It's go time. And I'm ready.

For the next hour we tried to figure out whether or not she was in labor. After consulting multiple books, and timing what we imagined were contractions, we'd reached our conclusion: She had gas...

" /> It's go time. And I'm ready.

For the next hour we tried to figure out whether or not she was in labor. After consulting multiple books, and timing what we imagined were contractions, we'd reached our conclusion: She had gas...

" /> It's go time. And I'm ready.

For the next hour we tried to figure out whether or not she was in labor. After consulting multiple books, and timing what we imagined were contractions, we'd reached our conclusion: She had gas...

" />

Week 38: Cry Wolf, Cry Uncle

Sarah was breathing strangely in bed the other morning, and I asked what was up. “I think I’m having this baby,” she said. My heart stopped. It’s go time. And I’m ready.

For the next hour we tried to figure out whether or not she was in labor. After consulting multiple books, and timing what we imagined were contractions, we’d reached our conclusion: She had gas…

The Singles Bracket: Sweet 16

I’m choosing to ignore all Valentine’s Day madness for something far more
representative of my current milieu: a Chicago Singles’ Sweet 16. Inspired
by the basketball madness that is March, in the next few days, I will whittle down the best
cultural events/spots for meeting a potential mate (Note: whether “mating”
is just for the evening or for longer term is purposefully not specified, as it is
usually indeterminable from first meeting)…

Guess the Item

We’re taking you all the way back to elementary school this morning.

Remember those Scholastic book order forms from which you’d procure the latest copies of The Hardy Boys and The Baby-Sitters Club? Remember the feature on the back of the form where you had to look at a detail photo and guess the item? Try this one.

"Surely it’s a juicy, delicious, giant nectarine reminiscent of a lazy summer afternoon," you think to yourself. Well, you’d be wrong…

Week 38: Drop and Give Me Twenty … Wipes

I spent all day Saturday painting furniture for the baby room, which I figured would buy me a free pass to watch the AFC championship on Sunday. It was shaping up to be a great game: The Steelers had won 15 in a row, and the Patriots hadn’t lost a playoff game in years. An hour before game time, I asked Sarah who she thought would win. She looked around the basement at little piles of unfinished projects here and there, and answered: “Me.”

I spent the day building a crib and assembling a day bed…

Anatomy of a Political Event

6:20 p.m. My colleague and I arrive at Hyatt Regency Chicago, site of Barack Obama’s Super Tuesday election night party. Navigate through crowd of campaign volunteers, Japanese TV crews, and supporters to check-in table.

6:45 p.m. Obtain media badge, walk through metal detector, scan crowd. It’s stocked full of media types, college kids, and local politicos such as Cook County Commissioner Forrest Claypool.

7:05 p.m. Attempt to enter ballroom, only to be intercepted by overeager volunteer…

Happy Super Tuesday

One of the more genius uses of Flickr we’ve encountered: a presidential candidate sets up an account and, over the course of the year, steadily posts almost 15,000 photos shot at various events by thousands of users across the country. That candidate? Barack Obama. The wide range of photos includes your run-of-the-mill crowd shots, insightful behind-the-scenes peeks into campaign life, and quite a few downright artsy photographic dedications. We had hoped to find the same from the other candidates—but no dice…

Week 37: Bare-Assed and Pregnant

I’ve spent much of my life avoiding women who appear to be pregnant, because they scared the hell out of me. What if I said the wrong thing? I had nothing to offer them, conversation-wise, beyond “So, what’s it like being pregnant?” Now everything is different. Today at the gym I asked the pregnant woman on the cross-trainer next to mine how she gets her recommended daily calcium intake.

Watched Sarah’s belly vibrate today. It looked like when you throw a stone into a still pond, and the splash ripples out to the edges…

Snow Day

In honor of school closings all across the area today, a babysitting suggestion from the brilliant Saverio Truglia (flickr alias: The Dark Slide). According to Truglia, the Ace Hardware brand of duct tape works best for all of your child-rearing and furniture-building needs…

Week 37: Ten True Things I Wouldn’t Have Believed a Year Ago

1. By the last trimester, a pregnant woman’s breasts may leak a few drops of colostrum (practice milk). It’s thick and yellow and has the consistency of wood glue.

2. Sometimes a drop or two of blood leaks out. Blood.

3. During pregnancy, the average woman’s uterus expands up to five hundred times its normal size…

Bowing Out

With news that John Edwards will drop out of the presidential race today, we present this somewhat prophetic shot by Flickr user Mona T. Brooks (alias: mona, eh) at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago this past summer. Alone backstage, away from the bright lights and TV cameras, Edwards displays a look of pensive uncertainty.

The photo was to be part of our “Net Pix” feature in the February 2008 issue, but it got away from us…