• 2 Yellow onions, chopped
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 2 jalapeno peppers, chopped
• 1 can (30oz) chili beans
• 2 15oz cans of diced tomatoes
• 1 can (4oz) green chilis
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbs chili powder
• 2 tbs cumin
• 1 tbs paprika
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil

Heat up the oil in a saucepan, drop in the onions, celery, carrots, garlic, and peppers and cook em up til they are soft, say 5-10min. Add in the chili powder, cumin, and paprika and cook another min or so. Drop that into the crockpot along with the beans, tomatoes, and chilis. Add salt and pepper, stir it up. Cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8.

This makes about 5-6 good size bowls of chili. I made a batch sans the jalapenos and my wife ate it, so it wasn't too hot. I think there is some room for tweaks to make it a bit hotter, but then I end up with a whole batch for myself, which is fine, but it is better if I can share it.

Obviously I could use other beans, I could prep the beans in the pressure cooker, etc, but I was being lazy, and canned beans were on sale, so it was just easier.

They actually have been closed 5 months due in part to the move and in part to the cities 3 month delay in finishing their paperwork. In the meantime, we ordered thai from a few other places, and while they were good, we both have this whole "omg pot pan ruled" thing in our head... so I called tonight (as I have been doing every week) and I was happy to find them open again... They were very happy to be open and the woman referred to us as 'our old customer'... so that was nice. Hopefully our memory is accurate and Pot Pan really is as good as we recall.

This AM I got up, made smoothies, fed mason, and was at work at 9.

I like eating lunch in, since I don't really care about the food options around me, and damn is it hard to eat a decent meal out that is remotely healthy. I mean, au ba pon (sp?) has low calories, but like 50% of the daily sodium. ok. Subway 6inch veggie patty is ok. The tofu teriyaki is good, but I can only eat that so much. Not to mention all of those cost $4-$6. So I have been making pb&j sandwiches and eating some fruit. I figure that is better, and infinitely cheaper, even when I am using whole wheat bread, real peanut butter (list of ingredients: peanuts. thats it.), and fruit spread (it is hard to find a jelly/jam/preserve that doesn't have corn syrup in it).

So yeah, I figure that is better than what I was eating.

Work, tonight is garage. Maybe I'll work on the car? who knows.

2007 ...and still no flying cars

that rules. although I am not sure I like chipotle as much anymore. It is good, but it isn't as healthy as I would like, and I am trying to eat healthier food lately.

After the autox, I got home, washed the car (it was filthy). I like it clean. And it is so easy to do... it just looks so much better. Mental note: wash the car more than once every 6 weeks.

Then I drove over to meet Rebecca and Caroline at Yitca's house. Yitca's baby Ellie (sp?) is 3 weeks older than Mason, but she is like little super developed baby. She started walking last week (so at 8.5 months). She talks (mommy, daddy, shoe, etc). She waves, etc. Crazy. But good for her. It is weird cause you can't help but to compare your own kid to other kids... and it is such a weird macro view of time at this point. You need to relax, and let some kids walk before others. In 2 years, you won't care what month your kid walked. In 10 years, you won't even remember how long it took. But now, in the 6-12 month range, it seems to be SO important. It is not indicative of anything in the future. Got to remember to leave the charts and graphs alone, and focus on the baby. He'll figure it out on his own in due time.

Sunday got up, picked up dylan, and we met scott and kieran at the old shop. Loaded up a ten foot uhaul box truck (that had NO brakes, likely due to the fact that it had no brake FLUID. We filled it up and it improved. A little) and moved a bunch of stuff to the new garage. Then we swapped the old truck for a slightly better truck and made another trip. The new shop is nice. We cleared out the little room in the basement and loaded a bunch of our stuff in it. Having storage in the basement rules. Once we get everything cleaned up, organized, put away, etc, the new shop is gonna rule. RULE. ROOL. I am excited, but since I am still sick of moving, I don't care about it. For now. Also big plus: MUCH closer to Mr. Salsa, so I will get to eat there more often.

Cali is still at the old shop, and I am hoping we can get her running soon so I can drive her to the new shop. We still have some stuff there, but it is all small stuff that can either fit in a car, or is required to finish Cali up.

Rebecca's brother was over when I got home and we hung out and chatted and shit... when I first started dating Rebecca, we didn't get along SUPER well, but I think we have both figured it out and now we can chat about this and that tech shit, it is pretty nice. So we hung out a bit, then I drove him to the metra station to catch the last train to glen ellyn... and man, was it pouring. I forgot how the tires on the camry aren't awesome in the rain (Bridgestone Potenza RE92)... but they were better then taking Audrey, which is on Rs still. That would have been hydoplane city.

So overall, things I learned. I hate moving. I forget that sometimes. I also didn't get to spend enough time with Mason, which sucked, I want to hangout with him more. Having a clean car is nice, wash it more often. Kids develop at different paces, and that is not a problem, no need to compare yourself to every kid on the block. Rebecca's brother is cooler than I had realized.

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...

this weekend rebecca took mason to the burbs with her and they went to get paper for the birth announcements. They done chose good stuff. I went out the garage with dylan to hang out and work on cars. In typical Dylan/Bryan fashion, we spent more time driving around and eating then working, but it was a nice break none the less. We got work done on the rabbit, I cleaned out the Honda, reseated the stereo, and finally got the CD changer magazine out (rebecca hasn't seen those CDs in a long time). Then we picked up Sarah and went back to our house.

We hung out a bit, then Dylan and I went to pickup Robs as well as Mr. Salsa and Thai. We all hung out at the house for a bit, it was nice. We ate at the table. It was cool. In hindsight, it is really funny. Like we haven't ever had that many people over and eaten at the table. I think we should have more things like that. Not even dinner parties, but just people over and then we eat. Perhaps we could throw in a game of some kind as well. I love Cranium. That could rule. I may be on to something here. I need a card table or something though if we are going to play around the couch. or a coffee table. hmmmmmmmmm....

We also sold the Honda to Dylan for Sarah's folks, so that car is no longer in our arsenal.

Sunday we stayed in for the most part. I ran a few errands. I installed the timer control for the front porch light. It is pretty neat. It occupies the place where the switch was and it is fully programmable as well as has a full look up table for sunrise/sunsets. I have it set to on at sunset and off at sunrise. It is pretty cool.

Monday I installed the projector to the wall and set that up. I forgot how nice it is to have a huge TV and video games. I played some Burnout-Takedown until Rebecca got annoyed. It was dope. The xbox mod chips come this week too, and I picked up a 160gb HD for it. Micheal and I are going to mod them up and I am all over installing xbox media center on mine. It will make watching all the tv and videos I have on the computer way easier. It will be nice. And I love tinkering with things.

We also stopped by the wabansia house and saw the kittens. Damn kittens are cool. They are so playful and entertaining. Michael needs to take more pictures. Michael's dad built this incredible cat castle. it is insane. HUGE! totally cool, although it makes them look kinda dorky, but that is certainly ok with me. It would actually get bonus points in my book!

Mason is doing great, check his blog for more updates. He is still eating and sleeping and pooping, but he is awake more now than ever. He is also a bit fussier, not such that we can't get him to be quiet, but it is still kinda annoying. He still grunts and groans as he tries to move around and use his muscles and whatnot. It is funny. But you can tell his vision is improving and he can focus better, which is neat. His dexterity is also improved, as he now actually will hold onto things, like a blanket, etc. It is cute.

I am sure there are other things that have happened, but I forget things.

Tonight we are going over to Robyn's to see the new place, have dinner, hangout, etc. It is gonna rule. Mason will get to see a new place and new cats.

We ate at Flying Saucer, on California south of Division. It was really good. Way Veggie. Rebecca and I will need to go back.

I drove the jetta around all morning and to the airport and shit. It is a fun car, and I will be happy when I have it all done. I enjoy driving it. I will enjoy it more when I fix the things that are broken, but man, it is a fun little car.

The weather is super nice. I turned off the AC and opened all the windows. Cosby is thrilled. I set up all the accounts and bill pay stuff at washington mutual's site. Now I gotta go get working on the basement. I need that floor done so we feel more moved in.

It will be nice...

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...