all that's past is prologue...

We got our first Science Museum of Minnesota membership right before Thanksgiving for a very simple reason — we were going to Chicago, and wanted to go to the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry, and our reciprocal membership saved us a ton of money. (It also gets us into places like the Bell Museum and The Works here in the Twin Cities — who knew? And our Walker Museum gets us into places like the Swedish Institute) So when a dinner party canceled tonight we headed over to check out their Illuminate exhibit, which was a ton of fun. Everything we tried, from the Sportsology exhibit to the light legos to hanging out with Dan the TRex, turned out to be a lot more fun than expected. We spent over 3 hours there without even realizing it. Then we headed over to Public, because our Belly Up membership also expires at the end of the month, and had some fantastic cocktails and desserts. Now we're home for cookies and the series finale of His Dark Materials. My f...

It's not Christmas in my family without lefse. My grandmother used to dramatically state "I made 12 lefse today!" as she drowned her exhaustion with a scotch-and-water. My mother would roll out out into pangea-shapes (perhaps not purposely) while swearing a blue-streak usually reserved for games when the North Stars were losing, while I grilled it. The first Christmas after my mom dies I burst into tears saying "I don't know how I'm going to make the lefse," which is how Patrick rallied and became America's only black lefse-maker. This year we have a smaller group than usual, but I think we still made enough. Beatrix even began to learn how to roll it out (I stuck with grilling). There's something very zen about the whole experience, honestly. Getting the feel of the dough right. Rolling out out so it's not so think in breaks up, but not so thick that it's too doughy. Grilling it so it's just right on each side. There's the...

Everything today ran behind, which was hard because it was a tightly packed day. The photoshoot for Beatrix's headshots thing morning ran 2 hours, not the 45 minutes I had expected. But he was able to get hundreds of great photos of different looks, and I loved watching my kid vamp for the camera. She loved his set-up and wants to ask for photo lights for Christmas next year. And it was 2 houses down from my grandparents' former home, which made me very nostalgic. The Erin Murphy house party we went to ran long (which was good because we were late due to the photoshoot). Which allowed us to hear her talk about why she's running and have a great conversation with her. I'm 100% With Her. She's amazing. The performance of The Nutcracker that we attended today went long because we went backstage to see Beatrix's friend Flannery after the show. Flannery was amazing, as were my friend Tracy's daughter and my friend Momoko's daughter and son. We got to s...

My master's degree in historic preservation is from Goucher College, and during our sessions, there was another group that met near us — the creative nonfiction masters program. Since then, I've always had a hard time defining "creative nonfiction," but have always said "I know it when I see it." And this week I came across an excellent example. Yesterday, an Apartment Therapy piece popped up on my Facebook feed called "Why I Regret Buying an Old Home."   Since naturally that is NOT my mindset, I clicked over, and of course I could not have disagreed with the article more. I don't often post in the comments, but here I did: I love our old house that I purchased, in poor shape as a HUD home 25 years ago. I love being a caretaker to a house build by a land-speculating hardware widow in 1886, a house that we will pass on to our daughter. I love that I moved into a neighborhood full of "urban pioneers" who moved onto vacant, boarded...

The absolute best times of our "Avoiding Thanksgiving" Chicago trip were the times we spent with friends. Seeing Michelle and Steve (and Eva) on the first night was unbelievably fantastic. Connecting with my cousin Frank and his wife Sandy on the way out of town was equally great, and we could have sat there talking all night. Our family's idea of "quality time" is generally time spent at museums or performances, exploring together. This trip was no different. I guess our love language is art. I'm relay starting to like getting a fancy coffee pick-me-up in the afternoons. This could be dangerous. Spot Hero was easy to use and saved us a ton on parking costs. Going to big stores seemed like a different world, and though it was interesting to see that world, I'm far more comfortable in small, individual places. I am still dreaming of the beer at Moody Tongue. Beatrix is dreaming of redoing her dollhouse, Colleen More fairy-castle style, and I...