It’s a holiday weekend here honoring those who’ve sacrificed their lives in the protection of the U.S. and unofficially kicking off the summer season. Here in D.C., outdoor pools open for the season (on weekends only right now; daily after school lets out) and outdoor films and concerts start occurring more regularly.

Here’s what I’m hoping the next three days include:

• Spending time at the pool.
• Finally dealing with the clothing switch. (The last time I planned it, high temps dipped back down to March averages and all incentive was gone. But there are several 90s in the next week, so I absolutely no longer care about pants.)
• Harvesting peas and strawberries and spending time in the garden.
• Listening to some baseball.
• Drinking strawberry daiquiris.
• Reading outside. (I started Caraval earlier today and am loving it so far, for you y.a. fantasy fans.)
• Backing up my phone. (It’s really irritating how much space it feels it needs in order to operate at peak efficiency, but it’s probably not a bad thing to have a second copy of my photos.)
• Painting my fingernails. (I did my toes the other day and pulled out the bottles for my hands, but decided to wait until after I did my volunteer shift yesterday, since I wasn’t sure how hands-on it would be.)
• Picking up some holds at the library.
• Baking something. My audiobook mentioned handpies last night, so maybe some of them…
• Swapping out the duvet cover for a lightweight one.
• Seeing a friend.

How about you? What’s on your to-do list for the weekend? Is it all barbecue and beach trips? Sleeping until afternoon? Parades?

We started off the weekend nicely, with a beautiful evening for a ballgame, although it turned into a bit of the rout of the local team, with the Cubs picking run after run off the Nationals’ pitchers for a painful four-plus hours.

Rudi has to work both days (the perils of working in the cycling industry during Bike Month), but I still hope to get in a few fun things amidst my chores:

• I’m behind on my job-hunting this week, so that has to take top billing.
• I also need to get my remaining tomatoes and peppers into the ground. I only got two-thirds in on Wednesday evening before I ran out of daylight.
• We tore the apartment apart last night a bit, so I need to do some cleaning/organizing.
• I’d like to finally make strawberry shortcake.
• And eat some vegetables. I have lettuce from the garden that I should turn into a salad.
• A trip to the library is in order because apparently the holds were out of order the other day and I didn’t pick up the one that’s expiring tomorrow. An extra trip to the library is rarely a bad thing, though.
• On Sunday, Porchfest, a series of concerts that takes over the front stoops of a given neighborhood, will be across the river in Southeast. The weather will be warm, but depending on how ambitious I’m feeling, I might give it a shot.
• The Giro is currently underway, so we will watch a little cycling at some point.
• I also need to catch up on my correspondence.
• The snow fence is finally down in the park after months of a renovation project, so I might just spend hours lounging and reading and knitting.
• I did not paint my nails last weekend, but the pool opens next weekend, so now would be a good time to do it.
• There’s a Hawaiian Cultural Festival at the American Indian Museum, so that could be fun to check out.

What are you hoping to tackle this weekend?

Rudi and I got caught out in the rain this afternoon. Since we were already wet, we strolled leisurely through the nearby neighborhoods, stopping to admire row house gardens and flowering bushes.

This rose was the prettiest we saw all day, but it didn’t have a particularly rosy scent, so it cannot take home the best-in-show blue ribbon.

But it certainly was stunning to look at.

It’s supposed to rain off and on all weekend, with more on than off. Regardless, here are some things I’m hoping to accomplish:

• Call my mom and Rudi’s.
• Visit a couple European embassies. I think I’m down to only four I haven’t stopped by at one point or another — Netherlands (and even then, I’m pretty sure we caught them one year when they were renovating and hosting events in another building), Ireland, Malta, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. We’ll see if I can cross any of them off tomorrow.
• Watch the Funk Parade. Don’t you wish your town had a parade dedicated to fun dance music?
• Get the plants I bought last Sunday in the ground. The garden is going to be awfully muddy, though, so this one just might not happen.
• Buy strawberries at the farmers market. Optimistically the rain could keep people away and I could get a great deal on a bulk buy. More likely is that it’s Mother’s Day and there will be no strawberries left by 9:15.
• Send out some resumes.
• Mull over buying a new suit for interviews. First, dig out my most recent suits and see if either of them fit. Since I bought them more than a decade ago, I’m not optimistic.
• Switch out my winter and summer wardrobes. I’ve started to do this a couple times, which realistically just means I currently have piles of all sorts of clothes all over the apartment.
• Make strawberry shortcake.
• See if I can fix my beloved bike helmet. (Part of the adjuster dial popped off the back band.) At the very least I think I should be able to make it a set size (which will then only mean I can’t wear a high ponytail or a hat under it). If not, see if the helmet that Rudi says is too big for him will fit me. It gave me a headache when I tried it on, but that could just have been all the strap tugging. If none of those things work, order the new helmet I found.
• Spend time with Rudi.
• Paint my nails.

What are you hoping your weekend includes?

We ended up not getting in to a sneak preview last night, so we instead took ourselves to our favorite pizza restaurant for supper, where we sat on their patio, soaking up the beautiful spring weather and looking at campy pictures from the Met Gala on my phone. Afterwards, as we were walking to Tenleytown to catch the metro, we spied the delicate sliver of a moon above the remnants of the evening’s sunset, highlighting the transition from day to night.