Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. A fresh pair of contact lenses.

2. The first flip-flop days of the year — and painted toenails to emphasize them.

3. A rainy day means lots of strawberries still left late at the market and, therefore, a sale on flats. I take home a dozen gorgeous and tasty pints for $2 apiece.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

I took a few days off to create a long weekend that I spent up north visiting my folks and my best friend. It gave me a little perspective on work and a little head space to open up for knitting and reading projects.

Here’s what I’m currently working on:

I am not loving Mansfield Park so far, although I’m about a third of the way through it. The main character is kind of a drip thus far, and both the love interest and everyone else in the book is rather one-dimensional and mostly horrid. I’m hoping it picks up, but am not holding out tons of hope at this point. Frankly, if it weren’t Austen, I’d give up on it.

I am, however, really enjoying The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle, who also wrote Better Nate than Ever and Five, Six, Seven, Nate, about a gay teen boy falling in love the summer after his sister dies. It demands comparison to Becky Albertalli’s award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, not least because Albertalli blurbs Federle’s book.

I picked up my Lightning Shawl again tonight for the first time in forever. It felt good to work on it again, but Corey came to sit on me and demand my attention instead, preventing extensive progress. (Life is hard, right?) I also started (for the third time) a pair of vanilla socks over the weekend and, thanks to the drive home Monday and an all-staff meeting this morning, am now pretty much through the heel flap. Probably a couple more rows to go and then we turn the corner and head into foot territory.

Yarning along with Ginny.

As promised, yesterday’s moonrise from Savin Rock in West Haven, Connecticut:

Three beautiful things from this past week:

1. Swayed by a sign pointing the way to the local beach, Rudi and I made a surprise ten-minute stop at Savin Rock in West Haven, where we admired the full moonrise over the ocean and I dipped my toes in the chilly water. (I’ll post a picture tomorrow. I don’t want to get out of bed to get my phone.)

2. A letter arrives from a college friend from the Philippines and a postcard from Rhode Island.

3. My Bikeshare fob (a plastic sandwich with a computer chip dot as its meager filling) came apart six months ago and I’ve been using a hair elastic to keep it held together since then. (I should note here that Bikeshare would totally replace it for free if I told them about it. Which I will. At some point.) Last Sunday, as I heading into work, I realized the elastic had gotten yanked off the fob and the chip, which is smaller than my pinkie nail, was gone. A couple days later, Rudi looked down just outside the apartment door and saw my chip lying on the ground, unsquashed. It’s back in the fob and working once more.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world this week?

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from The Broke and the Bookish is Books That Made Me Laugh:

• Mama Makes up Her Mind by Bailey White: This book had me laughing out loud on an airplane.
• The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde: Actually, almost everything Jasper Fforde writes. It’s like a Monty Python skit in a book, except without the stupid bits.
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: Arthur Dent, the main character, spends most (all?) of the book in his bathrobe because he ran out from his bed to prevent a construction crew from knocking down his house, and then an international construction crew knocked down his planet. Also, Vogon poetry.
• A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson: Funny nonfiction. You’ll be laughing so hard, you won’t notice how much you’re learning.
• The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett: One of fantasy’s funniest writers and the first book of the series that takes place on a world the shape of a disc. Features animate luggage and an inept magician.
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman: It would be inconceivable to leave this novel, upon which the movie was based, off this list.
• Better Nate than Never by Tim Federle: A hilarious romp for the middle-grade theater nerd in all of us.
• The Amelia Bedelia series by Peggy Parrish: This picture book series features a maid who just doesn’t understand that things get said symbolically or have multiple meanings.
• The Pippi Longstocking series by Astrid Lindgren: The strongest girl in the world who lives on her own, wears mismatched stockings, and fights injustice.
• The Paddington Bear series by Michael Bond: Paddington is too sincere and too much trouble not to be hilarious.

How about you? What sort of books do you find funny?

Carole’s Ten on Tuesday topic this week is 10 Albums You Love:

• Return to Pooh Corner by Kenny Loggins: This is a mid-’90s collection of lullabies performed by the artist best known for “Footloose.” The title track is the revised version of his cynical farewell to childhood song that includes the verse he wrote after his son was born. I totally bought this at Circuit City because of the very pretty cover, but it’s been one of my best impulse buys ever. It’s gotten me through dentist appointments and sleepless nights and is one of my favorite baby shower gifts.
• Hamilton: No one will be surprised to find the cast album of 2015 near the top of my list. It’s full of ear worms, and I aspire to be able to get through some of its hip hop lyrics as fast as the cast does.
• Boys on the Side: The soundtrack to a mid-’90s movie, both the album and the film are filled with girl power. You’ll find Bonnie Raitt, Annie Lenox, Melissa Etheridge, and the Indigo Girls, who make an appearance as a bar band in one of the scenes. If highway driving on the highway on a sunny spring or summer afternoon had a soundtrack, this would be it.
• Rites of Passage by the Indigo Girls: My favorite album by the duo (and a favorite of my late college years), this includes some of their hits, including “Galileo,” “Airplane,” and “Virginia Woolf.”
• The Honesty Room by Dar Williams: I remember Grey Kitten playing this for me in his apartment in HiRise when I went to visit. Little did I know that songs about a babysitter and gender norms and modern art would become one of my favorite albums.
• Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band by The Beatles: Call me a sheep if you will, but if you’re only going to own one Beatles album or if you’re looking for a starting place for getting into their music, this would be my recommendation. There are probably other albums of theirs that are better, but this one is solid.
• Slippery When Wet by Bon Jovi: Released when I was in middle school, this album from the 1980s’ most pop-friendly hard-rock band includes “Livin’ on a Prayer,” which I voted for as my prom theme song in high school. It did not win, and, in retrospect, I acknowledge that it would have made a terrible prom theme on every count.
• Dirty Dancing: Because nobody puts Baby in the corner. So perfect (and successful), they released a (less perfect and less successful) sequel soundtrack.
• The Muppet Movie: “Moving Right Along.” “I Hope That Something Better Comes Along.” “The Rainbow Connection.” The Electric Mayhem. Kermit. Gonzo. Miss Piggy. Even a patriotic riff from Fozzie.
• River of Dreams by Billy Joel: His last pop studio album. Another album I bought in part because I loved the cover. Lots of good songs, including “Lullabye.”

I thought this was going to be a remarkably easy list to make, but then I kept thinking of more and more albums I wanted to include. I have limited my list to ten, as per the topic, and left off all best of/greatest hits albums, although there were several that I might have included otherwise, and Christmas albums and mix cds. However, know that at least half of these albums might have been substituted out for others on another night (or in another hour on this night).

How about you? What albums do you love?