I’m off to jury duty in the morning, so thought I’d get this posted now. (I don’t actually mind jury duty in theory, but the realities of serving on a jury can be frustrating.)

Rudi was away for the weekend, which meant I could do any fun thing that came to mind:

On Friday, it was heading to the Yards for our first summer picnic. The band was fine, the food was tasty, and the company excellent. The moon rose over the river a brilliant orange. I finished the evening with a scoop of ice cream from the local parlor, since it was mostly between the metro station and home.

On Saturday, I slept away the entire morning and then lazed away the rest of the day. I watched the Nationals game on tv and read a book, which I eventually took up to the park, from which I could hear the Pride parade without having to be in the crowds. I made myself a yogurt parfait for lunch. I did some laundry and vacuuming. I went up to the bookstore for the member sale and took care of some gift shopping. I redeemed my Tuesday voucher for a free ice cream come from Baskin Robbins.

Today, my plan was to rise early and head out to pick blueberries before the heat kicked in, but I overslept my alarm slightly and decided to switch up my plan: I went to the farmers market and then came back and ate breakfast and read the arts section of the newspaper, which was mostly about books. I stopped at the library to return a bunch of things on my way to the farm, where I picked a bucket of blueberries (over five pounds!) under the sweltering sun. (I remembered sunscreen and a hat and water and appropriate clothes, but forgot tissues; I need to remember that blueberry bushes make my nose run!) Luckily, there was a breeze, which I was so grateful for!

I got in a few minutes at the community pool (a very nice way to recover from all that sun!) and watered my garden. The pea vines are withering, so I suspect this will be their last week, since they don’t like the triple-H weather we’re due to get. I’m also thinking I should dig up my strawberry and violet patch and rework that space. The violet roots have really edged everything else out, and it isn’t being used to its maximum potential. I have three tomatoes on my 42 Days plant, flowers on a couple others, and tiny buds on some of the peppers. My herbs (particularly the dill) need trimming and the weeds are growing faster than anything else. Some time in my plot is clearly in order in the next week or so.

Rudi made it home in time for an hour at the park before we headed home to watch the Tony Awards, the only award show I actually like. It seems like The Great Comet would be a good show to see; I just have to find dates where cheap seats are still available.

How was your weekend?

This weekend, while mostly overcast and rainy, was bookended with reading in the park with Rudi.

We caught up with friends over Friday night milkshakes.

We helped celebrate JFK’s 100th birthday at the Kennedy Center with an aerial dance performance by Bandaloop (which, it turned out, includes a schoolmate of Rudi’s) and a tribute to Chuck Berry by the Daryl Davis Band (Davis played keyboards for Berry, among others).

We watched some sports (baseball and car racing and cycling) on tv, as well as the first episode of Anne with an E (meh) and the uber-depressing The Big Short.

I picked peas and strawberries at the garden and planted purple basil and alpine strawberries.

We napped while it rained.

I went for a swim, since the community pool opened this weekend.

How was your Memorial Day weekend?

The weekend has started out on a mixed note — no exhibition baseball game due to rain (and thus no half day), potentially crummy news at work, and a UConn women’s basketball loss in the Final Four, but also supper at our favorite pizzeria, a fun new cat toy, and an interesting new show based on a YA novel on Netflix.

For the rest of the weekend, I’m hoping to get a few more checks in the positive column:

• A trip to the library to return a few things and pick up a couple more.
• Pie baking.
• Sending out my Ninja Book Swap package.
• Completing a knitting project.
• Finishing a book.
• Flying my kite. (Tomorrow is the Kite Festival on the Mall and I have a purple dragon kite that hasn’t been launched in a couple years.)
• Dancing. (Our schedule last weekend messed with my weekend morning dance parties I’ve been having this winter, so I must make sure the tunes get played tomorrow when I get up.)
• Going to the farmers market. (Summer hours resume Sunday.)
• Catching up on some sleep.
• Spending time in the sun.

Sure, there are some other things, like vacuuming and doing laundry and putting away some clothes and paying my rent that also need to happen. But those things are way less enjoyable, so I’m choosing not to focus on them so much.

How about you? What are you hoping your weekend holds?

I’ve had a few exciting packages in the mail recently:

First came a skein of yarn from Allison at Simply Sock Yarn, who runs a 12 Days of Christmas giveaway every year. I won a skein of Socks That Rocks in Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which you may recognize from the latest pair of socks I’m knitting.

Then, a package from my college roomie arrived containing birthday presents: a delicate necklace and a soft shawl in purple. Also a bow to wear and taunt the cats with.

Every February, Porto Rico Importing Co., a coffee importer in New York, has a sale on their tea, during which time, I order a whole year’s worth of loose-leaf teas. I was pretty much out of everything (we’d been drinking mostly Darjeeling since Christmas), so this is more than 10.5 pounds of tea. It’s been lovely having choices again, but I haven’t found a convenient place to store such a big box…

Finally, on Christmas morning I won a giveaway Bex held on Twitter that reserved me a spot for her February Ninja Book Box. The Ninja Book Box is a quarterly subscription service that sends you a parcel containing a book from an indie publisher and other bookish goodies. Her February box was a Shakespearean mystery and included The Bookman’s Tale, tea and a quill charm in an adorably tiny book-shaped box that Corey thought had been sent to him. I’m looking forward to reading my new mystery (and sharing it with my folks once I’m done)! And should you be looking for a literary subscription service, I’d definitely recommend checking Ninja Book Box out. Despite coming from England, it arrived quite quickly and always seems to contain fun things for the book-lover.

This weekend was split between sleeping in and not. There were trips to grocery stores and the farmers market and libraries. Cat food and Girl Scout cookies were bought and videos, the Megan Follows version of Anne of Green Gables and A Man Called Ove, were procured. I chatted on Twitter, considered recipes for pie, watched a rather touching episode of Elementary, and knit on a sock.

I caught buses. I missed buses. I took a bus that didn’t go where I thought it would, but that instead introduced me to a new grocery shop and a rather purple mural. I rode a bike. I admired greatly the full moon rising in the east after watching the sun set in the west only an hour earlier.

I saw cherry blossoms and dandelions and some azalea bushes that are going to be very sad tomorrow when the snow comes in and my first violet of the season. I cuddled cats — all of them my own. I talked to my parents and to Rudi, who’s away in Vermont.

I read from several books, but finished none. I felt well enough to eat the chili Rudi had made for me back on Tuesday, took myself out for a late lunch of vegetable tacos, tried a Turkish bakery, and drank a London Fog in sunny D.C., soaking up the waning rays on the first day of later light.

This weekend included a final trip to the main branch of our library, which has now closed for a three-year renovation, to pick up a bunch of dvds to watch during Sock Madness, which began on Friday.

There was a meandering walk home, including a stop at for chaider (a combination of apple cider and chai), potato-Parmesan focaccia, and a clover-shaped spritz cookie. I admired lots of spring flowers and flowering trees, even through the temperatures dropped back to February lows. (It’s good I admired the magnolias while I could. Their flowers literally died on the branch Saturday night.)

I listened to an audiobook and watched Paper Towns, did chores, and knit.

I bought broccoli at the farmers market and books at my local bookshop’s member sale. I planted arugula, Bibb lettuce, and four types of peas in the garden.

I welcomed Rudi home from his penultimate ski coaching trip of the season.

How was your weekend?