Archive of <September> <2010> [reverse chronological]

9:20 PM Monday, September 6, 2010
Maybe I should just rename it to the Weekly Dose. Oh well. So Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth? Amazing. It works. About 1 week into training, Lucy's pretty much sleeping through the night. If she does wake up, she can get herself back to sleep. And today, she had a 2 hour morning nap and a 2.5 hour afternoon nap. Amazing. And since she goes to bed at 6:45pm, Tracy and I actually have dinner, together, at the dining room table even. It's kind of crazy. New iMac (Mid 2010) showed up on Tuesday, kind of worked on getting it set up, and still working thought Aperture. It's impressive, but lots of capabilities, and there's lots to learn. Just trying to figure out how to organize photos in projects, folders, albums, keywords, libraries. Lots to go on. But some great functionality. Probably going to be a while until I figure out a good workflow I'm happy with. Handbrake transcodes fly on it. We're calling it TEAMac. Also loving the built in SD slot. Except right now I'm typing this up on my old MacBook. Just can't use TEAMac on the couch. Had date dinner Friday night at Wakamono at 5pm. Even then we were late getting Lucy back in time for bedtime, so she went down late, and woke up a couple times that night. Routine is good. Saturday slung her up in the Baby K'Tan and went to Green City Market and delightful pastries. Sunday went out to the Argaos to visit and pick up supplies at the Target. And Monday just hung out at home with the sleeping baby. Kind of nice. Lucy's got her 4 month checkup tomorrow, and I have to go into the office Wednesday through Friday. Thinking about biking, but I'm not sure if I want to show up sweaty.
9:54 PM Monday, September 13, 2010
I really need to try harder to update more frequently. Shouldn't be hard, should it? I've been doing it for 10 years. Another week goes by. Lucy's sleeping through the night. So that's been nice. Her four month appointment went well last Tuesday. Everything checked out. Nice and healthy. She cried for the nurse practitioner, and again when she was getting her vaccinations, but that might have been more about the strangers and/or lying down, than the poking and prodding. I was in the office Wednesday-Friday last week, so got to eat bad fast food. McDonald's 2 days in a row. Cupcakes, donuts, candy. Yum. Although, I think I might have actually lost a little weight. Maybe because I did some walking on my commute, longer than down the hall from the bedroom to the living room. Saturday went to the Lakeview Arts Festival. Sunday tried bringing Lucy to church for the first time, by myself, and she lasted 15 minutes in the pew, and another 30 minutes in the back vestibule, before I had to leave. Oh, and it was by myself because Tracy was working. Went out to dinner Sunday night at Rocks Lakeview with Lucy. A little warmer than we thought, but she cried for a bit then took a nap. Otherwise, another week down.
6:14 PM Friday, September 17, 2010
I'll try and get better at the daily updating again starting next week. Big news is Lucy's getting baptized on Sunday. Al and Nicole flew in, separately, today, since they're going to be the godparents. And headed out to Woodstock tomorrow for Joy's wedding shower. So gonna be a little crazy, as usual. Baptism's going to be pretty low key, which I think is pretty cool. Just immediate family that could make it. And my mom's cooking, or has already cooked all the food, and she came over on Wednesday and cleaned/baby sat. On Tuesday Tracy and Lucy had a girls' lunch with Espy, and then my girls stayed out at my in-laws for a bit. The drive back in was rough though, stuck in traffic, around 2 hours to get back, so well past Lucy's bedtime. Worried that going to sleep an hour off the routine would mean her getting up in the middle of the night, but no apparent affect. She's been sleeping through the night no problem. I'm impressed. And she's always so happy to see us when we get her early enough in the morning. I'll try and remember to bring the camera at some point. Otherwise, I've been watching Skins on Netflix Watch Instantly. I saw Better Off Ted Season 2 is now available. And finished off the first book of Avatar: The Last Airbender. I'm loving Netflix, not so much on the Wii, but I can't get a new Apple TV with Netflix built in because I don't have HDMI running through the wall from the AV Cabinet to the TV. Unless I get a HDMI to Component video Receiver or video processor. Put a cheap SSD in the Mac mini to speed things up and/or cool things down. Also tried putting a Compact Flash card instead of a hard drive in one of the Apple TVs, but that's not so easy.
9:15 PM Monday, September 20, 2010
Lucy joined the Catholic Church officially on Sunday. Other than that, pretty busy weekend. Saturday drove out to Woodstock in the morning, had bad coffee from Dunkin Donuts on the way out. Hung out with the Abandos for the day, pawning off Lucy to her, at the time, future godparents, Al and Nicole. Went to Mass, and hung out in the St. Joseph's Center which has a nursery, which is pretty cool. Had Joy's Wedding shower at the house, which, in retrospect, we should have just gone home, since it wasn't an environment conducive to baby sleep. Lucy went to bed at the usual time, but got up at 8:30pm, then again at midnight and fairly often after that. And with all the activity on Saturday and Sunday, not sure if she really got any good naps in. Was really worried about her sleep last night, but she's back on schedule and slept from 7pm to 6am. So Sunday, drove back into the city, gave Lucy a bath, got her dressed up, and we all walked down to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel for the baptism. Quick and easy. Very nice. We had family over afterwards for a little get together, and my mom provided most of the food, with my mother-in-law providing some of Tracy's favorites. We tried getting Lucy to nap a couple times, but she wouldn't go down, so figured she just needed to socialize. And out in Woodstock on Saturday, also did some tech support, updating iPhone's to 4.1, iPad's to 3.2.2, and plugging their Time Capsule back into the system. Also had to do some work in there, since I'm on Nightly Load duty for the week. Yay.
9:27 PM Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Trying out a new simple exercise routine, 5x5. 5 different exercises, 5 each, for 5 cycles. Trying out push ups, lunges, pull ups, crunches, squats. Simple, fast, and seems to work. Can't do 5x5 pull ups yet. We'll see how long I keep up with this. Make it through the week? Watched some new 2010 Fall stuff on TV. Raising Hope was just weird, especially since we just had a baby. Running Wilde I like. And I'm late to the party, but Leverage is really pretty cool. I'm enjoying that. And glad to have How I Met Your Mother back, but sad that it's not on iTunes yet, and I have to sit through commercials. Got another set of 4 Flor carpet tiles for Tracy's side of the office. Work's continuing to be really busy. I might have too many things on my plate.
11:43 AM Friday, September 24, 2010
Busy busy busy at work. I have been keeping up on the 5x5's. So that's cool. Looking forward to not doing them this weekend. I'm pretty sore as is. Otherwise, Lucy can roll onto her belly after getting placed in the crib on her back. It explains how she's had 2:30 hour naps this week. Haven't really watched any more new shows yet. Had to take care of Lucy last night when Tracy was working, and had to make dinner too. One other random thing is that I've been trying to do dishes right after dinner instead of waiting until right before bedtime. Also trying to get to dishes throughout the day instead of waiting for them to pile up. I'm also totally hooked on watching Skins. Netflix is seriously pretty cool. And I think I found an option for converting HDMI to Component Video (HDFury). So some point down the road, will get a new Apple TV with Netflix Watch Instantly. Going to take care of Lucy tomorrow since Tracy's working.
8:02 PM Monday, September 27, 2010
The Russells invited us out Saturday morning to Lincoln Square Apple Fest. Tracy thought she had to work, and I didn't want to take Lucy out by myself, but ended up she was working on Sunday. So we took Lucy on her first el trip, Brown Line which ended up being an express from Belmont to Western. Good seeing the Russells. And the fest was unlike any other we were used to, like Ribfest, Northalsted Days, Lakeview Arts Fest. Lots of families, kids, strollers, oh the strollers. Didn't actually stay that long, didn't even get any apples, but did get some apple pie. Ended up getting lunch at Fiddlehead Cafe, which was great. Also noticed there was a Paciugo Gelato on the square, and watching all the families made us wonder if Lincoln Square would be a nice place to move to. Hmmmm. Sunday was daddy day care. Also did some work over the weekend. Finally watched Date Night. Funny stuff. Got up extra early today, cause lately when we get Lucy in the morning she's pooped already. So trying to catch that when it happens. Oh, also tried to make a stout cheesecake with some leftover beer. Tried it this morning and it was awful. Still makes be want a good cheesecake though.
9:28 PM Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Finally uploaded photos of Lucy from the baptism. About time. YuShan dropped by this morning, dropped off some baby gifts (thanks Jess!), and Tony dropped by this evening to drop off the brothers baby gift as well. Picked up Babies and Iron Man 2 from Redbox, and ended up actually watching Babies tonight because Tracy's been waiting for it. I worked, while Tracy had the day off. My mom gave us food for the week on Monday, so been living out of the fridge. I'm rediscovering my music, even buying some new stuff from old artists that I enjoy. No idea when I'm actually going to get around to listening to it. Still craving cheesecake of some kind. Also still managing to keep up with my 5x5s. Maybe because I'm going to San Diego in a week or so for a wedding.
8:51 PM Wednesday, September 29, 2010
So all the work that I've been doing, I've either had too much or not doing enough. Kind of got a little slap on the wrist, or whatever the opposite of a gold star might be. A note home to the parents? Not sure. Anyway, Lucy woke up crying extra early this morning at 5am, but after a changing went right back to bed for a couple hours, which had me rushing to make an 8am meeting. Crazy. And then I got to put her to bed tonight, because Tracy might be coming down with something. Lucy pretty much has an off switch at 6:30pm. Like instant sleep when you lay her in the crib, before you even get the sleep sack on her. Crazy. Made a Jewel run this morning, picked up some cheesecake instead of making it, and ended up eating it all for late lunch/early dinner, since I worked through normal lunch hours. Nice and healthy. At least I waited till after I did my 5x5. Forgot to mention that Life Unexpected is now off the DVR list. Plowed through Glee (off iTunes Store), Grey's Anatomy, Raising Hope and Running Wilde. It's hard watching DVR'd TV, with the fast forwarding and the missed 30 seconds at the beginning or the end of episodes. Annoying. But we're pretty on top of the DVR at the beginning of this fall season, only 21% full.
9:54 PM Thursday, September 30, 2010
Mostly because of work, i'm going to try GTD again. I'm starting with a fresh Omnifocus database, and will reread the book. Besides using that to keep track of my jet actions i'm also going to block out time periods everyday to work offline. I think those two things will help me enormously. Hopefully. Otherwise, Lucy was a bit of a handful tonight. She ended up crying for about an hour before falling asleep, no idea why. So weird considering how well she's done lately. Turned down an Comcast offer of free HBO for 3 months. Realized there's nothing that we could think of that we'd want to watch, and i've got plenty of stuff from Netflix and iTunes Store to watch. Haven't even started on this season of Mad Men yet, or Rubicon past the pilot. Still plowing through Skins when I can. That's pretty entertaining. Going to Joy's wedding on Saturday out in Cary, but coming back in to sleep and going back out for brunch and shopping on Sunday.
Archive of <September> <2010> [reverse chronological]