How did it get to be Thursday already? Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. Even though I was running ridiculously, laughably late yesterday, I decided to walk to work anyway — which takes me twice as long as hopping on the Metro. It was the first day in a week the sun had deigned to come out from behind the clouds, and I just knew clear blue skies couldn’t last. I got to work rosy-cheeked and filled with energy. Since today is slate gray, I definitely made the right decision.

2. Snow drops, which generally serve as a harbinger of the end of winter, have been sighted down the street from the Burrow. I can’t endorse the heat spell we’ve experienced of late, but I find it hard not to love flowers, no matter when they turn up.

3. I’ve been reading a great book lately, the sort that demands you simultaneously slow down to savor the words and speed up to find out what’s going to happen next. The sort of book that was written with readers in mind. The sort of book that lifts you out of your life and delivers you to where the story is taking place. Why aren’t there more books like that?