Alliums are such pretty, improbable flowers.

Rudi and I decided that the way to start the weekend was with a viewing of Won’t You Be My Neighbor, the documentary about Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. We’re biased fans of his, but the film was incredibly moving and will help remind you of all the good in the world. If it’s playing at any movie theaters near you, I highly recommend seeing it.

The weekend is looking stormy (it seems to be a trend), which may affect some of my plans, but I’ll play it by ear. If my ears are working, here’s what they might hear:

• Festivals: There are two neighborhood festivals tomorrow, as well as the Pride Parade. Pride will go on regardless of the rain; I’ll have to see if the festivals will, too.
• Books: Politics & Prose is having its quarterly member sale and I have some gifts I need to buy. Rudi wants to go, too, so that might mean a trip for pizza afterwards!
• Award shows: The Tonys are Sunday evening. It’s the only award show I actually like watching. And that’s even when I don’t have a vested interest in the outcome. (By vested, please understand I mean have seen a single nominated play and would like it to win all the awards.)
• Knitting: But I’ll still be knitting through them.
• The library: Stuff to return. Hopefully after finishing one more book.
• The farmers market: We’re out of eggs and I hear cherries may be available. I’m also hoping for fava beans, but have no basis for that hope.
• Gardening: Rudi and I haven’t been since Monday and we’ve had sun, so I’m hopeful there will be more peas and strawberries. I’d like to get some planting and weeding done, but it might need to wait until another day if there are thunderstorms.
• Cat supplies: We’re getting low on litter and wet food, and the cats will definitely like me more if I don’t run out of the latter and I will like them more if I don’t run out of the latter.
• My desk: I hear rumors it’s under that pile of papers over there.
• Laundry.
• Nail polish: I stripped my nails earlier in the week, so they could have a couple days of air.
• Vacation planning: I’d like to figure out a couple beach trips and some time to visit with friends.
• Swimming: But only if there’s not a thunderstorm, which the forecast keeps telling me is increasingly likely to occur all weekend.
• Writing: I have a couple blog posts rattling around in my head. I’d like to let them out.

Huh. That’s a surprisingly long list.

I hope your weekend weather is more conducive to outdoor activities than mine is looking to be. What do you have planned?

Well, that was a weekend, wasn’t it?

After catching our first outdoor movie of the summer, I really expected the weekend to be chock full of activity. And, yet, despite my having my usual game plan, it just wasn’t.

Some of it, I realize, was a reaction to having just spent a number of days in activity. Some of it was caused by having this major project launching tomorrow, which necessitated going into the office on a Saturday night. It certainly wasn’t helped by today’s steady rain and yesterday’s steady mizzle. But I think most of it was just bad attitude and lethargy.

The weekend wasn’t wholly a loss. As I said, I got quite a bit of work done that would otherwise have needed to be done tomorrow morning. I did stop by the garden, where I picked lettuce, strawberries, and peas (which are all flourishing thanks to all this rain), and the library, where I returned some of the overdue items.

I tried out a new dessert shop, where I had a delicious piece of key lime pie at the recommendation of the woman who waited on me and who also offered to refill my tea cup without prompting.

I wandered down to where there was supposed to be a pre-Stanley Cup concert by Sting and Shaggy, stood around for a while, before deciding they must have performed before my arrival. I then went and tried on clothes for a bit. Several things fit well enough, but didn’t wow me. I didn’t need anything (although really wouldn’t have minded some new additions to my wardrobe) and try never to buy things I feel only so-so about unless there is a pressing need. So, I left, gift card still intact, and returned to the office to productively power through my work.

I fixed some things that needed repairing, including some things I’d broken in my prior two days at work. And then I escaped the office via a bus that must have pulled away just before gleeful hockey fans descended, since it was nearly empty when I boarded.

This morning we had a damp stroll through the farmers market, where it was obvious that other people had chosen to remain home, given the full stands hours into the day. The poor farmers were devising rain specials, and Rudi and I came home with a flat of strawberries for a remarkably reasonable price (cheaper than I could have picked them for, and without the achy back that accompanies hours of bending over ground plants).

We came home, changed back into pjs from our wet clothes, and enjoyed hot beverages and tasty treats. We also watched a surprising amount of television. I finished one of my overdue books and spoke with my parents. Then we ate a very tasty pizza Rudi made, and I cut up and froze slightly more than half the berries while listening first to music (because getting going on tasks I don’t enjoy are always helped by sing-along ’80s music) and then to the audiobook I’m currently enjoying.

And that’s it. There’s really nothing to do with a disappointing weekend, but to acknowledge it’s gone sideways and then bid it adieu, knowing that you only have to get through a hand’s worth of days until the next one, which once again holds the golden promise of untold quantities of fun and accomplishment.

Onward!

Thunderstorms were threatening last night — again — as The Post concluded. The Army Navy Club looked particularly menacing hovering over Farragut Square.

It seems like we’ve had a very stormy spring this year. I certainly wouldn’t prefer a drought, but wouldn’t mind some moderation moving forward.

It’s going to be a rainy weekend here in D.C., so there won’t be a ton of outdoor activities on this week’s list. But I don’t think it’s going to thunderstorm anymore, so they won’t be precluded altogether.

I was supposed to start this weekend with an author event, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s talk about the D.C. Reads book, The Refugees. Unfortunately, I got stuck late at work and wasn’t able to attend. I managed to wrap up by 8, though, so Rudi and I met at a local park, where they were showing The Post, the movie about Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee and the battle over whether The Washington Post should print the Pentagon Papers. When we missed seeing it in the theater, I’d intentionally held off watching it until our outdoor film season, figuring it was a logical choice for a number of them to pick. So we watched the film two blocks from the White House (currently occupied by another president who wants to actively erode the Freedom of the Press) and four from the former Post building and had the film introduced by former Post reporter and editor Len Downie, who had advised the film production. (He tearfully admitted the film set of Graham’s Georgetown home was so accurate that it was hard to be there and not believe she wouldn’t just walk around the corner.)

Speaking of walking, tomorrow is the Dupont-Kalorama art walk, which is when several neighborhood museums open their doors to the public for free. The event has shrunk over the years, but there are still two museums on the list I haven’t visited (one of which is in Georgetown, but who’s counting).

I have things that are overdue to the library, so I’ll be making a trip over there.

I also need to stop at the garden to pick peas and strawberries and lettuce. I was hoping to finish assessing which of my herbs need replacing and to plant beans, flower, and squash seeds, but that might need to wait until slightly drier days.

If the thunderstorms do hold off, I should probably hit the pool. Going last week made it plain that while my legs were up to the task of swimming, my arms had become jelly-filled over the winter and need exercising.

I’ve got several books on the go and a sock that’s hovering at the heel turn (I took a different project to New York because I somehow thought I might finish and have no knitting to replace it) I’d like to wrap up.

I’m mulling a trip to a local farm to pick strawberries, but think I might hold off until next weekend when Sarah is back from her vacation. But I do have berries in the fridge that I need to deal with (ice cream, I think), as well as some rhubarb (which could get paired with the strawberries, but instead I’m thinking about a rhubarb-lavendar crumble I just saw a recipe for).

I’m also contemplating a trip to the office. I’m launching a website on Monday afternoon and made some necessary changes last Friday that had a ripple effect on the way the site appears to some of my coworkers, and I might feel better about things if I do an hour or two of last-minute checks that today’s work repaired the problems.

Household chores were carried over from last weekend. I have a bag to unpack, clothes to put away, more laundry to do, a kitchen floor to wash, and, if rain keeps Rudi home on Sunday, a closet that requires two to reorganize properly. (He tried to tackle it on his own a couple weeks ago and conceded that it would be easier with a partner.) I should also take some of the books we’ve culled out of the house, either to the library (come to think of it, they might be collecting books for an upcoming Friends’ sale tomorrow) or one of the Little Free Libraries around the area. Oh! And the tea canisters need refilling. I love tea day!

I hope your weekend includes lots of fun or necessary tasks. What do you have planned on your agenda?

I had a nice Memorial Day weekend, but somehow three days always seems so short.

Rudi and I saw Solo on Friday night. It was not my favorite of the recent Star Wars movies.

Saturday, Julia and I went to the National Gallery of Art to see the Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now exhibition. It was more interesting than I thought and the museum less crowded than I feared. (The above sculpture is by Kumi Yamashita and uses a spotlight at a particular angle to create the image.) We ate lunch at a bistro nearby and although the skies rumbled ferociously, they did not open up on us. I did a little shopping after we parted ways and read some of my book.

Sunday was my lazy day. I went to the farmers market, but then came home and didn’t leave again. We did some cleaning and watched Ferdinand, which was sweet.

Today, I did some more cleaning and some shopping, went to the garden, and swam at the pool. One of the things I had to buy was taller stakes for my peas and because the closer hardware store was closed for the holiday, I ended up biking back home with my groceries and with a package of six-foot-tall stakes. I felt like a knight on horseback with a lance and realized I’d never given much thought to how awkward that really is. I did feel very accomplished though, and my peas are so much happier now.