Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My volleyball team won its division. (Momentum was in our favor; we got progressively better as the season went on.)

2. We stopped in Princeton on our way north this evening and the easiest spot to use the loo was at the town library. They have a coffee shop and a used bookstore in their library (the former is supposed to be a feature at the new main library in D.C. when it reopens, I believe) and this really cool mosaic wall, “Happy World,” with local items as well as tiles painted by artist Ik-Joong Kang. (Libraries are my new favorite bathroom stop.)

3. Sunday was cool and grey, but I headed to the pool anyway to get in some swimming before the predicted thunderstorms. Only a handful of us had the same idea, which meant that a pool that’s designed to and often does hold more than 100 people had fewer than three dozen. For much of the time I was there, I had the deep end entirely to myself.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I had a work meeting down on the Mall this week. We ended up by Constitution Garden, where there was a mama duck and four ducklings paddling about.

2. Despite their saying only the top three volleyball teams would advance to the playoffs, my league let all four of us in, thanks to two of us being tied. We’ll take it!

3. I don’t like hockey. I do, however, like people who like hockey. And I like seeing our locals get to proud of something on the national stage. And, being a fan of a different sport, I know the dejection of losing and the elation of winning in big games. Thousands and thousands of hockey fans have packed local bars, parks, and streets for watch parties this week and tonight they got to watch their Capitals clinch the Stanley Cup, and I couldn’t be happier for them.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. How could this not top the list???

2. As we were standing at the Union Square subway station ticket kiosk trying to figure out how to reload our metro passes, an older woman took the time to walk me through it. Having been that person before, I was unbelievably grateful for her patience with tourists.

3. It has been years since Rudi and I took a trip that didn’t involve visiting my family or his. Lovely as that is, it’s not the same as going someplace where it’s just the two of us the entire time. I hope we plan more such excursions.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi clears the stuff out of the way of my bike and makes sure my tail light has fresh batteries prior to the baseball game we’re due to attend. (Because of the forecast, I hadn’t planned to ride it to the game, which he didn’t know, making it even sweeter.

2. I convinced the two teammates who wanted to hang out after our volleyball game that we should go get ice cream instead of going to the bar. (I had peanut butter cup.)

3. A sun shower drops a tiny bit of rain on an otherwise dry Sunday. I am at a cafe, sitting under an umbrella on the patio, and the rain disappears after only a minute.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi celebrated his 45th birthday on Wednesday. We both took the day off from work and spent the day together, eating out, visiting an art gallery, and dodging raindrops. I made a strawberry shortcake to conclude the day.

2. One of my fellow gardeners was clearing her plot of early crops when I stopped in to plant on Sunday. She stopped by before leaving to ask if I wanted a bouquet of Johnny Jump Ups, since otherwise she was going to have to compost them.

3. I look down at my knitting to realize there is a dropped stitch half a dozen rows down laddering its way away from the needles. I pull out a crochet hook and zig-zag the yarn back up where it belongs. How cool is it to know how to fix a hole like that?!

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It began dripping as I left the library earlier tonight, but didn’t ever turn into a full-on rain. It was enough, though, to give me a few of a faint rainbow off to the east.

2. I don’t know if these folks are dressed for Free Comic Book Day or Embassy Day or just Wear an Unusual Outfit Day, but here they are walking down Mass Ave. in Dupont Circle:

3. I got the heel turned okay on my socks, which, after the trouble I had with my Posey socks, did have me worried. Luckily, my formula for three-color striped socks holds fine (as opposed to the four colors of Posey) and I’m heading down the foot.

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