all that's past is prologue...

I did not want to be laying in bed, wearing a fleece onesie and still shivering, while my husband and daughter headed out to the several wonderful NYE parties we have planned. I have a beautiful new dress that I got in Duluth for tonight, and was looking forward to the collection of friends we would be seeing. Our friend Whitney in particular is throwing the last party at her B and B, and it's breaking my heart not to go. But I feel logey and coughy, and more to the point, I have a low fever, and I don't want to mess around with possibly getting anyone sick. I'm still holding out hope that I'll miraculously feel better and the fever was a mistaken reading, but I doubt that. And I feel lucky to have 3 sets of people who want me in their lives tonight and who I don't want to get sick. As our yoga teacher Viv says, it's not like a page turns and everything is magic. You get some things that are good, and some that are not, and life is living in the middle. -- In 20

Tonight was the last night Twin Spirits Distilling was open, do we went over one last time. We had lovely drinks and delicious tacos and loaded fries from the food truck. And we wished that we had come here more often. I've always liked Twin Spirits, but their response doing the pandemic, when you could reserve little greenhouses to sit in, was truly awesome. It was places doing things like that at that time that I think truly kept us going. They still have some of them: Brutus was especially a fan: Brutus was also a fan of Lakes and Legends taproom, which also closes forever tonight: I especially appreciated their dog-friendliness, and the wide variety of people you could see there. When we went for one last drink last week, there was a table of older ladies who drank right until their Metro Mobility bus started honking for them, a somewhat droning musician, people playing cards, a long table of younger folks, several people with dogs, and more than one family. It was awesome. And

A reminder to myself to fake it until you make it in the holiday season: With the biggest tree we have ever had There may be no snow but the window boxes are up (and FB reminds me there was no snow 3 years ago either) Winston in his "Feliz Naughty Dog" bandana Paper stars in the hallway A decorated mantel ready for Santa The spoils of a cookie exchange with Natalie, Rochelle, and Meghan (plus Norwegian dance baking day) Escaping the house for a holiday drink with my honey It's a hard time of the year, but I have much to be grateful for!

As many of you know, I was on jury duty this week, until I came home from Day 1 yesterday and tested positive for covid (little-known fact: this does not get me out of jury duty, it simply defers it.) So I have spent the past 24+ hours in bed with a really nasty case of it — this variant is NOT here to play around and scoffs at things like my booster and masking and my previous cases. I don't even know where I got it, so to anyone I inadvertently exposed, I'm truly sorry. People have been amazing, bringing by food and oximeters to lend (turns out mine was reading several pints low so a new one stopped me from freaking out so much) and pie and hot toddies and gag kleenex boxes and the like. I have amazing friends. I've missed several important events but that does not seem like such a big deal right now. You see, December 12 is the day I always kind of start to lose it. December 12 is the day that my mom went into the hospital via the ER, never to come out again. It's a

It seemed like Christmas came early today when Patrick enlisted the help of a friend to move some big heavy furniture around! To back up a second — much of my office work is done in a big comfy chair, with an ottoman in front of my, the cats nearby, and where I can grab things as they come out of the printer. But my old big comfy chair, which we had brought over from Summit, was worn out, to the point where the staples on it kept on catching at me. Though it was comfortable, it was not inspiring. Luckily, since I was sitting in it, no one saw much of it on zoom. The ottoman had been converted into "Trouble's play space": And the other chair on the 3F was suffering a similar fate: So I got a new chair from the neighborhood free board. It turned out to be from a friend's mom, which makes it extra special, and our friends Peg and Troy helped us pick it up. So I think about a lot of greta people when I sink into it (it's much squishier than the old one). I don't l

(well, really liquor problems but I can't resist a good Taylor Swift reference) When Patrick and I were touring the Old Sazerac House in New Orleans (you know, because it was educational...), I really liked the little round bar carts at the tasting stations. I thought they might be the solution for our liquor situation — an overabundance of bottles, though relatively few mixers. However, did you know that round bar carts are $200-$400? Yikes! Luckily, I found a dupe (it's supposed to be a plant table, but whatever) in the neighborhood BST group for $3, and she even delivered to our house. Plus we sold an old playmobil advent calendar, so I actually made money on the BST this week. So late last night, after a fruitless hunt for the Northern Lights, I decided to redo the bar area. Note I now have a whole shelf for shakers, for gin, and for hooch! Everything else fits well in the main part of the bar, without getting too stacked up on top! In a win for the canines of the househol