DJ, limo, photography, invites, and tuxes. Kind of felt like we were cattle rounded up and fed through the opening in the fence for something like branding. Anyway, we did find a cake place that was pretty good. Oh, and Tracy got a dress yesterday too, of course, not when I was there. So things are definitely coming together. Afterwards, we went to dinner at The Patio, which was Tracy's suggestion, which was awesome because I've been craving BBQ for a couple days now, since my attempts at getting a Nagurski sandwich from Cosi have failed repeatedly. With a little time left in the evening, we watched the episodes of The Office and Heroes that her DVR had missed and I had downloaded.

Well, not till Sunday. Chicago Marathon goes on then, and I'll be trapped in my building, unless I get out before. See the cool interactive map that shows my predicament. Katie Kelly's running though, so good luck to her. I'm not sure I'll be trapped because I'm headed out to Woodstock on Saturday for an Abando Home Gathering. I thought we've had more of those, but only once in college, another time back in 2002, but that's about it. I think. Should be good, if a little lowkey. Which means I might stay out there instead of coming back in and getting trapped. Instead, Tracy and I would bum around, maybe do some shopping, and get back to my place later in the afternoon/evening. Maybe. Tonight headed out to Meridian for Tracy's Dad's induction ceremony as president of some organization, golf and Filipino related, I think. Anyway, we get to dress up and check out a Filipino DJ. By the way, I have no idea if Filipino needs to be capitalized or not. Saturday morning we might check out the Paper Source Warehouse Sale, except it looks a little bit crazy. Yesterday I did a little work on a possible save the date design, had some chili, watched some Smallville over at Tracy's.

Totally off. Fixes: I apparently had people out to Woodstock last year, but couldn't find any real mention in my archives. So yeah, had people out last year. And Tracy and I didn't go to Medina, we went to Meridian, a banquet hall. Totally different. Anyway, whoops. But the banquet was pretty cool, definitely liked the DJ, so we'll get a chance to talk to him about possibly doing our wedding. Traffic wasn't too bad, which was kind of surprising. Saturday, went and checked out the Paper Source warehouse sale, which was pretty much how I expected it: Absolutely crazy. Think 7th floor of a warehouse, think boxes of envelopes, cards, paper, with tables set up around the edge, and this huge line that snaked throughout the entire space of people pushing boxes, just wanting to pay. Awesome. No change of browsing, but lots of great deals. Not the best place to look for invitations. Then we had lunch at the Atrium cafe, looking for the West Egg, which it used to be. Couldn't go to Lou Mitchell's, because the line was way too long. Then headed out to Woodstock via 290, which also went pretty fast, stopping off at the Jewel to get supplies for Corn Ice Cream. Then friends, food and family for the night. Church the next morning, brunch at Port Edwards, some bridesmaid dress shopping in Schaumburg, where Tracy did find a dress she liked, and it was really weird for me to be in a bridal shop, and then the long drive back in. Couch time, finishing up Lost, and getting impatient for the 3rd season on DVD so I bittorrent'ed the first 3 episodes that I missed. Also snuck in the 4th episode of Heroes because of that mini-marathon on Sunday night, so we're all caught up there. Headed out to Tracy's tonight to carve a pumpkin and watch some more TV. Special thanks to my mom for cooking for my friends this weekend. Till next year.

Yeah, went out to Tracy's, dinner at Panera Bread, since she had a coupon for their new Crispani pizza type thing. Pretty good. We had the roasted mushroom. There's a couple other that looked pretty good. So maybe next time. Lots of people there, which I find intriguing. Panera just doesn't seem like a usual going out place. Like it's a lunch place, or a coffee place, but a dinner place? Not quite run of the mill for me. But it was full, well not completely, but it wasn't empty. You had some people conducting what looked like a business meeting, maybe a web site designer showing off his wares to a client. Someone was working on a posterboard. Definitely couples eating dinner, some mother daughters, father son combos as well. Just not what I'd expect at Panera. Afterwards, we headed back to Tracy's to watch some stuff off the DVR. How I Met Your Mother and Heroes. Good stuff. But still not quite The Office caliber. Heroes is great stuff, but I'm still waiting for the super power battles. And this week definitely felt like it went by too fast. Good signs for movies, but bad for TV, cause it's another week before we get to see what happens next. I did add all the shows I want to watch that are available from the iTunes Store, and it comes out to around $200 for all the season passes. Is that worth it? I don't watch commercials anymore if I have access to a DVR. But is it worth it? Not sure. Of course, all that's in not quite DVD quality and I can't use my psp to watch them. But I get them now as opposed to a year later on DVD. Whatever. On the wedding front, have a photographer under contract.

Firefox 2 got released, well, officially last night. I sort of waited, since some sites had download links available since Monday, but I started using it last night. And yeah, it's pretty good. I think on Carbon I'm switching back from Safari. Why? Not sure. Maybe I'll stay with Safari. But Firefox is pretty fast, at least from my point of view, at least as fast as Safari. Otherwise, spent the time watching Veronica Mars on the couch, had some more leftovers for dinner, and when Tracy got in, worked a little on Save the Dates. We're trying out some iPhoto postcards, so we'll see how those work out in a week or so. I'm already planning on making and buying iPhoto books with the wedding photos we'll be getting, like smaller thing we can leave out for people to page through. We're going to be working on invitations this weekend, and maybe finalize the guest list soon. I think we'll hit up a bookstore to peruse the travel section for honeymoon ideas. Something a little different from the standards.

Got a deadline for work, 11/1 for a project. Made me realize that November is right there around the corner. Crazy. Last night went to Cosi for dinner and had myself another Nagurski. Figure I'll get it while I can, since it's a limited time only deal. Afterwards, Tracy and I browsed wedding related magazines, she through flowers and me through honeymoon stuff. Possibly found a destination, but have to see what's available first. Kind of short notice I guess. Also found a dance studio to take lessons though. As soon as that gets squared away, I'll provide some more details. Tonight was just leftovers at home, some TV, and S03E01 of Lost. Pretty crazy stuff. Totally different than before. Still have no idea what's going on. Oh, and 2006 UPA Club Championships started today. I was using Score-o-matic and the Score Reporter to keep track, but there's no commentary. It was also surprising that there really wasn't any threads on rsd about it either until later in the day. Chicago went 3-6 on the day, each division getting at least one win in, with Machine having a real shot at the powerpool even with a 1-2 schedule, but the 2 teams with winning records moved on. Yay, serious ultimate. And yes, I'm retired, no longer play, but I still follow the sport. On a whim I search for ultimate on ESPN. No dice.

Friday just had leftovers and watched Veronica Mars and did some laundry. Saturday we had breakfast at HB Spot before heading down to Lincoln Park to check out invitations at All She Wrote and Paper Source. We walked back, picked up some groceries, and made dinner at home while watching Just Friends. I also made chocolate souffle for dessert. Sunday after mass we made brunch and watched the Bears kick some booty. Seriously. Also kept track a little more on 2006 UPA Club Championships. No all NW semis. That was a little disappointing. Mischief wins. Slow White beat Brass Monkey and then lost in the final. Fury rolls. Riot rolls until Fury. Still waiting to see if Sockeye can pull the win out over Furious George. And maybe that first day I missed playing, reading about it. Then the weather turned windy, and I realized that I don't enjoy playing when it's windy.

I know, odd schedule. Not sure what I'm going to do about keeping it up, or in this case, not keeping it up. Anyway, Sunday afternoon Tracy and I headed up to E-Town for some shopping, and to get out of the condo. Even more different from when I used to work up there. That whole condo complex where the parking garage used to be on Sherman, all done. Fancy looking, too. Like a hotel. Not like downtown Evanston at all anymore. Also they were doing construction on the Purple Line, so the underpass at Church was blocked off, which is used a lot to get around the shopping district. Anyway, went to Blink Art Materials, which used to be the Art Store, looking for papers to try out designs for invitations. Way too hot in there. Much like my condo currently. Then we wandered over to Cost Plus World Market so Tracy could get a replacement champagne flute. Then we stopped off at the new Barnes & Noble, very nice, got some books on Fiji and a Filipino Cookbook. I passed on a filipino travel phrasebook, which actually would come in handy for me, but I just couldn't do it. Monday night I went out to Tracy's, had dinner with her parents at Harrison's, watched an episode of The Office. That's all.

Went over to Tun's tonight to help him out a bit with a website for the classes that he teaches. Been a while since I've had to implement some design stuff. Still don't like Dreamweaver, so some things never change. Of course, I've got some fairly grand schemes in mind, but we'll see if any of them come to fruition. Also I've gotten fairly used to using Quicksilver and Launchy, as well as the Windows Key and other keyboard commands. Definitely a computing creature of comfort. Hard to be as productive if I'm not on my machines. Could definitely be a problem when my work machine goes down, which is bound to happen, eventually. Oh, forgot to mention that Tracy and I signed up for dance lessons at Chicago Dance. We'll take a group class, Dancing for All Occasions to get our feet wet and then the private lessons later to polish up whatever dance we decide on for our first. And of course there's also the Father/Bride and Mother/Groom dances as well.