all that's past is prologue...

I love our home, and one of the things I love most about it is the art we have everywhere. Almost all of it is art from friends — beautiful pieces that speak to our relationships. I suppose they have value, but the point to me is that they are given with love and meaning — and they just happen to look amazing as well. And I love museums and experiencing art there. Since my first trip to France in high school, I (like everyone else in the world) have loved the Impressionists, and within them have always had a special place in my heart for Henri Toulouse-Latrec. What can I say, it appeals to my circus side. Yesterday, there was an estate sale at Joe Kingman's townhome. Joe was the father of Brant Kingman, who used to have an art studio/gathering space I frequented; there's an awesome photo somewhere of Patrick and I one New Year's Eve there not long after we first started dating.  And hanging above the fireplace in the living room was an original lithograph by Toulouse-Latrec...

Yesterday we took a little mini road trip east to Wisconsin. Beatrix has a friend at Stout she wanted to visit, and we wanted to spend some time with our good friends Kelly and Laura , and so we all had a lovely time. Patrick and I even discovered a lovely new (to us) taproom , due to the magic of Craftapped. But perhaps the most enlightening conversation we had was with James Williams. James and his wife Heather own the amazing Fox Den Books in River Falls, where we made a long stop to appreciate the used and new books, the games, toys, and craft items; I'm still coveting some of the embroidery kits. For many years, the Williams' also owned Sixth Chamber Used Books on Grand, right by Hamline (where Em Que Viet is now). We adore James and Heather and their stores, and this was one of the fist times we had talked in depth about Sixth Chamber closing (Sixth Chamber lives on, by the way, in the ceiling of the cozy basement level of Fox Den, which is paneled with the wood from th...

(and spoiler alert — it's not really post-covid...) In December, I went to a conference, came home with a slight cold, then came down with covid a week later (right before Christmas). Yes, for those of you counting along at home, it was bout #3 with covid, despite having all the vaccinations possible and masking religiously during the height of the pandemic (I admit I don't mask much now, though I do when I myself am feeling sick, and on flights). I then proceeded to get some kind of terrible virus, complete with 5 straight days of fever, on New Year's Eve that killed off all our plans, and I just a few days ago got a bad cold that has felled me for the past couple of days, even as I have stubbornly tested negative for covid. Beatrix, on the other hand, turned 16 last Friday, had a friend sleep over on Saturday, and came down with covid on Sunday. Happy Sweet 16, honey! She has a long weekend coming up so school is not as much of a stress, but it means she missed auditions ...

January was a beast and so I was determined to not work today(ok, so I answered a couple of tiny work questions, but I mostly took the day off). My perfect plan was sleeping in, having brunch with Patrick, heading to Watershed, taking the dog to a taproom, reading a lot, doing a puzzle — I had so much planned! But when things don't happen perfectly it just leaves room for reality... I could not get a space at Watershed, but my friend Jan invited me over to her sauna. Except she forgot to preheat it, so it was...chilly. But we got to hang out and talk for an hour so that was fun! Came back and took a hot shower to warm up. Brunch with Patrick, at the (fairly) new High Hat on Selby was absolutely delicious> I really liked it there — tasty food, friendly service, and a good vibe— and will be back for sure! I took Brutus to Forgotten Star taproom. He's pretty much fully blind (and suffering some dementia, I think), so I was hoping that being at a taproom when it was light would ...

When Patrick and I got married (almost 18 years ago), the internet bore little resemblance to what it is now. "Social media" wasn't really a thing (except the beta version in Harvard dorm rooms), and The Knot and wedding websites were a fairly new idea. And then I stumbled upon "IndieBride," an online chat board full of people looking for less traditional weddings of all kinds (Don't look "IndieBride" up, it's now owned by the Huffington Past and is totally different.) It was a true old school chat forum, where people had handles (mine was "snugglewombat") instead of their real names, and participated in threads on things. Mostly text, sometimes you could suss a way to embed photos. People naturally fell into cohorts based on when they were getting married, but there were some overarching themes as well, like gay weddings and second wedding and the like. After we got married, most of us switched away from invitations and receptions an...