Things I'm thinking about on a beautiful summer day instead of what I ought to be doing.. (isn't that the point of HAVING a summer in the first place?

Photo from the Last Noel Blogspot

Actually, I just started drooling when I saw the photo of this bookshelf on Noel's blog. When I was a kid, I always dreamed of having a house with a library like J. P. Morgan or Henry Huntington. Not the kind of perverse fantasy that one shares with the other kids on the playground.

My friend Mara was a librarian in her prior life before coming to California.

There's a shop in San Francisco that advertises in the print version of Poetry Flash with the most mouth-watering selection of wood bookshelves in all sizes. One of these days, I tell myself... but it's slightly more extravagant than treating myself to, say, an ice cream cone.

Bumpersticker of the day (seen at the Malibu Civic Center on Cross Creek Road:

CATS FLATTENED WHILE-U-WAlT

I know, I know; it's terribly un-PC. So I apologize to any and all cat lovers, feline co-dependents or slaves to their pets.

But it sure got a laugh out of me... especially seeing as how it was on the back of an old pick-up truck surrounded by luxury cars in the shopping-center-that-likes-to-pretend-that-it's-down-to-Earth-while-charging-outrageous-St. Tropez-prices-for-everything-including-a-bottle-of-ordinary-water.