Yes, I'm still alive. With the whole GTD thing I seem to have been not getting updates done. Of course, it isn't a next action for me, but still, kind of weird. Wednesday night Tracy picked me up from work on her way in to the city and we ate at Joy's Noodles, a much closer Thai restaurant than the other one in Lincoln Square she thought about. Maybe next time. Picked up some pretty old Mochi Ice Cream from a nice little asian grocery store. I might have to ask if they take requests, and see if I can get some maize ice cream, without cheese of course. Thursday night Tracy did some cooking, some roasted carrots, a nice soy lemon flank steak and some risotto while I finally did some laundry. We've been pretty good at keeping up on TV shows the night of, which means I've got plenty of space on the DVR. Got to finish up painting the living room tomorrow, try and do some more clean up/organization tonight, and get out and see some family on Sunday.

Seriously, used to have a nice set schedule for doing updates, but now, not so much anymore. Last night didn't do too much, another late night at work. I'm plowing through Las Vegas episodes on the PSP on the bus. Popped in Reign of Fire and made it about halfway through that before Tracy showed up and we watched Scrubs and Teachers. Good to see the main character in Teachers, I liked him in National Treasure. Makes me wonder what real teachers think about the show. Oh, I'm finally getting Windows XP for a box I've had sitting at home for a while. Work related. Also means I'll actually have a real Windows machine, I don't really count Hydrogen, too small. Oh, the whole GTD thing is pretty good, but for me it's mostly about organizing, rather than doing. I did order the book though. Oh, and I put up my picture for closet organization of the data center. I'm proud of that one. Otherwise, still gots lots to clean and organize. And Paganello is definitely sneaking up on me. 13 days, 22 hours, and 48 minutes till my plane leaves. When I was buying a ticket I started looking specifically for flights that used a Boeing 777 since I've never been on one of those. But scheduling didn't work out. Maybe the next time I fly across an ocean.

Ok, so I forgot again. Sue me. Actually don't. Had a fairly productive weekend. Saturday morning got out to Villa Park, got my eyes checked out, they checked out, and ordered some new glasses. That should be good. My left eye dropped a notch, but that's it. Impressive considering all the glasses wearing I've been doing. Then Tracy and I shopped around Oakbrook Center. Started looking for a new pan, since the 10" skillet I have is in pretty bad shape. Decided to use it anyway to cook dinner Saturday night, a nice white wine cream sauce over chicken and gnocchi. Never mind, actually ended up using a different pan. Sunday actually did some painting. We did a couple walls in the living room. Only one more left to go. And then maybe some rearrangement of furniture. At least I took down the cinder block corner table. Again, we'll see. Last night, put the furniture back, a couple spots need some touch up, but nothing really bad, and moved the beer fridge closer to the couch. Also caught up a bit on TV too. Still got lots of laundry to do.

V for Vendetta was pretty good last night. And then I proceeded to stay up way too late. Tried to shift my schedule today, but wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. And the reason for staying ended up working great. Got my haircut today too, at Salonique. It's in the next building north of work. Not bad. Came home, late, after stopping by Marshall Fields, I mean, Macy's and found out they have a Levenger mini store inside. That's pretty cool. Finally got around to watching Steamboy while sitting on the couch. Good considering the headache I'm in the middle of. Finally getting my eyes checked out tomorrow, which means new glasses, which means I won't have to superglue my current frames together anymore. That and looking for an auto fish feeder for Tracy takes up the weekend.

Almost forgot again to update. Crazy. Been playing a little bit with 37Signals services, like Backpack and Basecamp. All in the growing name of organization. I've been using the official GTD plug-in for Outlook and it's been working well for work stuff. Anyway, last night I came home and Tracy had been experimenting in the kitchen, trying out different encrustations for chicken breasts. She ended up going with some cheese, walnut, lemon combo that was pretty good. Managed to polish off a bottle of wine while polishing off some TV shows from the DVR. Going to see V for Vendetta tonight after dinner at Fox & Obel, which I want to keep calling Fox & Nobel, because that's what it sounds like. Hard to believe that Paganello is around 3 weeks away. Crazy. And then my busy travel schedule kicks in. Who'd of thunk it? I thought the travel thing went the way of ultimate for me. But I guess not.

Didn't update yesterday. Almost thought about doing it before going to bed, but then I decided sleep was a better idea. Monday night went out to Tracy's, we got some mexican food from some place in Orland Park. Last night I also went out to Tracy's neck of the woods to see Failure to Launch at Hollywood Boulevard. I had been looking forward to a Whoopie Goldburger all day. Oh, and the movie is really good. Quite funny. At least I think it was me and not the margarita laughing. I just found out that Zooey Deschanel spent a year at Northwestern, possible during my senior year. Small world, ain't it? Oh, and I started using GreaseMonkey for Gmail with Auto BCC so I always have a record of emails I send out. Tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of having the Memex, kind of exciting. Going to see V for Vendetta tomorrow. Finally got an eye appointment for Saturday, so finally, new glasses. Oh, managed to pick up a couple pairs of pants last night at Gap. On sale. Oh, and my PSP's out of battery, which makes sense, since I haven't charged it up in a while. And to think I was contemplating plugging it in last night before going to bed too.

Not a bad weekend all around. Party Friday night was pretty quiet. Didn't stay very long. A little too tired. Saturday, after a healthy night's rest, got up and went running before breakfast of hash browns, bacon, and eggs. Then Tracy and I headed out to Woodfield where we ran into Mina and Carl. Hung out with them for a bit, got a Cinnabon. Then we made our way over to Medieval Times. Got there early enough, got some beers in collectible mugs, enjoyed some of the festivities. Got to cheer the Green Knight to the semis of the tournament before he perished. Good times. I actually thought I might have lost my voice from cheering and jeering so much. Sunday another run in the morning before breakfast of an oven baked pancake and sausage. Then I finally set up my shelves for the closet in the data center and started organizing some stuff. And boy, do I have a lot of stuff. Dinner was Korean food, since Tracy had gone to Chicago Food Corp on Friday before coming over. Watched a bit of TV, including Walking Tall, which wasn't too shabby.

So the snow that was supposed to fall yesterday? Ha. I had no troubles driving out to Tracy's, in fact there wasn't much traffic at all, just a little around 294. Anyway, her mom makes a mean corned beef & cabbage. Good stuff. We also put together some thank you gifts via CafePress. They got better. And give a greater discount when buying from your own store. Might have to make something up for myself for Paganello. Headed out to Chuck's Going Away Party tonight. Tomorrow headed out to Medieval Times with Ryan and Lisa. Otherwise, don't have anything else planned for the weekend. Hopefully give me some time to do some cleaning and organization. Sort of looking forward to it, especially in the data center. Only problem is the WallFiler I wanted is backordered. I'll have to make do with something else in the meantime.

I was surprised to find out that I completely missed updating yesterday. Completely. That could be a good or bad sign, depending. Anyway, sushi was really good Tuesday night, catching up with Remy was good as well. Been like a year since I've been to Sai Cafe. Didn't recognize a single staff person. Odd. And I overheard something about a sister restaurant, or something, so if anyone has any info on that, it'd be great. But the last time I had sushi was in October, and I said I needed to take a break, and I did, and now I'm back. Wednesday was Tracy's day off so she came in to the city and we had lunch at Brazzaz, another churrascaria. Pretty good. Had to pass on the caipirinhas or mojitos. Finally picked up Puck from Evanston Subaru. Then picked up shelving and boxes from The Container Store in Northbrook. Tracy shot down the wire based magazine wall rack, and we tried to find a nicer wood one, which we couldn't. Instead, I ordered one from Levenger. Because of the large lunch, ended up not eating anything till 9 or so, and just a couple slices of frozen pizza. Thursday I drove in to work even though there's the warning of snowfall, cause Tracy's mom is making corned beed & cabbage, and I don't expect the snowfall to really happen. This time I just don't buy it.

But calmed now. Brought the car in to the dealer for an oil change. Fine. No problems. But I go to pick it up a little after 7pm, cause they used to be able to have pickup until 8:30pm. And what happens? Nope, change in availability. Only open till 7pm for pickup. Oh well. I was supposed to hit up The Container Store, but that's been delayed till Wednesday. Going to Sai Cafe to catch up with Remy tonight. Actually going to have lunch with Tracy tomorrow, it's her day off. Did a little exercising yesterday, an ab workout, pushups and pullups. Something to look forward to is Steamboy on Starz-HD this week, so I'm definitely recording that. Hopefully it'll be in widescreen, but I'm not that optimistic since it's on at 5am.

Tracy managed to put a name to my recent madness. Well, it's madness for me because I've never done it. Kind of odd, this spontaneous feeling of needing organization. Really, never really done it. It's strange. And it doesn't feel completely unnatural or forced. Anyway, doesn't stop me from procrastinating a little bit. Work was a bit of a bear this weekend, having to check in on stuff. First time I've ever really had to do something while on call. Good though, I got to figure stuff out. Friday night made some Lemon Asparagus Pasta. Really could have used some chicken with it. Also popped in a frozen peach cobbler which wasn't that good. Saturday after going in to work, I finally bought some paint for the paint condo project from the Sherman Williams store on Halsted. Got some good help there. So I'm all set, just need a relative warm and dry weekend. I also watched some movies, not remembering which ones. Oh, Fight Club was one of them, Crazy Little Thing was another. Sunday spent the day on the couch, continued to work on drawing up an organizational plan for the closets in the data center. Got to use OmniGraffle Pro for most of it. I guess I could post some images of what I'm planning on doing. Not very exciting though. Finished up the weekend by watching Through the Fire, the documentary on Sebastian Telfair's senior year in high school. Not bad. Oh, forgot to mention that I recorded the repeat of The Unit from Saturday night. Even though I missed the last 10 minutes because of the basketball delay, I like it. If the guide on the DVR ever fixes itself for Tuesday, I'll set up a series recording for it. That's what made me want to watch The Recruit. Oh, also did 3 loads of laundry on Saturday, didn't get around to the remaining 3 loads on Sunday. Never got around to a hair cut either. And I pushed off The Container Store until after tonight when I pick up Puck from getting an oil change.

So Getting Things Done seems like a pretty good idea. Constant mapping of tasks. Always have things to do. Lots to check off. We'll see if it works for me. Although I wonder if I need to read the book to know exactly how to do it. Not sure if gtd-php is gonna be enough for me. Things to do this weekend: get a haircut, buy some paint, do some laundry. I think those are the only definites. Maybe do a little home redecorating, hang up those cheap large and deep shadow boxes finally. Maybe go to Linens 'n Things or The Container Store, gotta try and find some storage boxes. I don't know, busy day, maybe, if I got the time. Weird how I'm suddenly overcome by an organizational bug. Strange.

Completely spaced on updating today. Oh well. Not much has been happening anyway, been meaning to do laundry, but machines never open up when I want them, which is between 8-9pm. Tracy's been working nights, so I haven't been hanging out with her. She's working this weekend too, so not much is planned. Really going to do some laundry for sure, might get started on a couple other projects. Of course, to start it off, I'm thinking of jumping onto that bandwagon that is GTD. We'll see if that happens. Theoretically, if I get that setup, the work on the rest of the projects would actually start to happen. Of couse, we'll see. I think I'll switch to Safari again when on the Macs at home; it seems to handle Google Reader better than Firefox does, at least on the mac. And Gmail is supported too, so that works for me.

Went and saw Ultraviolet last night with Russell. I am saddened I went. It's a horrible movie. Awful. I liked his last movie, Equilibrium. This one? Awful. I wish I hadn't gone. I didn't know why I was there halfway through. Ugh. Just an awful taste in my mouth. I went home and watched a bit of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, but that didn't clean it out enough. Not sure what would, but the movie that came to mind, especially because I saw in the same theater, would be Sky High. That was a good movie. Strange that if I had to pick a couple feel good movies to watch, I'd pick Sky High and Curious George. Good family flicks. Strange. I'm liking Google Reader a bit more, especially because it mixes items up from different feeds. I like that. It's like flipping through TV channels.

New mattress is great. Took delivery at 5 to 6 last night. Good thing, since my building apparently doesn't like deliveries after 6pm. I'll have to remember that for the future. So having a new nice soft smooth mattress doesn't make me go to bed any earlier than before. Oh well. In other news, vacations got approved, so I'm going to have a negative balance for that by June. Also, booked a ticket to for Paganello. Almost full circle, as it's a flight I took the 2nd year I went in 2001. I went back over old emails, pretty much just from Akira about Paga stuff, and damn if it was really really cheap to get there before. Seriously. Under $500 in 2000. Really. Don't know if it's because Akira was that good or because that's just the way prices go, but I didn't pay anywhere near that this time. So only got Cali to buy now. In tech news, I'm in love with Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/lens/). Yes, I finally stepped up to the plate and started using RSS. Why do I like it? Keyboard commands. Browser interface. And it's Google.

Weekend was good. Friday night came home to Tracy making dinner; a nice seaweed based salad with crab and some crab somethings that were pretty good. Ended up making some egg rolls as well to fill us up. Made it over to Buffalo Wild Wings for a bit of stand up, some of it was pretty good. I enjoyed myself. got a drink at Red Lion Pub which is a very nice place, nice and quiet, and I just read about their very plush upstairs. Finished the night off with a club sandwich at Clarke's on Lincoln. Saturday made it out to Woodstock in time for mass with mom, and dinner at La Petite Creperie. Did a little computer work, watched some of A Beautiful Mind. Sunday breakfast by mom, some chilling before heading back in and doing some shopping. Bought a new mattress which is getting delivered tonight. Got some plane tickets. Dinner was carryout from mom with dessert from Cheesecake Factory. Ended up watching A Lot Like Love instead of the Oscars. Got some more travel plans to purchase. Hopefully I'll be looking forward to sleeping more with a new mattress.

Nice to get some sleep in last night. Always helpful. Airfare pricing changes are weird and odd. Anyone know what the last weekend in April is tough for going to Vegas? Lots of blackout days on deals. And prices just don't seem to be going down. Well, not that much anyway. Looking for tickets for my parents and prices varies about $30 over the course of 14 hours or so, down then back up in like $10 increments. Weird. Stuff I just don't understand. Also, when exactly is midnight Wednesday? Is that 12:00 AM Wednesday, which is actually Tuesday night? Or 12:00 AM Thursday which would be Wednesday night? Anyway, still looking. Food was good last night, Lemon Chicken. Certain lack of veggies though, which I should rectify today, since I can't have meat. Or not allowing myself to have meat. Headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings tonight for some open mic stand up with Lisa and Ryan. Should be fun. Realized I should probably see my mom before she jets off to the Philippines for a while, so that means a trip out to Woodstock at some point this weekend. Would be nice to get a new mattress too. We'll see.

Falling into TV watching mode again. Not good. No longer taking Vegas off the schedule. It's a definite. Can't so no to family celebrations. Finished up Equilibrium on the PSP yesterday, makes me ready to see Ultraviolet soon, and moved on to Serendipity. Mortal Kombats on the PSP is really hard. Then again I was never really good at it, but still, harder than I remember. Dinner at the Taj Mahal Restaurant in Orland Park last night. No meat. No meat tomorrow either. Might be time to watch 40 Days, 40 Nights again. It's the season. Due to all the upcoming travel, spending lots of time checking prices on airfares and stuff. So expensive. Anyway, Lemon Chicken tonight, maybe some more laundry. Exciting stuff.

March already? Wow. Finally got some laundry done. 3 loads. About half way. Otherwise, had some leftover spaghetti, cold of course. Watched How I Met Your Mother and Constantine. Downloaded financial data to iBank and set up some import rules for automagic categorization. Pretty cool. With 2 months of data under my belt, well, I spend too much money. But like that's a surprise. Anyway, got lots of money to spend in the next couple of months, that's for sure. Headed out to see Tracy tonight. Coming up on the anniversary of the Memex. That'll be exciting.