Post of 2012, and already slacking. 6 days in. Just used the Starbucks app to register a Starbucks card and then pay for my short Caramel Macchiato by scanning it. Pretty cool. Rang in the first day of the new year with some food poisoning. Probably turned me off of prime rib for a bit. Shouldn't eat a medium rare leftover after a week in the fridge. Not pleasant at all. But only lasted a night/day. Had some miscommunication on New Year's Eve day, so had to bring Lucy with me when I had to come in to work on a Saturday. I don't think she liked that. Had to come in on Monday to finish up what I couldn't. Tracy came down and we got lunch on her day off. That was nice. She actually took a full day off and dropped Lucy off at my mom's. Good idea too as she's fighting off a cold. Started watching Greek again. Figured out how to get Sony Reader books unDRMed and into iBooks. So that's nice. Been reading a lot of comics, specifically, G.I. Joe from IDW. They actually blamed the subprime thing on a villain who gave the heroes a choice between stopping that financial crisis or a poison gas attack. Which one really is worse, in the long run? Finally taking down Christmas decorations this weekend. Yuck. Tempted to cut up the tree before sticking it in bags for removal from the premises. Not sure what's going on this weekend, but nothing too extravagant.

Fairly lazy first weekend of the year. Tracy took down decorations, I helped a little with the tree, bagging it, sawing some branches off, and lopping the top off. Probably easier to just hack it to pieces next year. Brought out the big Meile vacuum for all the needles. And finally got under the couch. Who knows how long that's been. Finally watched Captain America: The First Avenger during Lucy's nap on Saturday. She even caught the tail end of it. She even got some playground time this weekend, weather was nice enough. Dinner out on Saturday night at Forno Diablo, but simple rustic italian fare. Tracy had a craving. Plowed through some How I Met Your Mother's that had backed up. Kind of a downer of a season. Church and stuff on Sunday, another playground, got some Five Guys, the girls had Chipotle. Jailbroke my iPad for pretty much a single reason: F.lux. Except now I just realized that iBooks no longer works on a jailbroken device. Stupid. So now I've got to restore. I really really liked f.lux too. Poop.

Nuke and Pave. Both iPhone 4S and iPad. DFU restores. Starting from scratch. No restores from backup. Installing apps as I go. Foregoing lurking on Facebook as well. First apps: iBooks, Twitteriffic, Reeder. Also trying to keep iPhone/iPad in sync, not installing non-universal apps as much as possible. Exceptions: foursquare, Buster. Only have 2 home screens on the iPhone so far. Just a couple apps over into the 2nd home screen on the iPad. Curious how this is going to work out. Also trying to limit myself to syncing apps, that aren't data black holes. Wish there was an iOS universal RDP client that kept your connection list synced between devices. Oh well. But just want to keep apps that I use. Lucy's been crying at bedtime the last couple of nights. Strange. She was so good at sleeping before. Hoping it's a short phase. With the Christmas decorations down, and Tracy's plants not up yet, the living room is strangely empty. Getting that urge to nuke and pave the AV Rack. All those wires are pretty annoying. Tempting.

Starting to really slack on documenting my life. Went from Daily Dose that was actually daily, to not so daily, then Current events to storytlr with Foursquare, Miso and GoodReads, and now not even that, but the last drop off is because AT&T is almost completely unusable downtown. I actually got my best service on the way home last night when I would first enter underground El stations on the Red Line. That just seems wrong. Although I wonder if something is actually wrong with my iPhone 4S, because the last time I got annoyed with it, I brought out my iPad, switched on Cellular data, and was connected without any problems. But how would I bring that up to Geniuses at the Apple Store? Do hardware diagnostics exist for iPhones? Can't even replicate the issue, or maybe can't narrow it down to either hardware or network. Or is AT&T downtown just that bad? Never seems like any other users are getting as frustrated as I am being unable to use data services. I wonder if it's that bad with Verizon or Sprint? Too bad I'm locked in for a couple years. That would have been an easy way to figure out if it's a hardware/network issue, if I could switch to Verizon or Sprint for a little bit. But even though the phone is capable, the networks aren't willing. Stupid. Enough ranting. Snowpocalypse is upon us. Taking the Red Line home tonight, staying away from buses. Last night was taking the Red Line home and made it all the way over before realizing I left my home keys in the office. Had to go back and get them. Then decided to pick up baked goodies on the way home. Maybe I am done with cupcakes for a while.

Tried out the Apple Store pick up from store option for my dad's new iPad 2 (Christmas present from my mom) last Thursday. Ordering was super easy. Used the Apple Store app on the iPhone 4S. Got to the store, started up the app, said I was there to pick it up, then they told me I'd be notified when it's ready. Not so much. It was pretty empty, and I did turn down the greeter, mostly because I wanted to see how it works. I think the staff hasn't seen it very much either. The app did tell me to meet Steven by the entrance. A problem in the Lincoln Park Apple Store which has 3 entrances. But someone else ended up helping me, without any interaction with the app at all. Super simple transaction, but still wish the app integration worked perfectly. It didn't. Super easy to set up the iPad for my dad too. Had to do some trickery to get his contacts and bookmarks over from his old MobileMe account to his personal email iCloud account. Had time to do all that because Lucy slept over at my mom's, partly because of the snow. That was nice. Saturday got Tracy's car's emissions tested. Brought Lucy since Tracy was working. Ended up at the Evanston Winter Farmer's Market, which was pretty small. Bundled her up and let her play in the snow in a playground for a little bit. Keeping the seal on toddler's gloves/coat seems impossible. I'm thinking duct tape. Otherwise, her snow pants worked out great. She does need boots though. First thing she wanted? A ride on the swing. Park was pretty cool, had a little bouldering/climbing wall. Didn't stay out too long, mostly because it was freezing, and partly because I didn't have a real pair of gloves. Those were waiting for me in the mail when I got home. Sunday went out to breakfast at Kanela's. Haven't done that in a while. Bundled her up again, a little bit better, and let her play in the snow on the roof for a while.

Now it feels like winter. Another snowpocalypse is upon us tomorrow. Supposedly. Last one wasn't too bad, and didn't stick around, maybe this one will have some staying power. Still trying to plow through The Illuminatus Trilogy. Slow going. Starting to feel like a textbook, or homework, and I just need to power through and finish it. At some point. Tracy joined Goodreads, which is cool. Just on the lookout for more books to read. Maybe this will rub off on Lucy at some point, the reading thing. Of course, who knows what she'll be reading on. My hope is that flexible color e-ink, like futuristic newspapers, are in her lifetime, which would I guess also mean in my lifetime. Apple had a small event to release iBooks 2, with Textbooks, and iBook Author. Rather interesting. You'll see more iPads in high schools at least. It'll be crazy to see if iPads = desks from Ender's Game. I remember not so long ago in movies that you'd have to fake having something like an iPad by using special effects, but now? Just use an iPad. Crazy work week. Probably be a bit crazier for a bit longer. Finally got back on the horse and started the Gorilla Workout again. Still sore from the 8 squats/8 pushups sets as many as you can do in 10 minutes.

Snowpocalypse 2012 II was ok. And now with the rain and weather it's all pretty much gone already. Lucy did get some snow play time though out on the in-laws deck. We were out there on Sunday to pick up more of Lucy's toys from Christmas, and to make a Target run. Had a 5pm dinner at a surprisingly busy Red Lobster in Downer's Grove. The night before took Lucy out to Jin Ju where she enjoyed some Chop Chae and tried out chopsticks. Got out to Green City Market Saturday morning. Nice to be back, but haven't seen Zullo's in a while. Fairly small turnout, which I guess can be expected. Lucy had some snowplay after the market/museum at a playground. Didn't figure out duct taping her mittens to her sleeves until snowplay on Sunday at the in-laws. Duct tape works great, and will be a stop gap solution until the L-Bow Mittens come in (thanks Russell for the recommendation). I have to find something to wear though, as snow was creeping over the tops of my boots, and the bottoms of my pants were getting wet. Tracy just wore her ski pants.

You know what's disappointing? Finding out a similar condo to yours is for sale next door about 16% lower then the previous sale price. And having a new construction unit that's almost identical, and probably a little bit better (a usable front deck) for 10% less than what we paid for our place. Yuck. Not underwater, but lost money. Also, living and looking at real estate in the city means we overestimate prices for homes in the 'burbs. Which probably means we'll end up overpaying for something out there, if and/or when that happens. Anyway, I can't stop watching Greek. Not that my college life was anything like that, but I just can't stop watching. Lucy spent the night last night at the grandparents. Just watched Hanna, while Tracy was working. That movie had a bunch of music video moments/montages. It was interesting. Probably try and watch Attack the Block on Thursday. Parents are headed to Vegas and Tracy's working this weekend, so I get Lucy Thursday - Sunday. Hope she still likes me after the weekend.

Was on daddy day care for 4 straight days last week. Took Thursday and Friday off, while parents were in Las Vegas, and took care of Lucy. Thursday had breakfast with Tracy after she went to the gym. Then after Lucy's nap took the bus down to pick up a new Mac mini, so I could then bring the older current Mac mini in to work to replace the really old Mac mini. Then wandered over to Fleet Feet Sports to use up the gift certificate from placing 2nd in the Trick or Treat Trot last fall (I got SuperFeet for my clogs at work, and some Gu for the Bike the Drive, which we're already signed up for). Then picked up some treats for Tracy from delightful pastries before heading home on the bus and stopping by a playground for Lucy. Friday went to a playground in the morning down on Armitage, all to get Pasta Palazzo for lunch. Ended up taking a cab back home, because I didn't want to wait for the bus, and I had slightly miscalculated timing since Pasta Palazzo didn't open until 11:30am. Picked up some more treats from Vosges Haut-Chocolat. Then another playground after lunch. Saturday went to Green City Market with my parents, played in the Nature Museum, before trying to have lunch at Soupbox, but failing again because the soup was too hot, and they only have 1 high chair which was already in use. From now on, only carryout there with Lucy. Sunday went to church with my parents, then down to Chinatown, not knowing it was the parade, but found a parking spot anyway and waited 30 minutes for some dim sum at Ming Hin Cuisine. It was nice because you just marked what you wanted on their photo menu, and it comes, instead of waiting for carts to come by. Not as authentic, but so much easier. Lucy sat in a high chair and ate pork belly and spare ribs. She fell asleep on the way home, so after picking up Tracy's prescriptions at CVS and dropping my parents off at Whole Foods, went on a long drive to Northbrook to get her some nap time. Had to do it because she hasn't been napping well, and she's been crying before going to bed, and getting up and crying in the middle of the night, and getting up early and crying. It's like a complete 180 from her previous sleep habits. No idea why, and it seemed like the flipping of a switch, from champion sleeper to not so much. Almost been a week and not sure what to do about it.