Simple pleasures

Here's what I've been enjoying so far this summer:

• Reading for more than half an hour at a time. I'm burning through about 1.5 books a week on my A.V. Club review schedule, and it's great to have long evenings or mornings (or even afternoons when no one else is in the office) to devour great swaths of prose.
• Italian plumbers. I play Mario Kart Wii and Super Mario Galaxy with Archer just about every day. Those little guys never fail to amuse me and bring back memories of making up words to the Mario music with J.F. back in the day. ("Jump on his head/jump on his head/jump on his head/jump on his head," for example.)
• Knitting. What else is new? But thanks to WIP Wrestlemania 2009, I've felt inordinately free with my casting-on. Now if I could only restrain myself from finishing anything before the competition starts in July.
• Buying yarn. Way too much and way too often. I had bold plans to resist impulse buys this year, but halfway through 2009 they're in complete disarray. Truth be told, that's why I need y'all to help me pick an iPhone rate plan, readers -- so I won't have any disposable income for yarn.
• Marveling at my children. Next week they'll start their various summer camps, which will run straight through until school starts again. That's good because it will get them out of the house, away from the TV, Wii, and computer, and out of Noel's way while he tries to work his usual schedule. But I'll miss their intense energy and bewildering, delightful imagination lurking around every corner. Luckily we still have nights, weekends, and holidays.