Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. We left D.C. a bit late on Thursday and as such decided to spend the night at Gramma’s instead of Mum and Dad’s. Gramma had called me up earlier in the day to say that the room with the double bed (which had had a mold outbreak earlier this winter) seemed to smell okay, but in case we didn’t agree with her, she was going to make up the single bed as well. When we arrived, there was a note on the spare bed saying that if we decided to sleep there to take the quilt and the pillows from the other room. She went to all that trouble (as well as making a batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast) just on the off-chance that we’d stop.

2. The new iPod is fun, fun, fun! I’ve downloaded a bunch of new music (okay, much of it was Rudi’s) and podcasts and Rudi ripped two episodes of The Muppet Show. While I was taking the T in from Cambridge this morning, I watched the first half of an episode featuring Rita Moreno.

3. Last night, Alexis asked me if I wanted to do dinner. And then my comic strip/convention pals stopped by to see if I wanted to catch a bite too. Alexis passed on her hope for sushi so we could accompany a whole group of strangers (as well as my pals) out for drinks and then dinner. And “Gene” and Bill wheedled until Alexis and I agreed to stay. And at the end of the night, these people who didn’t really know us paid for our dinner! So thanks to Alexis for her flexibility and to Bill and “Gene” for knowing generous souls and encouraging us to tag along.

Just in case anyone is looking for me, my visibility will be spotty through this weekend. I’m up in Boston for work and this weekend will be celebrating Gramma’s 85th birthday (she’s just like MLK in that she’s got a birthday and a birthday observed) in Connecticut.

Sam and Alexis are kindly putting up with Rudi and me for a few days. They’re very cool.

I admit that a lot of my understanding of what’s going on in Iraq comes less from the Capitol Hill talking heads and more from the Iraqi bloggers, particularly Riverbend at Baghdad Burning.

For her take on the “rift” between Shia and Sunni Iraqis, read her post from Saturday, marking the third anniversary of the Americans’ involvement in her country.

What a great idea! Kids in the St. Louis area are doing a Read, Right, Run Marathon, wherein over six months they will have read 26 books, completed 26 good deeds, and run 26 miles.

What a creative way to get kids doing mitzvahs, reading, and getting exercise!

(Via BookMoot)

Don’t get me wrong. I like music loud. Really. When we saw Billy Joel last week, I spent the first half of the concert thinking, “When are they going to turn the sound up?”

But tonight’s concert at The Black Cat was just miserable. We parked ourselves in the back of the theater away from the crowds, sharing a table with a nice young couple who offered us the spare seats at their table. But when they left, they were replaced by a cigar-smoking couple, which left me feeling unhappy and nauseated.

And the sound. Why was it so loud that I felt like I would have enjoyed the concert more from the 14th Street sidewalk? I like to feel the bass vibrate around inside me as much as anybody. But there’s no cause for it to be so loud that the band members can’t hear themselves perform and when the venue compensates for the lack of surround sound by turning the volume up as loud as it would go.

I admit that I wasn’t as keen about this show as I am about, say, KT Tunstall earlier this month or Franz Ferdinand in April. But The Go! Team (complete with exclamation point) wasn’t served well by this treatment and I would think twice before going to see them in concert again — or, in fact, another show at the Black Cat when there are so many better venues where I’ve actually enjoyed the show’s ambiance..

Highly disappointing.

A year ago today, after giving me the url for my birthday, Rudi presented me with a blog ready for my fingers to fill with posts. And fill it I have: according to the stats, this will be the 415th post in 365 days or, roughly, one post every 21 hours. I suppose it won’t surprise anyone that I have lots more to say.

So, thanks, Rudi, for offering me the means to have a blog.

And thanks to Mum and Dad for the idea to start writing a regular column, even though this hasn’t turned out to be remotely what you suggested.

I am grateful to those whose blogs I read regularly. You provide inspiration and community — and occasionally material to steal and repurpose for my own use.

Thank you to those who have linked to me in one form or another.

And a final thanks for those who keep coming back. I write for myself but it makes it a lot more fun when my soliloquys become conversations — either online or off. I am grateful to those who leave comments — as well as to those who read along silently and who let me know their thoughts later on.

May the fun continue!