June. Wow. Starting to plow through Succession. Such bad people. Like The White Lotus. Having an issue with the refurbished Fujifilm X-E4, so sending that back for repair or replacement. And to think I was starting to warm on having 2 real cameras. Weather feels like summer. Did I mention we have bunnies in the parkway? Tracy mentioned something the other day and I was like, no way, so I went lifting up the tiny little plant she said they were digging around, and low and behold, a tiny little baby bunny was moving around in there. Like tiny. Hope they flourish. Always fun to see bunnies in the neighborhood.

Drove the kids to soccer practice today, and sat and did some work and occasionally glanced up and watched practice. Premier 2 and 3 practiced next to each other and eventually combined for a scrimmage. Seemed like a pretty sizable gap between the two. Premier 2 definitely playing a team game. Makes me sad for Jackson that he’s missing out. I feel like he’d do much better with a more cohesive team. At the same time I understand that he doesn’t take it super seriously, and rather enjoys playing with teammates. But yeah, definitely easy to see the gap when when they combined players for the full field scrimmages. Curious what next year’s 9v9 is going to bring. Also interesting to see Aiden playing defense, from what I remember of him at the end of last year, he was great in the midfield. But I haven’t seen them play all at all, so who knows. Tried putting velcro on the outdoor sofa cushions. Well, tried them on 1 cushion. Failed miserably because it wouldn’t stick to the cushion. Maybe try from fabric glue? Also thinking of trying some carabiners on the cushions and checking to see what structural attachment points I could stick rings to on the couch. Only need it at the back to keep them from sliding forward.

Since the cameras are either on the fritz on out for repair, I just watched and commented on Jackson’s soccer game today. Thought we were going to be short handed, but we weren’t. Thought it’d be hot out and we’d be sluggish, but it was actually cool by the lake. They scored out the gate, and thought we were in trouble. But then coach Yuri subbed in Graham and Sebastian who scored immediately and the flood gates opened. We even pulled a player, and then managed to score a couple goals after that. So a pretty good day. Biked out there, no issues. Watched Jackson Grady perform a School of Rock set at The Cubby Bear before hand. Pretty cool. And finished Succession. Think I’m going to listen to the official HBO Podcast, at least of the final season. Curious what it’s like. Had a craving for Panda Express so picked some up for the kids and I tonight.

Did some house chores, another load of Jackson’s laundry to wash his jersey which he needed for 2 more games today. Biked up for this first one, on the bad grass field. It was against the same team as yesterday’s, and they won again, coming alive in the 2nd half. Jackson’s also dealing with hives. Not sure what triggered them, but they seem to be going away. Will probably be taking benadryl for the next couple of days just in case. Anyway, biked home for a couple hours after picking up lunch from Windy City Gyros before poorly choosing to drive up for the 2nd game (hard to find parking). They ended up losing that one, but got to play on the turf for the first time in a while. Tracy came and watched too. Both games I didn’t have a camera so got to continue watching and provide commentary for the game. Tracy ended up grilling burgers and sausage for dinner, then we watched a bunch of Fresh Off the Boat because Lucy was actually watching it on the TV instead of her phone. I went out with Jackson and got some Dairy Queen and I made the banana green curry pound cake again.

Was a Lucy chauffeur day again. Took her to school, picked her up early (at lunch and she only had advisory after), the took her to swim practice and worked a bit at Starbucks before picking her up and taking her home. Picking her up early from school meant I didn’t get to watch WWDC 2023 Keynote live, I waited 2.5 hours until it was available to stream from the beginning. I did manage to not get anything spoiled. Lots of sherlocking, some interesting things in the OS feature quilts, and the One More Thing. I say I’m not going to get it, but I am excited for  Vision Pro. I’m excited for the groundwork they’re laying. I’m excited for when the hardware catches up to the “vision”. Feels like they nailed the UI part. And if Disney pulls off anything in their pitch vid? Well, really cool things in store. So I’m typing this on my iPad Pro now, but in a couple years? I’d just slip on my  Visions and start typing something out on the table, or just dictating it (more likely typing), and submitting with a tap of a finger on my thumb. Although I do see the “Black Mirror” future possibility, with my entire family sitting around, all wearing them. How different is it when we’re all on our iPhones and iPads now? I can’t imagine wearing one to capture moments, but makes me hope the next iPhone has 3D capture capability. Or they come up with a wearable 3D camera to to capture those moments, instead of having to use the  Vision Pro. Either way, seems like the future. I don’t think I thought of the future when I saw the iPod click wheel. Definitely thought of the future when I saw the iPhone and iPad. Didn’t think of the future until I actually used AirPods Pro. But definitely feel like I’m seeing the future with  Vision Pro.

Nephrology followup today. They switched over to My Chart, which is nice. Also, it’s my biannual visit to Tous Les Jours, so picked up a bunch of stuff and got an ube latte. Like a lot of stuff. And I managed to eat most of it, although Lucy had a couple. Did not have to drive her to school this morning, and only had to bring her and Spaulding to practice, they gave her a ride home. Did pick up Crumbl for Lucy on the way home, got in the way of a biker when I pulled over into a parking spot (whoops, deserved that bird). Also picked up Jackson from Hudson’s since I was out and he was still there. Had a breakfast sandwich for actual breakfast.

Actually worked outside the home but not in the office this morning. Went to Dom’s Kitchen & Market, got a cortado, a couple donuts, and sat down and did some work using my iPad Pro. Pretty productive, didn’t have any meetings because it was an internally quiet focus morning. Surprised at the amount of people plugged in, like they’ll be there for a while, or were even there for a while. If I did that more often, I’d eat so much pastries. But definitely nice. Forgot my Airpods Pro so had the ambient sound of the coffee shop. Really might have to do this more often. I’ll have to try Bombastic Cafe to see how it fits. Jackson had a late game today, cooler for me, more so than I expected. Ended up losing 1-3, but found out the opponent was undefeated this season. One more practice and 2 more games and Jackson’s season is done. Oh, and school’s out.

Lucy’s got a triathlon this weekend in Grand Rapids, so I had to teach Tracy how to put the bikes on/off the car bike rack. Also ended up ordering the Yakima Top Tube adapter so their bikes will fit better on the rack. Also did a quick tune-up on Lucy’s bike. Thought I screwed up her shifters, but managed to get it back to a better than before state. Was definitely worried there for a second. Had to pick up the swim kids from morning practice. They were awfully chipper for having a 2.5 practice that started at 7:05 on the first day of summer vacation.

Tracy and Lucy are over in Grand Rapids for Lucy’s triathlon, so just Jackson and me holding down the fort for the night. Had to go out this morning to REI to pick up the Yakima Top Tube adapters for their bikes. Worked so much better (handlebars not running into wheels and stuff). Drove Jackson to practice today (lazy and didn’t want to bike). Cooked spaghetti for his dinner, and did a walk down to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams for dessert. Pretty relaxed Friday.

Fairly lazy Saturday. Did got out and get Crisp and Tea Ninja. Lucy ended up finishing 1st in her age division (19 under Super Sprint) at the Grand Rapids Triathlon. She actually came in 2nd but winner was DQ’ed. Also she was first overall in the swim for all age/genders in that distance. So that’s pretty cool. Wonder if she’ll be moving up to the Sprint distance next year. Might need a better bike for that, or maybe just use Tracy’s. They didn’t make it back until 5:30, just before I took Jackson out for his second to last soccer game of the season. They ended up losing, but playing pretty well.

Jackson’s Northwind 2013 Premier 3 2022-23 season is now over. Ended the season on another loss, 0-5, completing a streak of 4 losses to end the year. They definitely played better yesterday. Again only had 2 subs. Weather was cold and windy. Not fun to watch. Not like yesterday. Alex’s mom correctly remarked how much better they play on turf compared to grass. Makes sense since they only practice on turf. Also they wore white, which I still think looks wrong for them, but at least this year they wore them twice. Jackson got worse as a midfielder as the season went on, think he started playing less there and more defense, so that probably had something to do with it. Anyway, next year should be interesting, moving up to 9v9. Been having issues with my iPhone 13 mini for a while, so decided to go ahead and nuke and pave last night. Didn’t do a restore, and working through downloading and configuring only what I need.

Drove Lucy and Alex Spaulding to morning practice. Worked at the Dom’s Kitchen & Market on Wells St for a bit. Freezing, and much bigger than the one on Halsted. Felt more impersonal. I like the one up by us, even though it’s so much smaller. Anyway, picked up Alex Wang and Lucy early to get back in time for Ten Pound Cake summer camp. They made triple chocolate muffins. Also, I think we know 10 out of the 24 possible campers. So that feels pretty cool. Then a relatively full house, with Alex, Emmy and Lucy and then Jackson, Finn came over for a bit. Then Jackson went out with Eli, met up with Jackson G while Lucy went to evening practice. Crazy summer days. Tracy’s taking the plunge and upgrading her iPhone. We haven’t been synced on upgrades for a while. I’ll probably upgrade myself after the iPhone 15 Pro comes out this fall. Going back to the Pro series. The mini feels nice, but just doesn’t perform as nice. Also getting my Aeron chair back from Tracy. Feels pretty nice.

Probably not going to get myself on any sort of regular schedule, for exercise anyway, until summer is over. Probably have a couple weeks here and there where I can try, but then it’ll get broken up by something. I guess I hsould just start grabbing time when I can. Only had to pick up Lucy and Alex from morning swim session, and then was pretty much home all day. Went out to drop Jackson off at the Grady’s, and did a quick Jewel run, and got back in time for the bread pudding in the oven. Started watching The Magicians. I think I watched Season 1 a long ago (just checked Trakt and it was 7 years ago). But only made it through 1 season. Kind of makes me want to read the books again? Also want to read Percy Jackson & The Olympians again, since Jackson just finished The Lightning Thief in school, but he doesn’t want to read the rest of them. So I might instead.

Managed to get out for a ruck today. Walked down to Wrightwood and back on Greenview. Felt good and weather was pretty nice. Kind of had to do some exercise since I ate too much otherwise. Another breakfast sandwich, some donuts, then after some buttered noodles and chicken and mushrooms. So yeah, ate too much and just did an hour of exercise. Have to get out and do more. But still completely off kilter in terms of scheduling. Work is a little struggling because of it.

I’m really enjoying The Magicians as a TV Series. While I kinda wish they did a more faithful adaptation of the first book, I’m ok with how it’s turning out. Curious to see where they go from here, as I just started season 2. Feels like it’s going to take me a while to get through the next 4 seasons. But we’ll see. Finally tried a sushi burrito from Tai Chi Bubble Tea. It was quite good. Just kind of a big enclosed maki, but very tasty. Gotta find a place that makes them around here, so Jackson can try it.

Dropped Lucy off at Alex’s since Junci is taking them to swimming camp in Appleton tomorrow. And they’ll be gone until Thursday. So only a one child family until then. And Jackson was pretty much out all day today with Finn, so quiet in the house. I lounged about in bed until noon, watched The Magicians, slept, on and off. Quite nice, since I didn’t go to bed until 4 last night. Trying to work my way through the leftovers in the fridge. We’re actually down to 1 of those plastic pint containers, so that’s how many leftovers we have in the fridge. And a lot of desserts to go through.

Tracy got her deep purple iPhone 14 Pro today. Transferred all her stuff over, seems to be working pretty well. Very heavy compared to her old 11 Pro and my 13 mini. Had the Thorngrens over, got Smoque BBQ for dinner. Was going to get Smoke Daddy, but they were not accepting delivery or pick up orders through Door Dash, and tried calling but think they were too busy post Cubs game. I did sneak in another ruck today.

Built LEGO Galaxy Explorer 10497 while watching multiple episodes of The Magicians. Realized later that I should have just been watching The Lego Movie instead, but oh well. Got Burger King for lunch and Papa John’s for dinner. Wanted to get Slurpees but the machines at the local 7-Eleven were busted. Not a bad Sunday.

Jackson’s first day at FC Barcelona camp went well. He’s on the same team with Hudson and Serafina, so that’s good. They get lots of water breaks. So that’s good. Just not looking forward to the hour drive each way tomorrow. Hopefully it’ll all be worth it and they’ll learn all sorts of good stuff. Ended up at Gina’s house tonight, since that’s where the kids ended up. She set out an impromptu cheese board, I brought over some Tip Top Cocktails. So a pretty nice Monday overall. I should have done more work, but it was a day off, so that’s better than nothing. And of course watched a couple episodes of The Magicians.

My turn to drive out to Schaumburg. After dropping them off I went to Woodfield Mall. And Stayed there for 5 hours. I got Starbucks for breakfast (surprised they were open at 8:20am), got a seat, did some work until 11 or so. Got up, did a loop checking out what was new. Of course I stopped in the LEGO Store, fairly large section of LEGO ICONS and Creator (AFOL, i.e. Adult Friend of LEGO) sets, which were all really expensive. And huge. The new Ninjago City Gardens looks amazing. Wandered into Apple Woodfield, and ended up getting a Starlight Solo Band (my current charcoal one has a small tear in it, and I figured I should get a replacement sooner rather than later. Surprised at all the stores that were open. Not as bad as I expected. And I think a large number of stores that were Japanese ish? I think they had kanji after the titles. I then got a Cinnabon, because I can’t remember the last time I got one, and then headed to the food court (which I discovered on my walkabout) for another hour or so of work. Headed back and watched a little of their scrimmages (a little surprised I was able to find them). Traffic wasn’t overly bad both ways. Almost made it all the way home before they asked for Wendy’s. Went to the one by Lane Tech, and then I suggested bowling at Waveland Bowl, since it was right there, and we had time to kill before they each had to go home. Turns out they only lasted for 2 1/2 games each. Then back home to our place, when Eli and Finn showed up for a quick Nerf battle. After they went home, the 3 Barca teammates went to Blaine to play some more soccer. To be 9 and have boundless energy.

Felt like a recovery day, didn’t think yesterday was that stressful, but I guess a day at the mall took a lot out of me. Got another one tomorrow. Did get a chance to exercise today, did a core workout. Moved back upstairs to the guest room, just feels better than doing it in the basement. It is, however, much hotter up there. Also a pretty hard workout, but I don’t know if it’s more that I haven’t done it regularly for weeks or a legitimately hard one. My Auntie Agnes is in town briefly, so got to see her for a little, when I got my parents car again for the drive tomorrow. Good to see her again. Had to do a little tech support to get her on wifi at my parents condo.

Spent another day at Woodfield Mall. I like going out there. I don’t like the drive, but I like going to the mall. After my morning work session I did the exercise walk thing (50 min/1.77 miles) around the mall. I felt old. Would have been funny if I rucked it instead. Another Starbucks breakfast, and no full size pretzel dog at Auntie Anne’s, so I settled for a cup of the mini pretzel dogs. They had frozen lemonade, but just went with a regular. Didn’t get anything else today. Brought the Fujifilm X-E4 and took some pics of the kids at soccer camp. Wonder if they came out ok. Traffic was worse today coming back in compared to Tuesday. We also went all the way in to Fullerton because Tracy had the great idea for them to go swimming after camp. Worked out well, they ate some food, played in the game room, played in the pool, played on the playground, had a water fight, went back in the pool, ate again, then the moms showed up, and ordered some drinks. Pretty good day. And got some work done too, so it wasn’t a complete loss.

Almost last day of getting up super early. Last day for Jackson, but I’m getting up to bring my mom and Auntie Agnes to the airport tomorrow morning, so one more day for me. Just worked from home. Basement office is not nearly as cool as I thought it would be. At my desk it’s 77° We do keep the house at 78° though, but I just figured it would be cooler down here. Went out to run some errands; Target for body wash and ended up getting the new Zuru X-Shot Skins Pro Series Longshot Blaster, the North Buena Deli and Wine Shop and picked up the last bottle of Redwood Empire Bottled-in-Bond Grizzly Beast Straight Bourbon Whiskey on the shelf, and then Curious Creatures for some mealworms. Still sore from the core workout on Wednesday. Hopefully will settle in to a routine in the next couple of weeks.

Went and saw Colin Jost at the Chicago Theater organized by the Hein’s with the Johnson’s and the O’Tooles. Dinner at Atwood, which was good. Ended up taking the Brown Line home.

Biked down to Verzany Patisserie with Tracy for brunch. Got a pretty good chicken salad on a croissant, rhubarb danish, and a cortado. It was hot out. Then a couple hours later had to bike over and pick Jackson up from my parents condo. Except it was the Pride Parade. I though there were pedestrian crossings at some major streets, but didn’t look like there was anywhere I could at Grace or Addison. So I ended up biking all the way to Wilson to cut over to inner Lake Shore Drive down to my parents condo. Then back up, this time to Lawrence, and over to Clark to get home. Then I biked Jackson again down to the gym for some pool time with Hudson, before biking home so he could pack up and then I biked him over to Hudson’s for a sleepover. Then I biked back, and plopped myself on the couch for a few episodes of The Magicians, a pint of gelato, and an Old Fashioned.

Still not on one. Dropped Lucy off at lifeguard camp (didn’t go to swim practice today, either morning or evening). She did come in 2nd in the Beach Flag competition, which is pretty cool. She is going to morning practice tomorrow, and lifeguard camp. Wait and see if she wants to go to evening practice too, but I’m guessing not. Maybe try and ease into a full day of exercise? Almost like she’s working out for a movie role or something. Finally picked up a bottle of Eagle Rare. Just gave in and got it. Still working through the extra Irish whiskeys from the St. Patrick’s Day tasting. Always fun discovering an existing process that changes a new process I had been working on at work. That itself was a discovery of a new process that went in without me knowing that affected stuff I worked on. Trying out a starlight solo loop as a watch band. My black solo loop has a nick in it, so figured I’d replace it earlier than later. Also finally cashed some MetLife dental insurance checks. So annoying.

Yeah, not going to get on any sort of schedule for the summer. Drove Lucy down to practice this morning. Got some work done. Did an Apple Fitness+ core workout and actually did my Gravity Push-Up Workout. Before I knew it I had to go pick Lucy up from Lifeguard camp, and then there was a chance she might go to evening practice, but opted not too. Hudson had been over, and Dave came over and they ended up staying for dinner, and then Kelley showed up as well, but she had things to do. I also had to make pancakes and bacon for Lucy and Alex between morning swim and Lifeguard camp tomorrow. I did manage to find some time to make the banana ice cream. Again, still not exactly what Jackson’s looking for, but it was pretty good. Made Pisco Sours for happy hour, and then Ocean Waters for dinner (quite refreshing). So yeah, don’t think this is a normal Tuesday for summer. Also the Canadian Wildfire smoke and haze is crazy. The campfire smell all day so weird.

So I think I remember having to do something for 3 weeks to get into a routine. I’ve now done a core and push-up workout 2 days in a row. So now I only have to do it 19 more days to get into a routine. Disappointed with the pancakes I made for the girls this morning. They were really dry. Definitely needed the butter syrup. At least I used up the rest of the Bisquick. Made the pancakes and bacon on the griddle. Never making bacon on the griddle again though, as the grease trap doesn’t actually trap all the grease (there’s space for grease to get by it). This was Lucy’s first full day of all 3 athletic sessions, morning and evening swim and lifeguard camp. It’s impressive. I don’t know how she’s doing the outdoor lifeguard camp with the low air quality. No asthma for her either. But I took a walk from Latin to Vanille Patisserie, and my throat feels all scratchy, like I’ve been smoking.

I’ve got like 3 hours left in the day, but I don’t think I’m going to get my workouts in. Instead, I’m in a Dunkin wasting time before picking up chicken wings and boba from Tsaocaa for dinner and then driving back to Latin to pick up Lucy and Alex Spaulding. By the way, traffic in Chicago is a mess, at least here on the near north side, with LSD closures. Like crazy stupid busy. Like 40 min to get to Latin from home today? That’s like 2x the normal. Anyway, not looking forward to the drive home. Stayed up way too late last night, probably because of the nitro cold brew I had while waiting to pick up Lucy yesterday. So what am I doing today? Another cup of coffee. Just not learning.

I did get my workouts in, granted at like 5:45pm. The whole driving Lucy to/from practices and lifeguard camp is a bunch of time out of the day. Trying to squeeze in additional exercies (boudlering or bike ride or rucking) just seems out of the question for the summer. Been making quesadillas for Jackson’s lunch lately, trying to make sure we get rid of the flour tortillas. Made a BBQ pork one today which was pretty good. Tried making a pizza type one, that didn’t work at all. Got Coalfire for dinner and matched it with Aperol Spritzes and Limoncello Spritz. Family movie night: Nimona, which was pretty good. Tracy was confused at me getting out movie candy and popcorn for it.