The problem with procrastination is that when you are done procrastinating and are ready to get the work done, other people, who were unaware you were procrastinating, may no longer be in.

Drat!

(It’s okay. It will work out. It always does. … Which may be why I never learn.)

I just wanted to warn folks that blogging will continue to be irregular over the next three weeks. We head to Salt Lake on Wednesday to help Rudi’s mother recuperate following her hip replacement surgery. I return a bit before Rudi because of work obligations that will have me working the final two weekends of the month. The laptop will be going with us to SLC, but I’m not sure how much time there will be to post, given the caregiving and home maintenance responsibilities we have planned.

This weekend was spent cleaning the Burrow and doing laundry in preparation for heading out of town. It wasn’t all work and drudgery, though, as I also got some reading done and spent some time with Jenn and her husband, both of whom graduated from Conn a few years after Rudi and I did and who spent the first few days of their vacation touring the city’s sights. I don’t think we’ve seen Jenn in ten years, so it was great to be able to meet them for an Ethiopian dinner and cupcakey dessert following their two exhausting days of hiking the Mall and battling Girl Scouts.

I also headed over to the garden to water everything, string up the next level of twine for the peas to climb, and harvest some lettuce leaves and two Alpine strawberries. Some peas have flowers on them, my smallest broccoli plant sprouted a head (more the size of rabe than regular-sized at the moment), the pepper has buds, and the sunniest of our tomatoes has a lovely green orb. Leeks continue to mystify me, and the beans may need to be replanted after the town did some branch trimming that crushed a bunch of them early on. All in all, though, gardening remains a very satisfying experience. I look forward to July, when I hope to be able to add a swim in after my work sessions.

I actually won a week of fantasy baseball last week. I won my first week, tied the second week, and was on a seven-week losing streak prior to last night.

I know, I know. No one cares. But that’s okay. I’m excited and that’s all that matters!

Now I just need to claw back from last place. I’m 50+ points behind the leader, but only three points behind last week’s opponent. It could be doable!

Three more beautiful things from the past week:

1. Sometimes I read as I walk the two-and-a-half miles home from work. As I got close to home earlier this week, a girl approaching me from the opposite direction thoughtfully warned me of something on the sidewalk I wouldn’t have wanted to step on.

2. Last night, because I was heading to a meeting instead of home after work, I took a walking route I’d never used before. It was filled with wonders, like a fat cat poised on front steps, a well-tended Victorian home tucked between two ten-story apartment buildings, a Sharpei (not a Sharpie, as I originally typed) peeking out from behind a shop-to-be’s newspapered window, a man pulling seven-foot-high weeds out of his front yard, and a British telephone box in a backyard. The people were all very friendly along the route, too, calling out greetings to my smiles, despite my headphones.

3. We brought a four-foot-high bookshelf back with us from Connecticut last week and have stationed it next to the window. It needs to have little footie things put on it before I can fill it up with books and such, so it remains empty at the moment. Jeremiah thinks it’s wonderful we’ve brought him a new jungle gym and revels in seeing which shelf he can jump onto from a sprint, tormenting anyone who climbs onto a different shelf while he’s there, and chasing his tail — both in circles and by draping himself over the shelf to grab at his tail draped down between the shelf and the wall. I find him endlessly fascinating and will be sorry to curtail his antics by filling the shelves.

You wouldn’t know it from this list, but I really have been reading some books aimed at adults (and books outside the fantasy genre). They will feature in June’s Into the Stacks, however, because I’m not done with them. Patience, people. Patience… (more…)

It was a late night at work last night, after which I came home and fell asleep on the couch, neglecting the blog totally. I have a reading update for you, but it’s not done, so I shall instead offer you a special edition of Three Beautiful Things:

1. The first (local) firefly of the season floating down the street as Rudi and I walked to the music club Saturday night.

2. As Sweetpea noted earlier this week, we come from rainier climes. When the skies finally deigned to open up and spill their contents on us Sunday, it was like a gift from the heavens.

3. It rained again overnight (well, early this morning), but when I awoke with the alarm this morning, it had cleared, leaving a gorgeous, clear, deep blue sky, low humidity, and cooler temps. (Sorry, Jenn. It’s supposed to disappear before you arrive Friday night.)