This weekend, I only left the house to do three things. The rest of the time, I slept in, read, listened to a mariachi band outside our window, watched baseball, and dozed to the sound of the rain.

On Friday, Rudi, Sweetpea, some other friends, and I headed up to the Carter Barron Amphitheatre to see the Shakespeare Free for Fall production of Love’s Labors Lost. The local library had been totally uncooperative on Wednesday in loaning me a copy of the play to cram in last minute, so I went into it cold, but it’s not a complicated story. The production places the story at a 1960s ashram (don’t you love it when your brain can recall words like this?) and made several of the main characters a Beatles-like band, and it worked … mostly. I think they may have taken the production a little too seriously, so they (and, likewise, the audience) had less fun than they did with Pericles last summer.

Saturday night, Rudi and I headed over to the Black Cat to see the show I’d bought tickets for him for his birthday. Rudi likes to stream Virgin Radio and thus often becomes enamored of bands that aren’t yet famous over here. I knew that he’d discovered the Pipettes over the winter, so I grabbed tickets to the show when they were announced.

This was our first club show since the Indoor Clean Air Act took effect, and the difference was noticeable. Plus, the show was an all ages show, so the sound may have been turned down more than the previous shows we’ve seen there. I’m pleased to say that the Pipettes, a throw-back yet mod British girl trio, were a lot of fun, if occasionally a bit sharp in their vocals. But the surprise of the evening was the second opening act, Smoosh, a teen-sister duo from Seattle. They were excellent — and the obvious hit of the night. The 13-year-old drummer, in particular, kicked some serious ass! They sort of reminded me of Hanson — particularly when their tiny, ten-year-old sister joined in on bass — except with better songs.

Sunday morning we braved a steady downpour to hit the farmers’ market. We’d returned from Connecticut last weekend to discover our greens had dissolved, so we were eager to replace them and to pick up some more strawberries. (Shortcake this week!) We also came away with sugar snap peas, the first beans of the season, fava beans, broccoli, and spring onions. I’m eager to see if Rudi can figure out how to replicate this delicious fava bean spread we had at Two Amy’s last month. It was delicious!