One more year to the future. Had some people over for New Year's Eve. I always get confused as to whether New Year's gets an apostrophe or not. But it makes sense to be possessive, since the Eve belongs to the New Year. Anyway, I digress. Got to leave work early on Wednesday, ran a couple errands to pick up stuff for the party. Made cookies, started warming stuff up, and partied a bit. Some Wii action going on, some Comcast Hollow orchestra, err, karaoke, and some talking. Made it I think a couple hours after the stroke of midnight before nodding off. Lisa and Ryan and Bonnie and Ray and Missy slept over. Waffles to break in the New Year. More Wii action. Barely got Missy to the Irving Park Metra station on time for her train. Visited April and Scott before a late dinner at Nookies Tree. And back to work today. Lisa's baby shower tomorrow out in Minooka, and Tracy works on Sunday.

Friday night, Tracy whipped together a lime marinated flank steak and some guacamole for dinner. I put away some liquor bottles from the party. I'm sure we watched some TV as well. But a relatively early bedtime. Saturday had some breakfast, Tracy went with hashbrowns, I went with leftover steak and eggs, and eventually the rest of her hashbrowns. Then we actually left the house, walked down to Threadless and CVS before heading out to Minooka for Lisa's baby shower. On the way out we dropped off the old RCN DVR box at their payment center. Really easy. Got back late. Sunday, while Tracy worked, I watched Live Free or Die Hard with breakfast and lunch of English muffins and spamsilog. Did some chores. Leftovers for dinner while watching Vantage Point and threw in a load of laundry. Started ripping Friends and got While You Were Sleeping onto the Apple TVs.

Tried to keep abreast of the Macworld San Francisco 2009 Keynote. Nothing too new going on. iLife '09 and iWork '09. 17" Macbook Pro. iTunes Store music DRM free and tiered pricing at $.69, $.99, and $1.29. All in all kind of boring. Nothing shocking. And no more Macworld Keynotes by Apple. Just special events. I've decided to walk to and from the Belmont El stop instead of just going to the Addison Red Line stop and transferring at Belmont. I think the brief walk is good for me, a little fresh air, possibly some sunshine. Did some Wii Sports training last night. Been a while since I got on the Wii Fit too, but just weighed myself and found my Age. Not so good. But it's a new year with resolutions. Tracy used the leftover brisket to make a beef stew which turned out like minestrone. Watched Eli Stone with dinner. Still ripping Friends, up to Season 4. Only 6 more to go. The DVD drive on the Macbook seems to be going though.

Did one load of laundry last night. Keep forgetting that I can't wash wool sweaters in the washer. Whoops. Again. Walking home from Belmont down Roscoe, past the first place we put a bid on, 907 W. Roscoe. Didn't have any lights on in Unit 4, and they still had one unit for sale in the building. Also went online and checked out another place we looked at, 3504 N. Fremont, and that actually ended up selling maybe a month after we bought, for a little bit more. Always interesting to see what could have been. But moving on. Good to see Scrubs back on the air last night. Good stuff. Also, watched an episode of my new favorite HGTV show: My Big Amazing Renovation. Tracy made those naan pizzas for dinner. I'm up to Season 7 on the Friends ripping, and started transcoding single movies on the Mac mini again. Really tempted to start watching Leverage, and will probably eventually get it via iTunes Store at some point.

Seems to be getting colder out. After the holidays, winter weather just doesn't seem as exciting. I didn't mind the snow or the cold as much before Christmas, but now, in the doldrums of winter, it's just annoying. I know, wrong use of the word doldrums. Whatever. In-laws were in town yesterday to see Wicked, so they came up afterwards and we had dinner at Joy's. After Tracy and I got home, watched The New Adventures of Old Christine, and I actually showered before her, since she didn't have to get up in the morning (day off) and I'm still feeling like I might be coming down with something so I'm playing prevent defense. Since the new year I've been remembering my dreams when waking up. That's kind of cool. Thinking I need to start a dream journal. Still plodding along on the Friends ripping, now Season 8. I wonder how long the transcoding of those 40 discs will take.

So the whole dream thing? I started thinking about what's changed in the new year, or what I've done differently before bed lately, and I wonder if it's related to taking vitamins before bed. I took one again last night, and I think I had a dream, just not as vivid or memorable as the previous nights. I won't take it tonight, and find out if I can remember my dreams tomorrow, although I should make Tracy find a placebo, and make a blind experiment. That might be tough. Did a couple errands after work yesterday, picked up breakfast and snack food for work. Gonna try the smaller meals spread throughout the day, instead of just 2 big ones. Had some pesto pasta with chicken for dinner, and there's been a What I Like About You marathon on The N which Tracy has been recording, so watched a bit of that. Going full bore on the DVD transcoding, season 9 of Friends, and overnights and daytime in the meantime doing DVD transcodes on the Macbook as well as the Mac mini. Just started going alphabetically. Should be done by June. As for the weekend, headed up to the Russells and E-Town on Sunday, but that's about it.

So vitamins don't seem to cause me to remember my dreams the next morning, at least in my limited tests. No controls. But I should take my vitamins anyway. Haven't had a remember dream in a while. Nothing exciting over the weekend. Lots of couch time. Did some laundry. Watched some TV. Transcoded some DVDs. Still haven't started the giant Friends trancoding of 2009, as I'm rewriting my shell script to automate the process. But in my alphabetical transcoding I'm on The Abyss. I did step outside briefly to shovel the alley behind our building, at least a little bit, so that it's not so hard to get out of our driveway. Still sore from that. Went to mass at 4:30pm on Sunday, and they have a nice choir at that service, more contemporary. Younger crowd, too. Then headed up to the Russells to hang out, and setup their wireless network, and get dinner. Felt very grown up. Also good to see Marla. Oh, and lots of snow over the weekend, and even more tonight. It was pretty fun romping through the drifts on the roof deck.

Ok, so took a vitamin before bed last night and dreamed of a vast underground theme park uncovered by brother spelunkers, but not really, because their friend, who disappeared down a chasm early in their explorations, had friends who went looking for him, and that's how they found this amazing cave, with a giant water slide. Seriously good dream. I'm definitely sticking with vitamins before bed, unless someone lets me know that it's not a good idea. Had some langonisa last night for dinner. I went grocery shopping on my way home, and managed a couple impulse buys: grocery store sushi and a small Black Forest cake. Awesome. Watched some more What I Like About You. Otherwise, made a little more headway on the Automated DVD transcoding, and started transcoding Adventures in Babysitting. Also had a craving for ramen.

Definitely still winter. I'll have to take some photos of the deck at some point with all the snow up there. That and make a fort. Or an igloo. On the roof. Planning a Vegas trip with my parents for February. They've got a conference, Tracy and I just want to go. Right now there's some deals on the Wynn that are pretty good, and it sounds like an absolutely fabulous hotel. I could add it to my list of Vegas hotels I've stayed in. Headed up to the Russells again tonight to try and fix their wireless network again. I don't think Airport Base Stations and Expresses like being part of WDS. Kind of annoying. Hopefully, things will go smoothly. Hopefully. Just watched more What I Like About You after dinner. Finished transcoding Airplane and moving on to the Aliens quadrilogy.

It's cold outside. Yup. Wore the facemask today. Totally worth it. Not so much with the windchill on the way in to work this morning, just plain cold. However, my sunglasses broke, more like a screw came loose, but then I lost the temple that was no longer attached. Awesome. So I need new sunglasses. I mean, it's been over 2 years since I got the old ones. Huh, I thought it was longer. Oh, took the Purple Line and the 97 Skokie bus up to the Russells yesterday to redo their wireless network. Hopefully it holds up this time. Got a milkshake from Steak n' Shake on the way down in Sasha. Watched a couple more episodes of What I Like About You and booked our flights to Las Vegas. Staying at The Venetian, hopefully, with the entire family. Haven't been there in a while. Flipped on The 40 Year Old Virgin before bed last night. Funny stuff there.

Yay, above zero temperatures! Yippee! Made it home no problems yesterday. The facemask makes a huge difference. Huge difference. Helped make dinner last night, since Tracy was tired from her second gym visit of the day. And she's an official member of a gym again, and actually my old gym, which I finally last month stopped being a member of. Sweet. Watched Private Practice, How I Met Your Mother, and The Big Bang Theory. Started playing with ec2 and s3 again. Might be time to revisit hosting my own services. And time to start some long gestating web services. Tracy starts working out, I start working on the computer more. Awesome. Got a haircut tomorrow, and getting cable boxes for my parents condo. Exciting. Sunday might drop by erewhon to pick up some boots and maybe a new pair of sunglasses. Or, might just stay indoors and watch TV Shows and Movies. And finally kick off the giant Friends transcoding.

So spent some time this weekend setting up the MacBook for web development again. Tried doing a MediaWiki upgrade, and of course things fail. Stuff like username not found, which I thought was a database upgrade issue. I got stuck on that for a while, until I figured out it was capitalizing the username on login, which I don't like, but something I would have known right away if I just read the Memex entry for MediaWiki. Whoops. But should have that upgraded soon, if I can figure out the CSS issues with the Daily Dose skin, and maybe get an iPhone CSS set up as well. That'd be nice. Friday night had some pasta, watched some TV. Saturday Tracy worked, so I made a Jewel run early for breakfast, and the shelves were stocked, and there were more staff than customers. Got a haircut, then waited 3 hours for an RCN tech to go to my parents condo so they can have cable again. Sometime between 11-2pm, and they showed up at 2pm. Awesome. More leftover pasta for dinner and ended up watching Juno. So cute. Sunday, Tracy didn't have to work, and so we went shopping, dropping by erehwon and Smith & Hawken. Tracy made lamb chops for dinner, watched Grey's Anatomy, did a little vaccuming. Fairly productive, and I can't sleep in at all anymore. I can take naps, just can't sleep in.

Ok, I'll admit it, I listened to the Barack Obama 2009 Inaugaral Speech live at work. Was ok. I think he set the tone well for what's to come. My Facebook Friends' status updates have been pretty probama all day so far. Expected I guess. I am impressed with the White House Website. Except that I think it runs ASP.Net. That we will be able to read executive orders and proclamations and non-emergency legislation online, that's impressive. In my sphere of influence, nothing much. Started up the Urbanathlon exercies again after a couple weeks hiatus. Tracy made soup for dinner. Watched Scrubs and The New Adventures of Old Christine. Got to bed at a decent hour.

Tried searching for a Chicago Tribune on the way home yesterday, and none were available. Eventually got a Tuesday afternoon Inauguration special edition, and picked one up this morning, not sure why, but Tracy asks for it. Leftover soup for dinner last night. Watched Private Practice, The Big Bang Theory, and How I Met Your Mother. Finished up vacuuming. Tracy also slowed cooked some ribs last night that we'll have for dinner tonight. And someone stole her mat when she was at the gym in a class. Didn't watch any additional coverage of the inauguration yesterday. Weather's warming up a bit, to the point where even though it's below freezing, it's still pretty warm out. Funny how it's all relative. I'm kind of thinking I need to update my wardrobe. Definitely wearing the same things week in and week out.

So I've been trying to eat healthier in the new year, somewhat. No more breakfast pastries, croissants, and the like for breakfast. Instant oatmeal. And snacking when I get hungry, instead of a giant lunch and a giant dinner. So a granola bar mid morning, or a breakfast bar, or fruit. And water. But you know, it's getting tiring. I miss the sweet stuff. And I treat myself once a week, on Fridays, to something sweet. No idea if it's working, but I think it is, feeling a little better and stuff. We shall see if I can keep it up. Oh, and it's also a whole lot cheaper. I do miss coffee in the mornings though. Also started taking the Purple Line home instead of the Brown Line all the way around the loop. Definitely different. Also changed my walk to Belmont and back, just straight Belmont and Halsted from here on out. Played some Wii Sports, mostly training in tennis, baseball, bowling and golf, did some more Urbanathlon training. Had the ribs Tracy cooked yesterday for dinner, and we watched House and The New Adventures of Old Christine. Also installed the SDK for Google App Engine, to give it a whirl.

So apparently Thursday nights the gym classes that Tracy takes run late, which means I get to cook dinner. Now that I know, I won't wait for her to come home to tell me. Last night I made beef & broccoli. A stir fry is super easy. Of course, I had to do the dishes too. Also, too much to record on the DVR last night, especially since Bones decided to have 2 episodes, so the second episode got skipped in favor of Grey's Anatomy and The Office. I'll just download the missing Bones episode from iTunes Store, but still, pretty annoying. Since the DVR was busy, we watched While You Were Sleeping instead. Also did some work from home, since I don't have Visio at work, but have OmniGraffle at home, trying to document image transfer processes. Confusing. Also, trying to figure out how to get on the wireless network at work with either my MacBook or iPhone. It's WEP, and pretty annoying. Maybe I should bring in the PSP and see if it can get on the network. As for the weekend, gonna try and figure out what to do with the old home.

So, went back to the old home on Saturday afternoon to do a little work on the stuff we still have over there. We started reminiscing about the stuff we missed, like the master bedroom closet, the heat in the winter, the receiving room, elevator, and instant hot water. Do not miss the lack of humidity though. That's pretty nasty. But we've put a little dent in it, and planned out our next steps. So coming along, slowly. Friday night Tracy whipped up crab legs for dinner, I did some Urbanathlon training using a medicine ball picked up on the way home. Watched Bones, 30 Rock and The Office. Saturday made crepes for breakfast, watched Hancock while Tracy was at the gym, went over to the old home, and Tracy made roast chicken and we watched WALL·E after dinner. Sunday Tracy wanted waffles for breakfast, and bacon, I did some MediaWiki work while she was at the gym, ended up sticking around at home for the day, but ended up at Las Mananitas for dinner after mass and a trip to Whole Foods. Was going to get some scallops, but they didn't look all that good, so we'll wait until they do.

We don't have any wine at home, in either of our 2 beverage fridges, so I think until we have a supply, I'll pick up a couple bottles at Kafka on the way home from work, on Wine Mondays. Don't really drink all that much, but it'll be nice to have a stash around. Just in case we get the craving, or want to cook something that might call for it. Anyway, played some Wii Sports tennis last night, vs. the CPU, in order to increase my skill level. Had some nice rallies going on. Even lost a game. Then did some Urbanathlon training. Decided I should try and do something on the off days, and looked up some medicine ball ab workouts, which then reminded me of the Spartan Workout and floor wipers, so I'll try and do some of those too, the wipers, not the whole workout. Watched Starship Troopers while exercising, then Grey's Anatomy with dinner (french onion soup) and then an episode of United States of Tara, which is rather interesting. It's good, intriguing.

Well, on my off days I've decided to do some sort of Ab Workout. That's a moving spec though, things might get added, or switched around, as I find that some things work, and some things don't, and other exercises I like or don't like. But it's something. Also worked on a little side project from Tony, Randy Capp. You can check it out here until Tony gets real place to put it. Nice to actually bring one of his ideas to fruition. He's got a bunch. I did figure out how to serve up iPhone specific css, at least on the dev site, and realized I can debug that using the iPhone Simulator part of the SDK. Had some frozen chicken tetrazzini for dinner. Ended up watching Office Space because it was on. And a pretty early night since Tracy had to get up early to go to Lafayette to check out some new hospital and do some administrative stuff.

Tracy's coming down with something, cold, flu, bronchitis, lupus, sarcadoisis, some other disease that's shown up on House. Basically just coughing and phlegmy. I assume whatever it is I'll catch it soon enough. Did my Urbanathlon training exercises again last night. Not upping any weights, but increasing reps. Did that while watching The Cable Guy, which I caught probably the last half of. It's interesting, with lots of funny people in it. Dinner was comfort food, noodle soup and frozen pizza. Watched Private Practice and Scrubs. I tried working on the Phantom Display on Macbook issue, which I can't seem to fix. Still plowing through DVD transcodes, up to Blade this morning. Also started rewriting the css for Daily Dose development. Hopefully I can find some layout tricks to make it easy to do this time around.

So, saw that a few Tom Clancy books are going digital on February 3rd and 10th. That's awesome. The only problem is that there are multiple eBook vendors with different DRM that will, or probably will have it available. I know Fictionwise in multiple formats and Amazon for the Kindle, and I assume The eBook Store from Sony will also have it for the Sony Reader. But I'll probably go with eReader from Fictionwise, since I now use my iPhone to read. Wish either the Sony Reader or some other eInk reader would do eReader DRM. Annoying, stupid, DRM. Superbowl weekend coming up. Tracy's working, so nothing really planned. Lunch with Karl tomorrow at Crisp. Looking forward to that. Otherwise, movies on the Apple TV to watch. Last night did an Ab Workout. Watched House. Tracy made pork chops for dinner. Had a Gibson, been a while, and first time cracking open the cocktail onions.