Kid Rock

Thanks to Heather for the really great baby jersey.

Happiness is a Warm Baby

Good Morning, World

Girl, Uninterrupted

I'm closing up shop early tonight and taking the day off tomorrow. Jayne's out of town, so I get to spend some very nice one-on-one time with the little kid.

Saturday Morning Cartoons and Dope Fiend Theater will still be posted tomorrow at their regular times, and I'll continue to publish comments, but other than that I'm hoping to get nowhere near my laptop over the next 36 hours.

See you on Sunday.

Inara is a Punk Rocker

(Thanks to Manny for the cool onesie.)

Bliss

Mornings with Inara

Sorry -- just had to put this up.

The Nocturnal Circus

One of the by-products of sleeping an hour or two at a time (if you're lucky) each night is that your dreams come in the form of rapid-fire, hyper-vivid blasts on the walls of your brain.

At differing points last night, I was sure that I was playing drums for My Chemical Romance and, more memorably, naked in bed with Katee Sackhoff.

Maybe I could get used to this after all.

Pride and Joy

I promise not to turn this place into Oooh-Look-at-the-Baby Central -- mostly because, let's face it, that wouldn't quite gel with the overall misanthropic tone that you've probably come to expect from these proceedings. In fact, once Jayne's home from the hospital, the two of us will probably create some kind of separate site for Inara stuff. (Aren't we so 2000s?)

For now though, a couple more pictures from our little girl's first day wandering the world.

Inara Grace Pazienza

Born this morning at 7:19am, weighing 6 lbs, 2 oz.

Both she and Jayne are doing great.

Neither has ever looked more beautiful or been more loved.

Sine Qua Non

This sonogram image was taken yesterday. Jayne's eyes well with tears every time she looks at it, and I couldn't resist wrapping my arm around her belly last night and feeling this beautiful little girl move beneath it.

Can't wait to meet you, Inara Grace.

(You can read my wife's own feelings about our baby here.)

Blame It On Baby

As I mentioned, I'm out of town right now. For the record, Jayne and I are in Pennsylvania with her family, and are now trying to figure out where the hell we're going to put all the baby clothes and gifts we raked in during Jayne's shower yesterday.

Among the attendants: The lovely Stacey of Pajiba/Litely Salted/WIMB fame, and the coolest lady around, Ms. Mix & Bitch.

Thanks to them and everyone else who showed. And of course, thanks for all the wonderful baby swag.

Once again, haven't had time to write, but that CNN column should be up tomorrow morning for your enjoyment. Think of it as a great (or at least somewhat average) way to start your work week.

Planes, Cranes and Serial Killers

Denis Leary used to do a great bit where he said that the best thing about living in New York is that the city offers you so many interesting ways to die.

To wit, another crane has collapsed about ten blocks from my apartment on the Upper East Side, killing at least two people. This is the second time something like this has happened in the past three months; the last one was ten blocks from my place in the opposite direction and killed seven people.

Back in 2006, a small plane slammed into the building directly across the street from mine. Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle died in that one.

Then of course there was last February, when a psychopath walked into a therapist's office about a block away from where I live and hacked her up with a meat cleaver.

None of this even takes into account the roving packs of aging, badly-dressed, cosmo-slurping whores who'll be terrorizing the innocent all weekend in a pathetic effort to emulate their onscreen idols in that new blight on American pop culture known as the Sex and the City movie.

Yup, Jayne and I couldn't have picked a better time to be leaving the Upper East Side in search of a bigger place for baby.

This neighborhood's just too dangerous these days.