We went out to dinner with four friends from our political activism days — Sarah, Michael, Julia, and Susan — tonight. It was lovely.

While we see Sarah with some frequency, Michael and Julia have been away from D.C. for nearly the past two years — first in London and now in New Orleans. It was great to hear they’d be returning home in September. (I’d been prepared for them to say they were leaving for good.)

And while I have seen Susan and Phillip and their kids more recently than I’ve seen Julia and Michael, it must also have preceded the pandemic, because we were indoors at a restaurant.

Once upon a time we saw each other several times a week, so it was especially nice to find ourselves in a single location in real life again.

Rudi and I ran some errands this afternoon. While we were out, we ended up in Petworth and opted to stop by Lulabelle’s Sweet Shop for some ice cream.

I had blueberry jasmine and Rudi had key lime pie, and they were both every bit as good as you’d expect ice cream to be on a hot July evening.

[Saturday afternoon] It would help if I hit publish before I close the laptop for the night:

We kicked off our weekend tonight with a date night of bowling and returning to a favorite brewery (they make their own root beer, in addition to more traditional libations) and we’ll wrap it up on Sunday by seeing some friends who are in town.

In the meantime, though, I’m going to try to squeeze in a few other things:

• Spend time at the garden. Rain is in the forecast, but weeds are growing, there are probably cucumbers to harvest, and the forest is encroaching over the fence again.
• Swim. While not as perfect as the ocean was last weekend, the pool will offer some respite from the heat and humidity, particularly if the forecast falls apart.
• Read. My brain is sad these days, and escaping into someone else’s life seems like a perfect antidote.
• Clean. Laundry can’t be on the agenda, despite moderate need, because the washing machine won’t accept any more coins until the company comes out to tend it, and they tell Rudi that won’t happen until Monday. But I should probably do tackle some other projects to make up for that. Maybe I’ll try to uncover the coffee table.
• Knit. It’s the last weekend of my knitalong, and I will have failed spectacularly. Well, okay, that’s not true. I didn’t crash out. Neither my project nor I ended up injured. We just finished outside the time cut early on, and rather than packing our bags and going home, we just limped on, following the course. We’ll make it to Paris; it’s just that no one will be there to notice. (Again, not a wholly apt metaphor. I can enter my project into the Ravellenic Games (which start next Friday) and get a medal in the WIPs Wrestling category if I finish it before the Olympics end.)
• Bake. If the thunderstorms come during the day, being outside will be less appealing, and I might take the opportunity to make some cookies or a cake.
• Organize. I’m taking part in a Christmas in July swap that should be sent out in the next week or so. I’d like to pull more of that together, so I’m not scrambling next weekend.
• Go to the farmers market. I got our first nectarines of the season last weekend. Yum!
• Sleep. I’ve gone from not getting enough sleep because I was trying to hit neverending deadlines to not getting enough sleep because work is upsetting. The former was beyond my control, but the latter should be met with more discipline.

How about you? What’s on your agenda for this weekend?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Dozens of dragonflies and damselflies fill the park, glinting in the evening sun. They do acrobatics and catch the breeze and check out what the other park users are up to. It strikes me this could have been the inspiration for the flying key scene in The Chamber of Secrets.

2. Both Black Widow and Leverage: Redemption have offered me the opportunity to revisit characters I’ve enjoyed spending time with over the years.

3. Our volleyball team goes out after the game. It’s good to have time to hang out with together and to get to know some of the new folks.

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

The shawl is not nearly done. But it is nearly the width of the recliner, which is something.

Rudi, Sarah, and I went to see Black Widow tonight. This song, a haunting cover of the Nirvana classic by Malia J, features heavily in the intro to the movie.