Riding home last night stumbled across the sign for 821 W. Roscoe. Finally has an agent. Adam got in touch, and gathering info for us. Still early enough in the building process that some things haven't been determined, like shared vs. private roof deck. Which is a big deal. But we'll see. Good to actually have some information on it, finally. Otherwise, did some exercises while Tracy made coconut chicken curry for dinner last night. Watched Smallville and House. That's about it. Still trying to get that web video ripped for Nicole. Tonight headed to the Field Museum for the Wine Enthusiast Toast of the Town 2008. Should be fun.

Ok, it's official, the first one got away. 907 W. Roscoe closed the other day. I admit, I was half hoping for the contract to fall through, but no such luck. Good thing though, we're looking at some places this weekend, 920 W. Barry, 3535 N. Reta, and 853 W. Buckingham. One of those might be like 3504 N. Fremont, which is good. But we'll see. Moving on. Last night I came home to a drunk Tracy, who spent the day with birthday girl April, first at the Cubs game, then at Harry Caray's Tavern. So, I let her sleep a little bit, and we didn't leave for Toast of the Town until 7:40ish. At about Grant Park, we have the cab turn around because Tracy forgot her ID, so we don't end up at the Field Museum until 8:30ish. The actual tasting is OK, like a fancy pants Wine Crush. Tasted some wines, got some food. Lots of dressed up people. Not a whole lot of traffic flow, lots of standing around and squeezing through groups. And the exhibits weren't open. So that was slightly disappointing. On the way out, the self organizing taxi line was an interesting phenomenon. Completely spontaneous. No lines, nothing written down, but people formed a line. Odd. Made it home ok, watched some TV, tried out the Haagen-Dazs Grean Tea, which was OK, not as good as Sai. Rode in this morning, used one of the panniers, knowing full well I'd be riding home in the rain. Depending on the weather, might go to Looptopia tonight. Gonna see Baby Mama with the Russells tomorrow. Sunday is real estate viewings. Other than that, gotta fit in some bike maintenance this weekend, and hopefully get rid of the creaking.

Friday night nothing special, did my exercises, Tracy made kabobs for dinner, watched Scrubs and Grey's Anatomy. Guess it was a medical night. Saturday Tracy made hashbrowns, which she was looking forward to. I did some work on my bike, and think I got rid of the creaking, but now the first gear doesn't work. Also managed to put Power Grips on, which are pretty sweet. Then we went shopping, window shopping anyway, down Michigan Ave, always looking at furniture, things to go in our new place, whenever we actually get around to getting a new place. Did end up getting a pair of those convertible travel pants. Figure they might come in handy. Met up with the Russells for a couples date, dinner at Emilio's Tapas and watched Baby Mama. Good food, company, and movie. The bus on the way home was surprisingly packed. Sunday was gonna go to Nookies Tree for brunch, but ended up across the street at Mini Bar. That was pretty good, and we'll end up there again I'm sure. Then we checked out the open house at 1141 W. Patterson, then headed home to change because it was really really nice out, then down to 920 W. Barry to meet with Adam then up to 3535 N. Reta and 853 W. Buckingham. We like the one on Reta. It's very similar to the other ones we've been looking at, but among them all, it's our favorite of the bunch. So we'll see. After that, we got a snack down at Bobtail Soda Fountain, and then home, before meeting up with Dave Morse at Coco Pazzo Cafe for dinner. I liked it. This morning I had to make some phone calls, because I was slightly worried about going to Costa Rica on Friday and my passport expires in 3 months. But the consulate says I'm ok, so I'm good. Definitely have to get that renewed when we get back.

So the wheels are in motion. We have an offer in for 3535 N. Reta. We've got an attorney, Joanne Gleason, and an inspector tentatively scheduled for Thursday morning. All hoping to get most of it squared away by Thursday night. A whirlwind, I know. It's surprisingly easy, so far anyway. Right now waiting to hear back from the seller. Besides that, not much. Tracy made nilaga for dinner last night, and threw some asparagus into the pot. A little tweak on the normal Filipino beef soup. I did my exercises. Oh, and on the ride home my right pedal started coming loose, so had to tighten that up. Also, got a lot of ticking while pedaling, so something else to try and troubleshoot, but the creaking is gone. Watched The Office, 30 Rock and Samantha Who?. Had a brief internet outage at home towards the end of the night, I think DNS settings were screwed up, so just left the cable modem unplugged overnight, and like magic, the internet was working again in the morning.

Done. Well, hopefully done. The great housing search of '08 is over. We have a contract for 3535 N. Reta. Home inspection is for tomorrow. Once that's done, we've got a while before closing, but it's nice that it's over and done with. Yay! Seemed like a pretty simple process. So far at least. Had leftovers for dinner last night, watched Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Desperate Housewives, and The Big Bang Theory. Tracy had gone shopping for some last minute stuff for our trip to Costa Rica. Put some grease in the gears before the ride in the rain to work this morning. Not sure, but things seemed smoother, but I couldn't tell if things were any quieter. The Power Grips are nice, and I'm still getting used to them. Not yet easy peasy to get into. Worked well for the rain commute. Otherwise? We're homeowners, sort of. That'll happen officially later.

Well, 3535 N. Reta passed the home inspection. Nothing serious to worry about. Inspector was impressed, which I take as a good sign. Got a mortgage with Wells Fargo Home Financial. Yup. With those two things out of the way, I don't see anything that would prevent us from becoming homeowners in a couple months. We don't actually close until the end of June. Wow. The process that started with checking out Motor Row Lofts back on January 14 is finally coming to a close. Exciting. And besides that, headed to Costa Rica on a Caravan Tours package with Lisa and Ryan for our anniversaries. We leave tomorrow and won't be back until the 18th. Should be a lot of fun. Did laundry last night cause we're packing tonight. Tracy made mechado, we watched Top Chef and How I Met Your Mother. So probably won't be posting, maybe just a couple times, while I'm gone. We'll see.

Back from vacation. I'll work on providing a more detailed writeup on the Memex page for Caravan Costa Rica Natural Paradise Tour. Overall, it was great. Great country, food, friends old and new, activities, accommodations, sights and sounds. All good. I'll also work on getting photos up at Flickr. Only have I think 700 or so to go through. Some highlights? Getting absolutely great weather for all the sightseeing, and only really getting rain during the resorty parts of the trip. Seeing lava/eruptions. Going ziplining. Seeing lots of animals. Stepping in both Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The Renaissance Faire production of A Coffee Plantation. The coffee. Rice and beans. A surprise stay at an all inclusive resort. But it's good to be back. It's good to not have to be on a bus anymore. Got back around 10:30ish last night. Walked down and picked up Tracy's keys from April, who was supposed to be plant watering for us, which is just basil. Then had a late dinner at Melrose Diner. Then back on internet after a long time off. I think I'm back up to speed again. Then rode in to work today. And back to work.

Kind of back into the swing of things. Not really. Got more sleep last night though. Tracy made chicken soup, she might be coming down with a cold. I worked a bit on photos from vacation. All those photos of the rain forest tend to be a bit repetitive. And then labeling them all? How many times can I write trees? Got lots of stuff on the DVR, watched Bones and Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs, even though that one was shown out of order. Got lots of laundry to do, maybe we should try and sneak that in tonight. Besides that, it's a bit cold here in Chicago, ain't it? It was a roughly 40 degree swing from our departure from Miami on Sunday to arrival in Chicago. Good for me and my biking though. And it's definitely nice to be biking again. Got a few questions on the shaft drive on the way in today. Probably need to grease it up a little. Maybe. Oh, and maybe someone would want to go to the Drive-In this weekend? The Cascade Drive-In is showing Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Iron Man as a double feature starting Friday. That sounds like an ideal drive in movie set. Too bad Tracy's working this weekend, or I'd definitely drag her out to that. I will go sometime this summer. That's for sure. A promise even.

Go down to the bike room, hop on the Sprint, seems like the front tire is a little low, get all the way out of the garage before giving it a squeeze, and yup, it's flat. Ugh. Ride back down, head back up, switch bags, come back, hop on the mtb and away I go to work. Nice and easy, but annoying. I wonder what caused the flat? And I thought the Marathon Plus tires were indestructible? I guess not, since something made it through. Ugh, I have to fight to get them on and off tonight. Not fun. Also, the garage ceiling project is overtaking the bike room, so I've got to find someplace else to put my bike, or bring it into the unit, but that's just a hassle. So I'll probably start just locking up outside. I guess I'll have to lock up both of them. Ugh. Just annoying. Last night, Tracy couldn't take it anymore and unpacked and cleaned up a little. I helped a little. Still working on photos from vacation. With Tracy's it ups the current count to 700. Tracy made steak, potatoes, tomatoes and peppers for dinner last night. Watched Desperate Housewives, The Office, 30 Rock and Samantha Who?.

So the flat yesterday, or more like the previous day? Hole in the tube from a spoke. Odd. There was a hole in the rim tape as well. Instead of getting new rim tape, I just duct tape'd the hole a couple times. Hopefully it'll hold up. Of course, getting the Marathon Plus on and off was not that easy. Got myself a couple little blood blisters because of it. But it definitely wasn't as hard as the first time. I actually brought the wheel upstairs, when I realized that I could just do that to fix my flat, instead of sitting down in the bike room. That was nice. Tracy made some pork and turkey meatballs and pasta for dinner. Something I ate yesterday definitely didn't agree with me, not quite sure what, as I felt overly full and bloated all last night, and actually slightly continuing into today. Odd. Not sure what to make of it. Watched House, a bit of Smallville, a couple episodes of The Big Bang Theory and an episode of How I Met Your Mother. Trying to plow through the stuff on the DVR. Headed out to Kuma's tonight with Russell and King. Hope my belly issues are resolved by then.

So, I think our emails from abando.com have been getting marked as spam by some places, even Gmail. Finally got around to checking up on it, and apparently some places check for SPF records, which I hadn't set up for the switch to Google Apps. So, got that changed, so hopefully our emails won't be so spammy anymore. Wait and see I guess. Rode up Elston last night from work to Kuma's. Got there around 5:45pm, and place was packed already, no seats at the bar, standing room only. Akira put his name in, an hour wait. No dice. Waited for Bryan and Russell to show up and headed up to La Finca instead for Mexican and margaritas. Good stuff. Decided to take it easy and head on home after dinner. Watched the end of Transformers and House with Tracy. Also realized we don't have to move the bikes out of the bike room, just that they need to make a new entrance to the bike room. Actually, ir probably won't affect me at all, since I'm leaving before they start work and get back after they finish for the day. Tracy's working this weekend. I've got a haircut tomorrow. Need to do a bunch of laundry. Might see my mom this weekend. Going out to the Argaos on Monday to BBQ. Oh, and need to upload photos from vacation and transcode some more episodes of Spice Up My Kitchen for the Cases.

Got rid of the the Gallery and the wedding websites. Frees up some disk space. I've tried to move most of the photos over to Flickr, but I haven't done the wedding ones yet. I'll get around to that eventually. Also need to take the next step and integrate Flickr with this website. Hopefully, won't be too hard. Still reading Harry Potter, up to Goblet of Fire. Long weekend was nice. Friday night Tracy and I walked down to The Wieners Circle for hot dogs, and then walked all the way down to Webster and Clark before heading back. Found a bunch of new restaurants we want to try. Watched House, Bones and How I Met Your Mother. Saturday got a haircut, just a bunch of lounging about, transcoded Spice Up My Kitchen episodes for Lisa and Ryan. Read some Harry Potter. Went down to Sai Cafe for dinner, walked over to Lincoln Avenue to check out the period dressing they've done for the John Dillinger movie with Johnny Depp that's filming. It's pretty cool to see. Watched Desperate Housewives and The Office. Sunday finally got around to the 5 loads of laundry that needed doing, watched Disturbia and In the Land of Women. Went over to Cozy's for dinner. And on Memorial Day went over to Argaos to grill, Tracy brought food, marinated chicken and beef. Stopped by Orland Square briefly on the way out. Watched Caffeine before leaving, and some Spice Up My Kitchen and Top Chef. Thinking my throat discomfort might be mucus related, so took some decongestant last night. Seemed to help. Will have to try again tonight.

Maybe it was the decongestant from the night before, or the 30-40 degree temperature shift and the commute to work without a hat on, but I didn't feel all that great yesterday. Made it home, and Tracy made me a dumpling soup for dinner. And that did make me feel better. Ended up watching Evan Almighty with dinner. It was good, but I'm happy we didn't go out to a theater to watch it. Felt good enough to make cookies for Tracy as well. Got Satellite up and running on the development box at home. Just need to wrap Daily Dose around it to make it look like it belongs. I tried to rent some movies on the Apple TV starting on Saturday, but I've been having some issues. Right now it's unable to check for downloads, and I've got 4 HD movies in the queue. According to the Apple Support Discussions this happens from time to time, with specific movies, and then magically resolves itself. My only complaint is that iTunes Store Support won't do anything because it was on an Apple TV, and I don't want to try and call Apple TV because I don't want to pay for support. It's stupid. I'll give it a week and if it doesn't get fixed, I'll try and get some refunds. The movie in question that seems to be causing the issues? Over Her Dead Body. Go figure.

Been pretty sleepy lately. Definitely hitting a wall around 10 or so. Kind of strange. Tracy made a sundried tomato pesto and chicken pasta for dinner last night. Finally got around to watching the Bones season finale, which felt rushed. Like it was a whole bunch of episodes all wrapped up into one, kind of like a shortened season ender. Annoying. I feel like they could, or they did have a much better idea of how to wrap it up. Other than that, updated my macs to 10.5.3, got my contacts syncing up with Google, which is cool and annoying. Got lots of contacts to clean up in the Address Book. Finished up Goblet of Fire last night and started up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I don't actually remember if I finished this one or not. I think I did. Definitely want to watch the movies again.

Guess I pushed it a little on the ride home yesterday since I'm a little sore. Guess that's good. Just leftovers for dinner last night, cleaning out the fridge. Watched reruns of The Office and How I Met Your Mother before settling in to watch Grey's Anatomy. Pretty much all that's left on the DVR is episodes of Spice Up My Kitchen. Got a couple more to transcode for Lisa and Ryan. Headed up to Evanston for dinner and a movie with the Russells: Prairie Moon and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Not much tomorrow, my mom might come out, might head out to Katie Kelly's housewarming. Sunday Tracy's working, and if my mom doesn't come in to the city, I'll head out on the train for a bit. Get more Harry Potter reading in. And finally watch the movies I rented on the Apple TV, which finally downloaded yesterday. Guess they just have the occasional hiccup with some random movies. I think this time it was Over Her Dead Body. Should probably do a little bike maintenance, finally pick out colors for the new place, look over mortgage documentation (the appraisal was pretty much spot on, exactly what we paid, which is OK I think). Oh, Urbanathlon registration opens on Sunday, so have to decide whether I want to try and do it myself or not.