Proud Papa

When you're the family photographer, you're rarely in the pictures. This is the only photo that made it out of Juliet's first day, just minutes after she was born. Mary snapped this rare photo with my iPhone.


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New Addition to the Family

The plan for the day, July 23, 2010, was to "have baby."
And that, we did. Juliet Sejin Park came into this world at 12:27 pm, on July 23, 2010, weighing in at 6 pounds 12 ounces and 20 inches. Unlike her older brother Josh--who had to be forced out rather traumatically with forceps after 15 hours of labor and 4 hours of pushing--Juliet made her grand entrance after only 5 hours of labor and less than 1 hour of pushing.

Needless to say, I was in love.

Mary jokes that I really wanted a daddy's little girl, but it's Mary who really wanted to have a girl. I saw the emotions in her eyes when we found out this baby was going to be a girl. It was a deep biological longing, much like how some men really want to have a boy. This is Mary and Juliet just minutes after birth, the brightness of the delivery lights still shadowing them.With Juliet resting comfortably, we, of course, had to celebrate. I'm not even sure if we're allowed to have alcohol in the hospital, but we didn't care. If there ever was occasion for champagne, this was it.Juliet and Mary are resting comfortably now. Mary told me just now, "She makes me forget about the last 9 months!" Isn't that so true.

Healthy House, Healthy Body?

My house is green. My body, on the other hand, is the opposite. I actually went to the gym once this year. Once. I bought running shoes... Never used it.

But today, I had a noodle salad and juice from Jamba Juice for lunch. As if that's going to undo all the fast food, coffee, booze, late nights at work, and pizza breakfasts. It did make me feel better today though. It's a start!



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Extend the Life of Your Growler

Step 1. Buy your favorite beer in a growler from your local brewer.

Step 2. Gather your things. You'll need caps, a capper, empty bottles (here, cleaned Red Stripe bottles), and a pourer. I'm using a measuring cup but a funnel would probably work too.

Step 3. Pour beer into bottle. Use capper to cap your beer. Tip: Colder the beer, the less head or foam you're going to get.

Step 4. Put the bottles into your fridge. Enjoy your beer at your convenience.

Two More Days

Hot but beautiful day on the back deck today. Josh has no idea what's going to happen to him in two days!! Baby sister will be here. How is he going to react??

I'm Such an Ass

Ugh. Do I feel stupid. Ever do or say something that makes you feel really bad in hindsight? It makes you feel like you've lost perspective... like you've become a version of yourself that you used to make fun of. I've unintentionally--but probably predictably in hindsight--made someone feel terrible about their life. And for that, I now feel terrible. Ugh.

No Longer a "Young Professional"

OMG, when did this happen?? I'm no longer a "young professional." I just got a letter invitation to a golf outing for lawyers and it says "young professionals" are "35 years of age and under." Come to think of it, I've seen this age cutoff before. WOW, at 36, am I officially middle aged? Crap. crap. crap. MIDLIFE CRISIS.

Cafe Mustache

I'm at work enjoying my cup of coffee I picked up at cafe mustache this morning. Mmm. Great coffee!! Welcome to the neighborhood, officially. I can't wait to play hooky and work from there on their free wifi.


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Revolution Brewing Trademark

Hey, look what showed up in the mail today. The official United States Trademark for Revolution Brewing. Perfect excuse for me to have to pay them a visit. Life is hard.


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How Quickly We Forget

Today, I put together the co-sleeper we used with Josh and I thought the memories of sleepless nights would come flooding back. Nope. Already forgot all about it. Ready for more punishment. This is nature's way of ensuring survival. Bad memory of miserableness.


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Keeping It Going

We've now finished building our house and are just living our day to day lives. I've contemplated just stopping this blog and letting it be. What else is there to write about? Life, I guess.

Recently, I lost a cousin my age--just really hitting his stride in life--to a tragic accident. To say that Daniel Cho was a talented musician is an understatement--this is him on the cello with Regina Spektor.


If his life has taught me anything, it's that life is too short not to live every minute of it. You need to share it. You need to love it. You need to embrace it.

Dan was a gifted writer, a soccer enthusiast, a Guiness-lover, a talented composer, an amazing musician, a doting father, and a loving husband. If anything, he's taught me that it's these little moments that I need to enjoy--the lazy weekend mornings with the family, pizza dinners at the local restaurant, and warm summer days at the pool--and it's these things that I'll long to remember when I'm too old to remember. So here goes.... at least for now.

Transformers 3

I was reading some legal briefs at work today when I suddenly heard a loud "boom" sound and what sounded like repeated machine gun fire. For a split second, my heart sank and I thought, "This cannot be what I'm fearing it could be!!"

Then a split second later, I remembered that Transformers 3 is filming in Chicago right now. I looked out my window and there it was. Wacker drive, destroyed by the evil Decepticons!! Curse you, evil robots.

Neighborhood @ Night

I took this photo from the California Blue Line stop on my iPhone late last Friday night (7/16/10) as I was coming home from O'Hare. Not exactly a high quality picture, but I took it because I was pleasantly surprised to see so much foot traffic here at 11:00 pm at night. It represented such a contrast from last year, when we moved into the neighborhood.

With the Boiler Room, the Logan Bar, Revolution Brewing and Cole's all opening within the last year or so within blocks of each other, there's definitely a different feel to the neighborhood. I like it.

Selling Our Roscoe Village Condo

At last. We're putting our condo in Roscoe Village on the market.

It's a great place and we'll miss it when it's gone.

It was Mary and my first home. It's where we lived when we got married. It's where we were living when Josh was born. It's where he learned to take his first steps.

It's also where we had countless number of parties, nights out, and fond memories as couple of carefree, kid-free people.

Not that I'm complaining. It's just that we've moved onto the next phase of our lives. We still go out. We still have fun. But it's changed a little.
I guess it's symbolic that we're now putting up the condo for sale as well.