she’s finally here. nothing is the same. nothing could be better.

nine months ago, this seemed impossibly far away. now, it can be counted in days, instead of months. isla is nearly here, and i can say without a doubt that one of the most exciting, rewarding and mind-bending experiences of my entire life is about to happen.

i know, the last thing the internets needs right now is another top gifts list. whatever, here’s mine.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Four minutes of details. Four minutes free of lies and fear-mongering.

a suburban neighbor in drag and federal laws with rabbits? i had dreams last night. weird, weird dreams.

today was the big 20-week ultrasound. everything is perfect. and…it’s a girl!

it has been entirely too long since i last wrote about gus. sorry gus. even as i haven’t been writing about the little thing, it’s been the only thing on our minds. we’ve been busy thinking about names, picking out furniture and choosing paint colors. the second bedroom is quickly transforming from office to nursery.

satch being a bad dog; taken with our new flip minoHD

outstanding, heart wrenching video by richard penfold & samuel hearn.

with gus’ impending arrival, we had quite a bit more motivation to find somewhere to live with a little more room and a lot more sound insulation. being able to hear a baby cry from two floors below us isn’t terribly encouraging, especially for our neighbors.

this week, in addition to our 12-week ultrasound, we told our works and friends.

we went into the 12-week appointment with great news—our insurance will cover all of the prenatal tests, even the ones that are completely uneccessary for a healthy 25 year old woman in her first pregnancy. However, we do get an extra ultrasound.

we told dana and steve & cheryl this weekend. stephanie has been absolutely beside herself scared about telling them and i’ve been trying to tell her that i think they’ll be thrilled.

and then there was gus. all of a sudden, this little being was up there on the screen. holy shit, there it is. those 10 tests and that mild nausea were all right there. it’s real. gus is real and living inside of stephanie. we both melted. how can this be real?

she said that she knew the next day, and on a certain level i did too. 10 pregnancy tests later, we were both pretty certain that we were no longer alone. and honestly, it freaked us the hell out.

my google voice invitation was such a long time coming that i had completely forgotten about it. when it arrived last thursday, i knew that i wanted to make wifi-only calls on my iphone. after reading some of the message boards and an online tutorial, the solution became a little more clear. here’s what worked for me.

at the juncture of the wrigleyville bar scene and boystown, we obviously live in a colorful neighborhood (usually rainbow-colored, but colorful still). while we come to expect a certain amount of craziness, i’m not sure what could have prepared me for what was about to happen.

fantastic TIME article about the (un)expected social impact of twitter.

the antics of punks the cat.