Two 3.7-mile city rides.
Monday afternoon I saw a woman and boy on a tandem looking like she'd picked him up from summer camp. I waited at an intersection near them, and he was narrating some melodrama from the day as only a nine-year-old can.
Tuesday afternoon I got to pet the horse cops, who were in the hinterlands instead of downtown for the National Night Out. The horses are yet another thing I miss from working downtown.
Wednesday morning I met a Bouvier. I don't think I've ever seen one before.
This morning I saw Maven as we both headed for work. Hooray for the foot-powered commute! We talked about the upcoming book (Kal doesn't like it, though I didn't know that at the time) and another dress she will probably fit better than I do and whether she's coming to ballet in the park tonight. (Unfortunately, what came out of my mouth was, "Are you going to ballet tonight with AEK and I?" I blanched, and gabbled desperately, "Me. With AEK and me.")
Dresses! We had a clothing swap several weeks ago and Maven took the two dresses I brought, a short yellow sheath that has been snug across the beam for a while but which was now snug across the bodice and tight across the ass, not a good look in yellow silk, and a long simple celadon number that has always been snug across the bodice--reasonable in stiff linen--but now didn't want to zip.
And last summer or the one before I bought a white linen dress from J. Crew. White linen is already dicey, but it had a huge seam across my non waist and possibly a vertically bisecting seam as well and it's not doing me any favors. Maven is paler than me so it might not work on her either. Maybe we should make like Henny and dye Ella's dress in tea. One of the later All-of-a-Kind Family books
However! The Little Black Dress I bought in 1990 that, sometime in the past, I thought I really should give up on, maybe fits acceptably. It is certainly snugger than it was, but it doesn't give me pit-tit and my paunch isn't nauseating. I can't say it made RDC fall out of his chair, as the 1990 man did, but he thought it was fine (in more than a "you look pretty" way). I love simply cut clothes: it does not scream its year to me as much as some glaringly (to me) outré other, trendier pieces do.