all that's past is prologue...

For the past couple of years, Beatrix has worked at the Rennaissance Festival, so we have not really gotten to go there as a family. She's gotten up early, slung chocolate all day (mmmm, that booth's wares are SOOOOO good), come home, and done it again.  Our other memories of the Festival come from when she was very young, and obsessed with fairies, and all the magic. So it was all kinds of magic that our friends Liz and Huxley graciously gave up one of their last free days before Huxley heads off to MIT to come with us today (and thanks to Lloyd and Rosy for the tickets!) We got to see not just one but TWO Danger Committee shows, plus Gabs the Fool, the Wacky Chickens, jousting, and parts of other shows. We got to see capybaras! We shopped a little, and had some treats (more chocolate! carrot fries! cheese curds! mead samples). We walked around and people-watched. It was amazing. Most of all, we had a beautiful, wonderful day together before these two extraordinary kids head o...

NO ONE told me that the nesting you go through when sending your kid off to college is very similar to what it's like right at the end of pregnancy. So we're trying to move back to the other house, and get her packed, and do everything else...and I've decided it's imperative to take care if some long neglected gardens at Summit (you know, the house we're, yes, moving out of...) There's one bed by the sunroom windows that I traditionally plant zinnias in and it looks great. But this year, the bunnies decimated them, and all that remained was a big old sunflower I got off the free board. It does look great, but the rest of the bed was weedy and gross. So I sat up late one night with AI and asked it to garden plan. It kind of sketched a frame, and then I thought about the things I had or had access to: some sedum that have overgrown the front bed, some catmint my friend Sheri had offered me, some oregano at the other house. So I took the original prompt, and then b...

Some of the best experiences I have had in the recent past. Highly recommended! And you can — a nd should — do them too! 1. Saw Whimsy at Circus Juventas . I actually loathe Willie Wonka, but this mash-up was one of the best shows I've seen CJ do, and I've seen them all. Technically the show is closed, but you could attend their Gala on September 19 and see it, and I would strongly recommend it. The only problem is that you won't see Beatrix in the Gala, unless you want to donate enough miles to us that she could fly home from college for the weekend. 2. Eaten at Animales . When a vegetarian picks a BBQ place for her birthday you know it's something special — and it really was. Don't believe me? Believe Dara . Casual but perfect food. Show-stopping cocktails. Great space. Good prices. I'll meet you there anytime. 3. Received birthday presents from the Grand Hand Gallery and Black Garnet Books . Two amazing, independent stores that will have you swearing off p...

Is a big birthday, if not a milestone one. Especially when your kid is leaving for college in two weeks and everything is changing. So you work all day as usual, but your husband makes you a bagel for breakfast and you use your birthday coupon from Vina for lunch. You pick Animales for dinner, even though you are a vegetarian, because you have heard great things and because the always-amazing Adam Witherspoon is the beverage director. And he is happy to see you and takes you on an amazing culinary journey, as he is wont to do. I will meet you at Animales ANY DAMN TIME, it is that good. You get some awesome presents, including the book your kid picked out at Black Garnet and that you are super-excited to read. You take the dogs for a walk, and get lemonade from the sand run by the little girl across the street, where the price is "do something kind for someone." You make some coffee in your new espresso machine because you're headed to a late night Fringe show. And the co...

Patrick often clips my posts, so I think it's only fair that I do the same for him. https://www.patrickrhone.net/finishing-our-routine/ (photo credit: Heather O'Connell Erickson)

On Sunday, Beatrix will walk out of the arena at Circus Juventas for the last time, and that thought has me up early this morning. It's not like I did not know it before, but it's hitting especially hard. I started working with Circus Juventas in 2005, before Patrick and I were even married, before Beatrix was even a concept. I was brought in on a special project to reconcile a backlog of credit cards, quickly solved some other issues (including getting a retroactive sales tax refund of several thousand dollars), was brought in regularly, went on staff, increased my hours, and stayed for 17 years as staff until 2022. Beatrix first came in to work with me at less than a week old. She attended her first spring show just ten weeks after she was born — she loved the lights. She started the preschool program (the called "toddlers," that was one of the changes I made) when she was two, and has not looked back since. Patrick started rigging when she was still in Side by Side...