Rudi is away this week, but I still have a full list of things to do while he’s out west:

• Apply for a couple jobs I saved last week. (The three-month sabbatical I gave myself to lounge around is over, and now I need to start lining something up for the fall.)
• Clean the apartment. (Yes, technically this should be a two-person job, but I think we each find it easier to make progress if only one of us does the work at a time. Plus, I have a friend I’d like to have over for the first time, and I’d like not to have him back away slowly when I open the door. It was much easier when I lived in a dorm and my messy room was just open to the world all the time.)
• Acquire quarters, so I can make progress on Mount Laundry.
• Finish a couple books. (I have at least three that are overdue.)
• Keep plugging away on my shawl. (Honestly, the brioche is slower going than I expected it would be, but I like it so far.)
• Talk with some friends. (We’ve let it go too long.)
• Pick tomatoes in the garden. (I’ve already eaten the first cherry tomatoes of the season. Sweet!)
• Hang out with the volleyball team.
• Work on my Camp NaNoWriMo writing project. I made almost no progress last week, but am confident that I can get myself back on track.
• Bake.
• Finalize my #GiftmasinJuly package, so I can get it out the door by early next week.
• Swim.
• Spend time outside.

A baker’s dozen of chores, must-do’s, and fun things. What are you hoping to do this week?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. I bought a number of inexpensive plants while up in Connecticut a couple weeks back. On one of the hottest days of the year to date, Rudi helped me clear some extra space in the plot, so I could jam them all in. I finished planting on Sunday. I may add some beans and squash seeds, but otherwise I’m done with putting in plants until Labor Day.

2. Last July 4th, we got locked out of the Mall while waiting in line for the fireworks, so this year I got us moving earlier and we entered without issue. We sit on the river side of the Lincoln Memorial, which tends not to attract crowds, but offers great views.

3. The first corn on the cob of the season was actually pretty decent.

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

Front Side

Back Side

As I mentioned yesterday, I had messed up my Feel Good Shawl, by putting the center increase off-center in the last repeat that I did. I decided to do surgery and see if I could fix it by just dropping down the three stitches and fixing them back up. And then I tried to fix that by dropping down one stitch and fixing that. And then I decided I should just frog back to an area before I had tried to fix the problem and pick up and knit from there, with much better results.

Apologies for the blurry shot of the back. Clearly the project moved at the last second.

The good news is that tonight was the first time I felt confident reading my knitting and understanding what I should be doing, which bodes well for fewer mistakes (fingers crossed) and faster knitting.

I am making progress, albeit slowly, on my Feel Good shawl, but when I went to take a photo to show you, I found a mistake four rows back. So I’ll fix that tomorrow and show you then. In the meantime, check out the yarns I’m using above. The three gradients are Freia shawl balls, the dark blue is Smooshy, and I think the pink is PennyRose.

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic asks us to share the most anticipated books coming out in the second half of 2022. Here are some of mine:

1. Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead
2. Booked by Kwame Alexander
3. Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age
4. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske
5. Sonali Dev’s The Vibrant Years
6. Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder by Valerie Burns
7. Marple: Twelve New Mysteries (A bonus mystery is who edited this compilation of Miss Marple stories penned by modern authors, since even the publisher’s site doesn’t list that info.)
8. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
9. A Merry Little Meet Cute by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone
10. Dhonielle Clayton’s Whiteout

How about you? Are there books coming out before the end of the year that you’re particularly looking forward to?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. As my friend Katie and I were cycling between our game and the bar, we passed through the grove next to the D.C. War Memorial, which was sprinkled with fireflies. When we emerged onto the Mall sidewalk, we were greeted with the most amazing sunset.

2. My favorite Nationals player, pitcher Sean Doolittle, is also a big reader, and he was invited by the Library of Congress to take part in a public chat with Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. Rudi, my friend Sarah, and her friend all got tickets, but Rudi and I went early to tour the building, since Rudi had never been. As a special treat, the Reading Room was open to the public. You could hear the angels singing.

3. The gnats drove Rudi and me away from the Capitol Reflecting Pool and off the Mall. On Pennsylvania Avenue, the Mellon Fountain was running so briskly as to keep the bugs at bay. We rested next to it for a good 15 minutes, soaking in the cool air, before continuing our walk home.

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