A bunch of random things...

--Dennis Lehane has once again restored my faith in myself as a reader and/or mankind as writers because I'm about to finish my fourth Lehane book, Gone, Baby, Gone and like Mystic River, Shutter Island, and A Drink Before the War, I can't put it down--a far cry from the dozens of books I've started in the last three months and had no desire to finish.

--I was pleasantly surprised with the Desperate Housewives finale last night (except the Lynette and Tom stuff--didn't buy it.) But Bree trying to talk the janitor into helping her break out of the mental hospital? Priceless.

--You know you're through with a fictional character (like, say, Marissa Cooper) when she dies in a fiery crash and you don't even tear up. Not even a little.

--Do you think Oprah ever Googles herself?

--I'm behind on answering letters from readers, sorry! (Blame Dennis Lehane) Hopefully I'll get back to you this week, but in the meantime, I'm afraid I still don't have anything to do with who gets cast in the movie. If I did, then I would have written a role for myself as Mr. Solomon's love interest.

--My new haircut is still cute, but short Way shorter than I'm used to.

--When my niece lists all the people she loves I rank somewhere between one of her stuffed animals and Clifford the Big Red Dog.

--I still can't make chocolate pie (even when my mother is standing right there telling me exactly what to do.)

--the worst part of having a blog are the things you want to blog about...but can't. Like the ______ I got in the ______ with the really tacky _______s from _________ where _________ looks like _______ _________s. Trust me, if I could fill in the blanks you'd be laughing out loud right now.

But I can't fill in the blanks, so if you want to be entertained, I can only suggest that you pick up a book by Dennis Lehane.

-Ally