Three beautiful pieces of baby news from the last week (no, none of them are mine):

1. My college friend Rebs and her husband Rick are in the final throes of the paperwork that will allow them to be put on the waiting list to adopt a baby boy from Guatemala. I have already bought Joey a present. I hope he likes it. Since he doesn’t yet exist in this realm, I will have to wait a while to find out.

2. My D.C. friend Grace found out that the baby she and her husband Brad are expecting in November is going to be “a little dude.” Sarah saw Grace earlier this week and says she looks absolutely adorable as a mom-to-be.

3. Friends Pat and Heidi’s twin-watch drew to a close last night. Thomas Ward and Erin Elizabeth, welcome to the world. Your big brother Jack will now have some competition as D.C.’s Cutest Child. And you will find that you’ve got some terrific folks. (As a side note, these are the babies to whom the mouse booties belong. Luckily, they’re kind of small right now, because none of us — not even brand new babies who don’t know any better — want to be wearing a cotton-wool blend during a heat wave.)

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. Two blocks from home, I chanced to look up. A neighbor has a bright yellow flowering hibiscus on their roof.

2. I have been spending money on eBay recently and between that and the news clippings Erik sends me, I have had a pleasant amount of real mail recently. (It feels very good, which should remind me that others like to have similar experiences…)

3. I have a tendency to procrastinate. (Those who know me in real life are now assuming shocked looks and whispering, “No! Really?” to the computer screen.) Sometimes this can be problematic. But last weekend it turned out to be a blessing when I got to see attend the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in lovely sunny weather featuring temperatures in the low 80s with low humidity instead of the hazy, hot, and humid conditions of the other days I’d intended to go but hadn’t. This year’s featured sub-cultures were the music of Chicago Latinos (a great background to the rest of the festival), Native American basketweaving (it’s impressive how basketry varied depending where in the country people are), and Alberta, Canada. There was a woman who created artwork from fish scales, bones, and vertebrae, horse and moose hair, and porcupine quills. There was a flyfishing demonstration (where they were catching hula hoops). There was the biggest truck I have ever seen. And there was a ranching demonstration featuring cowboys, cattle, and horses. (Oh, and really tasty food, which is always a highlight.)

The news today was glum and filled with gloom and doom. High death counts in Indian train explosions are believed to be terrorist attacks. A crime spree hits D.C. And experts have come up with what they feel is an innovative answer to HIV: circumcision. Yeah, because you’ll definitely convince millions of people to circumcize their babies when you can’t convince them to use condoms.

Plus the NL blew the All-Star Game — yet again.

Anyone have some good news to pass on? I’d love to read something encouraging.

The past few farmers’ markets have yielded a delightful bounty in the fridge, which is slowly being used up.

Sweet cherries became a cherry cobbler. (Two lessons learned: 1) a cobbler made almost entirely of sweet cherries is TOO sweet! and 2) large pearl tapioca do not dissolve in the cooking time. Must find small pearl tapioca in cabinet before next baking project.) Sour cherries have been cut up for the next project. Maybe another cobbler, maybe a pie, maybe clafoutis…

The first corn on the cob is boiling on the stove. I am SO excited! We’ll have that with garden burgers and a salad.

I think a peach pie is on next weekend’s agenda. (I’ve eaten too many to make into a pie without buying more.) And gooseberry fool sometime this week. And currant scones for Sunday brunch. Mmmmmmmm….

Carrots and celery and chard (magenta) also graced our market basket as did tomatoes, broccoli (which is destined to become quiche), and eggplant.

What a nice life when these things practically arrive of their own accord on my doorstep.

The tank is complete, and, if I do say so myself, it looks very nice.

I did not quite finish before the end of the game, despite France’s attempt to keep me in the game by taking the World Cup to penalty kicks. But the tank was came off the needles as Italy hoisted the cup aloft.

Many thanks to Yarn Monkey for hosting the cup and encouraging me to take on a project that taught me a couple knew skills (even if I hope never to need to use the provisional cast-on again).

The front:

Tomorrow afternoon, as France and Italy square off to see who can claim domination in the world’s favorite sport for the next four years, I will be swearing softly to myself (or aloud for Rudi and the cats to hear) as I remove 140ish stitches from the lovely yellow yarn they’ve been sitting on for a month and ask them to hop back on my needles to finish off my tank top. I am going to knit two extra rounds (to account for the difference in row guage between my Rowan summer tweed yarn and the yarn the pattern called for) and then bind off in a fancy ruffly way. I’m very excited.

Last night I finished the back right strap. Then I tried the tank on again and remembered that when Rudi and I first measured me to figure out the sizing that we noted that I’d need to make the straps longer because I am low-busted and much of my height can be found between my boobs and my shoulders. So I unbound the front straps and added 2 1/2 inches to one last night and to the other this morning (when I was pleasantly surprised to find Brenda Dayne’s Cast-On downloading into iTunes after a month-long hiatus between series).

Tonight, the final strap!