Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. A crowd gathers at Fort Reno, the highest spot in D.C., to watch the sun sink on Sunday. (My parents, Karen, and Rudi all reported gorgeous sunsets that night, as well.)

2. On an unseasonably warm Monday, Sarah and I opt to do our job hunting from the rooftop of the main city library, which has been converted to a green public oasis above all the concrete.

3. It is warm and sunny, so I opt to do some work and take a phone call up at the park before turning my attention to my book and the sunset.

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

I finished five books during February, which feels a bit like I slacked after January’s ten. But that’s how it goes…

Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

A middle-aged magazine advice columnist commutes into London every day with her dog. She doesn’t make eye contact. She certainly never talks to anyone, even if she does recognize the regulars on her route and form judgments based on what she observes. Until one of those regulars starts choking in front of her and she has to get involved. And once one of those rules fall, she finds herself unable to put the lid back on, intermingling with a bullied student, a nursing student, a young woman starting her career, and men having marital and career woes. A heartwarming story for those who love found family stories. Some of the twists are telegraphed early, but you never mind.

Library. Audio. (more…)

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to share ten books with titles that contain ordinal numbers. I wanted to give you just one for each, but capped out of individual numbers I’d read at nine. I’ve doubled up on “first,” which is also the number that appears most in books I’ve listed as to-read.

1. First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde
2. The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
3. The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser
4. The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
5. The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson Elementary by Laura Shovan
6. Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker Rhodes
7. Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth
8. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
9. Miracle on 34th Street by Valentine Davies
10. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser

I’ve been feeling unmotivated lately (it’s the grey and the lingering chill and the mud season preventing us from playing volleyball outdoors and everyone else’s beach vacations), so decided to resurrect an older blog feature — the weekend planning post. I never expect to get all of the items accomplished, but it’s helpful to giving me some shape to the next couple days and to use to refer back to when I falter a bit. Here is a baker’s dozen activities:

• There is a Holi celebration at Dupont Circle Saturday afternoon co-sponsored by the Indian Embassy, and I am curious about this celebration of color, spring, and the triumph of good over evil.
• It’s the member celebration sale at Politics and Prose, and while I absolutely do not need more books, I might still like to pick a particular one up, since it hadn’t yet been published when I went looking for it on my birthday bookstore jaunt last month. I should probably peek at the calendar to see if there are celebrations that will require a book in the next few months.
• Buy cleaning supplies. The main P&P store is up by Rodman’s, which is an independent shop with a little bit of everything (groceries including their renowned international section, home goods, deodorant not behind a locked case, a watch repair counter). It’s a throwback, and I need sponges and cleaning supplies and a new toothbrush and cat food and Hobnobs, so I’ll be heading that direction.
• Eat pizza. My favorite pizzeria completes that northern-D.C. triangle. I mean, at that point, do I even have a choice?
• Make bread. I literally just need to spend five minutes putting things into the bread maker and then commit to 3 hours at home waiting for the reward of a hot, fresh loaf.
• Change the cat box liner. I bought new litter earlier this week, but I’m a few days late with this monthly chore, since I haven’t yet dug out the new liner.
• Tidy the living room. (Such a short sentence. Such a Herculean task. But the only way through is through, so let’s make some inroads.)
• Hit up the farmers market on Sunday. While I can take compost to a number of receptacles around the city, the pickup at the farmers market in my neighborhood is most convenient.
• Watch the UConn-Georgetown playoff game on tv.
• Finish knitting the mitt I’ve been working on. I have an inch left, plus the thumb, and then I probably need to tear out the bind off on the first mitt and fix it, but my best guess is that’s under two hours of work. It’d be nice to have these ready to go for chilly spring evenings.
• Write a letter. I owe cards and letters to a few people, and it would feel nice to send them some cheer in their mailboxes.
• Tackle the February Into the Stacks post. I only read five books, so it should take half the time the January post took, right?
• Saturday would have been my grandmother’s 105th birthday, and it feels like I should make one of her recipes to celebrate. A cookie and a cuppa while reading a mystery feels like a good way to remember.

What do you hope to get to this weekend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It was the last week for the 2nd graders’ volleyball program. There were tears and hugs.

2. It was sunny and warm last weekend and I got to sit outside both days and read.

3. I had gone to Adams Morgan to run some errands and passed by the restaurant we frequent after volleyball games during the summer. I texted John to say I was thinking of him, and not 30 seconds went by before my phone was ringing. “Where are you?! Stop walking!” He was out at a nearby bar celebrating a buddy’s birthday and came running outside to give me a hug.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I have been lazy with my sourdough starter and had let it hang out unfed in the fridge for a couple weeks. This week, I fed it and it perked right up.

2. I had an expiring birthday coupon with Asics, and the trail runners I like for outdoor volleyball were on clearance. I didn’t need new sneakers yet, but I will certainly need them at some point this year, so it’s nice to have a new pair ready to go as soon as my knees and hips tell me that the old pair should be retired. (This is my best advice for 40-somethings who want to remain active in sports: listen to your body and replace your equipment more often than you used to.)

3. I’d seen them on other people’s blogs, but hadn’t come across them in real life yet, so Saturday, I took a snack, knitting, and a book and walked to the park via the route most likely to reveal snowdrops. I didn’t even have to make it to the Quakers’ churchyard; two doors down from me had some gorgeous clusters growing in their front bed.

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