Rudi and I got caught out in the rain this afternoon. Since we were already wet, we strolled leisurely through the nearby neighborhoods, stopping to admire row house gardens and flowering bushes.

This rose was the prettiest we saw all day, but it didn’t have a particularly rosy scent, so it cannot take home the best-in-show blue ribbon.

But it certainly was stunning to look at.

It’s supposed to rain off and on all weekend, with more on than off. Regardless, here are some things I’m hoping to accomplish:

• Call my mom and Rudi’s.
• Visit a couple European embassies. I think I’m down to only four I haven’t stopped by at one point or another — Netherlands (and even then, I’m pretty sure we caught them one year when they were renovating and hosting events in another building), Ireland, Malta, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. We’ll see if I can cross any of them off tomorrow.
• Watch the Funk Parade. Don’t you wish your town had a parade dedicated to fun dance music?
• Get the plants I bought last Sunday in the ground. The garden is going to be awfully muddy, though, so this one just might not happen.
• Buy strawberries at the farmers market. Optimistically the rain could keep people away and I could get a great deal on a bulk buy. More likely is that it’s Mother’s Day and there will be no strawberries left by 9:15.
• Send out some resumes.
• Mull over buying a new suit for interviews. First, dig out my most recent suits and see if either of them fit. Since I bought them more than a decade ago, I’m not optimistic.
• Switch out my winter and summer wardrobes. I’ve started to do this a couple times, which realistically just means I currently have piles of all sorts of clothes all over the apartment.
• Make strawberry shortcake.
• See if I can fix my beloved bike helmet. (Part of the adjuster dial popped off the back band.) At the very least I think I should be able to make it a set size (which will then only mean I can’t wear a high ponytail or a hat under it). If not, see if the helmet that Rudi says is too big for him will fit me. It gave me a headache when I tried it on, but that could just have been all the strap tugging. If none of those things work, order the new helmet I found.
• Spend time with Rudi.
• Paint my nails.

What are you hoping your weekend includes?

We ended up not getting in to a sneak preview last night, so we instead took ourselves to our favorite pizza restaurant for supper, where we sat on their patio, soaking up the beautiful spring weather and looking at campy pictures from the Met Gala on my phone. Afterwards, as we were walking to Tenleytown to catch the metro, we spied the delicate sliver of a moon above the remnants of the evening’s sunset, highlighting the transition from day to night.

It doesn’t seem fair that I go along all winter desperately investigating and inventing things to do and then spring shows up and suddenly some weekend in April there’s a nimiety (I just found this word, but I’m totally inserting into conversations now…) of activities to squeeze between Friday and Sunday.

This weekend, those things include:

• Finish a cover letter.
• Pick up freebies at Free Comic Book Day (there are two comic book shops within a mile of our apartment).
• Visit embassies for their annual open house.
• Stop at my local library branch for their first used book sale.
• Head across town to a friend’s housewarming party. (Also, pick up a gift. I wonder if he’d like some free comic books… But it will probably be alcohol.)
• Plant the four seedlings I dropped off at the garden on Wednesday. Also, thin some of my seeds. (Seriously, it’s like the only ones that wanted to grow were the ones I dropped in groups.)
• Buy strawberries and pea shoots and asparagus at the farmers market.
• Send out some mail. (May is a very mail-y month.)
• Spend Sunday at admiring sheep and petting wool (and vice versa) at Sheep & Wool.
• Return the rental car. (Rudi has to go to Pennsylvania in the morning for a meeting and it didn’t cost much more to keep it another day so I could head up to Howard County on Sunday.)

How about you? What do you have on tap for the weekend?

While strolling from Georgetown to the garden this afternoon, I came across this planter outside someone’s home. It contained possibly the largest clematis I’ve ever seen. Each flower was easily the size of a saucer!

My grandmother had clematis growing up the lamppost in her front yard and seeing them always reminds me of her. I didn’t realize there were so many varieties, but Wikipedia shows me they can vary from tiny fuzzy flowers to gigantic, leather-like ones. I knew there was a hairy variety, but never guessed that was just the start of the ways clematis could vary one from another. Nature really is cool, isn’t it?

It’s supposed to be a pleasant spring weekend, with the rain having moved through this afternoon and projected highs in the low 70s. Plus, we’re now into outdoor festival weather, so that means good weekend event options. Here’s what I’m hoping the next couple days include:

• Doing some version of this year’s Independent Bookstore Day’s Bookshop Crawl. (I don’t know that I’ll make it to all 10 to get the tote bag, but I might give it a shot.)
• Seeing the new Avengers movie. (Tonight’s non 3-d show was sold out when I went to get tickets.)
• Completing my sock and work on my shawl.
• Sending out a resume. (Doesn’t Manager of Storytelling Initiatives sound like a good position? I keep forgetting what it’s really called and referring to it as the Master Storyteller job.)
• Going to the library.
• Checking out this year’s French market in Georgetown.
• Heading to the farmers market. (Our compost bin needs emptying and spring veg are in season. I’ll need to get there early to get morels…)
• Stringing up more twine for my peas. When I stopped by yesterday, they were already to the current top rung at my knees and growing ferociously.
• Washing laundry.
• Getting some cleaning done.

How about you? What are you hoping your weekend holds?