I was sitting at the coffeehouse this evening, fully engrossed in my book, when the mosquitoes started making their presence known. Eventually I decided, mid-chapter or no, that being able to see the swarm’s shadow reflected down on my page meant I should go home.

I got up and started to gather my things together and was immediately greeted by this sight:

A sunset so absolutely glorious that I immediately exclaimed it so out loud.

And I totally would have missed it had it not been for the mosquitoes. I’ve never been grateful to them before, but I completely am tonight.

A few things I’d like to do this weekend, since it no longer centers around a hurricane:

• Finish some books and maybe a knitting project. (I have 20 minutes left on one audiobook and two chapters on another, so it seems likely.)
• Go to the library.
• Watch a film. (The Princess Bride is the midnight show at one of the nearby movie theaters. Or maybe just a dvd.)
• Paint my nails.
• Send my Ninja Bookswap package.
• Get to a couple cooking projects.
• Do laundry.
• Visit a bookstore.
• Head to a neighborhood festival. (The big one planned for this weekend was canceled early in the week due to the expected storm, but a couple of the smaller ones are still on.)
• Email Sarah to plan our annual apple picking trip.
• Spend time outside.
• Work in the garden. (Tomatoes and beans need harvesting and I should probably pull the last of the basil. And I should get some seeds in the ground for fall greens.)

How about you? What are you hoping your weekend includes? (If it includes riding out the hurricane, you’re in my thoughts.)

Our weekend was jam-packed and packed with jam.

Our Friday evening plans got rained out, and then our rain contingency plans got thrown out when the 2.5″ of rain that came down in an hour seeped into our apartment.

Flood protocols in place, Rudi headed off to work on Saturday, and (several hours later) I headed out on some errands. In the afternoon, I went up to the Petworth neighborhood where they were having a street festival. I bought some handmade cards, refrained from buying handmade jewelry, and ate Indian food from a local restaurant. I found their local hardware store and bought lightbulbs for the track lighting by our door that had gone out and returned home to replace them and put on warmer clothing, before heading to the ballpark.

Jayson Werth, who retired earlier this year, was being honored by the Nationals, with a funny and poignant ceremony in which he razzed his teammates and his teammates presented him with a rocking chair for his old age. He teared up (and then the entire ballpark followed suit) telling his mom, who was there with him and to whom he credited his athletic work ethic, that he’d left it all on the field. He then threw out the ceremonial first pitch, but because they’d placed the podium on the front of the pitcher’s mound, it’s clear that they planned on his throwing from in front of it. He was having none of that, though, and just threw his strike (in to his teenage son crouched down at the plate) over the podium instead. While it was long obvious to locals that he was a favorite with the fans (endearing himself early on when one of his batting songs was the theme to Game of Thrones), it was clear that everyone who worked at the ballpark liked him, too, and you could see him throughout the game popping up in various sections for selfies and to chat with employees.

This morning, we slept in before ambling over to the farmers market, where we bought a ginormous bag of yellow Romas, which Rudi later turned half of into soup. We watched some cycling and then braved the rain to go to the 40th anniversary Adams Morgan Festival. We listened to some live music, supported some school kids, signed a petition to get the alcohol permit revoked from the Trump hotel, and ate Nepalese momo dumplings. We sampled three homemade jams — strawberry habanero lime, orange vanilla lavender, and blueberry basil lemon — and liked them so much we bought all three. (You’ve been wondering since that first paragraph, haven’t you?) We wrapped up the day with a trip to one of D.C.’s indie bookstores, where they were having their quarterly member sale. We each came home with things we’d been looking for, including the new cds from Paul McCartney and Paul Simon and a collection of poetry, so it was a good way to conclude the weekend.

The week ahead holds a lot of rain (including potentially a hurricane), but today our landlord dropped off some sandbags, some sandless sandbags, and some more towels to help us cope. And we have a lot of fun activities planned, too, including meals with friends, volleyball games, and a concert. I hope you have things to look forward to, as well.

I’m back to only two days off, so I’m going to have to not plan a bazillion things to do this weekend. Maybe just a million. 😉

Tomorrow is looking like the clearer of the two days, which is good since we have a baseball game to attend tomorrow evening. Prior to that, I’d like to get to a festival in the Petworth neighborhood (that’s where I was on Monday, drinking horchata and taking photos of clouds and swimming in the pool). I also have some errands to run, like procuring quarters for laundry and finding new lightbulbs for our track lighting. (I think there’s a hardware store in Petworth, so that may work…)

Sunday is Adams Morgan Day, the annual festival in the neighborhood to our northeast. There’s usually good cheap Indian food to be had, and there’s a new ice cream shop I’d like to try and other eateries to investigate (it’s the home of the local popsicle shop, a coffeehouse, and a good bakery). Plus, there are usually some artisan vendors, so it’s always a good place to look for pottery and the like. I also need to hit the farmers market, since I used up all our onions (again) making more pasta sauce.

Somewhere in there I need to head up to the bookstore where I’m a member, because they’re having their quarterly sale. Ideally I like to tie that to a trip to the pizza place, but I suppose I don’t have to do that…

There’s also laundry to wash and cleaning to do and vegetables to roast and sweets to bake (cooler temps and the rain forecast for Sunday make that way more appealing than it was last weekend or even yesterday, when I made the sauce). There are knitting projects to work on and books to read and bicycling through Spain to watch and new cds to listen to after we go to the bookstore.

Should be a good weekend!

I’ve got a three-day weekend ahead of me, so here’s how I think I should spend it:

• Spend tomorrow at the National Book Festival listening to authors and soaking up bookish vibes.
• Head to a baseball game, courtesy of my local library’s summer reading program.
• Watch The Wizard of Oz (It’s playing at a Virginia “park,” so obviously an evening thunderstorm like we had tonight will nix that plan.)
• Visit a new-to-me pool for the final days of the D.C. outdoor swimming season.
• Listen to music. (There are a couple of free festivals and concerts going on over the next few days to choose from.)
• Get to the farmers market early enough for a smoothie bowl. (I hope it’s not melon again like it’s been the past couple weeks. Blech.)
• Do laundry. (Sheets and towels definitely need washing this week!)
• Clear off my coffee table.
• Finish reading Spinning Silver and take it back to the library.
• Start a new knitting project! (No, the old ones aren’t done yet. Why do you ask?)
• Catch a play reading.
• See what’s involved in repurposing those picture frames I bought last weekend.
• Sleep in on Monday!

How about you? What do you have going on this weekend?

I was going to write up a review of Crazy Rich Asians, which we enjoyed this evening, but my headache is on its way back and that means I should write this quickly and head to bed. So instead I offer you three things about three things:

Thing #1: Authors I hope to see at the National Book Festival this Saturday
(I have not consulted the schedule to see who’s speaking when, so this is just a wish list, not a plan.)

1. Amy Tan
2. David Levithan
3. Doris Kearns Goodwin

Thing #2: Movies I’m looking forward to coming out in the next two months:
(I had to restrict it to September and October; there are so many movies in November and December I want to see.)

1. The Hate U Give
2. Life Itself
3. Colette

Thing #3: Tomorrow night’s plans
(I thought I’d figured out what I was planning on doing with my gap week between volleyball seasons, but then additional fun ideas came up. How do you think I should spend the evening?)

1. Outdoor screening of Wonder Woman
2. Outdoor concert of the Sweetback Sisters
3. Outdoor pool further afield followed by coming home and cooking