all that's past is prologue...

It started innocently enough while talking to our Ashland neighbor yesterday. We were talking about the carnage being wrought on our block by the demo of the 1880 house and the new house being constructed (that's for another time, but the situation is really horrible), when she mentioned "Well, I hope we can get the backyard looking better before the wedding." Yes, turns out her daughter is having a small, pandemic wedding in her family home's back yard later this month.

So Patrick and I took one look at our rather neglected front yard and thought "Hmm, then we had better do something here, especially since it's so trashed on the other side."

I'm pretty sure Patrick wanted to have a relaxing holiday, but he was incredibly patient about taking on huge gardening projects in blistering heat.

The area around our front tree had at one time looked ok with some yellow irises, but they stopped blooming awhile back and now it looked pretty awful.



Patrick dug…

I had spent all week writing historic contexts for Golden Valley, and needed to get out and drive around the area a little to place things.

Brutus needed to get out of the house.

I had never been to Utepils but love that the name itself is apparently a Norwegian word that encapsulates "the longing and anticipation for the first beer enjoyed in the sunshine." And they have a newly expanded beer garden so I knew there would be good outdoor space.

They prefer that you reserve in advance online, but they could not guarantee we would have an outdoor space if we did that (which is a non-starter for me right now, I won't be inside, and besides they don't allow dogs indoors). They said they would take walk-ups if there was room, and were "under capacity." So we headed over.

The seating was not well organized. There was supposed to be a check-in spot at the door, but it was not staffed, so Patrick had to check in with the bartender inside while I waited with Brutus.…

One of the great things about working for yourself is that you can get up and spend the morning watching Hamilton the first day it comes out. (truth be told, Beatrix wanted to get up at 2:01am, when it first started, to watch it, but w put the kibosh on that after considering it briefly.)

So all four of us sat on the couch this morning (with dogs) and watched it and cried and I needed it even more than I thought I did.

And I guess there's a reason that I held firm in not seeing any other versions of it after seeing the original cast production. Why I was sad when e saw it because I would never have that experience again. This morning was such a gift.

I won't even tell you how many more times I'm planning on seeing it.

I miss theater so much, y'all.

After an unplanned quarantine hiatus, we're back with "Brutus on Brewpubs"! Though I think it will be "special patio editions" for some time to come...

Yesterday we went out to check out Insight's new patio. It was lovely, and I guess we have been missed, because when he staff member came out to clean the table next to s he exclaimed "Wait, is this Brutus? I didn't recognize him with his summer haircut!" He then proceeded to bring him cookies. So yes, our dog is better known in the taproom than we are...

In any case, the man at the table next to us also fell in love with Brutus, and said "Hey, I own Falling Knife Brewery! We have a new, dog-friendly patio, you should come check it out!"

So today, for Father's Day, we got an afternoon reservation (Note: I understand *why* you have to get taproom reservations, but I am not a fan...At Falling Knife you have to call in so you have immediate confirmation that your reservation was rece…

Honestly, as nights go, it's not too bad this second. I'm sitting on the porch, Jayhawks are streaming, writing a post to you all.

But it occurred to me, while sitting through a board meeting via google hangouts this afternoon, that I'm really not happy.

And please note that this is not saying that my mental health is suffering. Mental health issues are often defined as "an inappropriate mental response to a situation," and that's not the case. I think it's perfectly reasonable to be not happy right now (and it's perfectly reasonable for this who's mental health is being affected by the heightened situations). I'm not depressed. I'm just sad.

I'm really worried about my clients and their making it through, and me being able to help them.if I can help them enough.

Patrick's hugs are the best in the world, but I miss hugs from others (especially since it turns out that tween girls are not very huggy).

I miss being able to wander into…

Honestly, with all that's been going on in the world, it seems like talking about house projects is the most mundane of things, and almost disrespectful. But honestly, this weekend, it's all I have had the energy to do. So this weekend, at the Summit house, we've managed to knock off a a number of small, nagging projects:

We finished re-doing the bar — now if I could only have people over for cocktails....



Some details:






















Thanks to some chairs from my friend Rachel, I set up a new seating area. We also framed an old family photo we found and hung it by the family wedding dress photos along the stairs (the photo on the far left, above the chair, is my grandmother when she was young).



I cleaned off the front porch, plants the front planters, moved a table out, and cut down the curtain that did not really work out there, much as I wanted it to (oh well). Now it's the perfect place for evening cocktails, though it would be nice to come up with a way to scare off the mosquito…