It’s hard not to find beautiful things when it’s spring. So today I share three of the ones I’ve stumbled over in the last few days:

1. Jason and Essia are visiting his folks this week and came into D.C. yesterday to take care of some paperwork at the Algerian embassy. Afterwards they came down to Dupont and met Rudi and me for lunch. When we arrived, they, Nina, and Lylia were already camped out at one of our favorite restaurants waiting. Nina has grown up and is tall and thin, her curly blonde tresses of babydom now brown and straighter. If I were going to cast Ramona Quimby, I would pick her. Lylia is now talking, although she remains understandably shy around people she last saw on her first birthday. Although more little girl than when we last saw her, she is still decidedly a chubby toddler, chasing after her older sister to copy exactly what Nina does. Rudi was in charge of the office and had to get back quickly, but I had told my boss I was taking a long lunch and did, stretching my hour to 2 3/4. We went to the park and they climbed on statues and slid down plaques. Essia and Jason and I caught up and reveled in a beautiful afternoon outside.

2. I remembered to take my library book back to the library before it was due this week and took along my list of three books I was hoping to find: Bernard-Henri Lévy’s American Vertigo (which I’ve been hearing rumblings about for months), Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (which comes highly recommended by Dianna), and Geraldine Brooks’ March (which tells the story of The Little Women‘s father, Mr. March, during the Civil War and which just won a Pulitzer). Wicked and American Vertigo weren’t at the main branch, but I did manage to come home with March, as well as Julia Child’s My Life in France, a knitting book, and a decorating on a budget book. Now let’s just cross our fingers that I don’t amass too many late fines by keeping them past their due dates!

3. Today was the first Thursday market I’ve had a chance to get to since it opened for the season and I came away with a cherry muffin, the first asparagus of the season, and a bunch of lilacs. Lilacs and lilies of the valley and vanilla are my favorite scents in the world, and I walked back to the office awash in its heady scent. I parceled out the stems, keeping half for me and sharing the others amongst coworkers.

I’m on vacation, so let’s celebrate three more beautiful things today:

1. On the drive north last night, the full moon rose orange and magnificent. It looked like an orange hyphen floating in mid-air when it peeked out between two clouds.

2. Last week, I got tired of wanting dessert late at night and having nothing sweet in the house. So I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies Sunday night, but only baked the first dozen. I put the bowl in the fridge and every night, baked up a few more cookies. One night’s work translated to a week’s worth of dessert — always fresh and hot out of the oven.

3. Monday brought masses of people out to protest oppressive immigration reforms that have been proposed by some members of Congress and the White House. It was tremendous to see people who frequently try to blend into the background step into the foreground and demand to be seen and heard. They marched past my building after the rallies draped in American flags and chanting, “Si se puede!” And I believe we can.

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. I worked two weekends during the winter, which gave me a few days to play with. I’m taking two today and tomorrow and heading north for the holidays. It’s nice that it’s 10 a.m., I haven’t taken a shower yet or even eaten breakfast. (I will have to kick it up a notch momentarily, but it’s been a great morning!)

2. On Sunday, we went out to brunch to celebrate our friend Sarah’s birthday. (Hi Sarah!). After our Mexican food, it was decided that we should head down to the Mall and recline in the sun in the Sculpture Garden. We plunked ourselves down beneath a kinetic sculpture and basked in a gorgeous spring afternoon. It was just as if someone had plucked a moment out of my college days.

3. Monday after work I headed over to our friends’ house to pick up our season baseball tickets. Pat and Heidi are the parents of Jack, who is 1 1/2, and the upcoming recipients of the unfinished mouse booties. Jack is adorable and generally has the sweet disposition of a child who has been brought up by grounded parents and who has been socialized early and often. But because he’s now mobile, he doesn’t get taken out to the pubs or restaurants anymore, so I rarely get to see him. Heidi promised I could have lots of cuddling and play time with him and his siblings this summer. Since I live far away from the other children in my life, it was nice to get this offer and nice to spend some toddler time with Jack the other night.

Beautiful things happen every day, but I save them up and share three of them with you on Thursdays. Here are the ones from the last week:

1. Rudi gets up before me in the mornings and I don’t arise until he’s walking out the door for work. This morning, Posey joined Jeremiah and me in bed. Jer was in his normal morning spot in the crook of my knees and Posey came and leaned against my arms and chest.

2. Our office hosted an art exhibition opening yesterday and the new girl working on that project ordered chocolate-covered strawberries as one of the hors d’oeuvres.

3. Clare, the originator of Three Beautiful Things, is back home in Tunbridge Wells after a 9 1/2 week jaunt across Africa. I’ve enjoyed her infrequent postings from the road, but am even happier to have her back posting on a daily basis. When you visit her site, check out the sidebar, where she links to beautiful things from Africa, which she saved to share with us. (I’m working my way through February now.)

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. I eat lunch outdoors whenever I can, but I worked from home today, so my scenery and lunch options were different. I opted for my closest outdoor eatery, Teaism, where I feasted on a mango lassi and a sandwich of portobello mushrooms, pecans, and goat cheese. Sparrows cheeped at me as I read Linda Ellerbee’s latest travel and food memoir and swayed to the tunes on the iPod from my sunny wooden bench.

2. I did something truly dumb Sunday night when we got home. After parking the car where we wouldn’t have to move it for a few days, I decided to clean up some of the junk in the back seat. This took about ten minutes and then I locked the car up and headed home. Didn’t look back. Didn’t see I’d left the dome light on. No one saw. Until two nights later when Rudi passed it en route to the grocery store. Oops. Since we had to move the car by this morning at 7 a.m., I dropped our friend Phillip, who owns a car, an email yesterday morning, asking if he’d mind giving me a jump (using the jumper cables my parents gave me as a Christmas gift one year). No problem, he said, and he arrived yesterday afternoon, with good grace, a sense of humor, and a running engine. Rudi, I, and our re-running car are grateful.

3. As I walked home from Teaism this afternoon, the smell of hyacinths washed over me. I love the smell of hyacinths. Their heady scent always makes me happy. And I am now that spring truly has arrived.

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. We left D.C. a bit late on Thursday and as such decided to spend the night at Gramma’s instead of Mum and Dad’s. Gramma had called me up earlier in the day to say that the room with the double bed (which had had a mold outbreak earlier this winter) seemed to smell okay, but in case we didn’t agree with her, she was going to make up the single bed as well. When we arrived, there was a note on the spare bed saying that if we decided to sleep there to take the quilt and the pillows from the other room. She went to all that trouble (as well as making a batch of blueberry muffins for breakfast) just on the off-chance that we’d stop.

2. The new iPod is fun, fun, fun! I’ve downloaded a bunch of new music (okay, much of it was Rudi’s) and podcasts and Rudi ripped two episodes of The Muppet Show. While I was taking the T in from Cambridge this morning, I watched the first half of an episode featuring Rita Moreno.

3. Last night, Alexis asked me if I wanted to do dinner. And then my comic strip/convention pals stopped by to see if I wanted to catch a bite too. Alexis passed on her hope for sushi so we could accompany a whole group of strangers (as well as my pals) out for drinks and then dinner. And “Gene” and Bill wheedled until Alexis and I agreed to stay. And at the end of the night, these people who didn’t really know us paid for our dinner! So thanks to Alexis for her flexibility and to Bill and “Gene” for knowing generous souls and encouraging us to tag along.