Most likely my last 2011 post. Christmas was good. Christmas Eve at Mike and Amy's with the in-laws, then Christmas Day at home with Lucy while Tracy worked before heading out to the Argaos for Christmas Day. Spent the night out there. Lucy ended up in our bed, of course. Monday did some shopping in Naperville, as the Aurora shops were just crazy busy. We just drove by, which worked out in our favor as Lucy got her nap in during the drive. Dinner at Weber Grill with a food allergy issue for Tracy, a little craziness from Lucy due to the late dinner. Tuesday I had to go back to work but all the cousins got to go to Children's Museum at Navy Pier and the Winter Wonderland. They spent like 6 hours there, no naps. And then they came over for pizza, and I took a too long way home and picked up more cupcakes from More and Sprinkles. So that ended up being the 4th straight late night for Lucy, 2 hours later than her usual bedtime. Last night picked up a couple cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery, so now I think there might be only a couple more to check out, but More is still the best of the bunch so far. I've got to stay late at work Friday and come in on Saturday due to building power issues. Tracy's headed back out to her parents for the night tonight. She brought Lucy out there yesterday for a couple days. My parents are back, safe and sound, and recuperating. We'll see them on New Year's Day. Ok, maybe another post later recapping the year.

Seriously? Christmas?  Like 4 days away?  Crazy. Weather doesn't feel like December. Oh well. Trying to finish up some projects at work. The usual year end fire drill. Finished up watching season 2 of Blue Mountain State. Didn't realize the 3rd season was what was actually on TV earlier this year. Netflix's library is fairly extensive, and may be big enough to look into the option of cancelling cable. Used up my remaining Sony Rewards points and got a white Sony Wi-Fi Reader PRS-T1. Tracy might take it, but I think for now it's a spare. I might try using it when I start The Mortal Instruments series, which Tracy is reading. eReaders sure have advanced in the four or five years since my PRS-505. 

Less than a week before Christmas, and finally got around to ordering some presents for Lucy. Yay for Amazon Prime. Watered the tree for the first time since I can remember. Kind of surprising, because I got some ornament water meter device that's supposed to flash red when the level gets past a certain level. I thought for sure it was dry, but there's still water in there. Crazy. Not going to be fun trying to clean that up in a couple weeks. Do they make special tree trash bags? Lost one of my Seirus Xtreme All Weather Gloves Sunday morning when I took Lucy down to More and Pierrot Gourmet for cupcakes and macaroons respectively. Must have fell out of my pocket when I took Lucy's hat out when getting off the bus. A usual Saturday, Green City Market, Nature Museum. Busy because of the Jingle Bell run, but we got lucky with some parking relatively close by. Took some photos of Lucy in the snow. Got our knives sharpened for the first time since we got them. Brought them with in a makeshift cardboard sleeve container. But now they're so sharp they actually get stuck in the cutting board. Got a haircut, picked up some Mark's Chop Suey for dinner. Wandered down Broadway on Sunday after Tracy got off work, checked out the Goorin Bros. Hat Shop and Gap had a big sale, but I didn't find anything I needed. Finally watched Bridesmaids, and I think it had a little too much heart, and not enough comedy. And no actual Vegas activity? Crazy. Heard back from my parents, and they and their relatives are all ok, unaffected directly by the typhoon that hit Mindanao.

As in, I'm actually on the Purple Line headed home. Had a craving for Papa John's last night, and since I've seen a couple locations actually in Chicago and the closest one isn't in Evanston, I placed an order for delivery. Yes, it's as good as I remember it. I even like the crust dipped in Garlic sauce. Yum. Lucy's been doing well. Blabbering a lot. Eating well too. Mostly. Had a little setback yesterday when she didn't take a nap. At her usual time, and instead I let her continue after she fell asleep on the way home in the stroller. Cranky when you wake her before she's ready, as is anyone. Still plodding through the Illuminatus books, but feels more like work than pleasure. But I'm compelled to finish it. So it'll be a while before I get to something new. Enjoying trailers for some movies coming out, knowing full well I won't be seeing them in theaters. The next one I will see is The Hunger Games next March. 9 days 'till Christmas. Crazy.

Trying to keep up with sleeping more. But it's hard when my wife has the next day off, and wants to keep watching TV. I guess I could just learn to say no, or to just skip a show. That letting go part, of not participating, well, that I have trouble with. Anyway, started trying out Zite, which is like Flipboard, but more subject oriented, rather than source oriented. It, even more than Flipboard, feels like a personal magazine. Of course I went ahead and selected all sections, because it really is like browsing a newspaper, trying to get a more well rounded view of the world. Ha, instead of a flat picture, and it's not turtles all the way down. I digress. Started hitting up the Ogilvie food court for lunch again. Got a craving for a red velvet moon pie from Corner Bakery, so had to schedule an earlier lunch today, so I could get one later. Not been reading on the commute. Partly because the book (The Illuminatus! Trilogy) is just a wee bit absurd, and not very action oriented. And maybe because I'm a little burned out on reading. I have been reading Dollhouse (comics) and G.I. Joe (comics) though. There's some good fluffy stuff.

I thought I was doing so much better with my more often updates, but then, bam, a week goes by. Ugh. Haven't even been updating the Memex Current events either. I may just retire that. Oh well. Found season 2 of The League is available from Netflix Watch Instantly. Been plowing through that. Funny stuff. Lucy's I think been doing well with Mydel. No crying when I left last Friday, and only a little whimpering when I dropped her off this morning. Skipped out on the, what I thought was an impromptu holiday part at work Friday night. Drank a little too much in the office pre-party, so wanted to just go home and nap. I think I'm getting better at heading to bed sooner. At least getting ready for bed sooner. Green City Market and the Nature Museum on Saturday, hit up Fox & Obel before heading over to Mike and Amy's to hang out with Caden. Shopping on Sunday at Northbrook Court. I really like that mall. Got kind of grumpy, because I think I was over tired, much like Lucy. Also, Tracy's in much better shape than me, so I got wiped out by the walking/carrying in the mall. Christmas is totally sneaking up on me again. I'm still horrible at shopping for presents.

Went shopping before Caden's birthday party. Looking for holiday outfits for the family. Kind of fun, if a little harried. Go figure, trying to find a non primary color, non pink nice outfit for a little girl, is actually pretty difficult. Kind of annoying. Also in big news, I think I found a hat, like a real, honest to goodness hat, that I can wear that looks ok on me, and doesn't make my ears look gigantic. I'm impressed. And it was cheap. Checked out the new Walmart Express that opened up nearby. Seems ok. Smallish. Low ceilings alters my perception of its size. First time in the butterfly haven at the Nature Museum. That's pretty cool. Also trying to get better with my Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f1.8. Finally tweaking ISO while shooting, using assisted manual focus. Found out that new volumes of Skins is available from Netflix. Annoyed that I couldn't watch them during primetime Saturday night. And continuing to not log my food intake. No schedule on the weekends doesn't make it easy. Made dinner Saturday night, apple cider pork chops. Went really well with the Pasta Puttana white wine pasta. Actually timed it well, getting dinner out on time, but of course a little difficult getting the little one fed at the same time.

So Lucy did well on Tuesday too, but yesterday spent the day with Tracy on her day off, so hopefully Lucy won't have forgotten who Mydel is again. Hoping. Ended up getting different, simple, remote control outlets for the Christmas lights. Nice and easy. KISS. It's also December. Feels like December, too, weather wise anyway. Been having a craving for cupcakes, so finally got one from Crumbs yesterday afternoon, and then when I get home Tracy had gotten me one from Dinkel's, so that was 2 in one day, and now I don't have to have any for a while. Still haven't had my McRib for the week, so maybe grab that today. Been trying to log food via Eatwit (iPhone app), but never seem to capture/post dinners. I do slightly better on breakfast and lunch during work days, but when I'm at home, forget all about it. Really need to start thinking of Christmas presents. Definitely want to get Lucy some Legos. Probably more so I can play with them.

So Lucy had a pretty good rest of the day with Mydel yesterday. Ate well, napped well. She was a little wary this morning when I dropped her off, but I didn't have time to try and get her reacquainted, so we popped on the TV and that seemed to assuage her fears. She plopped right down and started eating. Stopped paying attention to me. Hope she did ok. Been doing pretty well poopwise, which is what you came here to read. But no diarrhea, and even when we called the doctor, they said to call back after 2 weeks of it. But she ate a lot, and was quite happy last night. Seems to have picked up a new laugh. Makes me laugh. Had to redo the lights on the tree last night, figured out that a rolling pin makes light application pretty easy. Would love to do some sort of automation for the lighting, but that was all from the old condo, which means my parents were nice enough to take it home, and I disavowed it, so it's possible it all got recycled. Whoops. Didn't realize they might have come in handy for a month out of the year. Someday I'll have a whole house automation system. Someday. Speaking of which, maybe I should get a lottery ticket.

Makes sense, being in an ad related industry, that Thanksgiving weekend wasn't really time off from work. With the extra memory, my iMac running Parallels really is like having 2 machines in the space of one. Fast User Switching under Lion is a dream, except that full screen Reeder doesn't like being active when switched away from or back to. But if I remember that, no issues at all. Kind of rainy all weekend. Got to see the boxing gym where Tracy goes, kind of cool, took Lucy. She had some fun pushing the bags around. Looked at Christmas trees on Saturday, then went back and got one on Sunday after picking up some infrastructure. It's a Balsam fir. Nice. Lots of needles already. Hoping it lasts through the season. Listened to Christmas music putting lights on it and while Tracy put decorations on it. Also trying out some solar Christmas lights from the front balcony. Lucy seems to like the tree. Today was also Lucy's first day with Mydel providing daycare. Took Lucy a little while to warm up to her (food always helps) and no tears when I left (took a half day to see how the morning went). Real test is tomorrow. Not looking forward to it.

Got better enough by Thanksgiving. Thank You. More couch time, and work from home time. Wandered over to my parents condo with the family after Lucy's early nap, she's also feeling much better, eating more, not so much diarrhea. Thank You. Not so much a traditional thanksgiving, since my parents are headed to the Philippines for a month, and moreso a chance for a refresher for Mydel, who's subbing for my mom as Lucy's daycare for December. Thank You. So it was cornish game hens, Hong Kong Chicken and other Plum Garden goodies, fried shrimp and chicken from Chop Suey Hut. Facetime'd for the first time with Al and Nicole, but for some reason it crashes my parents internet/tv router thingie, which is strange. That device, which I think allows them to distribute DirectTV over IP, which in theory is pretty cool, but I also wasn't able to get it to work with my VPN. At least with a PPTP, I didn't try the SSL-VPN, which probably would have worked. Anyway, giving thanks for all that. At work on Black Friday, only had 6 people on the 135 headed into work today. That was nice. Stopped by Chef Petro's Restaurant and finally, finally, got the diner style blueberry pancakes I've been craving. So I'm done with that for a while, and now know where to go to get my fix.

Just got wiped out starting yesterday by some sort of illness. Probably the flu. Stomach flu, maybe. Probably picked it up from Lucy, who's having gastrointestinal problems. I think she picked it up from Gymboree. She's only been there twice, but seems like she's picked up some sickness each time she's been there. Anyway, haven't actually eaten anything since yesterday morning. Curled up on the couch and pretty much slept when I got home a little early from work yesterday. Hoping I can do more of the same today. And just in time for Thanksgiving! Anyway, hard to imagine taking care of Lucy if I'm sick like this. 

Friday night sat down for a three and a half hour long dinner at moto. I walked over from work, Tracy took the bus down. It doesn't seem like the safest place to walk from Halsted over to the restaurant, but it's ok. Also, we were seated in the back and didn't have any cell phone reception. Strange to be unconnected for that long. But dinner was good and long. Highlights for me would be their new dish with the quail and smoked apple sorbet, the cigarwiches, and the marshmallow dessert. Also nice was that they had a half pair, which was just about right. Expensive though. And I can cross another place off my list. Saturday put the running boards on the Xtracycle, then took my Sprint out, finally hitting up More cupcakes, which I think is my new favorite. Then back up to Home Depot before picking up lunch from Potbelly. Then a nap before heading out to Muvico for Breaking Dawn Part 1. I keep forgetting how awesome Muvico is, and for the right things, totally worth the price. Then back home for a coffee before a late dinner at The Bristol. Got in a half hour before our reservation and got seated. Pretty good meal there too. More cramped though. Lazy Sunday, but did manage to get a haircut. Upped the RAM on the iMac to 16 GB. Lucy got back in the afternoon, played a little, had some dinner and bath, then bed.

Lucy's staying out with my parents this weekend, Tracy's birthday weekend, kind of. Headed to moto tonight, then Breaking Dawn Pt. 1 at the Muvico in Rosemont (VIP assigned seating for the win!) tomorrow followed by a late dinner at The Bristol. Tracy is also working, so I'll have some free time during the day as well. Need to install running boards on the Xtracycle, and do some much overdue maintenance. Other than that, not much else planned. Tracy had some fresh frozen corn, and turns out Lucy and I like it frozen. Go figure. Lucy had the snots a little, but looks like she's getting over it. Not really affecting her sleeping which is good. Watched Limitless last night, which I enjoyed. I'm also thoroughly enjoying Reamde. So far pretty hard to put down. Also saw that Aces High, book II in the Wild Cards series is getting rereleased in December. And saw that the Death Gate Cycle is also available from iBooks, so at some point will rebuy those.

One of those days that just whizzed by. Didn't seem like I was super busy at work, but must have been doing something productive. Usually the only way that days don't drag, when I get sucked into something. Trying out Evernote for note syncing, instead of, well, text files on Dropbox. The whole Memex thing as a personal information repository hasn't really worked out, so maybe this will? Not going to pay for premium yet, wait and see if I continue to use it or not. I have decided to stop paying for a Remember the Milk Pro account. Reminders on iPhone/iPad/iCal I think will work fine for me. I think the main reason I had for getting it was email notifications, the need for which went away with iOS 5. Not sure what other online services I can also stop paying for. Random note, we've got new neighbors who bought the 2nd floor unit in the building. And they have a dog. Which barks a lot. First dog in the building that we can hear. A lot. It's annoying. They moved in last weekend, and we heard the dog on Saturday, and then again tonight. Strange, and annoying. And they're 2 floors away.

iTunes update and iTunes Match released. Of course i plugged. Seems nice. Would be nice if it worked for entire iTunes library data, like movies, tv shows, audio books, and so on. But no dice. Maybe someday. Saturday morning biked down to Naha for some chef garage sale, but was pretty much picked over when we got there about 1 1/2 hours after they opened. That sucked. Then biked back up to Green City Market, and Lucy got to wander around the museum a little bit. Ran into Tom and Christine and family. Small world. After nap time hit up a playground since the weather was pretty nice then headed out to BW3 for dinner. We were hoping Lucy would like the wings, but she went after the ketchup eating utensils, in other words, the fries. Sunday made waffles, then headed back out to Niles to get a new car seat. Ended up with a Britax Marathon 70. Had two other families walk out with one before us, both of which had done their research. Works pretty well. Probably jumping the gun on the forward facing seat, but it's nice to be able to see her, and she seems to enjoy it. So that should last for a while. Headed out to the Argaos to extend her nap time in the car as well. Good to see them. Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. And then it's Christmas. Crazy.

I was waiting to see which one of us, Tracy or me, would drop and break their iPhone 4S first. Turns out to be Tracy. She dropped hers on the street yesterday, cracked the back glass panel. iPhone still works, so until it stops, probably won't get it replaced. Good thing I got AppleCare+ for them. Haven't been exercising, fell off the wagon after being sore for a week from the 5K I ran. Also been eating more, so I need to cut back on that as well. Got boxes piling up in the office that I need to break down. Lots of old toner to send back and get recycled. Snowed briefly yesterday. Supposed to get up to the 60's this weekend. Ah, Chicago weather. Finally got a new lens for the GF1, a Olympus M. Zuiko Digital ED 45mm f1.8. It's really quiet focusing. Looking forward to taking it out this weekend and seeing how it captures Lucy. Not sure what the plans are for the weekend, but probably hitting indoor Green City Market, and hopefully early enough since we're Market Members at The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum so Lucy can check some stuff out there. Also need to hit up Gymboree through our Groupon for open gym.

So if I write the very next day, what's there? Not much. Tracy's day off, so I took the Brown Line in, which is good because of construction on Lake Shore causing delays taking the 135 in to work. Started using my Jabra CLIPPER Bluetooth Stereo Headset to listen to This American Life. Kind of nice having that on the way to and from public transportation. Big weather shift today, supposedly snowed out at O'Hare. Thinking of trying out the window insulation heat shrink stuff. The iMac sits right next to a window, through which I can feel a breeze, so maybe it'd be a good idea.

Again, it's been a while. So what's new? Let's see, since my last update I've been craving blueberry pancakes, specifically the ones from Golden Olympic in Evanston, specifically the bad diner ones, with the blueberry topping like from pies, not fresh blueberries. I've been to 3 diners without success. I keep going to ones that use fresh blueberries. The McRIb is back, and I've already had 3 in the last three weeks. Finagled a weather shield for the Peapod III/Xtracycle for Lucy. No qualms about riding about in this windy cool fall weather in the mornings. Also not worried about getting caught in the rain. It is held together with duct tape, so maybe I should come up with something a little bit more robust. Ran my first 5K for the year, and probably for a couple of years, at the Trick or Treat Trot. Tracy set the family up with costumes, as a royal family, with Lucy as a little wizard. Ended up winning 2nd place in the adult costume competition. Also showed up late to the start, so just joined in, not getting an official time. But made it the whole way. Also went to the Trick or Treat on Southport, meeting up with Mike and Amy and Caden. Crazy stupid busy there. Finally got a iHome iW1 Air Play speaker for the kitchen, so really do have whole home audio now. Started keeping a food log through eatwit, which is really just a tool for tweeting meals. Just have to remember to log it. Otherwise, Lucy had her 18 month checkup. All good, except she could do with a few more words. Plowed through the Thrawn Trilogy and back to something new, Neal Stephenson's Reamde. I just started but I'm thinking I'm really going to enjoy this one.

So before Steve Jobs died, Al came to visit, so we all headed out to Woodstock for the weekend. I even took a day off on Friday to hang out. My parents actually took Lucy out starting that Wednesday, so Tracy and I went on a bone marrow restaurant hunt, hitting up The Purple Pig and Longman & Eagle on consecutive nights. Good to see Al again. Nice also for Lucy to run around in a yard, play in the leaves. Good times. Plowed through the Leviathan Trilogy, and started up the Thrawn Trilogy. I'm definitely enjoying reading a lot. It's nice. Tracy's even been into it lately. Stayed up really late to preorder iPhone 4S's for Tracy and myself. I couldn't decide between white or black, and either could Tracy, so I ordered one of each. Ends up she went with black, and I've got the white one. We would have got them first day of availability, but Tracy ended up scheduled to work that night, so she wasn't around when they tried delivering at 10:17am. But probably good, since there were, as expected, the activation problems. Forgot that I stayed up really late updating iPhone 3GSes and iPad to iOS 5 and macs to 10.7.2 for iCloud goodness that week as well, so I'm in the red on my sleep right now. But we got our phones on the following Monday, and had no problems. It's pretty sweet. The screen is absolutely incredible. The camera's pretty nice, but haven't used it that much. Haven't actually made a single phone call on it yet. Feels different in the pocket, with the right angles and glass back. But I like it. Kind of want a white iPad 2 now, since I've got the white iPhone. Finally made it out to Dinkel's Bakery, and it's as good as people say. Been on a cheesecake craving kick. Good thing I've started using the Gorilla Workout app.

Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. - Apple Inc.

Trying my hand at Ruby on Rails programming. When I have free time. It's for a personal project from Ryan. Interesting, but really different. Also, it's probably the first new language I've tried to learn since, VB 7 years ago? Sad. Haven't kept up with things, really, at all. Maybe as a side project I'll redo this website in Rails? Just to see what it's like? Also maybe I should dust off my idea box and finally do some Facebook apps. I enabled the new Timeline there, and it's pretty cool. The thing I liked about Facebook is that it was like personal web pages for the masses. Which is great for people who don't have personal pages, but for those that do, and use other online services, well, it continues to be an issue for me to not duplicate posts. If I have a blog, and Foursquare for location/check ins, flickr for photos, Miso for TV/Movies, Twitter for random stuff, GoodReads for books, what goes to Facebook? I don't know. Got Daddy Day Care this weekend, but not sure what to do. If it's raining, maybe I'll take Lucy to the mall. If it's nice out, maybe we can hit up the Apple Fest in Lincoln Square.

Trying out a new thing and this is getting served up from home, a Mac mini over a Comcast cable connection. Wait and see if this is a good idea or not, but I was continuing to pay for hosting for this website, when, really, I get like a handful of visits. Not really worth it I guess. Only thing I'm scared of is getting hacked. And just have to hope that doesn't happen. Been on a coffee kick lately. Besides the normal cup with breakfast, also been getting an afternoon espresso type drink. I'm not that big of a fan of the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice latte. I usually just go with the short Caramel Macchiato, but I'm trying to try some different stuff. Some variety. Had a gyro the other day for the first time in a long time. Just makes me miss that place down the street from my old place, which got finally rented out by my parents. Last weekend went to Green City Market, then Lakeview East Arts Fest after Lucy's nap. Made a Dunkin run on Sunday morning to get Tracy her pumpkin donuts. Took the bike and Lucy. I need cupholders for the Xtracycle. Also went out to do some shopping, finally got a Table in a Bag, to put away for the season, and some beer. Was looking for some Good Juju, which I had at The Bad Apple, but might be hard to track down. Started reading the Twilight books again. Makes me wonder what Lucy's gonna be like, eventually, in high school.

Been about 3 weeks. Might as well update. Finally getting over a sickness. Had a couple days of flu-like symptoms, curled up in a sweatshirt and a blanket in August, but then the rest of the time dealing with the mucus. And the coughing. No idea where I picked it up. Got Lucy sick, but she doesn't seem to mind it too much. Just when she sneezes and a bunch of snot comes out. Funny. Also Tracy got sick, and now my mom's sick too. Tracy also started reading The Hunger Games, and within a week is almost done with the trilogy. And I just read it over a few days. Been reading a lot, even new stuff. Found out Steve Jobs retired when reading through twitter. I must have been busy at work that day, since I found out well after the fact. That was strange. Went out to lunch with Lucy, just the 2 of us, one Saturday during daddy day care. Having issues descaling our Keurig. Went to Jazzfest last weekend. Loving the short size at Starbucks. That way I don't have to get double talls. Just about the right amount. Hard to believe it's already September. Crazy. Gotta start thinking of a Halloween costume for the family. Then before you know it Lucy will be celebrating a Christmas that she's actually aware of.

So, almost a month. What's new? Lucy's doing well. Lately been crying a bit at night. Had her 15 month checkup, and she's doing well. Otherwise, working. Had a little bit of an issue updating the Mac mini to 10.7.1, which was annoying. Apple stuff is great because it just works most of the time, but the 1% of the time it doesn't, it's really frustrating. Been reading some new books, like The Magician King, and started Ready Player One. Kind of nice reading something new for a change. Been trying to get better updating the Memex. Also been trying to get to bed at a decent hour lately. Just means I've been getting up earlier. Just can't seem to sleep in at all. I also finally found my dream sandals, the Birkenstock Vaduz, which I think are getting discontinued. They're like my previous favorite sands, the Adidas Dakar II, basically nice slides. Took me 3 tries before I got the right size though, first time ordering from Amazon got sent the wrong size, then tried to order the correct size, but incorrectly ordered the narrow version, then finally ordered from OnlineShoes.com, 42R, and they fit great. Looking forward to living in them for the rest of the summer and until they fall apart and then I'll get them resoled. These should last me forever. Yay.

Switched back to Goodreads and Miso for book and tv/movie check-ins. Both offer rss feeds, which allows me to plug them into storytlr to keep track of my activity. And will look better than the time shifted GetGlue check-ins that I have been using. I started out on those two, but switched to GetGlue strictly for the rss feeds. Also had to make a Miso plugin for storytlr, which was super easy when I used the Goodreads plugin as a base. Very easy. So Lucy's pretty much all better. Just some residual stuff from the blisters or rashes or whatever it was from the hand-foot-and-mouth disease bout she had. Starting to act even cuter now, and laughing a lot, which sounds amazing. Good times. On Nightly Load Supervision for this past week and this upcoming week due to vacations. I was hoping to get some things done that I've been putting off for monitoring it, but always seem to be super busy. Seemed like we had a little lull there last week, and I should have taken advantage and tried to plow through some outstanding items, but nope. Just adding to the pile. Moved furniture around a bit in the living room, so Tracy's in the bedroom now for work, behind a lockable door. HIPAA. Seems like we got a bit more space, and I've got a workstation that I can watch TV from without turning my head now. Also really glad Warehouse 13 is back on. I love that show. Upper Wacker construction has moved in front of my work building, which gives me like 2 extra blocks of walking whenever I'm headed anywhere. All my home machines are on Lion, which is pretty sweet. My mom got her iPad replaced when the screen went bad, but forgot to keep the old SIM card. They're supposed to get it back tomorrow. Hopefully.

So went to Mexico. Came back. And back to work. Somewhere in there Lucy loves the water, wades through kiddie pools, and even likes to dunk her own head in. She also likes sand and moving it from one spot on the beach to another. However, she came back with a slight fever, which spiked early Tuesday morning, so we went to the Children's Memorial Hospital to get it checked out. Nothing a little Motrin didn't fix. She got a pediatrician visit on Wednesday, where the diagnosis was Hand-foot-and-mouth disease, and just Tylenol and Ibuprofen to keep the fever down, and make sure she's drinking and eating. And she is. I blame myself for feeding her by hand on the airplane ride back. She was pretty good on the way there in the plane, and even snuck a nap in. On the way back she couldn't sit still, always moving. Very tiring. Vacation itself was very nice and relaxing, even with with 4 kids. Always ended up in Gabe and Sania's room for breakfast and/or dinner. Only rained at the end of the day. Spent a lot of time at kiddie pools or on the beach, mostly pools. Only once went in to downtown. Loved having an Airport Express to share the wired network connection. Also saw a lot of iPads in the lobby where there was free wifi, and saw a couple other tablets, possibly a Tab, maybe something else. Lucy also got her afternoon nap, which was nice because we got an afternoon nap as well. Only once did she not sleep through the night, and we tried putting her in bed with us, but she just wanted to play with us all night long instead.

So the road trip to Omaha went fine. Sad to help close down an office that had coworkers that had been together for 27 years. Drive out was fine. Driving is much easier during the middle of the day. I'd actually forgotten what it's like. All those road trips for ultimate? Almost always Friday nights, and then Sunday afternoon/nights. On the way out used an iPhone App, NPR Finder, to find NPR stations as I worked my way across Illinois and Iowa. I was able to download and install the app while driving. Not only that, but I wanted something like this back in my Internet services class my senior year, but I imagined it as a web site companion for MapQuest, I had no idea that I'd be doing this from my cellular phone while driving in a car. What's crazy is that there was a guy in the class that had a cellular modem for his laptop. That was crazy. And this was before classrooms had wi-fi. Not only that, but on the way back i decided I wanted to listen to This American Life. So again, I downloaded and installed the app on my iPhone, then proceeded to stream and listen to multiple shows. All while driving. Seriously living in the future. Didn't feel like eating out by myself though. So just fast food for meals. Ended up coming back on Thursday, only really had to do work on Wednesday. So that's my first work trip. Hopefully it won't be a regular occurrence. On daddy day care this weekend, until Monday. No plans though for Independence day.

Headed out to Omaha tomorrow until Friday. It's a work trip. Driving. Rental Car. My first work trip. Crazy. Helping to shut down an office of an acquisition. So that should be interesting. If I was smarter, I would have gotten an audio book or something. I actually have no idea if the rental will have an iPhone dock cable, or if I need to bring my own, or what. Probably should have gotten an car charger for the iPhone too, but maybe I'll stop by the Apple Store in Des Moines, since that's about halfway. Besides that, the family went biking Saturday and Sunday last weekend. Went to Green City Market, and then on Sunday we biked to breakfast at Kanela then down to the Lincoln Park Conservatory before cruising up Halsted Pride parade route. That was pretty cool. Super happy about the Xtracycle. It's a little too big for Tracy to use by herself, which is too bad. Wonder if I should get the Wide Loaders and put training wheels on it. Need to start remembering to check mechanics on the bikes before heading out. Make sure all the nuts and bolts are nice and tight.

So could have used the Xtracycle today to go get some potting soil from Tracy tonight, but I wimped out. Forecast was for thunderstorms, and there was actually some sort of tornado warning, but I think I could have made it there and back before the rain hit. I did get a bunch of bike hooks, so we can hopefully hang up a bunch of bikes from the neighbors too in the garage. I did take Lucy down to Green City Market on Saturday. On Sunday we all went down on bikes to Old Town for some plants, some oil, and dinner at Trattoria Roma. I wish we had the Xtracycle earlier and done Bike the Drive. That would have been fun. And now I'm getting into biking again. Or at least trying. Need to actually go to work on it at some point. Not sure how I feel about trucking the baby seat with me everywhere though. Had some Comcast issues the last couple of days, but now everything appears back to normal. There used to be an online comcast status website, but no longer. Annoying. No idea what the problem was. Forums aren't any help. It was bad enough that I started looking at alternatives again, and I was happy we had AT&T DSL for Tracy's work.

So got the Xtracycle all put together last weekend, and it's awesome. Got a helmet for Lucy last Saturday, so her first bike ride was last Sunday to Old Town Art Fair. I think she liked it, but must have been comfortable enough because she slept on the way home. Super easy. Was able to throw in the diaper bag, a stroller, and my shoulder bag/man purse, a blanket, with plenty of space to spare. Super cool. Didn't take it in to work this week, even though it was bike to work week. Maybe I'll try next week. I'm on Daddy Day Care this week, and I'll take Lucy on a couple bike rides. Will try and head down to Green City Market tomorrow. Maybe just go down the lake front path on Sunday. Had lunch with C.Moore today. Ran into him randomly last week or so. Great seeing him. Nice guy. Bryan King's in town for a couple weeks. I'll have to catch up with him at some point. The end of June I have to head out to Omaha for work, to help shut down an office out there, from a company that we bought. Never thought I'd have to travel for my job, so should be interesting.

So Comcast did have IPv6 DNS servers. My bad. I was checking just shortly after it got turned on, and didn't really check during the day when it was going on, so yeah. I'm leaving it on though. Been trying to set up a hotspot at work for client internet access. Surprisingly hard. Kind of annoying. Wish there was a one stop shop firmware for a WRT54G to drop in and start using. I thought CoovaAP would be it, but it's not easy, or it's not working in our setup. Pretty annoying. Got my Xtracycle and stuff today, probably won't get around to installing it until tomorrow or Saturday. Still have to get Lucy a helmet before we can take her out on it. Oh, and it's freezing out now. 30 degree swing over 24 hours? Awesome Chicago weather.

8 days later. Had my 8 year anniversary of being employed with Market Track. Crazy. Getting excited about the Xtracycle that's supposedly showing up on Thursday. Should be fun. Need to get Lucy a helmet though. Been hot lately. Too hot. Like I've forgotten how hot Chicago summers can be hot. Finally got around to watching a bunch of movies, like Predators, and Slumdog Millionaire, and Letters to juliet and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, which made me buy the book. I guess my writing's been so sporadic, I haven't mentioned that I plowed through the Percy Jackson & the Olympians pentology. Good times. Not sure what my next Young Adult novel series is going to be. I've also read Jumper and Reflex, and of course had to watch the movie. I've already read the Hunger Games, and I'm not ready to go back to Harry Potter, and when I start biking again I won't have time to read anymore. But I'll try Artemis Fowl. I'd rather go for complete series, because waiting around a year or more for the next in a series is too long. Oh, WWDC 2011 was yesterday. Looking forward to iCloud and all the syncing. Happy iOS 5 applies to iPhone 3GS, so I can continue to hold out for an iPhone 5. I think I'm happiest right now about the iBookStore now available in iTunes. Oh, it's also IPv6 Test Day, so I turned it on for all the Macs in the house. All seems to work, except it doesn't look like Comcast has any IP6 DNS servers, so that's kind of useless. But otherwise, I think I'm all set for the future.

Let's see, 12 days since the last update. Lucy has a passport now. She also likes walking around with her arms down. Small thing, and something I think only a former parent would notice and think is adorable. Otherwise, Tracy's been going to LA Boxing a lot, so been coming home early enough so she can get to class. More time with Lucy. She's still sleeping like a champ, we did try a one nap day, but that failed miserably. She's much better when she gets her sleep on. There was one day when I took her to the park, that I thought she got sunburned. But it went away after a nap, so that's good. But sunscreen from now on. Possibly found a new favorite pizza place, Forno Diablo down on Sheridan and Diversey. As for computer stuff, I really like Boot Camp, running Windows 7 64 bit on the MacBook Air. It's better than just running Parallels in full screen. I wasn't really doing anything where I needed Mac and Windows stuff at the same time. Also, I nuked and paved the Air, my iPhone 3GS, and my iPad last week. Kind of nice to start fresh. Also nice to pretty much have all my data in a cloud. Easy to start fresh when I don't have to worry about data/media.

So crazy couple of weeks at work. Went in on Mother's Day twice, while Tracy was working, and then after Lucy went to bed. Crazy. But now that the board meeting came and went, things are kind of quieting down a bit. Which is good. I even went out for a beer with coworkers after work today. First time possibly ever. Without it being a special occasion, like a holiday party or someone leaving. I've also decided to Boot Camp my MacBook Air. Should be interesting. Otherwise, Lucy's walking, eating. Very cute most of the time, but occasionally a cryer, and seems like mostly with me, and not really with her mom. Oh, speaking of mothers, my mom got arthroscopic surgery for a meniscus complete tear. That was just last week. She's doing well, but dealing with the pain of rehab. Need to get a yepp Maxi Easyfit (a child bike seat), but having issues trying to find a place that sells online. The one place they do sell at brick & mortar is REI, at a $40-50 markup. So trying to figure out if I can just get it through Xtracycle, where they sell it as the Peapod III, and then maybe I can just get a Free Radical. Need to clean out the garage though in order to make space for it. Just need to start riding the bike again. Been too long.

It's actually been kind of nice getting my hands dirty and moving desks and stuff around the office while the new conference room gets finished up. Less thinking, more movement, and sometimes, more immediate feeling of accomplishment. But now it's pretty much done, and I've got to figure out how to wire up the table and room to make it pretty and useful. Should be interesting. But there's a chance I'll have to come in this weekend, and with Tracy working as well, my parents were nice enough to take Lucy for the weekend. So while we'll miss our 1 year old walker, we're planning on going out to dinner, at a reasonable hour. LIke when we were younger. Yay. Date night. Oh, also for work, which is apparently where I bring my old Mac hardware to die, or get used for testing purposes. Going to try and repurpose the old Mac mini as a conference room machine, since it's small, hopefully powerful enough, and fits behind the wall mounted TV. Just have to get Boot Camp installed, which is actually my first time. Ended up doing a complete repartition and reinstall. Hoping it goes smoothly after that. Also, USB extenders over Cat5 don't seem to work for webcams. Might have to run around to find a VGA-HDMI adapter this weekend. That's the only thing that's left. I think. Wait and see. Going to try and go to Gilt Bar tonight without a reservation. That should be interesting. Otherwise, I'm planning on coming in to the office this weekend, maybe both days, to make sure everything's all set and perfect. Besides work, found out Sports Night is available from Netflix Watch Instantly. Watched 2 episodes already. And that laugh track is annoying. But the show is awesome. I wish you could 1) get it without the laugh track, and 2) from iTunes Store. Started reading Ender's Game. And reading some comics too. Irredeemable is pretty good. Global Frequency is actually available officially through Comixology, so I've been buying those as they get released.

Think I've found a new favorite restaurant, Fork in Lincoln Square. We went with Lucy on an early dinner at 5pm on Saturday. Used to be Fiddlehead Cafe. But I'm a big fan. Lots of space for the high chair, and very kid friendly. We saw 3 other babies there. But the pork belly was awesome, and the gnocchi, while a little larger than I'm used it, was still light and fluffy and sauced great. Seriously tasty. Love that place. Can't wait to go back. And Lucy lasted about and hour and half before she started getting restless. Not bad. Made a Home Depot run earlier in the day, and got a haircut as well. Did some sanding on Sunday, but no staining since snow and slush last night. Also found out there's an Al's Beef just a few blocks from home. Not the best thing to know now. Also, Mike and Amy and Caden dropped by and picked up the exersaucer since Lucy's not really using it anymore. Made waffles for the first time in a long time on Sunday morning. That was nice. No bacon though. That was sad. Also trying OmniFocus again. Mostly just for work stuff, and I'm probably already doing it wrong with my giant list of tasks, and the constant addition of new items every day. But I'm trying. Especially trying to document as things come in, so I'm not just working willy-nilly on the next new shiny item.

A mere three days between posts. Better. Went with McDonald's Filet O' Fishes for lunch today, instead of sushi. Had a slice of peanut butter pie yesterday, that was interesting. Too sweet, and not enough chocolate crust. Started reading Wild Cards post Harry Potter. It's a rerelease with 3 new stories. So that's different, reading a new storyline. Hoping they get around to republishing the entire series so I can buy eBook versions. Been sleeping on the couch lately, party because of the late work, and not because I'm in the doghouse, but I actually find it more comfortable than the bed. Going to Home Depot this weekend to get stuff to summerize the deck. With spring weather coming around, starting to get ants again. Odd that we get them on the fourth floor. Makes me wonder if they're coming down from the deck.

Geez. Awful. Another 7 days. Finished up Harry Potter, and actually kind of drawing a blank on what to read next. Not sure what direction to go in. Feels like I need a palette cleaner, something fluffy and light. Maybe another round of Soon I Will Be Invincible. That's pretty light and easy. Still haven't seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 yet. Not available through Redbox or Netflix. In the midst of Lent, and I'm getting my fill of sushi. Been going to Sushi Sai for lunch the last 3 Fridays. Yum. But actually might be overdosing on it. So might have to cut down. Weather got hot this past weekend. Too hot. I'm actually enjoying the current high 50's, low 60's. It's pretty perfect in my humble opinion. Not looking forward to the heat of summer. Got our taxes done, or more accurately, the family accountant got our taxes done. Crazy. Another refund. So crazy getting those.

Yeah. Days go by, no updates. It's like I don't even have a blog anymore. Lucy's great, but was pooping a lot. Switched over to food from jars, and seems to have stabilized a little. Hopefully. Been working, a lot. Also plowing through Harry Potter books. On Deathly Hallows now, and been about 4 weeks since I started. Also, as I've been finishing a book, I put the movie on in the background. Always interesting to see what makes it and what doesn't, and what gets changed. Oh, also with Lucy, tried going to breakfast with her before her morning nap. Works out pretty well I think. Well, kind of. Maybe every other trip out is super calm and easy, then a little hyper and active. But still a great baby. Also been watching a lot of Outsourced on Hulu. Pretty good show. The movie does translate pretty well into a sitcom. Figure I should start riding the bike again. It's about time. Not sure how to handle the logistics though, taking or picking Lucy up from grandma's. Somewhat related topic, ran into Mrs. Klos at the train station, when I was coming back from lunch. Small world, well, not that small, but still small world.

Tired. Moved a van full of stuff from the office to an off-site storage. Lots of stuff, and had some help, but really sore and tired. So what's happened in the last 8 days? Found a new gourmet sausage place near work, Westminster Hot Dog. Pretty good. Over the weekend went to brunch both days, Saturday at the crepe place, Sunday at Socca, since Kanela Breakfast Club was too busy and we didn't want to wait with Lucy. She's a little bit better out at restaurants, not quite so loud and crazy. And Socca was nice, not really busy, pretty quiet, and good food. Tracy especially loved the scone amuse-bouche, which was a pleasant surprise for brunch. Went to church on Sunday and stumbled into Our Lady of Mt. Carmel's confirmation. Work continues to be crazy busy. And they're going to start remodeling the conference room pretty soon, so that'll be interesting. Otherwise, same old same old.

Around 5:15pm, I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't have any fires to put out, had accomplished a handful of big tasks for the day, it was still light out. I guess I could pack up and go home. So strange. Feels like it's been a while where I didn't have a task I had to finish up, or had additional work to do at home. Nice, except for that feeling that there is something else that needed to be done, I just don't have it written down, or I've forgotten about it. Or the item I thought wasn't that high priority is actually on fire. But, we'll wait and see what tomorrow brings. Maybe $172 ($108 Cash) Mega Millions jackpot? The clerk today asked me what I'd do tomorrow. I had no idea what he was talking about, as I paid for my quick pick. "You know, if you win". Oh, what would I do tomorrow if I found out I won the lottery tonight? That's a great question. Better than what would you do if you won. Small scale, immediate. I'd just go to work, because there's lots to get done. Had enough time getting home I was tempted to take a loop around the Loop on the Brown Line, but ended up on the Purple Line anyway, and walked home from the Belmont stop. Kind of chilly out. Picked up some more Redbox movies today, mostly just wanted The Storm Warriors, which I think is a sequel to The Storm Riders. Also, I've almost forgotten what's in the Netflix queue, so it's a surprise when I do get one in the mailbox. And interesting to see what I put on there.

Got to go to the Apple Store on North Michigan Ave today for a work related Genius Bar visit (got a HD replaced). Super easy, and waited while it got done. Which meant I got to play with the new iPad 2. And it's pretty sweet. Just on look and feel, it's way better than my iPad that I was using about a minute beforehand. Makes me think of the Kindle 3 when I see it. In a good way, like it's softer, more inviting to hold, more comfortable. But it was one of those Monday's at work, where all sorts of stuff happens. Kind of crazy. Nature of the business I guess. So busy I managed to skip lunch. I did randomly bump into Carlo, in town for a possible contract job. That was random. Good to see him, though. Hard to remember the last time I actually saw him. Also managed to walk out of the Apple Store without buying anything. Apple TV looked nice, the twelvesouth BookArc for Air look like a splurge, maybe a clip on Speck case. But nada.

So what's been going on in the past week? Start of Lent, so that means more sushi for me for the next 7 weeks or so. And McDonald's filet o fish meals, and tuna salad and egg salad sandwiches. I dropped by the work offsite storage unit, which just made me want to read Snow Crash. Started reading Harry Potter books again. Already up to the 3rd one. Was on daddy day care this past weekend. Daylight Savings Time makes it interesting, with Lucy's nap schedule needing a slight adjustment. Hoping she's back on schedule tomorrow. On Saturday took Lucy down to the Bagell and back, to pick up lunch for Tracy, and picked up some of Phoebe's Cupcakes, some blueberry cream cheese croissants and Dr. Brown Cel-Ray soda from Treasure Island. Weather wasn't too bad, and lots of people dressed in green and drinking out and about. Wanted to get some Paciugo but they weren't open when I dropped by. Finally added metadata to a big batch of transcoded movies I had collected. Oh, the iPad 2 came out on Friday, and too busy at work to notice. Great.

Over 2 weeks since the last update? Maybe I should write something here. Visiting Al and Nicole was awesome. Great to see them and to hang out with my family again for the week. Nice and relaxing. Lucy travelled like a champ. Slept through the landing on the way there, and again for the last half on the way back. She also slept like a champ, even better for naps than at home, and still overnight. We had one little incident with a food allergy again, but a little puking, a little benadryl, and a full nights sleep, and she was back to normal. Got some good BBQ, watched some movies in their great media room. Even did a little work on vacation. Also forgot how much fun making the Yamaha MX-80 Disklavier play MIDI's is. It's like live kareoke in the privacy of your own home. Very cool. Nicole also cooked up a storm, great stuff. Also played Scrabble on the iPad using the iPhone apps for tile racks. Very cool as well. Too bad that's the only game that has that. A quiz game would be cool. Like Trivial Pursuit. Mike and Amy and Caden came over to visit the Sunday before we left. Nice to see them. And back to work this week. Yay.

Ugh, missed a work day. Work's easing up a little bit, but it'll still be nice to get away on vacation next week. Stayed up way too late though a couple nights ago, finishing up The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I'll watch the movies, but I'm not sure how that trilogy is going to translate to screen. I guess I could even watch it via my Amazon Prime account, which started offering some streaming video. Also started up reading Harry Potter from the start again. Figured I needed something lighter, at least for a while. Apple had some announcements today. No regrets for my recent purchases. Well, just wishing they all had Thunderbolt. Not a very good name, but I think it's pretty cool. Maybe in another 5 years when I replace all the computers again, they'll all just have 1 Thunderbolt port. Bought FaceTime, and used it to great my brother a happy birthday, and Al and Nicole also got to see Lucy So that was cool. Really actually looking forward to Mac OS X Lion. I like the things they're bringing to the desktop from the mobile space. Definitely turning computing into appliances. I like it.

So, writing every day? Run out of things to write about. Slippery out last night. Snow this morning. Looked pretty. Ended up covering up Lucy's weather shield on the way over to Grandma's. Didn't realize that until I got inside. Busy busy busy at work, and hard to think that I'm going on vacation next week. Crazy. Stayed up way too late again last night. Starting to use Sparrow and Twitteriffic, split up via Divvy on each half of the screen. Only problem is that I have to use Mail.app to get work email. Was tempted briefly to get Office for Mac 2011 because it comes with Outlook. But eh, no real need. Going to try and take and post more photos of Lucy. My organization methods in Aperture went out the window, so it's now just going through an upload, finding the ones I like, and posting them.

Ok, let's make this daily again. Well, business day daily. Saturday went out, up to Old Orchard, had lunch at The Bagel - Restaurant and Deli, stopped off at Macy's, then over to Babies R' Us, well, I dropped off Tracy there then drove around for an hour for Lucy's nap. Saw some pretty nice houses in Park Ridge around the Country Club. Like Frontgate nice houses. Caught up on Glee and How I Met Your Mother. Lucy got back on her overnight sleep schedule. Not so much on the nap schedule though. Spent the rainy Sunday indoors. Didn't even change out of my pajamas. Watched The Karate Kid (2010 via Netflix, annoyingly, with a lot of pauses. Work today was one of those Mondays, crazy busy with lots of stuff going on. Commute time was nice though, since it's President's Day. Ended up watching The Chicago Code finally, and definitely like the Chicago filmed aspect of it all.

Over a week since the last post. Seriously slacking, at least in terms of my personal online experience. Falling behind a couple days in Google Reader through Reeder, and likewise in Twitter through Twitteriffic. Not to mention lack of updates both on Daily Dose and Memex. The only thing I'm mostly keeping up with? Foursquare. At least I know where I've been, but not necessarily what I ate. So what's new? I'd normally check the current events to see what I've been up to, but I haven't updated that.  So it's like a lost week or two. So, figure I'll just summarize: eat, work, work some more, sleep. Baby's been sick, congested, so she's been sleeping on one of us most of the last week. We even took shifts. I ended up sleeping on the recliner in Lucy's room a couple nights. And guess what, now I'm sick. Turned 34. Went to Girl and the Goat. Disappointed. Maybe we just ordered the wrong things, but had 5 of the 39 items on the menu, and only 1 was outstanding (the lamb sausage calamari)? Hoped for more with the braised lamb shank. Next time we're just going back to The Publican. Got my driver's license renewed, picked up a couple copies of Lucy's birth certificate. Oh, got a new washer/dryer delivered and installed last weekend. Snow's almost all gone. Winter's ending, or fake ending. Kind of sad with all the dirty mounds of snow and slush. Happy birthday to my dad today. Oh, and the MegaMillions numbers from Tuesday had 17-18-24 as three of the numbers. Fitting. Gotta get back on the posting horse.

Really using weekends to unwind after hectic weeks of work. Still do some more work, occasionally, at home at night and on the weekends. Wondering if there's any way I can work more efficiently? Besides cloning myself. Got more snow this weekend. Amusing to see Sunday morning. Finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Not sure how I feel about it. Started slow, then definitely picked up after some disturbing parts, then got more disturbing with the page turning, and then seemed to neatly wrap things up, almost. Odd. But good that I'm still thinking about it, and already moving on to the second book. After I finish them up, I'll watch the movies. Also plowed through a lot of Greek. Amusing show. Enjoy the pop culture self references. It's a nice mental getaway. Lucy's good. She's got a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, 9 month checkup. Don't think I'll be able to make it. But she's doing well. Apparently had an allergic reaction at my mom's place to some food. Thinking it might be egg, but not sure. She can definitely scoot around, and occasionally can get her to stand by herself for a second or two. Very cool. I'm definitely slipping on the photo/posting on her and my websites.

I think my favorite is SNOMG. But seriously, looks pretty bad outside now. Visibility is pretty low, there's thundersnow, flickering lights. It's awesome. I got home without problems on the Brown Line, walked over and picked up Lucy and walked her back. No problem at 5:15pm. I'm guessing it would have been impossible now. Hoping it'll be at least walkable tomorrow, when I try and get to work tomorrow. Figured I'd show up tomorrow. Got some stuff to do. Started watching Greek on Netflix. It's pretty fun. Also I'm done with buying Apple products for this purchasing cycle. Hoping they all last for a couple years at least, and that Apple doesn't release some other new product that I need to have. Also, getting further along in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and well, now that I've gotten through some rough parts, can't say I really want to watch the movie anymore. Hoping there's some redeeming qualities later on.

Went out for brunch today, with Lucy, at Fiddlehead Cafe. That was nice. It was Lucy's second time there. Actually it's the only restaurant she's been to more than once. We like that place, and actually the Lincoln Square area in general. Seems very family friendly.  Work, as usual, has been super busy. Hoping things will quiet down in a couple weeks. Hoping. Don't think we have any more space to hire any more people. Finally got around to moving all services off the old Mac mini to the new one. The AV Rack runs a whole lot cooler now. Which probably will make things last longer, considering overheating is probably what killed the old Mac mini's ethernet. And the Netflix integration on the Apple TV (2nd generation) is really really awesome. Fingers crossed that Hulu comes the same way. But I could see that being doubtful. Been reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Nice read so far. Tempted to watch the movie.

Still going strong at work. More like work is still going strong. Crazy busy. Got a bunch new toys, all Apple stuff, paid for by selling Apple Stock. Got a new Mac mini, and getting it to work with a TV via HDMI? Super easy. We even watched the episode of Cougar Town on Hulu Desktop that the DVR missed recording. Looked great. Super easy. Tempting even to get Mac mini's on the 2 tv's in the house, instead of Apple TVs. Speaking of which, I also got an Apple TV (2nd generation). The Netflix integration is sweet, started watching Party Down, 2nd season. The demotion of your own content is kind of annoying. Airplay is kind of sweet, but not really necessary when all the media is in the house already. Although, it probably would come in handy showing off videos of Lucy babbling. Which she's doing now. Like out of the blue, she started having baby talk conversations. It's really cute. And she's got a really cute voice too. But then again I'm her daddy, so I'm probably biased. We also took her out to dinner with us at Red Lobster on Saturday. And she's a handful. Of course. But I think we did ok, but not something we'll do all the time.

Seriously. I'm hoping at some point work slows down. Hopefully. At some point. When there aren't 15 things to do at the same time. One cool thing? More Macs in the office. And all new toys. So that's cool. Except for all the work it involves. I did update the storytlr software powering lucy.abando.com and prn.eric.abando.com. Didn't know there actually was an active official open source release (on GitHub). Had to roll back to my own Foursquare plug in though that does mini google maps. Hoping I'll get some time to finally do a Mediawiki update for Memex. Daddy day care over the weekend. Actually left the house though, going for walks after her first nap, both times for food. On Saturday for Crisp and on Sunday for beer from Binny's and Paradise Empenadas (different, good, but not as good as Lito's Empenadas). Otherwise, don't remember much from last week. Kind of flew by. I did finally get to watch The Sorcerer's Apprentice (I liked it) and The Last Airbender (I didn't like it). Also randomly watched the pilot to Defying Gravity, which seemed too good for a tv show. Space dramas just feel like movies to me, not TV shows.

The gloss is off the new job. Didn't take long. It's like 1000 miles per hour, with no signs of let up yet. It's crazy. So much to learn, so much to do, go go go. Hope I can keep it up. In other news, snow. Might have to get a new Mac mini too, since the ethernet port keeps dropping off. Ugh. Dropped by the Lincoln Park Apple Store last night after work. Forgot to get an extra charger on Saturday. Ended up buying from Jon, the same guy I got the MacBook Air from on Saturday. Also loving the new Train Tracker website by the CTA. Just that I know how long I'll be waiting. So Verizon announced they'll be getting the iPhone 4 in February. Makes me wonder what AT&T service will be like after that point.

Got a new job. Same company, different job. Instead of a Systems Consultant I'm now an Information Systems Analyst. I changed houses from the Development to the Operations. A lateral move. It's a good thing. I'd say the only bad thing? I no longer work from home. So that only lasted 9 months. But the good thing about working in the office? I can start commuting by bike again. But I've actually got to wear real clothes all the time, and I'm eating out, unless I start packing lunches, which I've tried, but never succeeded at doing long term. And it eats into family time. Since I have a family now. When I was working from home, the lack of commute time meant more at home time. So I'll miss that. So it's been a pretty crazy week, starting to get things organized, work emergencies, last minute changes, fixes, enhancements, attempts at product rollouts. Just crazy. Hoping it quiets down so I can settle in and start plowing through projects. The only other new thing was selling AAPL at what I thought was an all time high on Tuesday, which of course, it kept rising through the week. Oh well. Got enough to buy a new MacBook Air (11-inch Late 2010) since my old MacBook was finally falling apart (molding came off the screen and the letter Q was broken). Now you might think who cares about the Q, but CTRL+Q in Outlook is Mark as Read, which is quite useful. But the MacBook Air, bought on Saturday at the Lincoln Park Apple Store, is absolutely amazing. Really really fast, despite having a lower clock speed than my previous MacBook, but seriously, SSD makes things so amazing. I really can never go back to something slower. Only issue is that Parallels has issues displaying Windows 7 in full screen, something about a non-standard resolution (1366x768), causes the video to go skewed. Instead running in Coherence. Took down my work computer at home and will bring it back in at some point. Moved the iMac over.

Feels like another rush of work at work. Comes in waves I guess. Calm, then storm. One bonus of working in the office: I'm gathering Foursquare mayorships by the handful. Of course, they aren't the most healthy of places to be mayors of, but still, it's something. First day of the new year had daddy day care. Sunday we actually left the house to go to Whole Foods to get meat for dinner, which ended up being carpaccio, tartare, and white chocolate raspberry cheesecake (which ended up not so good). Oh, and throw in a chicken burrito from Taco Burrito Palace in there as well. Last night Lucy decided to cry a lot in bed. Oh, we also had to lower the crib, since Lucy's now sitting and sometimes standing in there. More like a real baby's room now. Definitely harder to get her in there for sleeping. But she seems to like looking out behind the bars. Hope that's not a sign. But back to her crying in bed, I eventually got her after a couple spells, because I was worried about a diaper full of poop, except there wasn't any, and then she didn't want to go back to bed. Eventually just had to let her cry herself to sleep, otherwise, none of us would have gotten any sleep.