Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. Karen took me bra shopping on Friday (this how good a friend she is; she didn’t force me to stand under fluorescent lights in my underwear by myself). I came home with three new pieces of support garmenture, two of which even have little ribbon roses on them, which will stay as long as they don’t show through my t-shirts. It’s okay if I know they are there, but I’m not particularly interested in having strangers on the street notice them.

2. I admit it: I like words. I know an awful lot of them and enjoy using them. I enjoyed Spell Bound and Akeelah and the Bee a great deal. If I could only take one book with me to a desert island, it would be a (good) dictionary. So tonight it was with great anticipation that I turned on ABC to watch this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee. I was blown away. These are elementary- and middle-school children spelling multi-syllabic words that I’ve never heard of — and spelling them right, often, to boot. So I have to admit that even though I was competing against children twenty years my junior, it was with great pride that I knew two of the words of the final 25: koine and weltschmerz. Koine refers to a local dialect that becomes the main language of a larger area. (It is also the name of our Conn yearbook.) And weltschmerz literally translates to “world pain,” referring to a profound sadness about the shape the world is in.

3. There are five kittens living at the house at the opposite end of the block. Rudi had seen them the other day and when we went out for cone (mmmm…. cone!) last night, we spent some time playing with them from the other side of the fence. And tonight I got a chance to see two of them nursing, lying practically on top of each other. There are three little gray tiger kittens (who look like their mother) and two black ones, including an imp who was using a low-lying shrub branch as a trampoline.

I’m in Connecticut, so I thought I’d write a bonus Three Beautiful Things from the first half of my vacation:

1. My feet stopped growing when I was in the fourth grade. And I was never so grateful for that fact as I was when I arrived up in Connecticut after a harrowing morning of traveling on Thursday. I’d overslept and so darted out of the house in about 10 minutes after I woke up. It wasn’t until I reached the airport several hours later and was going through security that I discovered I had slipped on two different sandals — one brown and one red. Luckily, amongst the stuff that lives at my parents is a pair of flip flops from middle school. They are not pretty, but they are wearable.

2. I have spent the last few days doing quite a bit of traveling and my car does not get fantastic reception. Luckily, because of that I am able to listen to my iPod through the stereo and on my early morning drive home from Milford last night I was able to listen to two podcasts of vintage radio shows. The episodes kept me entertained and awake while I drove up 91.

3. I like my friends in D.C., but they know only the D.C. me. Thursday night afforded me the privilege of spending an evening with Di (whose parents kindly fed her dogs so she could stay late) and Shelley (whose husband and kids let Di and me come eat pizza and hang out in her kitchen and backyard). We worked together for a number of years and it’s nice to be able to dish periodically and to catch up on old times, particularly since we missed them at Easter. And yesterday I got to spend the whole day with Karen, just her and me. I like Michael and I assume she likes Rudi, but it’s a different dynamic when the guys are involved. I have known her now for half my lifetime (boy, we’re old, Kare!) and we have a long history. It doesn’t matter that I talked with her on the phone three hours last week and three hours again earlier this week. We still managed to go 12 hours (and probably could have gone another 12 if the need for sleep and a 90-minute drive hadn’t interfered).

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. I picked up rhubarb at the farmers’ market a few weeks ago as well as the farmer’s favorite recipe for rhubarb-ginger sauce. Last night I went to make it and was able to because I’d frozen a hunk of fresh ginger last summer.

2. We’d made plans to meet up with friends for a get-together at a downtown pizza joint, Matchbox, at 5:30 on a Saturday evening. When we arrived, it was already packed and couldn’t accomodate our party of five for 45 minutes. We put our names down on the list but decided to see what else was available. We wandered down H Street into Chinatown and ended up at Tony Chen’s, which is divided into an upscalish Chinese restaurant and a Mongolian barbecue. We opted for the latter and no one seemed to miss the California-style pizza we had originally planned to sup upon.

3. Recently, Jeremiah has returned to one of his periodic sleeping spots — curled up on my pillow. I don’t know what makes him choose that spot — or what makes him vacate it — but it’s very reassuring to awaken to a snuggly kitty by your head.

How did it get to be Thursday already? Today is Clare’s second blogiversary and my hat is tipped in her general direction today for providing the inspiration for my oldest (and best) recurring feature.

Here are three beautiful things from the last week off the top of my head:

1. We were heading to a trece de mayo party on Saturday night and I wanted to bring a dessert. None of my usual desserts piqued any interest, so I headed online to see what sorts of spicy-sweet concoctions I could make. I found a recipe for chocolate chip cookies that included cayenne pepper and pine nuts and decided to give them a shot. They were surprisingly tasty and a big hit at the party. People were stumped by the mystery ingredient, which didn’t alter the taste but instead added just a hint of warmth at the end!

2. I looked at the schedule this week and figured out when I’d be taking some vacations over the next few months. It’s necessary to recharge the batteries — and good to know that I’ll have time to see friends, as well. Now if I can just fit a trip to the beach in…

3. In between Rudi’s many well-wishing phone calls and emails, we managed to fit in pancakes, a trip to the zoo, a late lunch at Open City, take-out Thai, presents, Walk the Line, and strawberry shortcake. I like birthdays — even when they aren’t my own.

A bonus beautiful thing: Secrets. It’s not my beautiful thing to share. But suffice it to say, that beautiful news for one person is beautiful news for all. I’m glad to share in everyone’s happiness.

From the last week, I offer you three beautiful things:

1. The terrific feeling of handing in the first draft of something that’s been hanging over your head for a while. The obesity book still has to go through the office head and reviewers, but that’s cake in comparison to getting it all down in print initially.

2. On Tuesday, it was lovely and still sunny out when I left work. I headed to the Starbucks by the house and found myself an outdoor seat. Rudi joined me when he got home. And Rudi caught sight of our friend John on his way home from a meeting, so he bought a coffee and sat down for a while too. Little birds clamored for handouts, children scampered around while their dad had coffee with his friends, multiple languages filled the air (this seems to be the coffeehouse of choice for foreigners), and a dog kept coming over to see if we were interested in playing. All that for the price of a cup of tea.

3. I am bad about getting presents to people. I buy them, but somehow actually getting to the post office seems to elude me with regularity. But last week, two people got to receive their backlogged gifts. Jason sent me an email saying he received the hat I mailed him — and that it fits! And I sent Eri home with gifts I bought her over the course of several years — including Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair. The bag of delinquent presents is growing lighter; maybe we’ll finally get it cleared out sometime next month!

Thursdays offer us a chance to slow down (metaphorically, if not in real life) and look back at all the beauty of the last week. I offer you three highlights:

1. Eri came down to visit last weekend. She and I were college roommates and have known each other now for 14 years — longer than all but two of my friends. We rode bikes and talked and went to the zoo. We ate at a new (for us) restaurant. We lazed Sunday morning with the paper. We watched The West Wing. We talked about old times. And new. And times to come. All in all a lovely visit.

2. In preparation of Eri’s visit (and in reaction to Jason and Essia’s), Rudi and I spent several days last week doing hard core cleaning. The process of cleaning itself is not beautiful, but the results are, and the Burrow is now at least twenty pounds lighter because of all the shredding we got done.

3. In the last few days, I’ve had the opportunity to deal with some unresolved knitting projects. As you saw earlier, the mousies got finished. And yesterday I sent off Jason’s hat, which I finished a day late way back in February. (I’m sure St. Louis is not still cold enough to require a wool hat (pictured here with the unfinished mousies), but now he has one for the first cold breeze next fall.) Last night the sock I’ve been knitting came off the needles so I can now use those needles (if necessary) to cast on Rudi’s summer socks. (I also will be casting on the shawl I’m making out of the yarn I bought last year at Sheep and Wool so I can go to this year’s festival with a clear conscience.)