Long, soft, slow summer rain outside, falling into the pool in the courtyard. Listening to Howling Bells tonight--- lovely indie band that's a recommendation from the green-eyed Laura.

In a better world, my leggy beautiful opera girl would pull on just one of my Yale t-shirts and slip into the pool and swim through the rain. I'd bring her a Tiger beer or a glass of pinot grigio and we'd kiss there in the pool while summer rain fell around us.

Laura sent me to listen to Howling Bells. I must send her to listen to Autour de Lucie and My Bloody Valentine. She did love She Wants Revenge--- always a good sign. And Laura tells me that she's set up my number with its own ringtone on her mobile--- Sonic Youth doing "Antenna". I've never been assigned a ringtone before. I rather like that.

I'll offer up two Letter Meme Lists all on my own...and tag a few lovely friends. So, then---

Ten Things About K

---Krakow

---King's College, Cambridge

---Keira Knightley

---Kronos Quartet

---Krysztof Kieslowski

---Kyoto

---"Kontroll" (film)

---Kate Moss

---Keffiyehs

---Kyoko Baertsoen

Ten Things About B

---Baltic Sea

---Barcelona

---"Blue Eyes, Black Hair" (Marguerite Duras)

---Budapest

---Selma Blair

---Blood oranges

---Barefoot co-eds in tiny shorts, dockside

---Balvenie (single-malt Scotch)

---Bruna Tenorio

---Byzantium

Now, darlings... Pick any two letters--- give me ten things about them. Your choice--- people, places, things:

Ginny_McCoo

prettyuniverse

follydolly

ivich

likeagirlshould

frodissimo

IfILieDown

Karaokekatey

nightmareteeth

Emigree

subtexts

wantedwanted

kissmecaitlin

kraftig_bewegt

Let's see what you can do... I hope tagged friends will respond, but any lovely friends-and-correspondents are welcome...

Genevieve Dunne... A Canadian model on whom I'm sure Miss Ginny at ginny_mccoo and I will both develop a major crush.

DVDs from Netflix today. I'll be watching Season 2 of "Mad Men" this weekend. Laura tells me that she's a "Mad Men" fan--- which is one more wonderful thing about her.

The Bolshoi are doing "A Way"... A song from my Lost Youth--- so many nights on the dance floor at Xanthus and Emporium and Opinions. One I'm glad to have on the Small Psyduck iPod.

A small note: I've become ridiculously addicted to the Pick Five quizzes at Facebook. I can never resist a List. I do want Miss Ginny to be on Facebook, but she is writing a PhD thesis, and Facebook is a serious time-killer...

Somewhere tonight there is a dock on a lake somewhere near Asheville...or maybe on the Connecticut shore. And my green-eyed Birmingham girl is sitting there on a late summer's afternoon, dangling her feet in the water, leaning back on one elbow, lighting a cigarette (or just maybe a joint) and looking back at me with a knowing smile as I come down the dock with Sofia Coppola faux-champagne on ice for my wicked Incestuous Teen Sibling...