We ate our first corn on the cob this weekend. There was a mix-up with the farm where I’d preordered them from, so it ended up that I picked up literally the last ears to be had at the market — and four of the six we ate tasted that way. But we each had one delicious ear, which totally made up for it. Beggars can’t be whiners when it comes to early corn on the cob; the privilege of getting to eat it sometimes has to be reward enough.

My friend Sarah and I met up for ice cream cones this afternoon, which was lovely. And we agreed if it ever reached a point where it felt like we aren’t living on the surface of the sun again, we’ll have a picnic.

I read a whole book yesterday, which felt luxurious. And I am nearly done with the heel flap of my sock thanks to some audiobook listening after Rudi went to bed and a prolonged transfer on the metro. (Last month, my first trip on metro since March made me feel very comfortable about mask-wearing compliance; today’s made me regret my decision not to bike 10 miles in a heat wave. I suspect it’ll be a while before I decide to take metro again.)

The pea vines in my garden are gone, as is all the twine zigzagging around to keep them upright — which felt like a big accomplishment. I did not get anything new planted, but hopefully I will get to the garden a little earlier in the evening this week and can get potatoes and beans in soon.

Our apartment-cleaning isn’t complete, but we’ve put in a good dent. But as we need both a new refrigerator and a new air conditioner (we’ve been running on just fans for more than a week now), we desperately need to wrap the process up. And I feel confident that we can very soon.

How was your weekend?

I hope you were treated to an amazing sky show tonight.

It seems a little silly to do a weekend planning post when the weekend is already a third over. That’s right — I was one of those lucky people who got a July 4th observed holiday off today. I celebrated my observed holiday by sleeping in, doing some cleaning, watering the garden, getting takeout pizza for supper (at a substantially discounted rate with a gift certificate now that I don’t feel horrible about redeeming them again), and watching a great documentary.

Tomorrow I’m sad to report that there will be fireworks down along the Mall. Our Mayor and the governors of Maryland and Virginia asked the federal government to cancel them this year for the health and welfare of the public, and you can guess how well that went over. So instead the Mayor has simply asked us all to skip them, which I will in favor of a movie of some sort. I’m out of yogurt for our traditional red, white, and blue parfaits, so instead I’ll probably opt for blueberry pancakes, strawberry daiquiris, and cherry cobbler topped with whipped cream.

Tomorrow also looks the most manageable in terms of prolonged time outside (today was nearly 100; tomorrow will be comparatively cooler at only 91), so I’m going to go pull out my desiccated pea vines, plant my sprouting potatoes, and add some beans for the fall.

Sunday, I forgot to book a reserved time for the farmers market, so I have to attempt to game the line to get in. Because later is better in that case, I preordered some produce to make sure we got the last blueberries and first corn on the cob of the season. Rudi’s thinking he’s going to drive out to the countryside for his first ride away from the area this year, and I think my friend Sarah and I will get together outside for a drink or an ice cream cone.

Somewhere in there will be some laundry. Also, brewing more tea for iced tea/Arnold Palmers. (We’ve made green, mint, and currant/raspberry/hibiscus so far; next up will be pots of pomegranate/pear/ginger and a black of some kind — possibly Darjeeling. Maybe I’ll even brew up a batch of chai concentrate for iced chai.) I’m planning to spend some time reading and maybe knitting. Plus, we really do need to finish up this cleaning that we’ve been doing in the apartment.

How is your weekend going? Do you have special plans?

Michael Franti & Spearhead perform some of the most joyful, soul-affirming music out there. Plus, it’s got a great beat, so you’ll find yourself on your feet dancing along before you know it.

“How We Living” is off their new album, Work Hard & Be Nice.

The weekend sped by, as it always does.

I took a basic barre class over Zoom, which made me realize it legitimately has been 35 years since I last did any ballet.

I went to the farmers market, where I swear I left some fruit for other people to buy. But I also came away with stone fruit and a ton of berries.

I made Rudi watch the start to The Matrix, “because I really liked that reboot they made with the girl.” Usually this is enough detail for Rudi to know what I’m talking about, but this time it wasn’t enough for him to know that I meant Men in Black International. (Even a day later, there was no way I could have told you Tessa Thompson, but if I’d said Thor was in it, Rudi might have caught on faster.) It took me half an hour to realize that at no point was Keanu Reeves going to switch sides and work with the suits, but half an hour was long enough for me to decide that way too many white guys had watched The Matrix and this is what has led to so many crackpot conspiracy theorists. I was never so glad to realize I was watching the wrong movie and that we could stop.

We worked on cleaning up the kitchen, since our fridge seems likely to die in the next couple weeks and we’d like our landlord to be able to send someone in to do something about that.

I did take the butter out of the freezer (thanks, Kare!), but failed to make it materialize into either baked goods or blueberry pancakes. We were successful at converting ingredients into strawberry daiquiris and Arnold Palmers (made with hibiscus raspberry currant tea).

I finished the book I was reading and started a new one.

And we enjoyed this most splendiferous sunset from the park.

I find hydrangea the most fascinating example of chemistry. For one type of this flowering bush, what color flowers you end up with depends entirely on the pH levels of your soil. Acidic soil gets you blue flowers; basic soil gives you pink. However, if your soil is in a rather narrow band of neutral pH, you get flowers that are purple or have a tie-dye effect. Some people will go so far as to put metal into their hydrangea bed in the hopes that as the nail oxidizes, it will cause the soil to become more acidic.

Isn’t that cool?