all that's past is prologue...

  We don't have fancy enough credit cards to have airport lounge access (or more to the point I'm not willing to spend the money on annual fees for something we would rarely use), so when we had a long layover at JFK on the way to Athens today, we took advantage of the time to meet up with our friend Dawn at the TWA Hotel, and cross a bucket-list item off. The Saarinen terminal itself was a big part of my architectural studies, so it was great to see it in person. Plus it was just a fun and quirky place to hang out and catch up. Now, on to Greece!

It looks like our Small Project Sunday will be spent... Shoveling: Packing (one of us has more to do than the other two of us): Delivering these two to their Spring Break Camp: And crossing our fingers that our flight tomorrow actually leaves.

Our amazing Coya passed today at a little over 15 years of age. Thanks so much to the amazing staff at the Animal Humane Society who helped her go with dignity and grace, and allowed us all to be there with her. When we lost Geronimo, I was low-key looking for another keeshond, and became involved with several keeshond groups online. Most had coalesced around closing down a notorious New York puppy mill, but I made friends all over the country (and in Canada) who cared about the breed. You are all amazing people and I care about you so much. When Wendy found out about a backyard breeder in Western Wisconsin who had a dog on Craigslist, so grabbed Bill (who had Sapphire, one of the puppy mill dogs) and they went to rescue her. Once they got her out of there, Wendy needed a home for her, and so 4-year old Coya came to us. Her pedigree papers called her "Lacoya of Seven Bridges," but to separate her from that we called her Coya, after Coya Knutson, Minnesota's first female c...

Today was "divide and conquer" day for Small Project Sunday, due to our schedules. Patrick took on the bedroom closet . Meanwhile, I started to get ready for replanting our gardens. Summit in particular had suffered kind of a major setback last year , and we are still not sure what will come back up, particularly in the new-ish native garden  (also a post on that  here ). We also are trying to plant more native plants at Ashland, and have installed native gardens at the house where Patrick's dad lives on Winter Street and at Hague . But this all has to be on a budget, because the loss of plants at Summit alone might be major cross your fingers that it's not!), so today I took a class on winter seed sowing at the Capital River Watershed District. I had looked up information online and it did not look too hard, but I was happy to have some folks there show me the ropes. It was 59 degrees today, and too late to winter sow seeds that have longer germination periods (60 d...

If, like me, you have been worried about the state of theater in the Twin Cities ... you should see this play. If, like me, you have been overwhelmed with everything going on in Minnesota over the past couple of months ... you should see this play. If, like me, you want a night out with your family and to see some great theater ... you should go see this play. Honestly — incredible performances, a really interesting concept, effective and non-pandering use of media, strong direction, thought inspiring, well-researched — it has it all. The Star Tribune has flat out said they will now only review four theaters in town: the Guthrie, Children's Theater, Hennepin Stages, and the Ordway. I'm not throwing any shade on those institutions, because we're all in this together. But that means it's up to all of us to tell others they should go see shows and talk about them, so that's what I'm doing. At the Frey Theater at St. Kate's (the one kind of in front of O'Sha...

Fridays have apparently become "Fun Fridays" in our household (and just wait until Friday pool parties come back in the summer!) Last night Patrick and I did a quick jaunt to the Friday wine tasting at Solo Vino . We love the sense of community at these tastings, where you get to see people you know, meet new people, and both try and learn about new wines. We'll meet you there any time (at least, except a pool party night). On Thursday I had put out the call for a number of things I was looking for, and one of them was to see if anyone wanted to join us for the Friday Night Fish Fry at Tiffany's (IMHO the best fish fry in the Twin Cities.) Our friends Rodney and Shira were up for it, so we had a super-fun double date. Beatrix got in on the fun as well, because Ximena had promised to take her out clubbing now that she was 18. She and a few friends went out to the Gay 90s under Ximena's watchful eye, and I think they had a great time.