So it's a beautiful, warm (38 degrees or so ) sunny day today. This morning Emil amd I took Wally for a walk up to the local elementary school, where we threw a ball for him to fetch for a while, then walked him home. Afterwards, we drove downtown to the library, where we visited the weekly Book Sale, which was astonishing to me; I don't think, in all the years we've lived here, that I've ever gone. The fiction was exactly to my taste; you could have gotten The Shipping News, MOO, Horse Heaven, or A Thousand Acres, all in multiple copies. (I do read people besides Jane Smiley , really I do; those are just the titles that I can remember. There were bunches of other hits as well.) There were several books by Anne Lamott. I ended up with five wonderful-looking novels, which taken together should certainly be Enough To Read On The Plane.

Then we walked up to State Street, where we ate at Mr. Greek's, a very nice Coney Island (I got the Athena salad, a greek salad topped with silced stuffed grape leaves. Yum!). Went next door to the Nostalgia Shoppe (not its real name; I don't even know its name), which is a store that carries Items from Our Childhood (and before). Today I oohed and aahed over the collection of Nancy Drew books (and nearly sprang for The Bobbsey Twins Go on a Bicycle Ride, but I was broke from the library sale.) They also have an impressive collection of horse books that would have been in my elementary school library - all of them involving cowboys, all of them set in Wyoming, it seems, and all of them involving the wonderful bonds between humans and horses . . . I didn't see any I had read in the 6 or so they had, unfortunately.

The capper, though, was seeing the Beatles dolls. (I took a picture - but alas, I left my card reader at work, so I can't put it up before Monday . . . stay tuned.) They came out when I was six or seven (and we were living on Crooks Rd. in Royal Oak), and everybody I knew had one. (I had John, my friend Patty had Paul.) I was telling Emil about them a few days ago; he had never seen them. The dolls stand about 4" high; the Fab Four are wearing suits and ties, their bodies are cartoonish, their heads are disproporitonately large but their faces detailed. And then today, there they were, under the counter. Three of them, anyway; no John. Mine might be worth some money, if I had it - and if I hadn't cut his hair . . .

So then it was down the street to the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA, you know . . . ) where we happened upon an eclectic exhibit on the 20th century - photographs by Ansel Adams, Alfred Stieglitz, and a host of others; Warhol's "Campbell's Pea Soup" can (I never knew he did anything other than tomato!), and a Marylin print; and much, much more. It was awesome.

Downtown was crowded, too; the restaurant was packed, there was a lot of traffic, and the sidewalks were crowded with pedestrians; it felt almost like big-city bustle, except on a scale that I find much more livable. I love being close enough to bike into that atmosphere, and I love feeling like the kids can have the run of the place.

So then it was back home, where we've been slugs ever since. I'm about to go out to dinner with Brenda, which will be lots of fun . . .

They're calling for another sunny one tomorrow. Maybe I'll get out on the bike . . .