My ceiling is leaking.
Yes, I do live in the basement, why do you ask?
(I have banged on the upstairs neighbor’s door (but I think she may be away), left phone & text messages for the landlord & handyman, and emailed all neighbors in the building. Pretty sure I’m out of good options until morning…)
Three beautiful things from my past week:
1. A nearly full orange moon rises behind the stage of the last outdoor pink show of the summer. (I’ll add a photo to the post once my computer stops updating.)
2. My former boss and I meet up for ice cream sandwiches and spend hours catching up.
3. Respect, the Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson, is really enjoyable. Hudson does an amazing job with the role and the songs, but it is only fitting that the final scene goes to footage of the Queen of Soul herself in what I think was her final public performance. Rudi and I are both glad we dragged ourselves out to the theater after a long day.
How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?
While I haven’t made a ton of progress on the shawl since last week, I did drop down about a dozen stitches and fixed some edge knitting I clearly did while drunk (actually it was while I was waiting for pizza). There are seventeen rows left of this ribbing section. I will never be done. I will be stuck doing ribbing until I die. It could be worse: it could be twisted ribbing.
While I am uninspired by my print book choices this week (the graphic novel is nearly done and the historical romance is a third done; the two hardcovers are overdue to the library and I’m trying to get a sense of whether to keep them for a week and finish them or just to return them unread), I am enjoying The Windsor Knot by S.J. Bennett, a delightful cozy in which the Queen of England, with the assistance of her assistant private secretary, solves mysteries. The second book is due out in November, and I, at least, am glad to hear it.
Head over to As Kat Knits to see what others are crafting and reading.
Thursday morning early, Rudi flies out west. He’s going to spend the next two weeks working on starting the process of emptying his mom’s house in preparation for selling it. (She moved into assisted living earlier this year.) He’ll come home for a couple weeks and then head back again. I’ll probably join him for a week on his next go-round, and then do another week later on, too, since he’s an only child and tackling this largely by himself.
It’s the start of a necessary pattern, but one that’s going to require a lot of energy from both of us this fall. Keep us in your thoughts.
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share the top ten books we wish we could read again for the very first time:
For some titles on the list, it’s to recapture the pure joy I had reading it for the first time. For others, it’s because I adore the characters and would love to have another quarter century back to get to know them again. And for still others, not knowing the ending brings some magic.
But at least I can reunite with them any time I choose.
What books do you wish you could rediscover for the first time?
Bout of Books has wrapped up for 2021. I missed both Twitter chats, but I did finish the 500-page book I was reading, which was my main goal for the readathon.
I also listened to some of the Queen Elizabeth cozy I have out on audiobook and tackled a chapter of a graphic novel (The Runaway Princess by Johan Troïanowski) that’s due back to the library this week.