Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Gramma’s quilt came off the needles last night while I was at knitting group. It’s been a long time since I’ve finished something with other knitters around, who always know how to make you feel terrific about a mostly complete (still in need of end-weaving and blocking) object.

2. Rudi and I were thwarted in our efforts to go to a movie on my birthday by virtue of the fact that it was also a Saturday night and Valentine’s Day. We’ll see Coraline yet, but in the meantime we were able to rent a movie from iTunes in an attempt to salvage our evening. I downloaded A Night at the Museum to our laptop — and then promptly fell asleep before the opening credits even ran. (We spun it up again the following night so I could catch it before our rental period ended.

3. Friday I head out into downtown Chicago in search of lunch. I’d eaten at the Corner Bakery the day before, so I knew that was a fallback if I didn’t find anything quickly, but another street down and two over I came across a wine and cheese shop that also served sandwiches. I had a baguette packed with goat cheese, avocado, celery, and pesto as well as a local micro-brewed rootbeer. Delicious!