Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. D.C. is in the midst of a heat wave, which makes doing anything feel gross. I went to the pool yesterday evening for the last couple hours it was open for the day and it was easily ten degrees cooler there than elsewhere in the neighborhood. (It’s adjacent to a park and woods that run down to a creek.)

2. As my friend and I were walking past my building to the bar this evening after our volleyball game, we happened upon my upstairs neighbor, who was out trying to share some of her homemade cookies.

3. I made pasta sauce with fresh tomatoes last year and I finally defrosted some of it to have for supper last night alongside our daiquiris, made with strawberries I’d also frozen last summer.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Our toilet seat broke overnight, which was inconvenient (no one wants their facilities to engage in butt pinching!) until I could get to Target to buy a new one today. The enamel on the toilet seat had worn and gotten more and more dingy over time, and I’d previously given thought, but not energy, to proactively replacing it. Rudi installed it tonight and it makes our bathroom look so much nicer.

2. I found a new stand at the ballpark, which sells pupusas, tamales, and enchiladas. My cheese and bean pupusas came with a side of tangy curtido, which I spooned into my pupusas, before folding them over it and eating it like a taco. I’m not sure if that’s how Salvadorans eat them, or if it’s just my take, but it was hot and delicious and exactly what I wanted for supper on a rainy night where the 3-hour rain delay eventually turned into a postponement.

3. We went to see Rocketman at the Uptown on Tuesday (their discount night) and it was phenomenal. Taron Egerton did a great job embodying Reginald Dwight (aka Elton John), and I adored Jamie Bell as lyricist Bernie Taupin. It’s clear that the two actors had great chemistry as would befit one of the magic pairings of rock and roll. Taron does all the singing in the movie, which is impressive; the soundtrack is produced by Giles Martin (George Martin’s equally talented son); and the costuming and staging are as theatrical as one would want for our most theatrical pop star. Catch this larger-than-life story before it leaves theaters for maximum advantage.

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

Three beautiful things from this past week:

1. I stopped at the garden after my volleyball game this evening and saw both the bunny and fireflies (they’ve been out for about a month, but they were hovering in quantity at dusk just along the woods’ edge).

2. The weather this week has been cooler and less humid and utterly fantastic.

3. Rudi’s work conference ended yesterday, which meant that he worked long hours the first half of the week and that we unexpectedly got to spend much of the day together today.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I were at the ballpark on Tuesday for a glorious evening of baseball. As with most sporting events these days, the Nationals employ staff to do routine schtick with attendees between innings, such as opening a box while wearing baseball gloves or identifying songs. Between the 6th and 7th innings, the host running the trivia game asked a guy for the nickname of our third-baseman, which he answered correctly. The host congratulated him and then asked if he’d be willing to answer a bonus question, at which point the man’s boyfriend got down on one knee and proposed. While I know public proposals are risky and put a lot of pressure on the person being asked, it seemed like this proposal had been well-thought out, especially since it included a custom engagement ring engraved to resemble the stitching of a baseball. Oh, and Teddy said yes.

2. Our library’s Fab Lab maker space held a free jewelry repair class today, and although I couldn’t find what I’d bought to fix the necklace that Rudi had commissioned for me by a friend, the librarian running the session had supplies (including some new spacer beads, since one of the original beads had a piece of the waxed cord stuck in it that I couldn’t get out) that worked well enough to make it wearable once again.

3. The afternoons have been very comfortable this week, which has enabled me to spend a lot of time outdoors.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I bought a flat of strawberries on Sunday and got them all cut up and dealt with, which is a task, much like writing book reviews, that I prefer completed rather than in progress.

2. I was really impressed with how effortlessly fast this young woman was in the pool … until I realized she was twins.

3. A friend texted this week to say that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer, but didn’t have anything other than an initial diagnosis. She followed up after her visit with the surgeon to say that it was early-stage cancer and that some more tests would be necessary before a final course of action could be determined, but that overall the news was very optimistic. As she is not the only friend I’ve had with breast cancer, I’m so grateful that we live in a time when treatments are so successful.

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

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I knew there were afternoon thundershowers expected around the time I was getting out of my volunteer shift, but I’d hoped to beat the storm home. I was still a dozen blocks away when I realized that the wind gusts were making cycling too dangerous to continue, so I docked my bike by the library and ran inside, a little damp from the first drops of rain, but ahead of the deluge that followed moments later — and the tornado warning that came on its heels. I parked myself at a table and read until the warning lifted.

2. Author Kevin Kwan appeared at the Library of Congress yesterday and they showed a screening of Crazy Rich Asians beforehand. I don’t tend to love interview-style author events (although I do understand why some authors might find them more enjoyable than having to get up on stage and riff for half an hour), but Kwan was affable to both his interviewer and to the audience members who asked questions, offering up a pleasant way to pass an evening. (They’re filming the second and third movies at the same time next year, and he’s currently working on two tv series and at least two novels.)

3. Because I have the ability to use my phone as a hotspot, I sometimes take my laptop up to the park on beautiful days and hang out at a picnic table for several hours. On Monday, I headed up in the late afternoon, was still there in the early evening when Rudi stopped by on his way out with friends, and finally closed things up after dark (I wasn’t the only one still there on such a beautiful night), when he texted he was on his way home from the film.

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