Side note... I hate it when websites don't use title and meta tags correctly... for example... google the title... the top 3 include the IMDB page, the trailer on apple.com, and then the 'official' site... which has a title of 'Lars and the Real Girl - Coming Soon' ... which is dumb, since the movie is already released, and the site itself acknowledges that. Then the lack of meta tags on the page combined with the fact that the page is entirely flash means there is actually NOTHING to show on the google description. Seriously, really?

It was funny cause we actually hired a BABYSITTER! How old are we. A coworkers daughter came over and watch mason. Mind you, she got there after mason was already asleep, so it wasn't that she had to do much aside from hang out and make sure the house didn't burn down. It is just odd to think I have to hire a babysitter. Funny shit.

My toe hurts. I cut it a while ago, like over a month ago if not 2 months, and it is beginning to not feel right. The skin was kind rough, like it was flaky or something, I dunno. But today it is annoying as my other toe rubs against it when I walk. I guess I should find a doctor. Weird.

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...

But let me interrupt myself and talk about newsvine. A friend of mine got me on it. Premise is 2 fold. One, it has a whole bunch of AP wire stories. They all have tags. People can vote up a story. You can see what stories are voted up the most. You can comment on them, etc. Cool. The second (cooler) part is people like me or you can find a story online, be it a blog entry, press release, other news outlet whatever... and 'seed' it on the newsvine site. You basically can bring a no name story into the limelight so to speak. So that is what I did with here. You can click "read the article" to see the article I am referring to.

So the article basically talks about the issue at hand, but with a much different perspective and answers a number of questions that I didn't even know enough to ask. Well worth the read, as it is a much better perspective than many of the other news sources.

It also is a great example of the newsvine idea in action. If you want an invite, let me know, I think I have a couple.

It also brings up the point that although we have a free press, we are limited to what the mainstream press presents to us, what 'facts' they bring up, and what they deem important, as that all controls what we determine to be true in the world. Sure we don't have a government controlled press, but sometimes I am not sure I like those that do control it....

The first cooler part is the xbox media center, XBMC. It it basically a fancy media launchpad. Videos I have downloaded or have on disc. MP3s. Pictures. I can load all those on the xbox or access my computers on the network from the xbox and watch those on the big screen. Slick. No more watching dumb videos on the laptop. Now I can watch dumb videos on the big screen easily. I could have hooked up the laptop to the projector, but that is too much work.

The second cooler part is emulators. All the old video games I had played as a kid I can get running on the xbox. It rules. Of course I only play games I own. But it is fun to relive those old games. It really drives home how much video games have changed in such a short period of time. Play mario brothers. Then play GTA:San Andreas and the level of involvement is so much more. The free roaming ability, the non player characters, the options for the user. It is great, and is much more enjoyable then constantly running to the right side of the screen. They are more complex, and some would argue unnecessarily violent, but that is a conversation for anther time. Lets agree they are WAY more kick ass today.

So I would recommend all you xbox owners, breath some new life into your xbox. Order up a chip and play around. It is pretty cool.

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.

Then we went over to the AMC River East and saw Proof. It was recommended to me by my Audi friend Alan, who worked on the film as the Director Of Photography for the Chicago Second Unit. He said he worked on lots of the exterior Chicago footage (the interior work was done in the UK) and worked directly with John Madden.

Overall I thought the movie was very good. I would give it 4 stars. To me that means I enjoyed it a great deal, but not so much that I would buy the DVD or anything. But I rarely buy DVDs or rewatch movies, so 4 is pretty good. I would recommend it to my family and friends. It has math humor, which I like. The time line moves around a bit, and you can see how it was a play in its original form, but the adaptation to screen was fine. The acting was good, although I am not sure I would have cast Jake Gyllenhaal based on his appearance and that I think of him perhaps in Day After Tomorrow and Bubbleboy, but whatever. He did fine. Gwyneth Paltrow did a very nice job as well, as did Anthony Hopkins. Overall a good movie, and a nice date night.