It’s Friday night, which means it’s time to think about the next couple days and how to differentiate them from the rest of the week.

Here’s what I’m hoping it holds:

• I have already started the weekend by finishing the print book I was reading. I am looking forward to picking out which book will be the next one I spend chunks of time with.
• If I get up before noon (and that’s a big if), I’m going to try to get to Georgetown before the bank closes at 1, so I can get quarters so we can do laundry. (Rudi discovered that the branch of his bank closest to our apartment has also closed temporarily.) If that doesn’t look likely, maybe Rudi will go instead, since he’s sure to get up before me.
• Even if I do not go to the bank, I am going to leave the apartment. The past two days have been huge fails on that front, with the furthest I’ve traveled is the sidewalk outside the building to take out the recycling bin. There will be trips to the garden and to the farmers market. I may even ride my bike.
• I would like to order pizza. I didn’t wrap up work early enough to do it today, so I will give it a shot tomorrow. (I got caught up at the end of the day trying to write a legal contract and then explain in an email to the people on our staff with that expertise what it was I actually wanted the contract to do.)
• There is going to be some serious vacuuming going on in the Burrow this weekend. Maybe I’ll even dig out some of the vacuum’s accessories. (Yes, I do know exactly where they are.)
• I’m going to knit some more on my sock. I’m going to darn at least one pair, because I’m out of clean unholey pairs and tomorrow is going to be cold. And I’m going to wash all the pairs that need laundering.
• Baking will happen. Dessert options are limited right now, but only because I keep taking naps instead of spending time in the kitchen.
• There are birthdays and Mother’s Day to be celebrated this weekend. (I should probably also think about Rudi’s birthday next Saturday, because that’s definitely going to arrive before I realize, and winging it will be less possible this year.)
• I have mail to write! The post office is clearly not going to save itself!
• And I’m definitely going to work on getting some sleep — starting now!

How about you? What’s on your weekend to-do list? (It can totally be a not-to-do list, too.)

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As you may have seen in yesterday’s photo, I moved the citrus to the living room table. (I say that as if we have any other table in our apartment.) Its newfound proximity to my workspace on the couch means it’s the first snack I grab. (Also, we excavated the blue bowl from under a pile of things and put it back to use, which is super exciting.)

2. Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff did an author event put on by my local bookshop. The hosting platform did not want to be put into the background on my phone and still play the audio, so it made an excellent excuse to stay out on my walk until the event wrapped up. And I felt Amie’s description of their introvert-extrovert (paraphrasing, but essentially: I’m like a six year old and everyone I meet is my new best friend. Jay eventually runs out of words because he hasn’t been able to recharge.) approaches to touring.

3. Cheese and crackers as an appetizer.

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

I’m up finally halfway through the leg of my Smock Madness sock. I definitely feel like I could be through the heel this weekend, unless I’m actually so productive that I come away with a clean apartment instead of half a sock. Seems unlikely…

I’m about halfway through The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman and am finally mostly enjoying it. I’m about a quarter of the way through listening to Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed’s Yes, No, Maybe So, which seems especially enjoyable right now since portions of our living space has been turned into a satellite campaign office for the candidate Rudi is working for. And tonight Rudi and I started listening to the Stephen Fry rendition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on Audible. It’s free to listen to for the next while, and Fry’s Hermione is far less annoying than Jim Dale’s. Rudi listened to several hours, but I napped through it intermittently, so I’ve been relistening since he went to bed. I think I can get caught up tomorrow night.

Want to see what other people are reading and crafting? Head to As Kat Knits for the roundup.

As always, I’ve been lazy about sharing what I’ve finished reading this year. Let’s take the next step toward getting caught up. I read five books in February, but am just going to share the first two with you today, since they unintentionally share a theme:

Words in Deep Blue, by Cath Crowley

In this Australian y.a. novel, Rachel has just moved back to the city where she spent most of her growing-up years. She, her brother, and her mom had moved out to the coast a couple years earlier, but tragedy has struck and Rachel has returned to live with her aunt after high school. Adding to the stress of big life changes and their accompanying seismic waves is that, just before she’d moved, she’d declared her undying love for her best friend in a letter. And he’d never responded. Now, her aunt has agreed that she’ll help her ex-BFF’s family catalogue their bookshop’s inventory, including the room of books with letters tucked inside for various recipients, including the one she’d written Henry. She’s not going to mention it, though; nor is she going to share what drove her to move back.

Henry’s longtime girlfriend just dumped him, shortly before a trip they were going to take around the world. He’s devastated, particularly since it’s clear that at least part of the problem is that his life goals — to work in his family’s shop — and thus he are not ambitious enough for her. When Rachel walks back into his life, he’s delighted, particularly since he doesn’t know why she’d severed ties with him after she moved. But she seems to have changed, and there seem to be a number of things unsaid between them where there didn’t used to be barriers.

I really loved the idea of a bookstore with space devoted to books that meant something to two people, that published words can be so intimate as to constitute a shared experience. This was a heartbreaking read, but also a heartmending one, and I recommend it.

Pages: 288. Personal copy.

Do Fish Sleep?, by Jens Raschke, with illustrations by Jens Rassmus. Translated from German by Belinda Cooper.

Ten-year-old Jette’s brother, Emil, has been sick since he was a baby. He’s been in and out of the hospital with cancer. And, then, a year ago, he died, leaving everyone bereft, but without the capacity to talk about it. Their mother is particularly hard hit, leaving Jette to wonder if she’d loved her brother more. But Jette and Emil have talked about some of the big questions, such as whether fish sleep or not and how to come to terms with questions you might not be able to prove the answer to.

It doesn’t feel like we have a lot of fiction for younger kids coping with loss of a sibling. There’s a lot of genuine emotion in this book, but it deftly deals with the subject matter and lightens the emotional load a bit with accompanying pen and ink illustrations, so that it doesn’t end up feeling like an Afterschool Special. Recommended for young families.

Pages: 64. Library copy.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday at This Artsy Reader Girl, Things I’d Have at My Bookish Party, would have exhausted me in a pre-pandemic world. But right now? Can’t even begin to contemplate. So, I’m going with a variation on a theme (this was also my approach in college, when I couldn’t answer an essay question on an exam: answer a related question instead of the one actually assigned): Ten Books I’ve Read with Parties That Sound Fun:

1. Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia: The costumed, funeral party on Boston Commons
2. Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory: Christmas tea for the royal family’s staff
3. Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston: The royal wedding at the beginning, at least until the wedding cake crashes to the floor
4. P.S., I Still Love You by Jenny Han: The dance Lara Jean throws at the retirement home
5. Caraval by Stephanie Garber: I think it would be fun to observe Caraval (half Amazing Race, half Carnival, but I don’t know that I’d want to take part
6. Geekerella by Ashley Poston: I’ve never been to a Comic Con-like event, so this one is tempting
7. Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone by J.K. Rowling: Harry’s first Christmas at Hogwarts (I thought about making it Harry’s birthday/Bill and Fleur’s wedding in Deathly Hallows, but that does end with Death Eaters, so in the end, I’d probably rather not… And the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire was also a consideration…)
8. Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli: Their prom involved way more walkways through trees and fairy lights than mine did
9. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein: The library’s opening night
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: The Netherfield ball

Come tomorrow I’ll remember a half dozen village fêtes, masquerades, and beach parties that I should have included, but this works for a start.

Have you ever wanted to attend a party you read about in a book?

How is it already Sunday night? I swear, I am the most unproductive person!

Friday night, I chatted with my folks while I took my evening constitutional, then finished my audiobook. Rudi made us a delicious pizza for supper. It was the last of the dough from the pizzeria, which might mean we have to order out later this week. I’m just going to tack on dough from them every time now, because for $5, it gets us two otherwise homemade meals.

Saturday, I slept in, at least until 13 airplanes buzzed my apartment. I think Corey, who was curled up next to me, thought we were under attack. Or maybe that I’d added a new, horrible alarm to my phone. I made waffles for brunch (breakfast for me, lunch for Rudi) and then finished reading my print novel. There may have been a nap on the sofa after that while Rudi finished his all-day conference call.

We took a walk after that — nearly five miles! — and stopped at the grocery store. We won’t be going back to that one for a while, so we stocked up on whatever we could carry.

This morning, I headed over to the farmers market, where my haul included another bucket of strawberries, asparagus, lettuce, fiddleheads, potatoes, carrots, and the gigantic five-pound box of what the mushroom people considered “seconds.” I mean, do you see anything in that box you wouldn’t actually want?!

I also bought a bunch of seedlings — six tomato plants, two peppers, and a cucumber — from the nursery that comes to the market, so Rudi and I took them down to the garden this evening and put them in the ground. It may have been the fastest we’ve ever turned around seedlings, but more rain was expected tonight, so we wanted them to have a nice dousing. (Plus, Corey enjoys munching seedlings he discovers in the entryway.)

I browsed some yarn — this weekend would have been the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and I’m contemplating buying a skein or two as a treat, not that I need it. But I decided to give it a day or two, to see if the urge wears off once nostalgia isn’t as heavily at play.

We watched the season finale of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, which (pun intended) hit all the right notes in what is one of the tightest shows on tv this season. We did, however, need some lighthearted watching to finish the night off, so I introduced Rudi to Agatha Raisin. Rudi made a delicious cottage pie, which we enjoyed as thunder rumbled overhead and Corey dozed on my chest.

And, now, the workweek looms. But while it does, I’m hoping you can share your favorite meat-free mushroom dishes. Because we have a fair few more fungi to finish.