Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. My friend Katie is a reporter and, for the third year, shortstop for the Bad News Babes in the Congressional Women’s Softball Game, which pits members of Congress against members of the press in a breast cancer fundraiser. This year, in addition to being a powerhouse on offense and defense, she also co-captained her team and served on the event organizing committee. Last night, her parents came from New Jersey to join us in celebration of her on-field prowess and her team’s decisive victory.

2. The team I play on in a competitive league won our championship. I ended up missing the last game because it conflicted with my oft-mentioned, long-time team’s match, and if I have to pick one group to play with, that team always wins. (They had six without me, and that captain gave me his blessing.)

3. The heat dome lifted, the temperature dropped, and it finally rained.

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

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday from That Artsy Reader Girl asks us to share the books we’re most looking forward to that come out between July and December. Other than Rainbow’s and Maehrer’s books, I’ve not included any I listed last week, but I did have to cheat and expand the list to 11:

1. Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance
2. Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
3. Somewhere Beyond the Sea by T.J. Klune
4. The Frindle Files by Andrew Clements
5. S.J. Bennett’s A Death in Diamonds
6. A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sanju Mandanna
7. The Witching Wind by Natalie Lloyd
8. Naomi Novik’s Buried Deep and Other Stories
9. The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
10. The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
11. Erin Sterling’s The Wedding Witch

How about you? What’s coming out during the second half of 2024 that you can’t wait to get your hands on?

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. It is a fantastic week for local produce with spring and summer overlapping. In addition to lots of veg, I bring home strawberries, sweet and tart cherries, blueberries, and peaches.

2. I suggest to my friend Aroush and his wife Taneesha that their Saturday team and mine merge for the next season so we have enough folks who regularly make the game. They agree, so we’re looking forward to many fun games in July and August.

3. For only the third time, we’re able to pull off pick-up with the team, this time mostly the women. We play three 4×4 sets, splitting pretty evenly. Then seven of us head out for food and a couple hours of storytelling and laughter.

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

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl is a seasonal favorite — the top ten books on my summer TBR list:

1. Rainbow Rowell’s Slow Dance
2. A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvia Cathrall
3. Nicola Yoon’s One of Our Kind
4. Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
5. How to Read a Book by Monica Wood
6. The Summer Pact by Emily Giffin
7. Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club
8. A Gentleman and a Thief by Dean Jobb
9. We Shall Be Monsters by Tara Sim
10. A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J. Penner

What books are you hoping to read this summer?

Apparently I’m having a very hard time keeping up with which day is Thursday…

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi and I stop at Dairy Queen for soft-serve cones on our way home from a long weekend. Mine is covered in rainbow sprinkles, his dipped in chocolate.

2. Most of the team heads out for a post-game supper after back-to-back rainout weeks. We discuss astronomical phenomena and what of it does or doesn’t matter to us individually.

3. By pulling up some bolted lettuce in the garden, I can see I have two poblano peppers that will be ready for picking early next week. A shishito should be ready the following week, and our first tomato (a black krim maybe by the end of the month).

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

Three beautiful things from my last week:

1. My fellow volunteer volleyball coach, Aroush, and I took our significant others to watch the new Haikyu! anime movie Saturday morning. It was delightful, with a particularly amazing shot sequence toward the very end of the movie and with a focus on Nekoma setter Kenma, whom we all love.

2. The moms of two of our youngest volleyball kids share their appreciation. One of their kids wrote a story about volleyball for her kindergarten class. The other one told me how much she’s appreciated how supportive we are of the kids. Her daughter came in afraid of the ball and, very last thing before the end of the spring session, got a modified serve over the net.

3. Anna meets me for drinks. We spend several hours catching up, since she hasn’t been to volleyball lately. We have plans to get together again (outside of team stuff) at the end of the month, too.

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