I’m home and have plowed through a few of the things I wanted to take care of before turning in for the night. Rudi enjoyed his ski trip and I had a lovely visit with Gramma (and with Karen on Saturday), and the cats celebrated our absence by discovering they could reach some yarn I had left out (but not in a spot they’ve ever frequented before). According to Rudi, they had unwound the ball and chased it all over the living room. I’m sure it would have been cute to watch on YouTube, but not so much fun to come home to. (Thanks, Rudi, for unwinding the ball from around table legs and other furniture.)

More updates tomorrow. Now I’m off to bed!

Sure, the point of doing this My D.C. thing is to show you what the tourists miss when they come to our city. But you have to understand that some of the perks of living in a well-trod city are just the things that the tourists also love.

Case in point? The cherry blossoms:

I’m hanging in Connecticut with Gramma this weekend, and I’m not sure yet how that’s going to affect my posting. I am hoping that it will positively affect my sleep schedule and will help me get to bed in the early wee hours instead of the late ones. I’m also hoping to get some knitting and reading and crosswording in. I can’t see Gramma arguing with any of that.

But in the meantime, I’m posting three beautiful things from the past week:

1. I decide to bake for Sweetpea‘s birthday and Rudi chooses a new chocolaty recipe for me to try. The scent of cocoa winds itself around the apartment, curling into corners that made it smell delicious even into the next morning when we awake.

2. Our team places first in Pub Trivia, which is sort of like Trivial Pursuit but without the board.

3. Gramma and I take a ride on a lovely spring afternoon. Although I freak her out by taking us down a surprisingly long unimproved road (read dirt and/or gravel), we enjoy hearing the peepers every time we pass water.

My friend, Sweetpea, is celebrating her birthday today.

One of the things I like best about D.C. is the abundance of great friends I’ve made here, particularly through the old D.C. for Dean campaign. Not only is Sweetpea sweet and funny and erudite, but she also knits and reads and is willing to brew rootbeer with me. What a friend!

Tonight we will join her celebration by helping her win Trivia Night at the Argonaut. (No idea. But it sounds fun, doesn’t it?)

So please mosey over to Sweetpea’s blog and wish her a happy birthday and smart friends. And I’m sure she’ll appreciate any random trivia you think might come up in tonight’s match.

The Telegraph has come up with the 110 books they claim will constitute the perfect library. As with any list like this, I don’t do well. But I enjoy examining them and seeing what specific entities (in this case a British newspaper that focuses on European classics) think I ought to have read.

Here’s how I fall out with their list:

Classics: I’ve read four completely (Austen, Bronte, Trollope, and Swift); two more are on my to-read list for this year.

Poetry: This is the hardest category, as I’ve definitely read snippets of at least all of the poets they’ve include. I’d have to look at the specific works to see which ones I’ve read completely. I know it’s at least one, but it could easily be more.

Literary Fiction: Thank god for Toni Morrison. Otherwise I haven’t read any of these, although I’ve read other work by some of the authors.

Romantic Fiction: I’ve read two (Rebecca and Gone with the Wind and two others are on my list to read soon.

Children’s Books: At last! a category in which I do well! I’m not sure if I’ve read Treasure Island all the way through or if I’ve just read snippets. I do know I didn’t like it (although I can see its merits). Otherwise I agree with and have read the lot.

Sci-Fi: It strikes me that usually you’re either a fantasy reader or a sci-fi reader and I definitely fall into the former category. I’ve read 1984 and am in the middle of listening to the Librivox version of Frankenstein through CraftLit. Should I bother with any of the others? It seems like I ought to read Jules Verne at the very least…

Crime: I haven’t read any of these, although I have read some of the Sherlock Holmes stories. Collins, Christie, Chandler, Doyle, and Hammett are all on my list.

Books that Changed the World: I’ve read excerpts of nearly all these works, but was turned off by de Tocqueville’s introduction the only time I ever attempted to read any of them unabridged. This category, in particular, would seem to be a weak link in my literary creds. Any suggestions on where to start first?

Books that Changed Your World: Mayle’s work is a favorite and I read A Child Called ‘It’ back in middle school, I think. I gave up on Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance from disinterest. Truss, Schott, Adams, and maybe Gladwell are all on my list.

History: I think it’s a bad sign that I’ve hardly even heard of any of these books…

Lives: I started Gaskell at one point…

Hmmm… looks like I’d better hit the non-fiction section of the library sometime soon…

This article from yesterday’s New York Times gives ten great reasons why women’s college basketball rocks at least as much as (if not more than) the men’s game.

It continues to frustrate me that women’s sports continue to be thought less of than men’s. Have those naysayers ever seen a women’s NCAA Div I game? These are elite women players with skills to rival their male counterparts (and often brains to surpass them).

Unfortunately, on a personal level, last night my beloved UConn women fell to the Stanford Cardinals. Several of our key players were injured, but, frankly, Stanford outplayed us and demonstrated how much a team can grow over the course of a season. Their 23rd straight win was well-deserved.

It’s painful to have to root for the team that eliminated yours to win the whole thing, but my blood runs a true Husky blue and I just can’t bring myself to favor Tennessee.

I do have faith, though, that it will be a great game tomorrow night. If you have cable (which I don’t), please tune the game in for me and think good thoughts for the Cardinals.