Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. It being nice enough out to walk both to and from work (particularly when there are delays on the metro). I particularly like passing the magnolia trees that are starting to bloom in front of the Phillips.

2. Getting tickets to two of the three Mets-Nationals series when parceling out the season package.

3. Rudi made sweet potato fries to go with our burgers last night, just when I was really craving salt.

Don’t forget to enter the drawing if you haven’t already.

I’ve been wearing green all week.

For those of you who grew up outside the Northeast, this might explain why.

Connecticut has some of the highest percentages of Irish and Italians in America. This means that even if you don’t fall into one of those ethnic groups, for all intensive purposes you might as well…

And, for the record, I never heard of pinching someone not wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day until I met people in college who’d grown up elsewhere. Jenn, Debby, or Grey Kitten — Have you ever had someone pinch you in Connecticut if you forgot to dress up? Anyone else from the Northeast want to weigh in?

For those far from green-wearing brethren this season, I offer you this clip of “Early Riser,” from Robbie O’Connell. Robbie is a nephew of the famed Clancy Brothers, with whom he used to tour. We knew him from our summer vacations camping in Cape Cod. You never had such good sing-alongs around the campfire…

(If you like what you hear, you can download the album from iTunes.)

No, that’s not an allusion to a crazy tv show. Nor is it a mix-up about a blockbuster movie that opened this past weekend.

Instead it signifies a milestone for this blogger: 700 posts.

That’s right. This is my 700th entry at Sprite Writes.

Scary, eh?

Even scarier? Saturday is my second blogiversary.

The odds of these two occasions falling within the same week have not passed me by.

So, in honor of these events and to thank you all for checking in occasionally, I’m celebrating. And I invite you to celebrate along with me.

We’ll have a little pie, play some tunes, and maybe get a bit giggly by the time we should head home.

If you were here in the Burrow, I’d ask you for book recommendations. (Okay, you’re probably glad now this is a virtual party, aren’t you?) But ask I shall, nonetheless, and those who feel inclined to offer an answer can do so in the comments. Those who don’t can just have another slice of pie.

The question: What book is:

• a) your absolute favorite read (one that you come back to time after time — the literary equivalent of comfort food);
• b) the best you’ve ever read (a book that was such a masterpiece that you immediately went to check out the author’s other works and that you bought for your best reading buddy so you could have someone to talk with about it); OR
• c) the most important book you think was ever written (a work that changed the way you view the world)?

Yes, I am a geek. But I’m okay with that. And I really do need something new to read.

A party isn’t a party without presents — from me to you since my virtual pie is a bit flavorless. Anyone who leaves an answer (or answers, if you want to take a crack at all three categories) to the above question by Saturday (the 17th) at noon EDT, will be entered into a random drawing for prizes still to be determined. There will probably be knitting- and non-knitting-related prizes, however, so if you are NOT interested in fibery goodness, please leave that in your comment, too.

I saw daffodils this weekend. A few of the magnolia trees have flowers. Sitting outside seemed like a luxury instead of a punishment.

Hooray!

After spending three days last week sick with some nasty bug, Friday night seemed to bring some relief. I slept lots and pulled out the decreases of the hat I finished last week. I’d realized that every time I put it on, I tugged at it incessantly. In other words, as I’d realized at the time, I really did need three full pattern repeats. I re-finished it Friday night and have been wearing it non-stop since then. Much better.

Saturday dawned clear and nearly 70, so I headed to Georgetown to hit the local yarn store‘s sale. I purchased no yarn, but I did buy Folk Shawls at the suggestion of a fellow customer to make something with the yummy alpaca Gramma gave me for my birthday. I also bought a copy of the new Interweave sock book, which I spent a full hour ogling when I got home. [Confidential to Suzanne: I’ll bring it in when next we have knitting group for you to peruse.]

While out, I stopped at an Austrian restaurant hidden away above the canal. I wanted to eat in their courtyard but the wait was longer than my patience, so I picked up a cup of tea and a Sacher torte to go. I ate chocolate and knit and bopped away to some tunes on the iPod, amusing the college aged guys sitting across the water who could see my feet swinging away in time to the music. It was the sort of afternoon when you felt glad to be alive.

I concluded the waning sunlit hour with a walk along the canal. Even the ten (!) dead fish I counted couldn’t dampen spirits lifted by seeing green shoots and sprigs. I returned home in a better mood than I’ve had in months.

Sunday, after our weekly jaunt to the farmers’ market, we went to hang out with friends and pick our baseball ticket dates for the upcoming year. We finished early enough that we were able to swing through Eastern Market, wander Barracks Row, and hit the grocery store, and still have time to take our books to the Starbucks patio to read in the afternoon rays.

All in all, a truly lovely weekend…

Click here to see more photos from my Georgetown walk.

Three beautiful things from the past week:

1) As I lay in bed yesterday morning watching the snow drift down, a flake gets caught in a spider web and glistens. Because it’s so cold, it lasts for quite a while.

2) While walking from the Metro to my office, I pass a woman and a child, whom I assume to be her grandchild. The girl, whom I guess to be around three, is bundled up in a tiny purple parka; the woman in a long dress coat. The woman sing-counts a marching beat for the child and laughs when I catch her eye and smile.

3) Last Friday was warm enough for me to sit outside at lunchtime to read my book and eat. I found a spot along a pedestrian pathway and was able to bask in 65 degree sun unaccosted for a whole hour.

If you live around here, I urge you to close the cookbook, pour the cats an extra bowl of food in the morning, and head out to eat on Thursday for the annual Dine out for Life day in D.C. (and its surrounding suburbs).

The concept is that you get a nice restaurant meal at one of 150 or so participating eateries and the restaurants donate a portion of their receipts for the night to charity. Most restaurants that take part donate a quarter of their proceeds. Others, which are noted on the site, donate a third, half, or even all the money they make tomorrow night.

In the D.C. area, the charity that benefits from the restaurant proceeds is Food and Friends, for whom I knit a couple of scarves earlier this year. Food and Friends delivers cooked meals and groceries and provides nutritional counseling to nearly 1,250 people every month who are living with life-threatening illnesses like cancer and HIV. They don’t ask clients for insurance. They don’t ask them to pass a means test. And they do it all for free, which means they need to raise a butt-load of money in order to keep operating. This is particularly true in D.C. where we have a large number of HIV and cancer cases.

Other cities — from New Haven to Philadelphia — around the country also take part in Dining out for Life on different days throughout the year. If you live elsewhere and you’re interested, I’d urge you to click here to check out the site and see when your local event is. If you live in D.C., I suggest you call up a bunch of friends and go out to eat at a participating restaurant. Expect to wait in line for a while if you don’t make a reservation, but remember that you’re doing it for charity.