Now that it's December, I feel like it should be more festive. Maybe I just need to play some Christmas music. Weather seemed, once again, unseasonable. But makes biking to work not that bad. Not sure what I'm going to do for pants when it gets really cold. May have to look for something. Thinking of getting a new credit card, right now down to Amazon.com Rewards or a Barclaycard iTunes Rewards. Just guess which one I'm leaning toward. Had lunch with Jesse today at New Line Tavern. That was nice. A little annoyed with Redbox, well more annoyed with the studios, since Redbox doesn't have Terminator Salvation yet. Also met our new first floor neighbors, John and Laura, last night and again tonight as they were moving in. Odd how I see the first unit residents more than our other neighbors. I wonder how much stuff they're going to have in the garage.

Ride home today was rough. Headwind the whole time. And I overdressed, wore a long sleeve baselayer. But that alone should be good enough for when it gets colder. Given that it's supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow morning, I won't be riding tomorrow. Made pumpkin loaf and muffins yesterday. Made a little prime rib steak and mashed potatoes for dinner tonight. Trying to finish up The Matrix Revolutions tonight. I should finish up transcoding the TV shows I have on DVD. And finish MetaX'ing the rest of the movies. This and the previous post I wrote on my iPhone. So that's cool.

Rode in to work since there wasn't any snow on the ground and it wasn't currently snowing. And I was dressed properly, and riding felt great. Not sure when I'll need to start using a facemask or a balaclava. Hopefully before I get windburn or worse, frostbite. Terminator: Salvation finally showed up at a Redbox relatively close to me, and I picked up Catch Me If You Can while I could. Next up is Four Christmases. Watched the Scrubs: Med School pseudo reboot. Kind of like anything: the next generation. Today was the grand opening of the Chicago French Market at the train station. Looks impressive, and I hope it sticks around. Lots of good looking bakeries. Hoping the Korean place is good too.

First time going to a Blackhawks game tonight, with Russell and his dad, and Colin and Leo (tall). Should be fun. Also going to Twisted Spoke for the first time since 2003 I believe, or at least that's the last time I wrote about it on Daily Dose. Hard to believe that it's been that long, and that I never went to the Clark St. location when it was open. It's been so long that the Clark St. location opened and closed since the last time I went. But looking forward to it. And the hockey game too. Maybe the food more so. Last night Tracy roasted up the prime rib that my parents regifted to us. Good, but a little dry. I don't think it was fat side up like it was supposed to be. I think Tracy and I are headed out to the suburbs for some shopping tomorrow. Sunday she's working, and I've got a ton of cleaning to do.

Magic. Remember that we were missing a love seat cushion from our deck couch? It reappeared at some point, and I first noticed on Sunday when I just wanted to check on things up there. A little weird, but maybe explainable if it blew over to the deck of our neighbor to the north. They've got higher walls so we can't really see the near side of their deck, so I'm guessing they just tossed it back over when they saw it. That's a better story than the cushion getting sucked up into the heavens and dropping out of the sky months later. Besides that good fortune, checked out the Main Street Promenade out in Naperville on Saturday, and Tracy started watching Glee so I watched and got her caught up. Yay. Vacuumed, finally on Sunday. Tracy made lasagna, which surprisingly will only last until tomorrow.

Been off the grid for the last couple of days. Got hit with the flu Tuesday night, and pretty much out of commission until this morning. Odd thing was that it was different from my usual flu. Same sort of start, body aches, but it hasn't moved to the sinuses yet, and might not ever. Body aches eventually centered on the neck and the lower back, which was odd, and even had me taking Tylenol to sleep. But I'm up and about now, and back at work. Slept that first night on the couch, since I didn't want to get Tracy sick, even though she had a flu shot. That's pretty much where I stayed for the first day. Second day did a load of laundry, since the base layer I wore the first day needed a wash, and the second set of base layers was getting long in the tooth. But even more couch time. And I got to see what Tracy's like when she works at home. Not very exciting. Watched a bunch of stuff on TV, included the first half season finale of Glee. Really love that show. Makes me wonder how Fox is gonna screw it up. Gotta do some holiday shopping this weekend. And lots of sleep and rest as well.

Tomorrow's a big day. We'll leave it at that. Stayed healthy. Got some multivitamins again and started taking them again. Not sure if that's why I got sick. Maybe it was the cold and wet weather. Or the lack of sleep. Either way I think I'm back up to speed. Got most of the Christmas shopping out of the way on Saturday out in Oak Brook. Also ended up getting dinner at Denny's. Which was good. Although I forgot that we had also passed by a Bakers Square, which probably would have also good. Also stepped into the Apple Store, and the place was pretty much packed. Place certainly had a lot of business. Although in my 2 minutes in the store, only saw one MacBook or MacBook Pro head out the door. Also, Tracy and I are addicted to Italian sodas, specifically Target's Archer Farms Peach Pear. Yum. Got some sweaters at Gap on Sunday. Gotta love the 50% off sales.

Yes, Tracy and I are expecting. A daughter no less, which we found out yesterday. We've known for a while now, and have told family and select friends, but now 20 weeks in, we're letting the world know. More like Tracy's allowing me to post finally. Took the day off yesterday for the ultrasound and doctor's appointment. Was surprised when I recognized the name on the sign of the Obstetric & Gynecologic Ultrasound, Dr. Sabbagha. Turns out it's the same one that set up an ultrasound office in my mom's old office building, and one that I used to clean for a high school job. Small world. But very cool. But Tracy's good and healthy, and everything checks out normal so far. Went looking at baby books yesterday after we found out the gender, and of course there will be a website at some point, as soon as we figure out what kind of data we want to capture. Tracy did buy her first pair of maternity pants yesterday. We did get a little movie of the ultrasound, and Tracy and I are carrying it around on our iPhones, and Tracy posted it to her Flickr account.

A little shout out to Katie and Jayadev, who I found out are still readers of this blog. I'm impressed. I figured I had fallen off the bookmarks, but I haven't actually looked at my Google Analytics account at all. Nothing too interesting, except a surprising amount of traffic from the Chicago suburbs. Stir fry for dinner last night. I think I need to make Rice Crispie treats this weekend. Watched some TV. MetaX'd a bunch more movies. Have to scan in some ultrasound pics. Also edit the ultrasound video. Headed out to Duke of Perth tonight for dinner with Russell and Tall Leo. Found my wool cargo pants, wore them today, and am now itching. I don't think the flu moved to my head, but rather the dryness in the cold winter air is getting to me.

Duke of Perth was fun last night. That's a good bar. Good food. Good friends. Good beer. Got to see Tony too. Got the Market Track Holiday Party up at 10pin again. Get to leave work early for that. Tracy's working the weekend, so I'm planning on spamsilog and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince one morning, and chores the other morning. And of course random computer stuff.

Finally finished up The Unit. Plowed through 8 or so episodes from the 4th and last season that I never got around to watching. A little disappointing how they kind of wrapped up some things, as I was thought they were setting up for an interesting 5th season. I do how like they referenced something way back from the middle of the 2nd season. I'll have to watch the episode in question (Report by Exception) again so I can remember. Also I want to watch the 200th hour about training in the shooting house and In Loco Parentis when they deal with the terrorists in the school. Good episodes. Also watched some Dollhouse on Saturday night, but part of the DVR recording was bad, I think because of the FOX HD feed was bad for Comcast because they switched to the SD feed for a bit which was find. So of course, there was a big chunk of missing dialogue between Paul and Echo that we missed, but I don't think it was that important. Almost made me go to the iTunes Store to just buy it. Cleaned out the espresso maker (CapressoBar 351), on Sunday and now I get a nice crema again. Oh, a little disappointed in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film) because not enough Harry and Ginny time. Probably my favorite part of the book when he's that happy. Otherwise I liked the choices they made with the movie adaptation. Finally made it out to St. Mary for the Simbang Gabi on Sunday. Full house, which I was impressed by. Very cool. Got to see and spread the good news to parents doctor friends.

Had no idea it was going to be snowing today. Only realized when it got light enough out this morning and I saw all the snow out the front windows. Looks pretty, and happy that I'm taking public transportation. I do wonder what it'd be like to bike to work through it. Curious to see how slick it might be. Watched The Sing-Off last night, about 6 hours worth or so on the DVR, but maybe 3 hours of only the good stuff. Made me see if I could get Carleton College The Singing Knights off iTunes Store, but you can't. But they do have some CD's available, which I'm tempted to get. Also, Ben Folds was an awesome judge on that show. Very entertaining and nicely critical. It sounded like he knows what he's talking about. As opposed to the rainbows and unicorns of the female judge and the emotion and feeling of the Boyz II Men judge, but I guess it's a good to have all three kinds on the panel. Office and downtown is getting quiet as we get closer to Christmas. Will be nice. Started looking at wireless web/security cams for baby monitoring, and being able to use the iPhone to view. They even have some night vision ones. Definitely have some infrastructure costs coming up baby.

I went to bed at 9:30pm last night. Slept will 6 or so. That was awesome. Felt nice and rested for a nice and quiet day at work. Also, I need to start doing this every night, to start banking hours against the lack of sleep in the future. Also, more people are pregnant and expecting. Or, just time for my age group, except for the test pilots and pioneers. Finished up reading Rainbow Six and I think I the Twilight Series is up next. Either that or the Sports Guy The Book of Basketball. Not sure if I could choose between two books on more opposite ends of the spectrum. I think that sentence structure is just wrong, but I'm not going to edit it to something better. Tracy and I are pretty much caught up on DVR stuff, and now have plenty of space available. Planning on making a copycat Cheesecake Factory White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake. I've had a craving for it for a while, and I haven't made a cheesecake in a long time, so I want to give it another shot. Coming in to work tomorrow, and it should be another nice and quiet day, fast and easy to get to work on the El, no problems getting food for lunch.

A nice quiet day at work. And I get to leave early. And we got our bonus as well. Which was awesome. And a surprise. So yay, Market Track! Parents are coming out to the city for dinner and Christmas Eve mass. Tomorrow heading out to the in-laws for the weekend after Tracy gets off work. Spending the weekend out there because Baniella's in town. Tracy did a load of laundry yesterday, and used some eco detergent that I think was a free sample. Makes my clothes smell hippyish. All because I put the wrong detergent (Tide Bleach) in the cart when we went home supply shopping at Target a few weeks back. I did make the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecakes last night, plural because I don't know where my big springform pan is, so I used 4 mini ones. Turned out ok, but maybe need to do something different with the white chocolate chunks on the bottom. Oh, and I've started reading Twilight, and I'm ashamed because I like it. It's sappy. But I do like the sap. That's not really out of character for me.

Had a good Christmas. Nice and relaxing, thanks to the weather. Christmas eve had dinner with my parents, and Joy and her boyfriend at Abando Condo II before heading 50 minutes early to the Mass of Christmas with choir preshow at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Long, but very nice. I think we sat behind some christers, which is not enjoyable. I'm guessing providing tickets or a section for regular church goers would be a little much. Christmas day headed back over to the condo to pick up some more stuff and some paperwork and food while waiting for Tracy to get off work. Finished MetaX'ing the movies I had left, and now I have to finish off the TV Shows I have piled up, and I should probably do that before I try transcoding The West Wing for Russell. Good to see and hang out at the Argaos for the long weekend. Saturday, due to the snow, we stayed in all day, read, slept, had pizza for dinner, played Trivial Pursuit on the PS3 amongs the siblings and spouses. Sunday finally left the house for church and lunch and tried out baby registering. Need to do some research for that. I did get to play with Ella a bit, and Tracy and I managed to change her diaper while her parents made a grocery run. I think I did it right. She definitely seemed happier afterwards. Finished up reading Twilight and moved on to New Moon. And still craving another cheesecake. Maybe I'll learn how to make an personal sized one.

Went and saw In The Heights tonight. It was good. Whenever we get out and see a show like that, makes me want to do it more often. We saw it because Ryan's friend TC is in it as Sonny, and he was great. Also heard a couple compliments on him during intermission, and I think he got the second most applause during curtain call. Tracy came down after work and met me for dinner before hand at Cosi. I also brought her over to the Chicago French Market since we had time to kill. I need to get over there more often. Yesterday just ate leftover fried chicken for lunch and dinner, and leftover ham in a sandwich made with cinnamon bread. So it was a good idea to get a salad for dinner tonight. Having an issue with the Airport Extreme Base Station today, where wireless clients don't get DHCP assigned IP addresses. I think wired clients are fine though. Maybe when I get a new computer I'll get one of those new fangled dual band base stations, or maybe even a time capsule. But hoping it holds up until then, and at least if it does go down, that the wired clients, like Tracy's work computer still remain up.

Nice sale at Gap today. Tracy went before work today, and let me know, so I stopped by after work, and yup, really good deals. Very nice. And yes, I have no problems shopping and wearing clothing from the Gap. Otherwise, pretty quiet during the week between holidays. Just finished up New Moon and starting up Eclipse. And I still like them. I made a quick little relatively healthy pasta dish for dinner tonight. Also, we're planning on an Abando Vegas Vacation at the end of February. I guess that'll be our babymoon.