all that's past is prologue...

Take out from a local immigrant-owned restaurant. Reading by the fire with the pets. Texting with a close friend. Dropping your brave kid off at her school dance alone after her plans with friends fell though. French wine from 1999 from the cellar. Impromptu charcuterie with good friends while you wait to pick her up. Liquor-filled chocolates from the Amsterdam airport and affogato. Clean sheets on the bed. It's the damn little things, that are actually big ones, that keep us sane.

So Patrick and I just finished our #yearcompass books (which got delayed for all kinds of reasons this year, the main part being when Quickbooks Online locked me out for days and I had to rebuild everything, but I digress. The final part of the process is to set your word for the year — so much better than a resolution. Last year, my word was BUILD, and I do think I spent a lot of the year building in many ways — physical projects, building clients, building relationships... This year, my word was going to be GROW. But *maybe* in this case the delay was good. Because I don't know if I can dedicate myself to growing in 2025. I might just need to try to stay sane. (and also I had a tarot session on New year's Eve that did not make "Grow" seem like the best choice.) So after a lot of back and forth, my word became "ATTEND," and I like that a lot. Attend more performances, and art. Attend parties and events. Attend to friendships and relationships. Attend to the...

In general, I only work with non-profits. But I did work with several small, women-owned businesses — mainly providing payroll services but occasionally some other advice — and they have all sold those businesses to new owners recently (maybe it's me that caused this all?).  These three were: -  The New Victorian B and B, owned and operated by Whitney Blessing. Whitney's and our connections goes way back; her family lived at Summit two separate times, we've twice spent the night at the B&B and spent many other evenings there over the course of our friendship (including many memorable New Year Eves!). Beatrix was the first non-Blessing child at Common Roots Montessori School, which Whitney founded and which was originally attached to the B & B (the school has also changed over and is located in Bandana Square, they are still clients and are thriving). Whitney and her family poured their heart into the B&B and it was amazing. I am sure the new owners will carry on...

In the midst of...everything...it was nice to have a nice Valentine's Day. Patrick baked a lovely breakfast for us and picked up some African coffee. After I got some work done, we headed over to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see the small Moulin Rouge Toulouse-Latrec exhibit. We basically had a docent all to ourselves and she had some really interesting things to say about the pieces (plus she was thrilled to hear about our piece). My favorite piece was a sketch he had done of May Belfort's black cat that she could use for menus for her famous dinner parties — the cat is chasing a mouse into Toulouse-Latrec's chop signature. The museum gave us red hearts we could leave at our favorite pieces and I left mine there. Though predictably most people's favorite was the jade mountain. We then went into the courtyard to see the ice sculptures. A George Morrison totem carved in ice is pretty damn impressive: We then went over to Bruhaven and finished our #yearcompasss boo...

No, not that kind of woof, unless you have a lead on a pomeranian that needs a home... I have declared this week my WOOF — Week Of Outstanding Filing. My friend Charles proves how well he knows my by commenting: But this is exactly why it is needed. On Saturday, most of my home office looked like this: Or, if stacked, this: After a few filing sessions, it now looks like this — definitely some room for improvement, but better. And after some similar time at a client's today, my in-box there, which had been too full to add anything more to, looks like this: In attending to this filing, which is definitely my Achilles heel, I am making some progress in the rest of my life. And that feels good.

Beatrix turned seventeen today, which is clearly incorrect because I was there when she was born and it was not that long ago. She threw a small party here last night and then tonight we took her out to dinner. We wanted something fun and with a great atmosphere, so she picked Earl Giles Distillery from the idea list I gave her (based on good mocktails, a variety of food, and instagram-worthy), and she picked right. First of all, both their mocktails and cocktails were very good. Patrick had a NOLA-worthy Hurricane (though not as strong), I had a "Snow Day Spritz," and Beatrix had some kind of amazing tea-cocktail that was gorgeous. The food was also excellent, though there was SO Much of it — we have plenty of tasty leftovers! I had pizza, which I was worried about because my recent experience at Og Zaza was Not Good. But this was great; Patrick had a tasty chicken dish, and Beatrix had some harissa potatoes which were very tasty (if you see me eating her leftovers, no you d...

So when the Guthrie first announced last year that they were doing Midsummer Night's Dream this season, I yawned a little. I mean, it's clearly a good play. I've seen it several times, including when Beatrix played Hermia in her middle school production (though she be but little, she IS fierce...). And I've been reading a lot of "Shakespeare really didn't write most of the things attributed to him" conspiracy theory lately, because it's easier to face than contemporary politics. But I was invited to opening night (thanks Guthrie folks!), and I was really pleased to see that the Guthrie was again doing one of those joyous opening nights where you get to see tons of friends and people you know and the lobby is all abuzz during intermission, and I had heard good things from my friend Liz who saw it in previews, so we went, and it was the best choice I have made recently. What a fantastic, joyous night. The cast is outstanding, with several Guthrie debuts...