all that's past is prologue...

I loathe January. Not only are the Christmas holidays over and the weather cold, wet, and crappy, but it is somehow the month of Many Deadlines — from grant submissions to year-end tax forms. And let's not even discuss New Year's Resolutions... This year was especially bad. I got W2s and payroll tax forms out early in the month, but I have a lot of 1099s to do for my clients, and somehow, there is always missing information. And that information is tricky to get, which makes sense of course, because if it was easy to get I would already have it. I pried my final EIN out of a vendor at 4pm today, postmark deadline day. In between I ended up riding herd on a lot of grant deadlines, leadership at pretty much every client had some kind of health or family issue (ranging from mild to near-catastrophic) that held things up, and I have a press/ticket sales deadline that is technically tomorrow. I have a 30-day all-you-can-use yoga pass that I am determined to use, and I need to start ...

The reason I know that most politicians, Democrats and Republicans alike, don't REALLY care about small business is this, is political attitudes towards healthcare. I've already gone on ad nauseum about insurance coverage, so I will spare you that, for now. Suffice it to say that, in a global marketplace, there is absolutely no way for American companies (who spend often 5, 10, even 25% of their budgets on health insurance for their employees) to compete with businesses in other countries who do not have that expense because they have single payer or government systems. I don't care how efficient your business model is, that's an almost insurmountable gap. But my current issue is with HSAs. Since we are both self-employed, and Beatrix has yet to get a job, we have a personal health insurance plan through Medica. Premiums are $700/month currently, and we have a $6,000 deductible (that means we get to $14,400 before insurance starts kicking in, for those of you doing the ...

When Beatrix was born, I understood the falling in love instantly part. But I have to admit, while she is rounding the corner to four, that I fall in love with her a little more every day. My little baby has turned into a sweet, somewhat bossy, very fun girl who is every bit her own person. Every morning she wakes up and comes down the hall to our bedroom, where she announces "The sun's up!" and climbs into bed to cuddle with us. She makes us play with princesses and the large houseplant and circus tents. She scarfs down moose pasta. She tells stories that go "Once upon a time there was a cat. The End." She uses big words, well. She enjoys school, and people, and parties, and movies. She's an animal's best friend. And she loves to snuggle. Each day, I learn to love a little more. -- Are you blacking out tomorrow to protest SOPA? My voice is pretty small and won't likely be missed, but I'm thinking of stepping aside. Thus a semi-unformed post now,...

Though I've been getting less cardio-vascular exercise than I should (and eating more cookies), I have been very pleaed with some of the exercise I have been getting. In alter fall, I started going to pilates at The Sweatshop with my friend Katharine. I have taken pilates a lot of other places, but the place I keep on coming back to is The Sweatshop — somehow, the atmosphere and the levels there seem just right for me. I really enjoy it. Today, Patrick and I took a Restorative Yoga class at Bliss Yoga . We had an about-to-expire pass from Living Social for 30 days of unlimited yoga, do decided to give it a try. It was lovely — a long (105 minute) class mostly focused on deepening poses and working your body. Not really athletic at all, but made me feel great; as much as I crave sleep lately, this was probably a more relaxing way to spend my time. I can hardly wait to go back for my next class!

When I get together with my closest friends, we usually eat at J's house — because it's convenient and extremely comfortable — and we often either grill or order out (see earlier not about convenience and comfort). Last week was a mix of the two, with grilling for the kids and Everest on Grand for the adults. Convenience is not always a factor in ordering from Everest on Grand, and in the past we have faced some challenges in actually ordering and picking up the food. This time, we were also disappointed because they had dropped the memorable "hotmomo.com" web address and gone for the far more prosaic "everestongrand.com" So much for distinction. J and E really love their jackfruit curry, though we all confessed to not even knowing what one looks like. I admit to liking it fine, but I am not overwhelmed with it. On the other hand, the kauli that I picked (potatoes, cauliflower, and peas) was also kind of meh, perhaps a little overly spiced. However, the pala...

The Bachelor Farmer is the new "It" restaurant, making most people's top lists and often named "Restaurant of the Year" for 2011. But just why is it so good? We went for my birthday just after it opened, and returned last week, bringing my Norwegian cousins to show them what Scandinavian cuisine is like here. This is why the place is great... We arrived a little early, on purpose, because we wanted to get drinks downstairs at Marvel Bar. While the upstairs bar is just fine, it's nothing amazing, and the Marvel truly is. The minute you walk into the lovely atmosphere you feel taken care of, and our bar server did that and more — ensuring that the three men ordering old-fashioneds got different liquors in their drink so they could compare and contrast, checking in at the restaurant for us so they knew we were there, and generally taking care of us. Some of the best service I've had. Upstairs, the service was similarly attentive without being rushed. Both D...

It came up in a quick status blip in my MN Food Bloggers Group last night: Kind and lovely Todd Tweedy, he of Todd's Salsa and a member of our group, left a terrible and sad message on his Facebook page earlier today. The police are searching for him but there is no news currently. FYI as the hope is that spreading the word is potentially helpful. #findtodd on Twitter. Following close on the premature death of my friend Christine last week, seeing this really shook me. I've only met Todd once, when he dropped off some of his amazing salsa for me to sample — though earlier last night, I had just mentioned I needed to trek over to the Wedge to get some. I've interacted with him a few times through the group, and always found him a genuinely nice guy. The news hit me hard. I reacted the only way I could think of — joining in the early #findtodd tweets to raise awareness, posting it on a local message board, retweeting, and then the old-fashioned way, by looking for his red Pa...