Wow, missed 2 updates this week. Odd. Wednesday night walked up to Erie Cafe for dinner with the Walls, and it was good to see them. Thursday night stopped by Best Buy on the way home. Tracy's early birthday present was a Wii, which I thought I had gotten a deal online, but that was totally not the case, since there was a stack of them at MRSP. Ugh. At least I got all the accessories, and I'll set it up this weekend. Give us some physical activity to do together, besides random races. Also finally picked up some Cachaça. And a six-pack of Xingu which rang up at $1.99. Awesome. Tracy made a shepherd's pie type dish but with ground turkey and squash. Watched Eli Stone and 30 Rock. Only got the Hot Chocolate 5K on Sunday. Otherwise, just planning on some house improvement stuff, hanging shelves, installing pull out drawers for cabinets, lid holders, maybe moving the server/cable modem and stuff to the master bedroom closet and open up the 2nd bedroom. Not sure though.

Another day, another missed update. Monday night Tracy made pork, squash, beans over rice. Watched The Office and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Last night watched The Unit, House, and Mad Men. Tracy made jerk chicken and coconut rice. She also picked me up from work, since she voted early out in Homer Glen. So that was nice. So actually, not a whole lot going on. Headed out to dinner tonight with the Walls, since Chris is in town. Haven't been biking to work. It's cold, and I was sore from the run on Sunday, and I don't have a whole lot of cold weather gear anymore. I'll probably pick it back up after the run on Sunday.

Friday night got carryout from Cozy's Noodles for dinner. Tracy had to do some shopping for costumes for the Trick or Treat Trot. Watched Mad Men. Saturday Tracy worked, so after watching The Unit and cutting some fabric for Tracy's costume, got a haircut then headed up to Evanston for lunch with Russell at The Celtic Knot. Then headed over to watch Body of Lies, before heading back down to pick up packets for the Trick or Treat Trot, get a new pair of shoes, water Mike's plants, and pick up dinner from Crisp. Watched Superbad on demand, finally. Pretty good. Sunday dressed up as a ghostbuster and Tracy donned her Slimer costume, and we walked up to Montrose Harbor, and ran the 5K. We stuck around for the costume contest, and didn't even make the cheer off, but there were only like 8 people in the contest anyway, and about that many people still there. So that was pretty stupid. Lounged about on the couch afterwards. Watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium before heading over to Tony's for turkey. He, of course, had an awesome looking space. Watched some Entourage when we got home, and bedtime. Still sore from the running. That would be the first time running since Muddy Buddy. Awesome. And another 5K for this coming Sunday.

So going back to Wednesday night, I finished trimming the shelves for the closet. Picked up some reinforced cutting wheels from an Ace Hardware near the Sears Tower, which made short work out of the rest of them. I managed to extend the top shelf, but didn't do the rest since the work was really loud. Tracy made some roast chicken for dinner. Watched House. Thursday ordered up Tracy's birthday present, a full month in advance. There was also a wicked headwind on the way in to work. Pretty annoying. Finished putting the shelves up in the hall closet, and it's much nicer to look in, and easier to store things, like bags, umbrellas, and stuff. Nice. Next up are a couple shelves in one of the 2nd bedroom closets. Tracy went with crabcakes last night. Watched Grey's Anatomy and The New Adventures of Old Christine. Just signed Tracy and I up for the Trick or Treat Trot on Sunday. Maybe I should go running before then, like tonight? Also, Tracy's gonna try and set us up with some costumes. I just need to catch up on Mad Men on Saturday, and maybe lunch or a movie with Russell.

So the wire shelves I cut for the closets don't quite fit. I need to trim them, just the edges. Annoying. I'm using my Dremel and cutting wheels, which works ok, but takes a while, and I really should get some ear plugs for safety's sake. I'll go out and look for some new cutting wheels today, that hopefully would last longer. But a couple more days and I should have the closets done. Tracy made chili for dinner. Good stuff since she used some previously grilled chuck for it. Added a nice smoky flavor. Watched 2 episodes of Heroes, and How I Met Your Mother. And it was freezing last night, and we're finally gonna start using the thermostat. Also realized I don't own sweatpants. Seriously. I need something to wear when it's freezing out. Turned off the faucet on the roof, so that should be all good.

Didn't have to ride home in the rain at all yesterday, it was nice enough to stop before my commute. That was pleasant. Stopped off at Home Depot to get one more shelf for the closets, which I'll hopefully get around to installing today. And hopefully it'll be an easy process. Last night got around to putting up the drapery rods from Restoration Hardware that we got on sale a couple weeks back. Now we just need the window, or in this case, door treatments. And it was pretty easy. Shouldn't be that hard to do the rest of them, if we want to. Had some langonisa for dinner, watched a bit of Smallville, Eli Stone, and Samantha Who?. I've been looking for an iPhone wallpaper. I had been using the stock Earth wallpaper, but tried out my Arashikage Clan symbol, but wanted something different. Maybe an Obama '08 image? Or something fall-like? I do have some Kaze Pandas that I've used before. In the end, I went with some Star Wars Election propaganda. Tina Fey wore the Princess Leia t-shirt on SNL earlier this season, and well, it makes a pretty good wallpaper. So that should tide me over for another couple of weeks. Not sure what I'm gonna go with after that though.

Argaos totally pulled off a surprise birthday party for my mother-in-law on Friday night. Completely unexpected on her part. Impressive work. Also, niece Ella was in town, along with her parents, so got to see them as well. Took the Metra out on Friday night, and stayed out there. Saturday did some shopping, borrowing the in-laws RAV4 to get some 7' tall bookshelves from World Market. Also got some more odds and ends, vases mostly, for decoration. Also had lunch and shopped at the IKEA in Bolingbrook. I do like that store, wandering through all the displays and setups. I like all the mockups. And they even hack themselves, which is pretty cool. Really like the soft close hardware for cabinets, and might look into retrofitting ours. Would be nice. Also would be nice to have frameless cabinets, instead of face frame. Oh well. Maybe if we ever redo the kitchen. But the 2nd bedroom is finally in pretty good condition, with bookshelves. Just need something to hide the printer and cable modem and Airport Extreme and associated wires. The one we were interested in is no longer available for sale. Whoops. Sunday the in-laws came over, and Tracy and I cleaned up all morning before they got there. Got rid of a bunch of boxes, too. Had lunch over at Nookies Tree. After they left we went to Home Depot, got another pot, and finally some additional shelves for a couple closets. Watched the Bears game, which was great, because we hadn't heard anything about the game yet. Also watched Saturday Night Live, which wasn't that good. Rode in to work this morning, which was good since I was sore from going up and down the stairs this weekend. Bad because it's raining, and I have to go home through it.

Stopped by the old home on the way home last night, picked up mail. Probably have to do that more frequently as the holiday season approaches, with catalogs and stuff. After dinner of leftovers and watching Kath & Kim, did some grocery shopping, stocking up on baking supplies. Keep forgetting that I don't have a rolling pin. Made a couple pumpkin pies and some espasol. Hopefully the pies turn out okay. They didn't seem all that solid when they cam out of the oven, but a knife came out clean, so I figured they were done. Finally got some barstools, they got delivered today on Tracy's day off. Maybe some more home decorating shopping this weekend. Otherwise, nothing too exciting.

Thanks to Brady, I discovered FriendFeed. And because of FriendFeed, I'm rediscovering all my various accounts in all my online social networks and stuff. It means I'll try and post photos to Flickr more often. My Facebook status will reflect my actual status, when I want to share it. And I'll start Twittering again, and this time limit it to thoughts, comments, and observations, much like mini Musings. Oh, and start keeping track of websites and articles I'm reading via del.icio.us. Rode home in the chilly rain last night. Good timing, since Tracy made chicken noodle soup for dinner. I whipped up another Pumpkin Loaf, and have kept the recipe since I like this one. Just need to figure out how to add crumbles on top. I think I'm making pumpkin pie tonight, and maybe espasol too. Watched Grey's Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother. I listed out a bunch of shows I want to get from the iTunes Store. Oh, and programmed the old cable remote to handle audio through the receiver in the living room.

So what's happened in the last 16 hours? Sleep. Work. Read along and sort of kept a running diary of the Apple Event from yesterday, The Spotlight Turns to Notebooks (October 14, 2008). Lots of griping by intarweb forums that Apple didn't give them what they wanted. My take? Boo hoo. Will I be getting one? A new MacBook? Eh, I'm currently running one from Mid 2006. I should be in the market for one, but you know what? Don't really need it. My iPhone handles most of my portable computing needs, and I don't do any traveling, or anything that might require having a true portable computer. I thought a MacBook Air might be my next machine, but it still has a button on the trackpad, so I'll just wait until they update that to buttonless. Funny, people wanting Apple to add buttons, and Apple goes ahead and removes buttons. Forgot to mention we made chicken stock last night. Hopefully it's good. Oh, belated congrats to Machine and Nemesis on qualifying for Nationals.

With the weather getting cooler, I tried out using a sweater vest for biking. And wow, it keeps me warm. Impressively warm. And I look pretty snazzy wearing it. Also, I raised my seat a bit more, and it's like night and day. Legs aren't as sore any more, and I seem to get more power. I'm cruising in 6th and occasionally get up to 7th. I'm impressed. Either I'm getting in shape, or I'm closer to getting my bike dialed in. However, some creaking has popped up again. Have to see what's up with that. Monday night tried making a Zuni Cafe style roast chicken. I even used a hair dryer but my skin wasn't crispy. Annoying. Chicken was good though. Ended up shredding it and Tracy used it in a tetrazzini concoction. Watched TV with dinner. Last night it was an episode of Private Practice that the DVR missed and I bought in HD off the iTunes Store. Quality was amazing. And the lack of commercials? Awesome. Tonight watched Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, The Big Bang Theory, and Samantha Who?.

Friday night went out to dinner at HB Home Bistro. Got wine at Kafka's beforehand, since it's BYOB. Next time, don't get a full bottle, since we had to finish it. Ended up being an early night for me. Saturday lounged about, watched Mad Men, set up the receiver in the living room (auto calibration rocks), the Apple TV, and the remotes. Rented Speed Racer and The Forbidden Kingdom. Went grocery shopping, twice. Actually made dinner, handmade squash ravioli and some garlic thyme chicken. Making pasta without a pasta roller is hard, making it with a beer bottle because we hadn't moved the rolling pins is even harder. But doable. Sunday had Frosted Flakes for breakfast, saw Jess pass by doing the Chicago Marathon, made it to mass for the last half hour, since I had schedules mixed up, and had spamsilog (a little classed up with caramelized shallots) for lunch and tried watching The Forbidden Kingdom, which had some encoding issues (center channel wasn't showing up), so watched Speed Racer instead, which is one of my new favorites. It's awesome. I did get a refund for the Forbidden Kingdom, but hope they get it fixed. Still want to see it. Did some laundry, vacuumed. Thought about putting up curtain rods. Leftovers for dinner. Finally got around to making a pumpkin loaf. It's not bad. Probably should make some more.

Scrambling at work all day. Last night dropped by old home and picked up more stuff. Wonder if I can bring more stuff over in a cart of some kind this weekend. I'm tempted to make a walking trip down to Home Depot to get some closet stuff. Or maybe try and strap stuff to my bike. Of course, I'd need rope or some sort of strapping system. Tracy grilled last night for dinner, some meat and assorted veggies. Watched Food Detectives, The Office and The New Adventures of Old Christine. Started ripping for transcoding Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also transcoded some odd and end movies, like Navy SEALs and Antitrust. Oh, and need to fix the cabling on the living room TV because the jacks seem loose or something. I got some L-RCA (phono) connectors, and hopefully that'll solve the problem, otherwise, I'll have to get some more extension cables, and maybe that'll fix it. I think it's because of moving the TV on the mount back and forth and up against the wall and stuff. Hopefully nothing too serious. Tracy's working the weekend, so should be pretty laid back, and I don't have a haircut tomorrow.

Rode up to Bryan's after work, picked up an Apple TV, then rode home. It was good, a nice hour of riding, although heading down Addison isn't one of my favorite routes. Speaking of Addison, Private Practice didn't record last night, even though the night before I had it scheduled properly. I really don't like the Comcast DVR software and guide data, and how it resets all the time, and shows keep showing up as new and therefore recording, when they aren't new at all, but the guide data is wrong, or doesn't have the correct information. Not to mention that Showtime HD doesn't show up in the HD Channels listing. Annoying. It really is tempting to lose the cable stuff. I wonder if I could talk Tracy into it, especially with both TVs hooked up to Apple TVs. Then we'd get shows, no commercials, a la carte, from iTunes Store, or ripped from DVDs. It'd be great. Much like Frosted Flakes.

A neighbor must have signed for the FedEx delivery yesterday, because I had a nice new Sony STR-DG820 Home Theater A/V Receiver (7.1 Channel) sitting in the vestibule for me. Thanks, whoever you were. Got soaked on the way home last night, but it wasn't that bad. Just wet. Sandals were still wet this morning when I rode in. Watched Private Practice with leftovers for dinner. Need to get a couple things from the old home, like an extra power strip, a optical digital cable, the old RAM from the Mac mini. Oh, the new receiver looks pretty cool, and comes with a microphone to do auto-calibration. You're supposed to put it on a tripod in the listening position, and it handles all the levels and settings automatically. So have to bring back the tripod too. Also getting an additional Apple TV for the living room, and have to stop by Bryan's to pick it up.

Missed a FedEx delivery yesterday morning. Annoying because of the signature requirement. Annoying because at the old place I'd never have to worry about it with a receiving room. Ugh. Hopefully I'll either get home in time, or maybe postpone it until Thursday when Tracy has the day off. Either way, a lot more annoying than usual. I wonder if I should just send stuff back to the old place. Anyway, more leftovers for dinner, ribs this time. Watched Bones and How I Met Your Mother. Started transcoding My Boys. I've pretty much turned the MacBook into a transcoding station. At least I know it's rock solid, and won't go randomly rebooting on me. I definitely have to do some troubleshooting on the Mac mini. Seriously. It's probably just bad RAM, but it'd be nice to know for sure. Finally getting bar stools for the kitchen bar. About time. Also need to find a way to get bookshelves from World Market, since they charge an arm and a leg for online order and delivery. Ugh. Wonder if I had an Xtracycle, would I be able to haul it home?

Friday night had some leftovers for dinner, and some mac & cheese and kielbasa. Can't remember if we watched anything of note. I spent some time trying to get the scanner to work again, and finally did, this time using Image Capture.app instead of any Canon application. Works pretty well for me. Drove out to Woodstock on Saturday, Tracy got up early enough to hit Green City Market with April. Went looking for pumpkin donuts from Dunkin Donuts, but the 2 we tried were all sold out already. Got home around 1pm for the Abando Home Gathering. Went out and picked up Bryan and Joe Little from the train station around 2pm. Then started eating. The rest of the group wandered in over the next couple of hours. Went and picked up Akira at the train station at 5pm, then came back and played some touch football. I'm still sore from it. Then a campfire, with an excess of gasoline starter, s'mores, then more eating, some football watching. A very good afternoon/evening. Sunday went to mass and went out to breakfast/lunch with my parents at Burnt Toast, a pretty good breakfast only place in Elgin. Then Tracy and I wandered through local roads back into the city, ending up at the Goebbert's Farm & Garden Center Pumpkin Farm, which had no entrance fee, and was pretty well set up. Got some cider, some apples, some donuts, some gourds, and of course, a giant pumpkin. Also had to go to Oakbrook Center since we had a coupon at Restoration Hardware, and picked up some curtain rods for some doors. Picked up rocks from Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn. Leftovers for dinner, and watched Entourage.

Meat is good. Got home from work yesterday, got the Flavour Shaker from an old Amazon order from a while back as a gift for Tracy. She really likes the Jamie at Home show, and wanted one, so order up, and a while later it finally does. Haven't used it yet though. Watched Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which actually was pretty good I thought, the one mostly about Cameron/Alison. Maybe I liked it because it was similar to Firefly? That's a possibility. Anyway, took the train down to dinner at the Chicago Chop House. Good times. Made it back home on the bus. Have to say I'm not a fan of the Red Line. Thought I had some problems with the Drobo, but a reboot fixed whatever problems it had. Maybe all the Mac mini crashes had something to do with it. Also had some issues with Tracy's laptop not connecting to the network properly. I think I might have too many Airport Expresses extending the wireless network, as her laptop was connected to 2 of them at the same time. Odd because my MacBook right next to it had absolutely no problem on the wireless network. Headed out to Woodstock tomorrow and Sunday.

Didn't get EyeTV and the HDHomeRun set up in time, and missed the first 5 minutes or so of Pushing Daises. That's the show that got pushed off the DVR because The New Adventures of Old Christine and Bones were recording. Annoying. Hopefully I'll be able to record the rest of the shows, but then again, when would we have time to watch them all? Also didn't record Chuck from Monday, since it conflicted with How I Met Your Mother and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Good thing about Chuck is that it's replaying on Saturday night. Never got around to watching Privileged, so that got shoved off the DVR scheduled recordings. I did finally finish transcoding Kitchen Confidential though. The issue with Disc 2 was I think on one of the extras, so I wasn't worried about it. I do have lots of TV Shows I need to edit metadata on, episode titles, numbers, and so on. Just kind of putting that stuff off. Tracy made stuffed peppers for dinner, eaten while watching Grey's Anatomy. Mike and Amy stopped by after the game, to use the bathroom, and ask some questions. Headed out to a steak dinner with the boys tonight.

Picked up more stuff from the old home yesterday. We get lots of junk mail there still. Moving stuff by bike would definitely be easier if I had an Xtracycle, which I saw for the first time on a commuter the other day. Awesome. Anyway, packed up a couple bags, put 'em in the baskets, and rode my way over to the new place nice and slowly, since I was packing a jewelry tree and some bottles of liquor. Getting cold out, definitely cold enough that I'm wearing a hat while biking. Oh, also picked up a keychain garage door opener. It's awesome. No longer have to dig through my bag for the garage door opener. Just have to reach into my pocket. Been having some issues transcoding Kitchen Confidential, so maybe it wasn't the Mac mini. Disc 2 especially, but Disc 1 went fine using the MacBook instead. Watched Desperate Housewives, Bones, and more old How I Met Your Mother.