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After only a few hours of sleep last night, I’ve been losing the battle of the zzzz’s all day today.

I arose practically before the sun to catch a ride from Rudi to Union Station where I caught a train to Baltimore where I caught a shuttle bus to BWI where I caught a plane to Hartford. Pleasantly, after I landed, my parents came so I didn’t have to catch anything after that.

We passed a pleasant afternoon featuring a barbecued lunch and a trip to Webs where I bought some yarn for the Red Scarf Project and a US1 circular to knit socks magic loop tighter than my current smallest circular allows. We headed home after stopping by a coffee shop I didn’t know existed. I had a lovely hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream and purchased some granola. (I am going to try your recipe, Mia, this was just easier…)

Tonight we had pizza and homemade peach pie along with a nice dose of After the Thin Man.

Except for the early rising, I’d say today was all about comfort and relaxation. Now to find out what tomorrow holds. But, first, sleep!

The temp at our front desk after coming into my office: Are you playing Jimmy Buffet?

Me: No, it’s The Cranberries.

Her: Oh, that’s so cute. You like the old stuff, huh?

Paula at Basset Knitter and Carole at strange little mama both very sweetly named me a Rockin’ Girl Blogger recently. It was a terribly sweet move on their part and I’d like to ask you to visit both of their sites because their blogs are filled with children and knitting and animals and scenery from places far from here (as well as illnesses and divorces and the realities of living that they both deal with gracefully and with humor).

I’d also like to continue the accolades by honoring a few other rockin’ girl bloggers from various walks of life:

• Dianna, a.k.a. RunningChick, was my office mate in Connecticut for many years and the first person I knew with a bona fide blog. I don’t run, especially long distances, and someone would have to be chasing me with intent for mortal harm to make me run even the short distances she puts in on a regular basis, but still I read every post she “pens.” Her style is entertaining and her energy and enthusiasm is inspiring. This passion has recently become a career path for her and she’s currently in school learning to do physical therapy. Plus, you’ve just got to admire a girl who can fall off her bike, land on her face, take an ambulance ride to the hospital, and be back on the saddle again in less than a week. Those Tour de France riders have nothing on her!

  Edited to add: Di lost one of her beloved dogs, Jake, this morning. Please send her some love if you can.

• Clare at Three Beautiful Things helps to make the blogosphere a nicer place. You routinely hear talking heads on tv making snide comments about bloggers, but it’s obvious they’ve never seen the impressive work that Clare has done. She comes up with three beautiful things every day to put up on her blog. She does it without fail, and when she’s away from the computer, she still notes them and posts them upon her return. It’s always so encouraging when I see her list every morning (the advantage of the England-D.C. time difference) and she’s one of the blogs I look forward to the most. She recently won a book deal focusing on a similar topic and I look forward to hearing how it progresses (and when it’ll be available).
• Camille at BookMoot is a children’s/young adult librarian, and I love learning about new books on her blog. (She’s the one who made it imperative that I read Rick Riordan’s work.) Her school district starts up tomorrow and she links to some on target suggestions for parents.
• Jen at Prepare to Meet Your Bakerina gives me yummy recipes, as well as a glimpse into her life in NYC. She shares her successes and her failures in life (and she seems to always have a lot going on), and I toast her for her bravery and honesty in doing so. (Now, if we could just convince her to put fingers to keyboard a bit more often…)
• Chris at Stumbling over Chaos writes about knitting and books and online contests and hers is the blog I leave until last every morning when I’m reading my RSS feed. I am afraid, however, that she will have to share her honors with the other participants of her blog, Mayhem and Chaos, who get the best lines.

These are not, by far, all of the rockin’ girl bloggers out there in my life; these are merely five, chosen somewhat at random to represent the blogs I read. I have some dear real-life friends with blogs I love who shouldn’t feel slighted for not being on the list. Other wonderful bloggers have already been similarly honored. One reader who used to have a rockin’ blog has made the personal decision that life ought to come before blogging (!!!) and shuttered the online house. Other readers without blogs also rock. And I know some pretty rockin’ guy bloggers and readers, too. So take this as merely a suggestion of some fun places to visit. I know I enjoy seeing who others link to and look forward to more similar entries in the future.

We kicked off the weekend tonight with a sultry evening in the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden, where we went to picnic and listen to the weekly summer jazz concert. Okay, listen might be a strong word. Passively enjoy a jazz pianist playing in the background while we and our neighbors chat and eat, perhaps would be more accurate.

John, Rudi, Sweetpea, and I had a nice evening. We drank wine and Orangina and ate oodles of food — chips, hummus, pita, dolmas, baguette, crackers, cheese, dates, membrillo (Spanish quince paste), olives, cornichons (is this just a fancy name for gherkins or is there an actual difference?), and CakeLove cupcakes in a variety of flavors.

The only thing that could have made it a nicer evening would have been a lower humidity level. Seriously, it felt like you had just entered the overheated indoor pool at the Y. The ground was soaked and by the time we headed home we were all remarkably damp. I was wet enough that I tried to use the hand dryers in the ladies’ room to dry my butt off with. I was not successful and walked home three miles in sopping wet capris.

Tomorrow is supposed to remain humid, but to add in the joy of soaring temperatures. The heat index is rumored to approach 110 degrees mid-afternoon. Hooray. I may never leave air-conditioning again.

No, wait, that’s not true. I have plans tomorrow night. Our friend Phillip turns 30 this weekend and we are going over to party with him and to assure him that, indeed, a cane, ear trumpet, and cataracts are not far off in his future.

Sunday, Rudi is heading off for an early-morning century and Sweetpea and I are talking about going to catch the Indigo Girls out at WolfTrap that evening. It may happen or it may not; it probably depends on a number of factors including how tired we are of being outside in a sauna.

But I’ll tell you one thing: If we go, I’m going to wear waterproof pants.

I have become something of an expert on yogurt parfaits this summer. My first attempt, pictured above, came back on the Fourth of July, in my attempt to put together a festive mid-week breakfast for Rudi and me.

It all started with a breakfast we had in Salt Lake at a bakery near Rudi’s mom’s house one morning back in June. I commented to Rudi that the granola was possibly the best I’ve ever had and that I ought to buy some to bring home. I forgot, of course, in the flurry that surrounded my MIL’s return from the hospital, recuperation, and my return to D.C., but Rudi didn’t. He arrived home ten days after I did with a pound of the tasty breakfast treat for me.

I didn’t want to waste the granola on the random grazing I tend to do with store-bought boxes of cereal, so instead I decided to combine it with some yogurt and seasonal fruit from our local farmers’ market.

Combining granola with the white yogurt, red cherries, and blueberries made for a tasty way to start the Independence Day holiday.

But I didn’t stop there.

In future iterations, I added raspberries and blackberries. I cut up nectarines, peaches and apricots. When I ran out of the Avenues Bakery’s granola, I bought granola from the farmers’ market. I drizzled honey over the concoction. I threw in macadamia nuts, almonds, and coconut.

In short, I improvised, based on what was seasonal, fresh, and local.

Each concoction was slightly different, but lovely in its own way.

Some Saturdays, I eat this for breakfast with a strong cup of tea. On hot nights, we have it for dessert. This past weekend, I made it my lunch. It’s quick and it’s versatile and eminently customizable.

I can’t wait to try adding stewed apples and walnuts or something else similarly autumnal as the days get cooler. It’s such a fun (and mostly healthy) culinary treat.