Remember the book The Saturdays, by Elizabeth Enright? The main idea was that Saturday afternoons, which ought to be the jewel of the week, so often are not. In the book, four young siblings combine their allowances and work together to give one of them an adventure each week that they weren’t likely to forget.

Well, that was kind of what my today was like.

I slept away the morning. I’d say I’m not sure how that happened, but that would be a lie. My sleep schedule is all backwards right now and I’m waking too late and staying up too late and the cycle continues… Hopefully a weekend with Gramma next week will put it a bit more to rights.

After Rudi left for his bike ride and I toddled over to the computer to break in the day slowly, my friend Susan called and invited me to join her for lunch. I practically bounded out of my pjs and out the door in my excitement at having A Plan for the afternoon. We ended up eating at Raku, an Asian diner with a patio in Dupont Circle because the afternoon was (mostly) warm enough to sit outside. Opting for a veggie bento box and a passionfruit limeade, I was delighted with my food. The drink was sweet without being cloying and responded well to the ice melting. And my lunch box, preceded by a generic bowl of miso soup, was full of light, but tasty morsels: a cucumber-avocado roll, veggie tempura, a veggie egg roll, seaweed salad, and a delectable asparagus-parmesan-portobello dishlet. Ahhh, me! Susan and I ate and talked, and after we could eat not a bite more, wandered around the neighborhood for a bit and then sat on the front steps of her building to talk some more.

In and of itself, that would probably have tided me over with happiness for the week. But I was struck with inspiration and called Rudi, who had recently returned from his ride, to invite him to join me for an ice cream cone. I love Larry’s and, as always, my scoop of Paradise was … well, you know.

A short while later, Rudi was heading out to an evening bike meeting, so he suggested that he could drop me down at the cherry blossoms en route, and I took him up on the offer. I spent three hours wandering the Potomac banks, the FDR Memorial (my favorite in the city), and the Tidal Basin before the sun set. I parked myself at a picnic bench with my knitting (I’ve reached the stockinette foot of my sock, so it was fine for nighttime knitting) and waited for the dark to grow black enough for the Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks to begin. The lower fireworks were obscured by the cherry trees, but those launched higher up were cheery and colorful and all one could hope for in such a show.

I concluded the day with plain and chocolate salty oat cookies from Teaism, a compliment on my t-shirt, and a pot of tea (Ceylon OP from the Porto Rico order that arrived this week).

Really, who could ask for a nicer Saturday afternoon?

Last week I caved into the twee side of my nature and signed up for Emily’s Wee Tiny Sock Swap. Emily was my spoiler in Amanda’s Bloomin’ Sock Swap last spring and I adore everything she does — whether it’s aimed at me or at the knitting world in general.

So over the weekend, I knit a tiny sock out of some leftover lavender Opal Gems I had in my stash. My sock fit on my pinkie. I sent it off to Jackie, who is a fellow purple lover.

And in Wednesday’s mail, I got a lovely spring green envelope containing a dear itsy-bitsy sock of my own. Mandy knit it out Socks That Rock in Rocktober. Funnily enough, the only other time I’ve encountered STR is when Emily made socks for me. See? I can make it come full circle…

I love my sock. My polar bear is currently modeling it to keep it safe from the kittens, who thought it smelled intriguing and offered to carry it off, à la Mooch, to spend some personal quality time with it.

Thanks to Mandy, Jackie, and Emily for making this such a fun swap!

Well, at least while it’s cold out…

May I present my Every Day Cardigan?

Knit in Peace Fleece’s Georgia Rose worsted weight (but using the sport weight directions).

I grabbed Rudi to take these shots as he was on his way to bed after a long evening of meetings. Better (daylit) shots may come over the weekend.

Sufficed to say, I’m still utterly delighted with my sweater.

With three hours of sleep, I’m doing okay right now. Check back with me after work, when I have to do some cleaning before my friend Amani comes over for us to watch the first half of Sense and Sensibility on PBS tonight:

1. Sweetpea and I have been social knitters this week. On Sunday we ventured north of the border to the Homespun Yarn Party where we got to put a face with Mia‘s blog (yay!), catch up with Lolly, fondle and buy some yarn (wanna see my purchases?), and eat some delicious snacks to benefit Ravelry. Then last night we joined the Dupont Circle S&B’ers and spent several fun hours with some really talented folks.

2. Sunday night, Rudi and I were lucky enough to have tickets to the opening of the new Nationals ball park. After blowing a lead in the top of the ninth, we came back to win with a home run from third base phenom Ryan Zimmerman. It was particularly satisfying because his shot into center field went into the lower section and certainly would have been caught at RFK.

3. Saturday dawned early and cold for Rudi and me as we got up to cheer on our friend Phillip who was running his first marathon. We were positioned just before the first hill of the course and got to cheer on a lot of runners in the 45 minutes we were outside. A friend had mentioned at one point that a lot of runners write their name on their clothing to enable strangers to offer personalized encouragement, so I knew to look for that — and it was nice to see smiles cross people’s faces when I shouted out to them. And because we were up, we headed to Teaism for a delicious breakfast (before returning home to bed).

Yes, yes, yes. I know it’s five a.m.

People, I have a sweater.

With buttons.

My very first grown-up sweater made with my own two hands.

Seriously, I’m so excited.

Tired, but ecstatic. (And tired enough to want to spell ecstatic with an “x.”)

But you’ll have to wait for pictures until the photographer is awake. I think the photos would be unflattering if I awakened him now just for this.