Rebecca is feeling a bit better too, although she isn't thrilled that I am going to the garage again tonight to work on the jetta... but the jetta is SO close... check the jetta blog for more on that.

So back to work... feeling ok, but not awesome. This is going to be a long weekend, autox on saturday, and moving the garage on sunday. Ugh. I am really hoping that the july 1-4th weekend comes together and I have time to relax.

Oh, and I am an idiot and left the interior light on in the Audi last night, and since I got home late, I parked down the block... so I had to go to the car, realize the battery was low, go back home, get the camry and jumper cables, go BACK to the audi, jump it, put the camry back, etc... it was a great way to start the morning... but I did get into the office right before the rain hit though, so it wasn't all bad...

Aside from that... On saturday morning I went and picked up a stroller frame and a car seat base from a someone via craigslist. Those were both over 1/2 off retail and that means I can have a base in my car too and we have a smaller stroller that the infant carrier will go into. That was a good deal.

We went out to walker brothers pancake house on saturday for dinner then hung out at my parents. Sunday we went to costco in the AM and amongst other things, we bought frozen strawberries! score. But we also bought a a 9 DVD set of baby einstein movies. We bought then not sure of the price... it was $90. That is a deal considering they are $15 each, but I wasn't sold. When we got home I got on ebay and ended up scoring a 19 DVD set for $78 shipped. So no one should ever buy us a baby einstein DVD.

Anyway... then we met my parents for lunch in Greektown, which was nice. We decided we should then run up to the garage in skokie to get the roof rack basket that we are lending to caroline for the road trip to california that they are going on. Up to the garage and back in to the city.

When we got home, I had got an email back from some dude I emailed off craigslist about some lexus rims he was selling. So I called him back and locked the deal down. So then we drove up to wildwood, got the rims, then drove back to chicago. They are the 16 inch rims off the non sport IS300 rims.

$175 for them with tires, although 1/2 the tires are crap. but that is ok, we have the tires that were on the car that have 1 more season left on them. So I will mount those up and then I don't have to pull the snow tires off the steelies. Nice.

Then we grabbed Mr. Salsa and went over to Bob and Lisa's to watch the sopranos and hang out.

Overall it was a nice weekend, and I got a number of things for a cheap price. I love buying things used...

Traffic was fine aside from a crazy white trash mustache wearing guy in a nascar sticker adorned red lumina who decided that he didn't want me to go faster than he. So as I merge on to the express way, he speeds up to match my speed.... then when I floor it and get in front of him, he gets all mad. At the next opportunity he floors it, passes me on right, and, puts his POS chevy into a gap about 4 feet wide, cause me to brake. So I back off since this guys is clearly nuts. We pass all the traffic, and he sets his cruise at 71 in a 70 and goes back to the right lane. WTF? ALL of that drama, all that speeding, just so he can go 71 mph again? I don't get it. Why would you get all mad that someone would pass you when their cruising speed is CLEARLY more than you are planning on driving ANYWAY? I see it all the time-people drive all dumb and pass on the right or the shoulder but have no intent of going fast. They always pass on in the crazy way, then when the traffic is open and clear, they drive the speed limit, which is less than you were driving when they initiated their crazy maneuvers. WHY? It makes no sense? All I can assume is people are just giant dickheads? Fools? I have no idea... The other nice thing would have been had we been in the audi, I could have walked away from him in the first place, and I would have never had to deal with any of that BS. Faster cars can be nicer. But we got like 28mpg in the Camry, and me in the Audi would have never pulled that off. And it would have been much more cramped for those in the back seat.

So we got to detroit and went to the xmas party. It was fine. The pics are here. Nothing amazing. Mason was pretty well behaved and most people were excited to see him and hold him. He is a good baby. It is odd to think next year he is going to be moving around and what not. It is gonna rule.

This is the first time I have seen uncle kenny since he got in a bad car accident and had had a seizure (I think he had a seizure). (He had the accident in my old subaru). As a result of the ordeal, he had to relearn a bunch of things, walking, talking, writing, etc. Motor skill stuff IIRC. The other negative thing is that he has trouble linking words in his head, basically vocab lookup internally. Like he will be like "hey, I need a couch". He really needs a pen. But when he does the mental lookup for pen, it returns couch. And he doesn't necessarily realize it is wrong until you go to get him the wrong item, or you are like "what are you talking about?". It must be SO frustrating. But I talked to him a bit, or rather hung out with him. He has been living in an assisted living/rehab kinda house that I guess has been really good for him. He has lost a LOT of weight. I am not sure I have before and after pics, but I will check. He is diabetic and he has been keeping better track of that too, which is good. But he was laughing and seemed to be having a good time. I hope so, since he has had it rough.

Aunt Bev brought all these old pictures she had laying around, which is funny cause half of them were from weddings or of people that have since gotten divorced and remarried and were there with their new spouses. Awesome.

We hit the hotel, kevin took the car and got some coney islands from national, and we set up all the babies stuff, watched some TV, and went to sleep. I was damn tired. We got up the next AM, drove a bit, grabbed einstein's bagels, and hit the highway. We eventually caught up with my parents, had lunch with them, and drove into chicago. We dropped kevin off at his house, and we drove to winfield for rebecca's grandfather's 94th birthday. It was chill and nice. I fell asleep on the couch. TIRED. They decorated the tree a bit. Getting old is tough though.

Rebecca drove home, which was nice, since I wasn't driving.

I must be getting old, as I was totally tired, but I used to drive way more. I mean this was a 315 mile trip each way. And we made good time, but I was tired. I have done 1,000 mile days in the past and sure I was tired, but still. I dunno. Maybe I am out of practice at the distance driving. Maybe it was the baby adding stress, or the party, or the fact that I slept poorly in the hotel, who knows.

Back at work, busy busy busy. I am looking forward to a nice 4 day weekend.

first... while attempting to repair my mom's iMac, I find that the hard drive is not readable. For those who don't know... her iMac was working fine... then half of the town lost their power. Then the power came back on, but her iMac won't work. I have tried everything, couldn't boot it up... Not that I have lost any of MY data, it is still frustrating... We got her a new iMac (20inch iMac G5) and it is very nice. Now she may start backing up on DVDs and this can be alleviated.

Then I stayed home waiting for the couch to be delivered. I cleaned the house a bit, organized stuff, etc. Got ready for the couch... they showed up around 1:20 or so, and low and behold the couch won't fit up the stairway. Damnit.

So I have a clean living room and a couch I like, just no way to get it up there. I have some thoughts on how to remedy this. It involves removing walls. We shall see.

So now I am at back at work... Get some shit done, then go check out a garage space with dylan tonight before my parents get into town...

word.

got the website up, although not without much hassle from the hosting firm... but it is up... finally. I reiterate, they suck.

On to better things... I got the jetta running on saturday. Well, it wasn't NOT running, but it was leaking coolant. Dylan and I replaced a hard pipe on the coolant system and she is running fine now. Oddly enough, Cali sat on the street for nearly 2 months (end of may to last saturday) and still started right up. That was cool. Remember that key item, it will come back in a minute. We replaced the line because on Sunday, I entered Cali into the CVO's annual car show, Treffen.

Since Cali is hardly a PRETTY car much less a show car, I had to have some fun with it... Here are the pics... I won 'Jetta Least Likely To Make It Home'. It was a good time. There were some nice cars there. I got a fair amount of amusement out of watching the other people laugh at my car. I was having a good time.

It did however remind me that I want to get this engine built and into the jetta so I can actually have a better running, non-leaking jetta. It would rule.

So that was the weekend for the most part. I have been working lots, due to things at work not working correctly. Stupid computers. But they seem to be coming together nicely. Monday night we went out to my parent's house to go couch shopping and so that I could fix my mom's computer. Her iMac died when the power went out... so I had low hopes and I think I am correct, I can't get the machine to boot AT ALL. I will try tonight to see if I can recover the files on the hard drive. Fingers crossed.

We did find a couch and my parents threw in some money and it will be delivered tomorrow. I am excited because we NEED a couch in that room. Or something to sit on. I am of course grateful that my parents helped out, although I feel a bit... not sure of the word... extremely grateful... not uncomfortable per se... but anyway. It rules though!

But between early saturday morning, early sunday morning, being in the sun all sunday, early monday morning, shopping and computer stuff monday night, I crashed come tuesday after work.

We ordered pizza hut. Pizza hut is one of those things that I THINK I want... and I think, man, I haven't had pizza hut in a while. So we get it. and I eat it. And I remember that I don't like it that much. But oh well. We ordered online and ordered the new twisty bread bread stick crust thing that they have been advertising the hell out of... only to have them call me after the order and tell me they don't have it, since it was promotional. I am not sure if it is too early, or too late, but it seemed odd. Whatever I guess. The guy that delivered it was in a Lincoln Towncar. It was kinda odd. He also spoke in a such a way that you would think a MadTV or SNL sketch comedy person would talk in. It was odd. His name badge said "team manager". weirdo.

So the couch is coming tomorrow... and I am getting mom a new computer tonight (eMac)...

is that a good enough post robs?

We slept there for the first time last night and it is a nice feeling. Now we get to unpack, buy more crap, etc.

Even though it was hot as hell today in Chicago, we moved a bunch of stuff into the new house. Thanks mom, dad, and kevin. I still need to get my stuff packed and ready to go, but nearly all of rebecca's stuff is over there. It is nice to know we have it in the place.

We also went to the place to get the hardwood. Mind you, the price is really really good, and so there is some 'too good to be true' kind of thoughts going on, but I should know more tomorrow when they call me. Hopefully I will have the flooring before the weekend. It will be really nice to get that in the house and we can finish the move.

I think I also found some hardwood at a good price. I will know more this weekend. It will be nice. Good price. From the people we bought the paint from. It should rule.

But I am so sick of painting that I am thrilled to be going to work. Sure, I need to pull up carpet. And lay some plywood in the downstairs. And pull off trim. And put up trim. And shave the doors. And and and and. This house stuff is hardcore. But it rules. I'll have more pics soon. Night and day.

I also met my neighbors. They seem nice.

Big thanks to the parents.

I am tired. Working is hard.

Robyn will be helping tomorrow as well as rebecca's parents. Too bad I can't find any hardwood flooring, but oh well. It is coming along well. Pics to follow soon.

Saturday I did laundry and cleaning and other boring household crap. I dropped rebecca off at the metra and I DID pick up my projector though... as fedex left it at my office after I left on friday... I is very nice. We put it in place of michael's and it is brighter and a bit more crisp... I can't complain by any means. We can use it with many of the lights on. I had to test it by playing GT4 you know, just to make sure it worked. It seems to be ok, more testing required. (We did surpass 50% completion though).

We also had a prenatal appointment with Caroline and Jaren saturday afternoon in the burbs. We went to rebecca's folks house, had tacos. I like tacos. They were good. I need to do that more often. The prenatal appointment went well, heart beat is all good. We also talked lots about doctors, etc with them and it was a great chance for rebecca's folks to get their questions answered about how this is all gonna go down. Baby is doing well, we can feel it moving and kicking nearly every day now. It is pretty dope.

We drove the audi a lot this weekend and it is kinda annoying that the AC is broken... but what can you do... grrr. Stupid part is $1097 from the dealer. Bastards.

Sunday was again stay in and lazy. It was nice. I can't complain. We watched Haute Tension on DVD... it was kinda weird. More horror than thriller, but I thought it was good. All the shots are really dark. Kinda creepy. But I enjoyed it. Rebecca didn't, and the baby was moving around alot. That was interesting.

Monday we went out to my parents place and rebecca's parents met us up there. We went over to Babies 'R' Us and registered for the baby showers. Picking out baby stuff is fun. We picked out a bunch of stuff. You can see the stuff here. You should all buy us stuff.

We BBQed a bit after the torrential downpour that came through and then watched the fireworks. The rain was great, I love big rain. Anything red on doppler is good by me. The BBQ was good (go fake hotdogs!). The fireworks were launched from the other side of the lake due to fire concerns with all the dry stuff, which turned out to be a non-issuee due to the rain... but because of that it was slightly less than perfect, but not bad at all.

I was walking around the house before dinner and was looking at Kevin's car... and noticed a tire was low... and upon closer inspection, had been driven SO low for SO long that it had actually cracked the rubber on the sidewall and was likely to become a big problem REALLY soon... so we swapped his spare... Then came the revisit to the question of does kevin need rims... honestly, I want to push the rim thing cause I want him to get more into the car. But he has destroyed nearly EVERY RIM HE HAS EVER HAD, so I am not sure that is a good idea overall. We'll see.

So overall, very nice weekend. I didn't get any packing done, but I'll deal with that later. I didn't get any flooring or paint picked out, but I'll get that done later. I guess.

back to work...