I used to date a guy who liked me in part because I had a tendency to look up. He had a habit of hanging out on fire escapes, so for a while we were a good match. He said you could sit a couple stories up for an hour and watch crowds of people rush by and meander past you without having a single one notice you sitting just above their heads.

It’s too bad because sometimes looking up gives you such a different perspective on things:

You can catch other My D.C. posts this week from Hillary, MsP, and Rudi.

R.I.P. Tim Russert. You were one of the last good ones.

This photo was taken by DBKing, who retains the rights to the material.

Because of my long weekend, it really doesn’t feel like Thursday yet. But I’m not going to object when tomorrow afternoon is Friday.

Three beautiful things from the last week:

1. We unexpectedly accompanied Sarah and Megan to the ballgame last week. Because it was a Friday, fireworks lit up the sky over right field at the conclusion of the game — and because we stayed, we got to hang out with Michael and Julia for a while as we waited for public transportation. (Rudi has an amazing shot of the fireworks here.)

2. Dad makes my virgin strawberry daiquiri first and then adds rum to fix everyone else’s. It is sweet and pink and creamy and perfect on a hot afternoon.

3. My folks and Gramma assure me that Crannie was even smaller when they brought her home six weeks ago. I’m sure it’s true, but she’s still plenty small and adorable and full of puppy exuberance.

(Crannie was fixed last week and was a little too excited for her stitches to come out, so she was stuck with the lampshade on her head for the weekend. I don’t want anyone thinking I took pictures of her when she was drunk.)

Radio silence will continue for one more day as I attempt to recover the power of speech/writing. The plane into Baltimore was an hour late last night and the train was about 20 minutes late as well, so we didn’t stroll into the house until 1 a.m. Add to that a miserably hot day and I’m struggling just to remain upright, let alone to use my words in a constructive way.

(And, yes, we had a nice trip. Thanks for asking.)

Rudi and I are up in Connecticut this weekend, spending time with the folks and Gramma and meeting the recent puppy addition to the household before she’s a full-grown dog. I’ll be heading out sometime tomorrow to lunch with Karen. And we don’t fly back until Monday evening, so we get a nice (ridiculously hot and humid) long weekend out of the trip.

Posting may be infrequent as I spend my time sipping iced tea and chatting.