all that's past is prologue...

At first, when I chose my word for the year, I was thinking of "Grow." But, despite the gardening planned, I didn't know how ready I am to grow in multiple ways right now. Taking time out for the classes I need to take, for one thing, sounds daunting. And so I chose "Build," deciding there was some "grow" implied in there. So this weekend, we focused on potted plants. We had some gift cards from Gerten's we had purchased and received as part of Beatrix's costume fundraiser (thanks, Elaine!). And the canna bulbs I had planted earlier were not coming up (if you know anyone with some extras, hit me up!). So we headed to Gerten's this rainy morning. We decided on dahlias as something different for the front sets of pots (with the idea being I might try to overwinter the tubers this year). I already had some alyssum I had been given. We used a more brick red dahlia for the pots by the porch, and offset it with some cheery petunias. I had extra i...

I'm writing this at Summit. We have not moved in yet, but it's a quiet place to work (nevermind that I am not actually working right now), and a friend is cleaning through some items of his he has stored here. It's very peaceful and quiet. It feels really good. Another friend stayed here over the past 8 months, and even though she left it in nice shape, I hired a cleaner to come and give the place a deep clean before we moved in. We could have cleaned it ourselves. But we were overwhelmed, and it just made sense to have someone come in. Kate did a great job, and it feels so much better to come into a space that feels ready for us. Sometimes, building is knowing when to let someone else do some of it.

So one of the last times I fell in love with a band solely because I heard them on NPR, it was Bishop Allen back in the early 2000s. (Reader, they never made it big as a band, though one of the leads went on to found OkCupid, so I guess he's doing allright). (Note to Liz: yes, I know Bandits on the Run does Tiny Desk Concerts every year, but I heard them live BEFORE I heard them on MPR, so that does not count.) But recently I heard Call Me Spinster  on Weekend Edition and loved them. Really. Go listen to Potholes right now and you'll love it too. I'll wait. (See, you're back! Wasn't that great!) I quickly found that they are on tour right now, and were coming to a club called Cloudland near us that just opened last fall on Lake Street, an indie venue located in the formerly notorious Diane's Massage. So we decided to go, abandoning our kid to circus and exam prep. It's been a long time since we've been out to live music, and this was a great step back ...

  My friend Tracy gave me a whole stack of books from the book of the Month Club the other day and so I joyfully deemed it the "Summer of Reading" over on the 'gram: A lot of my friends wanted to know what that meant: Do we discuss the books? (I mean, I suppose informally but not in any book club kind of way). Is there a specific book or genre? (No). They already read a lot, do they need to do something else? (I'm also Team All Books All The Time. This just gives me an excuse to double down this summer and spend more time in a hammock with a book. I'm "Achieving a Goal.") Can we have Summer of Gin simultaneously with Summer of Reading? (Of course). Is there a summer reading challenge like when we were kids? (I'll be on the lookout for one, sometimes Red Balloon does one for adults. I don't know anyone that will give us a personal pan pizza for reading a lot, sadly). Because Summer of Reading clearly needed explanation, I used Fiverr for the first...

I had a BHAG to get the garage painted by the end of April. Like many such goals, it got derailed by being overbooked (mainly with circus shows) and rainy days and work deadlines and the like. I did get a lot of it done, but there's still a fair amount to do. To be honest, I think I touched up the siding in spots about 10 years ago, but haven't otherwise painted the garage since it was built. I'm on a ton of May 15 deadlines and should have been working. But the backyard looks TERRIBLE and I really wanted to get it cleared up so we could spend some time out there, and that means at least finishing the part that faces the patio. And it's a gorgeous day. So I got through some work and decided I would just have to do some tomorrow. Patrick has Beatrix at an MRI for a back injury (yikes!), so I popped quickly out to get some of the painting done. The step stood I was using was tippy on the group, but I thought I was ok for small sections. Until I was not. Stepstool tipped, ...

Many years ago, Patrick got me a comfy chair I had fallen in love with at a consignment store. Since then it's been my comfortable place — but also the comfy place for the animals as well. For a whole year, Brutus spent most days camped out on it. But over the years, it's become pretty worn down. So, because I haunt the free boards, I found a blue and white chair and ottoman that I also loved. I made a new friend from the previous owner, and she even delivered it tonight. So tonight I went down to the park at the end of the block to nab some lilacs to put in a vase (and talk to a neighbor on the way).   When I came back we moved some things around, and I love the way the living room looks now. I think the animals appreciate it as well! Come and visit! We bought a bottle of crema de fleur tonight at a tasting at Solo Vino, and we made some delicious G&Ts. We would love to hang out with you!

I'm in a lot of shock and not getting much done today because I got the news that our incredible neighbor, John, passed away yesterday after a brief illness. (terrible picture but best I can do in a quick timeframe) His story is not mine to tell, but my memories are, and there are so many of them. They are flooding through my mind right now that it's hard to get much else done, so I'm doing what I usually do when that happens and write. John and his wife Linda were the first people I knew on my block — in fact, I knew them before I bought the house. Linda worked with my friend Elaine at TPT and they welcomed us with open arms and connected us in to everyone immediately.  Whatever we needed help with, John was there, where it was work on the house or a drink in the back yard next to the chimichanga. I talked him into stage managing at Jeune Lune and he stayed for awhile as production manager and never held it against me. He and Linda were always going to great theater, and o...

Ok, and I mean this seriously — one good thing about having multiple properties with multiple projects is that you can always take advantage of an opportunity. Even if something is not on your priority list, if something comes up that you can use, you can hop on it. In this case, I had long wanted something between the pavers at Summit. Really I had wanted creeping thyme, but it's ridiculously expensive per pot. And then my friend Teresa was doing some dividing yesterday and had some extra stringy stonecrop that she gave me, so I put it in there. I know it's "invasive," but here I think it will be great. I just wish I had a little more of it, but hopefully it will start to spread soon. For some reason, every one of our gardens are looking a little bereft this year, and I don't know why. I also have some upgrade projects I want to do — Africa re-ignited my love of tropical plants, for example, so I would like to put some cannas by the pool. If anyone is dividing pl...

Last week, my friend Megan told me that each 1,515 emails we store in the cloud translates to one full pound of carbon emissions a year. I made a note on my Trello list (I wonder how much carbon *that* takes up a year?) to delete some emails. Then today Patrick informed me my work email box was almost fully out of space and I NEEDED to clean it out. I was volunteering for Circus Juventas this afternoon, posting the show order for parents so they know when to come pick up their kids. Before the show and at intermission I had a few minutes, so I ruthlessly trimmed old email. Reader, I deleted over 21,000 emails.  I am sure I will regret some of those later, but at least for today it feels good — and hopefully kicked the can down the road for storage space, as well as saving 14 pounds of emission. 14 pounds is not especially significant, but it is over the equivalent of whole tank of propane for the grill, so I guess I've ensured we can hold pool parties with less guilt this summer.