all that's past is prologue...

When I was young, Grand Avenue was a shopping street, but not the boutique destination it is today. On the corner near us there was an Isreali deli, a drugstore, a dry cleaner, a couple of places I can't remember, and a little plant and gift store called Evergreen, run by a hippie guy who looked a lot like the dad in my Sunshine Family set. I loved stopping in to that store on my way home from school, and especially admired the large staghorn fern that hung on the wall. Years later, we were at Biltmore, and the thing I had to have from the gift store was a potted staghorn fern. But for the past couple of years it has stagnated in a pot, because I had no idea how to mount it and hang it. It kind of rots in a pot, getting a weird fungus on it and generally looking dismal and unhappy. Today, though, I decided something had to be done about it. I look up instructions online, found a piece of wood in the garage, ran to Frattalone's to get a hook to hang it, and with some trial a...

When I was in elementary school at SPA, our high school squash team played at the Commodore in their original squash courts. I still remember distinctly the 1978 natural gas explosion that closed it down for years and caused injuries to my much older classmates, eliminating our squash program. When I first moved back to Saint Paul in the early 1990s, the building had been converted into condos, which were selling for ridiculously low prices (but then, so was my house). The Commodore bar itself was a private event space, where the interior bar held its old panache (even if the light bulbs were perpetually burned out and the cocktails basically limited to well drinks). The large dining rooms had lovely old photos but a mossy green carpet and furniture that looked to have been retired after hard use from over at the University Club. Still, over the years, I enjoyed my fair share of events there. This week, the Commodore opens anew in its old Jazz Age glory. We went tonight, during the...

This fall, I signed up for the adult circus class at Circus Juventas. When I was talking to Dan, the founder, about possibly taking it it, I said I thought it would be helpful for me to know how some of the acts are physically done, rather than just watching them. To which he said "Yes, but you shouldn't do it for that. You should do it because it's fun." And he was 110%, totally, right. Every Monday night it's hard to get myself out of the house and over to the tent, but I leave an hour later with a sense of sheer exhilaration. That circus class is one of the hardest things I have done in my life. I come home every week in total pain and amazed at my lack of strength and stamina. I have an incredible new appreciation for the things those circus kids can pull off. And most of all, for an hour of the week, I have had a total blast. I honestly can't remember the last time I did something simply because it was fun. I'm very driven, and so things usually h...

Today is the most beautiful October day I can ever remember. Warm (in the 80s!), sunny, bright, it was this golden moment of why we live here. Well played! This that know me know that pretty much nothing makes me happier than clothing exchanges, and today I experienced two! I hosted one with a group of online friends, and then accepted a last-minute invitation to attend another one. I had a great time at both, hung out with some lovely women, and scored some lovely new finds. Then I came home and, against my better judgement, kon-mari'd my tee shirt drawer. I'm still a skeptic, but damn, it does look better. Plus I found more clothes for more clothing exchanges, so if you know of any soon… --- Other activities included the dog park, being able to research for a big project while sitting outside in the sun, and making tuna salad with celery from the garden for dinner (likely the last tuna salad of the summer). There were two retreats I had wanted to go to this weeke...

Beatrix came home from school today and said "We drew plants in science today and I am really good at it. Can I do some from our garden?" And then she came up with these. I'm in awe.