Ugh, that time of year again. Can't stand April Fools. For a guy like me who is addicted to news and information, all the fake news stories and press releases is annoying. Monday night had some langonisa and tocino from Woodstock for dinner, watched a couple Smallville episodes, some How I Met Your Mother, and The Big Bang Theory. Tuesday I took off and played with Tracy who had her normal day off after working the weekend. We slept in, had brunch at Orange, then did some more shopping, seeing Russell at erehwon, getting some pots at Smith & Hawken, and some dry/sweet vermouth and Matilda (didn't have any Juliet) and an empty wooden wine box from Sam's, then up to do some grocery shopping at UNI-MART and finally checked out Gethsemane Garden Center, which I loved because they had bamboo for sale. Awesome. Watched Private Practice and What Happens in Vegas. It was a nice day, even if it did rain most of the day. Back to work today, and out for the rest of the week. Headed down south to check out Starved Rock State Park tomorrow and Friday. Then checking out the REI garage sale out in Oak Brook on Saturday morning. And watching the Cases on HGTV on Spice Up My Kitchen on Saturday night 11:30/10:30pm Central.

Starved Rock State Park on Thursday was nice, as was the Matthiessen State Park on Friday. It was nice to get away, if for a little bit. Stayed in a hotel, played a little bit in the pool. Actually did some real hiking, well, as much hiking as you can do when you can see highways or farm houses or a golf course. But still, it was nice. I think we're adding hiking to our list of activities. On the way back in on Friday stopped off at the Chicago Premium Outlets in Aurora. Saturday ventured out again to Oak Brook to check out the REI Garage Sale, which was a little pointless. I really wonder where my tent is. Stopped by the Argaos to pick up a bike rack for the car. Ended up having lunch at the Old Town Restaurant in Lemont. Nice old world eastern european. Good stuff. Met up with my parents and Ate Joy and finally took them to Crisp, which they enjoyed. Had some dessert back at their place from Ambrosia. Sunday did some house chores. Watched the last couple episodes of ER. Enjoyable. I have no idea if Jerry was around much, but I was wondering if he'd be one. Oh Kubiak. Also, Daytum is now open to the public, so if you're looking to track any sort of data in a nice relatively easy to use web site, it's pretty cool. The hard part is remember to record things, and what type of metrics to record.

So the forecast for this week was pretty bad, at least the first couple of days, and I had decided to take the El to work instead of biking, especially since it had snowed Sunday night. So out the door Monday morning, about a block from home, and it's not that bad out. So I walk back, redress, pack up and shoot out on my bike. Much nicer. Not to mention of all the stuff I've gotten for colder weather commuting, I should be biking in anything but a snowstorm. I think recycling pick-up schedule is not what I thought it was, as the bin was empty yesterday, instead of on Thursday which we though pickup was. Watched some Mr. & Mrs. Smith while folding laundry, and it's one of my favorite movies. I think it holds up really well, and is very very funny, with lots of little quips. Also watched last week's House, and wanted to watch this week's, especially since I've read about something shocking, but didn't know what it was, and tried to stay away from any spoilers in Google Reader, but stumbled upon it anyway. Ugh. It was kind of a sneak spoil, since I was just reading about political aspirations of an actor. Tracy made steak tacos for dinner, but I'm on my own for dinner tonight since she's working.

So Smith Optics is my forever supplier of sunglasses. I broke my Smith Toaster Sliders a couple weeks ago, sent them in because of the lifetime warranty, but full expected to have to pay to get them fixed, because it's not that the glasses failed, it's that I broke them. But what arrived in the mail yesterday? A brand new pair, replaced no charge. So, whenever I need new sunglasses, that's the brand I get. Ended up getting carryout from Cozy's Noodles & Rice for dinner last night, and watched Never Back Down on Comcast Video On Demand. Makes me wish I could do training for MMA. Also raised my saddle a bit on my bike, and it makes a world of difference. Of course I knew that already. I do have to get around to getting a taller seatpost, as soon as I figure out what size it is. And I checked out Xtracycle stuff online again. So tempting. Maybe I should just get around to getting the mtb up and running again first. Also need to get some cross break levers for Tracy's new bike.

Before heading out to Starved Rock State Park last week, stopped by erehwon for hiking shoes and got turned on to Superfeet insoles by Russell. And now I'm addicted. The green ones worked great for hiking, so I dropped by on the way home last night to get some more. They didn't have any blues in my size stock, but got some orange ones with the toe spreader action. It's different, but it feels good. I've got the blues coming in, and I'm tempted to try the blacks as well. Yeah, I'm a little addicted. Took an early shower last night, since apparently I didn't smell all that good after the ride home. Hope I don't smell that bad at work. Finally watched the episode of House that everyone's been talking about, and episodes of Dollhouse and Scrubs with the chicken quesadillas Tracy made for dinner. Weather's definitely making a turn towards spring, which means more bikers out. Wondering when the bike rack at work will fill up more.

Just found out my dad's going in for open heart surgery on Monday. He won't be going in to the hospital (Good Shepard Hospital in Barrington) until Sunday night. If I get permission and more details, I'll post.
So that means I'm headed home at some point this weekend. Al's coming home too at some point.
Just kind of shocking, still kind of trying to process the information. Definitely scary. And whenever something like this comes up, the mundane every day description of life seems so unimportant. But I'll continue on. Made mac & cheese helper last night, as directed by Tracy, and watched Bones and little more of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Tried a new route to work this morning, all the way down Halsted, but that goes up a couple inclines, which I'd not rather do. But it's a bit of a more direct route. And that's it for now.

We're at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital waiting. He was originally scheduled as the second case around noon, but got bumped due to an emergency case. He'll go in for pre-op around 2:30. We'll know more later. He looks good, up and about.

Thanks to the four readers, Tall, Russell, Bryan and Katie, for all the good thoughts and well wishes. And to the family members reading as well.

As for the inconsequential stuff, took the Blue Line out on Saturday to meet up with Al. But forgot my ring, so Tracy had to bring it out last night. Felt naked without it. Ate at Three Brothers a couple of times. Brought dad in last night. Also managed, I think, to make the Time Capsule workable by downgrading to the 7.3.2 firmware.

Dad's out of surgery, which went well. He's still under and intubated, so we'll know more after he's awake and extubated tomorrow.

Dad's extubated and speaking. He's sitting up already, and will be going on his first walk soon. This all less than 24 hours out of surgery. So that's good. Next step I think is getting the chest tubes out. That'll probably happen sometime today.

I'm back in the city for a couple days, so any information about my dad will be relayed from Al or my mom. Latest news, he's still got the chest tube. And actually, he's still only 1st day post-op, considering how late he had the surgery on Monday.

Tracy and I will be headed back out on Saturday. Nicole flew in this morning, and leaves tomorrow, and Al will be leaving Friday, and dad seemed pretty stable, so I headed back in with Tracy. In other unimportant notes, we've been doubling up on restaurants more, hitting Brunch Cafe in Barrington two consecutive mornings. Also ate at Portillo's one night, so been eating a lot, relatively. And drinking a surprising amount of coffee, when I stop to think about it.

Another update: dad's been untubed, and went on a walk today. So that's good. That's all for now.

Tracy and I didn't need to eat dinner last night, and watched some TV to relax a bit. Watched House, Dollhouse, Samantha Who?, 30 Rock and My Boys. I thought we had missed an episode or two of Grey's Anatomy, but I don't think we did. Getting on the bike again this morning was nice. However, I had that thing again, where my quads hurt walking down the stairs. Odd. Last time I remember it happening was at the old place, again, going down to get the bike. I wonder if it's just residual soreness that spikes after a couple weeks of bike riding. And it's only going down and walking. Going up stairs it feels fine. Anyway, it'll go away in time, just like before. Possibly seeing one of Tracy's cousins and parents tonight.

No additional updates on dad. He's set to go home from the hospital on Saturday, that's all.

Legs are fine. Ended up going over to Mike's for dinner last night to meet up with Tracy's cousin. It's funny though, I pulled up just as they were coming back with pizza from Gino's East and while I was locking my bike up Tracy rolled up on hers. Impressive timing. But ended up not watching anything on the DVR. Headed out to Goose Island for dinner with the boys. Wondering if there will be any more empty wooden wine boxes to nab at Sam's. Also, my eating schedule is completely off from the long weekend at home. Also we were eating 3 full meals a day, and it's been a while since I've done that. And lunch always got pushed off to the afternoon, which I usually do, but dinner went even later. So I'm readjusting.

Dad update: not quite home yet. Also I've been holding off on sharing a small complication from the surgery: he developed afib the day after. They've been trying to convert via drugs, and did a cardio conversion yesterday, and he converted for about 40 minutes before reverting. And last night he was getting in and out of sinus rhythym, so that's good. Hoping he get's discharged today. Just heard at 11:15 am that he's stable in sinus now.

Otherwise, not much going on. Watched some tv Friday night. Drove out Saturday, filled up on White Castle and Dunkin Donuts. Church with mom and Joy. Dinner at Krystal Thai. Slept in. Breakfast at brunch cafe.

Dad update: discharged and at home.

Managed to bring one of his bags back with us to the city when Tracy and I drove back in. Whoops. Good thing it wasn't anything important. Also brought back some food that my parents won't be eating anymore. Vacuumed, and finally cut out the back of the AV square and put the whole house receiver in. Not plugged in though yet. Watched what's probably the end of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: now that's a pretty good cliffhanger. And an episode of The Office.

Trying to get some things done that have been sitting on the todo list for a while. I tend to let mail just pile up, figuring anything important I do online, but that's not completely the case. There's still a few things that have to actually have checks written out, envelopes sealed, and stamped. Which means I had to go out and get stamps. Kind of annoying actually. Had a little drizzle on the way in to work, didn't see too many bikers out this morning. No rain on the way home, but it was windy, so took it nice and easy. Needed to grease up some gears by the time I got home, but my grease gun is all out. I need to track down the spare I should have at the old place. I still need to really wipe the bike down, it's getting pretty bad. Tracy made chicken teriyaki for dinner, watched Bones and My Boys and watched the Bulls - Celtics game. Exciting stuff.

More drizzle on the way in to work, and a little bit on the way home, but not really. But windy. Took it nice and slow, again. Thinking I might actually be wearing my sandals for biking in a couple days, with the 40 degree upswing in weather coming our way. Dropped by the old place to flush toilets and look for my old Netgear hub, which I didn't find. And picked up mail. Wish we didn't get so many catalogs there. As for the hub, I looked and looked and couldn't find it, and wondered if I had brought it home to Woodstock maybe. But I finally remembered that I did the desk declutter thing, and mounted stuff to the underside of the desk, and lo and behold, there it was, snug underneath the desk. With only the Mac mini plugged into it, and the Airport Extreme. Anyway, now that I know where it is, I'll be using it to network up the Airport Expresses for whole house home audio. Sweet.

The future is now. Finally set up whole house audio. Of course, it's an Apple setup. 5 zones, Master Bedroom, Master Bath, Second Bedroom, Front and Back Deck. I've got 4 Airport Expresses, one of them is the new 802.11n one, which is on the network, and they're all plugged into a Netgear hub. Output runs to a HTD MA-1235 Multi-Channel Amplifier which powers the speakers in those 5 zones. So basically, through iTunes you pick where you want to send audio, and it just works. Right now Tracy's listing to Michael Buble from her laptop to the master bedroom speakers while I sit in the second bedroom sending Counting Crows to the in ceiling speakers. And best of all, I can use an iPhone to control it all. And use Apple TVs to control the audio as well. Seriously, it's the future, and it's now. The only problem is getting enough 802.11b coverage to use the Remote.app on the iPhone. I don't think there's any more tech stuff I need to do at home now. As for a dad update, he's doing well. Got a bit of a cough, but that's about it. So that's good. Russell dropped by after going to the Cubs game to say hello.

So, decided to finally wipe my bike down after the wet riding from earlier in the week and last week, and lo and behold, the frame's broken. No idea when it happened. No idea how long it's been like that. But the shaft drive has been keeping it together. Impressive I'd say. The frame has a lifetime warranty, but Dynamic Bicycles no longer sells that model, so I'm not sure what's gonna happen. I'll find out tomorrow when I get in touch with them. If I can't get a replacement frame, I'll work on getting the old mtb up and running and use that for commuting, and then wait until the end of the season for the clearance sales for a new bike. And to think I had my bike legs back. Also dropped by Village Cycle Center on the way home to get some cross levers for Tracy's bike and a longer seatpost for my bike, but they were way too busy. I should have gone in last week when it was raining. They would have been nice and quiet then. Guess I'm on the el tomorrow.

Tried the evening updates last week, now trying an earlier morning update schedule. Well, was going to try an earlier morning schedule. Friday night went out for dinner at HB Home Bistro. BYOB, so wandered down to Kafka and picked up a Pinot Noir with a bicycle on the label. Of course, didn't finish it, but that's ok, since it was about the same price as 2 glasses of wine if they sold any. Saturday went back to the old place to prep the old DVD changer and beer fridge for Russell to pick up that night, and then a couple trips to the grocery store after doing a little cleanup, since the Russells came over for dinner. We were hoping to grill, but the weather didn't cooperate. Burgers were good, even if it left fat splatter all over the stove top, which I had to clean on Sunday. Sunday Tracy worked so I got my spamsilog, Rick dropped off some Mountain Hardware stuff I'd ordered, which are awesome, watched G.I. Joe: Resolute which was also awesome, and took an awesome nap. Did some more cleaning as well. Went for a walk with Tracy after work down to Diversey and back, ended up at Rocks Lakeview for dinner. Disappointing because they ran out of sweet potato fries. Maybe next time. The turkey corn dogs were good though. Just found out my new frame from Dynamic Bicycles shipped out today. Again, awesome. I'm getting the next size up, too, so now I don't have to get a longer seatpost. Should be fun disassembling and then putting all the components on the new bike. I should probably invest in some cleaning supplies.

Forgot to mention the strange dream I had Sunday night, while only sleeping like 4 hours: my family had all taken jobs at a tech company with an office like Great Wolf Lodge, except I thought we were going on vacation and was surprised by having to go through new job orientation. Very odd and weird dream. Anyway, the lack of sleep made me a little worthless on Monday, and got a pretty good night's rest last night, so I'm a little better today. Really looking forward to getting my replacement frame for the Sprint tomorrow, and getting that put back together again. Also started looking into what it would take to get the old mtb up and running, and it's not too bad. But I'll probably just wait on that for next month, need to reset the allowance counter. Also, refinanced down a little over a percentage point lower, which means, according to the math, we'll recoup closing costs in about 6 months and start reaping the benefits. Always seems odd to do that having not lived there for a year yet. whole house audio means I'm listening to music, but the Airport Express setup needs rebooting every day or so. Which isn't good. Not sure if it's the same Airport Express that's blinking amber, or they rotate being fussy.

So it's back to feeling like a Chicago spring, I think, but of course there's 80's forecast for next week. Love the 40 degree swings. Good times. My replacement frame got delivered today, and I'll be dropping by the old place to pick it up. Maybe I won't need a car and can just carry it back. It is just the frame. Might try putting it together tonight, or just wait for tomorrow night, since Tracy's got the evening shift tomorrow. And I do need a bucket to do some cleaning during dis/reassembly. Fun. Still feel like I'm a little behind on sleep. Not really worried about the swine flu. TV's getting good, as seasons wrap up. Looking forward to House and Dollhouse, wondering if any hooking up will happen on Bones and The Big Bang Theory.

Took apart my bike last night since the new frame got delivered. Everything went smoothly except for one side of the bottom bracket and the headset (which needs a tool to at least be installed, but also got a tool to remove). So biking is in a holding pattern until the tools show up. But taking it apart was fun, and hopefully putting it all back together again will be straightforward. Definitely will be good to clean most of the parts, which means I need to invest in some degreaser. And some paper towels. Also need to clean up the general bike are in the garage, and bringing over some plastic drawer units from the old place to help out with that. Also ordered up some parts to get the old mtb up and running. Should have done that before so I could still be riding now. Probably headed out to see the parents on Saturday after my eye appointment. But probably just for the day. Otherwise, same old same old, dinner by Tracy, watched some TV.