Three beautiful things from my week past:

1. Pink sugar to mix into my sugar bowl for the holiday.

2. A gift reminded me of a necklace Rudi had given me that had broken. I took the pieces to the bead shop near my house and they’ve sold me the parts I need to repair it for about $6 and explained how to repair it.

3. Tuesday was Pancake Day (traditionally celebrated on Mardi Gras as a way to use up ingredients that were going to be given up during Lent). Because we lacked syrup, Rudi opted for crepes, which means one bowl makes both supper and dessert.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?

I hope you had a nice celebration of love today. I did, as well as a good birthday.

The day included chats, texts, and emails from loved ones. Thanks to those of you who left messages here! It also featured my online book group meeting and the Cybils announcement.

I went over to Anacostia, a neighborhood on the other side of the river, to check out a new bookstore that opened recently. Mahogany Books sells books by predominantly Black writers (with a few Latinx writers, as well, but I’m not sure if that’s permanent or if because they’ve recently been sharing space with the pop-up bookstore Duende Books). It’s a cheerful space in the Anacostia Arts Center with about a dozen sections. I ended up in the poetry section and treated myself to Morgan Parker’s There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé (which I’d heard good things about) and D.C. poet Elizabeth Acevedo’s Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths. Before I left, Elizabeth happened to stop in and the owner of the store facilitated getting my book signed for me. I stopped in at Turning Natural for a late lunch before heading back to Dupont Circle to meet Rudi. I got out at the further metro exit and walked back through the circle, where one of the local hotels was giving away Valentine’s Day roses.

After deciding we didn’t really feel like seeing a movie, we headed out toward our favorite pizzeria for supper. I discovered that Jeni’s Ice Cream, which opened a D.C. branch recently, gives away free ice cream on your birthday, so we stopped there first. Rudi opted for coffee and chocolate, while I went with peanut butter & chocolate chip and goat cheese with cherries. Delicious! But, oh, so filling! We took a lap through the mall before supper and then walked home after a few slices.

The day concluded with cupcakes, presents, and the Olympics, where we got to see a transcendent ice skating performance by the German pairs skaters and a daring GS run by skier Mikaela Shiffrin.

It was a good day.

Three things I’m excited about today:

1. It’s my birthday and I’ve taken the day off to spend how I’d like. No, I haven’t quite figured out how that is, but still…I’m optimistic I’ll figure it out as I go along. It will definitely involve pizza at my favorite local pizzeria.
2. It’s also my friend Jason’s birthday, which hopefully means we’ll get to talk. I’ll likely hear from some other folks, too, which is always nice.
3. My online book club meets at noon. And the Cybils winners will be announced at 12:30.

Three things I’m excited about this coming week:

1. It’s a long weekend for Presidents’ Day.
2. Black Panther opens. My friend Shawn is planning on going to see it five times, so I’m hopeful I can tag along with him on one of his viewings. If not, I can totally watch a movie on my own. (Rudi’s going to be away coaching and then he does not have a long weekend.)
3. Sunday is the Chinese New Year Parade. I’ve never attended in the 15 years I’ve lived in D.C., but I’d really like to go this year.

Three things I’m excited about this coming month:

1. Two movies based on books I’ve loved, A Wrinkle in Time and Love, Simon, open in early March.
2. We still have another 11 days of Olympics and Ravellenic Games knitting. Did you see Shaun White and Chloe Kim?! And, then, less than a week after the Ravellenic Games knitting wraps up, Sock Madness begins!
3. Obsidio, the final book in the Illuminae trilogy, comes out next month. I have loved the first two ephemeral doorstoppers in this sci fi series and have high hopes for the final one.

What are you excited about coming up?

Today was a rather Mondayish Monday. It started shortly after Rudi departed for work as I was getting dressed, when I noticed a dark mark in the channel separating two tiles near the window. We live in a basement and it periodically floods when we get a lot of rain, which we did over the weekend. I’d checked the area yesterday and it had been dry, but apparently the rain we got overnight or early this morning tipped the balance. The water hadn’t spread far, but it required moving several things in order to get newspaper underneath the shelf the tv sits on, which I could see had water underneath it.

I had bought a birthday card last month for my brother, which I’d put aside for when it was closer to the date, but I needed to get it in the mail. I looked on the desk once, twice, and in various other spots where it shouldn’t have been, but could have been, before the card chose to reveal itself … right on the desk where I’d hunted.

Work included an email that was snide in tone, but I don’t think that was intentional. It also included a reminder about self-eevaluations and job descriptions, which is a pointless and frustrating experience at my office.

I forgot to do laundry earlier this evening, which means that the clothes I need for tomorrow’s volleyball game are not likely to be dry when I head to work in the morning.

And when I dug out my favorite sweater from the garment bag in the hall closet where I’d carefully placed it a couple years ago (I’d worn through the elbows and then worn through the patches and had put it away until I could figure out what to do with it), I discovered the bag had been damaged somehow and the hole breached by moths. I spent an hour with a lint roller removing worm casings and detritus. I can see several new holes, but I’m hopeful that the majority of the sweater can be salvaged after some mending.

The day was not all bad. I assuaged my frustrated feelings at the office by buying French fries from the deli next door, which I shared with my coworkers. Rudi made a delicious Tom Kha soup for supper, which we ate while watching the Olympics. There were gingerbread cookies for dessert and cocoa with Valentine’s Day sprinkles. And I knit several inches on the sleeve of my sweater, which felt very satisfying.

Here’s to tomorrow being a Tuesday (volleyball!) and Mardi Gras and Pancake Day all in one package!

I was supposed to spend the last two days figuring out what I want to do on my birthday Wednesday, but I end the weekend as clueless as I entered, having only “take day off” and “eat pizza for supper” on the list. What do you think I should do on my day off prior to suppertime?

The weekend did include some knitting and some reading and some napping; a walk in the rain and one in the heat (it nearly reached a very humid 70 today!); chats with friends; trips to the library, the grocery store, and the farmers market; a lot of Olympics watching; and the eating of tasty treats, including this heart-shapped chocolate mousse from the French baker who comes to the market.

How was your weekend?

I couldn’t help but be struck by this tree’s resemblance, with its bare branches covered in raindrops, to a spiderweb.