Three beautiful things from the past week:

1. In honor of Museum Day, the Smithsonian offered their basic membership for a mere $12 a year. Since membership automatically nets you a copy of their monthly magazine, I have to say that’s an amazing deal (and a delightful surprise, since I only went into borrow their bathroom during the National Book Festival).

2. The weather in the Pacific Northwest has been rainy and conducive to fungus growth, so Rudi’s dad called up last weekend to let us know we should expect a box this week. It arrived in time for last night’s dinner and was filled with a couple pounds of chanterelles, a mushroom known for its taste, its yellow color, and its price. Rudi cooked up a simple mushroom omelet for dinner — and it was utterly delicious.

3. Two days ago, I began to worry that I wasn’t going to have quite enough yarn to finish the sock I’d been knitting. So last night, I decided I’d better find the leftover from the first sock. (If it’s more than two inches long, I tend to save it…) I peeked into the notions bag where scraps often end up. I dumped out the knitting basket. I went through every container in the pie safe. As panic began to set in (actually, it was more like resigned despair, since I knew that in order to fix this problem, I’d have to undo the first sock’s toe and knit them both in a different yarn), I decided to check the notions bag one more time. I caught sight of a pink piece of yarn — there it was! But would it be enough? It wasn’t much more than a yard… Ultimately, the toe was a bit shorter than planned and I held my breath as I Kitchnered the toe closed, but I made it. And the yarn from the cast on will be used to used to fix the gusset hole, leaving me, by my guess, with less than three inches of yarn total remaining from the two skeins I bought. That’s cutting it close!