It’s Thursday. I’m not sure how it arrived already, because I’m pretty sure it ought to be Tuesday. However, as tomorrow definitely ought to be Friday, I’m not going to argue the point.

In the meantime, three beautiful things from the past week:

1. We head down to the West End Cinemas and catch the French film Le Havre, which is a feel-good (but not in a treacly way) movie about how a shoe-shiner and his down-and-out neighborhood is touched by an African boy who stowed away on and escaped from a container originally destined for London.

2. Craig Finn, who is the lead singer of Hold Steady, released a solo album this week, and it is fantastic. Clear Heart Full Eyes is filled with melodic stories about the sort of people you’d find at a bar late at night in a small town where life is passing them by. It’s not filled with only depressing songs, although he has enough of those to blow a hole cleanly through your heart if you’re teetering in the wrong direction or to score a film about lost twenty-somethings. But he also has a humorous way with words, which gives you some gems like “New Friend Jesus,” which features such lines as “It’s hard to suck when Jesus is in your band” and “People say we suck at sports, but they don’t understand it’s hard to catch with holes right through your hands.” You can stream the album for free at least through Saturday if you’d like to sample it. (I’m not sure when Spinner switches over to the next week’s new releases.)

3. The weather must be particularly mild this week, because in addition to the spring bulbs popping up suddenly (so wrong!), I’ve also been seeing droves of daycare providers out walking their waist-high charges. Some hold hands with adults. Some clutch a long rope. Some wear orange safety vests that are adorably wee. And I’ve seen an assortment of animal-themed headwear, but that, I’m sure, has nothing to do with the daycare centers themselves.

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

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. On our last day in Salt Lake, we awake to snow. It continues floating down off and on all afternoon, making us feel like we’re living in a snowglobe.

2. I have unsuccessfully been hunting for a new pair of jeans for a while now. The Fred Meyers that is no longer Fred Meyers helps me out with a pair of Lees (and two pairs of Valentine’s Day socks).

3. Sarah, Amani, and I have dinner. The three of us haven’t gotten together in a while and are having such a good time chatting that it is nearly midnight before I catch Bikeshare home.

And as a bonus beautiful things, Rudi suggests you all might enjoy seeing the boys hanging out together:

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

Oops. I meant to finish working on the last item yesterday while we were traveling, but then airport misadventures meant that Rudi and I took entirely different routes to Salt Lake and the computer went with him. By the time we both arrived, I was pretty knackered and forgot computers existed, let alone that I had a blog post to finish.

But here, a day late, are three beautiful things from the past week:

1. Taking down the Christmas tree means the living room feels spacious.

2. “I’m speaking duck,” a boy tells his parents at the Georgetown park.

3. Rudi and I messed up our flight yesterday morning. Rudi overslept slightly and I caused us to leave the house late, which meant that we did not have the time necessary to recover from subsequent bad decision-making caused by a lack of sleep. So when our plane left, we were not on it. But every single Southwest person we talked to yesterday — and we conversed with a bunch of them — were pleasant and helpful and kind. I don’t know what sort of training they do with their workers — or if they make special efforts only to hire exceptional people in the first place — but it’s really working, and these two tired, sheepish, stressed out travelers were remarkably grateful.

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

The first Thursday of a new year brings a fresh opportunity to highlight some beauty of both the outgoing and incoming calendars. Here are just three such moments from the past week:

1. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are so unseasonably warm it encourages spending time outdoors. We bike to and from the cinema for our annual film watching marathon, and we spend most of our time at Michael and Julia’s open house sitting on their deck.

2. Before the second of our New Year’s Eve movies, someone from the movie theater comes in and describes their upcoming features in an excited kind of way. It feels very homey, and, as Sarah said, alerts us that the staff are film aficionados.

3. Up early for a meeting, I am toasting an English muffin and doing something else at the same time when I turn around to discover that my toaster oven is on fire (we apparently hadn’t emptied the crumb catch in a really long time; that’s now been remedied). Because I am right there, I can blow it out, and the sirens that stop at our intersection not five minutes later are not for us.

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

Final Thursday of the year must mean final three beautiful things of 2011, too. Here we go:

1. A construction crew (I assume) has decorated a small pine tree in the median of the Merritt Parkway.

2. The buzzing that has been a constant in my head since October subsides finally after Christmas. If something has been forgotten/missed/overlooked/left undone, it’s too late to do anything about it, and that’s such a relief.

3. I received some truly lovely Christmas presents this year, but my most favorite was time with my parents, Gramma, Rudi, and Karen and her family. I never get as much of it as I’d like, so I try really hard to savor that which I’m given.

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

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope your holidays are full of laughter and light and loved ones.

Here are three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I have forgotten to transfer my cash from one outfit to the next, but don’t realize this until after I place my order. The man at the counter tells me just to give him what I have and calls it close enough. “There’s no reason to get upset about it. Pay me the next time you come in,” he says, even though I have never been in before. But I will be back, Pumpernickels Deli, I will be back.

2. I take my car in to have the blower replaced, since it hasn’t worked since we brought it down to D.C. two years ago. Turns out that a family of mice had made a very weather-proof home once upon a time, and now that the insulation is cleared out of the old blower and the vents, my little car has a defroster — and heat! — again.

3. I paint my fingernails alternatingly red and green. The polish is not quick-dry and so I make a big mess of everything, but the payoff is equally large, as I have cheerful hands and receive compliments from a surprising number of people.

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