very, very, very small pleasures

Occasionally I get email for Mrs. Cornishbowder.

It pleases me.

practical dreams

Jen: What I need is five hundred thousand dollars. I think that will be enough.
Kate: I think I could make do with fifty.
Jen: Actually, I might be ok with a hundred.
Kate: Honestly, at a minimum, all I really need is ten.
Jen: No, that's not enough because it'll all get eaten up by taxes.

of no consequence to you whatsoever

Maybe a list to keep the juices flowing?

1. I'm about 100 pages from finishing Vanity Fair, which has been a far less difficult and timely undertaking than seemed reasonable to expect from a book you have to hold with both hands. It's always nice to check a book off the "shoulda read this before now" list, even though it does make me feel like a student.
2. Coming up: Roth, Le Carre, Irving, Garcia Marquez. Normally I am not so certain, but that's what I picked up from the library, so I'm locked in. I was thinking of making this the Summer of Roth, since I've only read ... one? two? of his books and he might be the greatest American author of the last half century. Might be, obvs, pending my consideration.
3. Actually, I could make it the Summer of the Authors My Dad Has Read Obsessively At Some Point in His Life, and include Iris Murdoch and Simone de Beauvoir. But do I really want to read about feminist existentialism this carefree season? No, I do not. I'll make it Roth with a side of Murdoch. I guess I'll go back to my Booker project in the fall.
4. The spring has been long and pleasant. I will endeavor to recall this fact during the summertime, when at any given moment I am ready to throw myself upon the sword for the oppressive heat. Every moment that it is cool (like now) is one less moment that it is sweltering. I'm storing up memories of the spring weather -- drinking beer on our stoop, strolling around and taking walks, feeling neither too hot nor too cold, sitting at a restaurant's outside tables -- the way a hamster puts a great deal of hamster food into its fat cheeks, which is an apt comparison because I am very cheeky myself. (NOT a pun, I'm serious.)
5. There are a couple places in particular I'd like to go before summer really sets in: the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and Coney Island. Will Coney be unbearably crowded over the long weekend? I'm afraid that if I wait, it will be unbearable anyway, whether from crowds or heat.
6. Pledges made regarding this summer: go to the beach as often as possible. Don't put off going to the beach. Don't say no to a friend who wants to go to the beach. Also, figure out when to visit family; must see brother before baby ruins it.
7. I'm not sure which I want to do more: Stan and Kate watch Law & Order in the style of MST3K, or Stan, Neff and Kate watch 24 in the style of MST3K. (Neither could be better than an all-minority panel Crash liveblogging event, of course.) After last night I'm pretty convinced we could successfully re-write 24 as a comedy.

Umm ... that's all I can think of. Blah, I'm bored with this now.