I neglected to mention...let the record show that A.J.'s first visit to a public place (other than the hospital and the doctor's office) was Noodles & Co. Would have been Babies R Us, but Gina and I were hungry for lunch Sunday, so we stopped.

Of course, he's been cooped up in the house since. That, and he'll never remember it: He slept soundly through the entire Noodles experience. He tried to sleep through Babies R Us too, but the semi-bumpiness of the cart jostled him awake a few times.

I should add: car seats are great...they fit so nicely in those wooden restaurant high chairs and on the top of shopping carts. It's nice, because I don't have to wipe anything down or worry about him touching everything (at this age, anyway).

So it was good to get him out of the house...too bad he slept the entire trip, more or less.

Also, my friend Bill and Gina's friend Lisa had their baby last Thursday...Lily--and she was a big girl too: 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 23 inches or something like that. On my biz trip, my boss was asking if A.J. was the first baby among my friends, and I was like, "No, there have been a couple in most of the friend circles."

And then I realized that, although A.J. isn't the first baby, he is the first boy in both the NU "inner circle" of sorts (right?), and also among the next generation of my friends from the South Side.

Lucky him. :)

In a completely unrelated topic, my brother emails me last night: "I'm watching this show, Gangland on History channel and it's talking about a big gang in Chicago that basically ran drugs on [the corner I lived on] and it was the best money making corners in Humboldt Park. They even showed the building I think you lived in too. Way to pick a great neighborhood."

At least I can now say I lived somewhere historic. Granted, by the time I lived there, it was starting to become gentrified--although not quite there yet. Still was not the safest place to live. Also, now I know why Kazak tore a hole in the wall the one time...it wasn't the fireworks, it was to get to the drugs still hidden in the walls, probably. :)