Definitely, Maybe, Probably Not

Today is my mother's birthday. She loved to take pictures of flowers and flowering trees and grandkids. When I saw this tree flowering in the Ralph's parking lot in the middle of February, I had to take a picture for Mom. Definitely, happy birthday, Gram.


I am reading a very long book. Can't reveal it until it's done. I decided to slip in another book between Audible sections. This little mystery, Improbable Cause, is a new series to me. It is a police procedural. The protagonist is a Seattle cop. My college room mate has lived in Seattle for a long time. The streets and neighborhoods were familiar to me. An obsessive-compulsive dentist is found dead in his office. Everyone who ever knew him is a suspect because he was one nasty dude. Pretty standard for the genre, but I enjoyed it. For me, this as a definite maybe.

Jeanne and I have started a weekly tradition of seeing a movie and eating and talking. This has been great. I really like being with her. Bob has started teaching his evening ESL classes again, so it's girls night out for now. I had grossed Jeanne out last week with In Bruges. This week we went romantic, Definitely, Maybe. We both agreed that it was too long, a bit pointless and more Probably Not than the other options. I had thought In Bruges was so wonderful because the writer directed the film and didn't ruin the words. Well, the guy who wrote Definitely, Maybe also directed it. And it's a bit of a mess. I've seen it with a lot of authors and forgot what I noticed. Some authors start out with good editors and write really tight books. Then they fire the editor because what do they add to the process anyway?

James Clavell wrote King Rat and Shogun, both great books. Then his books started to be overly long and flacid. Where did that editor go? Tom Clancy wrote Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising, both griping thrillers. He must have changed editors shortly after that, because his books became improbable and, hum, stupid. Jack Ryan saving Prince Charles and giving marital advice?! Give me a break. Sometimes great writers need an editor. Sometimes great screenwriters need a different director. And sometimes they just aren't great to begin with.

I have been cooking vegetables in all kinds of ways, just to get more of the things into my body. There was the cream of broccoli and spinach soup, yum; stir-fried vegetables with tofu and noodles, yum; and puff-pastry wrapped asaparagus. Woozer. We had this appetizer at the IT Christmas party and they ran out of them when I went back for seconds. Aren't they pretty? And very easy. Yep, I'm having fun.