Ahem, is this thing on?

I still haven’t unpacked from my vacation, so rest assured the blog isn’t the only neglected thing in my life this week. Rudi will be away this weekend riding up yet another mountain, so I will have plenty of time then to tell you about the adventures of the last week. But there is time now to share some of the little details of the past seven days. Three beautiful things:

1. A man wearing a baggy t-shirt and exercise pants walks past me walking the tiniest terrier I’ve ever seen. It was maybe the size of my hand, and a D.C. rat would have required three or four of it to make a satisfying lunch.

2. I returned home to find a small package waiting for me. My dentist had sent me a compilation cd to thank me for referring Rudi to him. I’ve had doctors thank me for referrals before, but never actually had them offer a gift. It was a classy touch.

3. Irisa, Shelley and Mike’s seven-year-old daughter, is growing up. The night they arrived, she explained to Rudi how she’s been practicing rolling her eyes. My mother will assure you that I am the queen of this skill, so I was sure to offer my expert advice over the weekend. Shelley was delighted, I’m sure, but this is the role of aunties everywhere — to help with valuable life skills that parents would prefer you not acquire.

When you live in a city, you get big buildings. But sometimes you forget just how big.

This building, which is located on Dupont Circle between Connecticut and 19th Street, is huge!

It’s a whole city block long, and because it’s on a diagonal street, it’s a particularly long block.

Although the building wider at its south end, at its northern end, it’s quite narrow. Probably just wide enough for two offices and a hallway.

But it has nice detailing.

If you look at the narrow shot again, that’s the decoration between the top two levels of windows on the end.

I’m away, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get reading material. Here are three beautiful things from the past week:

1. I walk into the bathroom after Rudi leaves for work. I’m greeted by the smell of coconut lemongrass soap, which Rudi picked up because he knows how much I love coconut. It always reminds me of the beach and makes me so happy.

2. My festival-bought sundress has yards and yards of fabric and the skirt billows around me in what seems like a romantic way as I trot down the Metro escalator.

3. A sparrow bathes in some loose dirt, wallowing in the dust.

i can’t believe they left us here by ourselves. i like music. couldn’t they have asked the folk festival people to come over to our house? what do cows have over me, anyway? can they purr?

grumpily yours,

della

So, I’m heading out on vacation on Wednesday morning and won’t return home until late Monday night. During most of that time I’ll be camping on a farm in upstate New York, hanging out with my friend Shelley and her family as a folk music festival goes on around us. I’ll also be heading to a ballgame and to visit the family for a night.

When I asked Shelley how many books she thought I should bring, she promptly answered: “Four. Something funny, something thought-provoking, something non-fiction, and something else.” I’m not sure I agree with her categories, but I definitely agree with the number. I could, however, use some help narrowing down my choices.

That’s where you come in. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think I’d enjoy most while I’m away. Here are your choices:

• The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1 (This book contains two stories. I’ve read one and still have The Lives of Christopher Chant to go.)
• Sorcery & Cecilia, Or, The Enchanted Chocolate Pot
• Let’s Go France (This is a library book, so if I take it, it will have to live in the car, because I’d hate to ruin a library book if it rains while we’re camping.)
• Strong Poison
• Murder on the Orient Express
• The Mysterious Benedict Society
• Momo
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
• Three Bags Full (I’m about a third of the way into this book, but I don’t think it will hurt it if I leave it behind for the week.)
• Something else entirely that I can acquire easily

A mild stomach bug confined me to the house most of yesterday, so many of this weekend’s plans failed to materialize. I did manage to:

• Go to Costco (although I didn’t get to pick up my contacts) and go grocery shopping for some supplies for our trip
• Reorganize the kitchen so that it’s more user friendly, particularly regarding our cookbooks and what’s kept in the oven
• Work on two socks, although I didn’t finish any!
• Back up this year’s photos onto cd and clear space off the camera’s memory card
• Watch a couple episodes of The Muppet Show
• Finish The Book Thief and read this week’s chapters of Sense and Sensibility