I think summer official starts when we start going to street festivals. Which we did on Sunday. We went to the Belmont/Sheffield Music Festival. It was walking distance, but was a very Wrigleyville crowd. Got some corndogs, a Philly cheesesteak, and a couple of beers, listened to some music, and headed home. Nice to be able to just walk and do that. Friday night went up to Evanston for couples date night with the Russells. Had dinner at Prairie Moon and then watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. That's a fun ride. Makes me want to watch the first 3. Always interesting walking around Evanston, things just being so different from when I was there before. Saturday had breakfast at home, then went out to the paint store, checking out colors for the new place. My mom and Joy came in, so after mass we went to Shochu for dinner. I liked it, no one else did. Then we picked up desserts from Whole Foods, which was my mom's first time in one. Sunday, Tracy worked, so I went to dim sum with them to Phoenix Restaurant. It's pretty nice when you go at 8:30 in the morning. Nice and quiet. Came back up, watched 2 Fast 2 Furious finally and Fast Food Nation. After Tracy came home and a nap, we headed out for the festival. So that means summer's started for me. Oh, and finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and started Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Finished up Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Wow. Crazy. Only 1 left now. Probably finish that up this week as well, which means it only took me a month to finish the series. Definitely feels good to be in bookworld again. I missed it. Not sure what's gonna take the place of the Harry Potter Books. Maybe some Ludlum if I can find some. Would be nice if they just sold them as eBooks. Ugh. Trying out the training program for the Urbanathlon. Just resistance and flexibility last night. Supposed to go running tonight. I'll decide after this weekend if I do it solo or in a team. Leaning towards solo now. Otherwise, watched some reruns, had some Ramen for dinner, picked some colors, installed 9.2.2 on the Cube, and did some reading. Tracy tried sketching out our new living room and trying out some paints on it. Otherwise, not much going on. Whatever illness/sickness I had after Costa Rica is gone. So that's good.

Seriously. Went running for the first time in a long time when I got home from work yesterday. Seriously. All those muscles that I let atrophy, that I never use anymore. But it's something to get better at, and I'm sure I'll get better at it. It's just a matter of practice again. So even with being unable to run for a couple miles, I'm still leaning towards doing the Urbanathlon solo. Also, I won't be incredibly out of shape for Muddy Buddy. But I've still got until August to at least get in some kind of shape for it. Tracy made chicken tiki masala for dinner last night, out of a jar anyway. Good, but a little spicy. I tried making a blueberry loaf again, but completely undercooked it, so had to put it back into the oven to try and finish it after I turned it over on the wire rack and the middle oozed right through. Whoops. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is a trip. Hard to put down. Pretty exciting. Got 40% left or so. Hard to give page numbers when reading on a Sony Reader. Didn't watch much TV, too busy reading.

Stayed up late and finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Reading all 7 consecutively is great. The weather was set perfectly for the finish as well, as it was cool, maybe a little chilly, and foggy. Pretty much perfect for the end. And something about the story, something about it has struck a chord in me, and it's left me with melancholy. I have this urge to watch the filmed versions this weekend, and might just do that. So with the books done, I'll probably take a little break from reading, and maybe try being a little productive when I get home from work, instead of plopping down on the couch. Did more training for the Urbanathlon last night. Tracy made skirt steak from a Rick Bayless recipe, since she saw him give a cooking demonstration at Green City Market yesterday on her day off. Watched a couple episodes of Top Chef.

Figured out I need to get DVDs of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Then I need to transcode them, get them on my iPhone, and watch them when I can. I've got too many movies on the DVR and the Apple TV for the weekend, and those have time constraints, so I want to get those out of the way. Otherwise, it's hot. And muggy. Bike riding isn't too bad, and having a server room to cool off in when I get to work makes a huge difference. Might even get to the point that I need to wear a hat while standing in front of the AC to prevent getting a cold. Tracy made Chicken Marsala for dinner last night and we watched Desperate Housewives. Going to see Iron Man tonight, headed out to Ribfest tomorrow night with JEspy.

Got 9 movies in this weekend. Started Friday night Tracy and I went and saw Iron Man finally. That was after I met up with her at the Pottery Barn on Michigan Ave, which was closing up on the 20th. So we picked up a couple tables, floor samples and clearance. One set of nesting tables for the deck and what we hope to be a cafe table behind the couch in the living room. After the movie, which was good, but not the best superhero movie ever which I had read, we picked up some frozen food from Dominick's for dinner. Didn't have time for a sit down since Tracy had to work in the morning. Saturday, with Tracy at work, I settled in and watched Reign Over Me, Even Money, and The Namesake. Also converted some more episodes of Spice Up My Kitchen for Lisa and Ryan. Tried going to Ribfest with JEspy, but it was raining, so we tried heading to Smoque, which was packed, so ended up at Gale Street Inn. Yum. Sunday I really picked up the movie watching. Heist, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Stardust, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. I dropped off Tracy at Earwax Cafe where she had dinner with friends and I picked up Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on DVD. Yes, I'm still slightly hung up on the Harry Potter stories. I've got Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on the iPhone. Yes, slightly addicted. Oh, and I think it's Bike to Work week in Chicago this week. Exciting.

Had an unplanned early dinner with the in-laws in Chinatown last night. That was good, and different since we were done with dinner so early. Tracy picked me up on the way home from work, we went down to Chinatown, then got dropped off on the way back up to ride my bike home. It's definitely nicer riding later after rush hour. Watched the Super Bowl episode of How I Met Your Mother, which I don't think we had seen yet. Then we watched License to Wed, which I didn't know was set in Chicago. Otherwise, pretty quiet. Passed by a Bike to Work Week coffee station going down Wells on the way in to work this morning. Supposed to go to Frontera Grill/Topolobampo for dinner with April and Scott and Tracy.

Finally got dinner at Frontera Grill with Tracy and April and Scott. Good, but expensive. Even showing up at 5:30 there was a 30 minute wait, and by the time we sat, the wait was up to 1-1 1/2 hours. I was on my bike, so I just biked home, Tracy got a lift to a bus stop, then the Halsted bus home and I beat her there. I wasn't even going fast. Finished up watching Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Watched that pretty much just on the iPhone, during the morning cool down, a little at lunch, a little before bedtime. I put a charger on my nightstand so I can watch a little before bed, and not have to get up and walk over to the main charger. Lazy? Just a bit. Forgot to mention the whole WWDC 2008 from Monday, and the iPhone 3G announcement. 3G and GPS would be nice, but otherwise I'm happy with what I've got. I have a feeling I'll be even happier after the 2.0 OS update comes out in a month or so. I'm totally looking forward to some sort of task management app. Setting up reminders as events is a pretty half-assed method.

A bit cooler than I expected on the ride home last night. But not cool enough. Tracy actually made nachos for dinner. She got home later than usual because she went grocery shopping and Cubs traffic. Just means I got to finish off Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie. Also watched Top Chef, and we've got the Puerto Rico episodes to watch, even though I know who won because people put it as the title of their posts so it shows up in Google Reader. Oh well. Started watching Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and should finish that up today. Not sure what's next. Probably won't get rained on the way home.

Oh, scary. Not so much excitement going on. Finally folded laundry last night, while watching Grey's Anatomy. Followed that up with My Boys. Wasn't quite as funny as I remembered it. Tracy made a bacon/mushroom stuffed chicken breast and asparagus for dinner. I tried looking for something new to put on the iPhone to watch. Finished up Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which gets me right back into the funk I was in after finishing the books. I'm actually towards reading books 6 and 7 again. Not sure if I'd want to start all the way at the beginning again. Or maybe I do, now that I know everything, to see all the things that were missed. Don't really have any movie or TV show cravings right now. Oh, remembered that I can use OmniGraffle to do some furniture layout for the new place. Figured it'd be good to try that out, and easier to use than Sketchup, to see what furniture we should get. So that's one thing we'll be doing this weekend, checking out furniture, because we're closing in on closing, a little over 2 weeks. Crazy. Otherwise, might try and get out for Father's Day.

Home stuff really. Friday night had mini baked potatoes for dinner, watched Enchanted. Worked on the floorplan for 3535 N. Reta in OmniGraffle so we can figure out where to put furniture. Saturday biked down to Green City Market, kind of late, Tracy picked up 2 tomatoes, had a danish, and some more potatoes. Had lunch at Nookies, then wandered in to the Old Town Art Fair, since it was right there. Realized that's my dream neighborhood. It's all quiet residential streets for 51 weekends of the year, then for 1 weekend they get a street festival. That's ideal. Also helps that it's a very nice play to live. Headed back home to drop the bikes off, then back down via the Halsted bus to North and Clybourn for some shopping. Checked out furniture. Dropped by erewhon to see Russell. Had steak for dinner and continued working on the floorplan. Really wish I could use Sketchup to do it instead. So finally did a couple self guided tours, to get a better handling on how to use it. Sunday went to a Father's Day brunch with the in-laws at Duffy's Tavern & Bar, then hung out at Michael Argao's place for a bit, before walking back home. Got some ice cream at the Bobtail Soda Fountain. Got a rough floorplan in Sketchup, just the outside of the unit and the front openings for the windows/door. Want to keep trying, because that's the best way to see how furniture might fit, how pieces might go together, and colors too. Of course, besides making the floorplan in Sketchup, I have to make the furniture as well. No idea if I'm gonna be able to pull that off in the 2 weeks before closing.

So working forward towards our closing date of June 30, but that's actually not set in stone yet. And it's 13 days away. Hopefully it won't be a problem. Hopefully. Waiting and seeing. Still working on the floorplan though, this time in Sketchup, and now have some of the cabinets in place. Next up is the fireplace and try and do either some molding or a chair rail. See if I can pull that off. Worked on that last night, made the tocino for dinner, had The Departed on in the background which Tracy watched. Oh, also did my resistance training for the Urbanathlon. Another week and I'll register. Had lunch with Elinor today at Sushi Sai. Last time we had lunch on a workday was when Market Track was still in Evanston and I think she was still in school. Long time. And some things haven't changed. It'd be nice to have a lunch friend in the Loop.

Well, I knew something was gonna come up, but the sellers need to push the closing date back. Awesome. So now we're trying to figure out the best day taking into account rate lock expiration dates and schedules, to hopefully make it all work out. Shouldn't be any longer than a week though. I knew something was going to happen. Anyway, heading to Pottery Barn on Michigan Ave. tonight to try and put a couple tables into Tracy's car after work. Hopefully we can break them down a little to get them to fit. Also meant that I took the bus to work today, instead of biking in. Odd. Last night went for a run, or endurance training for the Urbanathlon. Tracy made stir fry for dinner. We watched Top Chef. That is a pretty good show. Might end up watching next season, even though it won't be in Chicago. I organized some eBooks, finding images of book covers. Some of the PDF's have some formatting issues, like text of Page # which I need to figure out how to get rid of. Just wish I could buy them from the eBook Store from Sony. I figured I have a little more time to work on a floorplan.

Ok, so our new estimated closing date is July 7. It's hard getting it all organized, especially because Tracy's scheduling is not easy to change or shift around on short notice. Hopefully this will be the only hiccup. Left work early last night to head up to Pottery Barn to pick up furniture. Took a while because someone decided to just wrap the table up without disassembling it. Also, they wrapped and tagged the wrong item for us, giving us a small ottoman table instead of the outdoor nesting tables, so we ended up getting brand new ones in the box instead of the floor samples. We also snuck in an outdoor console table that matches the nesting tables which we bought while waiting for our stuff to show up at the back door. Awesome. So we'll have some furniture when we move in eventually. Tracy made lamb chops for dinner, I did some resistance training, watched The Middleman, which I think is a cross between Eureka and Veronica Mars. Had to do some work from home, since I left early. Watched some show on the Food Channel about best places to pig out, and one made me want to get some oysters.

Watched Top Chef last night. Went running. Decided to do Time Machine backups again. Biked to work, thinking I might get to ride home in the rain, but I don't think that's gonna happen. Might play Speedminton tonight, finally. We'll see about that. Headed out to watch the Barclays Churchill Cup tomorrow at Toyota Park. Should be fun. Tracy's gonna go out furniture shopping in the meantime. She's working on Sunday, so not sure what I'm up to then. Maybe finally get around to working on my bike to get rid of the creaking again. Oh, trying to read Spook Country, but it's slow going. Not quite as exciting, or maybe it's just not the right topic for me like Neuromancer. And there's a new training plan up for the Urbanathlon. I need to get some cheap dumbbells or something to use as weights.

Friday night, got home, did Urbanathlon resistance training, Tracy made some teriyaki like chicken and stir fry veggies for dinner, and we watched Over Her Dead Body. That Paul Rudd's a funny guy. Saturday headed out to meet up with Russell, went over to Hot Doug's, had some more great sausages, then trekked down with a couple of Rick's friends to Toyota Park to watch the Barclays Churchill Cup. Took the Blue line to the Orange to a shuttle bus before ending up at the park, which was really nice, if not near the city at all. Watched some rugby, those are very big guys. Caught a ride back into the city with Joe Ferrari and Akira. That was much nicer than the long trek back through public transportation. Ended up going out for some ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery with Tracy when she got back from her day of furniture shopping. Sunday, she worked, so I watched The Game Plan, transcoded a few more Spice Up My Kitchens, worked a little on the floorplan, and made Guinness beef stew for dinner. Watched 27 Dresses, which of course I thought was pretty good. Got a call from the security company at work at 2am this morning, high/low temperature sensor went off in the server room, so I had to trek down there to check it out. Not a whole lot going on that early in Chicago. Got that taken care of, but get to leave work early to compensate. Which is good, because I'm dog tired.

Well, as much as it can be. But we have a closing date and time, July 7, 2pm. Sweet. A little less than 2 weeks away. Got all the down payment and closing costs together, and just waiting to write the check. Awesome. So the furniture purchases can actually start up in earnest, knowing when we'll be there. Tracy actually bought a chair and ottoman yesterday. Lucky her, she had yesterday and today off. Got home early enough yesterday to try and play Speedminton outside, which was fun, once we moved to a less windy location. I like it. Then Tracy made macaroni chicken salad, we kind of watched Evening, and I did my Urbanathlon resistance training and did some computer work, like renaming The Unit transcodes. Still reading Spook Country, and it's picking up a little bit, but still slow reading.

Still working on the floorplan in Sketchup, and it's quite frustrating at times. Selection, unions, intersections, all seem to happen inconsistently. At least, the program isn't doing what I'm expecting it to do. For all I know that's the way it's supposed to work. So still working on it. Figured out scenes, and possibly animations, so that might be cool. Last night went for a run, Tracy made eggplant parmigiana for dinner, watched Shrek the Third. Also a bit of What Women Want. Rode in the rain on the way to work this morning. Doesn't look like I'll be riding home in the rain though. Really need to pick up some sort of weight system, or at least some type of resistance, maybe jugs of water. Also having some random database problems on my shared hosting service. Might be time to start seriously considering setting up our own hosting service through EC2. Just get the wheels in motion.

Birthday wishes to my mother today. We're going to dinner at Jin Ju tomorrow night. Figured instead of trying to find a new place that we'd all like, we'd go with a tried and true good restaurant we all like. Otherwise, pretty low key, which is probably the calm before the storm. Forgot my iPhone at home yesterday, which meant I was without all day yesterday. Felt completely naked without it. Like walking around in circles because my left front pocket was empty. And I totally can't wait until OmniFocus comes out for the iPhone. I really should reread Getting Things Done to refresh my memory, or I could just put it on the list. Did more resistance training for the Urbanathlon. It's good stuff. Makes me think of the CrossFit stuff Joe Ferrari and Russell were talking about last Saturday. I looked at the PDFs of the training routines again, this time with photos, and I'm not getting low enough on my spider crawls. Kind of watched The Middleman last night. I think I'm moving it off the DVR. Not quite good enough. Kind of like it's trying too hard, but with too low of production values. Started to use Sketchup for the new work floorplan, besides for the new home. Definitely good to know keyboard shortcuts to tools and views. Oh, decided to try and recalibrate my MacBook battery, as sometimes the battery level would drop from 5 lights to 1 flashing about 5 minutes after unplugging. Hopefully it'll help. Also started ripping more DVDs. The HDHomeRun's AC adapter went bad, so the Mac mini is kind of waiting around doing nothing.

Until we close. Crazy. Last night cleaned up a little, since the parents are coming in to town. Have to leave work early to get up home to get to dinner at Jin Ju. Otherwise, watched My Boys, had leftovers, went running (for distance instead of speed). Started transcoding some DVDs. Got the new AC adapter for the HDHomeRun. Organized, a little bit. The battery recalibration seemed to go ok. Battery health is back up to 40% according to iStat Pro. Better than the 7% it was showing earlier this week. Got a haircut tomorrow. Probably gonna order up some furniture this weekend as well. That should be fun. Tracy's gonna start checking out accessories and furnishings, like vases, artwork, bamboo stuff. She's also got a craigslist addiction going on right now. Oh, Pride parade is this weekend. And that's about it.

Friday night dinner at Jin Ju was good, as always. Don't really need reservations for 6pm on a Friday night though. Walked around a bit afterwards, before heading home. Parents just headed home, Tracy and I walked a bit more, since it was so early. Saturday Tracy made french toast because she had a hankering, while I went for a run. Then we went out to Oakbrook Center for some final furniture shopping, or picking. Finally picked out dining room chairs. And decided on some deck furniture. And I really like Arhaus, I'd say it's a classier Z Gallerie or Pier 1 Imports. Room & Board seems pretty fancy and modern. Then we headed over to Hollywood Boulevard, and since we were early enough, got to see Wanted. It's as crazy as I though it'd be, and Tracy didn't like it too much, because it's a serious boy movie. Afterwards, we went to her parents house to pick up some dumbbells, which should help my resistance training for the Urbanathlon. Sunday had waffles for breakfast, then tried to watch a little of the Chicago Pride Parade, which could have gotten ugly when some religious protesters showed up. But some cops showed up and moved 'em on their way. Then it started raining. Ordered some furniture online. Watched some TV. Tracy made pork chops for dinner, I dipped some strawberries in chocolate. I worked on transcoding the Las Vegas (tv show) episodes. And now there's a week left before we close.