Coffeeneuring #5: Grassroots Gourmet (104 Rhode Island Ave., N.W., Bloomingdale)

Saturday, Nov. 5; 5.2 miles
Hot chocolate and mini bourbon chocolate pecan pie

I eschewed the sunshine of Big Bear’s west-facing patio for the shady sidewalk of Grassroots Gourmet, a new-to-me bakery just up the street.

At this point, I don’t think I’d say Bloomingdale is a transition neighborhood anymore, but it’s definitely more of a economic mix than my corner of the city. And I think Grassroots Gourmet reflects that, selling their baked goods at local market price, but their drinks for significantly less than you’ll get them elsewhere.

To be honest, I wasn’t blown away by either my drink — my cocoa was perfectly adequate, but nothing to write home about — or my mini pie, where the crust seemed to overwhelm the three-bite snack. (I totally recognize that a thinner crust would probably have created a dessert that wasn’t sturdy enough to handle, so this was probably just my being overly picky.) However, both staff members I met were super friendly and clearly went out of their way to know their local neighbors, and that would be enough to bring me back earlier in the day when I could catch some sun from their sidewalk seating and try one of their other baked goods (they also sell cupcakes, muffins, normal-sized cookies, and bars and quick breads, as well as being a retailer for local bread) with a cup of tea. As it was, they let me hang out outside there with my knitting (my Christmas fingerless mitts) and my book (Not Your Sidekick, from my Ninja Swap package) even after they closed up, even specifically telling me that if anyone hassled me about it to let them know.

There are several bike racks out front that they share with the bar/restaurant next door, that I’d imagine would be very busy during brunch hours.

The ride was fine, except for two things on the way back from the cafe: first, the light at R and Florida did not trigger for my bike, causing me to have to wait an extra cycle until a car triggered it), and second, at one point a flatbed truck moved partially into my bike lane to get around a car, causing me to shift too close to a piece of heavy equipment covered in orange mesh netting in the curb lane. My handlebar snagged in the holes of the mesh and I came up very short, but stayed upright (the light was red and I was going slowly; if it had happened at speed, I would have gone down). I may have gesticulated and yelled vigorously at the truck driver about rights of way before pedaling the adrenaline off the rest of the way home.

While I am not normally a list maker (although, to be fair, my blog may suggest that claim is false), I do enjoy how productive a weekend game plan makes me feel. I like to build in lots of things I was going to do anyway and make at least half of them fun, because it is, after all, a weekend.

So here are some things I’d like to do this weekend:

• Publish an Into the Stacks post (I’d love to get caught up this month, but I’m about 40 books behind, so it may carry on into December)
• Spend time outside (Capital Weather Gang says this is our peak color weekend, so I’d like to enjoy some of it; also, it would be good to get in a Coffeeneuring bike ride or two)
• Attend Upshur Street Books’ birthday party (Sunday evening, I think)
• Return a couple books to the library (Stressful feelings make me take out all the books, and I think it would be good to give a few of them back)
• Make dough (Hopefully pie. Possibly cookie. Related note: buy more butter)
• Finish a knitting project (Any knitting project)
• Shop (There are two Christmas markets at European embassies tomorrow and my farmers market on Sunday.)
• Clear off my desk (Our holiday party is four weeks from tomorrow; we need to start cleaning)
• Write some (thank you notes, birthday cards, bad poetry, anything really)
• Do some laundry (Related: get more quarters)
• Get some sleep (There’s a whole extra hour this weekend, after all!)
• Do an hour’s worth of calling for Hillary (I really don’t actually want to do this, but I loathe and fear the idea of a Trump presidency even more than calling strangers who don’t want to be bothered, so…)

How about you? What’s on your weekend wish list?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Sam and his brother Alan come down for a show they went to see with Rudi, and we get to spend the weekend with them. We’ve known them for decades now, so they’re like family.

2. In our final regular-season loss, our volleyball team worked well together and played a fun, scrappy game. As one of my teammates noted, we didn’t even mind losing the way we played. (And as a bonus beautiful thing, I think we’re going to sign up to play together again in the winter.)

3. Sunday afternoon, I head up to the park to read in the sunshine and it happens to be the neighborhood Halloween party. There’s a bake sale and free popcorn and two moon bounces for the kids, and lots and lots of costume love. My favorite was a small baby dressed as a hot dog.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world recently?

This photo is misleading. I mean, sure, this shawl lives next to the couch for ease of tv knitting. And, yes, this book has been in my bag every day the past two weeks. And sometimes I pick up one or t’other. But I’m tired of both of them and want them both to be done so I can focus my attention on other, more fun ways to spend my time.

Andrea’s Shawl has been on the needles since July. I’ve done 20 sets of stripes thus far, and there still remain a bunch of stitches on my needles. Since I need to get it down to 7 (or so), I’ll just keep going. It has to end sooner or later, right?

It’s more obvious to me that Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World is creeping toward the end. I’ve got a mere 50 pages to go, which I could take care of in two hours, if I just cared enough to finish. But … it’s dragging. I keep losing track of what Middle Eastern country she’s talking about in each chapter, and I’m easily distracted by what seem to be the bunch of articles she adapted into a book, rather than a firm narrative illustrated by anecdotes. The book is two weeks overdue (our fines don’t kick in until a book is a month late) to the library, and as such I’m loathe to put the book down and pick up another print book. Instead, I’ve downloaded the second audiobook in the Fox and O’Hare series, The Heist, by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg. It’s a ridiculous caper series (he’s a world-famous thief, she’s the FBI agent who caught him; together they now travel the world recovering riches from bad people in an undercover government op), with eye-rollingly bad sex talk. Think To Catch a Thief and dial the cheesiness up by a factor of five. It’s probably really not helped by being read by a guy who reads with a wink-wink-nudge intonation. And, yet, it’s fun and it’s mindless and is exactly what I need right now, with less than a week to go until an election that’s still mind-blowingly close. I’m sure I’ll get back to the important reading any day now, but in the meantime, I’ll be following Kate and Nick’s adventures while I wash the dishes.

Yarning along with Ginny.

As you probably know, I love taking part in book/yarn swaps, but have scaled back my participation in them somewhat after being burned a couple of times by sending out packages and getting nothing in return. So I’m picky about what I’ll join and have to feel confident that the organizer knows what they’re doing. I’m really pleased to say that the Ninja Book Swap, run by Bex, is one of those.

At the end of last week, a box arrived at my apartment, just in time to mark the end of the workweek. It came from my awesome partner Laura, who blogs at Buttontapper Press. Check out all the goodies she sent me.

You know someone has it together when they create their own Halloween wrapping:

Opening a swap box is not unlike Christmas morning. You curl up on the sofa, often in your pj’s, and open fun package after fun package.

Check out all the books Laura sent me!

The three books along the top were on my “wish list,” and The Extraordinary Life of Buffy the Cat was one Laura picked out, thinking I’d enjoy it. I’m not sure what gave her that idea.

Posey said she was not going to model for me, but added that she thinks Laura is still pretty awesome for sending her this great box in which to hang out.

I have to agree. In addition to sending me four awesome looking books (Not Your Sidekick is going to be the first one I read, although I’ve already dipped into Buffy), Laura also sent me a mini clipboard, two journals (one of which is now covered with all of the Halloween stickers from the wrapping), stickers (I love holiday stickers!), and some chocolate!

Thank you once again, Laura, for a really lovely Ninja Book Swap box. I’m utterly delighted with what you sent!

And if you like sending and receiving bookish packages, keep an eye on the swap blog in early January, when the next one will be gearing up.

Wishing you all a very happy Halloween!