It’s been a killer week and there’s still one more day to go. I can’t wait for tomorrow at 5…

But before we get there, we must look back at three more beautiful things from the past week:

1. Mia’s homemade pickles totally complemented the rest of our sandwiches last night.

2. Our first Nationals game of the season, featuring a starting pitcher making his major league debut, is a win, followed by fireworks set to Bon Jovi songs.

3. A note tied to our railing told us our neighbors had a rosemary plant for us. The next day, a gorgeously pine green plant was waiting for us in our empty plant plate. (Once I figure out where the note has gone to, there are pictures to come…)

and a bonus fourth beautiful thing that’s probably only beautiful to me:

4. I awoke Monday morning to discover my team at the top of our fantasy baseball league. (I thought about not saying anything so as not to jinx my success, but as two more of my players went onto the DL this week, I don’t think it can hurt my chances…)

How about you? What’s beautiful in your world? Share it with us in the comments. You know you wanna…

Due to yesterday’s blog blackout, I missed an important anniversary: my five year anniversary of chronicling Three Beautiful Things.

I didn’t realize five years ago, when I stumbled across Clare’s blog noting three instances of beauty in her daily life that this would become my most regular, and one of my most looked forward to, features. And yet, if you scroll through my archives, you’ll find a stunning 29 pages worth of beautiful things I thought worth noting over the years. And while it’s a random assortment of things I’ve recorded, there are some constants — wonderful friends and family, good food, a comfortable home, nature, adorable or amusing children and animals, meaningful music… And, really, aren’t those the things that make life worth living?

I have to admit that as I page through my TBT archives, I’m wearing a bit of a goofy smile on my face. What was beautiful five years ago or three, or even last month, is still beautiful and I’m so grateful to Clare that she inspired me to set these things down in writing. Because while I would have remembered some of them — John’s wedding, New Jersey Christmas lights — there so many other fleeting moments that would have passed right out of my memory but that are instead captured forever.

So, in honor of a significant milestone, I offer you a rare Tuesday Three Beautiful Things to mark what’s been noteworthy in the last few days:

1. We drive back from Columbia Sunday night through a massive thunderstorm filled with sheets of rain and lightning so bright that it illuminates the sky like midday. As we cross the state line into the District, 16th Street is miraculously dry.

2. After a day that started with waking up pre-dawn to nightmares and went downhill from there, Rudi rubs my clenched jaw until it relaxes, rubs my back until we both doze off, and then gets up to wash the dinner dishes so that I don’t have to.

3. Rudi and I lie down on the rug to play a board game. Posey, who considers the floor to be her domain, comes over to watch — and to help us play. She adds new dimensions to the game by trying to steal playing pieces and by suggesting our dice were meant to roll different numbers. When a big, fluffy paw reached out to swipe a second cow (we’d already given her a spare), we both burst into laughter. [N.B. Posey is not the first cat in our household to enjoy gaming; Della’s enjoyment of Scrabble was the reason we ultimately gave up on keeping score.]

Have you witnessed anything beautiful lately?

When you don’t leave the house for two days, Thursday comes around a lot faster than expected. Here are three beautiful things from my week:

1. Feeling well enough after two days home (and a Monday I should have taken as a sick day) to head back to the office.

2. My Washington Carver, a chocolate and peanut butter milk shake from Tryst, is luxuriously cold (and tasty) to my sore throat.

3. My boss has pushed and prodded and I am given an office — with a window. It’s my first above-ground window (complete with sunlight!) in more than seven years.

How about you? What’s been beautiful around you this week?

It’s gorgeous today, the sort of weather that just begs for patios to be taken advantage of or windows of brand new offices to be opened. (Oh, yes!) To celebrate, let’s think back on three beautiful things from the past week:

1. I’m one of the few people in the country who don’t mind paying taxes. So I was happy to send off my check today in order to have nicer roads, better schools, and protected national parks and seashores.

2. Spinner and AOL Music provided me with lots of good, new releases to listen to this week including cds by Kaki King, Tom Lehrer, Straight No Chaser, and MGMT. I’ll definitely be picking up at least a few of them on Saturday during Record Store Day.

3. Despite not having sent out real mail in far too long, I was the recipient of both a cd and an honest-to-goodness letter this week. I think I’d better work on getting some outgoing mail written this weekend to continue this exciting trend.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It’s been a week of Conn friend surprises: Eri and ECN come to town unannounced and invite us to dinner. Erik calls to chat. Jason phones to say he’ll be out here later in the month and could we get together.

2. Monday is a particularly long, exhausting work day, and I don’t find out until after I rise Tuesday morning that India has canceled our 8 a.m. conference call. I decide to celebrate by going into the office a bit late on a gorgeously blue morning and biking down to catch the cherry blossoms before they disappear.

3. It’s raining when we get out of the theater and still when we get home. After Rudi parks the car, we snuggle back into our seats, hold hands, and listen to the rain fall.

What’s been beautiful in your life recently?

I escaped the day with nary a fish taped to my back, but the universe got me back by work keeping me (and a bunch of my coworkers) until nearly 9 p.m. Yikes! I biked home, ate lentils, and promptly dozed off on the unmade bed. But I’m back up to help make the bed, wash the dinner dishes, and write a blog post before heading to sleep for the night.

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As I biked home tonight, a tourist family crossed a major road where I was stopped at the light. Halfway across the street, the youngest child lost the jacket tied around his waist. When they eventually reach the sidewalk I overhear the mother chastise her daughter, saying that the middle of the street wasn’t the place to laugh, even if she had thought it was her brother’s trousers lying in the intersection. “But if it hadn’t been the middle of the road, it would have been okay to laugh?” the girl dead-panned.

2. While Rudi skis, Jenny and I spend a quiet hour knitting socks and watching a documentary on Zora Neale Hurston on PBS.

3. Sitting in the parking lot before Rudi’s reunion banquet, I see the nearly full moon rising over the eastern mountains just as the sun is setting over the western ones.

What’s been beautiful in your world this week? New family members? First blooms? A dry basement? Share it with us, please!