Holy crap.

#perspective

[via Co.Design]

We’re having another boy, and we couldn’t be more excited about it.

The sex of the baby, of course. (See what I did there?)

Today, in a matter of hours, we hopefully will find out whether or not we’re having a boy or girl. For a while, I tried to decide which one I would prefer. Then I realized that was a fruitless exercise. There’s always a 50/50 chance, and I don’t want to be disappointed by hoping the coin was flipped the other way.

If it’s a girl, my wife gets to have bows and pink dresses in her life. I know that will make her happy, no matter how much she says she doesn’t care either way.

If it’s a boy, Miles will have a playmate and friend for life. Plus there will be less money spent and less drama. (Let’s just be honest.)

Finding out the sex will, of course, make this all too real. Yes, it’s become more real in increments thus far. (See Caroline’s ever expanding waistline.) But knowing the sex means we stop referring to the baby as “it” and start calling it “he” or “she.” And that’s just one step removed from having a name.

The name itself is going to be important this time around. I want to use it to get Miles excited about becoming a big brother, but it’s going to make this new addition to our family real for everyone – especially me. I’ve been so lost in the world of business lately, both personal and professional, I rarely have had time to stop and process the expansion of our family. When your head is spinning in mortgage documents, a life-changing event happening in six months doesn’t take precedent.

My wife and I are trying to come up with a fun way to reveal the gender to all of you. So stay tuned for a big announcement coming. Exciting stuff!

How has your week gone so far?

Just stumbled across this great video featuring Graham Hill, the founder of Life Edited, that discusses their philosophy of “clearing the arteries of life.” Fascinating and eye-opening.

Check it out, and let it motivate you to life-edit this weekend.

[via PSFK]

This past weekend, I attended SOBCon here in Chicago. It was such a great event, especially for those with entrepreneurial inklings such as myself. Regardless of what reasons people attended, the crowd there was so passionate about what they do, you couldn’t help but be inspired.

One of the talks that really hit me was by leadership coach Steve Farber, who said that his mantra is that you should do what you love in the service of people who love what you do. He was talking to business leaders about the importance of loving their customers, but I think this could apply more broadly.

And then it hit me: that mantra could just as easily apply to this little blog experiment. This is something that I’ve loved doing over the past three years, and if it weren’t for you – reading, responding, commenting, sharing – I probably wouldn’t have kept doing it.

So I just wanted to say thanks.

Thanks for sticking around when life (and laziness) has caused my posting to be more sporadic than frequent.

Thanks for putting up with my occasional rants and experimentation.

Thanks for encouraging me when life gets hard – and for giving me the opportunity to do the same.

Thanks for letting me fluctuate between shallow and deep and being OK with it.

Thanks for pitching in when I’ve asked for help.

And most of all, from me to you, thanks for being a reader and visiting at all. It is always appreciated, even if I’m not always good at remembering to express appreciation.

Thank you.

[Image via Always Bë Cool]

If you haven’t visited Letters of Note, you definitely should. It provides “fascinating letters” and correspondence from the famous and infamous.

Yesterday I stumbled upon this letter from Ernest Hemingway (who, you’ll remember, I admire) to F. Scott Fitzgerald on the publication of his final book, Tender Is The Night. I’ve pulled out my favorite parts of the letter below for your enjoyment (the misspellings are genuine to the letter):

For Christ sake write and don’t worry about what the boys will say nor whether it will be a masterpiece nor what. I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit. I try to put the shit in the wastebasket. You feel you have to publish crap to make money to live and let live. All write but if you write enough and as well as you can there will be the same amount of masterpiece material (as we say at Yale). You can’t think well enough to sit down and write a deliberate masterpiece and if you could get rid of Seldes and those guys that nearly ruined you and turn them out as well as you can and let the spectators yell when it is good and hoot when it is not you would be all right.

Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don’t cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist—but don’t think anything is of any importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you.

About this time I wouldn’t blame you if you gave me a burst. Jesus it’s marvellous to tell other people how to write, live, die etc…

But Scott, good writers always come back. Always. You are twice as good now as you were at the time you think you were so marvellous. You know I never thought so much of Gatsby at the time. You can write twice as well now as you ever could. All you need to do is write truly and not care about what the fate of it is.

Go on and write…

Check out the entire letter at Letters of Note, and keep on keeping on. Go on and write.

[Letters of Note via Flavorwire]

Last week we had a semi-successful inspection on a house that we’re attempting to purchase. Which means that we’re mere weeks from being homeowners. (Crazy.)

We’re pretty excited about it, as this has been a less-than-fun process thus far. Why? This house marks the fifth house we’ve put an offer on, and the third we’ve been under contract for.

That’s right. Five offers. Three contracts. Which means we had two unsuccessful offers and two previous unsuccessful contracts. Not fun.

The two unsuccessful offers were the result of very inflexible sellers not coming to terms with the current value of their homes. (I mean, the market’s starting to get better, but let’s be realistic here. One seller wouldn’t come down on their asking price at all.)

The first house we were under contract for we were pretty excited about. It was a very nice little gut rehab with amazing finishes. But apparently nice finishes on a gut rehab should have been a warning to us. We were so naive.

Our inspector let us down easy, calling the house a “failed rehab” – or as he unaffectionately called it, a “Lindsay Lohan.”

The second house we were under contract for was an estate sale in a really great location. We called it our “project house,” because the previous homeowners had not left it in the best condition. But we thought it was manageable from what we could see, and trusted our inspector to flag what we couldn’t see. The price was great, so we thought we could put some money in it right away and put our mark on it. We thought we could make it our own.

But we didn’t get that far. Our attorney flagged to us right away that the taxes listed on the place were not accurate in the slightest. They were actually double what the listing said, due to many exemptions and a “senior freeze” on the taxes that the previous owners were enjoying. Needless to say, this brought the monthly payments way out of our comfort zone.

We tried renegotiating the price due to this new revelation, but we couldn’t come to another agreement. Another contract – and another few weeks – down the drain.

It should be noted here that this was around the same time we found out that our current landlords were going to be inflexible with us on our lease. We had hoped that they would go month-to-month with us for a little while on good faith – and the fact that we have been very good tenants for three years. But no. We were going to be homeless as of June 1.

Then finally – just in the nick of time – a couple of weeks ago we stumbled across this unassuming little house. It was in a decent location, and had almost everything we were looking for. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but no house is. But it felt like us.

And now here we are, past inspection. The furthest down the road we’ve ever been. And it’s starting to appropriately feel real. The Gardners are about to take a big life step.

We’re about to finally be homeowners. And I’m semi-freaking out.

How did you handle the transition to homeownership? Was your experience this crazy, or was it especially bad for us?

[Photo via ~Brenda-Starr~]

When I first heard about Mansome, the new documentary from Morgan Spurlock – the creator of Super Size Me and The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, etc. - I admit I was skeptical. People like Judd Apatow and others featured in the movie have historically not portrayed men in the greatest light. My qualms with Hollywood’s stereotyping of men being well documented, I pinned this as another journey down the aren’t-men-so-incompetent-they’re-funny rabbit hole.

After seeing the trailer (above), I’m not so sure. Yes, funny people are involved. In fact some of my favorites, Will Arnett and Jason Bateman, produced the movie. But at first glance it seems like they might have done a good job toeing the line of satire, while making an important point about the ridiculous mores of the American male. If that’s the case, then this might actually be a movie worth seeing.

Guess we’ll see. The movie is expected in theaters this May.

[via Hypebeast]

I’m still digging myself out of the inevitable vacation rut, but in the meantime, why not enjoy this amazing video about a watchmaker from the talented photographer/director Dustin Cohen, the next in his “Made in Brooklyn” series (the last you might remember).

Be back to the grind soon with more. How was your week last week?

In case you haven’t heard, it’s official: we’re expecting again.

There is no way to capture here the roller coaster of emotions that has been our lives over the past few weeks, and I’m going to use that has a (pretty valid, I think) excuse for why I haven’t posted here much. I want to explore what’s been in my head – especially about the new baby – but I just haven’t had time.

Just to sum up:

• We’re expecting another baby in October. (!!)
• We’ve now put in four offers on houses, and as of today, are under our second contract. (Oh, and by the way, our landlords are kicking us out of our apartment in less than two months. So… kind of important that we find a place.)
• Miles turned three years old.
• I’ve been traveling a lot for work, both for conferences and client meetings. Needless to say, it’s made the other stuff more intense, as you can imagine.
• I’ve been sick as a dog, with some kind of sinus infection or something that has kept me hacking up for a week and even affected my hearing.
• One other mysterious semi-huge reason that I just can’t share yet. (But desperately want to.)

Our saving grace has been an upcoming trip to Florida for a week’s long vacation. We’re leaving tomorrow, and I’ll be unplugging – thankfully, willingly – completely for nine days. It’s needed for everyone.

When I get back, expect many more thoughtful updates. In the meantime, what’s going on in your lives?