This was a full weekend before a full week:

On Friday night, we joined John and Nicole at The Yards for a picnic in the breeze off the water. Kids shrieked as they ran through the pool and we could hear the band off in the distance.

On Saturday, our lazy day of the weekend, we watched the penultimate stage of the Tour de France live, rather than a rebroadcast. I knit on my shawl and did a load of laundry. We went to Glen’s Market for lunch, then biked down to the garden to water. We finished the day by picking up Sarah and her friend Allison for some tailgating before a concert up in Maryland. It was Fun., with Tegan and Sarah opening for them. The crowd was upbeat, liberal, and young, and the venue was packed. Fun. said that it was the biggest crowd they’d ever played before, and they seemed a bit awe-struck at the power they wielded from the stage. Their show was energetic, and so was the twice-soaked crowd after two waves of rain poured down on the lawn seats.

On Sunday, there was the farmers market. There also was DC Scoop, an ice cream festival at Union Market.

(This is an ice cream sandwich from my festival favorite, Milk Cult. It’s milk & honey ice cream on a cornflake crust. Delicious!)

I spent the entire afternoon there, shopping at the various vendors inside and out, and then biked home with two pints of raspberries, a (mini) baguette, and a bouquet of sunflowers in my basket. I would have felt quite Parisian if I’d had a chance to pedal leisurely. Instead, I raced against a thunderstorm that never materialized into rain, leaving me sodden from the effort and the humidity.

We finished the weekend with these guys:

That’s a Davy Jones-less (obviously) Monkees. They goofed around, they sang hits and deeper cuts (Rudi was particularly pleased to get seven songs from Head.), and they interacted with the audience. I thought the show might be a bit somber, but it wasn’t. It was just a lot of fun and filled with people singing along to songs they’ve loved for decades.

(Writing along with Amanda’s weekly recap.)

Nan asked for the strawberry fool recipe and I figured others might be interested, too, since it’s so easy to make. (Honestly, it’s so simple, I thought “fool” referred to who was qualified to make it, but the etymology doesn’t seem to support that.)

Also, I know I copied this from somewhere 15 years ago or so, but my notecard doesn’t offer any insight to the source. So know the recipe is not mine.

Strawberry Fool
(serves 4 reasonable portions or 2 generous ones)

1 1/2 c strawberries
2-3 Tbs sugar
2/3 c heavy cream
2/3 c plain yogurt

Wash, de-stem, and slice the strawberries. Put in bowl and season with sugar. (If you can do this a little before the rest of the steps, you’ll get a smoother dish, but it’s delicious either way.)

Whisk the cream until whipped.

Add yogurt to the berries. Mash the berries. (I use a fork.) Your goal isn’t to end up with a smooth consistency, just to make them less solid.

Fold in the cream.

Add more sugar if necessary. (If you have quality, in-season strawberries, you probably won’t need more.)

Enjoy!

This is a not-fantastic photo of a box elder nymph hanging out in my strawberry patch. It refused to stop and pose for a photo, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was bright pink, like a fresh strawberry. I hope it didn’t mistake my garden for a family reunion. That would be so disappointing for it.

Other than bug-viewing, my weekend also included:

• Armchair BEA posts, comments, contest entries, and Tweetup participation. It was a fun experience and I’d do it again, but if someone presented me with the opportunity to attend the real conference instead, I’d totally take them up on that offer.
• Friday night at The Yards. There was a breeze off the water and I remembered our travel speaker so we could still have music after the band wrapped up for the night. Sarah brought a tasty fruit salad (nary a banana or melon in sight!), and friends of the group came and brought their 2-month-old baby, who was delightfully serene. The speakers were turned up way too loud this week, so the salsa band drowned out conversation with anyone not immediately adjacent to you, but it was still a good time.
• I rearranged a cabinet and pulled out books to read this summer or to get rid of at the end of it (most of them, anyway). The pile includes Cybils nominees other judges read, advance reader copies I’ve picked up through the years at library conferences, and prizes I’ve won in online contests. A few books I’ve bought and a few that were gifts also resurfaced from where they were hidden before I got a chance to read them. I also put together a bag of books that (get this!) I’m going to donate to the charity bookshop. (I know, right?!)
• Picked up fava beans, among other things, at the farmers market.
• Ate lots of strawberries, including some from our garden.
• Accepted an invitation to a small dinner party from a couple we’ve known since early in the Dean days. It was quite enjoyable.

How about you? How was your weekend?

Weekend’s over. I’m not looking forward to heading back to work, but at least I got a lot accomplished over my three days at home:

1. I didn’t finish any of my knitting project, but I feel like the end is in sight for my grandmother’s birthday wrap — just as we’re heading into a heat wave.
2. I wrote a pair of postcards that will go out in the morning’s mail.
3. I visited the Georgetown library and picked up a few new books to peruse. I also took advantage of their back patio to read some of Eleanor & Park, which I also read by the C&O Canal, at a cafe, at a pizzeria, and, finally, on my couch, late into the night.
4. I stopped by the garden to water and refill our slug traps with beer. I picked spinach and lettuce and probably a pint of strawberries. I also noticed the first tomatoes of the season are growing.
5. I looked for ducklings in the canal, but only saw a family of geese. Oh, and turtles, cormorants, a couple great blue herons, and what I’m pretty sure was a belted kingfisher.
6. I rode my bike, probably ten miles or so.
7. I took a yoga class. (Weak arms!)
8. I went to the farmers market, where i picked up strawberries and a spear of bamboo. (We’ll make a stir fry this week and use that and some of the bok choy from the garden.)
9. My friends phoned and invited me to join them for dinner, so we ate Thai food instead of playing on the swings. Still very enjoyable.
10. I drank tea, mango juice, and an Arnold Palmer outside, but not all at the same time.
11. I got a couple loads of laundry done, but there are probably three more that need doing. (The perils of living with a stinky boy.)
12. I mopped the bathroom floor and cleaned the sink and mirror. I’m going to let the aforementioned stinky boy work on the tub.
13. I went to trivia night at my local bookstore and joined a team of strangers. We did not win, but probably finished in the top third. I left without buying any books, but only because it was my second trip there this week.
14. I put away the Christmas dvds. Maybe next weekend I’ll go over my desk and put away any spare Christmas cds that are lingering there.
15. A friend and I played phone tag for a while, but we finally got a chance to catch up in a nice chat.

How about you? How was your weekend?

Three mild, sunny days stretch before me, nearly epic in their length. We kicked it off well tonight, with an evening viewing of Into Darkness. Here are 15 more things I’m hoping to do while Rudi is off on his weekend-long bike trip:

1. Finish a knitting project or two.
2. Send some mail.
3. Read a book or three.
4. Visit the garden.
5. Look for ducklings.
6. Go for a bike ride.
7. Take a yoga class.
8. Shop at the farmers market.
9. If my friends are in town, meet them at the playground.
10. Drink tea outside.
11. Do laundry.
12. Mop the bathroom floor.
13. Head up to Politics & Prose for trivia night.
14. Put away the Christmas dvds (which have been sitting on a cabinet since December).
15. Call a friend.

How about you? What’s on your agenda for the long weekend?

I haven’t been so good about posting non-Thursday entries for a while now. Some of it’s been event-related stress, much of which is now past or, at least, de-escalated. Some of it’s been tiredness and malaise and depression. But generally it’s been all-encompassing, not just here on the blog.

This week, though, maybe things are a little lighter. I read a couple of books. I called a friend. I started thinking about where I want my life to go next from here and how I might find myself there. And I’ve knit a bit. So I thought I might also write a little something here.

I don’t have any answers yet. And maybe there are no answers. Maybe there’s just putting one foot in front of the other and moving in one direction or another. Maybe any direction is just as good as the rest, as long as you’re moving. Treading water may be fine if you’re stuck in the middle of the ocean, but just staying afloat is no way to live a life if at the end of it you’re not going to be filled with regrets. And if making no moves is going to lead to that, then it’s the same as actively choosing disappointment.

I reject that choice.

So instead I choose motion. I opt to creep — slowly if need be — away from stasis. I will crawl, walk, hop, scramble my way from would-haves and should-haves. And if I encounter a dead end, which I will most certainly do at some point, I will inch, skip, run, twirl in some other direction.

I am done waiting. Life, I’m on the move.