If it’s Thursday, it’s time for Three Beautiful Things. You know how we play…

1. Sunday night, I volunteered to cook dinner and baked a quiche. Because we lack counter space, things were piled dangerously on the stove and on the counter below our cupboards. I reached up to pull out a pie plate and accidentally knocked the huge sauce pot off its wall hanger by tapping it wrong with the cabinet door. The pot fell, pulling the light’s plug out of the wall, but not the light from its mooring. The stove was spared the pot, but was attacked from the cabinet above with falling bakeware. The pot bounced on the floor, scattering glass bottles waiting to be taken to the recycling bin like bowling pins. The clatter was overwhelming, easily using up one of Jeremiah’s lives (and possibly one of my own), but nothing — not a single thing — broke.

2. I ordered lunch, complete with chocolate cake, for a work event Monday afternoon. The caterer assured me that a cake was no problem, and my boss picked out chocolate when asked what she preferred. The delight we ended up with was a four-layer extravaganza interspersed with chocolate mousse and topped with ganache. It was simultaneously sinfully rich and deceptively light and may be the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had.

3. I enjoy listening to Craftlit, a podcast for literature and craft lovers. Heather, the podcaster and a former English teacher, spends the first half of each episode talking about crafts and her life and setting up the second half, which features public domain literature read aloud as part of the Librivox program. Today I was listening to a show she aired last month that included a Mark Twain short story “Taming the Bicycle,” read aloud by a Twain impersonator.

Here’s an excerpt:

Even when I could not hit a wagon I could hit a dog that came to see me practice. They all liked to see me practice, and they all came, for there was very little going on in our neighborhood to entertain a dog.

Hilarious. I laughed the whole two-plus miles home.

The House of Representatives today is going to debate the merit of allowing DC residents some semblance of Congressional representation. The bill, HR 1433 (“The District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2007”), will add two seats to the House — one which will go to D.C. (presumably a Democratic seat) and one, which will temporarily be awarded to Utah (presumably a Republican one).

No one thinks this solution is an ideal one. But regardless of where you fall on the debate of D.C. statehood or Utah getting a gimme-seat, it can’t but seem unfair that half a million people in the U.S. have no legitimate voice in the halls of Congress. We fight wars to bring democracy to other nations, but true democracy does not yet exist for all here at home.

Please consider visiting this site to send a quick email to your local representative and senators. It’s quick and you don’t have to enter a lot of information to do a lot of good. Even if you can’t get to it today, the link will still be useful as a vote in the Senate has yet to be scheduled.

And if you want to go the extra mile, you can always call your representative’s office, either in D.C. or in your home district. If you don’t want to look up their number, the Capitol Switchboard, 202-224-3121, can connect you directly.

My fellow D.C. citizens and I thank you for your time.

We made it folks! Winter is officially over.

I know some people really enjoy winter, and, in fact, so do I. But by the time March rolls around, I’m ready for the season to understand that the attraction has faded and depart for someplace either far to the north or far to the south.

This spring has been particularly delightful for me what with the early arrival of daylight savings time. I don’t arise early, so it makes little difference to me whether the sun pokes its head out at 6:15 or sleeps in until a more reasonable, but still ungodly, 7:15. But light remaining in the sky until 7 or 7:30 at night does make a difference to me and I can feel the improvement in my state of mind already. Living below ground and working in an interior office, those little bits and pieces of sunlight are precious to me, and I value them greatly (particularly when they occur when I’m awake).

Welcome, spring. Please make yourself at home and stay for a nice, long visit.

Sorry for the delay in announcing the contest winners, but I was lacking prizes. Somehow, it’s just less interesting to find out that you’ve won a contest when what precisely you’ve won is vague.

But I’ve been out and about and now have some goodies for some folks selected randomly from amongst the commenters.

First, I wrote down everyone’s name and put them in my Gromit mug.

Then, I assembled the prizes. It didn’t occur to me until afterwards that they were color-coordinated.

Finally, I drew names and assigned prizes in the order I’d written them down on the blog.

Winner #1:

Karen in Toledo has won some warm-weather sock yarn that I ogled last week at my local yarn store, as well as some sock-themed needle point protectors.

The yarn is Panda Cotton, made of 24% cotton, 21% elastic nylon, and 55% bamboo, in the lovely spring shade of Fern. I’ve never knit with it, so I’ll be eager to hear your report.

Winner #2:

Sarah has won a collection of notecards titled, “The Reading Woman,” for jotting notes to the favorite characters. She also wins a fun Koosh-ball themed measuring tape.

Winner #3:

Stephanie has won this cool mousepad and notepad set so she can write down book recommendations and yarn orders from the blogosphere without fear of wondering where that piece of paper slipped off to. (Stephanie owns the wonderful Spritely Goods, from whom I recently bought some lovely nature- and literary-inspired sock yarn) She also wins a copy of Keane’s Hopes and Dreams, a fantastic band that’s part of the second wave of Britpop.

Bonus Winner:

Jenn submitted the 700th comment to the blog, so in honor of the occasion, she needed a prize, too. So knowing she just dropped a large wad of cash buying books that you suggested, I give her a $10 Book Sense gift certificate.

Congratulations to all four of our winners, and many thanks to all 23 of you who sent me book and author recommendations. I guarantee I will not be at a loss for reading material any time in the near future!

Remember, you can always see larger versions of my photos by clicking on them.

Folks, my friend Sarah, who comments here sometimes, lost her dad today after he suffered a sudden and massive stroke this morning.

I’m sure she and her family would appreciate any good thoughts or prayers you can spare in the hard days to come.

The Day the Tree Fell Down
          ~ Jack LaZebnik

crumbling. It died of old age,
I tell you, like a man. We wept.
We had worn our time upon it, put
our arms around to touch fingertips
and we measured ourselves, our feelings
on the years. We made our calculations
pay, then. Now, the fears, age,
daily mathematics. The tree held
the green. Birds, squirrels, coons
made memory there until the day it fell.
They got out. It groaned for twenty minutes.
I tell you, it sighed as it bent,
its branches catching the dull fall,
the soft turning in wet dissolution.
the body lay exposed: a gut of grubs,
a lust of hollowness. We wept,
as I say, more than it was called for.

Thank you to everyone who participated in my pre-blogiversary reading conversation. Twenty-three of you contributed suggestions to my library list and I’ll be picking several of the books off the list to bring home this week.

I’ll also be picking several names to win prizes — which I’ll do tomorrow once I have some prizes to show you.

My second blogiversary was spent quietly. I made scones this morning. I read (Jasper Fforde’s The Fourth Bear). I cuddled with cats. I ate grilled cheese and tomato soup in honor of the final official weekend of winter. I wound some yarn — to start my Bloomin’ Socks and to begin the front of my Everyday Cardigan. We watched basketball. I napped. We ate pizza. I thought about, but did not do, any laundry. A quiet, but good, Saturday.

Check back tomorrow for the winners of my drawing and what they’ve won. It should be good!

And thanks again. I blog because I like to, but you guys sure do make it more interesting than talking to myself!