A new year. 2006, here we come. Watched The Family Stone and went to dinner at Dublin's last Friday night. Watched it at the Esquire, which isn't a very good theater at all. Food was good, but a little too much. Just seems a little too hip for my tastes. Saturday finally caught up on Lost and worked a bit at the Apple Store before heading over to Piece for New Years. Not bad, but the party definitely started after the champagne came out. Next year we'll have to skip right to that. Sunday more work, and had a New Years Day dinner with my parents at Maggiano's. Way too much food there. Also, my mom was nice enough to provide a boatload of food for friends who came over on Monday to watch Ohio State trounce Notre Dame. Always interesting to watch football with people who have vested interest in the teams playing. Entertaining. Watched Arrested Development after all the folks left, and well, that show really doesn't seem to care anymore. They're sort of leaving it all out on the table now. Pretty much put anything on the show now. Rose Bowl showing on Wednesday, and that's pretty much it for plans.

Long day at work yesterday. Definitely running out of things to write about. Entries getting shorter and shorter. How much more television can I watch or write about? Well, forgot to mention that I've started watching Veronica Mars again, at least, last season. And last night I finally finished up the episodes I caught last season and saw one I hadn't seen. And it's good. Funny stuff. But I'm not recording this season cause RCN doesn't carry UPN in HD so I'll just wait for the eventual season 2 box set. Scrubs started again last night. Haven't watched them yet. Curious as to why they don't do HD. And watching the Rose Bowl at my place tonight in HD. So I guess I can write and watch more TV. How about computer stuff? Macworld coming up. That's next Tuesday. Wonder what Apple's gonna come out with next? CES going on right now I think. Okay, so maybe there is some more boring stuff I can write about. Filler. Fluff. Space.

I've had a secret that I was hoping would pan out and I'd have great news to tell and spring and surpise people with, but it didn't. But at least now I can talk about it. The story begins on 11/29/2005, when I get an email about an Amazon interview session at the W Chicago Lakeshore on 11/30. I couldn't get off work to take part in the whole day affair, but I managed to sneak in a little 1/2 hour before work of what I thought would be an informational session, maybe get some material, they'd get my resume, and that'd be all. But the guy I talked with seemed to like me, wanted me to stick around, but I couldn't, and I figured that was that. Next I hear from them on 12/5 about doing a phone interview. Now it's getting serious. Huh, Amazon might actually be interested? Wow. Gotta give it a shot though. So 12/8 I have a somewhat technical phone interview. About an hour. I don't actually think it went that well. So imagine my surprise when I hear from them on 12/13 that they want me to come out to Seattle for some in-house interviews. Oh, did I forget to mention this was for a Seattle based position? So a week later, I fly out on 12/20, get put up at the W Seattle, interview on 12/21, which doesn't go so hot, and head back in on the red eye. I figured holidays meant they wouldn't get back to me, so I finally got in touch with them yesterday to find out where I was, and the answer's no. But that was fun. It was. And interesting, and kind of like a kick in the pants. How cool would it have been to spring on family and friends that I a) got a job at Amazon and b) would be moving to Seattle? (I would have announced the news in person if it happened to those that count.) But alas, it didn't happen. But gets me thinking. So anyway, since I didn't get it, I figured I could just announce the bad news here. What could have been...

Good game last night. Pretty exciting right there at the end. Kind of annoying to start off watching with a DVR and fast forwarding through commercials until you start watching live, and then it becomes a bit tedious. Thought I was coming down with a cold or something, but it seems to be drifting away, which is good. A little excited about a couple things coming out of CES this year, like the Sony Reader, which I'm actually kind of excited about. Especially if it's backlit. Had some issues with the 135 LaSalle Express. Yesterday it was so hot people were taking off coats. I was pretty much sitting on a furnace, to the point that the keys I have on my backpack where too hot to touch. And then this morning it stopped twice, once on lower Lake Shore before turning onto Wacker and then again at LaSalle and Lake. Odd. But the heat thing annoys me. Wonder how that's controlled. Anyway, in what I guess is one of my New Year's resolutions, I want to try keeping better track of my finances, which means using iBank and downloading data for my bank and credit card accounts. We'll see if I can actually keep up with that. Too bad I can't automate that one.

Weekend. Good. Finally. Watched more Veronica Mars last night. Good stuff. Knowing who did it last season, well, I'm looking for clues while watching, and well, I'm not finding much. But still great fun. I forgot to mention yesterday I think I found a new breakfast place finally, Specialty's Bakery & Cafe, up on Lake and Wacker. Nice freshly made pastries and stuff, and they had a nice selection of yogurt fruit parfaits (I went with strawberry-kiwi). Finished off the Maggiano's leftovers for dinner. Headed out to see Tracy tonight, going to see Fun with Dick and Jane at Hollywood Boulevard. Work at the Apple Store this weekend, hang out with Russell Saturday morning. Karl's back in town, so I need to get in touch with him to catch up. And this whole CES isn't providing too many new things to drool over, but plenty to think about, with all the new content distribution announcements and stuff. I forgot to mention that I installed Alias Sketchbook Pro on Hydrogen. It's awesome. Doodling on a computer screen? Awesome.

Pretty lazy weekend. Went and saw Fun with Dick and Jane Friday night with dinner at Chili's afterwards. Good movie. Funny. But hits a little too close to home, maybe. Worked Saturday and Sunday, watched some TV, had some White Castle for dinner Sunday night. Got lunch with Russell at Silver Cloud on Saturday, watched Wedding Crashers. That's a pretty long movie. Watched some more Veronica Mars. Lately I have been multitasking, or at least trying to multitask as much as that show is. Lots of stuff going on, needing to get done, and little bits getting done here and there. Would be nice to clean the plate off eventually. Finally got around to watching Hostage last night. Not a bad movie. Macworld kicks off with a Steve Jobs' Keynote. Kind of excited to find out what is up Apple's sleeve.

So Macworld keynote is over. And Apple did it. This year is gonna be long. I'm really interested to see what happens over the course of the year now. Apple's jumped on the whole blog podcasting thing. Don't know if that's gonna pan out for them. But it might make the most sense for family members to keep in touch. At least, that's what I see. And the big announcement with an Intel iMac, and then the MacBook Pro. What happened to Powerbook, can't believe they're retiring that name. What happened to the sizes? And will anyone buy any of their other computers, the mac mini, the iBook, the Powermac? Definitely expecting some good things round April Fools day though. Gotta put my order in for iLife '06 and iWork '06, although I don't really need the latter. Oh well. Watched a bunch of Veronica Mars episodes last night. I've got like 2 eps left, which I really really want to finish off. Not much else going on.

Best thing for me personally that happened yesterday? Finding out the new version of iTunes 6.0.2 can stream music to multiple Airport Expresses and the computer at the same time and synchronized. Seriously. That's awesome. Totally easy whole house audio. Really really impressed. And I've started reading Crypto: How the Code Rebels Beat the Government Saving Privacy in the Digital Age again, so I'm on the privacy and crypto kick, so I went ahead and got PGP or GPG up and running on Aluminum. Now that I do, I can promptly forget about it and move on. Did my backups as well. Did the software update on Argon, Nitrogen and Aluminum. Would have been much easier if I had gotten Argon's Software Update service working. Headed over to Carnivale tonight for dinner with Tracy.

Dinner at Carnivale was good, if a little salty. Drinks were good though. Thoroughly enjoyed the Cava and a Mojito. Very tasty. Watched some Scrubs and updated Tracy's iPod when we got home. Otherwise, not much going on, well, I guess work related New Year's resolutions and stuff. Which will probably mean a shift in posting times. Gave my 2 week notice at the Apple Store. Enough seasonal work for me, and back to only a 5 day work week soon enough. I forgot to mention that my Chicago Card Plus has stopped working reliably, and so I've had to order a replacement and actually pay for my rides when it doesn't work. Very annoying. Perils of RFID, or whatever the tech is that's being used.

Posting on a Sunday. Missed posting on a Friday. Weird. Anyway, Thursday made some meatloaf, since I had a craving. Watched some TV or some recorded movies or something. I forget. Which is why I keep this, so I don't have to remember. Anyway, Friday went out with the boys watching Munich and getting food at Darwin's. Management is changing there, so it won't be quite the same anymore. According to the wait staff, who were told that day there's a week left before it changes, some guys from Kincaid's are buying it and letting all the staff go. Not good. Darwin's was awesome. But like all good things, it gets swallowed up by the majority. Maybe it'll be like Neo and inject all the bugfixes back to the source. Anyway, did some laundry on Saturday before work, and then headed out with Lisa and Ryan and Tracy for Ryan's birthday. Scouted out Spot 6 which wasn't what he was looking for, tried going to SmartBar which was closed, and ended up at Trace drinking and sitting at a table. After that, ended up getting some food at Pick Me Up Cafe, which was really good. Sunday made some pancakes and bacon before Piece carry-out pizza and a growler brought over by the Russells for the Bears game. We'll see what I manage in terms of updating going forward.

Off and on. Here and back. Not quite so daily anymore? Too bad. Just trying to upset my audience. Monday night headed out to Tracy's, was going to check out some driving range action, something new to do, but ended up watching 50 Cutest Child Starts All Grown Up instead before heading out to dinner at Seamus McGhee's in Lemont. Cute little town, under the overpass next to the train tracks. Sets quite a scene. Got some more yogurt for the breakfast parfaits that I like, except I didn't have any this morning. Going to start keeping better track of my activities through emails from my cell phone to myself. Mostly because I completely forgot about which movies I watched last week. But The Pacifier is on cable this week, so I'm recording that and should get a viewing in sometime soon.

Lunch time updates work for me I think. Anyway, headed back out to Tracy's last night. Nice and quiet nights at home. Relaxing. Watched some TV, as usual. Had some lumpia and hung out in the kitchen for a bit with the family. Good stuff. Some other odds and ends I've had to take care of recently, needed to WAP bookmarks back on my cell phone, so I had to dig up the t68i since T-Zones still isn't officially supported on the K750i, but then I realized that they were already saved to my SIM card, but I added some new ones anyway. Basically, I like the interface for checking movie times. Found out Aluminum is roughly 2 years, 4 months old. Battery has about 58% capacity now. Lasts about 1 1/2 hours. I'm tempted to get a new battery to replace it, but then again, how often am I not at an outlet? Oh, other things I'm remembering due to my email log: I gave my 2 week notice at the Apple Store; Love Monkey is my new must watch show.

Upgraded iLife to the '06 version. Most exciting update? iPhoto. I'll definitely be looking into creating my own calendar and birthday cards. Definitely. Otherwise, got a 2 GB Memory Stick Duo that was backordered from last fall or so. Means I need to start looking into converting some movies or TV shows so I can watch on my phone, and get a proper headphone adapter for the phone. Made dinner at home with Tracy last night, an old standby, Orange Glazed Chicken, and I just realized I should do some sort of marinating to get some flavor into the chicken breasts. We watched Wedding Crashers, since she hadn't seen it yet. Also managed to polish off a bottle of wine between the two of us, which is an impressive feat. A pretty good malbec, I'll have to record it when I get home. Russell's coming over to watch The Pacifier tonight, and the parents are coming in this weekend.

Got that pesky website for my dad to finish up by Sunday. More like Saturday night. But I finally worked out a design, pretty simple. Got a database design as well. Not sure if I want to write my own backend or try and use Joomla again. That is if I figure out how to write my own template for it. Anyway, got a pretty full fridge, which is a little weird. Some of the stuff in there has got to be old. Except I'm not sure how old it might be. Getting my hair cut today. Makes for a good practical date with Tracy. Not much planned for the weekend yet anyway. Just really need to start sleeping better and more.

I finally finished up, well, a 1.0 version of fvfacm.org, a web site for my dad's religious group. Still needs some work, and a whole lot of content, but the framework and design is there. Mostly. And Joomla is really cool. Anyway, to recap the weekend: mostly indoors, and mostly on the couch. Friday night stayed in due to inclement weather, munched on leftovers. Might have watched Mallrats, a first for Tracy. Saturday we actually went outside to get my hair cut at Milios Hair Salon down on Belmont. The place was way too hip for me, but Angel gave me a decent cut. Also, the scalp massage during the pre-cut shampoo was amazing. Went looking for Iron City but didn't find any at Binny's Beverage Depot. There is some at Jewel though. Watched Drumline, another first for Tracy. Did some grocery shopping at Treasure Island, Tracy made sesame green beans and crabcakes and I made beef in puff pastry. I finally fried up my mom's lumpia which was sitting in my freezer for years. Sunday, more couch time, this time watching football, NFC and AFC Championship games. Plowed through the Denver-Pittsburgh game in 90 minutes thanks to the DVR. Took a food break before the Seattle-Carolina game to let the DVR stock up. Made some Keilbasa over onions in beer. Akira and the Russells came over to watch as well, with the Russells leaving at the first game. Finished up the night with some Lost. Finally went running for the first time in a long time this morning. Definitely hard to get the body moving again.

How I Met Your Mother is an amazing show. It's really funny, but last night I realized that I'm emotionally invested in the show. I'm now really rooting for Ted to find the mother of his children. It's amazing. So between that and Love Monkey, I'm actually watching CBS. Go figure. I caught up on the TV watching last night, plowing through sitcoms and stuff. Hard work. Also tried to do some iChat multiperson video conferencing with Al and Mom but no such luck. For some reason, the iMac G5 at home was having issues. Not sure what the deal is there, but almost makes me want to go home and check it out. It was odd because the connection is plenty fast enough, it's a 1.8 Ghz G5, so that's not a problem, and the kicker? It worked before. Just not now. Ugh. And in order to push back any other personal projects of mine, I've started converting some of my movies for watching on my K750i. Why? Not sure. I finished up Crypto and before moving on to something else, I figured, hey, why not try the whole video thing on the go? Only problem? No bookmarks. And fast-forwarding is pretty slow.

Going to see Brokeback Mountain tonight. With Tracy. Watched more TV last night, but missed recording Love Monkey because I forgot to set it up as a series recording. Thunderbirds is not a good movie. Ate/Cleaned up some stuff out of the fridge, which is good. Finished ripping some more of my DVDs to disk for future conversion through Handbrake for watching on my K750. Went running again this morning. Exercise is always good. Otherwise, not much to report. Seems to be the case around this time of the year, just not much going on. Probably means I should start working on some of my ToDos or Projects.

Feels like the flu is coming on. About that time of the year for it. And of course it would start coming on when I start exercising again. Love the negative reinforcement there. We'll see if it sticks though. Brokeback Mountain is a very good movie. Been a while since I've seen a true dramatic love story at a movie theater. It's been a stable diet of blockbusters, romantic comedies, action movies, with the occasional Landmark's Century Centre Cinema thanks to Russell.

So I ended up leaving work early last Thursday and calling in sick on Friday. Got the sleep on, drank the tea, the orange juice and Sprite combo. Lots of heating water in a mug and inhaling the steam. That felt good. Some use of a heating pad on the forehead and face to reduce the sinus headaches. Not an enjoyable sick day, but spent pretty much on the couch. Actually, didn't leave the building from Thursday evening to Monday morning. Tracy joined me for the weekend though. That was nice. She had a craving for Salisbury Steak, so had some of that and some potatoes au gratin, and a pretty nice green pea cold salad with Bacos. She also brought over some chicken soup too. Saturday night we had chicken and dumplings. Sunday we got some Mediterranean from Sinbad's through GrubHub.com. Spent most of the time watching TV, napping. Although we did get fed up enough that we started up a 1000pc jigsaw puzzle I had. It's really hard. Managed to get an iChat in with my family Sunday night, which was pretty cool. Feeling much better, still got a little bit of a residual cough and hacking, but it should be going away, as long as I get my sleep.

Eleven more to go. Early night last night, wanting to get my sleep in. Watched Hackers for the upteenth time. Apparently I'm ready to start watching my DVDs again, cause I'm all over it. I'm using the 400 DVD changer more as well, and I should work on getting the Roku Photobridge back up to get more video on demand going. I forgot to mention that while Tracy and I were working on the jigsaw puzzle we were listing to iTunes over multiple speakers. That still rocks. Tried out some hot lemon and honey water, something besides tea or plain hot water, for the head. A little too sour. So 31 days into 2006. Not bad. Lots of weddings to go to this year. I count 3 so far, through July, 2 in May. Crazy. Really crazy.

February was up till last year, a bad month. Bad historically, bad weatherwise, but starting last year, February hasn't been a bad month at all. I wrote about it in a musing, of the change, and well, we'll see if the trend continues. Tracy came over last night instead of me heading out there since she's had an interview this morning up in Skokie. Got some grub from Treasure Island and cooked it up: spinach and roasted red pepper chicken breasts (premade stuff makes things so easy). Finally found a frozen peach cobbler. Finally on the tail end of the cold/flu whatever I had. Only having to deal with coughing now. Caught up a bit more on TV watching, getting all excited about Grey's Anatomy. I love big surprises. And next week's a 2-parter. Started what I guess is a New Year's Resolution for myself, downloaded and categorized financial data into iBank. I probably could have tracked down a copy of Quicken to use instead, but hey, support the small developers.

Groundhog Day. Not sure when a viewing will happen, but it will happen. And this also marks a year that Tracy and I have been dating. Well, it's been a full year since our first date. Which I think is roughly equivalent. Anyway, headed to dinner at the Atwood Cafe followed by Wicked at the Ford Center/Oriental Theater. Didn't do much of anything last night, except look for my checkbook, which I haven't found yet. Did watch E-Ring for the first time, not too much of a fan. Oh, watched That Yellow Bastard episode from Sin City. Still very visually impressive. Oh, Bjorn dropped by to pick up the Square Shooter antenna for his HDTV showing of the Super Bowl. He's got the playoff beard going on. Hadn't seen him in a while.

For some reason, all the old faves and activites and stuff are coming back up, and I'm getting interested in them all over again. Cycles, gotta love 'em. Wicked was good last night, not like the book at all, but entertaining. Tracy and I really need to watch The Wizard of Oz tonight to fill in the blanks. And seeing the difference between the book and musical versions of Wicked, I'd like to do the same thing for The Wizard. Otherwise, my parents are coming out for the weekend. Got some people coming over for the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Might as well admit to it, but my parents came out to the city this weekend to hang out, and well, clean and bring food. Yes, I'm soon be 29. Yes, my mom will still clean my place if I allow it. Same thing with the food. Hard to believe for most people, but those are two things my mom loves doing: cleaning and cooking. And she's phenomenal at both. So a big thanks to her. This also gave me an opportunity to clean out my closet a bit, which needed it. Also got another couple loads of laundry in. So that's good. Otherwise, watched a bunch of movies Saturday night and Sunday morning. Finally watched The Wizard of Oz all the way through, well, mostly all the way through, I think I slept though some of it on Friday night. The Super Bowl wasn't too entertaining, the commercials not quite the experience they've been in the past. Food and friends were good though. Special thanks to Liz and Sarah for their work on the jig-saw puzzle. I also managed to finally update my Gallery site, along with installing the second version, which I still have to update to the look and feel, which probably means I'll be updating Daily Dose to a css based layout sooner rather than later. Tonight I'm headed over the the Apple Store on Michigan Ave. to watch Tony give a little presentation.

So last night I stumbled up to see Tony's presentation at the Apple Store on North Michigan Avenue. I was expecting a handful of people, some empty seats in the theater, cause that theater is big. I show up 15 minutes or so before it's supposed to start cause it was looking busy. I snagged a decent seat. I whip out Aluminum and start working on the Daily Dose CSS conversion, and then Jess Kindred plops down next to me. Chat with her for a bit until the Blanchet-Ruths arrive in force, and Jess gives up her seat so I'm sitting next to Tony's parents. Chat with them for a bit. Tony's having some technical difficulties, licensing issues with Photoshop, so it's running a little late. But did I mention the place was packed? People standing all around. Sitting in the aisles. Really cool. Really really impressive. I managed to sneak a pic in, but I probably should have recorded more of it because seriously, really impressive. And Tony did a great job. It's always a joy to watch him work in Photoshop, it seriously is like art. I wonder what it'd be like to just do a screen capture movie of him working on a project from start to finish, speed it up a bit, and show it. Hmmmm, another project to add to the list. Other people I know that showed up, Carlo, Sally, and Tony's girlfriend, whose name I am unsure of. Carrie maybe? Anyway, really impressive to see a former teammate, a friend, a peer, giving a presentation and actually wowing people at an Apple Store. Really cool. Besides that I went trying on jeans at the Levi Store before that, and afterwards watched some TV at home. I forgot to mention that I restandardized on Firefox again, mainly due to the Fission (https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&category=Newest&numpg=10&id=1951) extension which makes the location bar a progress bar for loading. It's the little things.

Got that definitely going on. Looking out the window at work, and it's flurries. Crazy. Looking at the radar from the Chicago Tribune and it's pretty clear. Definitely crazy. Odd gripe lately: I'm tired of the chocolate smell while walking to work from where I park west of the Loop. Before it was great, a nice little novelty, always making me crave hot chocolate, but lately, the last couple days, I'm just tired of it. Don't want to smell it anymore. Actually turns my stomach. Oh well. Went to dinner at Red Lobster last night since Tracy had a craving. Got some shrimp stuff. Always amusing how the pictures in the menu never look like the actual dish when it gets served. I wonder what restaurant out there actually serves dishes exactly as they look on the menu. Ended up watching Love Monkey last night. Good stuff. Might be going ice skating tonight at Millennium Park, but that might be weather dependent.

Ice skating was fun last night. Tracy and I ended up going through the snow. I'm not very good. Or I keep getting bad skates. I'm leaning toward not being good. Too bad though, cause I like the idea. Lots of snow on the ice though. Always fun to see a few skaters who can actually do things, like spins and stuff. Very graceful. I think it's completely different from watching it on TV, as in the upcoming Olympics. We had dinner at Park Grill right next door, which was pretty good. And then catching up on some shows, and it was weird to see the same concept (small quirkes about significant others) play on 2 different shows (Courting Alex and Scrubs). Anyways, congrats to my brother who passed his boards.

TV networks are odd beasts. I found out yesterday that Love Monkey is going on hiatus. Why? I don't necessarily remember reading any bad reviews of the show, except that it's like Ed too much, but like that's a bad thing. It was a midseason replacement, jumped to the top or near the top of my list of shows to watch, and now it's gone. And I remember hearing a rumor of Alias getting pushed back even further. And tonight, probably most likely the last episodes of Arrested Development to air on FOX. Going to get some Cream Soda, maybe some Hot Ham Water, and definitely some frozen chocolate covered bananas to celebrate. Maybe some pancakes too, or some muffins. Might be headed out to Woodstock this weekend. Otherwise, not much else going on.

Not a bad weekend. Watched Arrested Development with friends Friday night. Sad to see that show go. Funny on so many different levels. Made some chocolate covered frozen bananas, stuck on chopsticks and plastic utensils because I couldn't find popsickle sticks at the grocery store. But they are super easy to make and taste really good. Saturday Tracy and I headed out to Woodstock to drop off some paperwork and see my parents. We went to dinner at Deeter's, and I tried to do some more tech support for the computer and their new TV and HDTV set. Sunday Tracy dragged me out to the Chicago Food Corp Asian Food Market, and I wasn't all that excited about it. Now that I've gone, I love the place. I think it's mostly a Korean grocery store, so Tracy picked up some stuff for Duk Bok Ki and we got some Kim Chi and Bulgogi to cook at home. And, the best part, they had Soju for sale. So we ate well Sunday night, watched Mr. & Mrs. Smith before Grey's Anatomy.

I guess today's some sort of holiday. Whatever. Made/making Tracy dinner last night. All she's got to do is pop it in the oven. Hopefully it'll turn out well, as it's my first time making it. Anyway, watched Without a Paddle, which I thought was surprisingly good. Have I mentioned that I've started recording other tv shows not in HD on the DVR? Like Boondocks, Morel Orel, Dinner for Five and John Doe which is surprisingly on the Sci-Fi Channel. I'm also hoping to catch an episode of the X-Files, I think it was called Kill Switch, which was really good and written by William Gibson.

So the lasagna I made for dinner last night is pretty good, it's just that it took a wee bit longer than I thought it would take in the oven. I should be eating that for the next week or two. Tracy and I watched Gilmore Girls, and bits and pieces of other things, like Big Night and Gremlins 2: The New Batch. We also had a little Muscat with dessert, and wow, that stuff is strong. Headed out to hang out with Tracy tonight. Going to see Annapolis on Thursday, and headed up to the Dells on Friday for the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge. Should be fun. Somewhere in there I should be getting a PSP which should keep me occupied for a while.

Mind's working. At least I'm thinking about my multitude of projects, making baby steps at least in my head about the things that need to be done. But definitely hard to juggle too many things at one. Really need to start Getting Things Done. Went out to Tracy's last night, had a craving for a burger, ended up getting a patty melt at Davidson's. You know what's good? Bass Ale. Then a bit of TV watching, of course. Caught an episode of Good Eats about using canned tomatoes to make tomato sauce, but Alton Brown also talked a bunch about knife care. Odd. Watched an episode of Ham on the Street, which was great when he added some savory ingredients to some sweet cream ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. Think caramelized onions, Camembert, roasted garlic. And what's the cost of making ice cream with liquid nitrogen? Too expensive?

Yup. Another birthday. Coolest presents so far? A nice wooden cutting board from Tracy, and Las Vegas seasons 1 and 2 on DVD from Al and Nicole. Awesome. Amazon wishlists rock! Anyway, thanks to those who sent along birthday wishes. Annapolis last night was surprisingly good. I was expecting something pretty bad, but it was directed by Justin Lin, same guy that did Better Luck Tomorrow. Also took me a while to figure out that the senior from Better Luck Tomorrow was one of the plebes from Annapolis. Afterwards went to Darwin's for dinner. Menu's mostly the same. Still have Turbo Dog on tap. But if I can help it I'm not going back. It's definitely not the same. It's lost its charm, its quirkiness. No longer seems very special. Oh well. Long live gentrification. On a side note, I believe I saw Megan Byrnes on the bus this morning. Isn't that crazy? I went to St. Mary and Marian with her, haven't seen her for like 10 years, and then I see her on the bus? I wasn't completely sure it was her, so I didn't say hello, but I did google her and found out she works down the street, actually at my old old work building. I'll have to say hi the next time I run into her. Small world. Seriously small world.

Weekend was pretty good. Got my PSP on Friday, spent some time, well, pretty much the whole time waiting for Tracy to get off work, setting it up, updating it, trying to get my DVDs in a format that plays on it. It's pretty cool. Also decided to put The Invisible Shield on it. Got a couple bubbles in spots, but I'm not too unhappy with the application. But it looks good. We'll see if it works. Drive up to the Dells was super easy. Takes about 3 hours each way. Great Wolf Lodge was pretty fun. People were nice enough to stay up until we got there around 2:30am, but bed soon afterwards. Bryan was the cook for the weekend, serving up breakfast and a meat filled dinner. Water park was fun as usually. Good to play some pool hoops. Liked the arcade better this time, but no DDR. Got the bonus on the light spinning ticket game, and a bunch from the hoops thing, where my high score was 46. Got to play Ticket to Ride, Celebrities, and the Top Gun drinking game. Thanks to Bryan for cooking and Carlo for organizing again, even if we were a mere 28 days early for the wave pool opening. Sunday made it back with no problems, ate some leftovers, figured out the best way to get DVDs to to PSP: OSEx to rip as a single VOB or MPEG, then ffmpegX to get it to the PSP format. Drove to work since I'm supposed to hang out with Tracy tonight, but Puck supposedly had to get jumped this morning, so we'll see if he starts up after work or not.

Tracy and I went to the Olive Garden. I got the fettucini alfredo. It was good. Yes. We enjoyed it. Yes, we went there of our own volition. It was actually my suggestion a while ago. There. I said it. It has been a long while since I've been though, so the waiters carrying around bottles of wine was a bit different, or at least I don't remember that at all. I do like their wine descriptions on the menu though, by taste or flavor, fruity, smooth, and so on. Otherwise, pretty much the same. Just as good. Got to see her dad's new projector in their basement. It's a DLP. My first time. Pretty nice. I couldn't see any sort of rainbow effect or anything. Definite screen door though but only like a foot from the screen. Converted a couple more moves for watching on the PSP, which I guess I have to name. Also got the clip from Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi where the Ewoks speak Tagalog. Uploaded pictures from the Great Wolf Lodge to Flickr instead of my own gallery, which is why they're all showing up on the side. Guess this means I should get around to updating my gallery now.

Had some issues updating yesterday, Firefox crashed a couple time on me, so I never got back to it. Going back, Tuesday night got some food at some BBQ place out by Tracy that wasn't that good, so I'm not even bothering to put the name down. Then we got to playing some ping pong. Fun. Although I'm not looking forward to playing tennis with her when the weather gets better; I'll be doing a whole lot of running. So we played a game, and I lost. Loving the PSP. Watched Shade on the bus to work, and finished it up at lunch. Awesome. Currently watching Equilibrium. Headed out to dinner for Whitney's birthday at Gene & Georgetti. Really need to do some laundry.

A couple things to start out, Happy Birthday to my brother, and a happy anniversary to my parents! With that out of the way, a pre happy birthday to Whitney and thanks for the fabulous dinner last night. Good times. A guy's night dinner for five, or seven, or nine, would be a great idea as a regular occurrence. And in a surprise move, Tracy, who starts a week long vacation today, and I are headed to St. Louis to visit a couple friends of hers from college. Last minute dealie. Should be fun. Oh, and next week starts up Lent.

I never thought of St. Louis as a weekend trip, but it is. Tracy and I didn't end up going till Saturday morning; we both ended up working late Friday night. Anyway, drive down is super easy. We stayed at Tracy's friend Trish's new house, and they had a puppy, Polly, who was super cute. Also there were Trish's husband Kevin and Lane, another of Tracy's friends from school. We got some board games in, some puppy playing, I'm no good at SceneIt?. Went and got some ping pong paddles, and I managed to pick up some old school sandpaper paddles, which are now my paddle of choice. Also got to see Karaoke Revolution on the PS2, which is pretty cool, along with seeing an EyeToy in action for the first time, very impressive. Sunday went to lunch at the City Coffee House & Creperie which was very good. Headed back up to Chicago and stopped off and watched Curious George in Woodridge. I was surprised. I wasn't expecting anything, a kids movie, nothing more, but it was really good. Like Really Good. Anyway, go see it. We then got dinner in Chinatown at Ken Kee. And now back to the grind.

Nothing too exciting. Tracy's on vacation, and somehow managed to get sick, or she's fighting a sickness, which is too bad. We made spaghetti for dinner last night, which was good. Made lots too, so that should be eaten for the next week. Lent starts up tomorrow, so it might be time to start up the eating some sushi again. Apple had an announcement event today, nothing too special. At least nothing I want to buy. Really really need to do some laundry. Realized I've got a span of about 5 weeks where I'll be on a plane at least once a week, 2 weeks of vacation, Vegas, Cali, Italy, and Mexico. Ugh. Expensive. Might have to move Vegas off that list. I am excited about my new shoes though, Vivo Barefoot shoes. Like having bare feet. It's awesome. I got the Avalon in Fog. It's my new shoe company, displacing Merrell. Just wish they had some dress shoes in black.

March already? Wow. Finally got some laundry done. 3 loads. About half way. Otherwise, had some leftover spaghetti, cold of course. Watched How I Met Your Mother and Constantine. Downloaded financial data to iBank and set up some import rules for automagic categorization. Pretty cool. With 2 months of data under my belt, well, I spend too much money. But like that's a surprise. Anyway, got lots of money to spend in the next couple of months, that's for sure. Headed out to see Tracy tonight. Coming up on the anniversary of the Memex. That'll be exciting.

Falling into TV watching mode again. Not good. No longer taking Vegas off the schedule. It's a definite. Can't so no to family celebrations. Finished up Equilibrium on the PSP yesterday, makes me ready to see Ultraviolet soon, and moved on to Serendipity. Mortal Kombats on the PSP is really hard. Then again I was never really good at it, but still, harder than I remember. Dinner at the Taj Mahal Restaurant in Orland Park last night. No meat. No meat tomorrow either. Might be time to watch 40 Days, 40 Nights again. It's the season. Due to all the upcoming travel, spending lots of time checking prices on airfares and stuff. So expensive. Anyway, Lemon Chicken tonight, maybe some more laundry. Exciting stuff.

Nice to get some sleep in last night. Always helpful. Airfare pricing changes are weird and odd. Anyone know what the last weekend in April is tough for going to Vegas? Lots of blackout days on deals. And prices just don't seem to be going down. Well, not that much anyway. Looking for tickets for my parents and prices varies about $30 over the course of 14 hours or so, down then back up in like $10 increments. Weird. Stuff I just don't understand. Also, when exactly is midnight Wednesday? Is that 12:00 AM Wednesday, which is actually Tuesday night? Or 12:00 AM Thursday which would be Wednesday night? Anyway, still looking. Food was good last night, Lemon Chicken. Certain lack of veggies though, which I should rectify today, since I can't have meat. Or not allowing myself to have meat. Headed out to Buffalo Wild Wings tonight for some open mic stand up with Lisa and Ryan. Should be fun. Realized I should probably see my mom before she jets off to the Philippines for a while, so that means a trip out to Woodstock at some point this weekend. Would be nice to get a new mattress too. We'll see.

Weekend was good. Friday night came home to Tracy making dinner; a nice seaweed based salad with crab and some crab somethings that were pretty good. Ended up making some egg rolls as well to fill us up. Made it over to Buffalo Wild Wings for a bit of stand up, some of it was pretty good. I enjoyed myself. got a drink at Red Lion Pub which is a very nice place, nice and quiet, and I just read about their very plush upstairs. Finished the night off with a club sandwich at Clarke's on Lincoln. Saturday made it out to Woodstock in time for mass with mom, and dinner at La Petite Creperie. Did a little computer work, watched some of A Beautiful Mind. Sunday breakfast by mom, some chilling before heading back in and doing some shopping. Bought a new mattress which is getting delivered tonight. Got some plane tickets. Dinner was carryout from mom with dessert from Cheesecake Factory. Ended up watching A Lot Like Love instead of the Oscars. Got some more travel plans to purchase. Hopefully I'll be looking forward to sleeping more with a new mattress.

New mattress is great. Took delivery at 5 to 6 last night. Good thing, since my building apparently doesn't like deliveries after 6pm. I'll have to remember that for the future. So having a new nice soft smooth mattress doesn't make me go to bed any earlier than before. Oh well. In other news, vacations got approved, so I'm going to have a negative balance for that by June. Also, booked a ticket to for Paganello. Almost full circle, as it's a flight I took the 2nd year I went in 2001. I went back over old emails, pretty much just from Akira about Paga stuff, and damn if it was really really cheap to get there before. Seriously. Under $500 in 2000. Really. Don't know if it's because Akira was that good or because that's just the way prices go, but I didn't pay anywhere near that this time. So only got Cali to buy now. In tech news, I'm in love with Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/lens/). Yes, I finally stepped up to the plate and started using RSS. Why do I like it? Keyboard commands. Browser interface. And it's Google.

Went and saw Ultraviolet last night with Russell. I am saddened I went. It's a horrible movie. Awful. I liked his last movie, Equilibrium. This one? Awful. I wish I hadn't gone. I didn't know why I was there halfway through. Ugh. Just an awful taste in my mouth. I went home and watched a bit of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, but that didn't clean it out enough. Not sure what would, but the movie that came to mind, especially because I saw in the same theater, would be Sky High. That was a good movie. Strange that if I had to pick a couple feel good movies to watch, I'd pick Sky High and Curious George. Good family flicks. Strange. I'm liking Google Reader a bit more, especially because it mixes items up from different feeds. I like that. It's like flipping through TV channels.

Completely spaced on updating today. Oh well. Not much has been happening anyway, been meaning to do laundry, but machines never open up when I want them, which is between 8-9pm. Tracy's been working nights, so I haven't been hanging out with her. She's working this weekend too, so not much is planned. Really going to do some laundry for sure, might get started on a couple other projects. Of course, to start it off, I'm thinking of jumping onto that bandwagon that is GTD. We'll see if that happens. Theoretically, if I get that setup, the work on the rest of the projects would actually start to happen. Of couse, we'll see. I think I'll switch to Safari again when on the Macs at home; it seems to handle Google Reader better than Firefox does, at least on the mac. And Gmail is supported too, so that works for me.

So Getting Things Done seems like a pretty good idea. Constant mapping of tasks. Always have things to do. Lots to check off. We'll see if it works for me. Although I wonder if I need to read the book to know exactly how to do it. Not sure if gtd-php is gonna be enough for me. Things to do this weekend: get a haircut, buy some paint, do some laundry. I think those are the only definites. Maybe do a little home redecorating, hang up those cheap large and deep shadow boxes finally. Maybe go to Linens 'n Things or The Container Store, gotta try and find some storage boxes. I don't know, busy day, maybe, if I got the time. Weird how I'm suddenly overcome by an organizational bug. Strange.

Tracy managed to put a name to my recent madness. Well, it's madness for me because I've never done it. Kind of odd, this spontaneous feeling of needing organization. Really, never really done it. It's strange. And it doesn't feel completely unnatural or forced. Anyway, doesn't stop me from procrastinating a little bit. Work was a bit of a bear this weekend, having to check in on stuff. First time I've ever really had to do something while on call. Good though, I got to figure stuff out. Friday night made some Lemon Asparagus Pasta. Really could have used some chicken with it. Also popped in a frozen peach cobbler which wasn't that good. Saturday after going in to work, I finally bought some paint for the paint condo project from the Sherman Williams store on Halsted. Got some good help there. So I'm all set, just need a relative warm and dry weekend. I also watched some movies, not remembering which ones. Oh, Fight Club was one of them, Crazy Little Thing was another. Sunday spent the day on the couch, continued to work on drawing up an organizational plan for the closets in the data center. Got to use OmniGraffle Pro for most of it. I guess I could post some images of what I'm planning on doing. Not very exciting though. Finished up the weekend by watching Through the Fire, the documentary on Sebastian Telfair's senior year in high school. Not bad. Oh, forgot to mention that I recorded the repeat of The Unit from Saturday night. Even though I missed the last 10 minutes because of the basketball delay, I like it. If the guide on the DVR ever fixes itself for Tuesday, I'll set up a series recording for it. That's what made me want to watch The Recruit. Oh, also did 3 loads of laundry on Saturday, didn't get around to the remaining 3 loads on Sunday. Never got around to a hair cut either. And I pushed off The Container Store until after tonight when I pick up Puck from getting an oil change.

But calmed now. Brought the car in to the dealer for an oil change. Fine. No problems. But I go to pick it up a little after 7pm, cause they used to be able to have pickup until 8:30pm. And what happens? Nope, change in availability. Only open till 7pm for pickup. Oh well. I was supposed to hit up The Container Store, but that's been delayed till Wednesday. Going to Sai Cafe to catch up with Remy tonight. Actually going to have lunch with Tracy tomorrow, it's her day off. Did a little exercising yesterday, an ab workout, pushups and pullups. Something to look forward to is Steamboy on Starz-HD this week, so I'm definitely recording that. Hopefully it'll be in widescreen, but I'm not that optimistic since it's on at 5am.

I was surprised to find out that I completely missed updating yesterday. Completely. That could be a good or bad sign, depending. Anyway, sushi was really good Tuesday night, catching up with Remy was good as well. Been like a year since I've been to Sai Cafe. Didn't recognize a single staff person. Odd. And I overheard something about a sister restaurant, or something, so if anyone has any info on that, it'd be great. But the last time I had sushi was in October, and I said I needed to take a break, and I did, and now I'm back. Wednesday was Tracy's day off so she came in to the city and we had lunch at Brazzaz, another churrascaria. Pretty good. Had to pass on the caipirinhas or mojitos. Finally picked up Puck from Evanston Subaru. Then picked up shelving and boxes from The Container Store in Northbrook. Tracy shot down the wire based magazine wall rack, and we tried to find a nicer wood one, which we couldn't. Instead, I ordered one from Levenger. Because of the large lunch, ended up not eating anything till 9 or so, and just a couple slices of frozen pizza. Thursday I drove in to work even though there's the warning of snowfall, cause Tracy's mom is making corned beed & cabbage, and I don't expect the snowfall to really happen. This time I just don't buy it.

So the snow that was supposed to fall yesterday? Ha. I had no troubles driving out to Tracy's, in fact there wasn't much traffic at all, just a little around 294. Anyway, her mom makes a mean corned beef & cabbage. Good stuff. We also put together some thank you gifts via CafePress. They got better. And give a greater discount when buying from your own store. Might have to make something up for myself for Paganello. Headed out to Chuck's Going Away Party tonight. Tomorrow headed out to Medieval Times with Ryan and Lisa. Otherwise, don't have anything else planned for the weekend. Hopefully give me some time to do some cleaning and organization. Sort of looking forward to it, especially in the data center. Only problem is the WallFiler I wanted is backordered. I'll have to make do with something else in the meantime.

Not a bad weekend all around. Party Friday night was pretty quiet. Didn't stay very long. A little too tired. Saturday, after a healthy night's rest, got up and went running before breakfast of hash browns, bacon, and eggs. Then Tracy and I headed out to Woodfield where we ran into Mina and Carl. Hung out with them for a bit, got a Cinnabon. Then we made our way over to Medieval Times. Got there early enough, got some beers in collectible mugs, enjoyed some of the festivities. Got to cheer the Green Knight to the semis of the tournament before he perished. Good times. I actually thought I might have lost my voice from cheering and jeering so much. Sunday another run in the morning before breakfast of an oven baked pancake and sausage. Then I finally set up my shelves for the closet in the data center and started organizing some stuff. And boy, do I have a lot of stuff. Dinner was Korean food, since Tracy had gone to Chicago Food Corp on Friday before coming over. Watched a bit of TV, including Walking Tall, which wasn't too shabby.

Didn't update yesterday. Almost thought about doing it before going to bed, but then I decided sleep was a better idea. Monday night went out to Tracy's, we got some mexican food from some place in Orland Park. Last night I also went out to Tracy's neck of the woods to see Failure to Launch at Hollywood Boulevard. I had been looking forward to a Whoopie Goldburger all day. Oh, and the movie is really good. Quite funny. At least I think it was me and not the margarita laughing. I just found out that Zooey Deschanel spent a year at Northwestern, possible during my senior year. Small world, ain't it? Oh, and I started using GreaseMonkey for Gmail with Auto BCC so I always have a record of emails I send out. Tomorrow marks the 1 year anniversary of having the Memex, kind of exciting. Going to see V for Vendetta tomorrow. Finally got an eye appointment for Saturday, so finally, new glasses. Oh, managed to pick up a couple pairs of pants last night at Gap. On sale. Oh, and my PSP's out of battery, which makes sense, since I haven't charged it up in a while. And to think I was contemplating plugging it in last night before going to bed too.

Almost forgot again to update. Crazy. Been playing a little bit with 37Signals services, like Backpack and Basecamp. All in the growing name of organization. I've been using the official GTD plug-in for Outlook and it's been working well for work stuff. Anyway, last night I came home and Tracy had been experimenting in the kitchen, trying out different encrustations for chicken breasts. She ended up going with some cheese, walnut, lemon combo that was pretty good. Managed to polish off a bottle of wine while polishing off some TV shows from the DVR. Going to see V for Vendetta tonight after dinner at Fox & Obel, which I want to keep calling Fox & Nobel, because that's what it sounds like. Hard to believe that Paganello is around 3 weeks away. Crazy. And then my busy travel schedule kicks in. Who'd of thunk it? I thought the travel thing went the way of ultimate for me. But I guess not.

V for Vendetta was pretty good last night. And then I proceeded to stay up way too late. Tried to shift my schedule today, but wasn't as productive as I'd hoped. And the reason for staying ended up working great. Got my haircut today too, at Salonique. It's in the next building north of work. Not bad. Came home, late, after stopping by Marshall Fields, I mean, Macy's and found out they have a Levenger mini store inside. That's pretty cool. Finally got around to watching Steamboy while sitting on the couch. Good considering the headache I'm in the middle of. Finally getting my eyes checked out tomorrow, which means new glasses, which means I won't have to superglue my current frames together anymore. That and looking for an auto fish feeder for Tracy takes up the weekend.

Ok, so I forgot again. Sue me. Actually don't. Had a fairly productive weekend. Saturday morning got out to Villa Park, got my eyes checked out, they checked out, and ordered some new glasses. That should be good. My left eye dropped a notch, but that's it. Impressive considering all the glasses wearing I've been doing. Then Tracy and I shopped around Oakbrook Center. Started looking for a new pan, since the 10" skillet I have is in pretty bad shape. Decided to use it anyway to cook dinner Saturday night, a nice white wine cream sauce over chicken and gnocchi. Never mind, actually ended up using a different pan. Sunday actually did some painting. We did a couple walls in the living room. Only one more left to go. And then maybe some rearrangement of furniture. At least I took down the cinder block corner table. Again, we'll see. Last night, put the furniture back, a couple spots need some touch up, but nothing really bad, and moved the beer fridge closer to the couch. Also caught up a bit on TV too. Still got lots of laundry to do.

Seriously, used to have a nice set schedule for doing updates, but now, not so much anymore. Last night didn't do too much, another late night at work. I'm plowing through Las Vegas episodes on the PSP on the bus. Popped in Reign of Fire and made it about halfway through that before Tracy showed up and we watched Scrubs and Teachers. Good to see the main character in Teachers, I liked him in National Treasure. Makes me wonder what real teachers think about the show. Oh, I'm finally getting Windows XP for a box I've had sitting at home for a while. Work related. Also means I'll actually have a real Windows machine, I don't really count Hydrogen, too small. Oh, the whole GTD thing is pretty good, but for me it's mostly about organizing, rather than doing. I did order the book though. Oh, and I put up my picture for closet organization of the data center. I'm proud of that one. Otherwise, still gots lots to clean and organize. And Paganello is definitely sneaking up on me. 13 days, 22 hours, and 48 minutes till my plane leaves. When I was buying a ticket I started looking specifically for flights that used a Boeing 777 since I've never been on one of those. But scheduling didn't work out. Maybe the next time I fly across an ocean.

Yes, I'm still alive. With the whole GTD thing I seem to have been not getting updates done. Of course, it isn't a next action for me, but still, kind of weird. Wednesday night Tracy picked me up from work on her way in to the city and we ate at Joy's Noodles, a much closer Thai restaurant than the other one in Lincoln Square she thought about. Maybe next time. Picked up some pretty old Mochi Ice Cream from a nice little asian grocery store. I might have to ask if they take requests, and see if I can get some maize ice cream, without cheese of course. Thursday night Tracy did some cooking, some roasted carrots, a nice soy lemon flank steak and some risotto while I finally did some laundry. We've been pretty good at keeping up on TV shows the night of, which means I've got plenty of space on the DVR. Got to finish up painting the living room tomorrow, try and do some more clean up/organization tonight, and get out and see some family on Sunday.

Living room is done. Well, painted anyway. Probably have some furniture rearrangement in its future. Need to do a little touch up though, the ceiling in spots, the bad trim. Next up the bedroom, but probably not for a while. At least until the trip filled month and a half ends. Friday night tried to get dinner from the ecce cafe, which took a whole lot longer than I thought, but while waiting managed to pick up some Golden Oreos, which are fantastic. Also picked up some more airforce nutrisoda, sort of like Vitamin Water but a soda, and smaller. I like them. The Focus one actually seemed to work for me last week at work. Saturday finished up the painting, had lunch at IHOP, got some candles from Chicago Plant and Flower, watched some TV before heading out to Tracy's for dinner. Sunday headed out to Auntie Luz's to help her out with the AV stuff, wrote up some documentation, picked up my new glasses, did some tax stuff with my mom, got some dim sum at Jockey's Work 'n Roll Restaurant. Cleaned up a little at my place, watched Alfie, had some filipino food for dinner.

The Russells came over first last night, stayed for a bit, liked the paint job, and left around 9pm. Akira and Tony showed up, and stayed till the end of the game. Tips from them: extending the painting to additional walls, keep colors in sightlines. Which translates for me to buy more paint. But overall, good responses. The game was alright last night, not really much of a close or exciting game but entertaining in the dominance factor. Otherwise, a pretty quiet evening. Some issues with the new glasses, they seem to get dirty awfully quickly and easily, and not quite clean with shirt sleeves, so I have to carry around the nice lens cleaner cloth with me. I'm back to carrying a man bag, but not much is in it, just a PSP and a pen really, and now my glasses case.

Boot Camp. Wow. Kind of makes me want to get one, any one, of the new Intel Macs. I need Windows XP for work stuff from home. But I use Macs at home. That would get me the best of both worlds. Just wow. The only thing that's stopping me, it's a beta, the final version will be in the next OS X update, and, well, I don't need a new computer, at all. Kind of makes me hope that Aluminum will kick the bucket sooner rather than later. When I first read about it this morning, I thought it was just a late April Fool's Joke. But no, it's official. Just wow. Shocking wow. Now I definitely won't have to buy a Windows only machine, ever. Last night I had a craving for meatloaf, so a grocery trip later, and recipes from Good Eats, and a couple hours Tracy and I are eating meatloaf. The odd thing about the recipe? Just using the pan to shape it and letting it cook on a cookie sheet. It was good. Really good. And the broccoli steamed in a the bag in the microwave covered with cheese from one of those resealable bags with bac'n bits? Amazing. All prepackaged store bought. And good. But otherwise, a pretty quiet night. The fact that I'm leaving for Italy in 6 days is definitely sneaking up on me. Wonder if there's anything I really need to get.

Stopped by the Apple Store on Michigan Ave. last night. Thought about asking for a Mac mini. Really tempted. Get a new computer, also get a new computer that boots Windows. But I didn't. Maybe in June? Or when Boot Camp goes official with Leopard. Anyway, wanted to get a couple things for the Paganello trip, like a PSP battery and European charger, and a headphone cable organizer, like the Sumajin Smartwrap. Ended up getting neither, but instead a pair of Levi khakis and jeans. Watched lots of buses go by on the way home too. Leftovers for dinner, and some more cleanup/organization at home. So tonight I'll drop by Best Buy for the PSP stuff, since I forgot all about the major consumer electronics store that's relatively close, at least on the way home.

Google Analytics. I signed up a while ago, but finally got the invite code a couple days ago, and enabled it. I checked in on it today, and well, it's amazing. Like wow. Especially the Geo map overlay. Seriously, who's reading this in London? Anyway, it'll be interesting to see after a month or so of tracking. Definitely. Probably should enable it on the Memex side of things as well. But I need to reboot Xenon, which has been acting up as of late. Tried to do some more cleanup last night, had a long catchup phone call with Jessica Jenkins. As for my shopping outing, well, I just don't like shopping in the city, at least for mass consumer goods. Niche artsy things, sure, I like the boutiques, but sometimes you just need a suburban shopping oasis with large parking lots and warehouse sized stores and fully stocked shelves. That's why I love online shopping. I did have a craving for a club sandwich, so I stopped by Melrose Diner and got one to go. Got no plans for tonight or tomorrow, maybe some more painting, maybe some tennis, if the weather's decent. On Sunday Tracy and I are going to see Rent at the Cadillac Palace Theater. I think it'll be my 3rd time seeing it, but 1st time at the Cadillac. Still got to see the movie though.

Time is seriously flying by. Friday night, pretty low key, stopped by Treasure Island for some groceries, ended up eating some trout for dinner. Saturday did some shopping, got some waterproof stuff for Paganello, even though the forecast is pretty favorable. Never hurts to have some. Otherwise, it's finally hitting me that I'm going to Europe in a couple days. Nervous. Apprehensive. But Tracy made me think of it in a different light, that this is my farewill trip, the last time I'll grace the beaches of Rimini. Dropped by the Russells after shopping to see his broken hand and give him an early birthday present, Sky High. Figured he'd need something to watch on the couch. That night we went out with Scott and April to dinner at Joy's Noodles and drinks at The Closet, which I can finally say I've been to after walking by it so many times, and finished the night off at The Tin Lizzie, which I thought was called Tin Lizzie's, but not according to Metromix. Sunday was Rent, which was okay, probably the worst of the 3 times I've seen it, but still a good show. Made me want to see the movie. At first I wasn't really getting into it, just like the soundtrack which I've listened to too many times, but then, it got me. Dinner at Bandera afterwards, and then wasting time at Border's before taking the bus home during the Cubs game instead of before. Other odds and ends: finally picked up a PSP battery, the extended version, at Target of all places. Last one on the shelf. Remembered an old college teammate that used neoprene socks to keep his feet warm and dry during the wet season of ultimate, which made me want to get some instead of lugging around waterproof shoes to Paga.

Last day working for a week. Kind of nice. Still comprehending going to Paganello. Teammates are leaving already. I'm just trying to figure out what to pack and if I'm missing anything and need to get anything. Last night Tracy made some cabbage, bacon, and corned beef dish which I thought was pretty good. She wasn't happy, but she tackled cabbage without a recipe. Got the Sumajin Smartwraps yesterday. Very simple but well made, and will be very useful. Rest of my stuff should get delievered today; a bookshelf, wall candle holders, and a wallfiler. More info when it gets here and gets installed. Headed out to see Tracy tonight before I leave tomorrow. Also to do some last minute suburban shopping. We'll see if I actually do any updating once I get there.

Yes, I'm back. Got back Tuesday afternoon. I'm in the middle of a Paganello recap, so go there for the deets. Yes, I used deets. Well, I guess I can give highlights: first time in 5 trips to Paga that my team won on Monday; I got 1 layout D, so I can still do that; best weather of my 5 trips; already broke my player gift; didn't end up using my PSP for anything because I screwed up the encoding process; and my cell phone worked great in Italy. I am fighting off some sort of cold/flu something, it came up pretty much on the plane ride back from Amsterdamn. So I get back Tuesday, got a gyro and a hot dog, and sat on the couch and drifted in and out of sleep and eating for the afternoon and evening. Had lots and lots to read in Google Reader, and apparently the biggest tech news while I was gone was the release of Google Calendar. Wednesday was work. I do need a spring coat though, maybe something besides a hoodie. Tracy had made dinner, which was nice, some chicken and noodles in a vodka cream tomato sauce. And then an early night, since I still need to catch up on sleep from the weekend. I did manage to get a bit of sun, so I'm darker than usual. Headed to the Duke of Perth tonight with Russell. Good to see Alias back on TV.

Definitely caught something on the way back from Paganello. Not quite the flu, nor is it a cold, it's strange. A couple more days and good nights sleep, and if it sticks around, time for a doctor's visit. Went to the Duke last night with Russell, just love that place, but not the best idea to drink some beer. Watched The Unit as well. And then an early bedtime. Since I was really really tired. I'm also really really looking forward to sleeping this weekend. Like a lot. Oh, I've started reading Kung Fu High School, finally, while I finish reencoding the Las Vegas episodes, and a bunch of movies as well. I do have some more travelling to do in the next month, so it'll be good to actually have some working media for that. No plans for the weekend, just recoup time.

Not sure what it is, but at least I don't think it's strep. Which is good. Felt like mucus build up in the back of the head, ears, throat, but packed in, which leads to a lot of coughing. Not it finally feels like it's moved to the forehead, the sinuses, which hopefully means it's one step closer to getting out of my head. But I caved again and got some cough suppressants. One more day makes it a week, and well, maybe it's time to see a doctor. Other than that, which pretty much limited my weekend to the indoors, Tracy met me out Friday after work for a picnic near the lake. That was nice. Saturday was couchridden. Sunday I actually cleaned the data center some more, to the point that you can sit on the couch, actually see the floor, and get to both closets. I know, impressive. Got around to finally installing Windows XP on an old Dell box I have, and wow, if VPN'ing in to work isn't so much faster now. Watched some more TV, I'm kind of annoyed with the DVR, as I can't make any changes to the series recordings without freezing the box. One of these days when I get everything old watched off of it, I'll do a HDD reset which will hopefully solve the problem.

Yes, I caved, I took some cough suppressant, expectorant, and decongestant drugs. And you know what? It worked. Totally feel better, but still got some coughing. But it's pretty much out of my head, which is impressive. Got the newest version of ffmpegx which has a h.264 encoding preset for the PSP, which is noticeably better than the mp4 encoding I have been using. But I'm not gonna go back and reencode things, it's a small enough screen that I'm not worried that much about quality. Had a Caesar Salad with chicken last night for dinner, relatively healthy, along with some Haagen-Dazs coffee ice cream for dessert, and not even the entire pint like usual. Did some more remote tech support and watched a bit of the Bulls. Oh, and finished off Kung Fu High School. Not bad, but I like Ender's Game much better.

Ok, realized I should have done laundry last night instead of sitting around and watching Layer Cake and getting Open Directory and Networked Home folders working on Argon. Whoops. Anyway, Layer Cake was pretty good. Some jarring camera work in parts, but overall pretty entertaining. As always the accent took me a while to get back into, and even then, hard to pick up some of the conversations. Oh, and I totally buy Daniel Craig as the new James Bond because of that movie. With Argon set up finally, can have centralized backups, sync'd home folders, all good things. Very very nice. Getting closer to getting rid of Xenon, finally. Still no luck with Windows XP and VPN and routing for setting up work email. Kind of annoying, but not too bad. Feeling much better, just wish the rest of the mucus would vacate the body. Drove to work since I'm headed out to Tracy's tonight. Odd to be driving again, don't really remember the last time I drove. Kind of nice that way.

Dinner at Panera Bread last night with Tracy, since Cosi was closing at 9pm. Haven't been to a Panera since work moved downtown. But nothing too interesting there. Watched Bones, The Unit, Teachers and Alias. I'm really glad that Alias is back. I'm also pretty glad that there's only 4 more episodes. Although, doesn't look like Jennifer Garner's lost all the baby weight. They usually put her in much skimpier outfits when she goes on missions. Seeing Will again made me miss Kitchen Confidential. I even started reading the book today. So sad. Man that show was good. Anyway, after talking with Tracy I decided to switch to just using an expectorant, instead of the catch all I was using, so I picked up some Mucinex DM. But I'm actually feeling even better today, as more of the mucus is gone from my head. Good things. Just enough time for me to get on another plane and probably get sick, again. So besides that, I get to go with Tracy for a pharmacy CE thing at Sal & Carvao Churrascaria tonight. Hopefully we'll get home in time for me to do some laundry.

Headed out to Las Vegas tonight with Tracy and meeting up with the family. Finally did some laundry last night after getting back from the drug dinner. Vesicare has a great half life. Didn't get anything on the DVR watched though. Did get a shipment of airforce Nutrisoda in though, which is great. Nothing like herbal and vitamin suppliments through expensive soda. Oh well. Congrats to Ryan who successfully defended his thesis. Oh, and I found out that most of Tea & Strumpets that went to Paganello was sick as well. Doesn't surprise me in the least.

Really, I like Las Vegas. Friday night had no troubles flying out or with any transportation all weekend long. Got a hot dog and a Cinnabon for dinner. Instead of waiting in line at the super long taxi queue at LAS, Tracy and I went to the other side of the building, hopped in a sedan and made it to Paris Las Vegas in fairly short time. Yes, it was more expensive than a cab, but worth every penny. We'd probably be still waiting in that cab line. Met up with the family and got some food at the casino cafe. Took a quick walk around the block to see if the Bellagio fountains were still going, which they weren't. Saturday we started off the day with breakfast at Lenotre as is my family's tradition, and headed north up the strip to make it for mass at 2:30pm. Stopped off and had the entire family on a rail at a craps table. My mom ended up walking away early with her winnings, while the rest of us waited it out and lost at Harrah's. We stopped at the Venetian for a bit and then walked through Wynn's, nice place. Ended up heading back to Paris as my mom took a rest stop for a bit, and then headed over to the Bellagio buffet for dinner. Good as always. Tracy and I watched a bit of the fountains and met up with Al and Nicole at Harrah's again before ending up at the Flamingo for some more craps. Started betting the Field when I saw it work for other people. And yes, ended up working for me too. Go figure. Sunday breakfast at the Paris buffet and then Tracy and I had to leave. No problems getting to the airport, and ended up waiting for 2 hours. Could have taking a flight this morning and gotten a pair of roundtrip tickets, but had to work. Good time seeing my family, the entire family, and good time in Vegas. Nice having a sixth wheel to balance things out. Definitely want to head back, maybe with the boys. And also saw lots and lots of bachelor/bachelorette parties. Like a lot. More than I've ever seen. And really busy. Made me miss the holiday family Vegas trips and other off season trips. Much better that way.

Went and saw Stick It last night at City North. Went up early and got some grub at the Golden Nugget. Fairly standard night. Movie was definitely weak. If I actually think about it, it was a fairly odd movie. It was definitely no Bring It On. A couple of things I want to get done tonight: 1) clean the fridge out cause something stinks in there. 2) do some sort of exercise. Maybe I'll actually go running outside for once, or just trek over to the gym for some tread time. Just something. And get to sleep at a decent hour. How hard can that be? Oh, and I'm feeling much better, not coughing nearly as much as before, and almost have all the mucus out of my ear/nose/throat. Not completely, but close. Only a matter of time, and time. It's the second week, which is forever in my sickness history, but apparently not my sickness future. If that makes any sense at all.

I leave for Santa Barbara on Friday. Yes, back on a plane, back to O'Hare, back across the country. And I just got back. I wonder what my actual travel mileage has been so far and what it will end up with. Ugh. All these vacations gets tiring. Anyway, managed to go running last night. My knees definitely weren't happy for the first 10 minutes, but then they loosened up or built up cushioning, or something, cause it wasn't so bad after that. Also, I really need to finish off some shows from the DVR since I'll be gone for a week in 8 days during May Sweeps which means lots of lots of new recorded shows. So I plowed through a couple episodes of Pepper Dennis (watched strictly because it's based in Chicago), an episode of Teachers and Las Vegas. It's getting tempting to just delete off the Lost episodes I've been stockpiling and just wait for the DVD set to come out. I never recorded Veronica Mars knowing full well I'll be buying that on DVD. So besides that, headed out to see Tracy tonight. Might look into getting some second hand golf clubs. Yes, I might be getting into golf.

That just works on so many levels. Headed out to Tracy's last night, with pretty much the least amount of traffic I've seen driving out there after work. She apparently has caught whatever bug I had, so that's not so good. Ended up getting some soup after watching House. Then I tried to do some work with her dad's computer (having issues burning a CD with mp3's on it). No luck. Watched Alias when I got back. I'm just hoping they wrap it up in a neat little package with a bow and don't leave anything for a hoped for movie. Definitely got to clean out the fridge tonight. And I'm getting older, and bigger, so I had to get my suit pants let out for the wedding this weekend. Ugh. Enough to make me want to go running tonight.

Cinco de Mayo. Anyway, stayed up way too late watching TV and putting off doing dishes and cleaning out the fridge. Did end up getting a SuperRide from the airport to the hotel and back for the weekend. Did end up ordering a replacement credit card, finally. Also today got a haircut at Salonique, and my shoes shined downstairs, and bought some more lottery tickets. Headed out shortly to pick up my suit pants and then off to the airport for Mina's wedding. I'll be there for pretty much tomorrow only and head back on Sunday. Then 3 days, then off to Mexico. Crazy. Seriously crazy. Anyway, gotta go.

Well, my 5 weeks of so of travel and vacation and airports and airplanes is almost over. Just one more trip left. Mina and Carl's wedding was fun, good, and relaxing. Good to see the Tea & Strumpets folks, and those viewings are few and far between. Hard to believe they're actually married. Travel wasn't a problem; got to take a prop plane for the first time in a long time between LAX and Santa Barbara. That was interesting. Otherwise a pretty straightforward weekend. Now, three more days of work, gotta fit in another laundry session, and off for a week. Finished up the first season of Las Vegas on the PSP, and that season finale was a tear jerker. And then last night watched the second to last episode of the 3rd season off the DVR. Weird to jump around like that, but not too jarring, cause some things just stay the same. Oh, and decided that we'd never get caught up on Lost this season, so deleted the 5 episodes that I have had sitting on the DVR and got rid of the series recording and just have to wait for season 2 to come out on DVD on October 3. Forgot to mention that while at ORD got to play a little bit with Accenture Interactive Network. Fairly useless.

Found out where I'll be spending the next week, at the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum. Took a look at their website, and well, wow, it looks like a really really nice place to spend a week. I'll try and actually write about it when I get back. Tonight, headed out to hopefully return some nice grey linen pants Tracy had gotten for me which are a little too big. Apparently suit pant size according to the fitter isn't the same as store bought clothing. But you know the drill, last minute shopping for a trip. Weather looks okay, not too hot, high 70's low 80's. Not bad at all. Not too hot, which will be pretty good. Got some prime rib last night at Fox's Restaurant & Pub. Not bad, but a really really big cut. And then I got to find out travel info and watch Tracy pack. Exciting, I know.

Went shopping yesterday out at the Chicago Premium Outlets. Got some good stuff. Not bargains, but definitely cheaper then regular stores. Got some pants that fit, some jersey style polos and a spring jacket. Finally getting around to overhauling the wardrobe. Ate at Papa Bear, a diner across the street from the shopping mall. Good hearty breakfast. Worried a bit about having enough space on the DVR for all the season finales this week, while I'm gone. Of course, after I catch up on everything next weekend I won't have anything on there anymore. I did find out that HDNet is showing Dead Like Me, which is pretty cool. So I'll start recording that during the summer reruns. Otherwise, just need to pack, do some laundry, maybe clean up a little before heading out tomorrow morning. Should be a good time.

And updating. Late. Go figure. I'll try and provide a longer recap of the week, and you can always check out Current events to get a possibly listing of things I did in Mexico. Truth be told, I forget, and I didn't write anything down. So it'll come down to getting pictures and seeing dates on the pictures before I have a better timeline for the week. But first off, congrats to Ryan and Lisa, the Cases. In summary, it was a good time. Lots of sleeping in which was nice. Good eating. Some drinking, some dancing. Not too much sun. A little pool time, a little beach time. Some quick highlights: riding an ATV for the first time, seeing Chechen Itza, night swimming after the reception, hamburguesa con queso, patatas fritas con queso, soft serve ice cream, the Warner Channel. I'm sure I'm forgetting all sorts of good things, but that's just the stuff off the top of my head. Anyway, got back last night with Tracy, got a gyros and hot dogs for dinner during the series finale of Will & Grace before driving her home. Tried catching up on email and web reading, and then catching up today with work stuff. Want to go check out a MacBook tonight after work, it's gonna be hard talking myself out of getting one, and need to organize things for the spring recycling trip (get rid of more computers/electronics) tomorrow. Need to catch up on TV too, as the DVR is 99% full. Might try and catch a movie or two as well this weekend. But no more travelling for a while. Kind of nice to know I'm home bound.

Friday night checked out the new MacBook at the Apple Store on North Michigan Avenue. Not a bad machine, but a little too wide for my taste. At least, that's what I'm telling myself right now. The keyboard isn't bad, but I feel like there's too much casing around the screen. But I want to keep checking it out and I might be leaning toward getting one and replacing all my machines. Well, most of my machines anyway. Not sure yet. Still contemplating that. Also Friday night I went out to Bryan's new place to play some Settles of Catan for the first time. Interesting game, but not really enough to hold my interest for very long. Saturday tried to bring some old broken and useless electronic stuff out for recycling, except I didn't look it up before I left, so I didn't know where to go. Go figure, it was the same exact place it was last year, just off Division east of the Expressway. Whoops. So I've got a backseat full of junk waiting for the next time I can drop it off at a hazardous recycling center. Then Tracy came over and we tried to start watching TV off the DVR until we found out we were missing episodes, since the DVR decided to delete older episodes. Back when I replaced all the series records, they defaulted to Save until space is needed, and well, space was needed. So I tried to get the missing episodes off bittorrent. Mostly succeeded. But we did watch enough to make room for Stealth and Ong-bak. I guess this means I'll be recording more movies for myself. We just made dinner at home. But on Sunday we went out, saw The Da Vinci Code at River East and had dinner at Red Lobster because of a craving for crab legs and Shaw's Crab House didn't have an opening until 9:30pm. Movie was alright. Nothing too special. And the twists I already knew. The flashbackish scenes were pretty cool though. Headed out to Round Lake for a big screen showing of Boondock Saints with Russell tonight.

So Boondock Saints showing last night? Pretty bad. In the middle of nowhere. Well, not really, but up near Gurnee Mills. That far. Thanks to Russell for driving. And growing up in the boonies, I used to be afraid of going into the big bad city, and now that I'm from the city, I'm not all that comfortable heading out into the boonies. Funny how things work out. But the movie looked like it was projected from an LCD projector off a DVD or something, which wouldn't surprise me. I was hoping for a nice projection, but no. The image seemed pretty washed out, not bright at all. Also the bass was turned up way too loud, like rattling the furniture bad. Not a pleasant way to see a movie at all. Could have had a much better experience just sitting on my couch watching it. Anyway, came home, ended up watching the last couple of episodes of Alias. It's over. Oh well. Kind of disappointing, but strangely satisfying at the same time. I'm kind of intrigued by the whole Nike+iPod thing. I like the idea of more ways to harvest data of my life. Might give me a reason to finally get an iPod nano.

Just couch time with Tracy last night. Watched Batman Begins, it was on HBO. Got food from Giordano's since I didn't feel like cooking. Imported Tracy's pictures to iPhoto and then had to do some figuring to get the Gallery plugin to work in iPhoto, and then tried uploading the 294 photos to my gallery. Didn't work. I'll try uploading sub albums instead tonight. And yes, that means new pictures in the gallery. Finally. We also watched a couple episodes of Grey's Anatomy that I had bittorrented after the DVR deleted them. After the first one I realized I had a 23" ACD sitting around not plugged into anything, so I dragged that out to the coffee table, gathered up the JBL Creature IIs from the bedroom, and instead of watching TV on the 12" powerbook screen, we watched on a much bigger screen. A much nicer experience. I had forgotten how big that screen actually is. Also tried to get my EyeTV 500 up and running since I'm supposed to record Thursday's Oprah for Jayadev. His sister's supposedly in the front row. But having some issues with that. Might have to figure out how to pull it from the DVR instead. Tonight might wander over to the Apple Store to play with the MacBook again. I'm pretty close to deciding to get one. It's just so tempting.

Went to the Apple Store last night after work, again, to play with the MacBook, again. It's still too big, and of course there's a few issues with the production run, like running too hot, okay, maybe just one issue. But I want one. So as soon as some funds open up, I'll look into getting one, and then off load as many of my old computers as I can. I've heard craigslist is pretty good for this sort of thing, better than eBay. Other than that, figured more computing stuff out, like how to get the program guide to show up with the EyeTV 500 and finally uploaded a new gallery with pictures from Mexico. There's a handful that didn't load up properly, so I'll have to see what I can do to get those up correctly. And just watched a bit of TV. Nothing too exciting. Next for computing stuff I need to figure out how to burn DVDs from EyeTV recorded programs, and do some info consolidation.

I know it's bad considering I just came back from a week long vacation, but I'm looking forward to the three day weekend. I've sort of let the place go a bit, so I need to do some more cleaning and organizing this weekend. Otherwise, I've started having second thoughts about getting a MacBook. Do I really need a laptop? Do I do enough outside the home to need a computer I can carry with me? I just started using the 22" Cinema Display with Aluminum in the living room, so I've been reintroduced to the glory of large amounts of screen real estate. It's nice. Easy on the eyes. Maybe I could make do with a Mac mini? But I've always had a laptop. Always. And it's nice always having the option to carry your life with you, instead of needing a network to get anything done. But I've got some time to figure out what I want to do, so I get to think about it more and more. But enough with the computer stuff. Parents are coming in to town supposedly for the weekend. Other than that, maybe some laundry.

Completely spaced and missed out on Sally's housewarming shindig on Friday, but had a nice quiet evening with Tracy. We got sandwiches from Sam's Deli and ate out by the lake. We then finished up Grey's Anatomy. Saturday did a little cleaning, tried to implement my backups schedule, watched some movies. Ended up having dinner with my parents at their place and chatting for a while. Sunday made it to mass at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, just in time since I just found out that they had changed their mass schedule. Not sure when that kicked in but goes to show that I haven't been there for church in a while. I'll try and get back to that from here on out. Breakfast with my parents after that at Ann Sather's on Broadway before more chilling then heading out to Old Orchard with Russell for more MacBook drooling. Also odd to drop by my former place of work. Familiar faces. Odd being on the other side of the table. Got a drink at Champp's before watching X-Men: The Last Stand with Bryan, Kevin, and Leo and Irma. Then without the married couple, we went to play some Settlers of Catan. I think I'm done with that game. Monday went out to Tracy's for a BBQ. We also ended up watching Memoirs of a Geisha. Busy, but still with a decent amount of downtime. Headed back out to Tracy's tonight, definitely craving some sushi maybe on Thursday or Friday and out to Woodstock on Saturday. In the meantime, got to squeeze in some laundry.

This spring/summer humid thunderstorm weather always makes me want to watch Twister. Driving out to Tracy's last night was interesting cause it seemed like I was headed for a storm, but I never really got there. Just kept seeing lightning and dark clouds and what looked like walls of rain, but none on me. Watched some TV, got some food at some bar & grill, then more TV and then heading back in to the city. Early night to make up for the previous late night. Also, we're headed out tonight for another pharmacy school friend of hers send off. In the meantime, I think I figured out what the problem was on being unable to upload some photos to the gallery (had to increase max upload size). However, I deleted the existing album of Lisa and Ryan's wedding, so I need to get that back up. Although, I might want to take the time to update to gallery 2 finally. Of course, that mean's I need to find some time.

Fairly random, but while continuing to read up on the MacBook as my next computer I come across all sorts of talk about how hot it is, how hot it gets, and so on. So I found a temp meter that works on Aluminum to get a sense of how hot my current laptop gets. But that's besides the point. The point is that a lot of these readings are in Celcius. So I've decided to try and get better at reading temps in Celcius. That just means I've got 2 weather widgets for Dashboard, one in Fahrenheit and the other in Celcius. Hard for me to pick it up. Anyway, went to Hooters last night with some of Tracy's Pharmacy School classmates. Also watched another episode of Can't Get a Date. Pretty simple night.

Well, not really. But it is June already. Halfway annual tasks to do include archiving mail on Xenon. About time for that, even though I hardly use it for anything, well, except to serve up listservs. But I did some research yesterday, and I'm actually making some progress towards implementing my own email2gallery setup via procmail and some other tools. Which means I'll take Flickr out of the loop and then all my pictures can be in one location. Oh, and I still haven't put Lisa and Ryan's Wedding gallery back up, just updated the Gallery to the newest version, so maybe some css work later to get that up and running. Relatively random, came across the Gryphon. Very very cool. Probably useful for special forces type stuff, but it actually reminds me the Screaming Fist from Neuromancer. Oh, and an email notice: SpamCop apparently has been blacklisting some gmail servers, and this has been going back a while. Not sure why it's taken so long to affect me, but those of you who have been trying to send me stuff via gmail, it's delayed by at least 2 days.

Getting closer to releasing Daily Dose with css. Finally got the gallery up and running with version 2.1.1 with css, but that's still not available to the public. Soon enough. I was able to test it out via my cell phone and it's much quicker to view. Makes me happy. Otherwise, a fairly busy weekend. Friday finally did some laundry. Saturday headed out to Woodstock and had dinner with the parents at Tip Top Bistro. Sunday went over to Tracy's, picked up some used clubs, tried them out at the driving range, then grilled up some burgers for dinner and watched Waiting... to cap off the night. Oh, I forgot to mention that I tried out my dad's new lawnmower, a Kubota ZG20. Wow. Otherwise, not much else. Oh, and I've decided to hold off on the MacBook, until the heat issues die down and hard drive sizes come up, which will probably be August since Toshiba announced 200GB 2.5" SATA drives today. So until then, I'm still on Aluminum.

Welcome to oh, a couple years ago. I've finally updated Daily Dose to use css. Oh, it doesn't completely validate. Oh well. I'll work on that later. Also rolled out the new gallery, also available from the link in the menu. Only the wedding pictures up now, I'll import the rest later. Memex was updated as well, which is nice. Of course, I'm already thinking of the next upgrade, which would be to Smarty Templating, which is what Gallery uses. Oddities include the Memex footer finally aligning at the bottom for some reason, and the shop in css has poor menu sized links. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it. I should eventually get it to validate, that'd be the smart thing to do. Next up in integrating login and administration with Gallery, Daily Dose, and MediaWiki. That should be interesting. Yesterday went out to Tracy's, ate some homemade fat sausage and watched TV, aside from the website update.

Tracy and I tried to play some tennis yesterday at Waveland Park. Can't remember the last time I played tennis or even picked up a racket, probably back on college. So I'm not that good. And we were on a center court, so we didn't want to swing away and have to go chasing after balls. Did learn that court changes happen on the hour, so that's good to know for future reference. After that we went to Coast for dinner, since Tracy had gotten a copy of DiningOut for Chicago and she went looking for someplace that had scallops. And I am not one to turn down sushi. And it was my first time at Coast. Not bad, a little expensive, but nothing special. They did have wasabi shumai though, which was good. Trendy too. Never realized how close it was to Bryan, Tony, and Carlo's old place.

Well, figured out what the problem was with the Memex and the css update: random clear:both in the MediaWiki code. Well, probably not random, but there to make sure categories and the footer end up below any image work. Makes sense. Not for this implementation, but overall. So I at least brought categories back up near the body text. Doesn't look perfect, and I like the footer at the bottom, so that's how it's going to be for now. Also, if anyone else is having issues with the site after the change to css positioning, try refreshing or clearing out your cache. Otherwise, tried to get through some more stuff on the DVR, like Bewitched and the series finale of Everwood. Right now it's just full of movies and episodes of Good Eats. But I've switched my Good Eats recording to the EyeTV 500 so I can get them all.

Went out to Tracy's last night, saw X-Men: The Last Stand, again, since she hadn't seen it. Still okay the second time around. Noticed the reverse aging (younging?) of the Professor and Magneto at the beginning this time around. Didn't notice it the first time around, but looking for it, well, it's a little disconcerting, kind of odd. You can definitely tell something is different about those two. But that was about it. I'm really intrigued by the stuff Google's doing recently. I just logged in to Google Spreadsheets, and that was after installing Google Browser Sync on the Firefoxes I use, and it makes me wonder if we're closer to a GoogleOS: the web based operating system. Most of my information that I want to have is making it's way online. It's becoming harder to be any sort of productive if I'm not online. The part about spreadsheets that tweaked this is the interface (a menubar? with file:save and file:open as options? Seems like an OS to me). And now Akira is intriguing me with the S3 stuff from Amazon, which I signed up for. Might use it as another backup medium. Just need a reliable way to get it out if everything else goes away. Going to see my friend James at some point this weekend, got Lisa and Ryan's Midwest Wedding BBQ on Saturday, and that's about it. Oh, and had lunch with Bryan at Jerry's Sandwiches yesterday when he came to pick up my tent for use at Poultry Days. Ha, Poultry Days.

Watched and did a lot this weekend. Friday finally watched The Great Raid, which was really good. Throughout the weekend I worked on upgrading MediaWiki to 1.6.7, mainly figuring out where and what my customizations are. Almost there. Saturday, watched The Seige before heading out to Lisa and Ryan's Midwest Wedding BBQ. Sunday, made myself breakfast after church and settled in to watch Unleashed before heading out to Ribfest. Was supposed to see James who was in town, but that didn't happen, which is too bad. Hopefully later this year when he's back for good. Also watched Entourage season 3 premiere. Such a good show but so short. And I just read it's 20 episodes this season, which is good. Currently reading Inside Delta Force borrowed from Russell, which is the basis of The Unit. I'll probably end up reading Rainbow Six to get my special forces fix. Hoping to get some laundry done tonight.

Trying to get Subversion up and running for my website code. That's what's keeping me from updating the MediaWiki code. Again, sooner than later. Late night at work kept me from laundry, so it was dinner and couch time with the laptop. More issues with email, again with the SpamCop and Gmail issues. Annoying. Makes me wonder if I should look into switching hosting providers, or at least one that doesn't use SpamCop, since a lot of people I know, and I myself, use gmail. Ugh, maybe I should take the next step towards colocation. Hmmm. Again. Anyway, new tv show I'll be watching? Windfall, cause it's about winning the lottery, something I'd love to do.

Last night went out with Tracy to Mid Iron to swing the clubs. Got better at the 7-iron. Switching to the 5 wood felt completely different, and everything I thought I was doing right with the iron now felt completely wrong. Anyway, getting a few decent hits here and there. I was impressed. All that time watching my dad and brother practice swings in the living room must have paid off. Makes me excited to take some lessons, and someday go golfing with them. Who knew, me, eventually, liking golf. Granted, I haven't been out on a course yet, so who knows about that, but I do like swinging the club and watching the ball go flying. After hitting a bucket, we went to dinner at Davidson's cause I had a craving for onion rings. With that satisfied, we moved on to ice cream from Baskin-Robbins and finished up with a shopping run at Target. No righty golf gloves there. But then Jay let me know that a glove just allows you to grasp the club tighter, which is actually a bad thing, so I'll pass and wait until my blisters go away.

Last night Tracy and I went to a Wine & Cheese: Uncensored pairing class at The Chopping Block at Merchandise Mart. First time at there at the Mart location. Very nice place. Class was pretty cool, tasted 6 wines and 1 beer with cheeses. Got some notes. I was really impressed because I'm not a cheese guy. At all. But I liked them all. Especially the Gouda. Go figure. Then we walked over and had dinner at Wollensky's Grill, which was great. Headed over tonight to maybe play some tennis out in Lemont. More issues make me think about switching hosting providers, as I think I crash the server around noon when doing my Memex updates. But they haven't complained to me yet, so maybe it isn't me at all. And downtime usually lasts like 5 minutes or less, it's hardly noticable, but still.

Just headed out to Tracy's last night to hang out. We were thinking of playing some tennis, but too tired to head out. Just some couch time instead. I spent some time working on Hydrogen, the only real Windows machine I've got to get Outlook connecting to the work Exchange server. This will come in handy, since I've been VPNing in to check email, since I didn't like the WebMail interface. But, that still isn't working right, so I'll have to try again later. Headed out tonight to Vessel Ideation for an open house/happy hour which I actually wasn't invited to but I'm crashing anyway. And then I really need to do some laundry. Seriously need to do some laundry. Tomorrow I need to remember to drop off the computer stuff at some hazardous recycling center, either on the south side or in Highland Park, not sure where exactly. Probably on the south side. After that got Tall Leo's wedding reception, but Tracy and I might head out to her uncle's place for a family party before hand. Sunday might head out to Taste of Randolph Street. Somewhere in there I'd like to roll out a new version of the Memex.

So I popped the question on Sunday. We were going to Taste of Randolph Street anyway, so I had us go down to Millennium Park before hand, because I wanted to check it out, and we hadn't been there since the winter and ice skating. So we get there, I'm pretty nervous, and I need to walk around to calm the nerves a little, build up the courage. So we check out the plant sanctuary, the nice grassy field at the pavilion, and I'm a little disappointed we couldn't find any photography displays, cause that would have killed a little more time. So we eventually make our way to the Cloud Gate, or The Bean, which is all polished up and seamless. That's my goal, the set piece. Tracy's on the phone with Lisa, and I'm walking us around, trying to find a nice quiet corner, and find one on the northwest part of the plaza. I speak a few words to Lisa, letting her know that I haven't done it yet, and am about to, which is good that Lisa didn't ask Tracy yet. So the phone goes away, and I start talking, that I love that you can see everything in the bean, it's great, and that's what I can see with her, that I can see everything, and that brings me to why I brought her there, because I love her, and then I reach into the pocket, bring out the box, dropping to one knee, opening the box, and asking her to marry me. She starts crying, I get up and start holding her, and she says, yes, of course she will, and a little more crying. So I hope that's a good enough proposal story, although most people aren't asking how it happened, they ask more about the ring. It's a little too loose on the finger, so she's getting it sized, hopefully tomorrow. So with that out of the way, quick weekend recap: Friday night went to Vessel Ideation, got the drink on, tried to get some pointers on how to propose, Saturday did 5 loads of laundry after dropping off old computer stuff at a hazardous recycling center. Showed up to Tall Leo's wedding reception late. Sunday didn't make it to tennis, sat around and watched Madagascar before heading to the park, proposing, and then Taste of Randolph Street mainly to see Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Out with the pharmacists last night, on a supposed going away dinner for Lisa and Ryan which we conveniently tacked on a celebration for getting engaged. We went to Think Cafe up on Western and something, and it was pretty good. We ended up at The Beer Bistro in the West Loop before heading home. Good times. Hard to believe that was a Monday.

Still like the Duke, even though they slightly changed their menu. The fish & chips is still great, as I decided to go back to the standard after getting stuck on the meatloaf for the last couple of visits. Restocked the beer fridge a little bit more, got a couple bottles of sake too, I forget which ones. Hopefully I can remember to write those down. Watched Knockaround Guys, which was pretty good. Not sure if it'll stand up to repeat viewings, but still, pretty good. After Russell left tried to do some computer work, but still have to figure out how to use Subversion. I think there's another upgrade to Gallery that I should implement, but there's no easy way I've found yet to determine which version I'm actually running. I was hoping to get it integrated with the Memex but that extension to MediaWiki doesn't work with the newest versions. Ugh. Headed out to Darwin's tonight for ribs. Oh, forgot to mention that I grabbed an early lunch with Tracy at Caffe Baci yesterday as well.

Websites. Trending. And a couple things. The last subject line was supposed to be about more friends getting blogs. Russell would be the latest with The Unpaid Bar Tab. But I love that people are writing more. It's more of that information junkie in me getting my fix. And this time it's less about technology and more about the people I know, knew, or might know in the future. There's a possibility of a gossip-like site that will finally satisfy my desire for a Chicago Ultimate gossip site. So that's nice. More info for me. Makes me wonder if we'll finally get a forum, like the old Union Crew website had. But the other thing about websites, either I'm finally finding out about, or just that the trend leaders have allowed the mainstream to catch up, but it seems like a lot of, not really bleeding edge, but leading design for the web, seems to be coming out of Chicago. It's the simplicity and form over function, places like 37signals or Coudal. Also it's some professional bloggers on the Weblogs, Inc., or just more posts by bloggers. It's cool. But also kind of strange. Maybe it's just that I'm finally paying attention to location when it comes to website reading. Anyway, Darwin's was good tonight, but the ribs were a little too spicy. Still good, but spicy. Got to see Jason Tanguay for the first time in a long time.

Had a rare night post last night. That was before I decided to go ahead and update the Gallery and the Memex last night. Took way longer than I hoped for. But now I'm running current versions, 2.1.1 of Gallery and 1.6.7 of MediaWiki. Oh, and updated gtd-php to 0.6 as well. I'm guessing that's going to get a lot more usage with some heavy duty planning in my future. Oh, also realized that I should just ftp things in binary, and that ascii isn't that good. Never really had to deal with images, so I usually forgot about those things. Anyway, dinner with the future in-law family tonight at Carnivale. Afterwards, just really really need to catch up on sleep. Really.

Didn't end up going to Carnivale, instead went to Brazzaz as originally thought. Food was good, but Tracy ended up getting sick, probably from the oysters. I had one, but only one, as it was good, but I'm guessing not the best thing to layer in between red meat. So that was good. Got to ride in the Argao family minivan, which was cool. Powered side doors rock. I did notice what looked like a battery charging interface in the side door, which I thought was pretty odd. Fairly early night, which was good, and I got to bed at a decent hour for once in a pretty long time. Felt good waking up for work too. Oh, fast forwarded through Master of Champions last night. Odd odd show. I just wanted to see the actual performance, but as a competition doesn't seem to make much sense. And the stuff they did last night, not that entertaining.

Happy Birthday to my mother!!! (almost forgot).

House bound for the weekend, mostly because Tracy was working, and I enjoyed being inside. Lots of TV and movies over the weekend, and winners were Wicker Park and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. I really liked Wicker Park, even though it got panned by the critics. Of course, it's a remake of some French flick, but I'd never seen the original, so I thought the remake was pretty good. It would have been much funnier if Freddie Prinze, Jr. had been in it, especially since Matthew Lillard was in it already. And Pirates was pretty good too. Good ride. Reminds me of The Mummy, that sort of fun summer action adventure. Figure I can see the sequel now. Computer stuff, I've finally figured out how to email pictures to my gallery, and as soon as I figure out how to pull those pics into the sidebar, I'll get rid of my Flickr dependency. Also, started cleaning and organizing more computer stuff, setting up Nitrogen to give to Tracy, probably doing a rebuild of Aluminum and try and set up portable home directories for it. Also, probably turning the data center into a wedding planning center, think one wall covered in cork board, or one of those huge white boards that's magnetic, so we can start brainstorming for ideas. And yes, it's already started, the wedding planning. This is gonna take up a lot of time, and it'll give me lots to write about. Should be great.

Went running with Tracy last night. Well, sort of. Did a little home exercise as well, push ups, sit ups, pull ups. Leftovers for dinner, and watched a couple episodes of Hell's Kitchen. I don't get that show. It's like a car accident, can't help but watch. It's not a good thing to watch. I don't like any of the people, not sure why any of those people would want to go through it, or even why some of them even made it on the show. I thought egg washes were always with yolks, just like the main guy on the show says, but looking it up, you can use egg whites if you're looking for a lighter color and crispiness. So that's something I learned, not necessarily because of the show. Not sure if I'll be watching that again.

Probably not really, not meteorologically, which is a real word by the way. But enjoyable. I really like the Sturm und Drang, the fury of mother nature. It's fun to see the rain come down in sheets, approach from the horizon, the wall of water as it crosses the land. Missed one when walking over to the train station to get lunch yesterday, and got caught in one walking to work from the parking lot. The first time I didn't have an umbrella or a rain coat, but this morning I had my huge umbrella. Which was nice. Funny seeing all the people going to work huddled under their small travel umbrellas. Didn't do too much last night, more work getting Nitrogen ready for Tracy, bringing it over tonight, have to figure out the easiest way to get her playlists over from Aluminum.

Just realized the header on these items is too close to the body of the text. Also, I should increase the line height to make it more readable. Updated the rest of my machines last night to 10.4.7. No problems. Brought Tracy her tMac last night. Always good to get someone else on a Mac. Also good to actually get rid of more computers from my data center. Drops me down to 6-7 working machines. Just a little ridiculous. But definitely finally feel like I'm making headway on getting things organized. Better anyway. Might go for a run tonight, might do some laundry, want to cook some Italian sausages in the fridge, and I found out I had Magic Shell in the cupboard somewhere, so I'm thinking of getting some ice cream somewhere. Contemplating stopping by beach on my way home tonight, just to say hello, so we'll see if that happens. Oh, got to try Skype out for work related communications, which is pretty cool. Here's hoping tonight I get to try iChat with Tracy. Tomorrow gonna try the Chicago SummerDance Festival on the south side of Grant Park. It's Mambo/Cha cha cha/Merengue/Bachata night. That starts at 6pm.

Any household stuff get done last night? No, of course not. Ended up going grocery shopping since I needed onions for the Italian sausages, and I need to remind myself not to go grocery shopping after work. Just way too busy. And my ice cream kind of melted waiting in line. But I did manage to get a blueberry pie. Again, don't go to Jewel when I'm hungry. Just ended up buying a lot of meat. Didn't get iChat to work with Tracy, I think she was having some issues with her internet connection, and we're both behind firewalls, but still, got to figure out a way to get it done. Dancing tonight, dinner at Custom House, getting some appliances tomorrow, probably heading out to the Naperville Rib Fest at some point this weekend. Got to work on Monday, so I'll be writing then too.

Well, traffic was light, well, almost non-existant, and since I couldn't take the 135 (not running because it's a holiday schedule), I walked down to Belmont to hop on the Brown Line. Anyway, tough being the only IT guy at work. Weekend was pretty busy, again, but with a fair amount of downtime. Friday night Tracy and I went to the Chicago SummerDance Festival, but that was too busy, like packed busy, so we watched from the edges before walking through the Taste of Chicago. We ended up at Hackney's Printers' Row instead of the Custom House, which seemed a little too fancy. Saturday cleaned a bit in preparation for new appliances, which got delivered and installed. Best new things? Air conditioners have remote controls, timers, and thermostats. Microwave has a turntable. First time I've had a microwave with a turntable. And the dishwasher door doesn't scrape against the wall when opening or closing. Pretty nice. So, with working AC units, have to find a time to finish painting, and then after that get the carpets shampooed. After that we wandered down Broadway for some shopping. I managed to finally get an under the cupboard wine glass rack. Dinner with my parents that night along with some family friends. Watched some Entourage as well. Don't like that Dom guy at all. And what happened to Sloan? Sunday after church drove out to the Naperville Rib Fest, afternoon naps, and leftovers for dinner while watching Underclassman. On the computer front, managed to get Portable Home Directories working on Aluminum, which I rebuilt, so now it's a matter of picking and choosing what goes back on.

Hard to believe it's already July. Monday night made some beef wellington type things with mushrooms and scallops. Tracy and I tried to watch the fireworks by heading out to the lake, but the trees got in the way. Next year should try from the rooftop deck, or stake out a good spot on the point around Belmont harbor. Tuesday, did 4 loads of laundry, watched The Jacket, lunch with Russell at Melrose Diner, watched the Germany-Italy World Cup Semi, watched Payback, tried to fix iSync issues with the rebuilt Aluminum. Need to figure out how I want to organize my Documents folder. Tonight headed to Taste of Chicago with Tracy. Definitely nice having real air conditioners again, as Russell can attend to. Just wish they had real thermostats that turned off the units, instead of just stopping the condenser. Oh well.

Apparently, I should be checking my mail all the time. I had set up direct debit for my condo assessment fees, but I believe at some point in the last 6 months, something changed, and I haven't been paying my assessment fees, or they haven't been withdrawing my assessment fees. And I was wondering how I was getting all this money in my checking account. But I had no idea, since I'm of the set it up, forget it type of guy. Until today that is. I finally head over to the post office to pick up some mail that has a return receipt required, and when I get it I think it's really stupid because it's from my building. But when I open it and see that it's about my non payment, I guess it makes sense that they'd require a return receipt. But still, couldn't they have slipped it under my door? Or called me down to sign for it at the front desk? Instead of having to drive down the street to the post office to get it? Really? But now I guess I need to open my bills all the time now. Go figure. Probably should have been doing that all along, instead of letting it pile up on the kitchen counter. Anyway, Taste of Chicago was alright last night, really busy, but not too hot, which was nice, actually it got kind of chilly as the sun went down. Nothing too special to write home about though. Headed out to Tracy's tonight, do a little work to see if we can get iChat up and running. Oh, and my condo building also finally has a newsletter, in which I've learned that we're switching cable providers, so come October, goodbye to RCN and hello to Innovation Installations Inc. I don't think the company actually exists, and the name seems a little sketchy to me, since the assessment checks are supposed to go to an office on 58 Innovation Way, but we'll be getting satellite service through Dish Network. This, in a word, is awesome. Their HD lineup is pretty stellar, and looks like all the locals, including UPN, is available, although with the CW coming up this fall, not sure if that's going to be an issue. And supposedly faster internet connections. All good things. Hopefully. If I pay my assessment fees.

Did some work on Aluminum last night, trying to get it back to webdev status, php, mysql, restoring my databases. All those fancy tools? Just use the command line mysql to load up the backup from phpmyadmin. Otherwise, just an average night on Tracy's couch. Going to get the assessment fee thing taken care of. That's not a problem. Brought Puck for an oil change, but probably won't pick it up till tomorrow, on the way out to Woodstock. Cause that's when my parents are meeting Tracy's parents for the first time. Should be exciting. Wedding planning starts in earnest now. Aside from that, nothing else planned for the weekend.

Well, the parents met on Saturday and seemed to hit it off pretty well. So that's good. Can take a sigh of relief. Not that I was worried, but it's nice that they've finally met and it went well. Even got some preliminary details hammered out. Probably south, southwest burbs, around Lemont, probably getting married at St. Alphonsus, reception looks like it'll be at a country club round those parts. Anyway, Friday night did some exercising, watched Primer, finally figured out how to use my Gallery for the side bar images, so goodbye to Flickr. Saturday, went and picked up Puck and drove out to Woodstock. Chipped around the house with those whiffle golf balls waiting for the Argaos to show up. Then lunch, lots of talking, more golf around the house with Tracy, then doggie bags and heading back into the city. Started looking at wedding songs. Sunday watched Finding Neverland, drove out to Oakbrook Terrace looking at possible reception places, like Drury Lane, Wyndham Drake, and others, then heading down to Tracy's neck of the woods taking a peek at Ruffled Feathers. Then we hit some balls at Mid Iron before dinner at Chili's. I did managed to get ahold of a couple of balls, sending them over 200 yds. That was awesome. Tried to fix an issue with tMac where it doesn't wake from sleep, which I thought I fixed by trashing the EnergySaver prefs, but it seemed to be a problem again after I left. Might try and play some tennis tonight. Oh, and got my assessment fee issue all taken care of this morning.

No tennis yesterday, didn't think the court was lit. Instead, Tracy showed me some work she did with Garage Band. Also, tMac is still not waking from sleep, and actually it shuts off during sleep, which is odd. Anyway, we went out for pizza instead of exercising, and I had a Capri Sun to drink. Watched some Food Network. Got gas and a car wash before heading home. Decided to watch The Longest Yard to make some space on the DVR. Alarm didn't go off this morning, or I turned it off while sleeping, so was late for work. And then getting some food for lunch my umbrella broke. Annoying. Just one of those days I guess.

Tracy and I managed to play some tennis on some slightly wet in spots courts yesterday. Tiring, yes. My New Balance 991s aren't very good for tennis. Keep forgetting that I have a pair of Adidas Sambas that I could use, or should use. Pretty good workout, especially since all the muscles for stopping and starting and sprinting and juking and jiving, well, those haven't been used since Paganello. Definitely felt it afterwards, especially the left knee. Keep hitting it high. No idea how to fix it. Can't serve to save my life, either. Leftovers for dinner. Watched an episode of Entourage. Oh, and the only part of the CTA fire that affected me yesterday was that bus traffic was slow getting out of the loop.

So, some work factors might be pushing me over the edge in getting a MacBook. And I just found out that Other World Computing has started selling 160 GB 2.5" SATA drives. Great. Like I need to spend more money. Tempting though. Very tempting. Like walk into a store tempting. And the Nike iPod thing got released today. Interesting. Anyway, caught up with AJ last night at dinner at Kamehachi. Fish was okay. Sake was great. Yum, sake. Boys are coming over tonight to spend some time in the Fortress of Solitude, which I guess is available for a limited time only now. Makes me think of having a last hurrah poker night maybe. Just for grins. Chicago weather has been pretty crazy, as usual, from the hot and balmy to the imitations of Frisco last night. Plans for the weekend are shaping up, looking at a couple more country clubs, playing some tennis, might even be hitting the links for the first time ever in my life. That'll be interesting.

Went back to the vault last night having Russell and Bryan over for a movie and chinese takeout. That definitely takes me back a couple years. Food from Canton Express, nice and quick. I guess it's been a while since I've used the credit card, cause I didn't remember the first four numbers. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Good because I'm not using it, or bad because the memory is going. Oh well. Still hoping to get phpBB up and running, and hopefully crossposting doses and musings to it, including all the old stuff too. That'll be interesting. Just don't wanna have to deal with bots and spam on the forum, that's all. Been reading up on NBA summer leagues, not sure why. Never have before. Interesting to see how all these draft picks are doing. Fairly entertaining.

Friday night did some running, ate some leftovers, watched The Brothers Grimm. Saturday went out with Tracy looking for possible reception locations. Cog Hill Country Club, no go. Bolingbrook Country Club, a definite possibility. Seven Bridges Country Club, great location but too small. Bobak's Signature Events, big enough, but too conferency. White Eagle Country Club, poorly laid out ballroom. Then we got some Cold Stone, who is now selling milkshakes, and I've now decided to move on past cake batter onto something else. Then we saw Superman Returns in IMAX 3-D. Pretty cool. Great movie, the 3-Dish stuff was good, but not necessary. Great movie. Made some chicken Adobo for the first time for dinner when we got back. Super easy, and I'll be making more of it in the future. Sunday a pretty lazy day with just dinner at Angelina Ristorante after mass and some shopping. Definitely hot out, and I'm really glad I finally got new air conditioners that work. It's great to come home to a cool house that hasn't been cold all day wasting electricity.

Well, maybe, not so much, but definitely feeling, well, off. Wanted to go running last night but ended up on the couch. Issues with public transportation. 135 broke down in the morning on Roscoe, so I walked over to the Belmont stop to catch the Brown Line. Always nice to have working air conditioning. Then on the way home, took the el again, and watched an empty Purple Line follow a packed Purple Line. Crazy. And then the 135 this morning didn't have working air conditioning. I should just take the el on the really hot days. Anyway, stopped off at Radio Shack to get some contact cleaner to get my joystick working again on my cell phone. Kind of worked, as pressing down functions, but now moving right just selects instead. Ugh. Oh, and I picked up contact cleaner and lubrication, when I just needed contact cleaner, which apparently is sold more as an automotive product than an electronics product. Started watching Melinda and Melinda last night, which is pretty good. Tons of recognizable actors in that. And pretty good too. Tracy's going to take a look at Odyssey Country Club as another possible reception place today. I've got access to an EDGE pc card from work that I want to try out, but I'm worried that it's locked to AT&T Wireless/Cingular. Headed over to Bucktown tonight for movie in the park, where Whitney will be making an appearance, supposedly. Oh, and I've decided not to set up phpBB here, that's never been what the site was about, so why change now?

Really starting to crave a MacBook. Anyway, out in Bucktown last night, dinner with the Russells and Whitney. Then we rolled over to Churchill Park, next to the dog park, for Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Beautiful night out, got a little chilly, but I was able to wrap myself up in a blanket. Good to get out on the Russells' deck as well. It's nice up there. Also really good to see Marla. She looked good. Looking forward to dogsitting in August. Anyway, looks like I'll be getting soaked on my way home tonight, that won't be too much fun. I was thinking of stopping by the North Michigan Ave. Apple Store to play with the MacBooks some more, but now, I might just want to get home. Oh, finally checked my lottery tickets that I've been accumulating. I won! $12. Yay. Yippee. Anyway, I think Tracy and I have reserved the Bolingbrook Country Club for May 12 of next year for the reception. Still have to square away a church, but hopefully that won't be a problem. I did manage to look up previous years' weather on that day, kind of went hight 70's, mid 50's, mid 50's, high 70's, mid 50's, mid 50's. Not sure what the trend is for next year though. Really want a MacBook.

So, my K750i's joystick has been on the fritz for a while. Down stopped working, then after trying to clean it on Tuesday, right stopped working. Made me think about getting a K800i real soon now, instead of waiting for the K790a. But instead, I'm getting parts and going to try and fix the phone myself. If all else fails, I can just go back to my t68i until I order, probably, the K800i. But just have no idea when the K790a would be released. It's annoying, not knowing when I can buy something new. Also, I'll be getting a MacBook soon enough, as things have fallen into place as such. Hopefully anyway. Watched Shooting Gallery, well, had it on in the background as I tried to get mail services up and running on Argon. Which I did, kind of. Still not sure how fetchmail's going to work into the equation, oh, and my listservs are inactive for the time being as I figure it out. Managed to hang out with Tracy a bit before bedtime, and we watched a couple episodes of The Hills. Seriously. Why? I don't know. Really, why? I don't know. It's so bad. Really bad, but I couldn't turn away. Ugh.

Well, a MacBook is definitely in my future, near future, so that's cool. Might be selling Aluminum, not sure where or how, but if anyone's in the market for a 2003 12" Powerbook? I've got like 3 extra power adapters for it too. Anyway, might hand it off to Tracy. She made dinner last night, which was pretty cool, cause I just got home from work, and there was goulash on the stove. Sweet. Of course, I had to make dessert, so whipped together some tarts for the first time, since, October 15 of last year. Long time between tart making. I had to look that up in my archives, which reminds me that I want to implement url rewrites for better reading archive links, so hopefully stuff like eric.abando.com/2005/10 will actually go to October 2005. We'll see if that happens sooner or later. Taking the bus home definitely takes about an hour, which can get kind of annoying. Contemplating casual ultimate happy hour, but as of this minute, I'm leaning against it. Maybe next week. Definitely got to get some exercise and some laundry in this weekend.

Funny looking word. Anyway, that was me for the weekend. Lots of couch time, but then, with a couch like mine, do you really need to be anywhere else? Except that the weather was supposedly awesome out. Great. The big project completed over the weekend was getting email set up on Argon. It's pretty cool. Via IMAP, I can get all my email, which means I get to use Mail.app, which I'm pretty excited about. Still have to figure out SMTP though, since I'm pretty sure spam filters don't like emails sent out from an ISP user's machine (and that's Internet Service Provider, not Integrated Science Program). That also means I turned off Xenon, which is great. No more hard drive whine. I probably should have recorded uptime though, cause that guy just kept going and going. So the data center's pretty quiet now. I was thinking I should try and get a bigger hard drive in Argon, but I've got that firewire drive bay just hanging out, so I should just use that. I've also started importing my email archives to Mail.app, which should be an interesting exercise, considering my email goes back to '98. Just fun to have in a format that's easily searchable. Importing is a long process though. And Mail.app crashes more than I think is good. No listserving though. Not anymore. I should probably let the lists know, but nothing good's been going through there as of late, so maybe not. MacBook should be showing up on Friday, so that's something to look forward to. Especially to see if having a portable home directory has worked, which means I won't have to copy anything over by hand, which would be awesome. RAM and Hard Drive got delivered today, as Other World Computing continues to be awesome. Cleared out the DVR, watched The Interpreter (thriller that Sean Penn just had to be in), The Cave which was pretty good, but had a bad copy so ended up watching it almost live on Saturday, Memron which was interesting and background noise while working, and Rebound which was actually pretty good. Did some laundry too on Saturday. Sunday went out to the burbs for lunch with the Abandos and Argaos, (including Tracy's brother, Gabe, and sister-in-law Sanya, but not Tracy), at the Bolingbrook Country Club, which passed muster. Put a deposit down. Checked out the church where the ceremony will most likely take place, before heading back into the city for church of my own. Put some chicken and pork in Adobo marinade, and ended up watching White Girls.

Wow, look at that, click on July, or 2006, and it's a pretty way of getting to the archives. And surprisingly, not that hard to implement. mod_rewrite works wonders. The next step is to add individual days, so you someday in the future I'll be able to get to a particular day by using /archives/2006/02/17 for example. That'll be nice. So that was my evening last night. Did that while watching Proof, a pretty good movie about sanity and genius set at the University of Chicago. Pretty good view of the city, not anything too outrageous in terms of going down one street and ending up in another part of town in the movie. My only problem is them going down 55 to get to O'Hare, but that's not too shocking I guess, people might actually do that. Anything else? No, not really. Oh, I keep forgetting that my K750i is in pieces, waiting for a new joystiq and buttons, so I'm back to using the t68i, which actually works ok. But I do miss having a camera, nice screen, and more responsive UI.

Spent most of the evening last night adding keywords in iPhoto. I know, exciting, but I want to get it done before the MacBook gets here, because Keyword Assistant isn't a universal binary yet. Although, that's assuming iPhoto runs faster on my Powerbook than it does under Rosetta on the MacBook. Hmmm, good question. I did make some more Adobo last night, and when I left this morning the living room/kitchen still had the nice odor of garlic. I think that's why I wasn't cooking Adobo before. This time the sauce was pretty weak, too much meat and not enough, well, everything else. I'll keep trying until I get it right. Or consistent. One or the other. I did all that while What Women Want was playing in the background. Always a good movie. Just love the stuff filmed in Chicago. Always makes me happy to see. I think I'm headed to dinner with Tracy and Lisa and Ryan tonight, with the Cases back from Africa. Oh, and finally fixed an error when searching Musings and nothing matched. Funny how I didn't take care of that before. Funny how that doesn't show my programming skills all that well.

My K750i is put back together and working. That makes me happy. I got spoiled with big bright color screens and responsive UI. Probably means me getting a K790a is pushed out to the far future, as opposed to the near future. You know what else makes me happy, getting to see Tracy last night. It's been like 6 days since I saw her last, since she's been working nights and last weekend. We went to dinner with the Cases as Tilli's, a hip place in Lincoln Park. Not bad. Had to do some cleaning at home, more like rearranging of things again. Getting more boxes delivered, but not opening any of them until they all get here. That'll be exciting. I really wonder how much of a difference it's gonna be, from a 1 GHz G4 to a 2.0 GHz Core Duo. Also had some work issues to deal with and check on. As was bound to happen when the bosses go on vacation.

Got my MacBook yesterday. Pretty sweet. Haven't really done much with it yet. Just took some unboxing pictures, like everyone else out there, but when I tried using my cell phone to post the pictures, I remembered that I hadn't set up procmail on Argon yet. Which means no processing of photos sent by email. Whoops. I'll have to get on that. So, nice machine. Just letting it charge. Don't know when I'll find some free time to actually play with it some more though. Still have to upgrade the RAM and hard drive, which are both sitting in a box next to it in the data center. But just adding Argon as an LDAP authentication service, just a couple steps, and I was logging in as me, with all my documents, programs, and preferences. I do have to install some stuff though, like Quicksilver, but everything else is there. Awesome. And super simple. Anyway, I don't have time for it yet because we had to start prepping for Lisa and Ryan's going away party, kind of, at my place tonight. Tracy made a menu, we went grocery shopping, for at least the stuff we could get at Jewel, and I made Sweet and Sour Meatballs last night. Anyway, should be good. Also this weekend we're gonna try and hit up the Green City Market and Venetian Night, both of which would be first times for me.

Party on Friday night went pretty well. I think we had enough food for the handful of people that showed up. Didn't bring any food up to the sun deck, but we did eventually make it up there. Pretty nice, brought up speakers and a cooler. Saturday wandered over to Pick Me Up with Tracy, and Lisa and Ryan, who were houseguests, as they're in-between residences, sort of on their way east to Maryland. After a brief respite in air conditioning, we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest down at River East. I was disappointed with it. Doesn't make sense to me that it would make more than Spider-man in opening weekend. Just odd. It's also definitely the second of three, which means there ain't a whole lot of closure. Tracy and I then wandered downtown to wait for Venetian Night to start. We had an early dinner at Lizzie McNeill's Irish Pub, off the river. Who knew bees liked bacon? Anyway, we did some more walking around, looking at all the housing that's way too expensive, before heading down to find a spot to sit. Everyone else seemed pretty well organized for the festivities, while we only had the shirts on our backs, no blankets, no chairs, no picnic food. Didn't actually see many boats, but had a great view for the fireworks. Took the long way home, stopping at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers for a bathroom break and way too expensive cocktails. So much for my idea of hotel bar hopping. Sunday we eventually made it out to Lisa's Mom's house in Minooka, since they have a pool, for some swimming. We stopped at Oakbrook Center on the way out so Tracy could get a new swimsuit. Got to play some pool volleyball, which was fun. But that definitely tuckered me out, and I'm actually sore today. So that didn't leave any time to work on the new MacBook, which will probably happen some time this week and I'll end up staying up way too late playing with it. Can't change the inevitable.

August. Already. Awesome. Anyway. Headed out to Tracy's last night, stayed in to stay cool, ventured out to pick up some Popeye's for dinner while watching Hell's Kitchen. I'll admit it, I'm sucked in. I want to know what happens now, who makes it, who gets kicked off next week. Does this mean I'll ever go to whoever gets to run the restaurant in Las Vegas? No, probably not, especially since Red Rock is off strip. I wonder what the market is for raw footage from the show? Would anyone want to buy the uncensored versions of reality shows? The version without the dramafying editing techniques, whole stories, and complete pictures? Anyway, I'll be tuning in next week as well. Puck is up around 99,924 miles, and I hope to get a picture when it break 100k, which is pretty exciting for me anyway. Finally got around to upgrading the MacBook as well last night, so dealing with system restores, software updates, and setup. Still have to get it to make a portable home directory and get fink on it. Staying in again tonight, making some Lemon Chicken, watching Flightplan.

As planned, watched Flightplan and made Lemon Chicken for dinner. DVR is having some issues recording, although, I'm not sure if it's issues with the feed or not, just some occasional breakup. Not good. Very annoying. At least it was on Starz-HD. Hopefully this won't happen when the building switches cable providers. I'm so looking forward to that. October just seems so far away. The MacBook is currently, or at least now should be finished creating a portable home directory, which means my new machine should be good to go. Just need to install Parallels Desktop and Windows XP on it, bring it in to work to get Outlook sync'ed up, and I can actually do more work at home. Hmmm, guess I shouldn't be that excited about it. Will be nice when the weather finally breaks tonight, and I'm guessing it's gonna make for some spectacular storms. I've read some good things about Real World:Irving Park, so I'm looking forward to seeing that place at some point in the near future. And, I'm hoping to see the ladies of casual ultimate at some point as well, as I have a surprise for them. Which I might spoil if I ever get the photo posting from the cell phone working again. Or I just upload them to the gallery from an actual computer. One or the other.

Another relatively quiet night, back out at Tracy's. Her mom made corned beef & cabbage. Good stuff. Finally figured out what the problem was with tMac, not a good power strip. When plugged directly into the wall socket, it slept and woke just fine. So, I'll be bringing one of mine over tonight. Trish and Kevin, her friends from St. Louis are coming up for a quick trip, would you believe IKEA's closet store to them is in Bolingbrook? So we're having dinner with them. Also bringing over an additional keyboard, since the one I gave to Tracy kind of sticks along the left side, like the Tab key. Driving home last night was awesome. The roughly 45 minute drive home had continuous flashes of lightning. Very impressive. Never really got bad directly around me, but always seemed to be close. Very very cool. Wish I could have stopped, taken photos, and just watched. It was awesome. Also thankful for the storm because it's much more pleasant to be outside. Oh, and congrats to Puck, who's sitting at 100,001 miles. First time for me. Only took 10 years, pretty much all of the time spent in a city taking public transportation. Those miles are just going home or ultimate related. That's pretty much it, with additional mileage because of girls. Very satisfying. Getting closer to getting the MacBook setup, which I'm now calling Carbon. Portable Home Directories work a whole lot better over 100 BASE-T Ethernet than 802.11b/g. A whole lot better.

Headed out to the Russells for the weekend, dogsitting Marla. Should be fun. Haven't dogsat for a while. Bringing carbon along to work with. Had some issues downloading, had to throw out some old preferences (saving files to the Comic Life resources folder? odd). Also noticed I've driven to work 4 out of 5 days this week. That's a lot, especially for me. Also figured out that 100,000 miles/10 years for Puck is actually pretty low. Makes sense though since I've been a city dweller for the past 11 years or so (counting life at Northwestern) and often prefer taking public transportation than anything else. Not sure what Tracy and I might do this weekend, might be some farmer's market action if we can find some, could be some dim sum on Sunday, might see some tall ships too. But I think I'll want to stay away from downtown due to Lolla going on this weekend. Lots of people down there. Lots of hip people.

Dogsitting Marla this weekend was great. She never woke us up in the morning, which was awesome. And makes me much more likely to do it again. She didn't yak, or have any problems whatsoever. Great dog. Managed to get Windows XP installed via Parallels Desktop on Carbon. All set up. It's awesome. Seems faster than my work computer. So these means I'll have work email available all the time I'm on my laptop. All the time. With no speed issues or anything. It's awesome. I am however having issues install iWork '06, not sure why. Not that worried about it since I hardly use it. Still, the MacBook is an absolute joy, it positively screams, and it gets nice and toasty. Tracy and I wandered around a bit, checking in on some shops, having lunch at Silver Cloud, going into the too trendy Akira Chicago, getting some sweet things at Sweet Thang. We ended up grilling some pork chops for dinner. Friday night I got some Pizza Hut delivered, because I can't get it at my place because the store that used to deliver shut down, and I had a craving. Sunday we went down to Chinatown for dim sum at Phoenix with her family and her sister-in-law's parents. We checked out some other stores, and I picked up some sake related things, a couple wooden drink boxes and one of those fancy bottles with a spot for ice to keep it cold. More couch time before heading back to my place before heading out to Sai Cafe for dinner. Good to see Bryan, his brother David and friend, Akira, Joe and Kevin. Good fish, as usual. Tracy and I passed on Ricky Bobby because they were headed to the late show and I wanted to get to sleep. We watched a couple episodes of Entourage before knocking off. Full weekend.

Not too much going on. Got some Mexican food and watched Hell's Kitchen last night with Tracy. Oh, I guess I could comment on WWDC 2006. Nothing too surprising. Good to see the Intel transition's complete. Leopard, at least what they've shown, doesn't look that shockingly good. The only thing I might be excited for is the Mail.app stuff. And I still haven't really started using it yet. Everything else I saw was eh. Time Machine looks interesting, and I'm curious what they'll be using on the back end, but there's no sense of diffs, which I'd like. I'm definitely a little wary that Steve Jobs didn't give the whole keynote, and did it team style There's been questions on some forums about his health, that that's not a good thing for Apple. Of course, I'm starting to think that Mac OS X is in a pretty good place, at least for me. Doesn't seem like I'm missing anything right now. So yeah, that's that. Tonight headed out to Grant Park for Chicago Outdoor Film Festival, watching American Graffiti.

Last night was pretty awesome. Great weather, got decent seats, a nice bottle of wine, some cheese, sandwiches from Jimmy John's, and a great movie. All in all pretty much perfect. Maybe just need a better blanket/cushion for the hard ground, but otherwise, just great. The wine sticks worked beautifully with the stainless steel goblets. Surprised they went into the ground as easily as they did. Even got a couple comments on them. Surprised more people didn't have them. Then again, it ain't Ravinia. Splurged and cabbed it home after the movie last night. Oh, and the movie, it was really good. I kept expecting some slow spots, or too much character development, but that's just about the perfect drive-in, movie in the park, movie. Just really good. Tonight put together a file cabinet/ottoman and set up my labeler, and jump started the GTD process. Relatively random thought, but if art imitates life, who was the inspiration for the recent events on Entourage? Which actor got dumped from a big budget franchise because of the star's image problems due to involvement with unbecoming projects? Anyway, food for thought. Definitely need to pick up some laundry detergent, self explanatory. Had Roll Bounce on in the background, as well as a couple episodes of Windfall. Oh, and Megamillions is up to $23 Million on Friday.

Boy, when you wait until the last possible moment to do an dose, there aint' much to write about the next day. Got the newest version of XCode installed. Should probably do something with that. I should also probably leave iChat running the background, since Carbon's got a built in iSight. Had an issue with my ankle a couple days back, bugging me big time, like something was out of place. Tried the whole moving it around, hoping that whatever was out of place would snap back into place, cause that's worked for me before. But after a good night's rest, it was fine. Go figure. Only got a couple more episodes of Las Vegas to watch on the PSP before I move on to something else, either Firefly or maybe the 2nd season of Veronica Mars which comes out on DVD next Tuesday. Then we'll also see how fast Carbon is at transcoding video.

Week's done. Finally. Really. Don't know why this one seemed to drag on for a bit. But it did. And I'm glad it's over. Except I'm on call this weekend. Got some things done last night while calibrating the battery on Carbon. It lasted a good 3.5 hours before dying. I haven't had a laptop, err, portable computer, that could last that long in a good while. Nice to have. It does disappoint me that updated MacBooks could be out as early as September, but that was just too far away from Bryan's now invalid discount. Been trying to get email2gallery working again, but failing. Issues with Procmail on Mac OS X Server. Or more specifically, it's issues with procmail and cyrus that's causing the problems. I think I just need to figure out which user to run procmail under. Gonna try and do a Chicago Architectural Boat Tour tomorrow with Tracy and the parents, some dinner too. Not sure what to do on Sunday though. Supposedly something with her brother who's returning to North Carolina. Me, I'm just hoping to catch up on sleep this weekend. Could use it, as always.

So the whole email2gallery thing has proven to be too much of a hassle for me to figure out, since I worked on it last Thursday and Friday to no avail. My guess is that because I'm using fetchmail for a couple different accounts, cyrus/bin/deliver was failing for some reason, couldn't find account information. Maybe I'll take another look at it someday, but for now, I need to figure out a different way to get photos emailed from my phone onto my website. Friday night wanted to do some laundry, but didn't. Made beef stew instead. Opened my windows as well, but had to open all of them in order to get a breeze. There's a definite wind pattern to the interior of my place, straight in from the east and out the windows in the bedrooms. Not necessarily ideal, but it works. Ended up doing laundry Saturday morning instead, and spent the day with Tracy and my parents. Should have gotten tickets for the Architecture Tour well in advance, since there weren't any available day of when we went. Instead, we saw Little Miss Sunshine before mass at Holy Name Cathedral and dinner at Lawry's The Prime Rib. Sunday Tracy and I headed out to her house before heading back in with her family to have dinner at Woo Chon. Good, as usual, but a little difference. Only got to cook the Galbi, not the Bulgogi, and the Bibimbap was not all that warm. The Japchae was good as usual. I did get to order for the table though. That was interesting. Service was a little slow, but they were swamped, and we managed to get a free beer and an additional pancake (which I forget what that is called).

Pretty much sat on the couch, played with Carbon, and watched The Final Option last night. Another average night on the couch when Tracy's working. I did finally uploaded photos from my cell phone to the computer, iSynced it all up, got some more music from the iTunes Music Store (Dashboard Confessional, Jack Johnson's Curious George soundtrack, Avril Lavigne and Nelly Furtado). Also found the episode of Kitchen Confidential (tv show) that I was missing on bittorrent. Finished up Las Vegas (tv show) Season 2 on the bus, played some more Tekken: Dark Resurrection on the PSP, I can play Tekken for ages. Did some transcoding this morning after the torrent completed, and wow, seriously, the MacBook is fast. Really fast. Awesome. Also realized that I should add a mobile Gallery remote client to my list of projects, cause that'd be easier than trying to figure out how to get email2gallery working for me. Well, probably not, but more interesting. Planning on a furniture move around, probably this weekend, maybe sooner.

Using Instant Handbrake to convert DVDs for use on the PSP is so easy. And so fast. It's awesome. And with the newest firmware (2.80) on the PSP, I don't have to do any weird naming stuff, or have to use ffmpegx to name the files so I know what to watch on the PSP. Conversion is about real time, and then just have to drop in the Video folder on the memory stick for the PSP. Awesome. Seriously. Awesome. I've currently got Kitchen Confidential (tv show) on there now, but I'm not sure if I want to be the guy on the bus who's laughing out loud watching something in his lap. Probably not the best idea in the world. But after Kitchen, I'll move on to Firefly. And then who knows what, because it's so easy. As I was figuring that out, I watched Red Eye, which was entertaining and short, and then I went for a run. Yes. Off the couch, outside. But technology was present, as I used my Nike+iPod to track myself. And whoops, all my runs before? Not nearly the 3 miles I hoped I was doing. That was rough. But at least I started. Again. I do need to pick up new running headphones. Used to have a good cheap set for running, but managed to give those away. After getting Arby's for lunch, decided to eat a little healthier for dinner with a salad and grilled chicken. Another one of those precooked prepackaged meals, ready to eat. Watched a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, put scheduled Broken Flowers on the DVR. Not a bad night.

Picked up a bunch of manilla folders and hanging file folders. That's right, I'm continuing on the GTD path, slowly but surely. Finally implemented a tickler file, which I'll try and keep up with. Also finally created a reference archive box. Definitely loving my labeler, coming in handy. Did some of that while watching Owning Mahowny. Kitchen Confidential (tv show) is so much better when you watch it in order. Oh, and mark the calendars, as May 12, 2007 is the day Tracy and I will be getting married. Got the church and the reception booked. Officially. So that's good. Still need to take a look at the florist and find a DJ. So, expect a countdown timer or something on the site as well. We're headed to Jazzin' at the Shedd tonight, which is hopefully different than First Fridays at the MCA. But we'll see. Air & Water show this weekend, which will be fun just for the sound of jets flying around the city.

Jazzin' at the Shedd was fun. The aquarium is more fun with a drink in hand. Oh, and scratch 7 & 7's from my list of drinks to drink, and just stick to Gin and Tonics. I'm guessing you need to get there pretty early to get a primo outdoor seat. Or stay late to get a spot on the rail. Not as pretentious as First Fridays. But again, seeing all those fish made me crave sushi, so we hopped in a cab over to Sai for dinner. That was good. Also, their green tea creme brulee is great, almost as good as the ice cream, but not quite. Anyway, Tracy's making dinner tonight, finally watching the season finale of Hell's Kitchen. Cleaning, maybe some redecorating, over the weekend. Forgot to mention I got a haircut yesterday. My usual stylist, Dee, left Salonique, so I ended up going to Mabel. Just as good. Oh, and I also managed to hit my head on the corner of the monitor. Hard enough that I was actually bleeding. I thought it was gonna just bleed and bleed, but it wasn't too bad.

Fairly subdued Friday night, just hanging out, Tracy did some grocery shopping and came back with great flowers that were really cheap, some pork chops that we did a mustard cumin rub with, and artichokes that she made with peas as well as some sauteed mushrooms. We ate while watching the season finale of Hell's Kitchen. Finished up with an episode of Entourage before turning in, since she had to work the weekend. Saturday, my parents came into town, we did some cleaning before heading to church and dinner at Pizza D.O.C.. And wow, that place is awesome. While my parents didn't care that much for the authentic northern Italian style pizza, they loved the salad and appetizers. And authentic is the right word for it. I actually want to complete my learning Italian tapes and go back, since our waitress was the same nationality of the restaurant. Awesome. Anyway, finally got around to watching Two for the Money, which wasn't nearly as bad as Russell made it out to be, and yes, the end of his football career is sickening. Also worked on my first ever AppleScript, Mark all as read (recursive), as I imported old email into Mail.app. Sunday, just couch time, watching Zathura, The Aristocrats, A Night at the Roxbury, and Supercross.

Ha, funny how that's so close to Monday. Anyway, went running last night. At the gym, since I still haven't gotten my headphones yet. But figured out that I need to calibrate my Nike+iPod, I think I'll trust the treadmill, but maybe not. I went farther according to the doohickey, and I feel like trusting the watchamacallit. Got a gyro for dinner, because of those pictures I found on the internet, about greasy food in Chicago. Did some more email importing, only got a a couple years left. That's about it. Oh, I screwed up transcoding episode 11 of Kitchen Confidential, so I'm trying to redownload the torrent, cause I threw away the one I previously downoaded. Annoying. Times like this I wish I had Time Machine. Made some calls, checking out a photographer on Saturday. Should probably make some more calls and see if we can crash some weddings this weekend to check out DJs or something. Headed out to RWIP for dinner with Russell and Bryan. Headed out tommorrow to see Tracy.

RWIP really is all that. I mean, wow. I don't think pictures do it justice. Granted, 5 guys living together, just moved in, it's not party ready, but hopefully it will be, cause that place is begging for one. It's a place that needs webcams, and payment. There is a nice spot under the stairs for a confessional. Seriously. That place rocks. And who knew there's nice, open, neighborhoods in the city? With big houses and wide streets with plenty of parking close to public transportation? Just more wow. I'm in love with the place. Anyway, dinner at McNamara's around the corner from there. Pretty good Irish pub type. Decent fish and chips. Then watched people play Guitar Hero. I can see how it's a great party game. Then caught the Irving Park bus home. That was fun. Some guy decided to take a Jewel-Osco shopping cart home with him. And there was the end of the Cubs night game, so it took a wee bit longer that it could have. But overall, RWIP is super easy to get to and from, with no problems. Awesome, awesome house.

And it suddenly appears, like it never wasn't there. Anyway, last night and tonight went to Tracy's. Last night had longanisa, a filipino sweet pork sausage, and then got some Cold Stone. I've moved away from Cake Batter and onto something lighter, like Sweet Cream. It's good with Twix. Tonight we tried to hit some golf balls, but the mosquitos were killer. I did manage to finish the bucket though. And I really need to take lessons. All I want is a nice consistent swing, but then I'm guessing that's what we all want. Dinner was at Palermo's, not a bad Italian joint, but coming off Pizza D.O.C., well, it was lacking.

Yeah, I know. I thought about predating it to Friday, but what's the point. We stayed in Friday, well, I stayed in Friday, Tracy went out with friends late that night. Saturday morning we went out early to check out A Picture Perfect as a possible wedding photographer. We had breakfast at Colonial Cafe before heading down to Orland Park since she had an appointment at David's Bridal. I tooled around Orland Park until she was finished. Then, dinner at Joe's Crab Shack before dropping by Bolingbrook Country Club to check it out during an actual reception. Not bad. Sunday was breakfast at home, since Tracy wanted a good griddle, and then did some walking around, went to FlavorFest, walked down Licoln to Halsted to Armitage. Got dinner at Homemade Pizza Co. Yeah, I know. But honestly, it was pretty good. Then we watched the Emmy Awards and Entourage.

The weather that is. Rained all day yesterday, looks like it could continue to rain today. Not sure if Tracy and I will end up at Grant Park for Ferris Beuller's Day Off tonight. Yes, I'd be seeing it in a park for the second time this summer. But it's good enough, and Tracy didn't get to go to the last one. Made longanisa again last night. So good. Had it for lunch today. Even more leftovers left over as well. So good. I wondered what it would be like if you used chicken or beef instead of pork. Something to try. Watched Harley Davidson and the Malboro Man last night, which was a favorite of Booter's back in the day. I think that might be the first time I've ever seen the whole thing. I tried watching Rent, but that deserves my full attention, instead of just having it on in the background. I was supposed to head out to Tracy's last night, but she had to work late. I forgot to mention that on Sunday, we stopped off at Escape, the high end consumer electronics store on Halsted. I got to see an OQO, which is absolutely tiny, along with some other subnotes, and some digital cameras, like the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T30 which I thought about getting, but actually seeing one it's a little too thick for my tastes. Also got to check out the Sony Ericsson P910i and Sony Ericsson M600i, both felt way to plasticky for my taste. Anyway, fun to actually see lots of gadgets and find out that I don't want any of them.
Update:No movie in the park, instead, movie in my living room.

Got some laundry done last night. Good to sneak that in this week. Did that while Tracy was making dinner (picnic sandwiches like turkey and asparagus and cheese warmed in the oven). Watched some No Reservations while finishing up dinner and laundry. Pretty uneventful and domesticated night. Finally got around to calling about my new cable setup from INNCOM. Still have to show up when they're onsite for the cable tv stuff, maybe tomorrow leave early from work, and I've got to get the MAC address for my cable modem to get the internet set up. I'm definitely curious to find out what service is going to be like. Should be interesting. Oh, went running this morning. That wasn't very exciting. Headed out to Tracy's tonight, might do some shopping.

September tomorrow. That's crazy. Hard to believe today's only Thursday, definitely feels like a Friday. Missed out on Bryan's birthday gathering at Piece last night. Probably could have made it with more prior notice though. Next time hopefully. But Tracy and I went shopping at Orland Square, got dinner at Harrison's, where I satisfied my craving of a BBQ Swiss grilled onion bacon burger. So good. Finally got some Windex wipes to clean the inside of Puck's windows, so I can see now. Definitely some nasty stuff that ends up on the inside of my windows. Strange. Might try and play some tennis tonight. Got to also take care of some new cable stuff at the condo. Would be nice if I could do it over the phone, but apparently I need to do it on-site. Kind of annoying.

So my building, 3550 N. Lake Shore Dr., the condo association, which I guess includes me, decided to change cable providers. Fine and dandy. I'm all excited because television service is through DISH Network, which means lots and lots of HD channels. Internet service should be better, but I'll wait and see what the deal is with that. I guess the networking infrastructure is being handled by INNCOM, whoever that is. Here's the kicker: RCN is getting turned off to the building on September 5. I don't get digital cable, no DVR, no premium channels, no HD until sometime in October. Guess what happens in September? That's right, new TV seasons. And guess what I have to do if I want to see the season/series premieres? Actually plan to be around the TV real time, during live broadcasts. Wow, now that I write about it, that's how life was before, shouldn't be that much of an issue now. And not having premium channels? No movies that I can just flip on and watch until the wee hours of the morning? Probably not a bad thing not to have. So it's probably a healthy thing not to have these things, but to be forced by the poor planning and setup of the cable changeover? Appalling. Just definitely getting started on the wrong foot. Not good at all.
Anyway, plans for the weekend: got some rewedding to go to Saturday, one of Tracy's coworkers out in Homewood. Sunday got a family function to go to. Monday might be hitting some golf balls with Russell.

Well, I check this morning at 7am and I still had RCN service, so I don't know if that's good or bad. Should be interesting tonight, that's for sure. Weekend recap: Friday night cooked dinner for Tracy, teriyaki chicken, honey mustard chicken, snow peas, all small batches. Saturday did some walking around and shopping, stopping at Tracy's favorite new store, Pastoral, a cute little cheese shop south of Wellington on Broadway. We also stopped off at a French market at the Nettlehorst School on Melrose and Broadway. That night we went to that rewedding, well, the reception part of it. That was fun. Out in Homewood in a huge house, it was a great Nigerian party. Lots of ethnic outfits and music and dancing. Good times. Except that Tracy lost her phone that night. Sunday, lounged about before heading out to Auntie Luz's for the first anniversary of Uncle Lito's death. More food there. Monday I spent in front of the TV, because I won't be there for the month of September, and Russell joined me for Coach Carter and The Greatest Game Ever Played, since it was supposed to rain but actually never did so we could have hit the driving range instead. I finished up with Rent before an early bedtime. Not a bad day off. Since I don't have tv for the month and Tracy's working nights and the weekend, I'll get around to doing some household projects. No distractions.

Here's some things I've enjoyed but haven't mentioned:

• Firefly. Damn good show. Watching it on the PSP.
• iAlertU. Car alarm for Apple]] portables, like my MacBook]].
• Nike+iPod. Super easy to use. Armband isn't as annoying as I expected.
• Dane Cook. Finally saw a bit of his standup from his HBO Vicious Circle Special. Funny guy. I like how he throws in some video game references.
• ESPN commercials with the Mannings, especially with the brothers on the tour acting like brothers.

So RCN was still connected, INNCOM was having issues and was expected to have their cable turned on by noon today. I'm guess it's still not up because my home network still has the same IP address, which I assume would be different when the turn on their network. Oh well. So instead of an imposed absense from TV, I watched Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Eureka. I'm completely spacing on new shows thought, as the only one I'm looking forward to is Heros. Also trying exercising again, went running this morning. I'll try and keep it up, except for an odd pain on the outside of my right knee. Strange place. Tracy's coming over tonight to pick up my old cell phone, the Sony Ericsson t68i, to hold her over until her desired phone becomes available. Noone won MegaMillions, so that's going up, and I'll keep buying. Did I mention that Firefly is awesome? I apologize to those who tried to get me to watch and I didn't. I'm sorry. I was totally in the wrong. 135 was having some issues this morning, as I watched 2 go by fully loaded by the first 10 people or so at the Addison stop. Kind of annoying.

Got to see Tracy last night. That's good. Breaks up the 10 days or so that I wouldn't have seen her. And she gets Saturday off, which means we're gonna make it to the Wine Crush again this year. Anyway, watched Broken Flowers, just kind of intriguing as a movie. So another day, still have RCN. Got to figure out how to use mutt again as an email client, this time with IMAP. Ended up at Fox & Obel before watching Invincible with Russell and Bryan tonight. Got lots of movies again that I'd like to see, and I'm way behind on the MovieWatcher points. Oh, got a new backpack, Arc'Teryx Blade 13. It's slim, and black, so it's great for work. Don't have to worry about swinging it around and hitting people with it while on the bus.

Still need to figure out mutt, well, more like figuring out an MTA on Argon. So no email during work hours yet. Actually finished watching an episode of Firefly while burning copies of Kitchen Confidential (tv show) to DVD-Rs for Bryan and Russell. Just found out that Tracy's working next weekend, instead of this one, so that's good. Parents are in town, and we're supposed to get dinner tonight somewhere. Got Arrested Development Season 3 and Lost Season 2, which should take the place of cable if and when it ever gets switched over. Hopefully I'll still have it for Fantastic Four on Sunday night. Got to sneak in a laundry run sometime soon. Was thinking about heading out to Chicago Heavyweight Championships (nee Tune-Up) on Sunday, but probably not, unless Tracy wants to go. Otherwise, just the Wine Crush on Saturday.

Friday night went to Brasserie Jo with the parents. Had Steak Tartare for the first time. Pretty good. The mussels weren't nearly as good as Pizza D.O.C., and who knows if they ever will be, anywhere. Watched some Degrassi: The Next Generation because Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes were on it. That was amusing. Saturday went to HB, A Hearty Boys Spot for lunch, but they only served brunch, and went to Roscoe's instead. Then Tracy and I wandered through the Lake View East Fine Art Festival on the way to pick up some stuff at CVS. We dropped by Gap on the way back before heading out to the Wine Crush where we met up with Jesse and Espy. We missed out on the wine tasting portion of the evening because that was only from 1-6pm, so instead, we hung out at the festival, got some beers, had some street food, got some Cold Stone. Oreo, Sweet Cream and Caramel is awesome, since they didn't have Twix. We plowed through a couple episodes of Lost Season 2 as well. Sunday was breakfast at home, Tracy made crab cakes and I went with deep fried french toast, which ended up a bit soggy. Watched some of The Notebook and Relative Chaos and some napping before heading out to Bryan's for his chili. Spicy stuff. Got to see a bunch of ultimate players that I hadn't seen in a while. Oh, also managed to go running Saturday and Monday mornings, so that's impressive. Still working on it though.

Well, It's Showtime. New iPods. New iTunes. Now with movies. Overall, I think it's great. Apple's got a pretty rosy looking Christmas season coming up. Seriously. Those new nanos are going to sell like hotcakes. I think that's what people wanted all along. And I have to admit, that black one is looking pretty sexy. It's the lack of silver shiny back that does it for me. Good matchup for Carbon. Anyway, for the movies, no DVD burning. No easy way for watching on TV, yet. Well, except for Front Row, that probably works pretty well. Hmm, I wonder if there's anything that I'd be willing to try it out on? I'll find out when I get home, that is, if my internet works. Because INNCOM finally got around to switching over cable systems, supposed to happen today. And looks like they at least turned off RCN cause I can't get to my home network right now. At least I got to watch Fantastic Four last night. Also means I might do something else besides sit on the couch tonight.

Warning: computer stuff follows. I've been using Firefox mostly for web browsing, but I've been trying out Mac specific browsers, well, because I'd like to. So I tried Safari, which is okay, and then I tried Camino, which is pretty damn speedy. But both have one major issue that Tab Mix Plus fixes for me on Firefox: opening original articles from Google Reader via the keyboard shortcut 'v' in a new tab, not a new window. If someone knows how to get this to work on Safari, that'd be awesome. In the meantime, I'll just take Russell's cue and just command+click on links instead. What does that mean? I think I've switched to Safari. I had to use Unify Safari to get rid of brushed metal, but it looks great. I also forgot to mention that Keyword Assistant is no Universal, so I'm back to keywording my photos in iPhoto, and I got around to installing Synergy-classic for keyboard control of iTunes, and the new CoverFlow feature made me download the CoverFlow application which is better than the integrated version. So basically the only non-Apple app I use is Parallels Desktop, and that just for work email. It's great. Seriously. I'm tempted to start clearing out iTunes of all the stuff I've never or never will listen to, stuff that I've accumulated over the years. I also just found out about DVD Assist, some AppleScript concoction that allows for ripped DVDs to be loaded from Front Row. So yeah, all Apple all the time. Oh, and the cable finally switched over, so all analog for me, but the RCN DVR still works, so I was able to watch Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room anyway. I did miss Eureka, cause I don't have a connected DVR, so I'm tempted to start watching that via iTunes. Ok, computer warning over. Weather sure is bleak, ain't it.

Really, Firefly's awesome. And I really enjoy TV shows that have story arcs, that are self referential, but only when you can watch them one after the other, not waiting a week for the next. Now that I'm on the last episode, I need to watch or get Serenity, which is nice, because it provides some closure to at least one storyline, but there's so much more that could go on. And it's such a great universe too. I'm just enthralled at the storytelling powers at work. So impressive. So after this, maybe Veronica Mars, finish up Lost, all on DVD, which means I might skip out on watching TV live, and just start waiting for DVD sets to be released. It's so much better. And I'm thinking of using the iTunes Store to get Eureka, although I just used bittorrent to get the episode I missed. I'm also impressed that my 400 DVD Changer is starting to fill up, almost all with TV Shows. That's pretty cool. Maybe. Or sad and depressing.

No idea that Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out in paperback. Way back on July 25 even! So I picked that up along with Serenity, I just couldn't wait, at Borders last night after Tracy met me for dinner at Wildfire. I got the Horseradish crusted filet and Tracy went with the Filet Medallions Oscar. She had a craving for steak, and I obliged. She also had a notion for some hot cocoa so we stopped at Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop & Soda Fountain, I got ice cream. Went running this morning, and after work headed to dinner with the Argaos at Buca di Beppo. Tracy's headed to Vegas for a Veterans' Day weekend for a girls weekend, so I'll have to do something for myself to match. Got a party at RWIP on Saturday, some laundry that's piling up, and the rest of my projects to finish up. Good times.

Like a crotchety old man. Friday night family dinner went well. Tracy and I then ended up getting The Matador after picking up her first lottery ticket. Good movie, not quite what we were looking for though. Non slapstick light comedies are hard to come by in the video store right now. Saturday started doing some work around the house, finally put the castors on the AV Rack, but I stared out the morning finishing off Serenity. I liked that movie the first time I saw it, in the theater, with pretty much no knowledge of the 'Verse that it occupied. After watching Firefly, it makes the movie so much better. Which is awesome. Seriously. That whole series, with the movie to cap it off. Wow. It's just so good. Then went over to the Russells for dinner on the deck before heading over to RWIP for their first party. Impressively cleaned. It's a great house for parties. But I'm just not suited for that anymore. So I left early, after showing off my casual ultimate shirt to casual ultimate, and took the Russells home as well. Snuck in some laundry when I got home. Sunday, did some running, started moving furniture around. And did some talking on the phone. Caught up with Case, which was great. I miss that guy.

Seriously. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Wow. And I wasn't even watching it in HD. Just wow. It's sooo good. I'm totally impressed. It actually makes me want to go back and start watching West Wing. And Sports Night. Wow. Just great TV. So do I keep watching on broadcast? Or wait for the inevitable DVD season set? I may have to keep watching, it was just so good. Really, really good. Also caught the second season premiere of How I Met Your Mother. It was ok, but more drama than comedy. Kind of sad actually. I also watched Class, but that's kind of because I had to make sure I didn't miss HIMYM since I don't have a DVR anymore. Not a good show. Laugh tracks on shows I don't laugh at are very, well, disturbing. Also got the second album from Quinn's Uncles. At first listen, it's much more professional than their first, adn well, it's too polished for my taste. We'll see if it holds up to repeat listenings as much as the first one did. Also realized I could have gotten it via the iTunes Store instead of CDBaby. Oh well. Finished moving furniture around in the living room, now just have to clean up all the cables and stuff. I'll be able to put the AV Rack in the corner after I get an IR Repeater system, which will clean up that corner pretty well. Also have to wait and see what Tracy thinks of the corner setup. Tried to make adobo again last night, this time with ground black pepper, and put too much in. Not so good. Forgot to mention that I saw my first 2G iPod nano in the wild, a blue one on the bus this morning. Totally looks like a Mini.

New TV last night: 2nd season of The Unit which isn't nearly as good when it isn't in HD, and the full premiere of Smith. Not bad. But without a DVR that's a solid 2 hours on a Tuesday. Got a little bit more put away around the living room, except I realized I needed a longer component video cable if the AV Rack is gonna be on the other side of the room. After the IR Repeater gets in, it's gonna have a pretty clean look to the place. The only wires that should be around are the speaker wires, which are gonna have to be there, unless I get new wireless speakers. And there's nothing wrong with my current speakers. Someday I'll have to upgrade, but I've had the stuff for 5-6 years, and it holds up pretty nice. Someday to move up to 7.1, maybe dual subs, a 1080p projector, HDMI switching capable receiver, and of course Blu-Ray (which I hope wins the HD war) and a PS3. Oh, and the iTV. Of course. But that's just someday. In the meantime, I'll wait for my HD from DISH Network.

Tracy and I went to Pasta Palazzo for dinner yesterday. We decided to meet at Halsted and Armitage, me coming from work and she coming from my place, and we'd just walk around looking for a place to eat. I have to admin, I had Pasta Palazzo in the back of my mind, even if she said she'd just had Italian and didn't want it again. So she hops off the bus, we walk across Armitage, go past the bank, stop in front of Palazzo, she looks at the menu, sees the risotto on the daily specials, and we head right in. It's just so good and fresh and simple and enjoyable. Oh, and I forgot it was cash only, so I had to step around the corner for the ATM. But so good. Anyway, walked a bit more north, hopped on a crowded 8 when of course an empty one pulled up behind it. Then we hopped off at Cornelia and stopped in for some Cold Stone. I tried Sweet Cream with Kit Kat and caramel, but no good. It was lacking some punch. I did have a sample of their pistachio ice cream, but way too sweet for me. Headed out to the burbs tonight to watch The Last Kiss.

Maybe, but not quite. The Last Kiss, well, it's a good movie, in the sense that it was well acted, directed, written, but it's, to me, a depressing and distasteful movie. Hits my age group dead on. Takes place in Madison, so it's Midwesterners. But still, ugh. Probably good that it makes me feel something, and that it still clings, like smoke from a bar on me, but I wouldn't want to see it again. And it might be hard laughing at Zach Braff once Scrubs comes back on. Too convincing in his role maybe? Anyway, Woodridge 18 was pretty much empty last night. Only 2 other people in the theater with Tracy and me. I wonder if the season premieres of My Name is Earl, The Office, and Grey's Anatomy had anything to do with that. As long as the weather holds up we're headed over to the Lincoln Park Oktoberfest tonight. Tomorrow got a wedding to go to. Not sure if anything's up for Sunday.

No festival Friday night. Absolutely started pouring, cats and dogs, while on the bus ride home, and then, from the CTA Alerts list, I start getting text messages about all the sirens going off around the city, the first one being in 60657. That's my zip code. And that was as we were pulling onto Belmont. Anyway, figured it be best to stay in. Except we didn't, since Lisa was in town. So she picked us up and we headed out to Lincoln Square in search of German food, but ended up at La Bocca Della Verita since Pizza D.O.C. had a 45 minute wait. After that we ended up at The Map Room, where Missy, April and Scott joined us. Saturday Tracy and I made breakfast, pancakes and bacon, before scooting out to Kaying's Wedding in Elgin (by the way, directions from Google Maps estimated time at 57 minutes, we got there in 58 minutes). In the 4 1/2 hours between the end of the church ceremony and the reception, we wasted time at Woodfield, mainly to get Tracy a shawl or something, but I ended up getting a new shirt and tie, then a new pair of pants, and then a new pair of shoes. Go figure. After gettin ga new outfit, we headed back, this time to Geneva for the reception at Eagle Brook Country Club. Pretty nice. Oh, forgot that we stopped of at a Target to get some pajamas since we were gonna stay out there instead of trying to drive back in after a wedding. Good idea. Good times at the reception. Got some groove on. Also was a designated driver for the evening. Sunday got some food at Jimmy's Charhouse with April and Scott before taking the long way home since the expressway looked really bad. Spent the rest of the day relaxing on the couch before Tracy went to Treasure Island for pork chops and green beans. That and Stove Top Stuffing was dinner. Watched some Lost and Desperate Housewives. Lots of good TV on tonight, How I Met Your Mother, Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Seriously. It's a new season. And good stuff. And I really really really miss HD. Watching it at Tracy's, well, so much better. We caught up on The Office, Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, and Studio 60. Still have to catch the pilot for Heroes. All good TV, but I realized something about Studio 60 that puts it far and away the best of the bunch (not including Heroes, since I haven't seen it yet): it is nothing but good things so far. It's a story about redemption. About the creative process. About saving. About being part of something really special. About homecoming. About doing things the right way. The other shows? Well, they're still kind of funny, but mostly just depressing. It's all about bad situations, events that happened or happen that hit too close to home. About unrequited love, star crossed lovers, and in some cases death. Not so entertaining. But Studio 60, man, it's all about fighting the system. Or the way the system has become. I just love that show. Hate to say it, but it reminds me of Apple. Beleaguered. Left for dead. And a guys that were pushed out come back to roost, and returns it to former glory. It's awesome. Great story line, love that they work in TV, and the Jordan character just reminds me of Steve Jobs. I just can't stop gushing about this show.

Came home yesterday to Tracy making dinner in the kitchen. Lamb and mashed sweet potatoes. Good stuff. So I had to follow it up with chocolate souffles. It was alright, but didn't seem all that special. Not sure if I'm missing out on something or not. But I think it might be better cold. But definitely took a while to make, a good 30 minutes or so to whip up, and then a whole hour fifteen in the oven. That's a long time for a dessert. I might have to try one at the next fancy pants restaurant I get to. Try and see what the big deal is. Watched Gilmore Girls premiere and Smith. Also got my long component cables and IR Repeater, just need to finish setting those up. Also need some cable protectors, those things on the floor that allow you to run cables, for speaker wires anyway. Gots to do some cleaning tonight, if the laundry room's open I'll do some loads as well. Only thing that might get watched tonight is Jericho, but I haven't seen the premiere, so maybe not.

Got the IR Repeater set up last night. It's pretty cool. Reciever and DVD changer is in the corner, little IR sensor in with the center speaker on top of the TV, aim remote at the TV, change stuff on the receiver and DVD changer. Next up is some more cable management stuff. Just don't know how far to take that. Nothing really on TV, so that's good. Did manage to do some laundry last night, but still have a couple more loads to do, probably, tomorrow night. Didn't get much cleaning done, but how's that any different than usual. I guess I forgot to mention a couple days ago going to Dominick's out in Homer Glen. It was really nice. Much nicer than what grocery stores used to be, and approaching Whole Foods niceness. The Jewel by me as well is undergoing some renovation. Makes me wonder if food's getting cheap enough that grocery stores are making enough profit that they can do stuff like this, and have to in order to compete. Oh well.

Last night it was The Office, Heroes and Smallville. HD continues to be so much better to watch things in, although I'd have to say Heroes was much better than Smallville visually. I like The Office, because it's mostly self contained episodes, will a little continuity, and you probably get more jokes if you've been watching. But the other two, just season long serials. This move towards season long storylines, giant mysteries that get unraveled, it actually makes me want to watch less broadcast TV, and just wait for the eventual DVD season sets. Because these shows are so much better when you can watch them like the 18 hour movies that they really are. But making the change away from free television shows to paying for it, well, that's a definite change for my economy. I guess I'd be trading money for time, time in the evenings when I might be watching things every week vs money for a box set to plow through in a weekend or a week. Hmmm, things to think about.

It's October and the forecast calls for 3 80° weather days. That's right, 3. I knew it was gonna happen. It's just Chicago weather for you. Should drop down to the 40's next week, I assume, and then fall will be in full force. Friday night used a Dutch Oven, made some beef stew which wasn't too bad. Saturday went out to the Argaos for an engagement party. That was fun. Lots of good food there. Also caught the episode of Grey's Anatomy that we had missed the previous Thursday. It's getting really tempting to just forego this season on broadcast. The no DVR or HD is just killing me. Sunday Tracy and I ventured outside, went down to the Lincoln Park Zoo, walked around for a bit. Eventually made out way back up home and had dinner at Joy's Noodles and Rice. We even made it back to watch the Bears game. Really rough to watch it without a DVR or HD. Anyway, going to catch the Guardian tomorrow night. Not much else.

Driving back from Tracy's was fun last night. Right through one of the many storms that made their way through Chicagoland last night. After watching How I Met Your Mother and Studio 60, I hopped in Puck and made my way to a gas station, since I needed some gas. But the Gas City on 143rd had its lights off. Hmmm, maybe because of all the lightning? So I drive north on Lemont to the other Gas City, pull in just as the sheets of rain come pouring down. Oh, the credit card system is down. Guess I need to pay cash, of course I only have $9 in the money clip. Enough to get me home with plenty to spare. But can't remember the last time I paid for gas in cash. People are also pulling into the station to park, since they don't want to be driving. But I hop back in and drive away, slowly. So yeah, made my way back in. Lots of drivers had their blinkers on, so I pushed the little triangle button as well. No one's going stupid fast, no tail gaiting, no cars in ditches. Only storm related stuff I saw was an overhead highway sign hanging from its structure and the streetlamps were off. But I made pretty good time probably because there was no traffic cause everyone was pretty much going the same safe speed. But fun. I guess I like driving. Got a couple new alarm clocks. Supposedly you could just plug it in and it would set itself, but I'm guessing living in a large condo building somehow prevents that from happening, cause I set it myself. One of them, Tracy's side, has a thermometer. It was a balmy 80° when I first got home. Crazy. Love the fact that the building decided to turn the steam heat on back in September.

Forgot to mention that I'm reading again on the bus commute to and from work. Finished up The Forever War and started The Company (book), both borrowed and suggested by Russell. Good stuff. Went last night to see The Guardian with him and Tracy. Wasted some time beforehand at Target because traffic was pretty much nonexistant anywhere. Tracy got excited because the Pumpkin Spice is back at Starbucks. First time heading to City North in a good while, I had no idea they switched companies. I might have moved it off my list of theaters I like going to. Which reminds me, I should make a trip up to Evanston for the movie theater one of these days, just for old times sake. After dropping Russell off, Tracy and I headed over to Cafe Bolero for a late dinner. Good stuff there. Hated being those people that show up right before the kitchen closes though.

Attempted to make some changes, like trying to get MediaWiki parsing to the Daily Dose. Tried to get through some of the code, even tried it out, but no luck. Might have to spend some more time figuring that stuff out. Would be nice. I was actually thinking of trying out Markdown, but I figured if I could get MediaWiki, then I'd have a nice standard to go with. Might even mean I'd figure out how to do tagging or categorizing. I also got gallery2wiki installed, but I'd like to figure out how to get text aligning done with it. Then I'll start adding images to the Memex finally, which is what it needed. Al and Nicole are heading into town tomorrow. It'll be good to see them.

Not so much. Disappointing news from T-Mobile, in that they will be rolling out 3G services over the next few years but it will be slightly off from global standards. Which means even more not using unlocked phones from Europe, where all the cool cell phones are, here in the States. Very annoying. Well, not that annoying. But at least means I shouldn't bother with a Sony Ericsson K800i, since that's on UTMS that won't eventually work here. So it's a Sony Ericsson K790a if I ever get around to getting a new cell phone. Ever since I took mine apart to try and clean out the joystick, it's been like brand new. Aside from that, completely missed any new TV Shows yesterday, as I had a late night at work. I think I might be giving up on broadcast TV officially. That happens when you miss a show in today's serialized TV world and don't have a DVR and don't like watching bittorrent copies on a computer. The only thing I'm still making time for? Studio 60. But I did manage to catch the episode of South Park about World of Warcraft. That was funny. Really funny. Definitely seems like Blizzard was all about it. Really funny.

Friday night spent some more time on the couch working on getting the MediaWiki parser running on Daily Dose. I'm definitely making some progress in that direction. I was also just biding time until my family came into town, as my parents picked up my brother and sister-in-law at the airport (in town for the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress). Visited with them, over food of course, while waiting for Tracy to come in. After she grabbed a quick bit to eat as well, we headed out to Spoon for a birthday gathering. Definitely interesting, as I never go to places like that. Ended up catching a ride back to the neighborhood with April and Scott and April's brother and somehow ended up at Big City Tavern. After a drink there Tracy and I walked home, stopping off at Melrose Diner for a bite. And that was just Friday night. Saturday was much more low key, with lunch, some internet time, church, a walk along the lake, and a ham dinner by Mom, all with the family. A six-pack, if you will. Sunday, family breakfast before heading out to Woodfield for a little shopping. Al needed some new shoes. I got to peek into the SonyStyle store, where I decided to go with the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T10 versus the T50 due to size whenever I can use my Sony Rewards points for that. Also got to check out the Sony Reader in person, which is really really cool. I could also use my points for that, but I don't think it has the eBook support that I'm looking for. I mean, no Harry Potter or Tom Clancy. Anyway, we met up with Auntie Luz and Ate Joy at Wildfire for an early dinner. Then back home, and some couch time, just me and Tracy, watching some more Lost Season 2. I'm definitely back into it now. So much that I didn't sleep well because I was thinking about it too much. Ugh.

So, enjoying the 3 days of fall? Supposed to snow on Thursday. Which is awesome. I don't have any hope for another 80 degree weather before the months and months of winter, so here's to winter hats, coats, and layers. Here's to buses that have the heat turned up so high it's difficult to sit. Here's to steam radiator heating that dries up my living room and almost makes it too hot to sleep comfortably. Yay, winter. Snuck in some laundry last night. I must have forgotten my fabric softener sheets on top of the dryers the last time I did laundry, cause they were nowhere to be found, so I had to use liquid, which was interesting because the washers are old enough they don't have auto dispensers. Belated congrats to all the Chicago Ultimate teams that made it to the big dance. Good to see. Good luck to all.

Made one via a recipe from Rachael Ray. Salisbury steak with cheesy mashed potatos and creamed spinach. Lots of meat. Pretty good. Only thing missing was some sort of fruit cobbler. Maybe next time. Actually made dinner for Tracy and my dad. Al and Nicole dropped by afterwards to use my internet access and to chat. I think I'm bringing them to the train station today so they can get out to Woodstock. Got some more stuff delivered yesterday as well. New remote, which I'm charging and after I set it up will talk about it more. A charging stand and a travel charger for my cell phone. Some misc cord management supplies, and some casual ultimate ReminderBands. Supposed to get a PSP charging cradle today. I should be able to clean up all the cables around the couch now, and all the speaker wires.

Got my new remote control set up last night, a Logitech Harmony 880. Pretty sweet. Much easier to hold than the old remote I had, which was big and clunky. No more hard to read touch screens either. This one's got a nice color, albeit passive, screen that isn't touch screen. But it's easy to read. And it lights up automatically when you pick it up. And it has a charging cradle, which is nice so I don't have to worry about having batteries on hand, or a remote not working because the batteries are low. Not a whole lot to control right now, just the DVD changer and the TV. Only really going to add a DVR, whenever that actually becomes available. That's just like the Sony Rewards site. Supposed to go live back in September, and every couple of weeks they tack on a couple of weeks to when you should check back. Awesome. Figures though. Deadlines are a hard nut to crack for some software development projects. But even when it does become available, I still won't use my points for a DSC-T10 unless it's the black one. I've definitely got the black gadget thing going on now. And nothing else to spend money on. Which is good. Can't wait to get married and have someone to rein in my open wallet. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the single name on my bank account. Started Veronica Mars Season 2 last night. Good quality show. Except the DVD menus are almost exactly the same between the two seasons. Usually, there's a color change, not just different photos of the same characters. Anyway, it beats flipping through analog cable stations.

Yeah, long time no update. Recapping begins all the way back to Thursday night when I got some flowers for Tracy's mom's birthday from City Enchanted Gardens. Definitely some good stuff there. Dinner was an odd assortment of pancit, which is good luck on birthdays, crab legs, and butternut squash soup. Good, but a strange combo. Then Tracy and I settled in to catch up on some TV, starting with Heroes and finishing up with How I Met Your Mother and The Office. Friday night stayed in, since Tracy was feeling a bit under the weather, so cups of tea in hand, we settled in for some Lost. Saturday I drove 2 hours to get out to Woodstock due to traffic and construction, but then spent the rest of the day hanging out with the family. Got some golf tips from my brother, good food from my mom, and good conversation all around. Got to learn the doctors' side of the health insurance racket. Sunday drove back in after dropping Al and Nicole off at the airport, then again, settled in on the couch for a while watching Veronica Mars. Actually left the condo to head over to RWIP when Bryan made smoked beef brisket. Awesome. Also got to see plenty of people that I haven't seen in a good long while. Actually started exercising again this morning, realizing some time over the weekend that I need to start again, and that I don't need to run 3 miles every time, and that a quick little 1 mile run is better than nothing. Headed out to the Duke with Morse and Bender tonight.

So met up with Morse at the Duke for drinks. Also got to see Bender and McKone. Guys I haven't seen in a very long time. College friends. Got some catching up in, before heading over to Buca di Beppo for dinner. Good stuff there. Morse was in town for the American Society of Anesthesiologiests annual meeting. Funny how that happens a week after my brother is in town for the American College of Surgeons Clincal Congress. I wonder what's going on next weekend at the McCormick Center? Actually, nothing, but it would have been funny to see something for the Pediatricians or Radiologists or something. Lots of doctor talk in the last week and a half or so. Finally got an umbrella to replace my old travel sized one, and good timing too. Don't have any purchases planned on the horizon. Started playing with some save the date designs that Tracy had done some work with.

Worked late, just on one of those kicks, getting things done. Did manage to get home in time to sneak in an episode of Veronica Mars before bed. Got up in time to calibrate my Nike+iPod while exercising. At some point while walking to the gym I realized I could have just gone running outside, but whatever. I think I'll give myself the rest of October before I try and hit the pool again. Just the right season to dry my skin out in the pool and outside in the wintry cold. Headed out to the burbs to see Tracy tonight, who went dress shopping today on her day off. I think we're supposed to hit a Bridal Expo, whatever that's for. We're currently working on Consultants, or Weekend Coordinators, and might check out another florist tomorrow.

Ah, a Bridal Expo. Interesting. Well, not that interesting. Well, maybe a little interesting. You sign up, you walk through, you have little booths set up along this winding path that leads to a stage for the fashion show. Bonus points for the cake places with samples. But I think it was pretty small, maybe 4 or so vendors, well, maybe 5-6 vendors per wedding sphere; flowers, cake, DJ, limo, photography, invites, and tuxes. Kind of felt like we were cattle rounded up and fed through the opening in the fence for something like branding. Anyway, we did find a cake place that was pretty good. Oh, and Tracy got a dress yesterday too, of course, not when I was there. So things are definitely coming together. Afterwards, we went to dinner at The Patio, which was Tracy's suggestion, which was awesome because I've been craving BBQ for a couple days now, since my attempts at getting a Nagurski sandwich from Cosi have failed repeatedly. With a little time left in the evening, we watched the episodes of The Office and Heroes that her DVR had missed and I had downloaded.

Well, not till Sunday. Chicago Marathon goes on then, and I'll be trapped in my building, unless I get out before. See the cool interactive map that shows my predicament. Katie Kelly's running though, so good luck to her. I'm not sure I'll be trapped because I'm headed out to Woodstock on Saturday for an Abando Home Gathering. I thought we've had more of those, but only once in college, another time back in 2002, but that's about it. I think. Should be good, if a little lowkey. Which means I might stay out there instead of coming back in and getting trapped. Instead, Tracy and I would bum around, maybe do some shopping, and get back to my place later in the afternoon/evening. Maybe. Tonight headed out to Meridian for Tracy's Dad's induction ceremony as president of some organization, golf and Filipino related, I think. Anyway, we get to dress up and check out a Filipino DJ. By the way, I have no idea if Filipino needs to be capitalized or not. Saturday morning we might check out the Paper Source Warehouse Sale, except it looks a little bit crazy. Yesterday I did a little work on a possible save the date design, had some chili, watched some Smallville over at Tracy's.

Totally off. Fixes: I apparently had people out to Woodstock last year, but couldn't find any real mention in my archives. So yeah, had people out last year. And Tracy and I didn't go to Medina, we went to Meridian, a banquet hall. Totally different. Anyway, whoops. But the banquet was pretty cool, definitely liked the DJ, so we'll get a chance to talk to him about possibly doing our wedding. Traffic wasn't too bad, which was kind of surprising. Saturday, went and checked out the Paper Source warehouse sale, which was pretty much how I expected it: Absolutely crazy. Think 7th floor of a warehouse, think boxes of envelopes, cards, paper, with tables set up around the edge, and this huge line that snaked throughout the entire space of people pushing boxes, just wanting to pay. Awesome. No change of browsing, but lots of great deals. Not the best place to look for invitations. Then we had lunch at the Atrium cafe, looking for the West Egg, which it used to be. Couldn't go to Lou Mitchell's, because the line was way too long. Then headed out to Woodstock via 290, which also went pretty fast, stopping off at the Jewel to get supplies for Corn Ice Cream. Then friends, food and family for the night. Church the next morning, brunch at Port Edwards, some bridesmaid dress shopping in Schaumburg, where Tracy did find a dress she liked, and it was really weird for me to be in a bridal shop, and then the long drive back in. Couch time, finishing up Lost, and getting impatient for the 3rd season on DVD so I bittorrent'ed the first 3 episodes that I missed. Also snuck in the 4th episode of Heroes because of that mini-marathon on Sunday night, so we're all caught up there. Headed out to Tracy's tonight to carve a pumpkin and watch some more TV. Special thanks to my mom for cooking for my friends this weekend. Till next year.

Yeah, went out to Tracy's, dinner at Panera Bread, since she had a coupon for their new Crispani pizza type thing. Pretty good. We had the roasted mushroom. There's a couple other that looked pretty good. So maybe next time. Lots of people there, which I find intriguing. Panera just doesn't seem like a usual going out place. Like it's a lunch place, or a coffee place, but a dinner place? Not quite run of the mill for me. But it was full, well not completely, but it wasn't empty. You had some people conducting what looked like a business meeting, maybe a web site designer showing off his wares to a client. Someone was working on a posterboard. Definitely couples eating dinner, some mother daughters, father son combos as well. Just not what I'd expect at Panera. Afterwards, we headed back to Tracy's to watch some stuff off the DVR. How I Met Your Mother and Heroes. Good stuff. But still not quite The Office caliber. Heroes is great stuff, but I'm still waiting for the super power battles. And this week definitely felt like it went by too fast. Good signs for movies, but bad for TV, cause it's another week before we get to see what happens next. I did add all the shows I want to watch that are available from the iTunes Store, and it comes out to around $200 for all the season passes. Is that worth it? I don't watch commercials anymore if I have access to a DVR. But is it worth it? Not sure. Of course, all that's in not quite DVD quality and I can't use my psp to watch them. But I get them now as opposed to a year later on DVD. Whatever. On the wedding front, have a photographer under contract.

Firefox 2 got released, well, officially last night. I sort of waited, since some sites had download links available since Monday, but I started using it last night. And yeah, it's pretty good. I think on Carbon I'm switching back from Safari. Why? Not sure. Maybe I'll stay with Safari. But Firefox is pretty fast, at least from my point of view, at least as fast as Safari. Otherwise, spent the time watching Veronica Mars on the couch, had some more leftovers for dinner, and when Tracy got in, worked a little on Save the Dates. We're trying out some iPhoto postcards, so we'll see how those work out in a week or so. I'm already planning on making and buying iPhoto books with the wedding photos we'll be getting, like smaller thing we can leave out for people to page through. We're going to be working on invitations this weekend, and maybe finalize the guest list soon. I think we'll hit up a bookstore to peruse the travel section for honeymoon ideas. Something a little different from the standards.

Got a deadline for work, 11/1 for a project. Made me realize that November is right there around the corner. Crazy. Last night went to Cosi for dinner and had myself another Nagurski. Figure I'll get it while I can, since it's a limited time only deal. Afterwards, Tracy and I browsed wedding related magazines, she through flowers and me through honeymoon stuff. Possibly found a destination, but have to see what's available first. Kind of short notice I guess. Also found a dance studio to take lessons though. As soon as that gets squared away, I'll provide some more details. Tonight was just leftovers at home, some TV, and S03E01 of Lost. Pretty crazy stuff. Totally different than before. Still have no idea what's going on. Oh, and 2006 UPA Club Championships started today. I was using Score-o-matic and the Score Reporter to keep track, but there's no commentary. It was also surprising that there really wasn't any threads on rsd about it either until later in the day. Chicago went 3-6 on the day, each division getting at least one win in, with Machine having a real shot at the powerpool even with a 1-2 schedule, but the 2 teams with winning records moved on. Yay, serious ultimate. And yes, I'm retired, no longer play, but I still follow the sport. On a whim I search for ultimate on ESPN. No dice.

Friday just had leftovers and watched Veronica Mars and did some laundry. Saturday we had breakfast at HB Spot before heading down to Lincoln Park to check out invitations at All She Wrote and Paper Source. We walked back, picked up some groceries, and made dinner at home while watching Just Friends. I also made chocolate souffle for dessert. Sunday after mass we made brunch and watched the Bears kick some booty. Seriously. Also kept track a little more on 2006 UPA Club Championships. No all NW semis. That was a little disappointing. Mischief wins. Slow White beat Brass Monkey and then lost in the final. Fury rolls. Riot rolls until Fury. Still waiting to see if Sockeye can pull the win out over Furious George. And maybe that first day I missed playing, reading about it. Then the weather turned windy, and I realized that I don't enjoy playing when it's windy.

I know, odd schedule. Not sure what I'm going to do about keeping it up, or in this case, not keeping it up. Anyway, Sunday afternoon Tracy and I headed up to E-Town for some shopping, and to get out of the condo. Even more different from when I used to work up there. That whole condo complex where the parking garage used to be on Sherman, all done. Fancy looking, too. Like a hotel. Not like downtown Evanston at all anymore. Also they were doing construction on the Purple Line, so the underpass at Church was blocked off, which is used a lot to get around the shopping district. Anyway, went to Blink Art Materials, which used to be the Art Store, looking for papers to try out designs for invitations. Way too hot in there. Much like my condo currently. Then we wandered over to Cost Plus World Market so Tracy could get a replacement champagne flute. Then we stopped off at the new Barnes & Noble, very nice, got some books on Fiji and a Filipino Cookbook. I passed on a filipino travel phrasebook, which actually would come in handy for me, but I just couldn't do it. Monday night I went out to Tracy's, had dinner with her parents at Harrison's, watched an episode of The Office. That's all.

Went over to Tun's tonight to help him out a bit with a website for the classes that he teaches. Been a while since I've had to implement some design stuff. Still don't like Dreamweaver, so some things never change. Of course, I've got some fairly grand schemes in mind, but we'll see if any of them come to fruition. Also I've gotten fairly used to using Quicksilver and Launchy, as well as the Windows Key and other keyboard commands. Definitely a computing creature of comfort. Hard to be as productive if I'm not on my machines. Could definitely be a problem when my work machine goes down, which is bound to happen, eventually. Oh, forgot to mention that Tracy and I signed up for dance lessons at Chicago Dance. We'll take a group class, Dancing for All Occasions to get our feet wet and then the private lessons later to polish up whatever dance we decide on for our first. And of course there's also the Father/Bride and Mother/Groom dances as well.

Let's see, last night just came home, sat on the couch, finished up The Company, finished off Veronica Mars Season 2. Definitely felt like they had to wrap up both of those neatly at the end, like, wow, this has gone on long enough, let's wrap this up cause I'm tired of writing it. Anyway, I'm curious to see how Veronica's doing in the third season. But I'll be waiting until this time next year to catch up on DVDs. Unless the iTunes Store starts selling DVD quality widescreen files that I could, if I wanted to, watch on my PSP, unless Apple also comes out with a widescreen video player iPod, which I wouldn't be able to buy anyway because I've got this whole wedding thing and the combined finances after that. Anyway, dance class tonight. Also been trying to update my Address Book for obvious reasons (Save the Dates and Invitations). Oh, and we got the samples for Save the Date postcards from Apple the other day. Pretty smooth. Just need to add some important information, like last names and location, we'll order those up, get some addresses printed on them, and ship 'em out. Busy weekend planned, meeting with the church, flower shop, more invitation places, meeting with a possible wedding weekend coordinator. So yeah, lots to do, lots to get done. We're at 6 months, 10 days away. Gotta work on that countdown timer. Might even make a Dashboard widget instead of spending my time more wisely.

Dance class was nice last night. Fairly simple stuff. Waltz. Beginners. Definitely remembered some of it from the class I took with Jenkins at Norris back in college. Kind of feel like that's what it's gonna be like. Slight problem last night though, Tracy didn't really make it to the class on time. She tried taking the el down from my place, but because of equipment problems (supposedly a Red Line caught on fire), she never made it down in time. Took her 2 hours, most of it waiting on platforms, before she finally just took a cab to get there. Crazy. Stupid. Ugh. Nothing really you could have done about that. And I never got a text message about it from the CTA Alerts. If I had, I would have told her to hop in a cab sooner. So that totally sucked. Anyway, after the class ended we wandered over to Hooters for some wings and beer with Junior and other pharmacy classmates of Tracy's. All Asian. With a good percentage Filipino. I never hang out with that many Asians. Anyway, hopefully Tracy can make next week's class, it's the rhumba. Tomorrow got the meeting with the priest and a graduation dinner to go to. Sunday meeting with a wedding planner in the early evening. Not sure what else we'll fit in.

Busy weekend. Friday night made dinner for Tracy after chatting with some friends over iChat. No video though, as I think there's some issues I might need to work out with the provider switch at the condo. Dinner was some spiced lamb loin with minty couscous, another 30 Minute Meals recipe. Actually was pretty close to 30 minutes. Saturday started up the process for getting married in a Catholic church, which was funny because I had no idea it was going to be a group meeting. Afterwards we had lunch at the Pancake Cafe before trying to check out Kabloom in Naperville for flowers. Apparently you have to set up meetings before showing up. So we have one set up now. Did some shopping at Hobby Lobby before heading back to Tracy's place to do some laundry. Caught a serious case of hiccups. Chronic like. Any time I did some walking around, more hiccups. Annoying. We went to Jesse's surprise graduation dinner at Home Run Inn, before heading back into the city and meeting up with them again at Club 720. That place is hopping, but too hopping. Hard to move around in there. Sunday had to drive back out to pick up the rest of the laundry, and ate at Cebu, a Filipino restaurant in Downers Grove. Pretty good food. We had the buffet, which was a bad idea, cause 2 bites in, Tracy starts getting an allergic reaction to the vegetable dish, and has to run over to Walgreens to get some Benadryl. So that worked, but made her pretty sleepy, so after a quick stop at Old Navy, went back to her place so she could sleep it off and I could finish off the laundry while watching the Bears lose. Then we had to drive back into the city for a meeting with a weekend coordinator for the wedding, which went well. Finally we spent Sunday night just sitting on the couch, finally. Had some leftovers for dinner, and started watching Curious George before hitting the hay. Brought Puck in for an oil change this morning.

Didn't get up in time, hopefully will get home in time to do my part as a citizen. Puck's ok, which is good. Still running strong. Riding the Metra makes taking it to the dealer so much easier, well, not as easy as when I was working in Evanston, but still, pretty easy. I do find it odd that they didn't open the doors to the train until, like, 5 minutes before it was supposed to leave. Huge groups of people just waiting for the doors to open. Rather amusing. Oh, and I've started reading the Wild Cards series again. Not sure how far along I'll go in the series. Dinner last night was a one pot stop type deal, sinigang. Tracy had brought over a packet of seasoning, and well, awesome. Boil meat, add potatoes, veggies, seasoning packet, and a couple hours later, awesomeness over rice. Oh, and I also whipped together a BBQ Chicken small pizza, with a BBQ sauce recipe out of Betty Crocker, which was decent, but no mesquite flavoring. Gotta find that in a bottle.

Last night? Watched The Matrix. Leftovers for dinner. That's about it. New MacBooks released today. So besides not being an 1.0, the top of the line black one has a dual layer Superdrive. That's probably the only thing I wish I had. Oh, and I voted yesterday, too.

Tracy's off to Vegas tonight for the weekend with the girls. So I'm left to my own devices for a while. So after dance class tonight I'm getting drinks with Karl. Yes, the one and only Nack. It'll be good to catch up with him. Been about a couple years since I talked to him. Maybe even longer. Tomorrow night headed out with Russell, Apple Store, dinner, The Last King of Scotland. Saturday hanging with the parents coming in for the weekend, and I think Sunday's off, until I pick up Tracy at midnight. So kind of busy. And here's something I've decided to go ahead and write about: I made some DVD backups of some DVDs I own via DVD Shrink and burned via ImgBurn, all via Windows XP, cause I couldn't find an easy way to do it in OS X. Why did I do it? It's because Las Vegas (tv show) Seasons 1 and 2 come on DVD-18, which means they're 2-sided. So if I wanted to put them into the DVD changer, I could only watch one side of each disc, cause the changer doesn't have an auto-flipper. So I made a copy of side a of those 3 discs, and put them all into the changer. Was that illegal? Yes. Does it make sense that that was illegal? No, not to me, at all. So I guess I'll just wait for the lawsuit. Oh, and the illegal part? Breaking the CSS encryption so I could make a copy, which is illegal under the DCMA, not the copying itself. What is the alternative? Buying a DVD changer that does flipping. Buying another copy of each season so I could have each side of the disc in a changer. Neither of which I'm willing to do. Sosumi.

Awesome news, even if I haven't been watching, but Studio 60 got picked up for a full season. I wonder if a season pass will be available from the iTunes Store now. Also, it's cool because they decided to give it a chance, even if it was getting poor ratings. That makes me happy, that someone decided to keep making something good, no matter if people were watching. That money isn't everything. Catching up with Karl was good. He's in town for a while, so will probably get to hang out with him occasionally. Most likely sushi. Plans haven't changed for the weekend. Oh, I managed to pick up some cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory on the way home yesterday. Had the White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle last night, and saving the Oreo for later. So good. Now that I'm looking out the window and noticing how dark it is, then looking around my chair and noticing the absence of an umbrella, makes me not look forward to getting wet this evening. Ugh. Oh well. Started watching The Matrix Reloaded on the PSP. No backpack today. Good and bad choice. Good since I'm headed out. Bad because I don't have the umbrella that's in it.

So Friday night met up with Russell at the Apple Store up on Michigan Ave. Passed by the new Garmin store that's opening up where the Sony Style store used to be. Really? An entire store for GPS products? Really? Anyway, I went to the Apple Store to check one thing and one thing only, if the 2nd generation MacBooks hinge squeaks. Answer: nope, it doesn't. Nice and quiet. They even had first generation back by the iPods which did have the squeak, then walking up to the new ones up front, and no squeak. They even seem a little more polished in terms of manufacture. I knew I should have waited. I wonder if I could just replace the case at some point in the future? Anyway, dinner at Bandera, which is, as pointed out to me, way too touristy. That place, like Darwin's, is now dead to me. The Last King of Scotland was spectacular, and I had forgotten why I was familiar with the story until the end, which takes place before Operation Entebbe, which I have read about. Anyway as Russell has pointed out, pretty disturbing scene in that movie. Anyway, Saturday rolls around, do some cleaning with my mom around the condo, head out to mass and dinner at Jin Ju, leaving before the Russells show up. Finish the evening up with some more Las Vegas (tv show) and some work on Tun's website. Wordpress is a pretty cool blogging tool/software/content management system/whatever you call it. Impressive. It's also been a long while since I've done any sort of web development. Sunday was more of the same, before picking up Tracy at Midway with absolutely impeccable timing, pulling up to arrivals just as my phone rings. Impressive.

Wasn't planning on cooking last night, but got the urge. Which meant I had chicken parmesan out of the oven and ready to eat when Tracy got home from work. Yes. That's me in the kitchen, making dinner for the wife-to-be, hard at work. Right. Anyway, before that I also made some Rice Krispie Treats, which I went easy on the butter with, which made them much much better. Also watched the last episode of Las Vegas (tv show):Season 3, and it annoys me that season 4 won't be out on DVD for a while. Also continued watching The Matrix Reloaded, actually trying to listen to the words and understand the overall storyline a little bit better. I think it might be time to restart the Alias show, as Season 5 is coming out soon, and that gives me a good number of things to watch. Also, it's a dead series, so I won't be left wanting at the end. Oh, forgot that I also have The Unit:Season 1, too. Anyway, broadcast TV is definitely on its last legs with me. At least until I get HDTV back. Still working on Tun's website, and WordPress isn't quite as easy to work with as I thought. Any easy way to get a page/post slug in php? Anyway, working on it tonight, before cooking dinner again, this time beef fajitas.

So WordPress? Still pretty impressive, but not amazing anymore. I couldn't find any easy way to do a post query over multiple categories by catslug, or cat_nicename, or whever it's called. Easy to do with catIds, but not with a catSlug. Annoying. Guess I could try and fix it, couldn't I? Anyway, getting closer with Tun's website, if your interested, at math.bhothinard.org (http://math.bhothinard.org), but of course it doesn't format well in IE6. Stupid IE6. And I've got to figure out how to get IE6 so I can test against it. Ugh. Beef Fajitas for dinner last night. Super easy to make. Oh, and bought my first TV Shows from the iTunes Store. Studio 60 come out with a Season Pass. Downloaded everything so far. Which means I can catch up on that soon. Which means at some point I'll be getting a video iPod, if they ever release the widescreen version, and probably mothball my nano and psp. Awesome. Love the lock-in.

Wednesday night just sat at home, watched TV, and had leftovers with Tracy. Thursday night, on the other hand, was a good time. Tracy finally made it to a dance class, where we learned the Fox Trot. Afterwards, we had dinner at Nacional 27, since it's a block away. Good stuff there. Good Mojito, great ceviches. Love it when a restaurant takes its food seriously, but without any feeling of pretension. Anyway, we'd definitely go back, and probably will, after dance classes. Headed out to Tracy's tonight. Supposed to go to a party for Tanguay tomorrow night, but that pretty much sums up the weekend plans so far. Hard to believe Thanksgiving is next week, with Tracy's birthday right before. Soon it's gonna be Advent, then Christmas, then the new year. Wow. Flying by.

I'm totally ready for the iTV, and the widescreen video iPod. Watching Studio 60, oh, a week after it aired, with no commercials, when I wanted to, well, it's awesome. I'm sold. I only wish other stuff I watch would be available from the iTunes Store. I'd buy Las Vegas (tv show). I'd probably buy How I Met Your Mother. I'm tempted to get The Office. But those would be helped by having the iTV available. I don't think Tracy likes watching on the MacBook. Also means I've pretty much given up on broadcast TV. Strictly DVD watching device for now. Anyway, spent a surprising amount of time in the kitchen this weekend. Friday night went out to Tracy's, doing laundry, watching some DVR'd tv, that had to delete previous episodes cause it was running out of space. Had to bittorrent those. Saturday, finished up the laundry before heading back in to the city to play with my new camera, and watched more Studio 60. Awesome awesome show. I can't get enough of it. Awesome. Tried to make my own longanisa, but used an Italian Sausage base, which made it a little too different. Sunday, church, the rest of Studio 60, The Matrix Revolutions, and some Friends. Made a Cheesecake Factory Pumpkin Cheesecake and some curry chicken for dinner. Today headed out to Tracy's on the train, and we're headed over to the Bolingbrook Country Club for the tasting. Tomorrow going to see For Your Consideration with the boys at the Landmark.

I'm having a hard time coming to grips that it's Thanksgiving, and that people are already taking off for the week, and that tomorrow and Friday will be very dead downtown. Anyway, being one of the huddled masses taking the Metra in and out of the city was interesting last night and this morning. Something I could totally see myself doing if/when I move out of the city. I pretty much make a similar commute in terms of time, so that's not that big of a deal. Just a whole lot farther to go. Tasting went alright, nothing too special, which is expected considering the size of the wedding. Watched Heroes and How I Met Your Mother. Tracy asked why I hadn't gotten the Season 1 DVD set of HIMYM, and looking online today, I remembered why: it's full screen only. Ugh. Speaking of Tracy, a nice big Happy Birthday to her. I did get to have a Cinnabon for breakfast at Union Station. After the movie tonight got to make a pumpkin souffle for the birthday girl, as well as wrap her presents. Not headed out to Woodstock till Thursday morning, but only out there for the day.

So I got Tracy a shower radio. She likes to sing in the shower. I also got her some jewelry. So I'm not that bad of a future husband. The pumpkin souffles came out, well, probably too souffle-like for my taste. I think I need to add flour to the other recipes I've used besides the one from Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. Maybe next time. But also whipped up some fresh whipping cream, so that was good. Had to have some cheesecake with it. Oh, movie was good also last night. Funny stuff. Definitely a movie rather than a mockumentary. Interesting eatery downstairs though, Eatzi's is what it's called. They have microwaves to heat up the food you buy. Good stuff, Tracy thought the crabcakes were up there in terms of taste, so it's good stuff, just don't know if I get it as a place to sit and eat. Fine for stopping in and grabbing something for home though. Got caught up a little on the ultimate related gossip. Hopefully will have some place to find said gossip online soon.

Wednesday night, enjoyed another episode of Studio 60, this time on the old cinema display with the creature speakers. Not a bad experience. Better resolution than analog broadcast that I get on my big tv. Also started downloading via XTorrent some tv shows that I've wanted to watch, like Jack & Bobby and Cupid. Mac and cheese for dinner. Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving. Good times, even if I had to do a little work throughout the day. Also using iChat with a wireless network to see Al and Nicole was pretty cool. Got back in to the city ok, only a little traffic where the tollbooth gods decided to have only 1 cash lane, which of course blocks the iPass lanes because people move to the right at the last possible time. Working today, which was fine. Bus was pretty much completely empty this morning, which was pleasant. Got some Krispy Kreme this morning, to just complete the whole Thanksgiving gluttony thing. Really have a florist wedding consult tomorrow, so headed out to Tracy's tonight.

Friday night watched more of The Unit. Now I'm thinking I didn't miss any episodes from last season. Then headed out to Tracy's, in what ended up the weekend. Saturday went through a florist consultation at Kabloom of Naperville, which got us thinking about some of the stuff we actually hadn't thought of yet. Always a good thing. We headed over to Oakbrook for some shopping, which was a good idea because it was so nice out, and it wasn't nearly as busy as I thought it'd be. We ate at the restaurant in the basement of Macy's. They still have Marshall Field's stuff on the menu. Then we decided to see Happy Feet. I saw a headline off Google Reader from my cell phone that someone called it an animated An Inconvenient Truth, like liberal propaganda. I laughed that off. We went to the same IMAX theater we saw Superman Returns at, except this time it wasn't in 3-D. Should have been. Definitely some good scenes for it, and even looked at parts like it was directed for it. We had some time to kill, so grabbed some beer and wings at Buffalo Wild Wings beforehand. And the movie itself? Liberal propaganda. Definitely over the top at parts. Definitely a left wing flick. I felt it was pushed, in parts, a little too much. But still, very cute, very funny. Dancing penguins always are. Sunday actually went to mass at St. Cyril, which was fairly normal. Lunch at Denny's, more shopping, this time at Orland Park, before eventually heading back in to the city and my couch. Leftovers for dinner. Gonna try start up the whole exercising thing again, went running this morning. Just got to make sure I get enough sleep is all.

Not too much going on. Week after Thanksgiving let down or something. The awkward time between holidays too. Which actually corresponds to a busy time at work, but not for me, usually, as I should have been busy the rest of the year to get things working for the people that are buys at this time of year. Confused? Yeah, never mind. Watched some more The Unit yesterday. Dinner for myself was pasta and Sausages by Amy. Went grocery shopping around 9:30pm to make dinner for Tracy, which was pork chops with a brandy cherry sauce with zucchini with walnuts. Had that for lunch. Smaller portions, too, which means no leftovers. Definitely felt odd just using a single baked potato while cooking. Headed out to see The Prestige tonight with Bryan. Can honestly say I didn't expect the weather to be this nice this late in the season. I figured the 60 degree November days was over in the beginning, not the end. But snow's coming, so that's good. I mean, it will be December soon.

No movie last night. Instead, more of The Unit. Good stuff, as always. That Mamet guy, he writes pretty well. I might have to listen to the commentary track on the S.E.R.E. episode, cause that one is freaky. Absolute power corrupting absolutely? Scary stuff. And I'm guessing most of it was based on historical events. That's probably the scariest part of it. Also tried to make langonisa last night and failed miserably. I just can't make it from scratch, at all. At all. So disappointing. So I just have to use store bought stuff. Tonight headed over the Bucktown for a champagne tasting at the Wine Discount Center with the Russells. Should be good. And of course, taking a cab over. I did manage to wear the wrong coat again, but I did remember to bring an umbrella today. Which is good since it's raining. Hopefully the temperature drop won't happen until after I get home and pick up some more clothing.

Tracy's Christmas present arrived yesterday, and it's pretty cool. Got her a Motorola MOTORIZR Z3. It's a RAZR type slider. No idea if a US Carrier is going to pick it up, and hopefully no one will, that way it can remain fairly unique in the US. But it's pretty sweet. And solid. Same size as my cell phone roughly, but put together a whole lot better. I'm even thinking of switching, it's that cool. And Tracy got the present early, well, because she needs a new phone, and better to have it sooner than making her wait. Bad thing about it? No cradle, so can't just plop it in for charging. I'm a big fan of cradles. Got a bunch on the sofa table. So the champagne tasting last night was pretty cool. Went with the Russells, which I guess was a couples date. I'm no expert, but champagne's good. Nothing over the top, but the surprise of the evening is that Dom isn't all that. I did manage to pick up a bottle of Vouvray sparkling and a Lily Pinot Noir on the Russells recommendation. Afterwards, we got dessert at Hot Chocolate. Really good stuff. Made for a great dinner. Found out the Russells got new cell phones, so congrats to them. Tonight Tracy and I get to learn Swing, not sure what kind, at dance class, and maybe dinner at Nacional 27 again, since it's right there.

Snow hits, and it's December. Good times. Huge dance class last night, as some social group called Hi Life, I think, invaded for the week. Odd having so many people there. We tried to learn some sort of swing, but no swing that I've learned or seen before. It was ok. We ended up going to dinner at Nacional 27 again. Menu didn't seem as good this time, and we tried out half tapas/shared a dinner plate. That was a good idea, as most of the tapas were great, and the braised lamb was awesome. The 2 mojitos probably helped in that regard. Good stuff though. And I played with Tracy's new phone some more, and got jealous some more. So tempting. Had some trouble sleeping because of the sound of sleet hitting the windows. Need to find some new waterproof shoes as well. Either that or go back home and dig out the old waterproof shoes I foolishly gave away. Found out about a new beta of Parallels Desktop for Mac, which I'm tempted to try, and at the same time finally try out Boot Camp, because the beta allows use of a Boot Camp partition. Which means a single XP install for both Boot Camp and Parallels. Win win.

Friday night finished off The Unit. Apparently I did not miss any episodes from last season. I didn't feel like venturing out in the bad weather to the grocery store, so I did what I'll be probably doing all winter long, logged onto GrubHub.com and ordered up some delivery. Got some Philly's Best Cheesesteaks. Good stuff. So instead of a nice homecooked meal for Tracy when she got off work, she got cheesesteaks. She worked on Saturday, and it was cold, so I stayed inside, painted a wall in the bedroom, went running, watched a lot of Jack & Bobby, and went to dinner at Cocoro with Karl. Man, sushi's good. We also got a drink at Wildfire afterwards. Good to hang out with him. Also, Jack & Bobby? Great show. So glad I was able to find it on bittorrent. Love it. Sunday had a late brunch, more couch time, watched the Bears defense and special teams win the game, got Tracy to watch the pilot episode of Cupid, which was great, except for the VHS quality of the transfer. Dinner was tocino. Then we did some clean up, cause it had gotten pretty bad. As for this week, just trying to stay warm.

I've forgotten to mention that I've discovered, or rediscovered, the joy of a scarf to keep oneself warm on these cold Chicago days. From Tracy I learned to do the knotting thing, specifically, the European Casual method of scarf wearing. It's awesome. I'm totally bundled up, don't have a cold neck at all, heat's all staying inside my coat, except all the heat eventually leaves through my hands, cause my gloves aren't that good. That should be on the list of things to get. Tracy made pot roast last night, which was pretty good, but the mushrooms she made for the side dish were stunning. Really really good. Simple too. She also made some Italian dish we saw on Road Tasted. It was prosciutto, basil, and mozzarella flattened and rolled, like a jelly roll or a yule log. Really good too. Watched some more Kitchen Confidential, and keep hoping for the iTV, whenever that comes out.

Dinner was leftovers last night. Watched Gilmore Girls, House, and My Guys. Yes, I watched My Guys. Why? Because it's set in Chicago. Why will I keep watching it? Because the dialog references places that actually exist in the Chicago-land area, but probably don't by name because of rights issues. But actual places! Geographically correct places! Tonight headed out to Tracy's via the train again. Makes things easy, for me anyway.

Took the Metra out to Tracy's last night. Got stuck at some point, waiting for a freight train that wasn't moving, and didn't move for 40 minutes. Awesome. Dinner at Fox's. Had to help shovel her driveway. That wasn't fun. Either sore from it today, or coming down with the flu from working in the cold last night. Either or. Or could be both, just have to wait and see on the flu part. But I'm drinking my Vitamin Water Defense. Caught up on Heroes last night as well. I keep forgetting what HD looks like. So good. Another dance class tonight. Definitely not going back to Nacional 27, not that it's bad, but 3 weeks in a row would be a little much. Oh, and it's freezing out. Really really cold. Like biting bitter cold. Not so much embrace the cold and it's okay, cause embracing this cold brings frostbite and hypothermia.

Learned basic salsa at dance class last night. Fun. Might be something we pursue going forward. And it really is all about the hips. For the first time more guys than girls at class, and I'd say roughly 25% of the people I saw at the first week are still there. Afterwards, we went to dinner at Cafe Iberico. Looks like they had a nice little renovation, as it seems slightly bigger, a little more space. Definitely still loud and hard to have a conversation. Food was OK, not as good as I remembered it though. Got home, took a while to get Tracy's RIZR to recognize the 1GB TransFlash card I got her. Apparently it isn't plug and play, I had to reboot the phone. For all it's style, I'm still pretty happy with whatever OS is on my cell phone. Just my way of talking myself out of a non Sony Ericsson phone. Headed out to Tracy's again tonight, on the train. Headed out to RWIP for a Pajama Party tomorrow afternoon. Oh, got a couple Wedding contracts yesterday as well, for DJ and the Florist. So checking those out, too.

I like taking the train out to Tracy's. No traffic. Not a designated driver. No worries. It's quite nice. Friday night we spent in, got some food from Dominick's (paninis! and they had pizza carryout, when did grocery stores turn into actually restaurants?) and watched some TV on the couch. Just some of The Office and How I Met Your Mother. Saturday morning, had some breakfast, then headed up to the pajama party at RWIP. Interesting. Good to see Peggy and Brady, who're leaving for China on the 30th. Haven't seen those guys in forever. Had some hot buttered rum, lounged about, had some cookies, chilled. We left around dinner time, picking up ribs from Gale Street Inn, which is relatively close. That's the place we liked the most from the RibFest earlier in the year. Great ribs. Awesome. Maybe next time when we aren't in pajamas we can actually eat there, cause it seems pretty homey. We ate on the couch while watching Love Actually, another holiday movie. We had watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and Elf over at RWIP. Sunday was a nice lazy day on the couch. I did get some shopping in after mass, and tried to cook Chicken Kiev. I say try because it didn't stay closed. That's the biggest problem with my stuffed chicken breasts, they don't stay shut. Also had some email issues with my home account. Mail.app, not so robust.

Seriously? Thunderstorms in December? Proof of global warming? Maybe, just maybe. What happened to the glorious Chicago Winter that was freezing my bones last week? Anyway, I wonder if my theory of calendar shifting might apply, that the seasons are slipping later and later in the calendar year, but the calendar year is staying put. So the weather we expect for the date is actually the weather from weeks, months in the future. If that's understandable at all. Watched more Jack & Bobby last night, while doing laundry. Does having an in-unit washer dryer increase the occurrence of doing laundry? Hope so. Finally going to try and get HD set up at home. Finally. We'll see how long it might actually take.

Tracy picked me up from work and we went to dinner at Fox & Obel, walked around there marveling at all the fancy and expensive food stuffs before heading over to River East to watch The Holiday. And that sums up my Tuesday night. Fox & Obel was busy, we didn't even get a table to sit at, and ended up at one of the wall counter seats. I got a turkey, brie, and cranberry sandwich, quite good. Tracy went with soup and salad. We had some more time to kill so we walked around the store, I was looking for truffles, she looked over the cheeses, we drooled at the pastries, chocolates, Kobe beef and Snow Crab claws. Such good stuff there, expensive stuff. Anyway, the movie was good. Romantic comedy, and I'm a big fan of those. Been a while since I've seen one in a theater, so the 10-1 ratio of women to men shouldn't have been surprising but it still was. I'm thinking of heading back there to see Casino Royale, since I haven't yet, but then again I've got more Jack & Bobby to watch.

On the phone with my brother last night for like an hour. I don't talk to that guy nearly enough as I should. Hence, the hour long phone call. But then again, I'm not very good on the phone, so, whatever. Next time will probably be around the holidays. Didn't go running yesterday, decided to sleep instead, and went this morning. Good times. Watched Studio 60 and Jack & Bobby, again, great TV. I am plowing through the Wild Cards anthology again, currently on book 5. The whole Heroes thing got me started on it again. I'm surprised it hadn't made it into the Memex yet. Dance class tonight, supposed to learn the tango, which I'm not all that looking forward to. Oh, finally made a dentist's appointment. That's a good thing. Haven't been to the dentist in years. Big time. Hopefully it won't be that long, my teeth won't be that bad. But the office is like 3 blocks away, so that's cool. And, finally getting my hair cut for the holiday season tomorrow. Definitely getting a little shaggy these days. Again, not sure what the deal is with the weather, in the mid 40's this week, some more rain today. Odd. Even with that snowstorm, doesn't feel like winter, at all.

Learned the Tango last night. Tracy and I stuck around for Dancing for Every Occasion II, which is right after Dancing for Every Occasion I, since she had a couple make up classes to take. So we got to learn a couple additional steps. Much better time learning the Tango compared to that college class at Norris. Dinner this time was at Zocalo, just a couple blocks south. Pretty good fancy Mexican food. Got myself a tequila flight as well. Not bad. Hanging out with Russell tonight, headed over to Vessel Ideation. Tomorrow headed out for a cake tasting and maybe some tux selection. Finally got myself a haircut this morning. Definitely glad that happened. Amazing how much a difference a haircut makes to appearance. Oh, and found out that This American Life has a free podcast available, and NPR and PRI have also free podcasts, so I'm subscribed, and using the iPod a little bit more these days. Just a thought, but why can't TV do free video casts with commercials? Yes, you could just fast forward, but that's just like having a DVR. Would advertisers go for something like that?

More things to cross off. Didn't do anything Friday night, as it felt like the start of the flu, so couch time, delivery from Chen's and Jack & Bobby. Saturday was a trip out to the 'burbs, for a cake tasting at Creative Cakes. Totally worth it. Good stuff. Decided on a cake to get. Check. Cool thing, maybe, about Creative Cakes? They provided the cake for the My Fair Brady wedding. That's awesome. I think anyway. Then we had lunch at Panera before checking out tuxes at After Hours. Done. Another check. Then spent some time at Tracy's house, watched some The Office, dinner with the future in-laws, got Windows Movie Maker on their home computer. Sunday we went out to Schaumburg to Brides by Demetrios, so Tracy could pick out her bridesmaids' dress color. Done. Awesome. We got linner afterwards at Shaw's Crab House and then caught Apocalypto before heading home. Stopped off at Jewel to pick up some supplies, mostly milk, since we had a craving for real hot chocolate. Also popped some apple turnovers into the oven for a treat as well. A nice productive weekend. Not bad at all. Also, had a dentist appointment this morning, still have all my teeth. No decay or rot. Still no cavities. However, I am gonna have to go in for a deep scale cleaning. Makes sense since I haven't been to a dentist in forever. But that should be exciting, since I get to go slightly under. In the meantime, I've got to get a waterpick. Next up, a complete physical from a real non-related doctor.

Why didn't someone tell me that Veronica Mars is available from the iTunes Store? Guess what's gonna be my Christmas present to myself? Definitely moving towards the whole TV on my demand, with no commercials. I'm loving it too much. Yes, it's no HD, but I'm dealing, and have been for the past couple of months. Almost thinking of not even signing up for any digital cable. Again, we'll see. If the iTV works, and there's a video iPod, I might have to get a Mac mini to use with the old EyeTV 500 to record the shows that aren't available from the iTunes Store, like The Unit and How I Met Your Mother, stupid CBS. I think that's all hinging on the iTV. So come on Jobs, do your thing, and make the magic happen. Got a WaterPik WP-60 last night, per dentist's orders. Gets messy, that's for sure. Tracy had leftovers waiting for me, some chicken and dumplings from a box, which was really good. And watched a couple more episodes of Jack & Bobby. I'm on episode 18 or so and it's starting to lose it's luster. Maybe it's a good thing it got canceled, and likewise the other shows, because maybe they would have gone downhill, and been tough to watch (looking at Alias).

Russell was kind enough to let me know that the feed for Daily Dose doesn't get updated in Google Reader as often as it should. Which makes sense, cause I don't think I'm currently blog pinging Google now. I'll fix it soon. Of course, I have no idea who reads this in Google Reader, but whatever. You're welcome. Silver Cloud was good last night. Had to have a Bell's, since that'll be unavailable in the new year. Got a sloppy joe, which was fabulous. Headed over to Home Depot with Russell before getting a ride back to my place and a rock star parking spot. Went ahead and got Veronica Mars Season 3 on iTunes Store. Of course haven't started watching, but will soon enough. Maybe I'll plow through the episodes on Christmas Day. Hard to believe that's just 5 days away. Market Track Holiday Party tonight at 10pin. Should be fun.

Google Reader users should now get updates when they happen. Also just realized that MediaWiki has been upgraded a bunch of times, most recent is 1.8.2, while I'm stuck at 1.6.7 for the Memex. Probably not good, and I wonder what new features might be available. Gives me something to do on Christmas day. Apparently it gets updated on a quarterly basis. I'll have to look for an RSS feed of updates for that. Also have to get Daily Dose running on PHP5 instead of 4, so more tech gobbledygook. Maybe I should even rewrite it? Or use some other back end for it? Hmmm, all good questions. Maybe finally switch over to Wordpress? Whatever. Bowling was fun last night, even if I was the worst one in the lane. No consistency. Never got comfortable, never found a ball I liked. But a good time. Tonight last dance class in the session followed by dinner at Le Lan. That should be good. Tomorrow night getting sushi with Karl up at Sushi Luxe. Finally, according to the calendar, it's officially winter. Whatever that means for another rainy December day in Chicago. Seriously, whatever.

I think I'll try out the UK version of Merry Christmas this season. I mean, why not? Last night had our last session at Dancing for Every Occasion I where we learned the cha cha and the merengue. Good time. We also signed up for the sequel, Dancing for Every Occasion II, so we keep the instructor, Kelly, and location, River North, and move back an hour to 8pm. That starts on January 4th. Afterwards, we had dinner at Le Lan, a pretty fancy Asian fusion place. I think it tries to be fancy, but just isn't fancy enough. Good food, expensive, but nothing seems too over the top to need to go back. Desserts were fabulous though. Maybe that could be a reason enough to go back. But signing up for more dance classes means finding more restaurants to eat around there. And also going to a semi fancy restaurant makes me want to go back to Tru, so that'll happen sooner rather than later, probably around my birthday. Tonight headed up to Andersenville for sushi at Sushi Luxe with Karl. This weekend headed out to Tracy's on Saturday, my parents on Sunday. And that's pretty much it. So Happy Christmas everyone!

Ah, that low period between Christmas and New Years. Bus was pretty much completely empty this morning, lots of empty seats. Very nice. Also, very quick. Christmas went well. Friday night sushi with Karl was good. Got some drinks after at a bar up there. Took the 22 home. Saturday headed out to Tracy's, had some breakfast, did some last minute shopping. Traffic was really annoying. Found my new favorite Christmas song, The Christmas Waltz. Didn't really listen to all that much Christmas music this year. Instead, on the drive out to Tracy's, listened to the NPR podcasts I'm subscribed too. I just feel bad that I don't take more time to listen to it, because I can only do it in the car. Can't read and listen to it at the same time. So with all the driving, put a big dent in the unheard podcasts. We rented The Break-Up and My Super Ex-Girlfriend, made some spaghetti, and watched them on her dad's projector in the basement. Pretty nice setup. Movies were OK, nothing too special. Didn't realize until the end that the kid from A Christmas Story was Joey Lauren Adams's husband, until the credits. Peter Billingsley. That comes into play Sunday night, after coming back in from Woodstock and lunch and mass with my family, we watched A Christmas Story with the turkey dinner my mom sent back with us. Christmas day I spent on the couch, watched Die Hard and Die Hard 2: Die Harder and the rest of Jack & Bobby, did laundry which got surprisingly busy, made pancakes and sausage for myself, flipped the switch to PHP5 on the website, and headed out to the Argaos for their family gathering. All in all a good long weekend.

Something like 4 1/2 months or so till our wedding. Crazy. That realization comes from Joy at Christmas. Thanks. Anyway, still got lots of stuff to start plowing through and finalizing. It'll feel like a whole different ballgame once 2007 rolls around. Which is in 4 days. Crazy. With that out of the way, I started watching Veronica Mars Season 3 last night. Good stuff. However, I'm not that big of a fan of the opening montage redo. Too slow and monochromatic. Kind of a downer. Also managed to go running last night, and increased my distance to a couple of miles. I figure I'll just increase it by a mile every month until the wedding. Not sure what number I'll stop on. Eventually it'll just take too long, so that might end being the limiting factor. Headed out to Tracy's tonight.

Totally blew off updating yesterday. Well, actually just completely forgot. Remembered when I was getting a ride home from work with Tracy, and forgotten until this morning. Wednesday night went out to Tracy's, watched My Guys, had some prime rib made by her mom, registered for a Pre Cana session. Oh, and synced up Motorola MOTORIZR Z3 with her iMac. Totally easy. Found a widget that does a countdown, so I've got one for the Wedding, like 134 days or something. I'm gonna modify the one that counts down to Steve Jobs's MacWorld Keynote to countdown to the wedding, because the keynote one includes hours, minutes, and seconds. I figure that's something I should know. Last night, more leftovers, more TV watching. Realized I also like My Guys because the main character when to Northwestern and lives in Chicago. Sounds familiar. More couch time tonight. Might paint the rest of the bedroom this weekend while Tracy's working. Only New Years Eve plans is to make a fancy dinner for my fiancée. Otherwise, not much.