I’m hoping some fun weekend plans will help to lift the glums that have been settled around my head this week.

On Saturday we’re heading to the beach. Sun and sand and sea, here I come!

On Sunday, I’m hoping to get across town to join some friends for a brunch celebrating their second anniversary. However, I also need to get to the garden and to the farmers’ market before heading out to Wolf Trap with Rudi and Sarah to see Great Big Sea. Hopefully, there will be time to fit everything in!

What are you doing this weekend? Anything fun?

Today, as always, we hit the farmers’ market and came home with a variety of tasty things, including:

• Corn on the cob
• Heirloom tomatoes
• Yellow and white peaches and yellow nectarines
• Grapes — These are grapier than the ones I bought two weeks ago.
• Dahlias
• Tomatillos
• Onions and hot peppers
• Fresh mozzarella, milk, and yogurt
• Figs
• Old-fashioned varieties of apples
• And something new to us — a bitter melon — Ours resembles that second picture in the Description section. No idea what we’re going to do with it, so if you have suggestions, I’d love it if you left them in the comments…

Sarah and her brother and I had a fun time last night at the concert. If you like peppy bands with eclectic instrument choices, do try to check Arcade Fire out when they tour near you.

Today, as yesterday’s post said, my only task was getting the old futon frame and mattresses outside so they could go to live with someone new. I checked that task off my to do list by mid-afternoon and was able to spend some time outside reading before my yoga class. After a shower I headed up to Silver Spring to meet John, who shares an appreciation for John Hughes films with me. We watched The Breakfast Club at the AFI and then Metroed back to Columbia Heights for a slice of pizza. Quite a nice way to spend a Saturday.

Tomorrow holds another yoga class, the farmers’ market, and a trip to the garden. I’m also hoping for more outdoor time with my knitting and book — and maybe some time catching up with Susan. Here’s to a lovely triumvirate of great August days!

Rudi is out of town this weekend, preferring to spend his Saturday with a Mountain Mama than with the other residents of the Burrow.

Not to be outdone, I’m heading up to Columbia with Sarah tonight for the Arcade Fire concert. I don’t really know any of their music, but I like the genre of music they fall into. (In other words, I know I’ve heard their music played before, since Rudi owns both their earlier albums, but I couldn’t identify any of their songs or pick them out of a line-up of other musicians.) I suspect it’ll be a good show, and, freed from having to sing along with the songs I know, it should offer song good people-watching opportunities.

The rest of the weekend is as empty as a chalkboard on the last day of school.

It’s not entirely true. I do need to move the old futon out to the street so someone else in need of sleeping materials can take it home. We thought it more likely to find a new owner if it was dry, rather than putting it out ahead of yesterday’s predicted downpours.

But I don’t figure that’ll take a large part of my Saturday. How else shall I entertain myself? I have new books from the library. I have a growing pile of half-finished knitting projects that need attention. The weather looks nice — mid- to upper-80s and sunny, so some gardening time is definitely in order.

Leave me some recommendations in the comments.

The problem with coming back from a vacation that extends over the period of two workweeks is that you feel very resentful when you’re home and you’re expected to go into the office five days in a row. What do you mean, you want me to work a full week?!

Alas, our two days off, while lovely coming so quickly upon returning to work, were far too short.

We did try to make the most of the nice weather, a respite from the more than 40 days of 90+ degree heat we’ve experienced this summer.

Friday night we decided to picnic, but to forgo the Jazz in the Sculpture Garden madhouse that our usual Friday destination has become this year. Instead, we installed ourselves in the other sculpture garden on the Mall. It was grassy and spacious, allowing us to park ourselves right next to the fountain. We were alone with our picnic and some tourists, some of whom apologized for interrupting our dinner. Silly people! After the security guards shooed us out at dusk (which happens at the other place, too), we moved out onto the Mall and just laid there talking and enjoying the cool summer air.

On Saturday, while Rudi was out on a mountaintop bike ride, I headed down to the garden to reclaim our vegetables from the omnipresent vines. I hauled four buckets of weeds from our small plot, pulling out many things had sprouted in the last month.

Luckily, much of what we planted also seemed to be doing well, although, as I’d feared, the lettuce had all bolted. I pulled off a bunch of the leaves anyway, but they’ll definitely be bitter and will need to be mixed in with sweeter, younger lettuce from the farmers’ market. I wonder if I can just start new lettuce seeds now or if they need to wait for cooler temperatures to take root. Does anyone know?

I also harvested some beans — two yard-long beans and some of the bush beans. I suspect some of what I left on the vine were probably haricots verts, but I could be wrong. They just looked so puny when compared to the blue lakes that I was sure they weren’t done growing!

The rest of the haul was the first cherry tomato of the season, the first pepper of the year, and some cabbage leaves. Both the cabbage and the kale have fallen prey to some orange beetle gang, but we just eat what they leave us. Generally it means our cabbage leaves are very delicate, lacy bits, but they’re still quite tasty in a stir fry. Three of the four kale plants have been decimated, but I’m hopeful they’ll make a comeback now that those bugs have shifted over to the cabbages.

Otherwise, one pepper with white leaves, has grown a fruit, which is white and green striped. We have more cherry tomatoes on two of the three plants. The peanuts have finally developed their orange flowers, which means their critical growth period is coming up. And the squash and/or pumpkins have also developed blossoms.

I finished off the day by hauling out our camping hammock and taking it up to Mitchell Park, where I set it up so I could watch the sun set while reading my book. I also got to converse a lot with folks from the neighborhood, who thought is was an awfully good idea.

Today Rudi and I had set aside for finding ourselves a bed frame. After the farmers’ market, we headed up to College Park to procure the necessary pieces at Ikea.

Can I tell you how stressful that was? Three boxes that were all seven feet long had to fit inside the cabin of my little old car. I was convinced we were going to have to go out and find a rental truck to get them back to D.C., but Rudi had faith … and his faith was rewarded. Not only did they fit in the car, but they fit in all on the passenger side, so I was able to ride home in complete comfort, if from the chauffeured position.

We rewarded ourselves with fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon buns at Ikea and then by stopping at our favorite brewery, which is located along the way home, where we had summer salads and beers (mine was of the root variety) and rolls. The predicted storms had held off, so I asked Rudi if we could stop someplace green for the remaining bit of the evening. He knew of a park nearby and we pulled our Whiffle ball and bat out of the car and spent the rest of the waning daylight playing. It was a good way to close out the weekend, and something we both said we should do more often.

Now that we’re really back, posting should resume again on a regular schedule. The last couple nights I’ve fallen asleep ridiculously early on the couch, which gets in the way of my writing here.

How many of you looked at last night’s post, which immediately followed my post about housecleaning, and just shook your head at my optimism? It’s okay. I know it’s more people than just Mum.

As many of you could probably foretell I did not have the dreamy day of lazing about I somehow expected to have. Instead, Rudi and I spent the day putting the Burrow back to some semblance of order after much of our bedroom moved out to the living room over the weekend. And trying to get on top of the things that need to go to Goodwill or that need to be recycled.

We did not run errands. We did not get to the garden. We did not have a tasty meal out or invite friends over (although we did have a nice, long chat with our new cat sitter). We did sleep in and we have hung out with the cats. And my clothes are packed, so we’re definitely moving in the right direction.

Next: Dinner. At 10:30 p.m. Then maybe grocery shopping. Or just collapsing in a little puddle of tiredness.