A baby polar bear.

I thought I’d get a jump start on tomorrow by posting my weekly Three Beautiful Things before I go to sleep. Set the tone, you know? Here are some wonderful snippets from my past week:

1. I find a hot pot of tea hiding under the cozy for me after Rudi leaves for work.

2. I adapt a recipe from a cookbook to make chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate ganache cupcakes. Our friend John, who doesn’t particularly like sweets, eats two.

3. Rebs and Rick currently are in Guatemala City picking up Joey and should be home midday on Friday. I can’t even imagine their happiness.

For the nth year in a row, I decided to join the Self (Magazine) Challenge. This year, though, I haven’t shortchanged myself by compromising the nutrition part away on the first day. (However, I haven’t done any of the exercising yet, so it’s still an ongoing process.)

The Self Challenge happens every year in March, April, and May and encourages you, as my friend Elspeth put it, to get in shape for bathing suit season. Since graduating from college twelve years ago, I’ve put on quite a bit of weight and every year I say I’m going to do something about it.

My goal is to be more mindful about what I’m eating and the challenge suggests limiting yourself to one “treat” per day (in addition to other suggested diet modifications). My sweet tooth has always been my downfall and I’ve found that I’m eating far fewer calories without multiple treats each day (and with the added threat of having to write down what I’m eating in a food journal). Of course, I don’t have any healthy snacks in the house to supplement my healthier diet with, so I just find myself hungry and crabby all the time. I’ve definitely got to get to Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods this week…

I don’t expect to get back down to my pre-college weight. Or even my post-graduation weight. But I wouldn’t like the doctor to frown at me at my checkup this spring and inquire how I managed to gain so much weight during 2007. If I can at least start the process of healthier living before then, maybe it will be a habit by the time I see her.

Wish me luck.

Late February and early March are the blahest of the months for me, so posting tends to be erratic at this time of the year. But before anyone sends out the search engines for me, I offer you this belated My D.C. photo series:

I’m back from my long weekend-in-the-middle-of-the-week in Connecticut. It’s nice to be home and the cats (and Rudi) were happy to have me back. The cats, in particular, were quite clingy last night and this morning.

1. The cardigan I’ve been working on for the last year is too short. I’d realized it, but only after I’d already seamed much of it together. Gramma looks at it, listens to my claims that maybe blocking would fix it (and if not, some cutting and grafting), and tells me I’d save myself a lot of headaches if I just ripped out the shoulder seams, detached the arms, and knit the body a few inches higher before continuing on. She’s right, of course, and I’m glad she told me just to suck it up, since that’s what I obviously needed to hear.

2. Mum bakes me a dark chocolate truffle birthday cake. I eat two decadently large pieces.

3. Mum and Dad give me two pairs of pjs in Valentine’s Day colors and fun patterns. After arriving home last night and watching the eclipse (photos to come later), I throw on a pair and delight in being home.

I survived our conference and am now recuperating at my folks’. On the agenda? Knitting, hanging with the family (and a belated birthday celebration), a visit to the Basketball Hall of Fame, and a trip south to see my uncle. I bet I feel fully refreshed by the time I head home Wednesday.

Three Beautiful Things (the Boston version):

1. The view from our room on the twenty-sixth floor of the hotel is impressive. I can see the Charles River from my pillow and the Citgo sign at Fenway park if I walk to the window. Makes waking up almost bearable.

2. My birthday fell during our conference and for the first time ever I was unable to take the day off. But my friends made sure I felt loved with text messages and voicemail and phone calls and blog comments. My friend Suzanne had treats delivered to my room, and Sam and Alexis shared their Valentine’s Day dinner with us. I felt quite loved.

3. I had a dilly of a time getting the stitch count right for my new shawl. At last after four restarts, I end up with the right number and can move on past the third row.