I’m tired and want to go to sleep, so instead of finishing my March book report, I’m going to share another three random thoughts on three random things:

Small Business Saturday
1. President Obama and his daughters went shopping at one of my local bookstores and stopped for popsicles at a cafe I frequent. I’m excited for these businesses, because his patronage will definitely net them some new customers.
2. While I enjoy my holiday weekend in Connecticut, I am always sad to miss the to-do’s some of my local shops put on, particularly Labyrinth (a game shop) and Fantom (my local comic book shop).
3. The Yarn Harlot used her reach to share tweets about sales from indie dyers and yarn shops across her country and mine. I think that’s a really awesome way to use your fame.

Things I’m Looking Forward to Next Month
1. A Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings concert at Lincoln Theatre.
2. Writing Christmas cards.
3. Our New Year’s Eve movie marathon.

Movies I Want to Watch before Christmas
1. The Holiday
2. Miracle on 34th Street
3. The Polar Express

I just dozed off and had a dream where I kept being attacked by hordes of butterflies who wanted to land on me and lick me.

It’s not as nice as it sounds.

Carole’s Ten on Tuesday topic today is Things I’m Thankful for Right Now:

1. My family: 2015 has been a rough year, with death, serious injuries and illness, and unemployment poking sticks at us. But we persevere together.
2. My friends: See above. Dear friends from high school and college came to my grandmother’s funeral. Others friends have listened to me when I needed to talk or invited me out when they thought I might be lonely.
3. My three cats: They’re sometimes a pain, but how much lonelier — and chillier — my life would be without them.
4. Taxes: We all complain about how much we bring home each paycheck versus how much our employers say they’re paying us. But, man, we’re really grateful to everyone who paid taxes, which allowed my family to collect unemployment benefits and use local parks for picnicking in, rec centers and parks to play in, and libraries for letting us read books we could never afford to buy.
5. Hardy equipment: My car is 22 years old this fall and will, knock wood, get us up to spend time with family this week. The radio no longer works and the pickup is terrible, but it has a good heart and is a lovely shade of Colgate green. I dropped my phone a couple years back, shattering the screen. Gradually, it’s disappearing, but mostly it still functions just fine, especially after a system upgrade this summer.
6. Continued employment: Funding for the project I work on dried up earlier this year, but the director of our office has shifted around some of her funds to keep us all on for the time being. I don’t always love what I do and it’s not my dream job, but I mostly like the people I do it with and it does good in the world, and I could do far, far worse.
7. The Hamilton soundtrack: I’m afraid that no other music this year has captivated my brain the way this musical has, with its consistent ear-worminess, and one song or another is on constant loop in my head. (Currently it’s Thomas Jefferson’s “What Did I Miss?” Apologies to those of you who’ll now have it stuck in your head.)
8. Netflix: It’s really nice to be able to pull up an episode of Leverage or White Collar or Black Books or Miss Fisher whenever the mood strikes.
9. D.C.: Terrorists may be targeting it and the subway may keep breaking down, but its zoo and (many of its) museums are free, there are a plethora of bookstores and movie theaters and summertime outdoor films and farmers markets, the subway works most of the time, its bike-share system and network of bike-friendly trails and lanes continue to grow, and laws keep our buildings short and the sun peering down on us.
10. Bed: Because I’m tired and I can go join Rudi and the cats in it now that I’ve finished composing this list.

How about you? What are you thankful for at the moment?

This weekend included sleeping in on Saturday, but getting up early today.

I went to Georgetown, as I do many weekends, to visit the library and to get a snack. I swapped a few books out and stopped at a boutique that was having a going-out-of-business sale to buy a baby gift. I wandered into a couple new shops without picking anything else up before ending up at Chaia‘s new digs. [Sarah, I forgot to tell you tonight to check them out!] They’ve been making veggie tacos at farmers markets around town for several years and finally have their own permanent space. Their crispy Brussels sprout taco was quite tasty, as was the hot chocolate and gingersnap I picked up from perennial favorite Dog Tag Bakery across the street. I started one of my library books on the way home and was so enchanted I finished it tonight.

I scrubbed our bathroom. It took two days, which is utterly pathetic. The load of laundry I did didn’t take nearly so long.

I sent out the invitation to our holiday party. If you’re local and would like to come and I didn’t invite you, please let me know!

I bought tickets to a holiday concert as well as one for a Holiday Happy Hour at the library’s maker lab.

And we celebrated our friend John’s birthday. He turns 50 later this week, so lots of people showed up. It was nice to catch up.

And now the weekend is over and we begin again.

Things I’m hoping to do this weekend:

1. Attend my friend John’s 50th birthday party.
2. Go to the library.
3. Collect some leaves for the compost bin at the community garden.
4. Build a website for an Advent Blog Tour. Also, promote said venture. (Would you like to take part? Leave me a comment.)
5. Do a deep clean of the kitchen and the bathroom.
6. Send out the invitations to our holiday party.
7. Wash my handknit socks (and do some other laundry).
8. Sort my clothes and shoes to gather a pile for Goodwill.
9. Bake some bread. (I have a breadmaker; it just requires my pulling it out.)
10. Buy tickets for two holiday-related events.
11. Read.
12. Knit.
13. Sleep.

How about you? What are you planning for the weekend?

Carole used to do these posts every once in a while, and tonight I’m just coming up blank for something to share that won’t take ages to compose. In the interest of posting something here, washing the dishes, and getting to bed in the near future, I’m sharing three things about three random topics:

1. Places I’d Like to Visit
• Hawaii
• Someplace where I can see the Northern Lights or the aurora australis
• Costa Rica
2. Things about My Cats
• Posey has, since this summer, started using the tub to poop in. It doesn’t happen all the time, but happens often enough that it’s a problem.
• We got some long, heavy-duty twist ties with our new Christmas lights, and Corey has adopted them all. He likes to toss them around and carry them around the house and up onto the bed at night. When he’s carrying them, he kind of looks like he has a handlebar mustache.
• Jeremiah is in a playful mood right now. He’s been tumbling in the tub (where Posey has not pooped today) and chasing the rings from the glass milk jug lids and instigating games of chase with Corey.
3. Things I’m Looking Forward To
• Our friend John’s 50th birthday party this weekend.
• Seeing friends and family next week.
• The apartment being clean for our tree-trimming party in a couple weeks.