Picked up some cable claws at Home Depot, planning on using them to quick attach folding Wald metal baskets to the bike, but didn't find the baskets I'm looking for at Performance Bike on Halsted, so I plan on dropping by Village Cycle Center on Wells tonight to see if they have what I want. Also picked up some Lillet Blonde from Binny's and made myself a Vesper with dinner. Eh, it was ok, but I'll stick with regular martini's from now on. Also met up with Tracy for some grocery shopping. Nothing too exciting there. Made a quick and easy chicken pot pie with puff pastry and a can of soup. Watched Bones, which wasn't as good as I'd hoped, and Heroes. Really wish the season was over and I could watch all the episodes back to back. Then I don't have so much of a problem with the slow setup during the early part of the season. I should get around to reading the PDF comics though. Oh, started marinated last night some asian BBQ ribs for tonight, and Tracy's gonna make some wontons, so asian theme for dinner.

Wow. Halloween tomorrow. Go figure. Didn't stop by Binny's last night because I wasn't sure if I had Lillet Blonde. Checking at home I found out I had Pimm's No. 1 from the last trip there. So, Lillet Blonde tonight for a Vesper with dinner. Tracy doesn't trust me grocery shopping by myself anymore, with good reason, so we get to go together if I get back in time. Leftovers for dinner last night, finished off the cupcakes from Cupcakes. A little too much buttercream, I think, for my tastes. Watched Journeyman, Chuck (tv show), How I Met Your Mother, and another episode of Firefly. Got 4 more and the movie left there. Might be time to start watching The Unit, or start transcoding Las Vegas (tv show). Oh, and there's that whole Leopard release from last Friday. No, I haven't upgraded yet. I will eventually. No rush. Nothing there I'm dying to get. Probably in a month or so. Hopefully by then the iPhone notes syncing will get all squared away. Still need to try Gmail IMAP access to see if it's any good. On the lookout for a new Windows laptop for Tracy.

Friday night Tracy finally got her wedding ring back from the jeweler, so she didn't get back till 9pm or so. I watched some Firefly and actually cooked dinner again, some chicken roman style or something. It was ok, but when we had leftovers on Sunday night, Tracy made it better, adding some sour cream and some other stuff. Saturday we watched some TV before heading out on foot for some shopping down Broadway, stopping at The Gap, Cupcakes, Best Buy, that mall in the Landmark Theaters. Just a nice stroll on a cool fall day, checking out neighborhoods and houses. Came back, watched some TV, then headed out for dinner at Socca. Saw some people headed out to Halloween parties in costume. Finally got around to watching Smokin' Aces. Sunday finally got the piano tuned. Supposed to use a humidifier, since it actually dropped in pitch, or tone, whatever it is it was flatter. Then more couch time, watching football, eating frozen pizza and leftovers. Also got around to watching Casino Royale finally. Didn't really organize the firewire enclosure, but did manage to get the new drives installed. Just not sure how I want to keep things organized. Still plugging away with transcoding movies to the Apple TV. Ended up watching more Firefly and The Core off it this weekend.

Did more biking than usual yesterday. Went up Milwaukee and met up with Russell and rode up to Bryan's. Picked up food from Smoque, and I think I still smell like BBQ. Good stuff. Got see to Tanguay as well. Been a while. Watched Survivor and got to play Wii Tennis and Golf for the first time ever. Fun stuff. Rode a nice convoluted route back home, cause I don't know of a nice and easy way to go East/West. No problems though. Might have talked Tracy into getting a Wii, except she does bring up the point of whether it would get old quick or not. So yet another thing to table for a bit. Got my new HDs for the firewire enclosure, thinking about reorganize the drives this weekend, and the AV Rack as well, clean up the wires and stuff. Finally getting the piano tuned on Sunday. Definitely been a long time for that. Otherwise, nothing else planned.

I now dislike the Windy part of the Windy City. I hate getting a head wind both going and coming from work. How hard is it to keep the wind blowing in the one direction? It did get pretty bad in spots on the way home last night, and it's days like that that I am grateful for the drop handlebars, so I can tuck in and decrease my wind resistance. Ugh. Annoying. Ordered up some more hard drives for the firewire enclosure, because I ran out of space recording stuff via EyeTV. Which means I missed last weeks episode of Reaper. I also forgot to setup automatic recording of Dirty Sexy Money so I missed a couple weeks of that too. But that's annoying because it's been starting at 9:02 pm, and I'm not sure if that's a continuing thing or not. So I had to move around some files, and realized my iTunes drive is almost full up, so I might have to rethink my strategy of letting iTunes maintain control over file structure. I might have to split it out over multiple drives. Except that I am getting a couple new 500 GB HDs. Storage is really cheap these days. Puts me up around 2.6 TB. Continued ripping DVDs for transcoding to the Apple TV. Put the first 10 or so on last night. Totally awesome to be able to queue up a movie in DVD quality with just a snap of the fingers. Might be tempting to just have the Apple TV live off the iTunes library of the Cube, since that will always have the full source of TV and Movies available. Anyway, finally getting to an all digital fully on demand media lifestyle. If I could just get a new machine to do EyeTV - Apple TV transcoding, that would complete the circle I think. Tracy made salisbury steak and mashed potatoes for dinner last night. Watched Firefly and Bones. Headed up to hang out with Bryan and Russell tonight, and get some Smoque while I'm up there. Also checking on UPA Championships, just cause.

Hmm, Gmail now does IMAP. Interesting. I've set up Google Apps for Domains for abando.com, and I'm tempted to switch email over. Of course I'd need to get all the users, that is, my family, to use gmail+imap to get their email, but then they'd be able to use gmail for webmail, when they aren't at their computer. And they wouldn't have to worry about downloading. Hmmm. And I wouldn't be dependent on a hosting provider, and I could upgrade the Google Apps to premium and get 25 GB of space for email, so I could upload all my email. Yup, I think I'll do that. Too bad I couldn't do something like this with .Mac, I'd rather do it all Apple Style, but you really can't beat Gmail, I don't think so anyway. Definitely getting colder out, and I'm feeling like a wuss for getting bundled up on the ride home last night, and it was 50 something. That's nothing compared to the winter. I actually put gloves on this morning for the ride in to work. Had a frozen chicken stir fry for dinner last night and we watched Firefly, Smallville, Heroes, Carpoolers and House.

Started using my arm warmers while biking, on the way home until I switched to the jacket when it started raining last night, and on the way in to work this morning. Kind of nice, but now I think I need a vest. I like the ventilation, but not the cold chest aspect. So vest I think it is. Maybe I'll stop by the Performance Bike shop on Halsted for a vest on the way home. Tracy made some fried chicken cutlet thing from the chicken breasts flattened by me. Watched some more Firefly, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, and Samantha Who?. Almost finished transcoding the first batch of movies for the Apple TV, about a quarter total of the ones I want to do. Now I have to repeat the process of ripping DVDs to the external drive, then setting up a queue in Handbrake to transcode. Wish it could be more automated than that. And Firefly is just such a good show. Like astonishingly good.

Friday night leftovers. I think we watched Bionic Woman and maybe Grey's Anatomy. Saturday had breakfast, watched some cable, went to Navy Pier via bikes, went grocery shopping, Tracy made porkchops for dinner, and we watched the rest of Veronica Mars. Kind of ended on a whimper. Oh, and I finished transcoding Firefly for the Apple TV, so I started watching that in bits and pieces. Wow that show is just plain good. Also did some food prep for Sunday night football watching. Sunday another grocery shopping trip, a little clean up, watched A Lot Like Love on the Apple TV, started watching football, had Jespy and April and Scott over to watch the Bears, and they won in the only exciting minute thirty of the game. I watched a couple players I dropped in SCFFL score pretty well, including Rob Biornas 8 FG for 29 fantasy points. I played him the previous two weeks. Seriously, I've got to be in the running for most inept fantasy manager ever. However, I did pull out the win over Bjorn. I am no longer in last place. Finished off the night watching Desperate Housewives and Journeyman.

No major storm on my ride home last night. A brief rain shower, but that's it. Roads were actually dry closer to home. Tracy made chicken Masala and Palak Paneer (from a box or a pouch) for dinner, and I made another batch of espasol. We watched Private Practice and Pushing Daises. Went grocery shopping separately at different times, and I came back with some impulse buys. Not much planned for the weekend. Didn't sleep too well last night, as I was coughing a lot, so I think it's the tail end of the cold. I think I've got a source for Apple discounts again, so maybe that will help with the ongoing plea to upgrade computers at home. I should put together a budget presentation to try and see if that might work as an argument. I also started looking at some additional hard drives for the firewire enclosure. HD takes up a lot of space, as do files for the Apple TV.

Rode my bike in to work today. Kind of looking forward to the rain, but didn't get any on the way in. Of course, the weather report looks a little bit nastier than just rain. Hopefully I won't have any tornadoes or hailstorms to worry about. But even that might be a little fun. Wore the new rain jacket on the way home last night. Nice, but a little suffocating, since it's waterproof. Not overly so for a rain jacket though. Tracy made spaghetti for dinner, and we watched Smallville and Chuck (tv show). I forgot to mention that Chuck gets bonus points for using a Cake song in the intro. That's cool. Happy to see others doing some trading in the Speaker City Flag Football League, henceforth known as SCFFL. I think they're filming something else on the block near work, but I don't think it's Rory's First Kiss again, at least I don't think so, although they are set up in the same location. Equipment doesn't look as nice as the last time they were around. Continue to be nagged by the cold, but it doesn't seem all that bad this time around. It's certainly no flu, that's for sure.

I need some better arguments to try and convince the wife that we should switch out the Cube for a Mac mini in the living room. It's smaller and it's faster didn't work all that well. I'll keep trying though. Should have preorder this stuff in April. Finally watched Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan last night. Pretty funny. Not really up for repeated viewings though, once is enough. Had chicken adobo from my mom for dinner. That's about it. Also, been getting a lot of trade inquiries in the Speaker City Flag Football League. That's amusing. Most of it is for the same 2 players. I think it's because last week the players I traded away so far had outstanding weeks. I hope they all get injured this week. Even the ones on a bye. But I'm guessing I'm a good trade partner, because I'm giving away value and not taking nearly enough in return. At least, that's how I feel about it. Or course, I'll probably get around to trading eventually, just probably not this week. Especially since interest is so high on one of my players. Thinking about dropping by Patagonia on the way home from work today to try out a jacket.

So, had another problem with my disk quotas at Prohosting, which means I couldn't write to my rss feed, so things weren't getting updated. Thanks to Russell for letting me know. I'm also on a month to month basis now, instead of yearly prepay, so I'm looking for options. Speaking of which, Leopard's release date was announced today. Of course it's tempting, and I've been waiting on it, as well as maybe updating some additional machines/network around the condo, but I actually have to run it by the wife first. Wouldn't have had to do that if I was single. I'll have to try and come up with some convincing arguments. Leftovers for dinner last night, watched Bionic Woman, Grey's Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, and Samantha Who?. I also made espasol for Tracy, which was pretty good. I think I've got a head cold, but it hasn't gotten that bad yet. I'm kind of surprised, as I'm usually flattened by an illness, but then it goes away. So this nagging type of cold is different.

Taking the Metra out to the 'burbs is actually kind of nice. As is the nice open spaces and slow small town atmosphere. Tempting. Friday night went out to Tinley Park, got picked up by Tracy, had dinner with her folks at the Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant. Not bad. Got to sleep on the way home while Tracy drove, which is not the usual M.O. Of course, after my nap, stayed up to watch Journeyman while Tracy went to bed. Saturday headed out to Woodstock via Woodfield, trying to get Tracy to check out the Sony laptops, if needed, which actually might not be, and just random shopping. Made it out to mass, then dinner by my parents. Good stuff as always. Started the laundry, mom finished it (thanks mom!), and we watched some TV including some Food Network in HD, since my parents have DirecTV. Sunday got up, started feeling like I was getting whatever illness Tracy's fighting through, breakfast by mom, watched the Bears lose, created a DVD via iDVD of my parents vacation photos, and packed up to head back into the city. Stopped by REI on the way in, got myself some colder weather cycling stuff, arm warmers, gloves, jacket (nice and bright yellow), hat and blinkie. Still wouldn't mind an actual jacket, and not a windbreaker, and I'm awfully excited about the arm warmers. Stopped off at Whole Foods, got a pumpkin pie and some pumpkin gelato. It is fall after all. April came over for dinner, borrowed some internet, dropped off her wedding present, watched some TV. And I found out that I won't be getting an iPhone until mid to late November, since Tracy's contract doesn't end till then. Ugh. More waiting. I just want a new toy to play with.

No commute by bike this morning since I'm taking the train out to the 'burbs for dinner with the in-laws, it was the mother-in-law's birthday yesterday, or is it today? I should know these things now. I'm headed to Tinley Park, which means I'm leaving from the LaSalle St. Station, which is a first for me. So that actually meant taking the bus, and I don't remember the last time I took the bus. Actually, I just looked it up, and the last time I took the bus to work was August 10th. Huh. Wow. I should keep track of how much money I've spent on bike stuff and find out when I'll break even vs. public transportation. It'll be a while. Last night Tracy made some more nilaga and we watched House, Private Practice and The Office. This weekend we're headed out to Woodstock to see my parents, and do some shopping. Tracy's on the lookout for shoes, and I want her to take a peek at a new laptop, and I'm looking for shoes as well, and cold biking gear, so that means Woodfield on the way out and maybe REI on the way in. And we'll try and do some laundry out there as well.

It's pretty cold for biking. I really need some colder weather gear for biking. Something windproof. I wore my rain jacket on the way home, didn't feel any wind, but my shirt was soaked by the time I got home. Not sure what to get, I'd prefer something that I can fit a sweater under when it gets colder, but maybe something light enough that I could wear a t-shirt under when it's not so cold out. On the prowl for that. I guess I should have gotten something from that Pearl Izumi outlet store out in Aurora. Maybe next time. I made dinner last night, some easy make oriental chicken stir fry where one of the ingredients is a can of soup. Not bad. Watched Desperate Housewives, Bones, and Pushing Daises. Daises is very very quirky. It's not really like much anything else on TV these days. Kind of refreshing, like a sorbet. I'm trying to put iTunes tags on The Unit episodes I've transcoded, and it's annoying how long it takes. I'm assuming it's because the entire file has to be rewritten when a tag is changed.

Yay. Got the HDHomeRun setup last night. Not sure if recording 3 things at once won't result in any stutters or drop outs, but we'll see eventually. If I wanted to, I could record 5 separate shows (2 on the DVR, 2 via the HDHomeRun and 1 via the EyeTV 500) at the same time, each major broadcast network if I so desired. Good to have that as an option. Tracy made soup last night. We watched Chuck (tv show) and Heroes. Both were, eh, ok. Definitely got a lot colder, had to wear my under helmet hat on the ride to work this morning. And it's supposed to rain today, so I probably should have brought the rain pants, but didn't, just the rain coat, I think. It was cool rolling up to the empty bike rack this morning. Felt like an accomplishment.

Got my HDHomeRun last night. Didn't get around to playing with it until 10pm since I had stuff recording on the DVR so couldn't unplug any cables until it was done. And, once again, I'm reminded of what is not Apple. No plug and play. Still, pretty easy, but for some reason I couldn't get a TV listing from Titan TV. I did the first time, then not anytime thereafter. No error message, just no listing to choose. Then remapping by hand of Clear QAM to channels in the program guide. Annoying. If Apple ever did get around to making some sort of set top box to work with cable companies, it wouldn't work like this, that's for sure. Annoying. Leftovers for dinner. Dropped by Binny's on the way home from work and picked up some gin, since we ran out, oh, 7 years after I bought the first bottle. Also picked up Tracy's 'scripts from CVS. Didn't get rained on, but it did start to sprinkle a little. Not sure when I can get around to setting up the HDHomeRun to work with the Cube, since I don't want to mess with my existing system. Although the only thing I'm recording tonight with the Cube is Reaper.

Friday night Tracy had a craving for Mexican, so we wandered down to Cesar's for food and drink. Watched some stuff on the DVR. Saturday I went and dropped some old electronics off at the recycling center, stopped by Erehwon to check out jackets for colder weather biking. Watched more stuff on the DVR, to the point where we cleared it pretty much of new shows. Then we headed out to Logan Square for dinner and drinks at El Cid before checking out Tony competing in the Cut and Paste Design Competition. Definitely felt a little unhip. Took some video of his work in the first two rounds. His first round was awesome, and seriously head and shoulders above the rest of the group. Second round, not so much. Stopped by the grocery store on the way home for supplies. Sunday, Tracy and I made our separate breakfasts, watched The Covenant, the Bears win this time, and Smallville. Tracy made dinner of steak and pesto mashed potates and sauteed mushrooms. Oh, we also painted another hallway wall, and went down to Michigan Ave. to do some shopping, picked up some picture frames from Crate and Barrel. Pretty good weekend overall. Oh, also started transcoding Two Guys and a Girl so Tracy can watch on the PSP while working out.

Cubs season on the verge of being over. Which means no more Cubs traffic to deal with until next year. That's if they lose on Saturday, and the game's at 5pm, which could make getting out to see Tony compete in the Cut & Paste Digital Design tournament in Logan Square on Saturday night a little difficult. Deciding on whether or not to ride bikes or drive. Riding bikes I think means heading down Diversey, although Roscoe is nice too. And it's at night with Tracy, so we'll see. Last night she made some ground beef concoction which was pretty good, and I had DSL installed upstairs for my parents. Well, and for me when I go up to visit with them. Watched Private Practice, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock and part of Life (tv show). I've forgotten to mention that I tried out a couple flavors of ice cream from Vosges Haut-Chocolat that are really intriguing. The curry/coconut? It's curry, but in ice cream. I can't decide if it's desert or I should put some chicken in it. It's great and confusing. The other is the spicy chocolate. Kind of odd, but intoxicating. Also confusing. Why is my mouth hot and cold at the same time?

Why are all the shows in the 2007 Fall TV Season that I want to watch an hour long? That's a lot of time. Also, I also have another reason for preferring to buy seasons on DVD or through iTunes Store: I'm not so good on the fast forwarding through commercials, so I'm always over, and skipping back, which means I'm always seeing stuff before it happens. Also, it's not so much a seamless experience like watching a movie. Anyway, I like it better. And usually worth it for me. Tracy and I just ordered delivery from Giordano's for dinner last night. The thin crust wasn't thin enough for Tracy, so we're on the lookout for a pretty thin crust pizza that she likes. Watched Heroes, Journeyman, Carpoolers, Reaper and Big Shots. Pilots still on the DVR that I want to check out and need watching: Life, Pushing Daises, and Dirty Sexy Money.

Stopped by Kafka Wine Co on the way home yesterday and got a bottle of Chardonnay. I figure we should keep up the wine stock, so whenever we use a bottle, got to get a bottle. Which means we should have 3 bottles, not including dessert or sparklings, available at all times. Maybe we should increase that to a bottle of each major type, or at least the ones we like, Malbec, Shiraz, Chardonnay, Vouvray, Reisling, Pinot Noir, maybe a Chianti. Or just Red and White, meat or chicken, hot or cold. Whatever. Heated up some old bistek from the freezer and cooked and burned some langonisa for dinner last night, as Tracy did her exercises. She actually used the in-building gym for running. Maybe I should start that. Or at least keep her company. Watched The Big Bang Theory, which must be doing something right because Tracy laughed at one of the bits, Grey's Anatomy, the next generation, and Bones and How I Met Your Mother, oh, and a missed episode of Burn Notice, but that was less watched then just played in the background. Had some work to do from home, got that done. Bought an album (new Dashboard Confessional) off Amazon MP3 for the first time yesterday, ended up cheaper than iTunes Store, but then bought another album (new Missy Higgins) off the iTunes Store because that's where it was available. Go an install appointment for tomorrow night to get DSL working in the parents condo. It's more of anything a backup in case my cable service ever goes down.

Dropped by SportMart on the way home from work yesterday, looking for another UnderArmour ShooterSleeve to create a matching set so I have something to use while biking. Or I could get some other sort of arm socks. Or start wearing long sleeve shirts, or a jacket. You know, all of those would probably work. Anyway, didn't find anything. Got home, Tracy was making a chicken marsala (sans marsala) for dinner with the hen of the woods mushrooms from the Green City Market. A little too woodsy for our tastes. But it was worth a try. Watched Chuck (tv show). Eh. Watched Burn Notice Season Finale, since a bunch of things on the DVR had the hourglass (soon to be deleted) icon next to them. Made me go out and get a HDHomeRun, so I can record everything and not really worry about space too much. Hopefully. I image I won't actually run out of space for the season. Also, found out that Tracy hasn't seen Fight Club yet, so I might make her watch that tonight. Not sure what to transcode next for the Apple TV. Maybe some movies.

Friday night Tracy and I attempted to go see Superbad at River East. We wanted to get some dinner beforehand, so we planned on going to Nuit. However, traffic was really bad down Michigan, I think because of Critical Mass, but I'm not sure. Anyway, too late for Superbad, and ended up just going home after dinner after we split a bottle of sake and Tracy tried some bonito flakes before knowing it was fish and had to take some Benadryl. So she slept when we got home, and I watched SherryBaby, some Kitchen Confidential (tv show), Gossip Girl, and some other stuff I don't remember. Saturday we biked down to the Green City Market, picked up some hen of the woods mushrooms, some apple pears, some shallots and garlic. We stopped by Pastoral on the way home, and finally picked up some cupcakes from Cupcakes, which were fabulous. Watched some more Kitchen Confidential before heading out to couples dinner with the Russells and the Wangs at Gale Street Inn. Ribs were awesome, company was pretty good too. Grown up night might start to happen on a more regular basis hopefully. Watched Failure to Launch when we got back. Sunday made some waffles (the Good Eats recipe which I won't use again because we aren't fans of the buttermilk) and watched the Bears lose. Finished up Kitchen Confidential, had leftovers for dinner, and finally watched Reaper, which was pretty good and stays on my list. Forgot to mention that The Unit and How I Met Your Mother are both on iTunes Store, which is great. Another couple things to get season passes to. Almost done transcoding Season 2 of The Unit. And transcoding DVDs for the Apple TV look fabulous on the Apple TV, and better than the stuff from the iTunes Store. But, for me, can't beat the convenience. Oh, and there's a chance that Tracy might want an iPhone as well. So here's crossing my fingers.