So let's see how Daily I can make this again. Spent the night out as a family with the brother-in-law and family out in Woodridge. Pretty low key. Cousins got to play together. Played some Uno. Watched Trolls in a misguided attempt to put the kids to sleep (they were wide awake through the entire thing). Family sleepovers will probably be put on hold for a while, since the kids, Jackson especially, were hard to get to sleep and stay asleep through the night. More kids playtime in the morning, wisely choosing to stay home rather than trying to corral everyone out to breakfast. We left around lunch, which was Taco Bell (Lucy wanted nachos and chicken patties, but we couldn't think of a place that served chicken patty sandwiches). Wandered over to Old Navy next door to get some more clothes for Lucy that hopefully she'll wear. Jackson was pretty tired, so he ended up falling asleep on me while they were in the changing room. Then drove up to Oakbrook Center, thinking they'd have a giant Christmas tree, but no such luck. Just had them play at Land of Nod for a while instead. Got TCBY and Mrs. Fields for a snack before heading back into the city. Jackson wanted to go to another toy store so he and I walked over to the Red Balloon, but it was closed, so instead we got some strawberries and pink cupcakes at Jewel. Brought Lucy over to the grandparents because she wanted to sleep over, then Tracy, Jackson and I went to Tango Sur for dinner (we gave in and just brought the iPad mini to keep him entertained). If you can believe it, been in the neighborhood for over a year, and this is the first time eating there. Got to watch some more How I Met Your Mother (I'm on S7E22 on a full series rewatch). And will probably do some work.

Brought Jackson over to the parents this morning because I wanted to do some work today, even though I had the day off. Ended up at Two Hearted Queen for an espresso type drink, pretty good, got some work done. Then ended up coming home and trying to do some work here. Instead ended up doing a nuke and pave on my iOS devices. Cutting out Twitter and RSS cold turkey. Sticking with the News.app on iOS (wish there was a macOS version), and the subscriptions I have to The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and The New York Times. And direct news from websites. Was able to find out about Micro.blog, which sounds intriguing. I went ahead and backed it at Kickstarter. Also, no games either. Using MakeMKV to put the DVDs for Dark Angel and Las Vegas on disk, to make transcoding easier. Done with Dark Angel and on Season 3 of Las Vegas. Worked out a little after putting Lucy to bed, just a little jump rope and sit ups and push ups. Better than nothing. And now got some more work to do that I've been putting off for a couple weeks now.

Stayed up way too late last night working. Rocked out to the Apple Music Pure Pop Radio station. Got me grooving. Did some work while standing at the island, had the MacBook on the cardboard boombox accessory from Halloween. Got the project mostly done. Taking the day off tomorrow for winter family fun day (going to try some ice skating with the kids). Trying the Breathe.app and the Activity notifications on the Apple Watch. Trying to see if technology can make me healthier. Speaking of healthier, checked out the new gym at Willis Tower. Cheap, only $120 a year, which is worth it just for a place to shower and change for biking to work. Which I definitely need to start doing again. Noticed my weight gain has been steady since I stopped biking. I still have to put the Raleigh Super Course together, since that's what I wanted to use as a commuter. All caught up on my current podcasts, now working on the historical work. Still have to get back to reading my poli-sci homework, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, assigned by Russell. I feel like that's going to take me a while.

Missed a day, 4 days in. Still not so daily. Family Winter Fun day yesterday was, well, fun yesterday. Slept in, breakfast at IHOP after a little drama with Lucy as to if she was coming with or not dependent on if she wore a sweater like we asked. Then out to Rosemont, with some additional driving to get some more car nap time in. Ice skating was fun, and enough exercise that we didn't feel the cold that much. A little difficult holding Jackson up. Lucy seemed to pick it up pretty quickly; only had to hold her hand toward the end. Then inside for some hot chocolate at the Sugar Factory. Also got some candy, because. First time going to the Fasion Outlets at Chicago in Rosemont. Noticed they have counts of available spaces per floor in the parking garage, and individual lights on the ceiling for taken/available spots. That's a nice touch. Had to use some Disney Store gift cards, so first had a limit of under $10 for each kid, and go figure, not a whole lot available under that price point. So doubled it instead, which allowed them to get something, and only ended up spending $12. I found a pair of waterproof boots at Merrell for $50, 50% off, so I couldn't pass those up. My reasoning? Better than the super arctic winter boots for everyday wear. Even though we're Filipino, we're not the target market for that mall. Probably not gonna go back. Went to Red Lobster for dinner because we had a gift card, which I just realized we didn't end up using. Also both kids like crab legs, so Tracy didn't actually get to eat much of her's, and we were both picking meat out. Forgot to turn the thermostat back on before we showed up. We've got Nest, so it's eco smart and turns off when we're both not home, and turns on when we are, except that meant it was 57 when we walked in the door. After kids bath and bedtime, watched more HIMYM, checked that Plex integration with trakt.tv works, which means I'll be doing my watching through Plex. Did some exercise, jump rope, sit ups, and push ups. Fell asleep on the couch.

Worked from home yesterday. Kids came back early from the grandparents, so made sense. Worked from the couch with HIMYM on in the background. Ate a bunch of leftovers out of the fridge. Only left the house to get the IKEA purchases out of the car that Tracy made. Skipped any exercise, or breathing meditations. Even went to bed early, by 11pm. I am starting to wonder if the Bluetooth on my iPhone 6S+ is busted. Even with the AirPods, it occasionally drops out. Don't think I've had any such issues when using the AirPods with the iPad Pro (9.7 inch). Not sure if I could ever recreate the issue to get it serviced though. Maybe I'll just try. And now it's the 5th day with no Twitter, RSS, and I just realized yesterday, or Facebook. I still check News.app, and the newspapers, and websites (mostly tech/Apple). But will try and wean myself off checking those too often.

Finished up HIMYM. Not quite sure when I started, but that's all 208 episodes. And it holds up. Still gets me in the feels. And, hot take, I like how it ended vs. the alternate ending. It sticks with me more this way. Been potty training Jackson today. So had to turn the heat up since he's running around pantsless. Good times. Since we're homebound today, mostly house stuff. Took down the Christmas tree. Got some screws for the blinds Tracy picked up from IKEA. Assembled a storage thing from IKEA as well. Picked up some odds and ends from Jewel. Yesterday another day at work. More and more stores/restaurants are closing up at Willis Tower. Hoping they're doing a big renovation and new vendors are coming in, as opposed to it being a ghost town. Starting to get a little annoyed with the bluetooth issues on the phone. Thinking it actually is an issue. Occasional drop outs, which I thought were because of the Jaybird X2, but still have issues with the AirPods, and recently noticed my Apple Watch also loses connection at the same time. And this is even after a nuke and pave. Wondering if I need to drop it into DFU mode. Even tried uninstalling Tile since that's the only other bluetooth pairing I've got going on, but still no dice. Upgraded my Barclaycard iTunes Rewards card to an Apple Rewards Card, which if I'd known I could do that, wouldn't have gotten a different Apple Rewards Card. Which means I can cancel the newest one after I get the upgraded one. Also found out yesterday someone in Brazil was using my Netflix account, so changed the password on that one. Funny though, they were watching 3% (fitting), Supergirl Season 1, IP Man trilogy, World War Z among others. Rather interesting. Lucy's been watching a lot of My Little Pony and Equestria Girls. It makes me happy that her favorite character and one she quotes is Pinkie Pie. My kind of humor. Drobo rebuild also completed, so good to go there. Have some space to grow. Requiemed the iTunes purchases made since the rebuild started. And now figuring out how to do hard links for all the non iTunes purchases that will be the same between iTunes and Plex.

Old school trim is a lot tougher to screw into than the brand new stuff. Putting up the blinds in the family room was so much easier than putting up the ones in Tracy's office. Like I had to predrill, then switch to a bigger bit, and even then broke 3 screws and stripped another. And broke them by hand, since I switched from the drill after stripping one. Very annoying. Went ahead and ordered a new drill, one of those fancy cordless ones (of course The Wirecutter top pick), so going to wait until tomorrow before putting up the rest. Tracy's been doing a great job decorating lately, lots of framed photos hung up, kids room decorations, toy storage, blinds. Still need to figure out what to do with parlor. Got almost all of my media set up in Plex. Figured out hard linking stuff over. Had to rename the Friends episodes to get metadata to show up properly. But now have 1047 movies, 44 tv shows with I don't know how many episodes. What I tried yesterday was the shuffle on Movies. Nice feature when I just don't want to pick something. Somehow ended up on Blade Runner, figure it's time to finally watch that. Also decided to go through the entire Friends run too. Then maybe Two Guys and a Girl. Then Chuck or Alias. So many choices now. Oh, potty training is going ok. Jackson seems to do ok when he's running around bottomless. Not so much with underwear and pants. On top of that, he's started at Prairieland Montessori today. I went with during drop off, and have to pick him up today. Seems nice. Quiet. I've forgotten how independent Montessori kids are.

Stayed up way too late working, well, working and watching The Town. The movie's on sale on iTunes, so wanted to see how bad the DVD rip was. I actually had to check the file because I wasn't sure if I'd already bought it. So upscaling somewhere in the system is definitely doing it's job. Jackson apparently loves his new school. When I picked him up Monday night, he didn't want to leave. He just wanted to keep working on puzzles. And then he got sad he didn't get to say goodbye to his friends when we were already in the car. Tracy did drop off by herself this morning, and no crying whatsoever. Only 1 accident yesterday, and no accidents today, at school anyway. He had one at home just before shower tonight. But so far, Montessori agrees with him. Started watching Dark Angel. Strangely appropriate for today's socio/political/economic environment. So now working my way through that, Friends and Two Guys and a Girl.

Wednesday night fell asleep on the couch. Worked from home on Thursday. Still pretty tired. I really shouldn't stay up so late working, or trying to work while watching stuff. Just makes the rest of the week pretty hard. Still checking the news apps and websites way too much. Realized that's a nice thing about RSS, that it only is the new stuff, and you don't get the old stuff rehashed all the time. Easier to know what you've seen and just show what's unread. In the meantime I'm trying to fill the void with TV Shows and Movies. Got through a couple more episodes of Shooter (tv show). It's not bad. Realized I should probably watch Luke Cage, if Iron Fist and the Defenders are coming later this year. Also trying out all the TV Show Apps for iOS devices. I did just find out that at least the Wild Cards books on my iBooks account are supposedly sold without DRM, so I don't have to go searching for Requiem and a machine that could run OS X 10.2, although I think I will take that super old iMac G5 my parents have taking up space in their kitchen. Looks like we got really lucky potty training Jackson. So far only the 1 accident at school this week, a couple accidents at home the whole week, but overall, impressive. Lucy got straight A's for whatever report card period this is. Always nice to hear.

Made it to work early on Friday, but didn't need to since the meeting I was there for got postponed. Started watching Luke Cage at lunch. Finished the first episode up that night, started the 2nd and finished that up tonight. It's good. Involved. Long too. Full hour long drama. Did some shopping on my way home, got a couple more sweaters from The Gap, some mittens for Jackson from Uncle Dan's, and some calcium chloride from Klein True Value Hardware. That was a heavy bag to carry home 2 blocks. Then took my parents with to pick up Jackson, so they could see how it's done, so they can pick him up now too. Today started off pretty relaxed, had french toast made by Lucy from her after school cooking class on Thursday. Played in the basement with the kids, before heading out. Had lunch at White Castle on the way out to the IKEA in Bolingbrook (was hoping for a car nap for the kids but Jackson only conked out like 2 minutes away from the store). After he woke up, we spent most of that time just finding something for the kids to play with, of which there was plenty. But I didn't really get a chance to wander about. We had a list though, so picked up everything (except those cute little glasses for wine which we couldn't find). On the way out, we were going to get some frozen yogurt, but then Lucy didn't want it, but Jackson did, so we ended up carrying a screaming 3 year old out of IKEA. That was us today. Instead, we stopped home at our usual Panda Express and tried out Menchie's Frozen Yogurt next door afterwards.

Fell asleep on the couch again last night. Bad habit. But really getting into Luke Cage. That's good stuff. I'm even watching on my Brown Line commute. I also gave in to additional news reading, and setup Feedly and Flipboard. Just added the websites I was visiting via Safari to Feedly. Hopefully means I don't check more than I need to, and I only read what's new, and not just old stuff. Or old stuff that gets reordered, like in News.app. Flipboard I've added World News as a topic. Interesting things showing up there. Just have to hold out of Twitter and Facebook. I have started to try and do push-ups/sit-ups for some sort of physical activity. Gym at work is open for registrations. Open for business tomorrow. Have to get the bike ready too.

Just another day at work. Up early, Brown Line in. Dunkin Donuts for breakfast. Haven't really been feeling the donuts lately, but went ahead and splurged today. Went old school for lunch and got Burbon chicken from Cajun Grill. Used to get that a lot back up at Oglivie station. This time got it from Union Station. Cole was way too big though. Consolidating loan and mortgage tomorrow. And have Rocket Plumbing coming to look at the leaky frost free outdoor faucet. Hope that isn't too bad. Oh, rebuilt my other Linode instance. Hoping to get some kind of redundancy or something, but maybe I should just drop it. Don't think I need the redundancy.

Consolidated mortgage with construction loan. So really in debt now. No issues, notary came to the house, documents were sent UPS next day morning, and had the closing at home. That was nice. Also had Rocket Plumbing come out and take a look at the leaking spigot. Turns out it was broken and they had to replace it, which meant they had to cut a hole in the basement ceiling to get to it. Will put in an access panel just in case we ever have to do it again. Which hopefully we won't. Might have been us not taking the hose off before a freeze, or maybe the splitter and we left it closed and it froze. Either way at least it didn't bust open in the ceiling, so no water damage in the house. Put together an IKEA Dollhouse for Lucy, and put a Bed Bath & Beyond top down bottom up shade in the powder room. Really wish we had more money and that Lutron made shades like that. Definitely wish we could do the rest of the house. So nice. Decided to drop the redundent Linode. No need.

Been a while. But like riding a bike I guess. Got to do some systems work or analysis or I guess development to log email sending. Interesting stuff. But nice every now and then. Still haven't joined the gym at work yet. Probably need to because I got around to taking my blood pressure yesterday and it was pretty high. Definitely time to get back on the bike. Would like to put the commuter together this weekend, instead of using the Sprint, but wait and see. Pretty cool that ATP got Chris Lattner on the show. I wonder what the Twittersphere was like for that. Oh well. Fingers crossed nothing crazy happens tomorrow. Got my new Apple Rewards and Amazon Prime Rewards cards. That Amazon one through Chase is impressive; metal with heft. I like it. Was hoping that would get me access to Chase QuickPay, but no dice. Guess I really need a checking account there or something.

Missed a couple days. Also because I got back on the bike with the kids on Saturday because it was 50 degrees out in the middle of January. Nothing weird about that. Supposed to take them to Green City Market Indoor session at the Peggy Notebaert Museum. We ended up there eventually, right at the tail end of the market, because we stopped off at the Sunshine Playground on the way. Got some donuts, ate, before heading to the playground area, the butterflies, and then headed home. Biking is hard after being away for like 9 months. Really need to get back on it. Friday night had a little me time after work, because Tracy and kids were playing at the neighbors. I finished up Luke Cage. Good stuff. Started The OA last night and got halfway before thinking I should get some sleep. Going to finish it up tonight that's for sure. Went to another neighbor's birthday party this morning at Pump It Up Fun as always, but they got rid of the flag thing. That was my favorite. Jackson came down with something today, hoping he feels better tomorrow. Hopefully just something he ate or something.

Finished The OA last night, really, this morning. I really liked it. I really like the entertainment that leaves me wanting. So I went looking for podcasts talking about it and listened to those. My one comment, presented without context: Native American rain dances. Wondering if I'll watch it again. I might. Not sure what's next, TV show wise, but I think I need to do Blade Runner. That's been sitting in the queue for a bit. Feels like that needs to be seen on the big screen, and not an iOS device. Jackson spent the day with the grandparents instead of going to Prairieland Montessori today. Seems better tonight, so probably headed back tomorrow. Hoping Lucy isn't coming down with it now. Finally bought a burr grinder, figured it was about time. The Baratza Virtuoso should show up tomorrow. Randomly got distracted looking at bikes online. Came across a Raleigh Clubman Carbon that looks pretty snazzy. Not that it's in the budget, but I admit, maybe a little tempting. Thinking maybe I should go back to just getting a ready to ride bike, instead of something vintage, or something vintage and rebuilding, like the Raleigh Super Course sitting unassembled in the workspace. One of these days.

I wish it could be as easy as closing your eyes and things that bothered you would just stop existing. But that's not the case. Getting a little riled up about the direction the country is going. And I'm not checking Twitter or Facebook or my RSS feeds. This is just from mainstream news media. I'm wondering if I need to start cutting the news with something, to weaken its impact. Or something. Probably doesn't help that I pulled a pseudo all nighter doing work that I should have been doing for the past week. Jackson and Lucy are all good and healthy. Weather sure seems awfully warm for January, but hey, close my eyes and it'll be ok, right? Need a haircut. Should probably do another load of laundry. And keep breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. It'll all be ok, right? Right?

We're phasing out Macs at the office, again, so they have a bunch of machines. There's some MacBook Pro 13" 2013 (don't remember if it was Early or Late), a Mac mini (Late 2014), and a couple iPad 3s. All tempting, but not sure why. The MacBook Pro I think I'd Boot Camp and use for work, maybe even replace the 2010ish iMac I'm using now. The Mac mini I'd want for home. It's newer than what I've got right now, and it's small, and I've got the space. The iPad 3s would be extras for when Jackson eventually breaks the iPad 2 that's been handed down from my mom. But then again all of that would take money, and I shouldn't be spending any. I got distracted by those new Raleigh Clubman's again, almost to the point of wanting to check one out at a bike shop, but realized, again, I shouldn't even think of spending more money. Instead I spent a little time getting organized to put together the Raleigh Super Course. I have absolutely no idea if I'm going to do a good job or not. It'll be interesting. Maybe I can find some time this weekend to put it together. No that I'm not buying soda for home anymore, I'm not really drinking anything anymore. Have to remind myself to drink some water. Also trying to stay away from reading news too often. And I realize if I'm not reading something, then I need to be doing something. So I think that means I need to start writing code again for fun, for home, for personal use.

Spent the weekend pretty much at home. Did a bunch of random house stuff. Remounted the basement TV because it would get crooked when you moved it up or down. Of course, now that I fixed it you can see the mount peeking out behind it on the left side, which is why they probably skewed it over as much that it caused the crookedness when they installed it originally. We did go out to the library (Lincoln Belmont) branch on Saturday. Nice place. Lucy needed to get a book for a project. So we played some games, got some books. I reminisced about taking physical books out of the library and lugging them around. And I signed up for a library eCard, so I can take eBooks out, if I ever find out that I want to. Oh, and since we don't have soda at home, or even flavored powdered drinks, I've moved to cocktails. Gin agrees with me. Made orange sponge cake (Lucy wanted to make it from a recipe out of one of the library books). A little dense, but orangy. Maybe need to put a glaze on it. Didn't make a big one, just 1/3 of the recipe, and used the mini springform pans we had. Made monkey bread Sunday morning using cinnamon roll dough and butter and brown sugar. Pretty good. Put the access panel for the outdoor spigot up as best I could. Did laundry and reorganized my clothes/closet a bit. Now I've got a nice counter in the closet for things, and better organization of my sweaters.

Arrival came out on iTunes yesterday, so I stayed up too late watching it. Worth it. It's good. To me, can tell it's the same director as Sicario. Finished up watching Ender's Game before that. Will be interesting when I read the short story Arrival is based off of, to see how the adaptations match up, but still can't believe how bad the Ender's Game adaptation was. Just missed on all the important points for me. I've been trying to watch Blade Runner, but I don't know if it's the wrong point in my life, or if I'd rather see modern special effects, but it feels like homework. Switched my backup machine at work from a Surface Pro 3 to a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013). Got it Boot Camped and syncing up email now. Nice to be standardized. Not sure if I'll lug it to/from work or not. It's a pretty nice machine. I did that mostly so I'm on a standard keyboard. The Windows key location threw me the most. Created a new Workflow to make it easier to update current events. Next up? Maybe getting Storytlr back up and running? I was also thinking of working on Fever too. Trying to find things to occupy my time now that I've moved off Feedly and RSS feeds again. Back to just News.app and my subscribed newspaper apps. Every now and then I get curious to see what the hot new trend is on Twitter, at least in the twittersphere I read, but the feeling passes.

4 days and no update? I'm slipping. I've gotten sucked into Workflow, the iOS automation app. I've created some to assist working on current events. It's pretty cool. I think I might even be able to back populate some of the structure at least, without any content though. I think I' caught up on sleep again and made some steps to prevent myself from staying up too late going forward. I did get Fever back up and running. And installed Nuzzel. Now just have to wean myself off checking all the time. Move towards scheduled checks. Maybe reminders? Also went ahead and installed the Medium app for The Ringer, instead of using Safari. Works better. Less refresh. Had dinner with the parents Friday night. Went to Green City Market - Indoor and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum yesterday, and got some Soupbox for lunch, and Taco Burrito Palace for dinner. Finally took down the outdoor Christmas lights on the porch. Jackson might be coming down with something. Again. Totally forgot it's Super Bowl weekend.

Don't remember preposting this one. But whatever. I really need to curb my late nights. Just need to get to bed before midnight. I'm guessing staying up until 3 last night for absolutely no good reason will mean I'll pick up whatever Jackson has. He's been running a fever so he's been at the grandparents the last couple of days. Had to sit and do a project with Lucy tonight. After the initial drama, she settled down and got it done. Weather continues to be weird. It's February, so it's supposed to be bitter cold in Chicago right now. Instead, I wore a spring jacket to work today, because it was like April showers. Go figure. Started Season 2 of The Flash. Found out downloads from Netflix aren't as straightforward as I'd expected. At least for the Flash, the downloads expire, and you can only download them twice. On top of that, found an article from an AVS Forum thread that explained why the latest episode of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend wouldn't play under iTunes 10.6.3 (1080p downloads require iTunes after 11.0.1. Which means I can no longer use Requiem to populate Plex with my iTunes 1080p HD purchases. 720p works ok. So that's awesome. I think I'll keep up my Plex library with the 720p versions, but will go back to Computers for watching via the Apple TVs. Still tweaking my Workflows. Will probably have a bunch of ones to handle new month setup for the Memex.

So the work MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) doesn't quite fit in the GORUCK 10L Bullet, so I'm reaching back into the past to the Arcteryx Blade 13 backpack. Just had to order up a Tom Bihn Cache for it. Got that pack back in 2006, online from all places, Moosejaw. Big birthday coming up. Just made some dinner plans with the wife. Family dinner this Friday. Otherwise no big plans. Hoping to get some time to work on the bike though.

Tried working a bit last night after everyone had gone to bed. Lasted maybe 30 minutes before I feel asleep on the couch. I just can't do it anymore. Which means I need to up my productivity during the day, because I can't count on pulling all nighters, or trying to get by on 4 hours of sleep. I'm almost 40. And I think my mid life crisis is going to be learning guitar. One of those things, going way back, I was kind of interested in? I just remember always wanting to play Mr.Wall's steel string acoustic hanging on the wall, while Chris played his electric. Never did get one, but thinking, maybe, it's time. Of course, we'll wait and see how long before it starts gathering dust, or gets horribly out of tune. But maybe, just maybe, it'll be something I can just relax with. Tried out Fooda at work today. Interesting. It's a pop up space which other restaurants take for the lunch break. Had Sweet Station Lincoln beef and broccoli. Not bad. Looking ahead it's Chick-fil-A next Thursday, so guessing it's going to be super busy then. Jackson's back at school with no issues. His first day back yesterday was a little rough, crying during drop off, a couple of accidents. But today drop off was smooth. Only has a residual cough and a slight body rash. I decided to move off Mail.app and onto Gmail, either iOS app or Fluid app for macOS. Also think I'm just going to forego trying to color match my fenders on the Miyata 610 and just put the silver ones on so I can start biking to work. I'll try and sneak that in this weekend.

Saturday was a day pretty much for Lucy. Went to Crosby's Kitchen for breakfast to get monkey bread. A key difference between the version made at home vs. the restaurant version is the cream cheese frosting. Then some playground time before getting ready to go see Shen Yun, tickets courtesy of my parents for Lucy, who also got a fancy new dress. Jackson went over the grandparents for the day, because there was no chance he'd be able to sit through a show. Took the Brown Line down, and made it just as the house lights went down. It was good. Lucy liked it. I noticed some Falun Gong propaganda intermixed. Which is interesting. Then we took the bus from the Harris Theater up to Water Tower Place. Lucy got mac & cheese from Foodease while Tracy and I got some M Burger. Then the girls got gelato, I got an espresso, before heading in to the Lego Store. Got each of the kids something, tried to teach Lucy about saving (so this time she saved half of her allocation this trip for the next one, to maybe get something more expensive). Then wandered through American Girl to get a catalog, but it was an old one. That was my first time. Really interesting. Then hopped on the 146 home to get Jackson and get a ride home.

Started reading again. For fun. The Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson. Started Saturday with Steelheart, finished Sunday night, moved on to Firefight, squeezed in the short story Mitosis in there, and finished that today. Next up is Calamity. Not sure what's next after that. Tracy has the week off so I haven't had to do kid drop off or pick up. And I went ahead and took a couple days off myself at the end of the week. Got some socket head cap screws to help attach fenders, which I think means I'll start biking next week. Yay. Really enjoying the Fooda pop up restaurant at Willis Tower. I like the variety but limited options. And it's indoors, so no need to go out to a food truck. Newest podcast I'm thoroughly enjoying, to the point I've downloaded all previous episodes: Do By Friday. Very funny.

Turned 40 today. Had the day off. Took yesterday off as well. Watched Doctor Strange, A couple episodes of The Flash, and a crossover episode of Arrow. Took a nap. Then Lyfted to The Publican and back for dinner. Kids are at the grandparents for the night. Watching The Huntsman: Winter's War. A pretty good day. Yesterday went to Eataly for lunch. Finished off Calamity. Lucy picked Snow Crash as my next book. Got my new guitar on Wednesday, it's smaller than I thought. Looks good on Lucy. Been trying out some apps for learning, along with YouTube videos. Have to admit, been nice having a couple days off with nothing to do.

So the day after I turn 40, I'm playing some game with Lucy with a basketball, and I jump up to try and dunk it, instead landing and spraining my ankle. Happy birthday to me. That was taking advantage of the weather on Saturday, played over at the Blaine Field for a while. Aside from the spraining of the ankle, the same one I sprained on the skateboard about a year ago. Decided maybe this time I should do some rehab exercises, since it probably never healed from the last time, and it's been achy ever since. And the few exercises I did do seem to have made a huge difference. I'm able to walk at least, with only minimal pain. So get to do stuff like writing the alphabet with my toe, keeping my foot flat on the ground and waggling my knee while seated, and achilles stretches. Learning the guitar slowly. Decided on ChordBank for my iOS learning app. And already my finger tips are hurting. Those calluses can't come soon enough. Got a Baskin-Robbins turtle pie for myself for my birthday treat, ordered it late on Thursday so didn't get it until Saturday. But as good as I remember it. The kids like it too. Managed to bike around, even after the sprained ankle, just taped it up. Went down to the pirate playground Sunday morning, used my Starbucks free beverage on a nitro cold brew. Realized after I ordered this morning at Peet's that I have a free beverage there as well. I really should be taking advantage of these offers. Oh, also the sprained ankle means I'm not biking in either. I also had to be more chain lube anyway. I still need to reradius my fenders anyway on the Miyata 610. Not quite that easy. Which is why my next bike will just be another prebuilt with color matched fenders.

Guess I'm reverting back to my less than daily updates. Ankle feels better. Nightly rehab range of motion exercises seem to help. Need to start the stretching and the strength and balance exercises. Maybe I should do that on both ankles. Might come in handy. Really really need to get back on the bike. Pants are starting to feel a little tight. Also, starting to miss it. Jackson's been under the weather, so he took yesterday and today off, and went out to Woodstock with my parents. Happy Anniversary to them. Found some interesting Lego related gifts to send to my brother for his birthday, Happy Birthday Al! Weather was crazy warm all week. Finally kind of getting cooler, but it's still no February that I've grown accustomed to in Chicago. I can't tell if that's it for winter or if there's a cold spell, like a really, frigid, February of years past, cold spell still coming before spring. I've switched to Google Inbox as an email client. Using the iOS apps and a Fluid app on macOS. Works pretty well. Couldn't switch direction on swipe actions so changed Outlook to have the same.

March already tomorrow. Ash Wednesday tomorrow. I got a Fish Filet sandwich from McDonald's last Friday just because I wanted to. Odd. Like I was preparing myself. I'll have to bring my parents to Duke of Perth for some fish and chips one of these days; a Friday during lent seems like a good time. Went out to Woodstock last weekend, theoretically could be the last time. Went out to pick out and pick up stuff since my parents will be selling the house I grew up in. Actually, it definitely won't be the last time, because I'll want to see it when it's empty, to say goodbye. Found all sorts of interesting things, including what I think was the backpack I used when I went to kindergarten, old high school videos I want to get digitized. Will probably also get all the old photo albums done as well. Will probably be expensive, but I think would be worth it to have. Might have to look at a different photo service (maybe Google or Amazon because those are both free or included with existing services) to have as a backup/sharing. iCloud would be too expensive. Got a leather case for the iPad, to try and match the saddle brown case on the iPhone and watch band. It's a little redder, but hoping it weathers. Trying Mvelopes as a budgeting app, but it doesn't pull in all the transactions automatically, so I'm trying to log things when I can, but I forget. Mint also isn't pulling in all transactions either on a timely basis, so having to check individual apps for that.

Five days into a new month and no post. And it's only the 3rd month. Trying out YNAB as another budgeting app/method. Also gave in and installed Tweetbot and Reeder again. Still holding out on Facebook. I'm gaven't fallen that far. Although 2 days in back on Twitter and RSS and I'm not sure I see what it's getting me. Maybe I need to drop them again, and I just needed a fix. Started importing all my old photos from PictureLife via SmugMug into Photos. Taking a while for the first 14K batch. I don't know what the other batch is; much bigger I think. Got the Miyata 610 all ready, I think. Stayed up way too late one night watching My Boys and working on the bike in the crawlspace. Was thinking of taking it out on a test ride Friday but it was freezing. Maybe I'll sneak in a ride this week? I need to get lights mounted. But I think it's ready for commuting work.

Going to try and get storytlr up and running. That's my newest project. Wonder if micro.blog would work with it. I uninstalled Tweetbot and Reeder already. Also uninstalled Fever and Nuzzle. Hoping I stay away longer now. Switched to getting on and off at the Irving Park station on the Brown Line. I get more space on the way in, and easier to get off on the way home. And it saves me 3 minutes on the walk, on which get to look at fancy new houses along with the headquarters of Guaranteed Rate, which seems a little weird, but cool. Photos finished importing I think the RAW and movie files. Next up are all the jpgs, of which I think there are a lot more. I also started reading Aftermath, the Star Wars trilogy novel between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. Interesting stuff.

Had a vasectomy consult on Thursday. I misunderstood and thought I had a chance to also get the procedure done day of as well, as I've heard others have gotten it done. No such luck. Have to wait until May 4 to get snipped. I had taken the time off thinking I would be, so I just went with it and relaxed. Took the Miyata 610 out for a spin yesterday, fenders and racks and lights. Ended up doing 15 miles up and down the lake front. Did another 10 miles or so today, after swapping out pedals with toe clips for ones with Power Grips, they work better with the cycling boots I have. I even put the panniers on, and went up to a bit of the North Shore Channel Trail. So I should be all set to start biking to work again. About time. Legs are definitely sore, arms and back too. But nice to be out on the road again.

My childhood home is now for sale. Great for my parents, no longer have to worry about a house and a yard and all the work for upkeep for a place they hardly use. So they're going to be city folk. Still want to see it before it sells, while it's empty. That's going to be weird. Probably officially I've now lived more away from that house, if I counted it all up. Up to 18, then summers in college, but then that's it. And now that I'm 40, yeah. I planned on starting to commute to work by bike again this week, then we got like a bunch of snow, so I just took the Brown Line. Maybe later this week I'll start. I'm ready though. Finally. Probably have to go down Clark to Halsted since Southport is under construction. Went out to the in-laws on Saturday, pretty relaxing. Sunday hung out with Jackson while Tracy and Lucy went to a show and lunch with Flo and family. Ended up getting hot dogs for the kids from Wrigleyville Dogs, and a gyro for myself, and it was wrapped nice and tight. First place I've been to since that place on Broadway next to the Jewel closed down all those years ago that wrapped it that tight. New favorite place to get a gyro. Also went to both Whole Foods] close by because Jackson wanted blueberry pie, and figured that was my best shot at a finding a slice. The one on Ashland didn't have any, because it's small, and also probably because they're winding down for the giant new one on Ashland and Belmont to open in a couple of weeks. So got it at the old reliable one on Halsted.

I think we got something like 8 inches of snow Monday and Tuesday, as determined by the height of the untouched snow on the backyard table. It was pretty good snow too, powdery. Shoveled as much from the back into a giant pile for the kids to play in. Figure it'll be all gone by Friday, except for the giant pile. Glad the kids got to play at least a little bit in the snow this winter, here in the 2nd week of March. Still uploading photo history to iCloud Photo Library. Currently sitting around 25K photos, 1.5K videos, for around 400 GB. Had to upgrade my iCloud storage to a TB. Hopefully I won't go over. I'll have to go in after it all finishes loading to remove dupes, fix dates, fix locations, remove thumbnails. Not sure how many of those there are. But it's definitely nice being able to go look at pictures again. Waiting for the really old ones to show up. We started up Hello Fresh as a grocery/meal delivery service again. They put all the ingredients for a meal into a little cardboard box that slides onto the shelf in the fridge, so much better than a brown bag of stuff that Blue Apron did. It's nice again. Trying different things.

Fell asleep on the couch a handful of times this past week. Falling back into bad habits. Gotta break out again, and get back on a regular sleeping schedule, if I've ever had it. Been working on setting up a Mac mini (Late 2014) at work, thinking the iMac 27-inch (Mid 2010) will be dying soon because the fan sounds like it's dying. Hooked the Mac mini up to 2 27" Thunderbolt Displays, which is a lot of screen real estate. No Retina, but still a lot. Still no bike commuting to work yet, but went on a ride this morning down to Museum Campus and back. Still cold enough that it wasn't that busy. Even got a compliment on the Miyata Six-Ten. Probably need to grease as many screws and attachment points as I can, it definitely makes a lot of sound going over bumps and stuff. Started up Iron Fist. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. Photos finished importing my PictureLife via SmugMug archives, and now it's just uploading to iCloud Photo Library. Doing so made me cross the 1TB Data Usage Limit for the first time they started the limit. So it's a courtesy month, which means I should just blow the top off. I'm currently at 1097 GB with 12 days left.

Been getting off at Southport and stopping by the Amazon Bookstore that just opened up this week. I've forgotten how much I enjoy bookstores, walking around and just browsing. A couple things that make the Amazon Bookstore insteresting: 1) all the bookshelves are lit and 2) all the books are displayed showing the front cover, no splines on display. I'm looking forward to bringing Lucy, who's enjoying reading, and just hanging out there for a while. I'm probably never going to buy a physical book for myself there, because I only buy eBooks, nor will I even buy the eBook from Amazon (I purchase through Kobo (eBook) and strip the DRM so I can read it on any device I want. I've also been playing with the Amazon Fire Kids Edition to see if it'll be a good replacement when the kids current devices die. I think it might. I've played with the fancy Kindle Oasis and managed to set off the alarm on 2 different display models (the micro USB charger/alarm cable is really loose). The new Whole Foods at Ashland/Broadway also opened and Tracy checked it out yesterday. It's funny but fitting that she got excited about the new grocery store and I got excited about the new bookstore.

Yesterday, that is. Biked to and from work for the first time since I think last June. It was quite nice. I've missed it. I also miss having a server room to cool down and change in. Changing in a bathroom stall isn't any fun. I went ahead and joined the gym at work, hoping I can change/shower there, and leave clothes, especially when they're sweaty or wet. For example, I'm contemplating biking tomorrow, in the rain, except I'm not sure I'll be able to leave the clothes there all day, or if they'd dry, stuck in a locker. I definitely got spoiled by having a server room to myself. Also, I'm coming down, or have, whatever Jackson had. So mucus up in the head, cough. Hoping it'll pass relatively quickly.

It is nice riding to and from work again. It's pretty nice having a shower before working as well. Not so nice having to leave my clothes and shoes in a locker all day. It's not even summer yet and my locker smelled pretty bad. I have no idea if I'm going to use Tone, the work gym, as anything other than a place to shower and store my commuting gear. I'm rocking the Miyata 610. Downtube shifters in the city aren't the best idea in the world. I'm using the Ortlieb Front Rollers, one with my computing gear in a Gonex Ultra Lightweight Packable Backpack, and I ordered another one for my clothes. Swapped out the adapters on the top hooks to fit the narrower rack. Makes it easy to pack/unpack the bags at home. I don't have to carry the dirty panniers around the house. Also got another Tom Bihn Vertical cache for the MacBook Pro and a smaller Freudian Slip that fits in the backpacks and panniers. I'm also swapping out pedals, depending on the weather (between the toe clips and Vittoria 1976 Shoes vs. Power Grips and 45NRTH Japanther. I'm also going up and down Clark to Halsted instead of Southport because of construction. But there's creaking, rubbing, other sounds that might imply missing lubrication. And I shouldn't leave the Boeshield T-9 Waterproof Lubrication outdoors; the aerosol goes bad. Other than that, plowing through My Boys. The first 2 seasons are pretty killer, and it's not quite as good so far after that. Still thoroughly enjoying the continued Chicago references.

Had spring break a couple weeks ago. Went up to Great Wolf Lodge for a couple days at the beginning of the week (April 9 - 11). Finally got Ube donuts from Gurnee Donuts. They were ok. Great Wolf was great, as always. Might have to try something different next year. Kids always liked the arcade. Lucy was especially good at getting tickets from the ball drop game. Also, because it was just the four of us, just had a normal hotel room, no suite, no fireplace, no sitting room or TV room and separate bedroom. Different. Made it over to Knuckleheads with Lucy while Jackson napped one afternoon, just another arcade, didn't try any of the rides or anything. Also went shopping at the outlet, but they didn't have any Adidas track suits. Disappointing. Al and Family came in, cousin Jenina and her new husband too on their honeymoon, all out to Woodstock for a last hurrah at the house since it's for sale. Ate a lot. Went up to The Domes in Milwaukee on Friday. Hung out at the house, kids played in the basement a lot. Had an easter egg hunt on Easter. Tried out the new Frio Gelato on Southport. I'm a fan. Have had mucus in the head for the last week or two, it's gradually been moving down, and think I'm on the last legs. Hammels are back, so the kids have been playing a lot together. Been bike commuting to work. It's nice. And it's working, weight is trending back down toward what I was. Finally hung the string lights across the backyard. Super bright, so I had to put the dimmer on, which doesn't work because they're LED string lights. Found a tip to put in 1 incandescent bulb, and the dimmer now works. So that looks pretty cool. Went to Indian Boundary Park for Flo's birthday party last Saturday. That's a pretty cool park. Went to Jolibee for the first time after that. The chicken's good. The halo-halo is too. Also been biking to drop off and pickup Jackson. Much better than driving.

Had Lucy's 7th birthday party last weekend, actually on her birthday. Made her a giant chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich for a cake. The kids pretty much just ate the ice cream. First time she had a bunch of kids from school over. Went over pretty well. I think she had fun. I'm definitely slacking on the picture taking though. Didn't really have it out. Having the SecuritySpy app on the Apple TV up and running with the basement camera worked out well with parents and kids, when they found out they were on the TV. Entertaining, that's for sure. Took advantage of Take Your Kids to Work day last Thursday, even though I took the day off. When I tried working with the kids in the office, I didn't really get to work much. So instead, just showed them my office, then got the wristbands for free access to the SkyDeck. Third year in a row, and well, didn't take any pictures of them this time. I've had a cough for a while, thought it was getting better, then came back after this weekend. I've been sleeping on the couch because the coughing keeps Tracy up. I thought it was the mucus in the sinus thing, and then I felt it loosen up and drop, and thought I was approaching the tail end, and then it went back up. Annoying. Not stopping me from biking through. Need to keep that up, even if it drops to 40° F like it did today. Started reading The Diamond Age, mostly because I forgot my AirPods in the gym locker. Reading it more for nanotech and culture details, seems pretty appropriate for now.

Got snipped a couple weeks ago. So haven't been biking to work and back. Do bike a little bit with the kids on the weekends though, and dropping off/picking up Jackson. But otherwise still taking it easy. Might start up again next week, since Bike the Drive is in a week. nuke and paved my iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad. Been having some issues, so figured it's time. Also decided to start going without a case again, although it seems like I'm just playing with fire. It's so slick. But it's so slick, and nice without a case. Feels so much smaller. I've even started using the iPad without a case too. Also feels so much smaller. My parents took the kids for the long weekend after the procedure, so I plowed through the current Marvel Cinematic Universe. Took me 5 or 6 days. Kind of floundering on what I should watch next. I do have a huge backlog of podcasts to work through.

Been thinking all week that the day was actually the next. So today, I thought was Friday. Also seems to be working in reverse. That yesterday was Thursday and not actually Wednesday. Either way, annoying. Decided to watch Alias from the beginning. Goes all the way back to 2001, before iPads and iPhones, so it's interesting. Also interesting to see the female empowerment that I must have not noticed or paid much attention too, but completely notice in this day and age. Also knowing the 5th season twist is interesting when watching from the beginning. Not to mention seeing Bradley Cooper in a supporting role on a TV show. Hoping the weather holds up for Bike the Drive on Sunday. At the same time, kinda hoping it rains because then I'll go out by myself without Tracy and the kids, and it would probably be pretty empty.

Did Bike the Drive on Sunday. Late start, so only got on at Addison at 8:30 and made it down to Grant Park by 9. Hung out there for a bit, and by the time we wanted to head back out, they had closed the drive off. Biked around afterwards, went to Floriole for breakfast and pastries, then a couple playgrounds, before getting caught in the only 20 minute downpour of the day. Got a nap in with Jackson. Friday night went to dinner at Maple & Ash with Tracy as a belated anniversary dinner (thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids). Then watched Logan at home, because the only available reservation was at 5, and we made it home while it was still light out. Saturday biked down to Pump It Up for Marcus's birthday party. Monday more biking, more playgrounds, and a trip to Oberweis.

Not really, but I've started watching Game of Thrones from the beginning. I don't think I watched a complete season, ever. Only really watched when I sat down while Tracy was watching. It's good. I'm also following along with The Ringer's Binge Mode, with a podcast per episode. Somewhat helpful. I'm currently in the middle of Season 3. Donated blood yesterday, Power Red, so was a little tired. Slept early. No bike riding yesterday or today. Next ride in to work would be Friday (working from home tomorrow). It's been hot out. Hopefully it's not the trend for this summer. Don't think I'd like it much. Definitely see at least a 10 degree difference between the 3rd floor and the basement. Hasn't gotten bad enough that I go into the basement yet (except after I biked home on Monday, then I did). Upgraded the home network to all Ubiquiti UniFi gear, moved to a Ubiquiti UniFi Security Gateway, Ubiquiti UniFi Switch 24, Ubiquiti UniFi Switch 8, and a Ubiquiti UniFi AC In-Wall to cover my side of the master bedroom. Tempted to get a Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Key. But allows me to use the UniFi app on iOS to view network status. Interesting that the 2 access points on the 3rd floor aren't auto negotiated to GigE. Wonder if it's a distance thing. Also, 5GHz WiFi makes a difference when streaming video. I tried watching Game 4 of the NBA Finals, but gave up because of commercials, and timeouts, and official reviews. I didn't even watch Game 5 until I got the notification that the game was over. My hot take on game 4? All the fouls/official review was like unofficial timeouts and plenty of time to rest for the Cavs stars. No chance they would get tired down the stretch because of all the stoppage of play. What's the actual minutes spent playing vs. length of game? Anyway, I'm happy the Warriors won. My hot take on KD? What other team would have maximized his skills?

Found out my parents got and accepted an offer on the house in Woodstock. Still want to get out there just before closing and do the walk through and walk around when it's empty and there's nothing there. Crazy. Happy for my parents too, got pretty close to expected, which is always nice. Last weekend went to Montrose beach with the kids on Saturday, then the water feature at Weisman Park on Sunday, along with Soupbox for lunch, since Lucy wanted hot soup on an 80 degree day. Go figure. Put Brooks Cambium Bar Tape and matching Brooks Cambium C17 both in Slate on the Miyata 610. Monday got a Sackville TrunkSack Small in grey for the front rack and put a double water bottle holder off the saddle. So yeah, the Miyata is in a good spot, except for the rear brakes squealing. Tried cleaning it, but that didn't work. Need to try something else. Bike does need a good overall cleaning too. Lucy's done with 1st grade, last day was yesterday. Already on season 5 of Game of Thrones. Way ahead of the Binge Mode podcasts. I guess after I finish I'll go back to Alias. Kinda want to do Chuck again as well, but I'm guessing I'll be all spyed out after Alias.

Random note, I've started just wearing the Sport Band on the Apple Watch all the time now. I was using a Nike band for a bit while biking, and switching over to a Classic Leather Buckle after biking to work and showering. But just lately switched back to the Sport Band and not switching at all. Kind of nice. Still wish there was a Charcoal Gray version. Still rocking the iPhone and iPad without cases. Still nice. All the way up to middle of Season 6 for Game of Thrones. Will probably finish up in the next couple of days. Altered my commute route, going over to Lincoln to bypass the resurfacing of Southport. Not sure when that's going to be done. Jackson hasn't been sleeping well, and not wanting to go to his swimming lessons. Not sure if more structure like at Goldfish would have helped at all. Maybe he just doesn't like taking lessons. Hard to believe the year's half over.

Been doing a lot of Amazon shopping. And returns. Sorta went on a spree after I got a flat tire on the Xtracycle a couple weekends back coming from the beach. I of course didn't have the spare tube, tire levers, or CO2 inflator on me, but we were close enough that Tracy just went back home, got the car and picked the kids, the wheel, and me up. Then it took me forever to get the tire off (broke 2/3 of my tire levers) and was extremely frustrating. So I took it out on Amazon. Got a whole new set of tire levers, mostly steel core, to help with that. Finally decided to get some a real pair of swim shorts, better hybrid shorts, and settled on O'Neill Men's Loaded Hybrid Short in black and khaki. Pretty much can wear those all summer long. Finally got Coway AP-1512HH Mighty Air Purifier to hopefully help with the basement smells. And then there was a lightning deal on a Drobo 5D, so I went ahead and upgraded to that. And that's an upgrade I've been putting off for a while. So much faster. Feels like a real HD now. I think Plex streaming will work better. And went ahead and am all in on Ubiquity, and got a Ubiquiti Unifi Cloud Key which I configured today. Working well. And now no need the UniFi Controller on my server. Also got a bunch of different shoe smell stuff; deodorizers, a UV sterilizer (which I think worked pretty well) and a spray that showed up when I searched for bowling alley shoe spray (which might have worked the best). Also got a FMUSER H.265 HDMI Video Encoder so I can stream any in home source to VLC, that's another finally thing that I've had on the list for a while. And then today, went car shopping, really, just went to Evanston Subaru to check out the Crosstrek. Seems to fit right. But of course, model year is ending, 2018's are like 2 months away, which will have Car Play. But we're leasing, because we'd rather have a hybrid, or even a full electric, and maybe better options available in 3 years. Also considering how little we drive, would be nice to have newer cars more often, instead of the 2005 Volvo we've got now. So slim pickings in terms of stock, and have to make a decision on the 1 color that is available in the area.

So what's been going on the last month or so? Since my last post was about all the things I bought, I've taking the month off from buying from Amazon, just about halfway through. Decided to go with a 2018 Subaru Crosstrek, so we're buying outright, instead of leasing. Basically reviews came out while we were waiting for the dealer trade to come through, and there's enough good stuff there to warrant waiting and buying. Parents officially sold the house in Woodstock. I managed to sneak out for a day and take some pictures of a mostly empty home. First thought it was smaller when it was empty. Also picked up some Hong Kong Chicken from Plum Garden on the way back, because who knows when, if ever, I'll be back there to get some. Just in general, don't know when I'll ever find myself in Woodstock again. My Auntie Agnes came and visited, along with Uncle Luis, Auntie Dorothy, and Cousin Ron and family. Had a family dinner at the house. That was the same week Russell crashed in the guest bedroom, and Gabe and family were in town, so it was crazy busy for a vacation week. Cousins got to play plenty, and we hit up all the usual things, Warren State Park Dunes, Cypress Cove water park, visit in the city, crazy tame deer that stops by the in-laws yard. Been watching Game of Thrones and Talk the Thrones afterwards, only a couple episodes left for this season. Lots of swimming, either at Montrose Beach or at Lakeshore Sports & Fitness first for Jackson's swim lessons, then just for fun. Got new goggles (Aqua Sphere Kayenne) which are pretty good. The Wirecutter finally did goggles, so it was their pick. Biking has been good, although this week they had a notice in the locker room at the gym that we're not allowed to leave stuff during the day. Annoying. So I had to get some hooks so I can hang my stuff up to dry/air out under my desk. Hopefully it doesn't smell that bad. But still pretty annoying.

Back in a Subaru. Got our new Subaru Crosstrek yesterday. Evanston Subaru finally got the car in on Monday, after waiting about a month for it. Nice and shiny. And orange. Aside from all the extra space on the inside, the orange hood is going to take a little getting used to. But lots of nice bells and whistles, but mostly excited about Apple CarPlay and the Eyesight stuff. Worried about scratching or hitting, or just getting into an accident, but I already nicked it a little bit putting the carseats back in and the doors hitting the sides of the garage. So I got to be the first to put a mark on it. But planning on keeping this one for a while. Pretty roomy I think. But super nice being able to listed to stuff from the phone through the car. Took longer than guessed this morning, so had to put some additional time working tonight. Oh, and the eclipse from Monday. Next time, in 2024, that it hits the continental US, or maybe before then internationally, want to get in the path of totality. Seeing the videos of it happening via Facebook Live in Oregon? Seems unreal. And seeing the other videos and timelapses of totality since then, makes me want to see it in person. Less looking at the actual eclipse itself, but how the world looks, to go from light to dark to light again so quickly. Other than that, summer is winding down.

Guess I should sneak one in before the month changes again. Did the North Shore Century again. 116 mi total (includes biking to the start and home from the end). Always get a couple compliments on the Miyata 610. Followed it up with what is now a traditional Papa John's pizza. Seemed harder than ever, but then maybe because I never do any training for it. And now I wonder if I ever need to do it again. I'm leaning towards no. Finally put garage door opener keypads for the garage, so I don't have to carry around a remote anymore. That's nice. Got a Inside Line Equipment Porteur Bag for the xtracycle, because we were brining too much stuff to the beach it was overloading the bags in the back. Worked out great going to Montrose Beach last weekend. Surprised it took me this long, it's super handy. Watched the See You at Our Place (September 12, 2017) Apple Event, not live, and I think we won't be upgrading anytime soon. Want to, but don't need to. I, personally, would want to go iPhone X, and maybe I will eventually, or maybe just wait until the next generation for those. I went on a news diet for a bit, lasted maybe 3 weeks, stopped following on Twitter and RSS feeds. Then I went back in, and just now pared down the lists. Did the same for podcasts. Limited to the stuff I really want to follow and read and hear. Oh, went to Kalahari before the school year started. That was fun. Tracy and I liked it better than Great Wolf Lodge, but Lucy likes the wolf better. Actually did some touristy things this time; a ride on an Original Wisconsin Ducks and checked out Timbavati Wildlife Park. Also took the kids to Bristol Renaissance Faire for the first time. Kind of fun. Jackson had a fit when we wouldn't get him a big wooden sword (was going to get him a small one), so I was walking around with a screaming kid. That was fun.

I gave in a got the Raleigh Carbon Clubman. It was like 35% off, so I had to grab it. Haven't actually started riding it, just a couple times. It's definitely different from the Miyata 610. I might be partial to the old school 80's style of bikes though. Not sure how I'm going to do the bike rotation. Problem is no rack on the Raleigh, so no panniers. Which means I go back to the handlebar bag and saddlebags, which means less clothes, no laptop. And because of showering at the gym, not sure how I'm going to do the shoes. Ended up selling my 1 BTC to finance, made enough profit, but of course, the current exchange rate keeps climbing. Didn't order up an iPhone X. Tempted. I was going to just try it and see if I got a delivery on Nov 3, but I ended up sleeping though the opening of orders. Not sure if I'm going to or not. Maybe for my birthday next year? I did stick one in my cart, and put a new watch in too. That's a lot of money. Otherwise, Halloween coming up. Going as Master Wu from Ninjago, since the kids are going as Kai/Jay. Hopefully it turns out alright. Got to see if I can lego mine up (it's mostly just a real human costume). Seems like we've been doing a bunch playdates and birthday parties for the kids. nuke and paved my work iMac, took me a while to figure out how to get screen brightness and display extending to work (for a 2010 27" iMac, change the disable driver from the ATI 5750 to the ATI Radeon 5800 M). Also updated all the various Windows 10 to the Fall Creators Update.

I went ahead and upgraded to an iPhone X (I say X, not 10) and an Apple Watch 3 when the former showed up as available (thanks to the iStockNow notifications) last Saturday. It's pretty cool. Nice going to a smaller form factor, the OLED screen is amazing, FaceID is pretty cool, and it is faster. The more amazing speed increase is with the Apple Watch, going from the original to the Series 3 is like night and day. It actually immediately responds to input. Very much worth it. And so goes my early Christmas, Birthday, and any other gifting occasions for the near future. And a future upgrade, when it does become available, will be AT&T Gigapower. Working from home last week I saw some AT&T guys installing a big box and cables in the alley, and earlier this week I asked them what they were working on, and it's fiber. It's FIBER! That actually got me more excited than any other tech related thing. Someday soon, my guess 6 months, I'll have glorious 1Gbs up/down service. More excited about the symmetric speeds than I am about anything else. And for my Plex users, this will be great news. I won't have to throttle you. And if you want Plex access, let me know. Otherwise, I have the Miyata 610 set up as my winter bike (BarMitts and PowerGrips. If it ever does get warm again I might get to use the Raleigh Carbon Clubman to commute with. Finally replenished my sock supply, so should be good for like another 3 years. I moved away from Google Inbox back to Apple Mail on iOS and macOS. Finished off Stranger Things 2. For some reason started up How I Met Your Mother again. Kids have been watching Superstore. Jackson turns 4 tomorrow. Been to a few kids birthday parties, Jackson has his on Saturday, Friendsgiving is Sunday, hosting Thanksgiving next week. Going to be a little crazy.

Fitting, on the day the FCC decided to repeal Net Neutrality, I got my AT&T Fiber up and running. I had the SCI guys come out on Monday for a regular tune up, see if they could fix a couple issues, install some new hardware, see if they wanted to handle getting AT&T Gigapower installed. Turns out I could go ahead, so I chatted and got an install scheduled for Tuesday. Tuesday comes around, and they run fiber to the home. All the way into my data closet. Although I get an IP and a gateway IP, I get no further. Also the corresponding digital voice service isn't working either. So I get a tech to come out today to check it out, and after swapping the router/gateway, and cables, and so on, gets put on hold with the backend, and they get it up and running eventually. Took them about 3 hours to get it up and running. And running it is. Couldn't swap it out until Tracy got off working tonight, but it's fast. And symmetrical. So we shouldn't notice any slowdowns, anywhere. Not quite getting the full 1Gpbs up/down, and not sure how much tweaking I need to do, but just going to enjoy it for a bit. Will downgrade the Comcast line to something basic as a failover, since we'll keep it for cable TV. Wonder how long I'll be able to enjoy this unfettered access to the entire net. Plex users should hopefully have no issues streaming anymore. Next best thing from the SCI visit was the Lutron Connect Bridge install. Means the whole house lighting got hooked up into HomeKit. Which means I can control lighting by voice. And can trigger other lights via switches (ex: the Christmas tree lights are on a Lutron lamp dimmer, which is controlled by a nearby keypad. HomeKit automation triggers when the Christmas tree lights go on/off and turns the front outdoor lights on/off via an iDevices Outdoor Switch, as well as a string light in the family room on a railing on another iDevices Switch). It's like an early Christmas. Got accepted into the Apple Heart Study. Picked up an iPhone 8 for Tracy yesterday on my way home from work, she was tired of the battery running low on her iPhone 6S.