Rudi’s mom is having surgery this morning to replace a bum hip. Please keep her in your thoughts while you enjoy these three beautiful things from my week:

1. Rudi was eager to set up the corner of the living room by the window to be a nook for me. He put little feet on my bookshelf over the weekend so I could put all my knitting books over by my rocking chair and the jelly cabinet that contains my yarn. I shifted other books over as well and hung up a picture. I haven’t knit there yet, but after Rudi went to bed late Saturday night, I turned off all the big lights in the living room and was able to read perfectly well just by my happy lamp, which now sits on the top shelf.

2. Two friends called me recently. Rebs and I got to talk for a rare hour about their adoption of a dear baby from Guatemala and how life has been for her and her husband recently. And my former student, Jason, phoned after a year out of touch with great news — he’d been accepted to grad school and is moving to North Carolina.

3. Twelve-story buildings block my view of all but a small swath of sky as I hurry from the metro stop to my office. An overwhelming rumble fills the air and I look up to check whether the President is flying away. I see nothing but blue above until I glimpse the chopper hovering not far above the building to my right in the glassy reflection of the building on my left.

Three more beautiful things from the past week:

1. Sometimes I read as I walk the two-and-a-half miles home from work. As I got close to home earlier this week, a girl approaching me from the opposite direction thoughtfully warned me of something on the sidewalk I wouldn’t have wanted to step on.

2. Last night, because I was heading to a meeting instead of home after work, I took a walking route I’d never used before. It was filled with wonders, like a fat cat poised on front steps, a well-tended Victorian home tucked between two ten-story apartment buildings, a Sharpei (not a Sharpie, as I originally typed) peeking out from behind a shop-to-be’s newspapered window, a man pulling seven-foot-high weeds out of his front yard, and a British telephone box in a backyard. The people were all very friendly along the route, too, calling out greetings to my smiles, despite my headphones.

3. We brought a four-foot-high bookshelf back with us from Connecticut last week and have stationed it next to the window. It needs to have little footie things put on it before I can fill it up with books and such, so it remains empty at the moment. Jeremiah thinks it’s wonderful we’ve brought him a new jungle gym and revels in seeing which shelf he can jump onto from a sprint, tormenting anyone who climbs onto a different shelf while he’s there, and chasing his tail — both in circles and by draping himself over the shelf to grab at his tail draped down between the shelf and the wall. I find him endlessly fascinating and will be sorry to curtail his antics by filling the shelves.

It was a late night at work last night, after which I came home and fell asleep on the couch, neglecting the blog totally. I have a reading update for you, but it’s not done, so I shall instead offer you a special edition of Three Beautiful Things:

1. The first (local) firefly of the season floating down the street as Rudi and I walked to the music club Saturday night.

2. As Sweetpea noted earlier this week, we come from rainier climes. When the skies finally deigned to open up and spill their contents on us Sunday, it was like a gift from the heavens.

3. It rained again overnight (well, early this morning), but when I awoke with the alarm this morning, it had cleared, leaving a gorgeous, clear, deep blue sky, low humidity, and cooler temps. (Sorry, Jenn. It’s supposed to disappear before you arrive Friday night.)

It was with great relief I realized this morning that it was Thursday. Not just because that signals the weekend (I’ve been a bit scatter-brained this weekend, nearly going to work in my slippers on Tuesday and spending 15 minutes looking for the sunglasses I’d already slipped over my shirt this morning, so apparently I could use a bit of extra sleep.), but also because it brings with it a chance to tell you about Three Beautiful Things from the past week:

1. The smell of wood smoke that lingers on your sweater from sitting next to the fire the previous night.

2. When I headed to the garden last Thursday, they were filling the community pool that’s adjacent to our plot. I can’t wait for this weekend to cool off after some weeding, particularly since the cool water was taunting me yesterday from behind its closed gates. (The pool is open only on the weekends until school lets out.)

3. Kickball teams abound in D.C. (No, I didn’t realize it was still played formally after elementary school either until I moved down here.) Yesterday, as I puttered in the garden, three games were being held in the field next to me. A (male) outfielder in the game closest to me yelled to his “pitcher,” “Make it nice and bouncy — just like my hair!”

I’m ready for the weekend so it’s great to have it be Thursday already. To celebrate, let’s look back at three beautiful things from the last week:

1. Last night, we saw the cow-colored dogs I’ve mentioned before coming up the street. Rudi suggested we loiter outdoors until they passed, so we got to meet them and their owner. They are two waist-high Great Danes named Leo and Babe.

2. Sunday, after the ball game, we headed to the garden. Rudi did the back-breaking digging to put in the plants we’d bought, and I pulled up all the grass seeds that had come up from the horse manure we spread on the garden earlier in the season. By sunset we had empty pots and a weed-free plot.

3. Saturday night, we had a thunderstorm in which it poured sheets of rain. They’d been predicting rain for days, so it was a relief when it finally showed up and put on such a lovely show for us.

It’s been a pretty good week here in the Burrow. Last night after work, Rudi and I headed down to the garden to water our plants and to put in a couple of the ones we picked up over the weekend. We decided that the non-lettuce, lettuce-like plants were weeds and Rudi did the heavy digging to get them out of the ground. They had roots like huge sweet potatoes! Very scary! I had the much easier job of weeding and planting a tomato. And our pea plants are starting to send up little shoots! I’m very excited.

Oh, and it’s Thursday. So that probably means you’d like to see what’s been beautiful recently. Here are three items from the last week:

1. As I was blog-surfing this morning, I was suprised by Jeremiah hurtling out of the window and noise in the window well. Expecting to turn around and see someone working on the utility boxes, I instead found a baby squirrel. I’m not sure if it fell in or if it’s mom sent it down to explore, but the poor thing was freaked out. It kept scrambling around the well and grunting, as my three cats tried to figure out if they could break through the screen to catch it. Eventually it climbed out and followed mom up a tree, but returned about 30 minutes later to visit the cats again. I just hope the screen holds out.

2. As Rudi and I walked up 22nd last night, we approached a group of people standing next to the Schevenko statue. I don’t quite know why I expected it to happen, but it totally did not surprise me when they broke into an a cappella rendition of “For the Longest Time.” Must have been all those years in college hanging out with Jason and Kim…

3. Last week, I was hurrying through Metro Center at rush hour to get to the spot where I like to board the train. I happened to accidentally catch the eye of a woman getting onto the elevator to go downstairs to the other line and she considerately held the door for me in case I wanted to get in. I didn’t, but I really appreciated the thoughtfulness of the gesture.