Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. The rain that woke me from a dead sleep in Detroit on Thursday night and that has been soaking us here in D.C. yesterday and today. This is the most rain we’ve had since April they said on the news this morning. It is a real blessing to hear it pit-pattering against our windows and on the leaves overhead.

2. While in Detroit last week, I spent a night in Greektown, where I purchased four pastries to bring home as souvenirs. (Don’t you love edible souvenirs?) Rudi and I split all four and got to sample godly baklava, a custard roll, a chocolate-dipped coconut bar, and a nut and honey filled delectable I can’t remember the name of. The young woman who helped me wrapped each pastry in wax paper, placed it in a white box, and tied it with red string. I was delighted and so was Rudi.

3. Since the weather has cooled off, it’s been a week of wearing fun hats for me. I have two newsboy caps (one in green corduroy and one in brown tweed) that I wore earlier in the week. Today’s was a cute felted fedora-ish number I bought (at a Gap) in London. If it stays cool, I may break out one of my handknits later this week or maybe a witch’s hat for tomorrow night’s Halloween party.

It’s not remotely beautiful to lose a furry friend, but the amount of joy and love they add to one’s life can’t begin to be quantified. Please stop by Debby‘s blog and let her know you’ll be thinking of Chris and her.

I would like it noted here that it is remarkably frustrating to witness someone being micromanaged. I might be able to understand it if an employee were inept, incompetent, or in training, but otherwise there is absolutely no excuse for it. Either trust your good employees to do their work correctly (with you checking in periodically for status reports to make sure there aren’t any hiccups) or DO IT YOURSELF.

I chafe under such conditions and would resort either to passive-aggressive behavior on my own part of just ignoring the instructions that were pointless or to extreme, obvious, and job-endangering sarcasm.

(N.B.: This has nothing to do with my own employment, as Suzanne is a lovely boss.)

I stole a movie meme from Craftylilly’s website instead of creating actual content of my own.

Keeping in mind that I don’t watch movies that are heavy on violence or that focus on war (because they are inherently heavy on violence), are there any on my list that you’d suggest I grab from Blockbuster ASAP? (more…)