Another day, another dinner by Tracy. Tortellini with chicken and peapods. Good stuff. Dinner over Cars, finally. I didn't think it was gonna be that good, wasn't really buying into it at the start, but about halfway through I was hooked. I'm impressed. No bloopers at the end, which was a little disappointing. But the trailers where pretty cool. Watched some reruns of 30 Rock and The Office. I'm impressed by the rewatchability of The Office. I mean, this was an episode from this season. Did some vacuuming, as best as I could with all the boxes out and about. Lent out my tent and sleeping bag and sleeping pad to Bryan for Gender Blender, one of those tourneys I never made it to. Also pushed off some more Paganello merchandise on him. Finally made some headway on the theme for Gallery on the wedding website. Expect that to go up this weekend, hopefully. Got another checkup for the eyes tomorrow morning, then we're headed out to Woodstock for the rest of the weekend. Bringing out a bunch of old kitchen stuff.

Finished up making Gallery look nice within the wedding website. So go here to see. If you have photos you want to share, you can do that too.

1. Click on the Register link on the bottom of the page.
2. Fill in the info
3. An email will be sent to you from weddinginfo@abando.com (it might go to your spam/bulk email folder, so check there as well. You need to activate your account via a link in that email before you can log in. So click that.
4. Then you can log in via the Log In link at the bottom of the gallery page.
5. You will be taken to your personal album under the By Guests album in the Gallery.
6. You can hit the Add a Photo link in the white box to start adding photos, or the Edit link at the bottom.
7. Thanks for sharing
.

I've already uploaded photos from my Uncle Luis and Cousin Ron and Tracy's Cousin Arnold. Also available are some photos from our Honeymoon. I finished that up Friday night while watching something. I don't remember. Saturday the eyes checked out fine. Finally heard some cicadas. Haven't seen any swarms yet. Of course, haven't ventured into any fields or forests either. Did some shopping at Oakbrook Center, stopped by Prime Outlets in Huntley for some more shopping, all while Tracy and I had matching outfits on (light blue shirts with khaki shorts). Nice dinner of steak and crab legs with my parents, watched the Cavs win the East while my dad's H20 DirecTV receiever kept rebooting. Did some work on Sunday morning, more food from Mom for breakfast, before finally heading back into the city the scenic way, stopping by an REI in Northbrook to get Tracy a bike lock and helmet, and some grocery shopping at Treasure Island. Dinner was more leftovers from Mom's dinner from Saturday night, while watching Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. You know, just another weekend of married life.

Sorry to all the Internet Explorer users who tried accessing the Wedding Gallery yesterday. I never tested it out under IE. Until yesterday, when I noticed it was severely broken. Looks fine in Firefox and Safari though. So you should all switch. Anyway, figured out some of the problems, uploaded a new theme last night, so you should at least be able to view the gallery in a decent manner now. Hope that hasn't stopped any of your from registering and uploading photos of the wedding. I've forgotten to mention that I'm currently reading Can I Keep My Jersey. Not bad, but a little repetitive. More leftovers for dinner last night, watched some TV, fixed the wedding gallery for IE. That's pretty much it. Supposed to start the marathon training today. I'll be trying Hal Higdon's Marathon Traing for Novices. Best part, I won't actually be training for a marathon, just want to be part of a training schedule. And get to eat what I want again.

Went for a 3 mile run. Indoors on a treadmill last night to start my Marathon Training. Exciting. I've got to calibrate my Nike+iPod before I start running outside, which I should be able to do after finally finding out where the 1/2 mile markers are along the lake front running path. Although the treadmill is nice because there's a TV there. I might have to convert some DVDs again for the PSP to watch while running that way. Made Lemon Chicken for dinner last night. Quick and easy. Easier than ever I think. I went running while Tracy watched John Tucker Must Die. I did catch the beginning and the end. Seemed pretty cute. Also put together Tracy's new bike, a Dynamic Bicycles Runabout Easy-Step. Had a couple issues with a few of the accessories and attachments which I don't think were tested on such a small frame or a step through frame. Need to get her a spot in the bike storage room in the building. It'll be kind of nice to have her riding along when I'm going on the long runs over the weekend.

Ok, so I tried running on the lakefront path to calibrate my Nike+iPod, but I didn't go the right way, and never found the distance markers, which upset me when I was out last night, but now that I realize it's my fault, well, I just have egg on my face. Anyway, I'll try and do it right this time. Just need to follow the signs, that's all. Tracy's dinner last night was a nice pasta with Shiitakes in a lemon sauce with some of Amy's Sausages as well. Watched American Dreamz. That's Dreams with a z. Odd movie, funny in parts, and seems to end rather abruptly. Tracy took her bike out for a ride, and liked it, so I went ahead and ordered myself one as well. A Sprint that is. I'll start looking into what it would take to do some commuting, and looks like I could jet down Halsted, since that has bike lanes, or down the lake front path. Not sure. We'll see if that happens. But getting closer.

Sounds like another song by R. Kelly. But I found the lake front running trail going north (it bends towards the lake at Montrose). So I think the Nike+iPod is calibrated. But I think I need to do it a couple more times to make sure. And maybe reread the instructions. But after the 3mi last night? I was exhausted. Good thing I get today off before my first long run on Saturday: 6mi. That might be the longest I've ever run in one session. Exciting, I know. Ribfest this weekend. Wonder if Gale Street Inn will represent again, and take my title for best ribs? Tracy did some shopping yesterday, got us a laundry cart, broom, and other household stuff, along with a new tennis racket for me, so we can play tennis, or more accurately, so she can make me run all over the court. Watched Step Up with dinner, marinated flank steak and guacamole with Mojito's. Date night tonight going to see Knocked Up.

Friday night was date night. But a date night of second choices. I hopped on the 124 which I think slightly changed routes, so it's actually faster to get to River East now than before. Supposed to get dinner at Lizzie McNeil's, but the patio was packed, and we were hungry, so we went next door to the Chicago Burger Company. Yeah, a fast food place that's part of the Sheraton. Not that good. Did get some Fat Tire though. That was good. Wandered over around 7:45pm to get tickets to see Knocked Up. There was a showing at 8:15 and 9:15. So the next available show is 10:15. Awesome. So instead, we see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Of course, it's not the DLP version, but rather a quite small theater. Odd for a huge summer blockbuster. But movie was good, and caught a bus home. Saturday went for my long run, 6mi. Rough. Tried calibrating the Nike+iPod, failed again. I'll just go by the mile markers on the running path. Afterwards, went to a local bike shop to see if we could get some rack extenders to get the rear rack on Tracy's bike, but didn't find any, but was able to fit it on anyway. Watched Accepted. Went to Ribfest via bus, met up with Jespy, got some ribs, drank some beers. Sunday had some tickets leftover, so Tracy and I rode bikes out back to Ribfest. It's still good on the second day. Got to see the Purina Dog Show. Want to get a Border Collie. If I had a yard. Still like Gale Street Inn. Watched a couple episodes of the Loop. I also have a some computer troubles, as I deleted some backups without realizing it was my only copy of some stuff. So I'm hoping I can track down the rest of it. But I think it was just music, most of which I have on CD, or from the iTunes Store. So I'm not that worried. Just don't have a consistent backup scheme. Which isn't good. I'll have to work on that.

Apple's WorldWide Developer Conference started yesterday with Steve Jobs giving the keynote. Haven't watched it via Quicktime yet, and probably won't get around to it. No need. Nothing too exciting. No hardware to get excited about. It was interesting to see the stock price drop $4 almost immediately after the keynote ended. I did try Safari on Windows though, and it's buggy. Not sure why I'll be using it. I did figure out a little bit more about my backup lost music and shows issues. Only missing a handful of episodes of Studio 60 and Veronica Mars, and those are on the Apple TV, so I can get to them if I need to. Joined up to a new bittorrent tracker site, which has a Dale Brown torrent which I've been jonesing for. Otherwise, not much else. Dinner was macaroni and cheese and kielbasa. Watched the last couple episodes of House, which seemed like a fitting series finale, except that it's a season finale.

Week 2 of Marathon Training. Simple 3 miles. Never realized that was to halfway between Diversey and Fullerton and from my place. Good to know. Not too bad, but I'm definitely a slow distance runner. I keep thinking that if I had to sprint with any of these runners passing me by, that I'd smoke 'em, but then again, maybe not. Maybe I'm just slower in my old age. Got a new bike, a Dynamic Bicycles Sprint, put that together. Need to get a rack and some panniers for commuting. Doing a lot of research on what to get. Wonder if I could someday bike out to Woodstock for fun. But I think I finally found a brick and mortar store to check some high quality touring bike stuff out at, Lickton's in Oak Park. Maybe we can make a run out on Saturday before Randolph Street Festival. Tracy made meatballs (recipe from Michael Chiarello), I made hotchocopots (recipe from Nigella Lawson) where were very similar to the Hot Molten Chocolate Cakes I make, (recipe from Emeril, I think). Watched some cooking shows like License to Grill where we found out you can grind dried mushrooms for spice rubs.

Sorry to all the RSS readers. Had some disk quota issues with my hosting provider that I think should be cleared up now. Thanks to Russell for pointing that out. Another 3 miles running last night. Easier than Tuesday, that's for sure. I haven't been doing my other exercising (sit-up, push-up, pull-up routine), but I might have to start again. Tracy went to the Green City Market, brought back various sundries. And she had a craving for chicken salad so that was dinner (the kind with noodles). Tried to watch some Creature Comforts, which is kind of amusing, but got sick and tired of the audio drop outs from my cable box, so just quit that. Wish I could just get a Tivo. Or at least a cable box that didn't have audio drop outs. More frequently now, but I think it might have something to do with the 7-8 HD movies we've got saved on there. On a computer related note: I moved almost all my music off Carbon, so I now have lots of free space, which makes the machine run much faster, so much so that it feels like a new machine. Who would have thought 5GB of free space isn't enough for swapping.

Another 3 mile run last night. Went straight down inner lake shore and met up with the running path after Belmont. Super easy. Oh, forgot to mention that I stopped taking the bus home because of traffic. Roughly takes the same amount of time to take the El and walk, but at least I'm moving that way. The bus is fine for getting to work though. Leftovers for dinner, watched some TV. Date night tonight, going to wait for a table at Lizzie McNeil's and going to see Once, which I saw the trailer for last night. Looks good. Tomorrow going to try and catch Michael Chiarello at the Custer Street Fair in Evanston before heading out for a BBQ at Tracy's parents place. Then on Sunday headed up to Woodstock, err, Huntley, for another BBQ and Father's Day with my dad. Also, we'll be switching cars, and I'll be leaving Puck at my parents place, and bring Tracy's Volvo back to the city. Want to try and hit the Cascade Drive-In Saturday night, but not sure if that's gonna happen. Oh, and need to fit a 7 mile run in Saturday morning. Busy.

I know, a Saturday post. Go figure. Didn't go to the casual ultimate birthday party last night. Date night instead. Got to Lizzie McNeil's early enough to snag a patio seat. Nice. Menu's a little light, but the chicken fingers Tracy had were pretty good and the ham and cheese on a croissant I had was decent, maybe because of the horseradish. But they had Bass and Harp so that's all good. Afterwards, saw Once. Fabulous movie. Indie style. But I'll be getting the soundtrack. Definitely. It's really good. I love when the creative process is captured and shared. Goosebumps. Today went running, 7 miles for Marathon Training. Rough. Don't know when I'm going to call it quits, but I wouldn't be too surprised that I couldn't make it. Then we went to Custer Street Fair up in Evanston. Got to see a Michael Chiarello cooking demonstration. Seems like a guy I'd want to hang out with. Funny. Real. Didn't get any real festival food, no funnel cake, elephant ear, or corn dog. Then headed down to Tracy's parents place for a BBQ tonight.

To finish off the weekend, BBQ at Tracy's parents place Saturday night for Father's Day. Nice dinner on the deck. Sunday morning tried to find someplace to get some breakfast, ended up at Pancake Cafe, where someone switching stations in the kitchen resulted in our order getting lost, a 45 minute wait for food, and getting comped by the manager. That kind of sucked. Then headed up to Huntley for the FVFACM picnic and to see my parents. Good times. If a little too hot. Then back into the city, only in Tracy's car, (my mom drove Puck back to Woodstock). Watched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which was really good, along with The Loop, Entourage, and the Star Wars episode of Robot Chicken, which wasn't nearly as good as I hoped. Tracy and I are thinking of going for a bike ride tonight, if it stays dry.

Didn't go for a bike ride with Tracy last night, since it started raining on my way home from work. Maybe Friday or this weekend hopefully. She did make some orzo concoction with mushrooms which was pretty good, and she had pan seared scallops with a balsamic reduction, while I had a breaded halibut fillet. Watched last week's Hell's Kitchen, then How I Met Your Mother, before I did a Factory Reset on the DVR, hoping to get rid of the continued audio drop outs on HD channels. Annoying. I just realized that Lost is available in Widescreen from the iTunes Store, previously it wasn't. That's good. Tempting. Oh, and I've started reading the Death Gate Cycle. My Sony Reader is definitely getting a workout. It's interesting seeing all the trailers around downtown for the filming of The Dark Knight. I walk down Randolph, pass a bunch of lighting set up on the street, and did some reading that supposedly the Tumblers are in the garage near Franklin. Still, haven't seen anyone famous yet.

More Marathon Training last night. Only 3 miles. Again. Hard to believe that I consider that a short run now. Go figure. Tracy made chicken soup (with real stock) and some bread salad from Michael Chiarello's cooking demonstration from last weekend. Good stuff. Watched most of Eight Below as well. Had some halo-halo. Decided to go ahead and get Lost:Season 3 and Heroes from the iTunes Store. I had some gift certificates leftover, so went ahead with that. Also need to really figure out my media storage layout issues. Omnigraffle to the rescue! Or at least pretty pictures of the layout anyway. 4 miles tonight. Lots of iPhone news and activity, and Apple stock is all over the place. Hard for me to get excited when I know I won't be getting one for a while. Bought chips and cookies to store at work for lunch, so all I've got to do is bring the sandwiches.

For some reason, well, maybe not quite unknown to me, I was exhausted last night. Went for a 4 mile run after work for Marathon Training and then Tracy and I rode our bikes to Yak-Zies Bar and Grill for dinner. Tracy was craving wings. Note: the mediums are like fried chicken wings, the hot are pretty good. But after that? Exhausted. Maybe it was the bike ride, but it's not like we went very far, nor pedaled very hard. Also, it was the first time taking out my new bike, so I was scared the entire time of having it stolen. But that didn't happen. We also got to use our lights, which was pretty cool, but useless to us for seeing, but good for being seen. Also, as I looked up, it's the law. I think I also need a rear reflector, but I think that depends on the language of the law. Hoping to finally check out some panniers this weekend, if we get out in time. After I get some of those, and a rack, I'll be all set to try commuting to work. So there's the whole The Dark Knight filming going on near work, right? Well, there's a couple threads on SuperHeroHype Boards about filming in Chicago. One of them actually reference one of my posts. Odd seeing that. Anyway, I haven't seen anything really new. Just that they had directions for extras last night on the corner of Franklin and Washington to food and stuff. Didn't take a picture though.

Nice to know that I'm not running tonight. Need it. The short 3 miler last night was pretty rough. Good thing it's only a 5 miler tomorrow. The joys of Marathon Training and having an outlet for whining. Tracy made dinner, as usual: pork chops with a mango chutney and a spinach salad. I had halo-halo for dessert, after picking up some creamed corn to give it that extra umph. Watched The Office marathon, and Tracy realized that Jim and Pam are the new Ross and Rachel. So, next season they'll get together, break up at the end of the season, dance around it for the rest of the seasons, and get together at the series finale. Whoops, did I just spoil Friends for anyone? Running into space issues on the Apple TV, considering that I've got 2 full seasons to go through, plus the second halves of Studio 60 and Veronica Mars, and no real easy way to make playlists to sync that make sense (say, unwatched episodes in episode order?), makes me think about upgrading the hard drive in it. Another movie night tonight, finally going to try and see Knocked Up. Not sure where dinner's gonna be though.

Finally went and saw Knocked Up on Friday night. Go figure, had to wait in line, like it was a premiere or something, before they'd let us up into the theater. Also, the 8:15pm on a Friday night, 3 weeks after opening, it sold out. I'm impressed. Granted, I think it's a pretty good date movie. I think. Anyway, we went to India House for dinner before. The movie was funny, but I expected more, I guess. Not as funny as my expectations. Hard to see Marshall as anyone but Marshall. After the movie we walked down to Randolph and Franklin to check out the filming of The Dark Knight, but it was too early, and nothing really was going on. So we just went home. Saturday did my 5 miles in the morning, lounged about for a bit before heading out to Oak Park so I could check out some Ortlieb panniers. They're pretty cool. I'll be getting some soon. Then wandered around a bit before heading back in and stopping at Sam's Wine and Spirits looking for some Raki, which after looking it up is like Turkish Ouzo. Tracy had seen a Thirsty Traveler episode on it. We got some Arack instead, which is from Lebanon, so it's not the same but of the same family. She made mechado for dinner, and I whipped up some chocolate mousse for use with the puff pastry and whipped cream maker to make Napoleons. We watched The Weather Man finally. Love Chicago based movies. Sunday more lounging, headed out to check out the Gay Pride Parade, did some cleanup, watched Waiting... and Entourage. Tracy was gonna make a run out the 'burbs today, and we're headed out to dinner with my parents for my mom's birthday tomorrow.

Went for a 3 mile run last night for Marathon Training because we're going to dinner at Lou Malnati's for my mom's birthday tonight. Tracy made fried rice for dinner. Watched Annapolis, The Loop, and Good Eats. Looks like the iPhone hype is out and about. The guided tour and Macworld Video Podcast intro look great on the Apple TV. Took me a while to figure out how to take a video podcast and turn it into a regular Quicktime movie (so I could make it part of the fake iPhone TV Show for use on the Apple TV. Anyway, looking forward to playing with one, eventually. I wonder how they'll be on display at Apple Stores. Sad to see Apple stock taking a little hit today. Seems a little odd. Getting close to having an organization system for media and media backups. Trying to organize picking up my dad's new TV before the RWIP party on Saturday. Picked up some more Thera Tears eye drops, preservative free, because I was running out. The ones with preservatives just don't do it for me. And I'm trying.

Three times. That's how much longer it took to get out to Lou Malnati's in Elk Grove Village. I thought, with the Cubs game, and evening traffic, that I'd avoid the highways. So I took the back roads. Bad idea. Up to Petersen then over to Touhy and then 72. And instead, 2 lights were out on Petersen, the major one at Petersen and Cicero. Awesome. 1 1/2 hours. Took 30 minutes taking the highway back, and that includes a slight slowdown at the O'Hare interchange, where the traffic sign noted an accident and at the end, No Smoking. Seemed a little odd until we passed all the emergency vehicles and caught a wiff of gasoline. That would explain the No Smoking line. Anyway, my parents and Joy ended up waiting an hour before Tracy and I got there, but we were only a half hour late, they were a half hour early. Food was good, but they didn't realize there's Lou Malnati's all around the Chicagoland area, including some that deliver to the condos. The original is actually in Lincolnwood. Watched another episode of The Loop and Good Eats before bed.

Really? Doing a 4 mile run for Marathon Training last night and managed to turn my left ankle in the first mile. Awesome. Finished up the run though, didn't think it was that bad. And it's fine, if I'm walking in a straight line on level ground. But going down the stairs to catch the bus? Not very happy. Running to catch an empty 135? Not happy. I hadn't sprained an ankle in like the last 2 years of playing ultimate, and I do in my 4th week of marathon training. Go figure. But walking from the bus to work, I found it amusing that both my ankles hurt, the right from the Potlatch injury from 2004 and the left from last night. Awesome. Dinner by Tracy was homemade pesto and fried chicken. Watched Four Brothers and more Good Eats. Started working on the Apple TV upgrade. Kind of annoying making sure that I have valid backups of my iTunes Store purchases. Have to double and triple check that files are in places that I think they are. One instance where the Windows Explorer would come in handy.

Didn't run last night, instead wandered over to Northerly Island for the first time, met up with Tracy who brought the picnic spread to hang out and eavesdrop on the Ben Folds Five and John Mayer concert. It was cold. Good thing I had my sweater on me, but I really wish I had a hat. Lots of kids about. No wine though, the cops were actively checking. It got too cold, so we got up and walked around to warm up, and to get away from the kids, saw a bunch of bunnies playing, heard Ben Folds start up, set up again on the marina side of the island. After Ben finished up, there were firetrucks, ambulances, and the scuba team that showed up, along with a helicopter. Not sure if it had anything to do with the concert. Also, I haven't seen any news about it on any websites yet. Odd. But we left around 9:15pm to head home. Caught the 146. Noticed the line at the Apple Store already. Amazing. Made some pastry cream, baked some puff pastry, used some squashed raspberries Tracy got from the Green City Market to make some dessert. Easy and good. Watched another episode of The Loop. Also tried to keep track of the NBA Draft via Opera Mini. Kind of annoying. Would have been great to have an iPhone for that. Flying out of MDW tonight on Southwest to Dulles (IAD) to visit Lisa and Ryan for the weekend. Back late Sunday.