all that's past is prologue...

What did you do with your extra day this year? I got to: -  Attend a book club at SPA centered around How to be an Anti-Racist . Lots of good conversation and ideas, but the one that resonates with me most is "Are we always focused on being right, rather than how we can be most effective?" (and what can I do to change that dynamic myself?) -  Fill the day with lots of other errands. -  Find out it was the last day for Ice Castles  and we had purchased advance vouchers earlier this year, so we headed out. Truth be told, it felt like one more thing to jam into an already too-busy day, but it was a ton of fun and I'm glad we had family time together. - Attend two Leap Day parties. Current status: Patrick is headed to the store to pick up ingredients to make an egg bake for a brunch tomorrow....

There's not a Catholic bone in my body, but I love me a good Lenten fish fry.  I mean, they're not as much fun as Mardi Gras, but nothing is — and they're a great way to wait out the time until you get to the Day of the Holy Cadbury Creme Egg. On Friday nights, Beatrix has 3 hours of circus, so Patrick and I get a date night. So tonight, we decided to head out to a fish fry — but which one? So many choices! So hard to decide! I had a friend who used to have a hilarious Friday Night Fish Fry blog, but it's gone defunct. We were on our own. I had heard earlier today that Hope Breakfast Bar had a fish fry. I love Hope — the beautiful restored firehouse building, the friendly staff, the food that's a nod to NOLA. But I figured it would be packed. Nevertheless, we decided to try. We walked in and the place was almost empty despite (because of?) the state wrestling tournament going on down the road. So all that really meant was the service was even better than u...

In January, I entered a contest online to win three hours of an organizer's time, in a contest generously sponsored by Leah Morris from Mindfully Minimized . This is the photo of my office space that I submitted to prove how badly I needed her help (if you're a client, you may not want to look....). Perhaps not shockingly, I won, I think because she felt sorry for me. You all know I struggle with minimalism. So, although I badly needed this, I was not at all sure it would work for me, or even if I was up to the task. I just don't ever seem to have the minimalist mindset. I was pretty sure I would end up in tears, and Leah would run screaming (or at the very least least kind of annoyed with me). Leah asked me to do very little prep, but my "homework" was to come up with thee words that described my space/the project. I chose: -  cluttered -  overwhelmed -  guilty The last word really wraps it up. Guilty for squandering space, for not keeping track of th...

We've needed a new car for awhile. Patrick's car has been on the edge of viable for some time, and though we could put not a ton of money in it and get it fixed, with both of our cars the same age and mileage we were likely to hit a double whammy of car purchase necessity. In any case, his Volvo, which we got a few years ago at a VERY chaotic time, really needed to be replaced So he's been looking, and narrowed it down to certain specifications (he's become a Volvo guy, really wanted the XC70, certain year and mileage specs, etc.) He's test driven a few that were not quite right, and then this one came up. At the same time, we have been a 1-car family for 10-days now — with no another week to go — while my car was in the shop recovering from a hit-and-run sideswipe in Chicago last Thanksgiving. For a normal, go-to-one-place-every-day kind of family, maybe not  big deal, but in our family it's disastrous. Today alone we had to take Beatrix to 4 different girl...

Beatrix turns 12 early tomorrow morning. Tonight, she is up on the 3rd floor with two of her closest friends, communing with ghosts on a  new ouija board that replaces the one she made with tinfoil and a sharpie when she was desperate to have one last year. That means that, twelve years ago right now just this minute I was in the throes of a very difficult labor, hopped up on pitocin, with an epidural that would not take, and our amazing doula Vanessa doing all the magic she could to keep it together (which she did). Though that night seems like yesterday, it means that I have been a mom for about a quarter of my life — a point that struck hard when I recently realized that I had also been motherless for 25% of my life. And tonight at Beatrix's birthday party I watched her laugh and joke with her closest friends, who all seem to know her so well. They are an extraordinary group of young women, whose banter I loved overhearing, and I feel so lucky that she has the friends she ...

Brutus LOVES going to taprooms. So we thought it was time to start an occasional series on the places he likes. It's even exciting going in the car to get there. Patrick and I like Insight because of the complex IPAs (I'm such an effing GenX stereotype), so that's where we headed yesterday. Here he is contemplating his drink choices: There was a nice man offering dog cookies made with brewer's yeast and organic peanut butter cookies. Brutus is looking for him here ("WHERE ARE THE COOKIES??!!"): There was a beautiful Samoyed at the next table and a few other dogs elsewhere in the taproom. Brutus was especially amused that a lovely young lady came to say "Hi!" to him, and then was followed over by several young men who, we suspect, were more drawn by the young lady than the dog. We give Insight 5 of 5 for the drinks. Brutus give sit 4/5 for the atmosphere and the fan club but 5 of 5 for the cookies.

This started as a Facebook post, but I've been asked to put it here too: I get it. We all knew the Senate impeachment trial was a sham, but we still really could not believe it would actually proceed without witnesses, and we were all playing the "You Don't Have the Votes" section of "Cabinet Battle #1" when McConnell pretended not to have the votes to block them. But honestly, deep inside we all know that if Mother Theresa had risen from the dead with video of T*ump literally sitting on a missile and saying "Nanny nanny fu fu" to Ukraine, it wou ld not have mattered. So we can all take through this morning's coffee to feel mad and cheated and angry and frustrated and mourn the death of democracy. But after that, the sun is out today. We need to work in the 2020 election not only to make sure we have a new president, but also to overturn the Senate. And we have to root this kind of corruption out at the core.  We need to run and sup...