This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl invites us to look over book titles and determine ten that we think would make great band names. Here are ten from my to be read list:

1. The Friday Night Knitting Club
2. Gods of Manhattan
3. Queens of Animation
4. Still Life with Tornado
5. Team of Rivals
6. Party of One
7. The Way Home
8. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man (pretty much every Fannie Flagg title would work as a band name)
9. Moominsummer Madness
10. Rancid Pansies

Have you come across any book titles that bands should consider?

Am I the only person who loses an entire day each weekend? Are you all being more productive with your Saturdays than I am?

Luckily, Sundays roll around and I seem to get enough done, or, at least, did this week, to make myself not feel horrible about my time off.

Yesterday I caught up on sleep. And then I … took a nap. I did help Rudi hang a few signs late at night for the political campaign he’s working on and then do a load of laundry. Oh, and I listened to some of one my audiobooks while Rudi was playing that concert on tv.

Today, though, I cut up a huge squash I bought over the winter. (Sure, I didn’t actually roast it, but it needed to be in pieces first…) I went to the farmers market and came home with way too many goodies, including yeast, flour, and jam from one of the bakers; the first strawberries, asparagus, and morels of the season; and bags of greens. Rudi and I will be eating salads until we turn green.

I rode my bike up to a pop-up plant stand a couple miles up the road. I had assumed it would be closed this year, but it must sneak in as a farm market. I was hoping for strawberry plants, but they’d sold out. I bought some leeks (they look like chives) and a dahlia (pink and white in the shot above) and a gerbera daisy (red). They were overpriced for what I am used to, but things are harder to get this year, so I guess we’ll just go with it. That’s why the government gave me that money, right?

I took a circuitous route from there to the garden, where I spent a couple hours puttering. I thinned arugula and yanked a lot of weeds and have started to pull the violet greens, since that season is starting to wrap up. I think I also accidentally pulled out my lily of the valley greens (but not the roots), which is frustrating, as I was trying to figure out where the garden’s water source was leaking in my plot.

I spoke with my parents, painted my nails (pink, orange, and teal), did a (very) little knitting, and watched some tv, too.

I think I’ll set up the bread machine to bake us some breakfast before I go to bed. I’ll have to do some baking tomorrow evening or maybe as a break after my last conference call in the afternoon (Mondays have 5-6 of them). Maybe I’ll make a small shortcake with those first stawberries.

I also want to get a couple more things done before bed (like washing the dishes and figuring out a spot for that cut squash), so I think I’ll bid you all a good night. Until tomorrow!

We kicked off the weekend with our first takeout in more than a month, with pizza from our favorite shop in D.C. I also did a little grocery shopping as I was waiting and drove for the first time in months.

I do not have six hours of recreational video conferencing planned this weekend, thank goodness, but I do hope to connect with a friend using the old fashioned, voice-only method.

I’ve placed some pre-orders for the farmers market, where I expect to be able to pick up my first asparagus and strawberries of the season.

I’m going to spend some time in my garden, where I expect to pick some greens, string up more runs for my peas, and put some sprouting potatoes in the ground, as well as do some general maintenance as part of my community garden work duties.

There is always laundry to be done. How???

With at least another month of working at home, I’m going to shift some things around and see how working at my desk feels. It predates computers and is higher and more slanted than ergonomics suggest ideal, but I’m also certain that working on my couch and in a rocking chair are not physiologically recommended. Plus, then I can see if I can make Rudi’s old monitor work as a second screen for my work laptop.

I need to do some baking, as we’re out of cookies and will soon use up the mid-week bread.

I should go for a bike ride. Sunday might be a nice day for that.

There will be some knitting and some reading, too.

What’s on your weekend agenda?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My sixth and final video conference call of the day was an all-staff happy hour. I had all the necessary ingredients for strawberry daiquiris, except for ice and rum for Rudi’s glass. One trip to the liquor store (by Rudi, during call #5), and both needs were met. Five minutes into my call and I was sitting with a very pink drink and congratulating colleagues who’d gotten engaged (in person) and defended their dissertation (via Zoom) this week.

2. I finally got around to baking Mary Berry’s shortbread, which I think is now Rudi’s favorite of my homemade cookies. I had bought semolina flour specifically for this recipe, but the comments suggest that you can substitute rice flour or all-purpose, although the latter will certainly make it less sandy in texture. Also, I didn’t have demerara sugar, but I do have a variety of sparkly sugars for decorating and cocoa topping, so simply subbed that in. (Confession: I didn’t measure it; I just sprinkled it until it seemed like the appropriate density.)

3. My system of dry bags, rolled towels, and newspapers (and less rain than expected) kept the flooding in the Burrow to a minimum.

What beautiful things have been getting you through this last week?

Sometimes you just need Paddington to read to you, and he’ll do it as long as you bribe him with marmalade sandwiches. Honestly, I think he’d do it even without the treat.

Tonight’s book is A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader, edited by Maria Popova and Claudia Bedrick, and my Christmas present from Karen. It’s a series of letters from famous writers, artists, scientists, and leaders to children about a shared love of books. Each letter is accompanied by an illustration, and each pairing is thoughtful and thought-provoking. It’s not the sort of thing you can plow through if you expect to enjoy it, but is lovely to dip into for a few letters each night.

The sock is last year’s Smock Madness, which I discovered when I was moving bags around. Sock #1 is already done, which makes it a better project than this year’s Sock Madness socks, which are only up to the heel flap of the first sock. Wool socks are a part of my daily quarantine wardrobe for at least another month, so finishing a pair would be a nice gift to myself.