The good news on the knitting front is that the heel has been turned and I’m on to the foot!

The bad news on the knitting front is that in the midst of last week’s … preoccupation … I temporarily forgot both to count the stitches on my heel needle and how to do do short rows. I mean, it’s fine. It’s fine! There were just two extra stitches on the heel. I temporarily considered ripping it all back and then I decided this is 2020 and that if the sock fits we do not toss things out for imperfection. And the short rows … I somehow decided to wrap about half the stitches the wrong way. Again, not a deal breaker; I just made picking up the wraps more challenging for myself. But as you can see, we’ve moved on. Now, as long as I remember to reorient the stitches to keep the heel centered when I start the toe decreases, we’re golden. (If none of that made sense the translation is: I messed up, I mostly fixed it, I may mess up again before we’re done.)

I started Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore tonight. I’d picked it up to be my waiting for the election results read. Instead it’s waiting to see how a coup is overturned in my own country read. It is not yet distracting enough, but I’m hopeful. About the book and our republic. Mostly.

I’m still listening to Alexandra Petri’s Nothing Is Wrong and Here Is Why while I wash dishes at night. I tried to keep listening one night after the dishes were done and awoke a couple hours later many essays into the future. This is way more a statement about my level of exhaustion than the writing.

Head over to As Kat Knits to see what others are crafting and reading.

I seem to have taken a couple weeks off from Coffeeneuring. One weekend was rainy and the other … got lost.

Café Georgetown
3141 N St., N.W.
Saturday, Nov. 7, early evening
Conditions: Lovely

Saturday marked the combination of a beautiful day, the announcement that Joe Biden had clinched Pennsylvania’s Electoral College votes, and low demands on my time. However, I futzed around until too late in the day for a lot of coffee places, and then I had the double challenge of needing to be home for a video chat with friends.

So I headed to Georgetown. Specifically to Café Georgetown.

I’d passed the café before, sitting as it does in the first townhouse in from Wisconsin Avenue, but I’d never stopped in. I’m excited to report that while I didn’t avail myself of them, the coffeehouse does offer some of the Middle Eastern treats I used to get at Simit and Smith before they closed. I opted for the more traditional chocolate chip cookie (heated at the barista’s suggestion) and a hot chocolate. I munched them in front of the restaurant next door’s darkened doorstep and watched people cruising through Georgetown sharing their jubilation at the political news of the day.

As with nearly everywhere on M or Wisconsin in Georgetown, bike parking requires finding a street sign to lock up to. Unless, of course, like me, you forget your lock and don’t realize it until you arrive. Then you might consider asking a nice couple with their own bikes parked next to them to watch yours while you run in and order. I have literally never done that before, but Saturday seemed like a day to trust in the goodness of people.

Total mileage: 2.2 miles

I struggled with this week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic, Ten Book Titles That Would Make Great Song Titles, from That Artsy Reader Girl but I got there in the end. Here are ten from my TBR list:

1. The 10 P.M. Question
2. Always Emily
3. West of the Moon
4. This Is Not a Love Story (I feel like Taylor Swift may have already written this one…
5. Swing Sideways
6. One Last Stop
7. No Place to Fall
8. Love You, Hate You
9. Last Night in Montreal
10. I’m Not Hanging Noodles on Your Ears (obviously, a song for kids)

While I did yank out the flowering weeds that had gone past in my garden (I leave them for the pollinators at a certain point), I discovered my post-sunset harvesting of tomatoes last week was a little slipshod. I found four big tomatoes (the fourth one may have been discovered after I broke the branch it was on, so it came home with me) as well as several smaller ones of varying sizes. Since this week, at least, is due to be unseasonably warm and sunny for much of it, I suggested they all think ripening thoughts and we’d revisit things next weekend.

In addition to time in the garden and at the White House, I also got in two Coffeeneuring bike rides (I’m excited to tell you about them in a couple days, because one of them included a new twist on a favorite drink), trips to the farmers market and the grocery store (to buy myself laundry detergent and flowers), and the penultimate concert in the park for the season.

I also had both a video chat and an audio chat with friends, which was nice.

I did a (very) little cleaning in the kitchen and a little knitting and a bunch of sleeping and may have watched The Avengers and SNL and acceptance speeches instead of reading. This week, though, I need to get my act in gear in terms of cooking and cleaning and the pursuit of laundry money, or else Rudi’s going to return from Salt Lake and wonder what I’ve been doing with my time. (Bon bons, Rudi, eating bon bons…)

It was a good day. I was awakened shortly before noon by pot banging in the neighborhood, which quickly escalated to cheers, horn honking, and, eventually fireworks. The emotion everywhere was jubilant and contagious and if we weren’t living amidst a pandemic might have involved strangers hugging.

I biked down to Black Lives Matter Plaza and the White House earlier tonight to see the crowd down there. You may have heard Trump built up the wall to “protect” himself; it just gave folks a bigger canvas. There was dancing and more fireworks and champagne bottles being popped and whole families out so kids could be a part of this historic day.

It was a good day.

I’m so tired all the time now that I’m tempted to just write “sleep” here and call it good enough. But it’s not! Because then I would wake up on Monday, refreshed and pissed off at missing what’s promising to be a glorious weekend with clear skies and temperatures in the mid-70s.

So, while it can be on the list, it can’t make up the entirety of it.

I already started the weekend by finishing my book at the park, getting pizza for supper, and buying cat food.

Here’s what I’m thinking:

• Get out early and see if the local bank will give me quarters (I don’t have an account with them), or if I have to keep begging farmers for them at the market. Stupid coin shortage! I want to be able to wash and dry towels (15 quarters) without having to think about it.
• Pull all the denuded tomato vines out of the garden. I’m tempted to leave those with flowers on them for another week or two, but that’s probably silly… I will leave the pepper plants, because I think I left tiny peppers behind. I may also dig up my potatoes, but maybe I’ll let those go another week, too.
• Go for two Coffeeneuring bike rides.
• Chat with friends on a video call.
• Attend a concert in the park.
• Find and deposit the four checks I have in the Burrow. (“Find” makes it sound like I don’t absolutely know where they are; three are in the pile of papers next to me here and one is on the table because I was using it as a bookmark in the house.) Also, pay bills.
• Turn the heel of my sock.
• Finish cleaning up the kitchen.
• Buy myself flowers.
• Make a quiche and roast some vegetables for later in the week’s suppers, so I don’t have another burnt lentil mush at midnight incident.
• Read another book.
• Sleep. (See? Still on the list.)

What are you hoping to get to this weekend?