Spent the weekend pretty much at home. Did a bunch of random house stuff. Remounted the basement TV because it would get crooked when you moved it up or down. Of course, now that I fixed it you can see the mount peeking out behind it on the left side, which is why they probably skewed it over as much that it caused the crookedness when they installed it originally. We did go out to the library (Lincoln Belmont) branch on Saturday. Nice place. Lucy needed to get a book for a project. So we played some games, got some books. I reminisced about taking physical books out of the library and lugging them around. And I signed up for a library eCard, so I can take eBooks out, if I ever find out that I want to. Oh, and since we don't have soda at home, or even flavored powdered drinks, I've moved to cocktails. Gin agrees with me. Made orange sponge cake (Lucy wanted to make it from a recipe out of one of the library books). A little dense, but orangy. Maybe need to put a glaze on it. Didn't make a big one, just 1/3 of the recipe, and used the mini springform pans we had. Made monkey bread Sunday morning using cinnamon roll dough and butter and brown sugar. Pretty good. Put the access panel for the outdoor spigot up as best I could. Did laundry and reorganized my clothes/closet a bit. Now I've got a nice counter in the closet for things, and better organization of my sweaters.

We're phasing out Macs at the office, again, so they have a bunch of machines. There's some MacBook Pro 13" 2013 (don't remember if it was Early or Late), a Mac mini (Late 2014), and a couple iPad 3s. All tempting, but not sure why. The MacBook Pro I think I'd Boot Camp and use for work, maybe even replace the 2010ish iMac I'm using now. The Mac mini I'd want for home. It's newer than what I've got right now, and it's small, and I've got the space. The iPad 3s would be extras for when Jackson eventually breaks the iPad 2 that's been handed down from my mom. But then again all of that would take money, and I shouldn't be spending any. I got distracted by those new Raleigh Clubman's again, almost to the point of wanting to check one out at a bike shop, but realized, again, I shouldn't even think of spending more money. Instead I spent a little time getting organized to put together the Raleigh Super Course. I have absolutely no idea if I'm going to do a good job or not. It'll be interesting. Maybe I can find some time this weekend to put it together. No that I'm not buying soda for home anymore, I'm not really drinking anything anymore. Have to remind myself to drink some water. Also trying to stay away from reading news too often. And I realize if I'm not reading something, then I need to be doing something. So I think that means I need to start writing code again for fun, for home, for personal use.

I wish it could be as easy as closing your eyes and things that bothered you would just stop existing. But that's not the case. Getting a little riled up about the direction the country is going. And I'm not checking Twitter or Facebook or my RSS feeds. This is just from mainstream news media. I'm wondering if I need to start cutting the news with something, to weaken its impact. Or something. Probably doesn't help that I pulled a pseudo all nighter doing work that I should have been doing for the past week. Jackson and Lucy are all good and healthy. Weather sure seems awfully warm for January, but hey, close my eyes and it'll be ok, right? Need a haircut. Should probably do another load of laundry. And keep breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. It'll all be ok, right? Right?

Finished The OA last night, really, this morning. I really liked it. I really like the entertainment that leaves me wanting. So I went looking for podcasts talking about it and listened to those. My one comment, presented without context: Native American rain dances. Wondering if I'll watch it again. I might. Not sure what's next, TV show wise, but I think I need to do Blade Runner. That's been sitting in the queue for a bit. Feels like that needs to be seen on the big screen, and not an iOS device. Jackson spent the day with the grandparents instead of going to Prairieland Montessori today. Seems better tonight, so probably headed back tomorrow. Hoping Lucy isn't coming down with it now. Finally bought a burr grinder, figured it was about time. The Baratza Virtuoso should show up tomorrow. Randomly got distracted looking at bikes online. Came across a Raleigh Clubman Carbon that looks pretty snazzy. Not that it's in the budget, but I admit, maybe a little tempting. Thinking maybe I should go back to just getting a ready to ride bike, instead of something vintage, or something vintage and rebuilding, like the Raleigh Super Course sitting unassembled in the workspace. One of these days.

Missed a couple days. Also because I got back on the bike with the kids on Saturday because it was 50 degrees out in the middle of January. Nothing weird about that. Supposed to take them to Green City Market Indoor session at the Peggy Notebaert Museum. We ended up there eventually, right at the tail end of the market, because we stopped off at the Sunshine Playground on the way. Got some donuts, ate, before heading to the playground area, the butterflies, and then headed home. Biking is hard after being away for like 9 months. Really need to get back on it. Friday night had a little me time after work, because Tracy and kids were playing at the neighbors. I finished up Luke Cage. Good stuff. Started The OA last night and got halfway before thinking I should get some sleep. Going to finish it up tonight that's for sure. Went to another neighbor's birthday party this morning at Pump It Up Fun as always, but they got rid of the flag thing. That was my favorite. Jackson came down with something today, hoping he feels better tomorrow. Hopefully just something he ate or something.

Been a while. But like riding a bike I guess. Got to do some systems work or analysis or I guess development to log email sending. Interesting stuff. But nice every now and then. Still haven't joined the gym at work yet. Probably need to because I got around to taking my blood pressure yesterday and it was pretty high. Definitely time to get back on the bike. Would like to put the commuter together this weekend, instead of using the Sprint, but wait and see. Pretty cool that ATP got Chris Lattner on the show. I wonder what the Twittersphere was like for that. Oh well. Fingers crossed nothing crazy happens tomorrow. Got my new Apple Rewards and Amazon Prime Rewards cards. That Amazon one through Chase is impressive; metal with heft. I like it. Was hoping that would get me access to Chase QuickPay, but no dice. Guess I really need a checking account there or something.

Consolidated mortgage with construction loan. So really in debt now. No issues, notary came to the house, documents were sent UPS next day morning, and had the closing at home. That was nice. Also had Rocket Plumbing come out and take a look at the leaking spigot. Turns out it was broken and they had to replace it, which meant they had to cut a hole in the basement ceiling to get to it. Will put in an access panel just in case we ever have to do it again. Which hopefully we won't. Might have been us not taking the hose off before a freeze, or maybe the splitter and we left it closed and it froze. Either way at least it didn't bust open in the ceiling, so no water damage in the house. Put together an IKEA Dollhouse for Lucy, and put a Bed Bath & Beyond top down bottom up shade in the powder room. Really wish we had more money and that Lutron made shades like that. Definitely wish we could do the rest of the house. So nice. Decided to drop the redundent Linode. No need.

Just another day at work. Up early, Brown Line in. Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. Haven't really been feeling the donuts lately, but went ahead and splurged today. Went old school for lunch and got Burbon chicken from Cajun Grill. Used to get that a lot back up at Oglivie station. This time got it from Union Station. Cole was way too big though. Consolidating loan and mortgage tomorrow. And have Rocket Plumbing coming to look at the leaky frost free outdoor faucet. Hope that isn't too bad. Oh, rebuilt my other Linode instance. Hoping to get some kind of redundancy or something, but maybe I should just drop it. Don't think I need the redundancy.

Fell asleep on the couch again last night. Bad habit. But really getting into Luke Cage. That's good stuff. I'm even watching on my Brown Line commute. I also gave in to additional news reading, and setup Feedly and Flipboard. Just added the websites I was visiting via Safari to Feedly. Hopefully means I don't check more than I need to, and I only read what's new, and not just old stuff. Or old stuff that gets reordered, like in News.app. Flipboard I've added World News as a topic. Interesting things showing up there. Just have to hold out of Twitter and Facebook. I have started to try and do push-ups/sit-ups for some sort of physical activity. Gym at work is open for registrations. Open for business tomorrow. Have to get the bike ready too.

Made it to work early on Friday, but didn't need to since the meeting I was there for got postponed. Started watching Luke Cage at lunch. Finished the first episode up that night, started the 2nd and finished that up tonight. It's good. Involved. Long too. Full hour long drama. Did some shopping on my way home, got a couple more sweaters from The Gap, some mittens for Jackson from Uncle Dan's, and some calcium chloride from Klein True Value Hardware. That was a heavy bag to carry home 2 blocks. Then took my parents with to pick up Jackson, so they could see how it's done, so they can pick him up now too. Today started off pretty relaxed, had french toast made by Lucy from her after school cooking class on Thursday. Played in the basement with the kids, before heading out. Had lunch at White Castle on the way out to the IKEA in Bolingbrook (was hoping for a car nap for the kids but Jackson only conked out like 2 minutes away from the store). After he woke up, we spent most of that time just finding something for the kids to play with, of which there was plenty. But I didn't really get a chance to wander about. We had a list though, so picked up everything (except those cute little glasses for wine which we couldn't find). On the way out, we were going to get some frozen yogurt, but then Lucy didn't want it, but Jackson did, so we ended up carrying a screaming 3 year old out of IKEA. That was us today. Instead, we stopped home at our usual Panda Express and tried out Menchie's Frozen Yogurt next door afterwards.

Wednesday night fell asleep on the couch. Worked from home on Thursday. Still pretty tired. I really shouldn't stay up so late working, or trying to work while watching stuff. Just makes the rest of the week pretty hard. Still checking the news apps and websites way too much. Realized that's a nice thing about RSS, that it only is the new stuff, and you don't get the old stuff rehashed all the time. Easier to know what you've seen and just show what's unread. In the meantime I'm trying to fill the void with TV Shows and Movies. Got through a couple more episodes of Shooter (tv show). It's not bad. Realized I should probably watch Luke Cage, if Iron Fist and the Defenders are coming later this year. Also trying out all the TV Show Apps for iOS devices. I did just find out that at least the Wild Cards books on my iBooks account are supposedly sold without DRM, so I don't have to go searching for Requiem and a machine that could run OS X 10.2, although I think I will take that super old iMac G5 my parents have taking up space in their kitchen. Looks like we got really lucky potty training Jackson. So far only the 1 accident at school this week, a couple accidents at home the whole week, but overall, impressive. Lucy got straight A's for whatever report card period this is. Always nice to hear.

Stayed up way too late working, well, working and watching The Town. The movie's on sale on iTunes, so wanted to see how bad the DVD rip was. I actually had to check the file because I wasn't sure if I'd already bought it. So upscaling somewhere in the system is definitely doing it's job. Jackson apparently loves his new school. When I picked him up Monday night, he didn't want to leave. He just wanted to keep working on puzzles. And then he got sad he didn't get to say goodbye to his friends when we were already in the car. Tracy did drop off by herself this morning, and no crying whatsoever. Only 1 accident yesterday, and no accidents today, at school anyway. He had one at home just before shower tonight. But so far, Montessori agrees with him. Started watching Dark Angel. Strangely appropriate for today's socio/political/economic environment. So now working my way through that, Friends and Two Guys and a Girl.

Old school trim is a lot tougher to screw into than the brand new stuff. Putting up the blinds in the family room was so much easier than putting up the ones in Tracy's office. Like I had to predrill, then switch to a bigger bit, and even then broke 3 screws and stripped another. And broke them by hand, since I switched from the drill after stripping one. Very annoying. Went ahead and ordered a new drill, one of those fancy cordless ones (of course The Wirecutter top pick), so going to wait until tomorrow before putting up the rest. Tracy's been doing a great job decorating lately, lots of framed photos hung up, kids room decorations, toy storage, blinds. Still need to figure out what to do with parlor. Got almost all of my media set up in Plex. Figured out hard linking stuff over. Had to rename the Friends episodes to get metadata to show up properly. But now have 1047 movies, 44 tv shows with I don't know how many episodes. What I tried yesterday was the shuffle on Movies. Nice feature when I just don't want to pick something. Somehow ended up on Blade Runner, figure it's time to finally watch that. Also decided to go through the entire Friends run too. Then maybe Two Guys and a Girl. Then Chuck or Alias. So many choices now. Oh, potty training is going ok. Jackson seems to do ok when he's running around bottomless. Not so much with underwear and pants. On top of that, he's started at Prairieland Montessori today. I went with during drop off, and have to pick him up today. Seems nice. Quiet. I've forgotten how independent Montessori kids are.

Finished up HIMYM. Not quite sure when I started, but that's all 208 episodes. And it holds up. Still gets me in the feels. And, hot take, I like how it ended vs. the alternate ending. It sticks with me more this way. Been potty training Jackson today. So had to turn the heat up since he's running around pantsless. Good times. Since we're homebound today, mostly house stuff. Took down the Christmas tree. Got some screws for the blinds Tracy picked up from IKEA. Assembled a storage thing from IKEA as well. Picked up some odds and ends from Jewel. Yesterday another day at work. More and more stores/restaurants are closing up at Willis Tower. Hoping they're doing a big renovation and new vendors are coming in, as opposed to it being a ghost town. Starting to get a little annoyed with the bluetooth issues on the phone. Thinking it actually is an issue. Occasional drop outs, which I thought were because of the Jaybird X2, but still have issues with the AirPods, and recently noticed my Apple Watch also loses connection at the same time. And this is even after a nuke and pave. Wondering if I need to drop it into DFU mode. Even tried uninstalling Tile since that's the only other bluetooth pairing I've got going on, but still no dice. Upgraded my Barclaycard iTunes Rewards card to an Apple Rewards Card, which if I'd known I could do that, wouldn't have gotten a different Apple Rewards Card. Which means I can cancel the newest one after I get the upgraded one. Also found out yesterday someone in Brazil was using my Netflix account, so changed the password on that one. Funny though, they were watching 3% (fitting), Supergirl Season 1, IP Man trilogy, World War Z among others. Rather interesting. Lucy's been watching a lot of My Little Pony and Equestria Girls. It makes me happy that her favorite character and one she quotes is Pinkie Pie. My kind of humor. Drobo rebuild also completed, so good to go there. Have some space to grow. Requiemed the iTunes purchases made since the rebuild started. And now figuring out how to do hard links for all the non iTunes purchases that will be the same between iTunes and Plex.

Worked from home yesterday. Kids came back early from the grandparents, so made sense. Worked from the couch with HIMYM on in the background. Ate a bunch of leftovers out of the fridge. Only left the house to get the IKEA purchases out of the car that Tracy made. Skipped any exercise, or breathing meditations. Even went to bed early, by 11pm. I am starting to wonder if the Bluetooth on my iPhone 6S+ is busted. Even with the AirPods, it occasionally drops out. Don't think I've had any such issues when using the AirPods with the iPad Pro (9.7 inch). Not sure if I could ever recreate the issue to get it serviced though. Maybe I'll just try. And now it's the 5th day with no Twitter, RSS, and I just realized yesterday, or Facebook. I still check News.app, and the newspapers, and websites (mostly tech/Apple). But will try and wean myself off checking those too often.

Missed a day, 4 days in. Still not so daily. Family Winter Fun day yesterday was, well, fun yesterday. Slept in, breakfast at IHOP after a little drama with Lucy as to if she was coming with or not dependent on if she wore a sweater like we asked. Then out to Rosemont, with some additional driving to get some more car nap time in. Ice skating was fun, and enough exercise that we didn't feel the cold that much. A little difficult holding Jackson up. Lucy seemed to pick it up pretty quickly; only had to hold her hand toward the end. Then inside for some hot chocolate at the Sugar Factory. Also got some candy, because. First time going to the Fasion Outlets at Chicago in Rosemont. Noticed they have counts of available spaces per floor in the parking garage, and individual lights on the ceiling for taken/available spots. That's a nice touch. Had to use some Disney Store gift cards, so first had a limit of under $10 for each kid, and go figure, not a whole lot available under that price point. So doubled it instead, which allowed them to get something, and only ended up spending $12. I found a pair of waterproof boots at Merrell for $50, 50% off, so I couldn't pass those up. My reasoning? Better than the super arctic winter boots for everyday wear. Even though we're Filipino, we're not the target market for that mall. Probably not gonna go back. Went to Red Lobster for dinner because we had a gift card, which I just realized we didn't end up using. Also both kids like crab legs, so Tracy didn't actually get to eat much of her's, and we were both picking meat out. Forgot to turn the thermostat back on before we showed up. We've got Nest, so it's eco smart and turns off when we're both not home, and turns on when we are, except that meant it was 57 when we walked in the door. After kids bath and bedtime, watched more HIMYM, checked that Plex integration with trakt.tv works, which means I'll be doing my watching through Plex. Did some exercise, jump rope, sit ups, and push ups. Fell asleep on the couch.

Stayed up way too late last night working. Rocked out to the Apple Music Pure Pop Radio station. Got me grooving. Did some work while standing at the island, had the MacBook on the cardboard boombox accessory from Halloween. Got the project mostly done. Taking the day off tomorrow for winter family fun day (going to try some ice skating with the kids). Trying the Breathe.app and the Activity notifications on the Apple Watch. Trying to see if technology can make me healthier. Speaking of healthier, checked out the new gym at Willis Tower. Cheap, only $120 a year, which is worth it just for a place to shower and change for biking to work. Which I definitely need to start doing again. Noticed my weight gain has been steady since I stopped biking. I still have to put the Raleigh Super Course together, since that's what I wanted to use as a commuter. All caught up on my current podcasts, now working on the historical work. Still have to get back to reading my poli-sci homework, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, assigned by Russell. I feel like that's going to take me a while.

Brought Jackson over to the parents this morning because I wanted to do some work today, even though I had the day off. Ended up at Two Hearted Queen for an espresso type drink, pretty good, got some work done. Then ended up coming home and trying to do some work here. Instead ended up doing a nuke and pave on my iOS devices. Cutting out Twitter and RSS cold turkey. Sticking with the News.app on iOS (wish there was a macOS version), and the subscriptions I have to The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times. And direct news from websites. Was able to find out about Micro.blog, which sounds intriguing. I went ahead and backed it at Kickstarter. Also, no games either. Using MakeMKV to put the DVDs for Dark Angel and Las Vegas on disk, to make transcoding easier. Done with Dark Angel and on Season 3 of Las Vegas. Worked out a little after putting Lucy to bed, just a little jump rope and sit ups and push ups. Better than nothing. And now got some more work to do that I've been putting off for a couple weeks now.

So let's see how Daily I can make this again. Spent the night out as a family with the brother-in-law and family out in Woodridge. Pretty low key. Cousins got to play together. Played some Uno. Watched Trolls in a misguided attempt to put the kids to sleep (they were wide awake through the entire thing). Family sleepovers will probably be put on hold for a while, since the kids, Jackson especially, were hard to get to sleep and stay asleep through the night. More kids playtime in the morning, wisely choosing to stay home rather than trying to corral everyone out to breakfast. We left around lunch, which was Taco Bell (Lucy wanted nachos and chicken patties, but we couldn't think of a place that served chicken patty sandwiches). Wandered over to Old Navy next door to get some more clothes for Lucy that hopefully she'll wear. Jackson was pretty tired, so he ended up falling asleep on me while they were in the changing room. Then drove up to Oakbrook Center, thinking they'd have a giant Christmas tree, but no such luck. Just had them play at Land of Nod for a while instead. Got TCBY and Mrs. Fields for a snack before heading back into the city. Jackson wanted to go to another toy store so he and I walked over to the Red Balloon, but it was closed, so instead we got some strawberries and pink cupcakes at Jewel. Brought Lucy over to the grandparents because she wanted to sleep over, then Tracy, Jackson and I went to Tango Sur for dinner (we gave in and just brought the iPad mini to keep him entertained). If you can believe it, been in the neighborhood for over a year, and this is the first time eating there. Got to watch some more How I Met Your Mother (I'm on S7E22 on a full series rewatch). And will probably do some work.