I hope you’re having a great weekend so far and are enjoying just hanging around.

Have a great Fourth of July!

It’s a long weekend, and I’m thinking this is what I might do with it, at least partially:

• Spend lots of time outside. Eighties and sunny in D.C. in July is a gift.
• Work in the garden. Lots of rain=lots of weeds. Plus, it may be time to pull out the peas and most of the spring greens.
• Knit on my shawl.
• Visit the library. I’m thinking while I’m there, I should print out the pattern for my shawl so I can stop being tethered to a device while working on it.
• Drink strawberry daiquiris.
• Bake a cherry pie (Billy boy, Billy boy).
• Go down to the Lincoln Memorial to watch the fireworks. Last year, some blowhard was making a speech down there and we boycotted the event altogether.
• Swim. Monday looks ideal for spending the better part of it lounging in the water.
• Chat with friends. It’s our monthly video chat with the friends who’ve all moved away.
• Go to a birthday party. (Maybe. It’s for one of Rudi’s friends, and that means strangers and small talk. I might just send him without me — a true return to pre-pandemic socializing.)
• Watch sports. This is always a great weekend for that, with Tour de France bike riding, Wimbledon tennis, and baseball.
• Catch up on sleep.

What’s on your to-do list for the weekend?

Work is in a period of flux right now, and I am giving seriously thought to what’s important to me career-wise. I’m thinking about what I’d like out of a job. About what I’d like for the people I’d manage. And what I’d like from those who manage me.

I’m not sure that the impending changes are going to check all those boxes. It’s possible that they will — that after the uncomfortableness of something new will eventually come satisfaction. And I know time is required for that to happen.

I am trying to use the yoga technique of breathing into the tightness.

But it just feels like I do a lot of deep sighing instead.

With June wrapping up next week (seriously, already, again?!), I’m trying to squeeze a lot in to the next couple days:

• Cast on a new shawl for the Tour de France knitalong.
• Go to the library.
• Water the garden.
• Swim.
• Find raspberries and apricots at the farmers market.
• Do some work.
• Read outside.
• Watch a dvd. (Ammonite is overdue to the library.)
• Listen to some music outdoors.
• Do laundry.

What’s on your weekend to-do list?

Work ran late tonight, and by the time Rudi and I decided we should run to the local shop for mozzarella (they were sold out at the farmers market on Sunday), it was just after 9. But they’d been open until 10 last week when Rudi went, so we weren’t worried. But, it turns out, that was a Wednesday, and today was a Tuesday, so we did without.

It was a nice night, so we wandered around for a little, debating treating ourselves to Thai takeout or a gelato, but ultimately decided it made more fiscal sense just to cook supper at home and buy a container of ice cream for dessert over several nights.

So, we walked up to Walgreens to see what they had on sale. But they’d closed at 9. (They used to be a Rite Aid and used to never close, so it continues to be a true surprise when we find they do now — and at random, early hours.)

But that was fine, because Safeway is open until 11, and it was a nice night.

We arrived at Safeway at 9:59 to find they’d changed their hours, too.

So back to the neighborhood with no mozzarella and no ice cream.

Would the ice cream parlor still be open, at least? (We were pretty sure we knew the answer by now…)

No shopping for you!

There are no photos of the pool, the park, or the pancakes (or Rudi, for that matter). But I’ve got photos of the library:

The ballpark:

And the garden:

How was your weekend?