April has arrived, as has its first weekend. It’s supposed to be comfortable and dry, if not actually sunny. Here’s what I’m hoping it includes:

• Try my hand at macarons. I made them once several years ago and they were not my biggest success. Over Christmas and my birthday, Mum got me set up with a pan, fun food coloring, and a cookbook, which I’ve now perused. Keep your fingers crossed they turn out less … flat … than last time!
• Check on my garden. Maybe I’ll have to put in supports for the peas!!!
• See Shazam!
• Head to Virginia for a library book sale.
• Put together a bag for Goodwill. Volleyball shirts keep falling on my head every time I open my closet door, which means it’s time to send some of them away.
• Visit a friend. His home remodeling is complete and he’s invited folks to stop by to check it out.
• Finish my book.
• Listen to some baseball.
• Reorganize our hallway closet. We need to empty out the car and reshuffle our seasonal items (no more need to have my ice skates accessible, but the portable hammock might be a plus!), both of which means taking a look at what is actually taking up space in our non-clothes closet. I’m hoping there’s an untapped air pocket in there. (That is actually possible, since I used to have a gigantic clothing bag in there that’s no longer being used.)
• Enjoy the cherry blossoms and maybe the fireworks celebrating them.
• Send out some birthday cards. (This also means figuring out where my stamps are hiding, since I don’t want to have to keep using my Snowy Day stamps now that it’s spring!)
• Eat pizza.

How about you? What are you hoping to do this weekend?

It’s the first weekend where Rudi’s been home since early December! To celebrate, I hoping it includes:

• Attending our first baseball game of the season. We have tickets, I know where my Mets cap is, and my nails are painted orange and blue. I’m ready.
• Flying our kite. It’s the Kite Festival on the National Mall and weather, garden duties, or someone’s bum hip have kept us from going for the past several years. Rudi thinks we can figure out a way to secure it in a bag or something so we can leave it in the bike valet during the ballgame, because they’re certainly not going to let that into the ballpark.
• Getting to the garden. I didn’t make it down during the week, so I’d very much like to get some more seeds into the ground.
• Going to the farmers market. We’ll need milk. And I’m considering getting another dozen eggs because if I’m going to start making macarons, it needs egg whites. I should probably check my cookbook…
• Knitting. Second sock-land, here I come!
• Opening the window! I’ve had it open before now, but closed it when we had a cooler snap. Tomorrow it’s supposed to near 70.
• Checking out the cherry blossoms. That means dealing with tourists, which I’d like not to do, but…
• Spring cleaning — or at least making a start at it. Insects and flood waters discouraged anything but emergency measures last week. Now it’s time to start making a dent on our clutter.
• Reading. I finished a graphic novel and a picture book tonight and am looking forward to crossing something else off my list, as well, because the new Veronica Speedwell has arrived at my local branch and is waiting for me.
• Baking. Maybe the macarons if I have time on Sunday. But otherwise oatmeal scotchies, because I’d wanted to make them Tuesday in addition to the mint sticks, but I ran out of steam.
• Doing laundry. I have several weeks during April when I have multiple volleyball games a week, which means having sports bras clean becomes much more important. Probably I just need to buy another sports bra or two…
• Lounging, hopefully outside. Clearly this one is at odds with most of the others, but I’m still including it here as a goal.

How about you? What are you hoping to do this weekend?

Glory be! It’s the last weekend of the ski season! Rudi will be home by midday on Monday! It’s supposed to be dry!

In my final few days holding down the home front, I have already started the weekend off right by heading across town for a book reading (Bowlaway by Elizabeth McCracken, about an early 20th-century woman who builds a candlepin bowling alley in a Massachusetts town), followed by a Korean mushroom bun eaten while walking to the grocery store (for whipped cream).

Tomorrow, there’s an early afternoon alumni gathering that I might attend. Then I’m going to head back to the bookstore for another reading (Giraffes on Horseback Salad by Josh Frank, Manuela Pertega, and Tim Heidecker, a graphic novel version of the film script written by Salvador Dalí for the Marx Brothers lost until the late 1990s amongst Groucho’s papers) and then possibly on to a second bookstore, where they’re holding a standup show based on failed attempts to follow Marie Kondo’s uncluttering advice. I’m not usually a standup fan, but I’m hopeful that this one will work for me. Otherwise, I’ll just head home to Netflix (or read) and chill.

Sunday, I’ll head to the farmers market (I suspect it’s still too early for ramps, but maybe I’ll find some spring onions or spring garlic) and then it’s off to a friend’s house for the afternoon to divvy up our baseball season tickets. I’ll probably bike home via the Tidal Basin. Peak bloom season isn’t slated to arrive for another week or two, but the early trees supposedly have some flowers, if they didn’t all drop during today’s afternoon thunderstorm. The UConn women play in the evening, so I might try to stream some of the radio broadcast of their game while I attempt to put the living room back to rights after yesterday’s excitement.

What do you have planned for the weekend?

Today was the final full day of winter.

The Old Man held onto his domain until the last: although today was beautifully blue and sunny, there was a brisk north breeze to make those of us who went without coats rue our headiness.

But he cannot keep us in his clutches. Even now, his grasp loosens as the earth warms and brave leaflings burst forth and robins hold court both in the yards during the day and in the trees in the evening.

His final evening was quiet, with the sun setting nearly 20 minutes past seven. His final sunrise will be roughly that same time in the morning. He will need to cede to the new season before tomorrow evening rolls around. He’s been a mild Old Man this year here in the mid-Atlantic (particularly given what many of you have had to deal with), and we’ve been grateful, but we’re ready for him to head south. Bon voyage and see you next December!

I’ve got another full week of living a single life. Sadly, right now, the single life means that I have to deal with bugs on my own, cook something besides carbs, and remember to move the car for street sweeping.

Of course, it also means that I can be as loud as I want (within reason) all night long with all the lights on, if I so desire. No one will eat the last bread product and not leave me anything to toast for breakfast. And I will not have to watch that Nathan Fillion cop show and instead can binge on Acorn tv shows that Rudi has not yet laid claim to being interested in (although probably only because I didn’t ask him).

This week, I’m going to send out some resumes, take a first pass at the taxes, and do some spring cleaning. I’m also going to play volleyball, look for spring flowers (I spotted my first hyacinths this weekend), and spend as much time outside as I can. I may to the movies, catch a concert, or see a friend, but none of those are carved in stone.

I hope you have a great week, too!

I can tell spring has pretty much arrived in D.C. because of the burning of my eyes, the tickle in my throat, and the snuffliness of my head.

May spring soon arrive where you are, but may the allergies pass you by.