Guess what, in spite of the constant joking and teasing, I still miss Leah. But moving on. Didn't make it yet inside the Chicago N. Michigan Ave. Apple Store. Arriving at 8pm on Friday and seeing the line going around the block, well, we figured it wasn't worth the wait. However, plans are afoot to check it out Tuesday evening. Saturday in Woodstock was good, I managed to do a little more clothes shopping at the Prime Outlets in Huntley. I've done more clothes shopping in the last month than I have in my previous 26 years. Practice Sunday was good, as was Twisted Spoke following. Gonna try and get back to a workout schedule, MWF, and looking forward to a gyro for dinner tonight. Managed to have an IT outing to the lake for lunch and frisbee throwaround today. Very nice.

So after some windy beach, where the dark team got clobbered, most of the night except when we finally played a game, we were gonna go to Justin's but ended up at Rise, for the second night in a row for me. Ate outside, had a beer, food and company was good. We closed the place up. Then a long walk home. Definitely going to Dublin's at 6:30pm tonight, then Apple Store, then maybe Guest Bar for some dancing, maybe not. Headed out to Woodstock for tomorrow, then practice/pickup on Sunday, and poker. Really missing Leah.

About 6 weeks before I see Leah again, definitely missing her. But I gotta grin and bear it. So even with the 20 degree drop, I'm headed out to beach this evening. Last night we had dinner at Rise, a Japanese place on Southport, which is right up there, for me, next to Sai and Bistro Wasabi. And it's closer. Good stuff like a Mexican Maki with cilantro and avocado. Happy Birthday to my mother today. Tomorrow is dinner most likely at Dublin's with Russell and then the N. Michigan Ave. Apple Store opening. I'm most likely walking out with an iSight, and I'm being tempted by the 15GB 3G iPod. Gotta have the willpower. I'm planning on syncing up my phone with my work Outlook so I don't show up late for any more meetings. And this update is all over the place.

Dinner last night at the HandleBar in Wicker Park. Not bad sesame noodles with grilled tuna, for a vegan place. The TFA party was rather interesting. At one point, all the newbies, first year TFA's in Chicago for orientation showed up. A bunch of sorority looking girls, fresh out of college, made me feel really old. Well, slightly old. Met another ISP, former ISP, my second ISPer meeting in as many weeks. Crazy. Tonight is a concert at Cubby Bear with Leah, Tina, and Christi, and dinner somewhere in there, along with seeing my mom for her birthday tomorrow. Beach tomorrow, and Justin's to meet Margie's Henning.

No new Powerbooks at the WWDC yesterday. A bit of a disappointment, but good because I won't be spending that money. I haven't had a chance to sit down and watch Jobs' entire keynote, but I will, eventually. Expose looks like it'll be good to use. Fast User Switching I'm looking forward to, even more so if I can log myself in multiple times. The new G5's seems fast, and I hope Panther doesn't require that much power to still be sweet. Finally cleaned up a bit at home, and started working on the to-be-ironed pile. Last few days before Leah leaves for Spain. Maybe a TFA party tonight in Wicker Park. A couple concerts tomorrow night. And the Apple Store N. Michigan Ave. opening on Friday.

Yesterday was a lovely ultimate Sunday. After practice, a group of us went to the Northside Bar and Grill for some eats, followed by some dessert at the Cold Stone Creamery. Good times. Did some laundry last night, and now I've got this huge stack of clothes that need ironing. One of these days. I've also still got plenty of cleaning to do, the kitchen's a mess, and dirt from Poultry Days is hanging out a lot. Not good. I'm wondering what Apple's going to announce today at the WWDC? If the announcements include an updated 12" powerbook, I might have to get one.

In light of the upcoming WWDC and whatever Apple's planning on announcing, my Mac at home has decided to start giving me grief. My iPod wasn't being recognized by iTunes on my main machine, which is an upgraded Sawtooth to Dual Ghz with 2 GB RAM. Got that fixed, but now I'm having troubles with my Menu Bar and Bluetooth. Ugh. Out with Leah and the girls last night, margarita's at Tarascas, some dancing at aLiveOne. A good lazy Saturday at home, a little cleaning, a whole lot of nothing, chilling, napping. Ate dinner up on the sundeck of my building, which is pretty cool. Kaze pickup tomorrow, and maybe laundry.

So no beach last night, the wind was too much. Instead I went out to EMS on North Ave. and got some t-shirts. Then sushi at Sai with Leah, Akira, and Remy, after coming across Margie in the Starbucks across the street. Good food. Then I figured out my computer problems, just a new IP address, had to fix some things so hopefully I'll always have access to it, or at least know the IP address, and went to bed. Still not caught up on sleep yet.

My home machine is having some issues. What exactly, I have no idea, since the only way to connect to it and see what's going on is over ssh, and since I can't connect, I don't know what's wrong. Hopefully it's a network problem and my hardware is fine, but if not, uh oh, not good. Since my email is nonexistent due to this issue, I am pretty much incommunicado until it's back up. Ugh.

Took me 4 1/2 hours to make dinner last night. Gnocchi, with a little sweet potato, for Leah's friends Judith and Chris. Too long. Much too long. And too chunky. Next time I'll try boiling the potatoes instead of baking. It'll definitely save time, and hopefully cook the potatoes completely. Beach today, except it's supposed to be really windy all day, according to weather.com, ~20 mph winds throughout the afternoon. Sweet. Oh, and from the little sun I got last weekend I'm already peeling. Time to start investing in sunscreen.

In a surprise move, I made it to Comisky, whoops, I mean U.S. Cellular Field last night for a supposed half price game against the Red Sox. Supposedly, because you needed a Pepsi product in order to get the deal. But up in the nosebleed section, a little disorienting, but still, nice weather, good people, a good time. Last day of training at work, starting on some real business value projects tomorrow. Still not caught up on sleep, but managed to clean up, at least pack away all the stuff that I had to air out to dry at my place. Lots of dirty and smelly clothes from a weekend of camping and ultimate in the mud. Since Vitamin Water isn't on sale anymore, I think I'm going into withdrawal.

It's amazing what losing maybe a 1/4" of hair can do for a look. I gave myself a haircut yesterday. Piece was good last night, if a little short, and I'm gonna see Whit in a couple weeks anyway at Mars, so not too big of a deal. I've got DNS issues, new IP addresses not propagating down to me as a cable modem user. Still not caught up on sleep. Learned how to set up procmail to run listservs, which is pretty sweet. Currently reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, again.

Yellow Fist, Flying Chicken, AKA Got Rice? appeared on the scene at Poultry Days for the first time. For a good time. First time shout outs to Brian, Jie, Leon, Bob, JT, and Helen. First time playing together we went 1-3 on the first day, losing 2 games by 4 points, losing 1 by 6, and winning our last by 1. We didn't quite get up for our first game on Sunday, and spent the rest of the sunny summer day packing up, eating more chicken and watching some pretty good ultimate. Nothing really on tap for this week. Gonna hit Piece tonight to hang with Whitney, back in town for the long weekend. Maybe a Ravinia trip, maybe a small dinner party. But definitely sleep. Oh and beach on Thursday. That is all. So far.

Hark, what news? Puck is in the dealer for a couple days, getting all geared up for the long road trip to Poultry Days this weekend in Versailles, OH. Playing with Yellow Fists, Flying Chicken. Oh, I made a glorious return back to the ultimate field at Kaze pickup last Sunday, with the PAI nowhere to be seen, knock on wood. Monday Night Dinner was accompanied by Monday Night Laundry and consisted of Lemon Chicken again. Watched Under Siege last night. Gonna try the local night at Angelina's Ristorante tonight. Beach tomorrow. And my first paycheck, if I understand correctly.

So I haven't been very diligent in my updates. That much is plainly true. But oh well. So starting from last Friday, I got a new fridge, held a poker tournament, I believe watched a movie or 2, Spellbound and the Transporter, both good, and picked Leah up from the airport. So that brings me to Sunday. Monday was my first day of work, my return to the real world, up at MarketADvantage. Good times. Good company. Training though. But working is cool. One of the best things about it, about going back to work, is the commute. I finally finished Return of the King, after starting the trilogy 3 years ago. And I've got plenty of books I'd like to read. Monday Leah and I went to Sai to celebrate my first day. Thursday was Beach Ultimate, trying to find dinner with the Moores, and a little gathering at Sally's. Friday was Lauren, Leah's roommate's birthday outing, and hanging with Sarah May, another of Leah's college roommates passing through town, and others. Saturday was some shopping, seeing The Story of Liz by the Sedaris siblings with Leah and Teach for America, and then the Wicker Park pub crawl which ended up with dinner at Piece and dancing at the Artful Dodger. Good times.