I get to work from home tomorrow. Which makes it easy for Tracy and I when we leave for the airport. Which is nice. Kind of feels like vacation, except I actually have to work tomorrow. So odd. Maybe something I'll have to get used to though. Got a second network camera, one that actually sees in the dark. So odd. Very cool though. Wondering if I need to setup a camera only server or not. Probably just wait and see how long I can last with what I've got. More leftovers for dinner tonight. Watched an episode of Life Unexpected. Checked in and printed out boarding passes already. Still need to pack. I did find some old fake carabiners for like keys and stuff that might come in handy for camera or diaper bags and stuff. Otherwise, pretty quiet. Lots of stuff going on at work, busy busy busy. Some order to the chaos will be coming in the near future, looking forward to that.

The future is definitely wide open. More like a window opening? Change is afoot. Good stuff though, waiting to see if it happens. In other news, I have jury duty again. I say again, but the last time I had to was 5 years ago, so I guess no need to complain. Not for a couple weeks though. But at the criminal courts this time, so that should be fun. Dropped by the old home again for maintenance reasons, which is where I found my jury summons. Took the 135 there. Been a long time since I took that home. Oh, The Publican was good last night, better company than food, but maybe I'm just having it too often, and need to spread it out a little bit more. Or maybe try a couple new places. I've heard good things about Volo. Also weeded Tracy and I off the Whole Foods blueberry pie a la mode fix. Getting the entire pie is just an overdose. Too much of a good thing.

Finally found a dresser. We were interested in a Young America All Seasons, seemed like good quality, and went up to FurnitureKidz (a Young America Signature store) up in Kildeer to check it out on Saturday. However, it took us a little while to find it, and of course we did some other shopping, and by the time we showed up they were closing in 15 minutes. So we decided to come back the next day so we could look around more leisurely. We did come back with all sorts of random stuff, almost all on sale or clearance, but all for us. Oh, and ate at a Five Guys for the first time. Not bad, but didn't seem all that better than what we make at home in a cast iron pan. Got milkshakes from Steak 'n Shake and watched The Hangover finally, since we're going to Vegas this week. Sunday we go back up, find out about the extra surcharges for delivery to Chicago and over 3 flights of stairs, and decide to go to somewhere closer, like Lazar's instead. Once there we find other dressers of much nicer construction, so we go with something from Pali instead, which is perfect except it's a little tall for Tracy. We'll see if that ends up being a problem or not. Ends up delivery is even more expensive. But we order anyway, because we were tired and hungry. Driving away Tracy realizes that Cribs to College Bedrooms, where we got our crib from, probably has the dresser as well, so she called today, ordered it from there, canceled the Lazar's order, and now only paying for delivery for the dresser and the crib, and the recliner from Bellini. And I think we're done with baby furniture. At least the big stuff. I also realized I had the same dresser/desk at my parents house probably my entire life. Tracy made lasagna last night, and I got to make the pasta, a little unevenly, but still pretty good I thought. Also been watching Arrested Development again. So good. Headed to The Publican tonight. Yum.

No definite plans to spend more money this weekend, but that could change, if we head out to get a dresser. We are planning on hitting up Green City Market for some Zullo's donuts, but other than that, nada. Maybe we can make a Home Depot run so I can get the hardware to put up the railing. Or maybe we can start rearranging furniture for the nursery. Or we can watch some movies, TV shows, and eat some food. I think I need practice making espasol before I get roped into making it for the baby shower. We do have lots of financial tasks on the docket, which is a little annoying, but necessary. I wonder if this is the first year we don't have to pay taxes. Fingers crossed.

Woke up at 2am this morning because one of the three smoke alarms within a 5' radius had a low battery warning. That's awesome. Good that we woke up, bad because I'm tired, and bad because we just noticed how close they are to each other, and yes, one of them isn't a smoke alarm but a carbon monoxide alarm, and the two smoke alarms are technically in different rooms, but still. Work's breezing by because of the actual coding going on. Fun stuff. Finished up The City of Ember and moved on to Angels & Demons. I'm starting to sense a trend in Dan Brown's Robert Langdon novels. Tracy's interested in reading the Percy Jackson books, like The Lightning Thief, and I would be too, except the only way to get a digital version is through Amazon. We can't even buy it from the Sony Bookstore, or Barnes & Nobel, so we can't read it on the reader. And I can't get it through Fictionwise, so I can't read it on eReader on the iPhone. Pretty annoying. I actually want to spend the money, but I can't because of DRM. Kind of goes against the purpose, doesn't it?

Another birthday, come and gone. Just another day. Work birthday sushi lunch was good. Ash Wednesday mass after work, phone calls, exercises, and more store bought sushi for dinner. And soon it'll be Thursday, and my Dad's birthday. Got my UV Filters for the camera today, which completes my most recent Amazon order. Nothing left in the pipeline for delivery. Oh, and just noticed that Chrome just updated itself while I'm typing this up. Crazy. Nice though. Now really just waiting for new MacBook Pros to get released. I'm just twiddling my fingers, limping along with my MacBook (Late 2006) model. Any day now, to spend more money. My social experiment for Facebook was rather interesting, as only Chris Wall managed to remember it was my birthday. This year instead of just preventing people from writing on my wall, I had hidden my birthday from everyone so it wouldn't show up in the little upcoming events box. So yeah, Thanks Booter.

Stayed late at work tonight, not just because Tracy was out in the 'burbs from shopping and having dinner with her parents, but also because I was actually programming and excited and interested in it. Been a while, and it's not even really that interesting of a project, but it's new and exciting. I definitely need to pick up XCode finally. I have a feeling I could be doing more of this, this developing, again. My parents are back from their month long trip to the Philippines. Glad to hear they had fun and they traveled safe. Finally got an SDHC card reader, and imported photos and currently importing movies right now. I think I need to update my import script to import to folders grouped by create date, instead of import date. Makes more sense that way. Oh, and stopped by the Michigan Ave Apple Store, hoping to see what Aperture would be like on a 13" screen, but of course none of the 13" MacBook Pros had it installed. Makes sense. So I tried it out on the small iMac, and seems kind of nice. But I think I'd be perfectly fine with iPhoto '09 or whenever '10 gets released or whatever. And now I'm back to questing whether to get a MacBook Pro or an Air. And when/if I get to play with an iPad before a new computer purchase, I wonder how that will affect things as well. Also played with a Mighty Mouse for the first time. Those things are weird, and would take a while to get used to.

I actually did do some woodworking, and cut the wood pieces to the tiny 20" railing that needs to go in. Now I just have to cut the iron balusters, and find out and get all the pieces to put it all together. So that's nice. I took the bikes out briefly, just to see if they still worked, and they do. Tempted to try again at some point soon, while it's still cold out. Made my first hollandaise, well, kind of. I think the egg yolks slightly curdled, so not quite perfect. Still tasted amazing. That was my contribution to Valentine's Day dinner of steak, potatoes and asparagus. Oh, that and chocolate dipped strawberries. Tried my hand at tempering the chocolate, but don't really have a good thermometer for it. Otherwise, watched the rest of Firefly including Serenity. So good. Dinner Saturday night at Las Mananitas. Finally got some shoe horns for the front and back doors and a few to bring to work. And did some coding for work as well. So fairly busy weekend. Starting to get more and more camera related stuff. Need to find a place to organize it all.

Planning on doing some wood working this weekend. Should be exciting. Otherwise, Tracy's working, so household chores. Getting a haircut tomorrow. Probably cooking dinner for Valentine's Day. Watching some movies. Started transcoding the West Wing for Russell finally. After that gets done I need to go through Gilmore Girls and Sex and the City for Tracy before the baby. Gotta have something to watch in at those odd hours of the morning. Of course, got lots of plans on things to update on the computer, but just not sure if I'll get around to it. Really tempted to get the bike out and go for a spin this weekend. Maybe to Home Depot when I need to get hardware to assemble the railing, all 20" of it.

So I tried out my new toy, the Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS Image Tracker. Turned it on when I left the house, didn't get a GPS lock until I got to work. Not so good. But it does get a lock when I point it out my work window. So that's nice. I should pull the GPS log off it to see how my commute home was tonight. I switched back to Chromium this morning, after noticing that it has bookmark sync and extensions support. And then what do I find out? Google released a new beta for Mac with bookmark sync and extension support. Awesome. Just started up Lightroom for the first time. Doesn't seem all that intuitive. Next up, Aperture. Another odd thing, I don't seem to be able to sleep for more than 6 consecutive hours. I just wake up. Kind of annoying now, but I'm sure it's a skill that will come in handy soon enough.

Another late night working. I imagine something like Q3. Every third week. At least I'm getting better at figuring stuff out, and making tools to make my job easier. Always helps. Kind of waiting for all the snow to melt. Except that it'll probably stick around for a while. I keep think that it's a spring snow, not a mid February, actual middle of winter snow that'll thaw a little then refreeze and repeat until it's solid ice in many places. Anyway, got more camera stuff, a Luma Loop and a Sony GPS-CS3KA GPS Image Tracker from my Sony Points. Just waiting for the SD card reader to get here so I can pull files off the camera. And then see if Aperture or Lightroom works better for me.

So we found out our OB is also expecting. We had an appointment, not even with her, but with another member of the practice, but Dr. Williams was there, and showing. We had no idea. But it turns out she'll be giving birth before Tracy will. That's crazy. Awesome. But crazy. And I stumbled upon the fact that a former Facebook friend is also expecting. I guess I really am of that age, where everyone I know is having, has had, or will have babies. In other news, it's snowing. I ended up walking from the doctor's office to work, because I didn't know if the 157 was still running after the CTA service cuts. But it was. I just didn't know though. It was a nice walk. February's getting to be an expensive month, put another Amazon order in for random stuff, and a possible new camera bag. Oh, and all that talk about Aperture yesterday and Apple goes and releases version 3 this morning. I was hoping for updates to the MacBook Pros, but I might take this instead. Also provides RAW support for Panasonic G1s, which might mean GF1 support is coming sooner rather than later. If so, that would tip me towards Aperture over Lightroom. Still have to start it up though.

Yes. Got my camera on Friday, been pretty much playing with it ever since. It's seriously awesome. One little thing I like about manual focusing: it zooms in, kind of like real size on the EVF or LCD screen, so you can get whatever you want in focus. That's sweet. Yes, the EVF isn't a good resolution, yet, I find myself using it a lot. Also like the exposure bracketing, since I'm still starting out and have things to figure out. I also downloaded trials of Aperture and Lightroom, and at some point will figure out which one I want to go with. If Aperture had built in support for GF1 RAW files, I think it'd be a no brainer, but since it doesn't, I figure I should make an informed decision. I brought it with as we went shopping, on the prowl for a dresser, ordered up a glider/recliner, found the newels for the short railing by the bar, and some other odds and ends. Got Gale Street Inn ribs carryout to watch the Super Bowl. Cut some fabric for curtains for the nursery as well. Got another OB appointment tomorrow morning, and go figure, it's gonna snow a lot tonight. And we have to take a rush hour bus tomorrow. Sweet.

Supposedly the camera got delivered today. Yay! So I'll be busy for a while, taking photos. A lot of photos. Sweet. Always fun to have something new to play with. And it's snowing. Didn't really know that was coming. Actually felt a little warm this morning. Finally got Tracy registered at Prentice. We do still need to find a pediatrician. I think we're doing more baby shower registering this weekend. Putting an order in for a comfy rocker for the nursery, which will eventually make it's way into the living room. It's awesome. Gonna try and make it out to see Chuck tonight, but can't guarantee anything. Might also try and make it out to see Karl tomorrow night at bowling, but once again, can't guarantee anything. Not doing anything for the Super Bowl, but will still probably watch it, I think. I should get around to trying to put up the railing by the bar too. That should be interesting to see. Hopefully I don't screw it up too much.

Tracy went shopping yesterday, buying more stuff for the baby's room, and she found a mini chair that's the spitting image of our dining room chairs. It's pretty sweet. I don't think it'll get used for a while, but still, severely cute. Still waiting to hear if my camera got delivered today. I'm so excited. And I bought it sight unseen, never played with it, just went by reviews online, which were all very positive. I seriously can't wait to start taking photos. Real photos. I do still have to figure out the photo workflow. I do want GPS logging at some point. I want to do as little hands-on processing, except when needed. Not to mention there's no Mac support for GF1 RAW files yet. Told Tracy I won't get an iPad until I see one in person. She's also told me that her next computer will be a MacBook or a MacBook Pro, whenever her current machine dies. Which might be a while. Will be nice to eventually get to an all Mac household.

I've added pull-ups to my exercise routine, so it's now planks, push-ups and pull-ups. I got one of those Iron Gym Total Upper Body Workout Bar because you don't have to screw anything into any door frames. Works well. And of course I'm sore after not having done pull-ups in who knows how long. It's a nice quick and easy little workout. Also did some additional foot exercises from PT, since my right foot's been acting up again lately. Annoying. But then again I haven't been keeping up on them. Tracy made chicken adobo for dinner last night, pretty good. She had some strawberries from the other day she wanted dipped in chocolate, so we did that too. Watched Scrubs and Better Off Ted. Had a meeting with Jason this morning, and took the Metra in to work from Roselle. Always interesting to see other suburbs. Also had my McRib for the week. Totally excited to get my new camera tomorrow. I can't wait.

My first date with Tracy was 5 years ago today at Angelina Ristorante. And now, 5 years later, we're almost 3 years married with a kid on the way. Crazy. Not actually celebrating this year with a dinner at the alma mater. Had spamen for dinner last night, Ramen and Spam, yum. Tracy was working, so just rummaged for dinner. Watched the rest of National Treasure and 3 more episodes of Firefly, specifically Our Mrs. Reynolds, which is really funny with Christina Hendricks. I keep forgetting how good that show is, but every time I start watching the first episode, I start plowing through the rest. So good. So good. And starting to see a little commonality between Firefly and Dollhouse, about loyalty, about morality, about doing what's right. Got a meeting with Jason tomorrow. Really looking forward to getting my camera on Thursday. Started looking into GPS loggers to add location info to the photos. Also have to define workflow/backup strategy for the photos. That should be interesting.

We took another step towards making having a baby: we bought a crib. Finally found one we liked, nice simple lines, a little modern, with a nice drawer underneath, the only issue we discussed for a bit is the color: it's espresso. We had been thinking of going with white furniture, but we're going with the dark, which means the nursery will look like it fits with the rest of the home's furniture. Tracy's had to redo her decorating sheet for color schemes and styles. So that was the big purchase on Saturday. That and fabric for curtains for the nursery. Not sure if it'll end up being cost effective with Tracy making them vs. just buying prefabricated panels. Wait and see I guess. Made burgers in the cast iron pan again for dinner last night. Dropped by the in-laws after shopping on Saturday and picked up a nightstand from Tracy's room and had dinner. Also ended up doing some tech support on an old Windows machine as well. Watched Gamer on Sunday, and put Firefly on in the background. Had to make 2 different grocery store runs on Sunday as well. Hard to believe it's already February.