Well, the Maine International Film Festival (MIFF) is over, and my daughter Dee has gone back to New York. The day is cool and rainy, and you know what the song says about rainy days and Mondays. The Maine International Film Festival is always a blast—seeing lots of movies, getting together with friends, spending time with Dee—and while it is somewhat hectic, it is also a let-down when it is over.

To let ourselves down easy, my husband, Clif, and I went to Railroad Square Cinema last night—admission is $5.50 on Mondays, which is a steal, as Dee likes to say. We saw Museum Hours, a slow but lovely meditative film about art and friendship and loneliness and death. Because the pacing is so deliberate, this is not a film for everyone, and indeed my friend Joel Johnson really disliked it. But for people who don’t mind very slow films and who love art, this is a fine movie. The gist of Museum Hours is that art never stops. It is everywhere, if you just take the time to look. It was filmed in Vienna, Austria, and much of the movie takes place in the Kunsthistorisches Museum. I would actually like to see Museum Hours again, and if it comes to NetFlix Instant View, then I will.

At MIFF, I watched “only” 10 movies, which was perfect for me. Enough to feel as though I was a part of the festival but not so many that I felt like stale popcorn when the festival was over. Dee and Clif, true movie buffs, saw 24 movies—that’s a lot of movies in 10 days—but neither of them looked particularly tired at the end of the festival.

In between going to the movies, we managed to cook some healthy meals. This is July, after all, and despite the lousy weather—either too much rain or too much heat—the vegetables are growing. One day, I made a stir-fry using Farmer Kev’s zucchinis as well as his sugar-snap peas and garlic scapes. There is no recipe for this. I just season to taste with some soy sauce, white wine vinegar, sesame oil, and a little sugar. I don’t use a lot of the seasonings. I mostly want to taste the fresh vegetables.

Another day, I marinated some tofu in teriyaki sauce—Dee is a vegetarian. Then, Clif cooked it on the grill. We have grilled many things, but never tofu, and we were pleased with the results. I bought extra-firm tofu, and the sauce and the grilling gave it a nice flavor. Because this was his first time grilling tofu, it did not come out exactly as Clif would have liked. Next time, Clif will grill the tofu a little longer so that it is crisper, and we will cut the tofu in smaller chunks so that it can be grilled on all sides. Nevertheless, the tofu was very tasty, and we will be grilling it again sometime soon. We’ll have it with new potatoes and corn on the cob. August, high summer, is right around the corner, and Clif and I are hoping for hot, dry days and cooler nights, perfect for eating on the patio.

And as I have no Monday meetings in August, we just might see a few movies at the square. After all, Dee is right. A movie for $5.50 is a steal.

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