If it’s Thursday, it’s time to reflect back on three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Late Monday evening’s downpour was followed by a brief clearing, just long enough to cause an enormous rainbow to fill the eastern sky. I have never seen a rainbow that big — so large, in fact, that I had to use the panorama setting on my phone to capture both ends of it (and that was without the outer double rainbow). It was so impressive, I made Rudi pull the car over so we could capture it.

2. Tuesday night, we had tickets to the Mets-Nationals baseball game. Unfortunately, the Mets played a losing game of football, giving up 7 runs in the first inning and then several innings of three runs apiece. By the time the eighth inning came around, they were six pitchers and nearly 20 runs in the hole. What do you do in that situation? Why turn to your 35-year-old bench-warming, veteran shortstop, of course! That’s right, the Mets put José Reyes on the mound as their final pitcher of the night, where he flung nearly 50 pitches over the plate at speeds ranging from 57 mph (which tapped Ryan Zimmerman on the leg, who grinningly responded by pretending to charge the mound) to a respectable 87 mph. Sure, he gave up six more runs to make the evening the worst loss in Mets history (and ended his pitching debut with an ERA of 54.0 (still vastly better than the ERA of 135.0 he held for a little while)), but he made it a night no one who stuck around to the end of the game will ever forget.

3. San Francisco’s fog is world-renowned (also, it’s named Karl), so I wasn’t shocked to see the Golden Gate Bridge socked in on Friday. It was a little more surprising to watch disembodied wisps of it float through the trees in a park where I was walking the next afternoon, but it was also kind of cool.

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

It’s late and I’ve been traveling all day and … I just woke up from dozing off in the middle of that sentence a couple hours ago.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I was home when we flooded. Rudi was away for the weekend and things would have been bad if I had gone with him.

2. I bought some hummus & pita chips at the D.C. airport before leaving, which I did not need for my first flight today, but that came in handy for my second.

3. Clouds are just really cool when you’re looking down on them.

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

1. After leaving the beach on Sunday, we pass an honor system roadside stand, which included a cut-your-own garden. I brought home three stems of gladioli. Having now seen them in their natural state, I understand why they’re sometimes called the sword lily.

2. Tonight was a Fort Reno concert night and the official celebration of its 50th anniversary. The free punk concert series was its typical eclectic self by featuring a lineup that included a reading of a Sylvia Plath poem set to modern dance by two members of a local theater troupe, a dj set, and a nine-minute snare drum composition. It was also the Night of a Thousand Cakes, and so much was still left that the organizer apologized to families prior to the final act by asking them to please send their children up to eat more sugar. After years of attending at least one show during the season, I am convinced that whatever celestial being is in charge of the weather is a punk fan because there is always a gorgeous sunset to be seen on concert nights.

3. Tuesday there was a terrific mid-afternoon thunderstorm during which time more than two inches of rain fell over less than an hour. I didn’t have to be out in it, so was content to admire its force from a window. (Rudi was not so lucky.)

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I already devoted an entire post to them, but those sunflowers really merit inclusion for being a balm to the soul.

2. Rudi and I saw The Incredibles 2 on Tuesday night, which let out just in time for the final 20 minutes of Dirty Dancing showing across the street in the waterside park. Tonight, I headed up to my local park, where they were screening Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, while Rudi caught a 70mm print of 2001: A Space Odyssey at one of the art houses.

3. I am a fan of the traditional Oreo flavor combination and tend not to believe in the mutations that have popped up in the past decade (different colors are okay, though). But I couldn’t pass up the chance to try their Fourth of July cookies, Firework Oreos, which had red and blue pop rocks embedded in the regular creme. The first two cookies I didn’t quite get the big deal, until Rudi told me I was eating them too quickly and that I had to let them sit on my tongue for a minute. Same great taste, but with little fizzing bursts that make your cat turn his head.

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

Thursday means it’s time to reflect back on three beautiful things from my past week:

1. After having listened to the Hamilton soundtrack since before it was officially released, it was awesome to finally get to see the visuals that accompany the audio.

2. I bought a couple new bathing suits on sale online (actually, I bought more than a couple, but am only keeping two) and wore one to the pool this week to try it out in action. Rudi says it looks good and it neither pulled down nor rode up while jumping into the pool, swimming, and getting out, so I’d call that a success.

3. We got not one, but two, fireworks displays this week — one after the ballgame on Tuesday and one on the 4th over the Mall. This year’s new shaped fireworks included ones that looked like jellyfish. I didn’t manage to capture them on film, but maybe you saw them if they showed the entire display on PBS?

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

Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you?

We’re heading to see Hamilton tomorrow night at the Kennedy Center, and I’m very excited to finally be in the room where it happens.” But before that, there’s one more Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I had to go to Costco tonight, which requires a trip to Virginia. We were driving back over the Potomac just as the moon, a day off being full and a brilliant orange, was rising over the horizon.

2. We had a summer solstice party at work, complete with shave ice stand, potluck, photo props, and a modified game of volleyball. By the end of the afternoon, I was full, had a fun photo with some of my favorite coworkers, and a trophy for my participation in the volleyball games. (Honestly, I couldn’t tell you why except maybe that I was still in the room when they were awarding them?)

I sat down next to this bee at the Dupont Circle fountain earlier in the week and watched it spend the next five minutes give itself a thorough bath.

3. Tonight we ate the first corn on the cob of the season, which was mediocre on its own, but which means that better, more delicious corn is coming soon.

This guy.

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