Was gonna head over to Bryan's last night to watch some football, but wimped out. Tracy had just worked out, it was cold out, and we actually do have the NFL Network. So we passed. Had frozen pizza for dinner, watched Grey's Anatomy to pass the time while the DVR recorded the game, then tried to fast forward through as much as possible. I think I'd either rather just watch highlights, or just watch it live and do other things, then deal with working the remote. Either way, didn't play Patrick Crayton in SCFFL, again, and of course he scored some points. Awesome. Also tried calling AT&T Wireless to get set up, but they were closed. Probably do it this weekend. Supposed to go to the FedEx Tennis Shootout at the UIC Pavilion on Saturday, but I'll wait and see what the weather's like. Although could see Pete Sampras and Todd Martin live. Oh, and using a new machine at work, and haven't installed Flash yet, which makes web browsing a whole lot less flashy. It's nice.

Heard back from the wedding videographer, and he's only 5 weddings away from ours. I'm actually impressed he's that close. I imagine he's been booked since the spring, with the only time to work on things during the week. And editing takes time. And I hope he takes time off during the week. So yeah, that's in progress. Heard back from the guys at Dynamic Bicycles, and they're shipping out a new shaft, which is what they think broke. I'll have to take a look at it to see if that's actually the problem tonight, but wait and see. And heard from the people I ordered the VESA arm for the iMac G5 a couple weeks ago, and that should be on the way shortly. Should be calling soon about switching over to AT&T Wireless, since Tracy's brother called and gave permission to move her number from their family plan to my new family plan. Still plodding through transcoding DVDs for the Apple TV. There's a 250 GB notebook drive, which is awfully tempting. I'm actually running out of room with the 160 GB. More about the bike, I just ordered some other things, like new brake pads and handlebar tap. Anyway, leftover spaghetti for dinner, made way too many noodles, and watched Housex2 and Shrek the Halls. Puss in Boots is absolutely adorable. If he had his own movie, I'd watch it. An entire movie of computer generated kittens? Awesome. Also Gingie's version of Night Before Christmas? Also awesome.

Yup. Broke the bike last night. Started cranking on Cornelia to hopefully make it to Broadway when the light turns green, something snaps, and the pedals spin freely. Not good, but nice that it happened not so far from home. Before taking it apart to see what exactly is wrong, I ran an extension cord in the coat closet so we can charge Tracy's phone while it's still in her purse. This way I won't forget to put it back in her purse when I take it out to charge it. Makes it easy. Back to the bike: I got the cranks off, but couldn't get the front gearbox covers off. It's not the rear bevel gears, because I took the cover off and saw that those are engaged. I'm guessing it's the crank axle or gear. If I could get the front gearbox covers off, I could find out for sure. Not sure how to get it off though. Also I'm waiting to hear back from the Dynamic Bicycles people on warranty or spare parts. I also took a crack at the the old mountain bike to see if I could figure out what's wrong with the rear shifter. Ended up something with one of the springs, but I couldn't figure out how to get the shifter apart. So maybe I should just get another one, or ride it as a single speed. I do need to get better tires for it though. In the meantime, it's back to the bus for me. I do get to read the Sony Reader again though, so that's exciting. Otherwise, Tracy made crabcakes for dinner, she watched Grey's Anatomy, which was notable only because it's the first one where I remember noticing a nurse. Three seasons and the first time? Definitely odd not being on a bike, and not being able to just go, and having to wait.

Still riding. Forgot to mention that I did a little bike work on Sunday night because one of my brake levers was loose. I wasn't sure how they worked, so I just took it apart. Realized I didn't have to do that to tighten it up, but now I know. Ended up taking off half the handlebar tape off, so I'm riding lopsided now. But I figure it's a good time to put some cross levers in so I can brake while upright. Also about time to get some new brake pads too. Anyway, dropped by Home Depot on the way home to pick up a tube so I can fill the humidifier tanks without putting it in the tub. I still need to find some sort of attachment method so that I don't have to hold one end up to the faucet. Also picked up another bottle of wine, since we had a bottle of white last week. Leftover turkey for dinner, watched Chuck from last week and this week and How I Met Your Mother. Also found out that chiropractors are expensive, and we should stick with the insurance that pays for it.

Lots of food this weekend. Friday night had leftover turkey from home, but I had to go searching for Ocean Spray Whole cranberry sauce, not the jellied kind, for Tracy. I struck out at Jewel, so I wandered over to Treasure Island and found some there. Also managed to find some Stovetop Stuffing for Turkey there as well, which they also didn't have at Jewel. Watched some TV after Tracy did her exercises. Saturday drove out to Woodstock, picked up cupcakes from Cupcakes on the way, and stopped at the Des Plaines oasis for gas and lunch. Also stopped by Prime Outlets in Huntley on the prowl for a blazer from Gap, which they didn't have. Also went looking for a winter coat, which I didn't have to do, because my parents had gotten one for me when they went shopping in Kenosha on Friday. So that's a bonus. Went to mass, then dinner at Courthouse Grill in Woodstock. Great dessert in a skillet cookie. Couch time and watched Happy Gilmore and some MadTV. Been a while since I've seen MadTV and we weren't sure if they're new style is because of the writers' strike or that's just how they do it now. Sunday was breakfast at home, with a discussion on illegal immigration. Watched some football before going to Yu's Mandarin for an early dinner before dropping off Al and Nicole at the airport. Watched the Eagles almost beat the Patriots. Rode in to work today. Not too cold or chilly. Brought back more leftovers.

Thanksgiving was good, if busy. 26 people is a lot of people. Props to mom for pulling it off, and doing it all while fighting off a cold. Always impressive. Drive back in was quick and easy. No traffic. Watched a little bit of Dodgeball and The Incredibles and a rerun of The Office before bed. Rode in to work this morning, a little chilly, but not that bad. Definitely no traffic today. Also took a slightly different route in today, going down Larabee as I was Bjorn do once. Pretty nice, much fewer stoplights. Not sure where I should cut over to Wells though, as today I did on Illinois, but I could probably cut over sooner, maybe on Chicago. I should look into better winter pants and a balaclava (ski mask). I have been walking up congested lately. Also start getting congested the second I lay down in bed. Odd. Still waiting to switch over abando.com to Google Apps. Hopefully this weekend. We're headed back out tomorrow for some more family time. Al and Nicole fly out Sunday night, so we'll just drop them off on the way back in to the city.

Riding home last night was hard. Strong headwinds, and I was in fourth gear most of the time. Good workout though. No snow, just some rain. I do have to get some better rain pants, because by the time I got home my legs were soaked, not because of the rain, but because of the sweat that had accumulated. Annoying. Did some dishes, Tracy got back from her chiropractor appointment, we packed up and headed out to Woodstock. No really bad traffic, and the weather wasn't too bad. We made pretty decent time. Got home, had dinner with the family, my mom, even with all the Thanksgiving preparations, still had time to make chicken tetrazzini for a birthday dinner, and dad, Al, and Nicole picked up a cake from Ambrosia, actually, it was probably a gateau, Got to see a bit of their new practice stuff. Not bad. Have to wait on setting up abando.com with Google Apps email because I want to reuse a username I had deleted previously. I couldn't decide between longer or shorter usernames. Oh well, next time. I did manage to put Photo Booth on my parents iMac, so that might be good for the kids. 26 people coming, 3 tables set up: parents table, kids (where age average is roughly 30) and kids where the age is much younger. Should be a good time. No idea when we're headed back in since Tracy and I have to work tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to Tracy. Went out to Geja's Cafe for dinner. Pretty good, but we'd probably only go back for the cheese and chocolate. I might be willing to go back for the entrees if Tracy lets me bring our own batter for some frying action. Otherwise, Tracy had her appointment with the chiropractor who laid out a treatment plan, lots of visits over the next 4 months or so to get things straightened out. She asked to get the x-rays of her spine on DVD so she can show them off. Hopefully this will help. Didn't actually watch any TV last night. I have started ripping more DVDs to the Apple TV and forgot to mention or write down where I was finding cover art. I've been using CoverDig which searches Amazon for images. Works pretty well. I did ride in to work today, which should make the ride home a little interesting. And we're supposed to drive out to Woodstock tonight for Thanksgiving, but we'll see what the weather holds.

Well, a Mac mini 1.83 Core 2 Duo was once again in the refurbished Mac section of the Apple Store for $499 and I was once again tempted, even to the point of putting it in the shopping cart. Ugh. And then I removed it. Sooner or later. Now my excuse is to wait until it uses the Santa Rosa chipset. Excuses excuses. Made spaghetti last night for dinner. That's right, I cooked. Watched Journeyman, How I Met Your Mother (fabulous), and Samantha Who?. And watched my bench for SCFFL totally outscore my lineup behind a big comeback game by Vince Young. Of course I'd given up on him this season. Of course. This morning finally got an invite to Hulu. Try Kitchen Confidential to see what it can do. Seriously. I'll put up the entire series for that one. Tonight dinner at Geja's Cafe, finally.

Managed to not leave the condo this weekend. Friday night came home, Tracy made pork chops and we had some leftover gnocchi for dinner. Watched some TV. Can't actually remember what we watched all weekend in terms of TV, but the DVR is almost cleaned off again. Saturday nothing too exciting, as I was determined to finish off the Thank You cards from the wedding that was 6 months ago. Tracy spent the time getting her new computer all set up, which basically was bookmarks, music, and photos. She did it at the dining room table, so I set up shop there as well, and it kind of looked how I imagine it would be if we were still in school, with the laptops, papers and such on the table. We had frozen pizza for dinner, Tracy got the cheese only and put her own toppings on, in this case pepperoni, garlic, mushrooms and red peppers. I just went with sausage. More TV. Sunday, more of the same, had grits for breakfast, watched some football, watched Because I Said So, more TV, and yes, I finally finished the Thank Yous. Go expect those soon, after I run to the post office this afternoon. Also, I started reripping a few movies to the Apple TV, since they were missing like the last chapter. Annoying. Amazon Kindle got released today. Looks rather interesting. Just hope they can get more publishers and authors behind the whole eBook thing. And definitely switching over abando.com email to Google Apps over Thanksgiving.

Picked up Hooters wings and fries on the way home. Just put in my folding baskets and rode on home. I feel bad if anyone was riding behind me since I was most definitely leaving a buffalo wing smell trail. Awesome. And it worked out well enough, popping them in the oven when I got home to warm them up, and Tracy still liked them. So that's a go on that process. Watched Private Practice, Chuck, and 30 Rock. Tracy played with her new laptop, ShinyBox. That's what she named it. She's working the early shift today, so I got up early enough to have some coffee with my morning feeds in my bathrobe. Good times. Almost tempted to get a refurbished Mac mini 1.83 Core 2 Duo for $500 bucks. Have to get up early to find deals like that on the Apple Store refurb section. About 5 minutes after I first saw it, I checked again and it was gone. So tempting. No plans for the weekend.

Riding home last night was a pain. It was really windy. Stupid windy city. But I did make it home, but didn't get any junk food or anything for single night. Ended up making frozen pizza and drinking a can of Coke. That's all. Did open up and prep Tracy's laptop, not sure what we're gonna call it. Windows Vista? Odd. Windows in general? A little annoying. Took me a while to figure out how to get it to connect to my home wireless network with hidden SSID's. Couldn't connect to the 802.11n, so just connected to the 802.11bg that I have for everything else, and then I found out the 5.0 GHz radio wasn't turned on in the network card, so I had to do that with some Intel Wireless Radio tool. Annoying. Not to mention that I couldn't use passwords and had to use equivalent network keys, long hexadecimal strings. Annoying. But uninstalled a few programs, installed Firefox and iTunes, let Windows Update run (only 52 updates!). So it should be ready for her to use. And that means we'll be sitting on the couch, both on laptops, watching TV, chatting with each other but not talking. Sweet. Need to figure out how to get her music, well, the music she wants, onto the machine. Worked on it while Sneakers and The Incredibles played in the background. Also got some new shoes, Merrell Relay Drive.

Duke of Perth is a really nice place. Except they took the Scotch egg] off the appetizer menu. Kind of annoying, as I was looking forward to getting one. And that place is really close to home by bike. Not even close to sweating by the time I got home. And still a pretty early night at that, I guess that happens when you get older. Watched Bones, House, Samantha Who?, and Carpoolers. Polished off another page of thank you cards. Tracy had a chiropractor appointment this morning, so she got to sleep in a bit. She also has to pick up her parents from Midway tonight, and she'll be staying out there instead of driving all the way back in then out for work tomorrow. But this gives me a chance to work on her laptop which was delivered today, you know, clean off all the extra unneeded programs and bloatware. Of course, this means I have to fend for myself in terms of food. Not sure which way I'm gonna go though. Not in the mood for sushi, even though that'd be a great option. Oh, and I went through the ATM drive through on my bike this morning. No problems there.

Finally got a VESA mount adapter for the iMac G5. Been wanting one ever since I got the iMac. Of course I waited to make sure it was the right one, and fit on the iMac before getting the actually arm to mount it on, but ordered that up yesterday. Seriously, can't wait to have a computer mounted on an articulated arm. It's gonna be awesome. Tun came over last night to do a little work on his website, and I need to figure out how to do some different archives in WordPress. For that matter I need to get reassimilated with WordPress. Watched Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother (episode title Spoiler Alert was quite fitting), and The Big Bang Theory. Leftover chili for dinner. Forgot to mention that Tracy and I have been married for 6 months as of yesterday. And I now have only 6 more months to get the long overdue thank you cards out. Yesterday was my deadline, which passed, so I'm now on borrowed time. End of the week. Honest. Except that I'm going to Duke of Perth with Russell tonight instead of writing more of them. Whoops. Only 3 1/2 more pages of guests and gifts to go through.

I don't usually do this, but it's too good not to. Here's something to read that's very fitting:

The Nerd Handbook.

Yup. Uh huh. Right on. Correct.

Friday night, watched some TV, had frozen pizza for dinner, a nice lazy Friday night in on the couch. Saturday had grits for breakfast, got our haircuts at Robert Jeffrey Hair & Skin Studio on Halsted. I think that's my new hair place, wasn't too expensive, and walking distance from home. My old stylist, Mabel, hasn't come back and started Salonique up after an injury break, so I had to find a new one. Also went to the Gap. Didn't get anything. Started cleaning up some more in the second bedroom, organizing and stuff. Definitely closer, with only 2-3 boxes of miscellaneous stuff to go through. Ended up going to dinner at Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro. Eh. The Guinness and Onion soup was the best thing we had. We also sat in the same dining room as the guv'nor, Rod Blagojevich, as he was having dinner with his family and some friends. On the way out we passed his Suburban still running with driver inside. Poor guy. Hope they brought him some food. Watched A Night at the Museum when we got back. Good, funny, fairly wholesome movie. Sunday watched some Journeyman, made oven puffy apple pancake for breakfast, wandered down to the AT&T Wireless store on Diversey to ask about Tracy's account status. We think her family plan contract with her brother is up, so she should be available to start one up with me, but they just told us to call customer care to find out. Annoying. Don't think I can do it online either. So yes, switching to AT&T Wireless, but I think I'm going to hold off on the iPhone. It's been 11 months since it was announced, 4-5 months since release, 2 months since the price drop, and only another 2 months till MacWorld San Francisco. And even with all the updates, it still doesn't do everything I need, mainly sync Notes and handle multiple calendars like iCal. So I'll wait. In the meantime, I'll get a free Sony Ericsson phone for starting up a new contract, which means I can get some syncing back until the iPhone is good enough for me. Or, maybe I'll just cave and get one anyway. Either way, I'm switching. Did some grocery shopping, watched some football, Tracy made chili, cleaned up a little, did some laundry.

Been playing a little with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, or EC2 recently. It's pretty cool. Thinking about replacing the gallery and possible this hosting setup with it, eventually. We'll see. But it's pretty easy to use. The only hard part is making sure data gets backed up to Amazon Simple Storage Service or S3 and then pulled back off when an instance gets started. And of course making sure backups are handled all the time. Things to play with. Speaking of which, I think my bike is pretty much complete. I picked up those Wald Folding metal baskets for the rack from Village Cycle Center, which I think is my new favorite local bike store. Attached them before dropping by Home Depot to pick up some extension cords, which I dropped right into the baskets. Super easy. I love it. Did some more cleaning in the second bedroom, put the cinder blocks and plywood sheets from the stadium seating to good use as shelves in the closet. Also used the extension cords so the iMac G5 isn't connected to the light switch anymore. Tracy made fat sausage patties for dinner, and we watched Desperate Housewives, Chuck, and Samantha Who?. Got hair cuts scheduled for tomorrow. Oh, and some other movie production home base is in the empty lot behind my work building. I think it's Eagle Eye with recently arrested Shia LaBoeuf.

Noticed this morning that I only have 512 MB of RAM on the iMac G5. Odd. I thought I had upgraded the memory, and I'll have to dig around and see if I took it out for some reason. If not, I'll have to get some, and maybe that'll help speed things up a bit, and maybe cool things down? But installed Front Row on it, and I should use ethernet instead of the BG network I'm using with it now, if I want to be able to watch movies off a network share. But that just means I can watch stuff in the second bedroom now. Went and saw Bee Movie last night after dinner at Fox & Obel. Not bad, not great, and I was expecting more of the funny. I thought it had been in production for a long, so I was expecting something spectacular. Rode in this morning, and the Transition Zip T is absolutely fantastic. I started looking for a vest, and they used to make one in the same material, but looks like it's been discontinued, and no one has it in stock in my size anymore. Annoying. Maybe I'll go with just the Windstopper Vest, but that'll just wait until the spring. I'm also in the market for a winter jacket, so I'll be looking this weekend.

No bike ride in this morning. Tracy gets off work early, so we're going to go see Bee Movie tonight at River East, and it's all about the bus instead. Which is fine. A little different to get to work not sweaty at all, and with less to carry. And I got a Mountain Hardwear Transition Zip T for cooler weather commuting last night, and I don't even get to wear it. Until tomorrow. Should be much better than the rain jacket I've been wearing. Not really breathable at all. So looking forward to it. We had crab legs for dinner last night, and Tracy made more of the butternut squash soup with the little leftover we had. Good stuff. Also, I moved the iMac G5 from the kitchen back into the second bedroom. It's on the desk, which puts it a little high, so I had to track down a VESA mount for it, and after that comes in, I'll get a wall mount of some kind so we can lower it down a bit, although I'm not sure if the walls will support it. Should be interesting to see. But electronics charging takes place in there now, iPods, PSP, Sony Reader. Also after Leopard gets installed, will be able to use Front Row to watch any TV or Movies I've set up for the Apple TV. So we'll have other places to watch things.

Feels like fall, almost like winter. Still biking though, but bundling up. No problems there. Otherwise, Tracy made steak and potatoes for dinner. Good stuff, as always. Watched Ocean's Eleven on the Apple TV. Guess we could start The Unit again as well. Also watched How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory. Also, I won for the third time in SCFFL and broke 100 pts for the first time all season. I'm happy, again. So, might be time to blow the team up through trades, again, except I'm not so sure if I'll be able to find any partners. Also, not sure if I have a whole lot of trade value. The Writers Guild went on strike yesterday. Wonder how long that will go on. Also, the last time they went on strike was in 1988, and I wonder how that affected movies and TV for the following seasons/years. And for the matter, how long is the usual timeframe from pitch to release for a motion picture? Anyway, could be watching a lot of movies or old TV in a couple months.

Friday night Tracy and I were lazy, and ended up ordering Japanese delivery from some place. Ok, but it's no Sai. Watched some TV, finished up Firefly. Saturday watched Serenity to complete the series. Took our standard Saturday walk down Broadway, hit up CVS, checked out Gap. I'm thinking it might be time to get some blazers, as they seem to be on the tail end of the style spectrum, and hoodies are on the way in, at least from my fashion sense (which entails looking at store displays). Then, headed out to Piece to see Leo Wang, the MD/PhD one from Yale, in town for the first time in a long time. Good to see him. Ended up heading back to RWIP to play some ping pong and hang out. Sunday did some grocery shopping, made crepes for breakfast/Tracy made the sausage, then headed out to Old Orchard. I found a new home for the Think Different posters I had, so we brought them up to Bryan. More window shopping, and didn't really get anything interesting. I did get Tracy to figure out which Sony VAIO to get based on screen size, construction, keyboard, and stuff. So ordered that up for her birthday. Got some stuff from Target on the way home, did another grocery shopping run. Tried making butternut gnocchi, but I think I put too much flour in, and they weren't very pillowy, but fairly dense. Not quite how I remember the potato gnocchi I had made before. Still messy and pretty intensive to make though. I'd like to try again. Tracy made the sauce and pork to accompany, which were pretty good. Watched some football, but that's about it. Finally finished up transcoding the movies I really want to have available, and started up transcoding the Battlestar Galactica episodes finally.

Finally got around to making the asian BBQ ribs last night. Not bad. Not great either. Kind of winged it with the recipe, so I don't think it's exactly how it's supposed to be. Tracy just put together some stuff for the wontons, which were good, especially the fried ones, but they were definitely missing something. I thought scallions, but not sure what else. She did get the sauce pretty much dead on though. Probably make an appearance as an appetizer the next time we have company over. Watched Firefly, got a little weepy during the episode The Message, with Mal and Zoe's former comrade Tracy. Also finished up watching Samantha Who?, The Office and Scrubs. Had to shut down the MacBook since the Handbrake movie transcoding kept crashing. Seems to be going OK after a little break. Just a few more left. Forgot to mention that I tried out IMAP for Gmail. Not bad. Seems to work. Now just tempted to switch over abando.com to it. Maybe over Thanksgiving?

So no asian food night last night, instead Tracy and I went to Whole Foods for dinner, because we were going to meet up with April at Duffy's (she was on some Halloween trolley package something). So we had to come up with a costume, so we went with preppies/country club: khakis, white polos, and purple sweaters. And we didn't have to buy anything, as we already owned all of it. Just wish my pants had pleats. That would have been better. So we head down in a cab, and get out in front of Duffy's where there's a huge line. That's a negatory. Instead, we go down the street to the Galway Bay Pub, where Yak-Zies used to be. Was nice and quiet, only a few people in costume, but then something must have happened, because a bunch of costumed people started showing up. Also got to play some Cricket (darts). A little out of the ordinary for us to go out on a work night, but we had fun, so that was cool. But hopefully asian food night tonight, and the ribs should be better, since they've been marinating for 2 days now.