Friday night watched Dan in Real Life, one of my new favorite movies of the year, even if it was from 2007. Watched that on the DVR over a beef stir fry Tracy made for dinner. Saturday she went to work, I got my haircut, then headed out to Woodstock to visit with my parents. Got to do some big box suburban shopping, where large quantities of things are much much cheaper than the city. Also got to hit up dinner at Bistro Wasabi, where I could have gotten my sushi fix, but didn't because I chose poorly on the menu. Should probably just stick to straight up sushi. Did get some Dairy Queen though. Did some computer updating, got my parents on MobileMe, even though they'll probably never know or notice. Was going to steal the old Airport Express but they still need it. So I either need to replace it with a true Airport Extreme Base Station, or just bit the bullet and get some new/old ones. I'm really getting tempted to set up a b/g only and an n only networks to better support the laptops and AirTunes. Sunday headed back in to the city, more shopping, some prep work for the BBQ on Monday, which Tracy did the most of. Monday BBQ, more grilling, another failed attempt at smoking a brisket, and family. Ended up watching a little bit of Sleepless in Seattle.

I've been using Google Chrome at work, and I'm a big fan. It's fast. Like really fast. And does everything that I was using Firefox for. So waiting on the Mac version, which would probably mean I'd switch from Safari. Weather's a whole lot cooler, and probably a whole lot wetter in the next couple of days. Should make biking a little interesting. Leftovers for dinner last night. Finished up watching Sleepless in Seattle while folding laundry. Currently ripping The Office, and finished up How I Met Your Mother, and then need to start transcoding. Hoping the Mac mini will hold up. I'm actually thinking it might be a bad stick of RAM. Don't want to take it apart to find out though. I am using it to sync my iPhone these days though. Which is good, since the MacBook seems to be on its last legs. Hoping to make 2 years with it. Made our first mortgage payment. Online of course. Auto pay. Like everything else.

Bike ride in this morning wasn't wet at all. I guess I caught a lull. And it was much faster than usual, not sure why, but it was nice. I'm guessing I'll get caught in more rain on the way home. But looking forward to it. This is why I commute with fenders and sandals, strictly for the rain. More leftovers for dinner last night, hamburgers this time. Tracy did some shopping at Target so she wouldn't get caught in Cubs traffic so I watched Mad Men before she got home. Then we watched season premiere of Bones. And while getting ready for bed we started Pretty Woman.

Soaked through and through on the ride home yesterday. But fun. Nice and quiet, since no one else was riding. But had both front and back lights blinking, had my nice yellow rain coat, so I assume I was pretty visible. I should probably look into some anti-fog stuff for my clear lenses in my sunglasses. Or maybe some water repellent stuff. Seems like a tough trade off, getting pelted in the eye with rain and have trouble seeing, or get glasses covered with water and have trouble seeing. Pick 'em I guess. Watched some football last night. Tracy made stew with our smoked brisket attempt. Also, the hard drive died in the MacBook. Good thing I had a spare hanging around. Bad thing it was only the hard drive. I was kind of hoping to get a new laptop out of the deal. But I do get to try my hand at restoring from a Time Machine backup. Should be fun this weekend. Decided not to ride in this morning. Felt like reading instead. Gonna go see Red Bull Flugtag Chicago tomorrow. Think there's a Restoration Hardware fall sale going on as well. CHC happens this weekend too.

Well, that whole karma balance thing I was talking about after getting our new place? Yup. In full force. So with all the rain from last Thursday, we had more leaking windows, although I think a few were not checked the last time they came and looked at leaking windows. They're checking it out today. Additionally, last night Tracy noticed some possible water damage to our ceiling above the dining room. Also not good. And possibly some leaking in the second bathroom, but we aren't sure on that. So when I tried to take a photo of ceiling, my camera wouldn't stop trying to auto focus, or something, but some motor wouldn't stop going, so any photos are blurry. But I was able to restore the MacBook from a Time Machine backup, which is good. The Bears won last night. Also good. I did make some pretty poor waffles on Sunday morning though. And my left pedal on the Sprint broke, so I had to replace them with the pedals off the old mtb. Did watch a lot of House on the USA HD marathon. Did some shopping, and wandering about. Really like Crisp, a Korean fried chicken place in Lakeview. So yeah, some bad catching up with all the good.

Well, the balance swings back. All that rain yesterday? No more leaking windows. I try out the camera? And it works. So I guess the world seeks to right itself. However, lost all my eWallet info, when I tried to do an update on my iPhone. Had leftovers for dinner. Watched some CBS, then Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which I didn't really enjoy last night. Not sure if I want to keep watching that. But the new season is definitely starting up, and it'll be interesting to see if we can keep up with things. But, with the Apple announcements today, maybe I won't be as worried, since they have HD TV Shows available from the iTunes Store. Which is awesome. And NBC is back. Which is awesome. All good things. Otherwise, iPod updates. Nothing that interests me.

Lots of things to buy, or want to buy, but not anything that's really necessary. I was wondering what I could do with the old mtb, the Trek 7000 that's currently without pedals, and maybe I could turn it into a single speed, or get an internal hub for it, but otherwise turn it into a working spare bike, but then I had an epiphany, I could turn it into an Xtracycle. That would be awesome. Would need to get working components though. But it'd be sweet. Could buy lumber from Home Depot and schlep it home. Seriously. Besides that, I really want to get one of the TVs at home set up with 5.1 surround sound, and it looks like the Master Bedroom is gonna be first, but not sure if I want to use the old speakers and receiver, or try and go new with some wireless rear surrounds so I don't have to run wires across the room, and try and retrofit the old speakers, or just get a new system completely. And I still need to get an additional center speaker and receiver for the living room, not to mention the whole house audio amplifier + matrix. I think I'm throwing out the idea of any sort of home automation for now. Otherwise, we kind of need to pick up winter clothes from the old place, except that the temperature seems to be back on the upswing. Tracy prepped eggplant parmesan for dinner last night, but got some capsaicin on her fingers and then her face, so she had to deal with that, trying sour cream, milk, and vinegar. So I just did the heating part of the cooking. Watched some more House, some other stuff, nothing too memorable. I'm hoping the 2.1 iPhone update on Friday means I'll be able to do application updates, which I haven't been able to do, at all. I have to delete the app before installing it to get it to work. Which is annoying. Which is how I lost all my eWallet data. Ugh. Anyway, fingers crossed. Want to try out some iTunes Store HD TV Show downloads, see how it looks.

Got my U.S. Passport Card yesterday. Good for land or sea travel to North American countries, including the Caribbean. So, good to go to Canada or on a cruise to the Virgin Islands. But, the interesting thing? It comes with a foil lined sleeve that they tell you to store it in. Really? Why a foil lined sleeve? Oh, to prevent someone or something reading the RFID chip when it's not in use. That's awesome. I wonder when I'm actually going to use it. Put together Tracy's Smith & Hawken Classic Potting Bench last night. Cedar smells great, but it's really soft. Watched Bones. Crab legs for dinner. Thought about riding in today, but wimped out because it's supposed to rain. We're also supposed to pick up more stuff from the old place today, and that's another reason.

Went back to the old place last night to pick up more stuff. And I think it's been a while since we moved anything, cause my body had forgotten what it's like to take multiple trips up and down 4 flights of stairs carrying heavy objects. But at least we've got all our clothes now, the old speakers, the DVDs, the filing cabinet, oh, and the ironing board and iron. Sweet. Also means I should actually have a 5.1 setup in the bedroom by tomorrow at the latest. Of course, I couldn't find the small speaker stands, so I have to use the floor stands. I think I'll change the grills to blue though. I do wonder what happened to the original stands. Also tempting to use my Sony Points to get a compact speaker system, w/wireless rear surrounds. We'll see. Still didn't ride my bike today, another week without it, but I'll get back on the horse, so to speak, next week. Getting to be that time of the year to worry about cooler weather outfits for biking. Mountain Hardwear, I'm looking at you. Nothing planned for the weekend. Tracy's working. Want to make her a nice dinner on Saturday night, but not sure what's in store. Want to also take a peek under the hood of the Mac mini. And unpack some.

So 2.1 Software for the iPhone was released on Friday, which I installed, and decided to set up as a new phone, just like a nuke and pave. But for a phone. Which is good. I've had no problems installing applications, either via the phone itself or iTunes. Also nice to just start fresh. Tracy and I ate out the past three nights, mostly because I was lazy and didn't cook when I could have. Went to Rocks, Arco de Cuchilleros, and Crisp. Tracy worked, so lots of TV watching, Burn Notice almost exclusively. Also watch In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, which wasn't that bad. Lots of familiar faces in that one. Finally set up speakers in the bedroom, so got a place to watch movies. Will probably use my Sony Points to get a receiver for the living room, so we can properly watch movies there too. Also started transcoding How I Met Your Mother, and after that finishes up will do The Office. Not sure what's up next after that. Did some laundry. Pretty much stayed inside, and dry.

Watched Fringe pilot last night. Not bad. To me seemed like a cross between Alias and Eureka. Maybe some X-Files mixed in. I'd like to keep watching it. And I think next week or the week after Tracy and I have to decide which show to watch live, Chuck or Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, since we've got those two and How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory to watch in that time frame. I never did look into the Mac mini over the weekend, and had a couple random restarts yesterday. Annoying still. But we've got How I Met Your Mother, seasons 1 and 2 available for the Apple TV. Next up seasons 1, 2 and 3 of The Office. Of course, there's some HD TV Shows on the iTunes Store I'm tempted to pick up, like Heroes, and Lost Season 4. I think we're getting some art delivered, either today or tomorrow, but I can't tell from DHL. It's with a delivery courier but it still has an estimated delivery date of tomorrow. So whatever. I do think I'm on the hook for dinner tonight, so I'll try my hand at mechado.

Tracy ventured out to her parents last night, since the Cubs played (and won) at home. Which means I had leftovers for dinner and watched 21 and Burn Notice. Being back on the bike is good, but tiring. Hard to believe 8 days off the bike is long enough to lose something. We did receive the piece from Art.com for the living room, which I have to hang at some point. Started making a list of the other furniture we have to get to finish the place off, mostly for the study/second bedroom. Also means I need to get on with putting more shelves in closets and stuff.

Stopped by Sur La Table on my way home from work yesterday. It's totally on the way, which is totally a bad thing. Really too easy to just buy all sorts of kitchen and cooking stuff there. Seriously. I finally picked up a tamper for the espresso machine. And a couple of espresso cups. And some gifts. But definitely want to go back and pick up more stuff. Definitely. Frozen pizza for dinner. Watched House and Burn Notice. Packed. We're headed out to visit Lisa and Ryan with Jesse and Espy for the weekend. Leaving tonight. Gonna take the blue line from work, since there's a Cubs right now, and wouldn't want to try and deal with that traffic to get to O'Hare. Anyway, should be fun.

Back from Philly. Fun hanging out with Lisa and Ryan and Espy and Jesse. Good times. Got some cheesesteaks, saw the Liberty Bell, went to my first haunted house (Terror Behind the Walls), put some stuff on Pan, went canoeing, compare and contrasted street festivals in West Chester with Chicago, and tried to take photos on my iPhone every hour while awake. I didn't get around to uploading them all, but will try and get to it tonight. Lisa and Ryan have a great kitchen, it's pretty sweet. Even got to sleep a bunch. Lost horribly at Cranium. Never watched any sort of moving picture entertainment. Got to make pumpkin pie for the first time. That's some easy and good stuff. I need to make more pies. Just need to bake more in general.

Finally got the Frontgate Library Steps from a long time ago. There were supposedly delivered, but no one remembered there being a delivery, so I went through the UPS lost package process, but they couldn't find it, and supposedly the info went back to Frontgate, and then I got in touch with them, and then maybe a week later I get my steps. Sweet. Makes me wonder what happened to the original set of steps. It was a big box. But now we've got a nice looking step ladder/stool to use around the house. Back on the bike commute. Taking it nice and slow. Stopped by old home and picked up a couple more things, just odds and ends. Tracy made a pasta dish for dinner. I watched an episode of Burn Notice before hanging a painting in the living room. We settled in with the Blue Harvest episodes of Family Guy. I also got some photos together and cleaned up my Flickr account a little, and I'll try and post the Hourly Philly set tonight. Also my Sony digital camera has been acting up lately, so that probably needs a replacement at some point. Or we could just start using Tracy's old one instead.

So we tried to sit down and watch the season premiere of The Big Bang Theory, and it's got an audio issue. We had this happen to use before with some other show last year, Notes from the Underbelly, where the laugh track and background is bright and clear and the actual talking on screen is low volume. It's annoying. I wondered if it was Comcast, but it's actually WBBM, the CBS affiliate here in Chicago. They rolled out something new, just in time for the season and series premieres, which are causing audio issues. That's just brilliant. Means I might have to find alternative methods of watching those shows. Not only that, but for the 2nd week, the recording of Bones ended like a minute early. Annoying. Tempting to just go all purchased and skip broadcast and cable television. Anyway, uploaded pics from Philly to my flickr account. I like flickr. Tracy made pork chops for dinner, and some stuffed tomatoes. I'm headed out to Kuma's tonight with Russell for dinner.

Besides Russell got to see Bryan and Akira at Kuma's last night, because Kuma's was surprisingly empty. I rolled up maybe around 5:40pm and there were maybe 2 tables taken, and 8 people at the bar. Apparently Wednesdays are hit and miss for them. It was full by the time we left at 7pm though. File that piece of knowledge away. Riding up Milwaukee to Elston right around 5pm was interesting. Lots of bikers. And it seems like a whole different type, compared to my usual route up Wells. Just funny to observe, and I'll take my yuppish commute, thank you very much. Made it home in time to watch Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and a couple episodes of Entourage. Still got lots to watch on the DVR. Don't want to get too behind. Oh, also got a new toaster. It's enormous and solid. Makes the coffee/espresso maker look small.

Watched some TV last night. Tracy made dinner. I tried out TrailGuru on the iPhone on the ride in this morning, and it was spot on. I'll use it again on the way home but make the route public this time. It's impressive. I do like InstaMapper, but I don't start it up often enough. If it would do it automatically every hour or so, that'd be awesome. Another thing I love about the iPhone: geolocation info in the EXIF tags on the photos. flickr maps them automatically. Love that too. Headed out to dinner with the in-laws and Mike tonight. Tracy's working the weekend. I've got a haircut tomorrow. Want to do some baking this weekend, probably some cleaning.

Friday night went to dinner at RoseAngelis for Mike (brother-in-law) and Amy's engagement dinner. It was kind of a surprise. Didn't work out quite exactly how he wanted it, but still, pretty impressive work. Ate and drank too much, fell asleep on the couch when we got home, stumbled to bed later, and didn't really recover until mid-afternoon on Saturday. Tracy worked, so I was on my own during the weekend days. Got a haircut. Went grocery shopping. Waited for a delivery from FedEx (center and subwoofer speakers for living room). Got some chicken patties to eat. Good stuff. Watched Mad Men, and some other random stuff, napped on the floor. Good times. Tracy and I headed down to the Palmer House for Susmita's 30th surprise birthday party. So hung out with pharmacy people all night. Sunday watched some Degrassi: The Next Generation, Doomsaday, and eventually Heroes and The Office. Did some cleaning. Leftovers for dinner. Oh, started watching old How I Met Your Mother too, that's such a good show. First 2 episodes, lots of laughing out loud. Impressive. Starting to transcode Kitchen Confidential to iPhone friendly versions. Also, completely forgot to nab the Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place DVDs from Lisa and Ryan when we were there last week. Also finally ordered up a Receiver for the living room using my Sony Points. Yay. Oh, and rigged a mount for the center speaker on the TV mount in the living room. Should be sweet when it finally gets something to power the speakers.

Yeah, I think I might have, and have had, plantar fasciitis, for maybe 4 years now. Awesome. I'll actually start doing something about it though, doing the exercises, finding a tennis ball to roll around on, and so on. Wonder how long it'll take for it to get any better? If ever? I mean, that's a long time for a lot of scar tissue to build up. I wonder what it actually looks like? Anyway, I finally decided to look it up today when I stumbled around after getting out of bed for the upteenth day in a row. Besides that, Tracy made a squash soup with cinnamon chicken fingers for dinner last night. We watched the Bears game from Sunday, and a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother. I ended up watching the end of the Ravens/Steelers game, and then dishes, so didn't get to bed till late. Also, the Mac mini is acting up again, not able to do multiple transcodes. Not sure what I did before that allowed it to whip through the entire 3rd season of The Office without getting frozen or restarting. Will be dropping by the old place tonight to pick up some random things. Getting nice and cool out, which I like for biking. But I do probably need to invest in a nice windproof skullcap.