A surprisingly beautiful November Chicago day.

Still, it's hard not to be jealous of those smart enough to get out of town for the winter.

[Also...

The terrible children next door have mostly disappeared as it's turned cold, but are back out in full force on this unseasonably nice afternoon.

Sarah: There's a five or six year old out there just saying, "sex sex sex sex" over and over again.]

By popular request, a picture of Tetley, the totally blind dog.

Interestingly enough, there have been no requests for pictures of the newborn.

You can check Facebook via your XBox now. I certainly enjoy both of these things, but they seem a little silly together.

Still, we checked it out and ended up spending a long time looking at each other's Facebook photos on the big TV screen. The pictures are arranged from newest to oldest so we watched ourselves slowly get younger and thinner.

[FYI: Just because the WiiFit board is in front of the TV doesn't mean I've used it anytime recently.]

After about two days in the hospital, Sarah's aunt gave birth to a healthy little baby girl.

I had a little trouble getting into the hospital myself to visit.

Me: Excuse me, where's the women's hospital.
Hotel Concierge: Last name?
Me: Mine?
Hotel Concierge: Who are you here to see?
Me: Oh. Uh. Last name? I know her maiden name. That wouldn't be...
Hotel Concierge: I need the name she checked in under.

After a few text messages I got the correct last name.

Hotel Concierge: And first name?
Me: Peggy.
Hotel Concierge: Nope.
Me: No?
Hotel Concierge: You're really not doing so well.
Me: Everyone calls her Peggy.
Hotel Concierge: Maybe that's a nickname. She probably checked in under her real name.
Me: And Peggy would... be... short for...
Hotel Concierge: Who are you to these people?
Me: That's a good question. I'm the boyfriend of a, uh... family member. I'm... I'm just trying to be a good boyfriend here.
Hotel Concierge: [warming a little] We have a Margret.
Me: Peggy could be short for Margret.
Hotel Concierge: Boyfriends need to know these things. You need to know the family names.
Me: I know. You're right.

After a hectic trip it's nice to be back in my own bed... Oh wait.

Sarah's aunt is giving birth, and the whole thing is going on much longer than expected.

To help out I headed out to the suburbs to watch another family member's children. Basically that meant hanging out in the strange house all night while the children slept.

It was just me and Tetley, the completely blind dog. The dog has been blind and living in that house for years, but still walks head first into walls every few minutes. That seems to be her way of getting around. Walk into wall, drag face and ear along wall until you get into the next room.

Late into the night, I let her out into the backyard to go to the bathroom. There were only three steps, but she fell sideways off of them.

I finally fell asleep on the couch. I woke up to the sound of the children on the phone pleading with their mother to come home, and no they did not want to wake up the strange man on the couch.

These road gigs tend to be a bit of a blur. Airport, Van, Hotel, Sound Check, Show, Maybe Some Drinks, Hotel, Van, Airport, Home. Sadly, there's rarely much time to go see or do anything touristy.

We were blocks away from the ocean. Never saw it. We were a town away from the Burt Reynolds and Friends Museum. No time to go.

The show went well, though, and we had a big crowd. Maybe it was because of the giant roadside billboard promoting our appearance. Pretty impressive. Sadly, I didn't get a picture of that billboard. But I did take a picture of this 'Coastal Internet Sweepstakes cafe' sign that we all found really funny on our walk from the bar back to our hotel.

Florida.

Waiting for the sound check for a Whirled News show. Eddie takes a moment to check Facebook, check his texts and find out how his daughter's first day of preschool went.

Digging through some old photos, I found this one of Tom and I's freshman year dorm room. It's only half a picture, half of it somehow exposed to light, I guess.

Even just this bit you can see, though, gives you a good sense of it. Pretty typical.

Magazine covers taped to wall? Check.

Strings of Christmas and chili pepper lights? Check.

I skipped my regular Whirled News show to watch the last show of Sarah's improv group, Cowlick. They'd been performing together at the Playground for six years. But half of them have moved away and the other half are busy with families and generally getting older, so they decided to retire the group with a big final show.

During the heartfelt speeches portion of the show, Mary Beth said, "I moved to Chicago with a plan. I'd be here for two years. That would be enough time to get cast on the Second City Mainstage and then move on a deal with Saturday Night Live or something like that." Knowing laughter from audience. "None of that stuff happened, but being a part of Cowlick, and knowing how much we loved each other and how much we enjoyed playing with each other... it felt like had. And now it's over, and it's six years later and I realize that these guys tricked me, and I'm very angry at all of them."

Later there were drinks and sad goodbyes (even though they've already planned a group cabin trip for early next year).

I went with Young and Trupe to see Nick's high school production of 'The Diary of Anne Frank.' It was one of the stronger production I'd seen Nick direct.

Oddly, Young and I had small cameo's in the play, our voices at least. Nick had asked us to record some of the radio snippets that appear briefly in the production. Young was British and Dutch. I was German. My lines were, "All Jews must be out of the German-occupied countries before July first. The province of Utrecht will be cleansed of Jews between April first and May first, and the provinces of North and South Holland immediately thereafter. Immediately thereafter."

I recorded a couple takes on my computer and sent it to Nick in an email apologizing that it wasn't very good, but maybe he could find a take that would work. I'm not great with accents. That double, "immediately thereafter" at the end was especially tough.

It was painful to listen to myself during the play, especially since Nick had edited it so that the "immediately thereafter"s repeated over and over, at first for eerie dramatic effect, but then going on long enough to seem that it was honestly only happening to make me squirm. (Later Nick admitted he'd done it on purpose. "Oh yeah, I added a couple extra ones to make fun of you. I wonder if it was a slight detriment to the show.")

Afterward we hung out in the lobby with Nick's wife, Katie, so she wouldn't have to wait by herself.

Katie: After the shows I just have to stand around for a while and be the director's wife, you know.

A few of the cast members walked by, on their way to the wrap party.

Cast Member: Hey, was one of the you the Dutch voice?
Katie: That was him.
Cast Member: And the German too?
Young: That one wasn't me.
Katie: This guy was the German voice.
Cast Member: Thanks for doing it. They were great.
Young: Thanks.
Me: Trust me... you were all much better.