Seen growing in one of the school beds near my garden:

I admit that this week has been a bit of a low one in the Burrow. Nothing particularly horrible, which is good, but just confirmation of suckiness to continue — my office will work at home through the rest of the year, the pools won’t open this summer, D.C.’s cases remain high enough that you shouldn’t do things like eat at restaurants or be in places where there are people, which seems to stop no one but me from doing those things. I’m starting to look at the fall and the things that come after the fall with more than a little concern about our ability to do them, which stresses me out.

Which just means I should stop looking that far out and concentrate on the next couple of days:

I’m looking forward to trying the bread and butter pickles we made this week for the first time. I have several more cucumbers in the fridge, so may give dill pickles a shot next.

I’m looking forward to finishing my socks. I got a few more rows knit while in those meetings yesterday, so it’s completely doable if I just put my fingers to it.

I’m looking forward to video chatting with my folks and my brother on Sunday.

I’m looking forward to reading, maybe outside.

I’m looking forward to eating pizza.

I’m looking forward to finally buying a couple more face masks, because I always seem to keep running out.

I’m looking forward to Christmassy yarn arriving in the mail because I splurged a couple weeks ago.

I’m looking forward to baking some bread and making some ice cream.

I’m looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow because Rudi’s going on a bike ride and won’t be around to guilt me up before I’m done being in bed.

I’m looking forward to watching Endeavour Sunday night if we can get PBS to come back in.

What are you looking forward to this weekend?

Happy National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! Would you care for one? They’re still warm!

Most people would be surprised by how many colors of nail polish I own. Rudi would be surprised that neither do the bottles multiply when we close the bathroom cabinet door nor do they lie in wait for when he next opens it.

Shekerbura from Sharbat, the Azerbaijani bakery that opened the next neighborhood over from ours last month. We also sampled two types of savory pastries and two types of cake.

I mean, it’s as good a reason as any. Also, we were impressed with the percentage of people we saw wearing masks while we were out.

I won’t get out to the sunflower fields in Maryland this year, so this was a nice yard to come upon.

Be a beautiful cupcake.

How was your weekend?

August 1st has pretty much arrived, and now I will finally get to find out if I really forgot to do something!

Other things I’m going to work on this weekend are:

• Going to the farmers market. Did you know it’s National Farmers Market week? Please support your local agriculture. As we’ve seen earlier this year, local food sources are crucial to keeping people fed.
• Video chatting with friends. A bunch of us who live or used to live in D.C. have a monthly video chat on Saturday evening.
• Making ice cream. The leading contenders are peach, root beer, and peppermint stick.
• Baking bread. Also, I need to be brave and see if the old fridge killed my sourdough. Rudi kept it in a cooler with ice, but not everything we put in there made it through. I know I can make a new starter if I’ve killed it, but still…
• Finishing my sock. You saw how close I am to being done. If I’d just put my phone down while watching tv, I’d be done already.
• Watch The Goldfinch, which is due back to the library.
• Plant the last group of seed potatoes I found when we reorganized the kitchen. I keep forgetting to take them to the garden.
• Check out a new Azerbaijani bakery that opened recently.
• Listen to some baseball, because who knows how much longer they’re going to let that experiment go on.
• Reorganize our dvd collection. We pulled most of them out earlier in the pandemic, and it’s time to get them back where they belong.

How about you? What’s on your weekend to-do list?

Do you ever have the feeling you’re forgetting to do something really important? I’ve had that sensation for a week now and I just can’t get past the idea that suddenly August is going to arrive and I’ll be furious with myself…

A friend’s anniversary is this week and another’s birthday. Taxes were due earlier in the month, and I’ve paid all my bills. (doublechecks notes — yup, paid them all…) Summer is a third’ish over, but what is time even?

Is there a work deadline? I mean, there’s always a work deadline, usually behind me. We have several events next month — a virtual work retreat, a virtual summit, a virtual conference — but right now none of those have any deadlines that require work from me…

August 1st was the random due date all the library books were assigned back in March. Could it be as simple as that?

I just don’t know. But at this point, I kind of just want August 1st to arrive so I know what I forgot.