all that's past is prologue...

 Catzen Coffee opened on New Year's Day, but the demand has been high so I had not made it there yet. I've been following them on social media for what seems like forever (and I am sure longer to them).  So today, when my amazing friend Kate offered to help me with a spreadsheet, I said we should meet there. I solved the spreadsheet thing before she got there, but we turn out to be an incredibly effective co-working team; I got more done in that two hours than I would have been able to at home (which face it, is kind of like a cat cafe in itself...). I also had a delicious fig walnut latte. It was still very busy while we were there, so we worked mostly outside of the cat "den" area, and then headed into it at the end for some cat time. It was truly as amazing as expected. Their "most famous" guy "Big (Cup o') Joe" was as incredible as I expected him to be, but honestly all the cats we got to meet were awesome, from super cuddly LeeRoy Jenkins...

I started on my new year's resolutions tonight by putting together this hot fudge pie — hope it tastes as good as it smells baking! More on the resolutions soon. A hint is that we spent much of this weekend deep cleaning the kitchen — like the tops of the cabinets, sorting out and getting rid of dishware we don't use, spraying down the cabinet doors with Dawn, etc. It felt really good to get it taken care of and I am looking forward to a cleaner and more organized kitchen. I also promise that that tangine was not that greasy the last time I used it.

 As I ease into 2025, I'm also thinking back on 2024. Rather than a resolution, I had a word — BUILD — and this is what I wrote about it. "Build" ended up meaning a lot about my physical environment instead of all the meanings of the word: Our front doors:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/03/welcome-build-post.html Art: (not a "Build" post per se but close enough):  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/02/femme-au-plateau.html The new woodwork above the fireplace:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/03/keep-home-fires-burning-build-post.html A lifetime dream of going to Africa:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/04/africa-build-post.html Front curtains (working on a new storm window now):  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/04/in-my-defense-i-was-left-unsupervised.html Scraping the garage:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/04/scraping-by-build-post.html Planting at Summit:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/04/april-showers-buil...

As I ease into 2025, I'm also thinking back on 2024. Rather than a resolution, I had a word — BUILD — and this is what I wrote about it. "Build" ended up meaning a lot about my physical environment instead of all the meanings of the word: Our front doors:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/03/welcome-build-post.html Art: (not a "Build" post per se but close enough):  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/02/femme-au-plateau.html The new woodwork above the fireplace:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/03/keep-home-fires-burning-build-post.html A lifetime dream of going to Africa:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/04/africa-build-post.html Front curtains (working on a new storm window now):  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/04/in-my-defense-i-was-left-unsupervised.html Scraping the garage:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/04/scraping-by-build-post.html Planting at Summit:  https://prologuist.blogspot.com/2024/04/april-showers-build-post...

I can't let 2024 go, though, without a few high points: 1. Tanzania and Zanzibar This trip speaks for itself. The most amazing trip we've ever done. 2. Other trips Other trips were pretty great too — New York for college visits and shows and seeing friends, a couple of cabin visits, Duluth day trip, New Orleans for Thanksgiving. 3. Beatrix's first summer show at circus. Her triumph, not mine — but she was great. 4. Aurora Borealis 4. Purchasing a Toulouse-Latrec. I'm still happy every day when I look at it. 5. Family here for Christmas The Norwegians were here and it was so much fun!

  Right now I'm sitting in the guest room with the stray kitty we found, giving him some love and attention after just dropping $100 to have him have an initial vet visit and get an FIV/FeLV test. Because his owners have not shown up yet despite posting everywhere and checking twice for a microchip and I don't know that finding him a home even begins to be possible without at least that.  Taking in this cat was the right thing to do but also an expensive conundrum we find ourself in (similar to a situation this summer where I tried to help a friend by paying to regain some of their stuff and and only apparently made the whole thing worse). And if that's not a summary for this year — the bad and the good completely intertwined — I don't know what is. I mean, the election totally sucked, so there's no confusion there. And our neighbor, John McCormick, pretty much the best neighbor you could ever hope to have, dying this summer is also a terrible thing and he is missed...