Worked from home this morning before a meeting with Jason. Was surprisingly productive at home, even though Tracy was hanging out on the couch since she worked the evening shift today. I'd been craving some Burger King so I grabbed some for lunch on my way back in to work. Also went out and got the address changed on my Drivers License and nabbed a State Id as well. Figure it's good to have. And I was tired of having the safe renewal sticker on the back. Last night felt a little out of it, maybe a little overwhelmed, so decided to take the day/night off from tracking calories via Lose It!. Felt good to just eat. But back on the horse today, even with the BK, just meant I really couldn't eat much for dinner. Made it through another box of documents today. Finally. Also the Identity Theft continues, well, more like I continue to find out about stuff that happened that one weekend. Ugh. Would be nice to get it all squared away at some point. I need to check in with all the accounts, because I haven't received all the Affirmations of Fraud that I need to send back. And definitely happy that the weekend is close. Even if it's cold and rainy.

Man date Friday night with Russell, and he got to try out Rocks Lakeview. And I think the food is better. Saturday hit up Green City Market and actually saw our neighbors there, shortly after we saw them packing up the car as we drove out of the garage. It was cooler out, and we ended up heading out to Woodstock after dropping off some apples and poblanos. Ok, maybe we should have rode our bikes down. On the way out to Woodstock, wanted to pick up some storage boxes at IKEA, and knew exactly what to get, but still ended up staying for an hour and a half. I do like that store, but it was pretty crazy on a Saturday. Did see a family spooning on a couch in one of the display setups watching some TV spooned 3 deep. Ended up walking out with a full length mirror. Which we needed. Went to dinner after mass at 1776 Restaurant. Cool thing about that place was that they were offering a 100 mile dinner, where everything was grown or raised within 100 miles of the restaurant. I ended up getting a nice mixed grill of game meats, and the rest of my family each got the 16 oz. prime rib. There was a lot of meat on the table. Watched Eight Below on my parents new TV, one of those fancy Sony Bravia ones. It's got this enhancement feature where movies and tv shows look almost 3-dimensional. Eight Below actually looked like a documentary on Discovery HD Theater, not a movie on ABC Family channel. Sunday had breakfast/lunch at Burnt Toast, and then took the long way home, stopping by Woodfield on the way in. And watching the Bears as I'm posting, having no idea how it ends since I managed to stay away from TVs, Radio, and Internet sites, including Facebook and Twitter.

I guess I'm not really a bike commuter. I declined to ride in this morning because forecast called for rain all day, and I didn't want to be cold and wet at work. If it was warmer, sure. If it was dryer, of course. But I wussed out. And so far only rained bad for a little bit today. I could have totally rode to work. Ugh. I also managed to wear a too thick coat. Should have gone for the slightly thinner one. So the Bears game Sunday was fun to watch, better not knowing a single thing about it going in. Of course it'd be a whole different story if they hadn't won. Monday had leftover prime rib for dinner, Tracy braised some squash. Watched Saturday Night Live Thursday Update, the Packers/Vikings, How I Met Your Mother at half, then the rest of Packers/Vikings. Tried out ripping a bunch of DVDs then queuing them up in Handbrake. Seems to work pretty well. Plowed through 7 between last night and now. Better than the 2 at night and 1 in the morning. Also realized I have 3 iTunes Store season passes right now, Mad Men, Heroes, and Glee. Maybe next month I'll pick up Chuck. Watched Mad Men at lunch yesterday, and Glee today. I love technology.

Had lunch with Tracy today. It was her day off, and she had to renew her drivers license, so that was cool. I like it when we get lunch, even if it means I didn't get to watch another episode of Glee. We went to Shalom Deli, fairly close, and it was good. I'm surprised I haven't been there before. Seriously good for a deli. I just love that it's run by an old Japanese couple. Picked up Year One and My Life in Ruins from Redbox last night, did only 4 rips last night, started up the Handbrake queue, then ripped a couple more this morning and added to the queue, which is cool. Thinking I might need to get a bigger disk for my Drobo sooner rather than later. Did my foot exercises last night, after making a Jewel run. Also dealing with a fruit fly infestation. Watched Dollhouse, Parks & Recreation and The Big Bang Theory. Dollhouse seems to be heading to a philosophical science fictiony direction. Interesting.

I've started waking up earlier and having breakfast in the morning before leaving for work. Got some whole beans for coffee and grind a handful for the french press, and maybe a bowl of cereal, English muffin, or this morning, blueberry Pop-Tarts. I had no idea the serving size on Pop-Tarts is one, even through they come 2 to a foil package. Annoying. But it's nice to get up, do something in the mornings. We lost a cushion from the roof sofa. At least I think so, since I one was missing when I checked on things during the high winds a couple nights ago. How does a loveseat cushion blow off the roof? And not be visible in the alley, or the neighbors roof or deck or garage? And Crate & Barrel doesn't make that color anymore and a single cushion is super expensive. So that's annoying. Decided to suck it up and ride in to work today, even with a forecast of rain. Brought my rain pants and my neoprene socks if it is raining on the way home. Worked my way through some more papers last night, only 1 more box to go, plus the filing cabinet, then finding someplace to put it all.

Well, I sucked it up and rode in this morning. Feel like it was milestone in my commuting, riding in to work when it was raining. I did dress appropriately, although the loudness of my rain pants was a little annoying. And I didn't exactly match all that well. But looks like I won't have to bike home in the rain, so that's nice. I do have to pick up chili cheese fries on the way home, since Tracy's got a craving. Probably saw it on TV or something. I on the other hand have a craving for some cupcakes, and the one I got today from The Cupcake Counter wasn't enough, and I plan on making some this weekend. Hopefully. Got some more sleeves for DVDs in the mail yesterday, and put away all the TV shows in the storage boxes we got from IKEA. Looks like we got enough space for a few more. I'm just saying. I think I totally forgot about the ones on display though, the ones in the pretty boxes. Finally watched The Forbidden Kingdom last night, since Tracy was working. Some pretty good fight scenes in that one. But nothing jaw dropping. Tracy made some mechado for dinner. I actually gave the Mac mini the day off from transcoding, and I'll put it back to work this weekend. Hopefully I can finish off cleaning/organizing/storing stuff in the living room. That'd be nice. Otherwise, not much since Tracy's working the weekend.

Been busy. Almost feels like always doing something, or always should be doing something, and a strange feeling that something's hanging over my head, like there's something I'm forgetting to do. Friday night picked up chili cheese fries and food from Clark St. Dog on the way home. Yet another great reason to bike to and from work. Watched a bunch of TV. Saturday took a walk up to Dunkin Donuts on Broadway just south of Irving Park to get some Pumpkin donuts, since Tracy was working. Got a haircut. Leftovers for lunch. Hung out with my parents for a bit, brought some more stuff over from the old home. Finally put in some IKEA pull out shelves into a couple of the kitchen cabinets. Had those for a long time. Went shopping after Tracy got off work, picked up a replacement serving bowl for our everyday dishes, some Flor carpet tiles for the office chair to roll on, and checked out what's left of Smith & Hawken. Dinner at Las Mananitas and watched Year One at home. Sunday went to mass, walked by the craziness of the Chicago Marathon going through Boystown. Cleaned the stovetop, did more cleanup and organization, covered up some deck furniture, hung up the new full size mirror in the bedroom, cleaned the microwave, made chocolate pudding cakes, just put How I Met Your Mother on play in the background while doing housework. Picked up more junk food for lunch. Rode in this morning. Was nice since it was a holiday, pretty quiet, but with Jay on vacation, I'm pretty busy at work this week. So yeah, feels like a lot to do and a lot's getting done. Strange.

Was really really tired last night, and fell asleep on the couch. Been a little tired lately, and really need to catch up on my sleep. When Tracy works on the weekend, I get up at the same time she does, so no real sleeping in. Kind of nice because I'm trying to turn into a morning person, but not so nice when I don't go to bed early enough since it's the weekend. All the work at work isn't quite as bad as I thought it'd be, maybe since I did work from home Monday night. Which is good, since I need to leave a early today and a little early tomorrow. Which also meant I took the El in this morning. Took down the deck umbrellas and put them in the back stairwell. Should have put the cushions in as well. Tracy made stir fry for dinner, watched Dollhouse, last weeks and last season's Epitaph One. Got The Proposal and Transformers from Redbox, and having issues with The Proposal. Annoying.

Went to a Mike Doughty concert at Shubas tonight with Russell. Awesome. Even got the live CD they burned on demand after the show. Seriously good stuff. Nice acoustic set. And love that venue. Tempted to just start seeing anyone interesting who plays there, just cause it's so intimate. Went to dinner beforehand at Goose Island. Good stuff. Last night went to Glenn's Diner with the in-laws and Mike and Amy. Ended up doing some work from home after getting home. Stayed up a little late. Haven't ridden in the last couple of days. Miss it. Also, definitely taking part in a relay team, the third wheel in the JEspy team, of the Urbanathlon. I get to do the second leg, with the monkeybars (right up my alley) and the marine hurdles, which sound like a blast. Just hope I keep a good pace. Also going to the Rose City Rollers vs. Windy City Rollers roller derby match at UIC Saturday night. Sarah's sister is on the Portland team. So that should be fun. Other than that, hoping to catch up on some sleep on Sunday I guess.

Now a four day span. Saturday was a sporty day spent with Jespy. Ran the second leg of the Urbanathlon. Found an old guy to be my pacer, so that was nice. Obstacles were the best part, wish the monkey bars and the marine hurdles were more numerous. But because I didn't do any sort of training, I'm paying for it now. I'm pretty sore, calves and quads. Leg warmers help, and calf sleeves definitely help, but I'm tempted to get some recovery compression leggings. Of course by the time they show up I'll probably be recovered, but might be good to have in the future, since I apparently don't train for these things. Oh, and I decided to run in a white polo, argyle sweater vest, and khaki shorts. Been wanting to do these runs in this outfit ever since Tracy started me on them. That was cool. Weather was a little cool, but just after Jesse finished the last leg the sky opened up and it started raining/hailing. Got a ride up to our neighborhood where it was blue skies and sunshine. Had lunch at Nookies Tree. A couple hours later met up with Jespy again at Tufano's before going to our first Flat Track Roller Derby bout to see Sarah's sister's Wheels of Justice face off against the Windy City Rollers at the UIC Pavilion. Awesome. Totally want to get season tickets next year. It's fun. But Friday night was a nice quiet night at home, except for biking home into a headwind up the lake front path after picking up my race packet. Sunday was a nice quiet day as well since Tracy worked, and I recovered on the couch.

Didn't end up sleeping 'till late last night. Just sort of drifted along for a while after Tracy went to bed. Continued ripping/queueing up Handbrake, now I'm on the w's. Got a lot of MetaX'ing to do. Just kind of didn't want to do dishes last night. Maybe we should use the dishwasher once in a while. Like tonight. Watched some tv, some football. Oh, had to pick up some Mac & Cheese on the way home last night and tried using the bike rack at the Jewel on Broadway and Addison. And they put the rack too close to the curb, so you can't put the downtube over the top of the rack, so it's really useless. I just locked my front wheel and wandered in. I've also noticed someone who just uses a ring lock on their bike at work. Not even locked to the rack. So odd. I definitely should park my bike next to that one. Lubed up the bike chain the morning. Makes a world of difference. Also got a craving for Crisp.

I think I got Bryan on Twitter. Sweet. I think something's wrong with the Trek 7000. Or I'm way out of shape from the Urbanathlon last weekend. I'm going much slower now. I did take off the toe clips late last week, thinking it was getting colder out and that I needed to start wearing big boy shoes while biking to keep the feet warm, but then, of course, it's the 70 degree October weather I was expecting. I miss the toe clips. I do think I'll be getting clipless pedals when Keen releases their new cleated shoes in January. As long as they aren't super narrow like their Commuter sandal, and more like the rest of their lineup, wide and roomy in the toe box. Would be supercool if they had a waterproof version too. But yes, I didn't think I would go for clipless, but if Keen has 'em, might as well. Maybe by then I'll have a proper bike to put them on, too. Might use some Apple stock profit, as I'm thinking of selling a little. A 1000% gain for me, after holding for 9/6 years, well, maybe I should lock in some of that profit. And get a new computer. And a new bike. And a new camera. Or just hold onto it for even longer. Eh. Got to have lunch with Tracy today on her day off. Always nice.

Rode to work in the drizzle on Thursday, rode home in the rain. I was soaked. For some reason I decided against bringing the rain pants, or using the sandals with the waterproof socks. Both would have been better than just my travel pants and waterproof boots. Didn't ride in this morning, because it was still raining, and had to get back at a decent hour, since we had to go to April's Mom's wake. Condolences. But there was switching problems at Lake/Wells, so it tacked an extra 30 minutes to my commute. A little annoying, but I watched some Glee while waiting. Fun fun show. Put some soup in a bowl and covered it with puff pastry to make a pseudo chicken pot pie. It was alright. I think I needed to roll out the puff pastry some more. Fairly random stuff for dinner tonight, odds and ends. Supposedly my 10 year college reunion this weekend. Not attending. Plan on getting lunch with Jenkins tomorrow at Crisp, but no other plans besides that. Tracy's working tomorrow, but plans for Sunday include Uni-Mart for some egg rolls and some Ube ice cream. I'm hoping I can finally update the website/Memex with an iPhone friendly version. Still really want to do some sort of Mac/iPhone development at some point.

So that whole watching what I eat thing fell off the rails the last couple of weeks. Well, last week and a half maybe. Last two weeks I gained a pound each week. Exactly the opposite of what I'm supposed to be doing. But I'm getting back on, and trying it out again. But starting today, because I ate way too much this weekend. Saturday went to lunch at Crisp with Jessica Jenkins, for the annual, or bi-annual meal. Good to catch up with her. And satisfied my Seoul Sassy craving, and also picked up some vividly colored cupcakes from Phoebe's Cupcakes. Rather interesting stuff. Got a small dinner at Sai with Tracy, since I was still stuffed, and her share of the meal was much more than mine. And we figured out she shouldn't get the Tempura, because they fry shrimp in the same oil. But no Benadryl needed, which was a surprise. Watched The Proposal, and now Tracy wants to visit Alaska, even though it wasn't filmed in Alaska. Sunday we went shopping out in Oak Brook. I got to play with the new Apple computers. At some point, I think a MacBook Air is in my future, if they get updated. At some point. Also, we picked up Wii Sports Resort and an additional Wii MotionPlus since I had a gift card from Mike and Amy. Ended up spending more money, instead of just using what was on the card. Also had my first taste of Ricobene's. Not bad. Visited with the in-laws for a bit. Watched some TV when we got home. Didn't ride in today, as I didn't feel like possibly getting caught in the rain again.

Finally. You know, for all those waiting the 2 years iPhone has been out, and not having an iPhone friendly formatted Daily Dose, you can now read this more easily on the go. Or in the bathroom, or on the train. Of course, how many still read by coming here vs. just subscribing to the RSS feed. Next up is finally updating Memex, which I was hoping to roll out a new Daily Dose skin for, which also has an iPhone friendly skin, and also Musings, not that I'm all that current with that writing space anymore. After that I should crack open XCode for the first time, or maybe look into EC2 and webhosting again. Always projects on the horizon. I didn't bike in to work again today. Maybe tomorrow. Watched a bunch of shows, and I really like the new ones, Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Community. I think Community might be my new favorite of the season so far. Plans for selling some Apple stock hit a snag as it dropped below 200. Also went to bed way too late the last two nights. Another reason why I didn't bike. Definitely try and catch up tonight.

Now that I'm talking about getting a new computer, 2 things started happening. Apple stock after the run up from the earnings report has come down to pre earnings report levels, and my MacBook has frozen up on my a couple times. Sweet. Otherwise, got a nice full night of sleep last night. Really early night for me. Needed. I've been watching The Dark Knight on the El, better than reading since that was giving me a headache. It's better when I stand and read vs. sit and read. Watched more television last night, picked the resident that was going home on Grey's Anatomy from last week. And I always enjoy seeing how different shows work around a star's pregnancy. Oh, picked up a couple more movies from Redbox: Nothing Like the Holidays and The Da Vinci Code (because Tracy might be rereading it). I do need to get a couple more 2 TB drives for the Drobo but it may have to wait until the new year, as November and December as usually will be expensive months on the budget. Again, took the El to work. Maybe biking again on Friday.

Way back in May I got a couple NETGEAR WGR614L Open Source Routers for use with the iPhones for controlling whole house audio from the deck for the summer. One of them shorted out, so I sent it back for replacement. On the website the status was returned to warehouse, but not shipped. I finally decided to call and find out the status on Monday and they found the RMA order and shipped it out overnight. Apparently they didn't get that order downloaded or something. Anyway, I won't be getting Netgear stuff anymore. Then again I don't really need to. I probably should have just saved up and gotten one of those dual band Airport Extremes. Picked up mail and dropped off RCN cable box at the old home on the way home, along with a Jewel pit stop. Made a pumpkin pie last night, but wanted to make cookies, but didn't have any butter. My fridge, out of butter. This is why I went grocery shopping today. Since Tracy does most of the grocery shopping, stuff like butter and eggs and ice cream run out.