So my brand new cell phone started flaking out on me last night, but it's been fine this morning. I'll have to wait and see if I need to return it or not. Thanksgiving weekend went by in a blur. I did return Friday, but only made it out to the Apple Store at Oak Brook on Sunday. I managed to watch 5 movies since Friday; O, Swordfish, Rock Star, Sleepless in Seattle, and Death to Smoochy. That last one's funny. Really funny. I also ordered a pizza online Friday night. And 15 minutes later, it showed up on my door. The internet is amazing. For this week I've got another college friend passing through town, Dave Morse, on wednesday. I might go see an old college friend's new band play their first gig on Thursday night, the Corkscrews down at the Bog at IIT at 10pm. And I've got paintballing down at Extreme Park on Saturday with Cohen Financial and friends. Welcome to December.

Monday Night Dinner with Leah was Gnocchi with a tomato cream sauce, mixed green salad with romano crisps, and portobello mushroom bruschetta. I didn't have time to make a dessert, again. Crap, that's becoming a habit. I did find some time earlier in the day to make some empanadas. They're wee tiny ones, but still not bad. I gotta find a better dough to use than frozen puff pastry. I think I'll make some Lemon Lime tarts tonight, and finally get around to do some cleaning. The place needs it. Even though it only really lasted for a couple days, I miss snow falling. That definitely puts me in the Holiday mood.

I did manage to make some tarts, but they ended up a little slightly overcooked. I'm still playing with cooking time modifications on smaller individual tarts vs. large single tarts. Dave and I watched Citizen Kane, great movie, and then managed to get out to Frontera Grill for my first time. A couple blue agave margaritas, and it was a pretty good night. Walked by the empty shell of a building that will be the downtown Chicago Apple Store. Managed to make some chocolate pancakes for breakfast this morning, and dropped Dave off at the McCormick Center, my first time driving through there. Rather interesting. Also found out yesterday that the Oakbrook Apple Store gave me the Heisman for the Mac Genius spot. Understandable, but still disappointing. Next?

A full week draws to a close. Dinner last night at Grand Luxe Cafe, a nifty place that reminded me of the Venetian in Las Vegas. It was good. It's like the Cheesecake Factory in terms of menu and food portion size. I split the Buffalo Rolls and had the Crispy Caramel Chicken. Too much food. Wandered through Virgin Megastore, looking at more holiday music by popular artists that I want to get. Tonight dinner was at Angelina Ristorante. It was good, as always. I might have to start taking advantage of the 25% local discount on Wednesdays. Paintballing tomorrow. It's gonna be cold.

So a jam packed weekend also comes to a close. Kinda went be in a blur. Paintballing was fun on Saturday, not as cold as I was expecting, or even wanting really. Team fleece/non camo got toasted overall. Dinner was at Max's American Place on Division, not too shabby. I got to see Whitney's new place, fabulous. Sunday brunch with Leah and her brother Jeff at a great place called Orange on Clark. I'm definitely have to go back there again and again and again. And then dinner with the Stomp goers at the Grillroom. Yummmm, bone in filet. It was a blur, that's for sure. Not much on the horizon for the week. Last monday night dinner for about a month. Possibly a couple holiday parties on Friday the 13th.

So the weather's decent. Love Chicago screwed up weather systems. Love it. Anyway, Monday Night dinner got postponed to Tuesday Night, and was beef Wonton soup and fresh Spring Rolls. A little healthy, go figure. Got to watch Serendipity, end of Death to Smoochy, part of Glengarry Glen Ross. At work had some issues with SCSI on a blue & white G3 and OS X. Ugh, I just don't want to think about it. Looks like Drumline on Friday, nothing like a quality movie about college marching bands. Aside from a couple holidayish parties I might make an appearance at.

My little iBook, I think, has died. It's at least on it's deathbed. Probably a little too much modifications by me, the overclocking, the painting, the multiple deconstructions. Sad. Watched Reign of Fire yesterday, got my car washed, finally, and baked some cookies the other day. I actually got to buy flowers, some Gerbera Daisies, and show up on Leah's doorstep to give them to her. Went to Guthrie's last night, a nice neighborhoody bar with board games and stuff. Played, well, sorta played Dr. Laura's Board Game. Stay away from the game, it's no good. Stick to stuff like Connect Four. I also managed to get some Christmas candy for my candy bowl, and apple cider, orange and carrot juice, and Arizona Green Tea for my fridge. Liquid binge, I guess.

I put up some Christmas lights at my place, just a handful around my small tiny little fake christmas trees, and rope light randomly arrayed by the windows. It's festive. Went to a couple more bars this weekend. After Drumline, a pretty good flick, and dinner at Smith and Wollensky, a great steak place in Chicago, go figure, made it to Bar Celona for a drink with Leah and friends. After dinner Saturday at Piece where I got a handful of fake Piece Tattoos, one on my shoulder, but after dinner there with Russell, Sarah, Whit and King being seated by Raime and served by Carlo, I made it to Mystic Celt to meet Leah and friends post TFA shindig. So 3 bars, all in about 4 days. Impressive for me. I also managed to scarf down 11 Krispy Kremes for sustenance on Sunday, and managed to make the chewy chocolate chip cookies for the boys for poker. Oh, I also made it out to see some old old college friends at Bender's Shakespot Holiday Party on Friday, so a quick shout out to the Schizz. Good to see y'all again. This week I'm gonna try and make the rounds again, and see or catch up with people I haven't seen in a while before holiday break.

I just got wasted by pretty much a one day flu on Monday. I was absolutely worthless. I pretty much spent the day either asleep or watching movies on my couch. Not a bad way to spend a monday, except for feeling like crap all day. But I felt much better today, enough to do some laundry and get out and about. It looks like I've got to replace an ethernet card on my router box, so I'm either gonna do that or set up my spare G4 as a router box instead, and go All Mac All the time at the Abando Condo. Going to see the Two Towers sometime this week, and possibly even twice. And I've got the urges to watch sequels, like currently I've got Toy Story in, and will watch Toy Story 2 later. I'm also thinking about the Jurassic Park sequels too. Oh, and I did promise to watch the Godfather Trilogy before February I think.

So the ethernet card on my router box is just fine. It didn't go bad at all. But I figured out that some of my memory in my Cube's gone bad, which sucks. Probably means a whole lot of corrupted stuff on my hard drive. Damn. Computers dying all over the place. Going to see the Two Towers Twice, once tonight at 9:30pm and then again tomorrow at 5:30, same theater complex, and it'd be funny if it ended up being in the same actual theater. And there was a slight chance I could have seen it this afternoon, but that just didn't happen. I leave on Saturday to head back to Woodstock before heading to LA and Vegas for the Family Holiday trip. And then 3 weeks later I'm back in LA for Lei-Out, a beach tourney. Crazy, as always.

Got my oil changed this morning, a week late and about a 1000 miles overdue. Go figure. Dinner last night at Twisted Spoke. The first time I saw the place I never thought I'd ever go there, I mean, there's a skeleton on a motorcycle out front. But great food. I'm in the recovery period for my illness from earlier in the week. That means my sinuses are draining. Not very pleasant. Ugh. I'm stuck doing email checks and web browsing from my brother's old Wallstreet under Mac OS 9 since my OS X machines are all having issues. I miss OS X and it's lickable interface. Hard to go back. I've still got to do some laundry, packing, and shopping before the RenderBlender Christmas Party.

Spent the day with James Kennedy. Good to see him, old high school friend. Renderblender Party was fun, and holiday-riffic. I managed to walk away with a small box of Frango Mints. Managed to see Nemesis and Pumpkin today, the movies, with the latter being the better of the two. Switched my parents over to Earthlink as an ISP. That is until I someday switch them over to Direcway, the two way satellite service. This next week or so is definitely going to be a blur, with not knowing what day it is, and a major holiday in the middle of the week as well.

I was born in a small town. So hanging out with James again, and managed to see Gangs of New York, which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed the Kill Bill trailer at the start, which looks fabulous. I was a little annoyed that they had the wrong aspect ratio for the screen, wasn't wide enough. Dinner at Applebee's and proud as I am to say it, and this mean's more to the hometown readers, but I went to Duke O'Brian's for the first time ever. Then some fun time goofing off at the Borders in Crystal Lake. I tell ya, CL is where it's at. Anyway, I gotta pack, since the flight is tomorrow , Flight 873 on American. Hmmm, I wonder if putting my flight info up is a good or bad idea.

Made it to LA just fine. Plane was a bit delayed, the ride a bit bumpy, but here in the city of angels. And loving the DSL my brother has. Ah, sweet broadband, how I missed thee, even for a short 3 days. Addicting? Of course. But the family's together for the holiday, and should be a good time. There should be Abando Family Fondue for Christmas. I get to show the wonders of Mozilla to my brother, and do a little bit of tech support for a Wireless Access Point. Oh, and I managed to fix an issue with my phone not going to voice mail on calls when the phone was off. Finally got to see Scooby-Doo on the plane. It's a funny movie. Very amusing.

So Christmas comes and goes. Dim Sum for Christmas Lunch at a place called Ocean's or something in the LA Chinatown. Then got some odd lychee flavored icee with little Boba's, like tapioca but spherical. Odd little drink. A nap, and then a family viewing of Catch Me If You Can. Quite good. Very amusing. Then some veg'ing and some odd and end computer work. The gift exchange happened on Christmas Eve, which actually ended up bleeding into Christmas Day. Headed to Vegas and staying at the Paris. Should be a good time. Gonna try and hit up the Apple Store for any possible job openings. I forgot to mention that Christmas Mass was at the new LA Cathedral, a nice place. It also happened to be the first Christmas Mass there. They had kids do the readings and stuff, and this one little girl with an absolutely amazing voice did the responsorial psalm and the gospel acclamation. Absolutely amazing.

Here I am at the Apple Store at the 0 Mall in Las Vegas, Nevada. Nice store, one of the smaller styles. Yet another abuse of free internet access. Anyway, no job openings here. Vegas is crazy busy, not like last year. I realize that this is my 4th trip to Vegas this calendar year. Impressive. Eating lots of good food, some seabass, some gnocchi, some croissants. Gonna get some high quality dim sum tomorrow. Doing some shopping, trying to update the wardrobe, just a little bit anyway.

Back at work at the Lab School, after taking the red eye back in from Vegas. Good trip. Good hanging with the family, and Vegas, with no real gambling, well, is still a good time for me. Lots of people watching, Bellagio Fountain watching, and walking. Oh, and sitting in the sun yesterday. That was quite nice, getting a little dose of sunshine in December. I need to get some sleep, but I've got to watch Swingers thanks to ESPN's Page 2. New Year's Party at 935 tomorrow. Should be a good time.

So I took the hard drive and video card and memory out of my cube and put it into the spare G4 I had, and guess what? No problems. None. At all. Stupid modded cube. So at least I've got a working computer at home. Which is nice. But slow. Single 500 Mhz G4? Sloooow. Anyway, just kicking back a little this last day of 2002. Why not, a year in review. The short recap: renewed belief and faith in true love, dating, mixed ultimate, and now short hair. That actually pretty much sums up the year in a nutshell. I mean, I'm glossing over the details, but still. 2002 ended up being a good year. It ended in 2, which puts it up with 1992, which was also a good year. It was the 3rd year in my three year cycle of, well, dating life. Started cooking again. Really cooking. Monday night dinners. All in all, not a bad year at all. Let's see, any firsts?

• First time to Vegas with friends and not family.
• First time to win an ultimate tournament with the Whitewater night co-ed tourney.
• First time on a blind date with June.
• First time playing on a co-ed team for the Fall UPA Series.
• First time making it to semi's of a really good tournament with Tea & Strumpets at WUFF Co-ed Nationals.
• First good February in a long time.
• First widescreen big projection TV.
• First time using my Sony Points.
• First Cubs game.
• First time actually physically training for an ultimate season.
• First time in the All Star Game at Poultry Days.
• First time modding computers with soldering irons.
• First time winning Sectionals.

Lots of firsts. Impressive year.