Our middle son turns 21 in a couple of months. I gather that this isn't such a big deal in America -- correct me if I'm wrong -- but here in Australia it is the landmark birthday that traditionally signifies the step into adulthood and independence. There is often a party, large or small. In the case of our James we opted for small, mostly family, but then we don't exactly have a small family. The list passed small several pages ago.

This weekend I'm working on invitations. I chose a template from an on-line site. The design includes a series of photos from then and now, which means I've spent hours and hours poring through photos choosing which seven to include. Have also sorted out the best to use in his memory book, which is the next big (fun) task.

While sorting through photos and photo albums I found all kinds of stray and miscellaneous snaps. This one is stray because it's a panorama print: long and skinny and not fitting it any albums. In fact it's so long and skinny that it didn't fit in my scanner and so you're seeing just a portion of the literacy autographing at the New Orleans RWA Conference in 2001. My first conference, my first book, my first signing. I couldn't believe the size of it and it's only gotten bigger since.

...I will be on a beach like this. Well, perhaps not *exactly* like this. Chances are there will be a lot more people. And waves. I won't be sitting on the beach playing kissyface either, I will be standing with my camera recording the efforts of certain intrepid authors on surfboards. It has been pointed out that money could be made keeping those pictures private but that would be blackmail, right? One of my least favourite ploys.

The beach, BTW, is the cover of Quade: The Irresistible One in Lithuania. For the second time. Here is the first cover as a single ===>>>; this latest one is a duet with Amy Fetzer's Taming The Beast. Seemed strange to get two translations in the one country relatively close together so I double-checked and it's the same title, Zavusis Kveidas, and the same blurb.

It's a pretty cover and it could be Chantal and Quade. On their honeymoon. I think they'd have chosen an isolated island beach somewhere. How about you? Where did you spend your honeymoon? I have your choice from my available back titles as a giveaway. (Prize drawn July 15.)

I resisted the urge to title this post, "Missed it by *that* much." Mostly because I reckon the movie adaptation of Get Smart didn't miss by much at all. In fact, I laughed, I grinned, I left the theatre in a damn fine mood...and isn't that what entertainment is all about?

To be honest, I went to see Get Smart with low expectations. I loved the TV series and I couldn't envisage anyone else in the roles of Max and 99. I didn't want to see pale imitations, I didn't want the screwball original humour messed with, or to be drubbed over the head with the lines owned by Don Adams and Barbara Feldon. And you know what? They weren't, it wasn't, they didn't.

This was an homage to the TV series, set in the present and with the original characters translated into the present. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway were brilliant casting choices. Instead of a bumbling agent, this Smart was a skilled analyst but with no field experience. And 99 was a kickass agent who hated being teamed with the klutz. They had a real buddy chemistry and watching the movie I got the impression everyone was having a ball. Most of the humour -- or the stuff I found funniest -- was in the dialogue rather than the slapstick. Loved James Caan as the president and The Rock (forget his actual acting name) was excellent as SuperAgent 23.

I've not enjoyed many of the recent spate of adaptations of TV series. Can't think of one off hand that I've enjoyed as much as Get Smart, and it put me in a warm 'n' fuzzy reminiscence about the TV series. I almost went to check the cable programs to see if it's currently showing, but I didn't. I think, along with Hogan's Heroes and F Troop, it's the kind of comedy best left in the past. I don't want to dim the memory of how uproariously funny I found them then. I suspect none might have aged well unlike, for example, MASH which has so much poignant human emotion underlying the humour.

I'm the same with some of the romance in my keeper collection. I have a whole stack of Johanna Lindsey and M&B's from the 70s and 80s that I kept because of my unabashed love for them at the time. I want to maintain those feelings and so I won't pull them out for rereads, nor will I get rid of them. They're my touchstone to that time and to my introduction to romance.

Oh, and in case you're wondering... Yes, the cone of silence and the shoe-phone do make an appearance. How could they not?