Thirteen years ago last night, we were watching "Melrose Place" and "Ally McBeal" as I dilated. I'd had plenty of pain relief and was surprised at how relatively pleasant the process had become. Later, after a few hours of pushing, I was less chipper. When the baby's heart rate started to fluctuate, our OB (who had been called in from a dinner out, and was wearing the most darling burnt orange suede shoes) called for a C-section.
Thirteen years ago this morning, our petite OB had to call for a strapping resident to help yank out my baby, who was firmly wedged between my cephalopelvic disproportion due to my vigorous pushing. (I half-expected him to put a foot on my face for leverage, but thankfully, he did not.) All was well and the baby was healthy. That was really all that mattered, anyway.
My OB had been worried that I was growing a large kid, and she was right: he weighed in at 8 lbs. 13 oz. and he was two weeks early. I was a bit worried for a little while, since my unplanned c-section edged out Skinny Joey Merlino's wife, who was scheduled for 6 a.m. that morning. Although we saw lots of swarthy, beefy guys talking on cell phones (and, oddly, the nurses didn't seemed inclined to remind them that cell phones were prohibited in the hospital), no adverse action was taken against us for making Mrs. Merlino wait. Maybe my husband's Italian last name helped.
Thirteen years ago today, I was stitched up, loaded with morphine and gazing adoringly at our son. Even though I felt like I'd been run over by a truck, I was deliriously happy.
It blows my mind that our kid has just officially become a teenager. Those thirteen years, from where we stand now, seem to have flown by in an instant, even though they weren't always easy years, and our family has been through a lot.
I'm so proud of my kid (by the way, his name really isn't "Elvis"; we just call him that because he thinks he's The King).
He's taller than I am, wears shoes sized larger than his dad, and his knowledge of electronica puts us all to shame.
(Although it is nice to have on-site troubleshooting assistance with one's cell phone.) He's an amazing musician, playing cello, oboe, piano and sax,
and gets terrific grades. He's developed quite a hilarious sense of humor, full of irony (where'd he get that from, I wonder?) and, with very rare teenage-angst exceptions, is a pleasure to be with.
Happy birthday to my giant old baby. He will always be my baby, and I hope he will always be my friend. I love him more than words can say.
was perfectly timed for the trend. The slouchy beret was everywhere, and "shawlettes," or small shawls (or you could think of them as big scarves), often triangular and often knit in sock or other fingering weight yarns, were also very popular. Socks remained strong, although the breathlessness for all things sock seems to have cooled off quite a bit. Scarves were also a hit, particularly long loops or mobius rings, reflecting the trend in the larger fashion world. What will be the next hot trend? It's anyone's guess. Knee-highs were making a come-back (and I can't wait for Barb Brown's 
coming next month), and I sensed a renewed interest in mittens, especially traditionally constructed ones. Stranded knitting -- featured prominently in a lot of knee-highs and mittens -- may continue to be popular, although I think time-honored techniques like stranded knitting and cables never really go out of style. I'd love to hear your guesses as to what's going to be this year's Next Big Thing -- leave 'em in the comments.
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by Charles Elton, which I received from the Amazon Vine program. The novel has an interesting premise: "Mr. Toppit" is a character in a series of children's books written by Arthur Hayman. The books didn't become popular until after Arthur's sudden death -- after which, through a series of odd coincidences, they became a sensation in the UK and USA. The book is written from the perspective of Hayman's son Luke, for whom the protagonist in the books was named. Luke has an uneasy relationship with his father's fame and legacy. The book explores how the success and fame that ensue after Arthur's death affect his widow and two children -- as well as other people more or less tangential in Arthur's life. Elton also addresses issues like the LA celebrity scene, the publishing world, family secrets & dysfunction, substance abuse and more. But the tone is darkly comic and there are all sorts of quirky characters to keep the reader amused. I have since read that Elton was inspired to write the book when he represented the A.A. Milne estate:
by Sophie Hannah. This was a combination of psychological suspense (think Ruth Rendell) combined with a police procedural. The chapters alternate between the first-person account of a woman who is a rape victim, and reports her married lover missing when he breaks all contact with her and disappears; and the third-person account of the police detectives investigating her missing-persons report. It's hard to review this one without giving too much away, but I thought the first-person chapters didn't work as well as the third-person ones, although it was a suspenseful and creepy tale.
by John Harvey, in which a Cambridge lecturer is found murdered in his house. At the time of his death, he was working on a biography of a 50s movie star, but it isn't at all clear that this has anything to do with his murder. This was a decent mystery, but not as well-done as some other John Harvey books I've read.
, right at the top of my list. You'll find a lovely projects -- small ones like gloves and bigger ones like sweaters -- with an emphasis on portability, designed to help busy knitters squeeze a little extra knitting time into their day. All the gorgeousness you'd expect from Veronik, shown off to perfection by Stewart Tabori & Chang.
contained a nice selection cherrypicked from the pages of Rowan's Studio Magazine, with a variety of gauges and items ranging from long sweater-jackets to vests and wraps. Also worth mentioning is Julie Turjoman's collection of interesting patterns in 
, a multi-contributor collection inspired by the varied world of knitting blogs. And Sally Melville joined forces with her daughter to bring us 
, another great collection of items from sweaters to Christmas tree ornaments, all with a winter theme.
provided a selection of beautiful, often intricate sock patterns, all knit from the toe up and with selections sized for the whole family. Overachieving toe-up fans had Melissa Morgan-Oakes' 
to provide them with a smorgasboard of toe-up socks designed for knitting two at a time. For cuff-down sockknitters, Cookie A, sockmistress extraordinaire, presented her first self-published book, 
Even though a substantial proportion of these sock patterns were published in some form before, the addition of new fabulous Cookie A creations -- not to mention the eye candy aspect of the photography -- makes this a great addition to the sock knitter's bookshelf. And last but not least, 
, brought to us by the publishers of Knitter's Magazine, was another worthwhile addition to the bookshelves of the sock-addicted. Lots of choices, lots of innovation, plenty of creativity -- and all the fun of a contest.
(XRX 2010), by Gwen Bortner, and Rosemary Drysdale's 
(Sixth & Spring 2010). Nancy Marchant's 
, demystified this particular stitch, applying it creatively to garments. Margaret Stove's 
provided a tremendous amount of technical information for those interested in designing their own knitwear.
reissued in its expanded form this year. It's wonderful that knitters so entranced by Starmore's spectacular designs don't have to troll Ebay looking for used copies (and pay jacked-up prices due to their scarcity). I hope we see more of Starmore's work reissued in coming years.
, a paperback book containing 20 patterns for hats, 20 patterns for mittens/gloves and 20 patterns for scarves, all knit in the ubiquitous Cascade 220 worsted-weight wool. And given the popularity of cowls, 
by Tana French. I discovered Tana French a few years ago; she's an Irish writer and I really liked her last two mysteries. "Faithful Place" was another enjoyable read. Once I got past the rather unlikely premise (in which a detective basically abandons his current life to immerse himself in the dysfunctional family he's estranged from once the suitcase of a high school girlfriend is found, suggesting she was murdered) I got into the mystery, the characters and the setting. I think this writer has special resonance for me since her characters came of age in the 80s, right around the time that I did.
* by Laura Hillebrand. Hillebrand previously wrote the very successful story of Seabiscuit. While researching the Seabiscuit story, she encountered references to a man named Louis Zamperini, and telling his remarkable story became her next nonfiction project. Zamperini's life is nearly unbelievable and fascinating on so many levels. He grew up in California as, well, pretty much a juvenile delinquent, taking up smoking at age 3 and drinking in elementary school, followed by all sorts of theft and mayhem. He turned his life around in high school, channeling his energy into becoming a world-class runner. He ended up qualifying for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin along with Jesse Owens. His athletic career was interrupted by World War II, and Zamperini became a pilot flying missions in the Pacific. His already-colorful life took an unbelievable turn when he was shot down over the Pacific. He survived over 40 days on a flimsy raft floating on the ocean, and this part of his story will leave you amazed at the human instinct for survival as he and his companions fought off sharks, dodged Japanese snipers and ate raw birds and fish -- only to wash up on the shores of a Japanese-occupied island. The next chapter of Zamperini's story is equally remarkable as he and his fellow POWs struggled to stay alive and to keep even a scrap of human dignity while being treated abominably by their captors.
by Beth Gutcheon. I stumbled across this novel, and really liked it. It shifts back and forth between the stories of two young couples with doomed romances, set in Maine. Elderly Hannah reminisces about the summer she fell in love with the unsuitable but charming Conary, while the story of Claris --a young woman from the 1850s who defied her family to marry a neighboring man -- is interspersed and provides stark parallels, as well as supernatural ties to the present. Ghostly and suspenseful.
by Barbara Pym. This was a less typical Pym novel, since it was not really finished by the author and was cobbled together after her death by combining two existing versions of the manuscript, but I still found it a very enjoyable look at 1970s British academia.
by Therese Walsh. Another book I stumbled over, this is also set in Maine and tells the story of twins Moira and Maeve. As the book opens, Moira is a professor at a small New York college. She discovers an antique dagger which is the catalyst for all sorts of strange things that happen in her life: anonymous notes on her office door, a spur-of-the-moment trip to Rome, and most significantly the unleashing of Moira's buried memories about her past. Another ghostly and suspenseful book that I enjoyed reading.
* I wanted to like this memoir, written by a young Harvard grad who becomes librarian at a Massachusetts prison, but after a hundred pages or so, I bailed. I thought the book was slow and needed some ruthless editing, but I also just didn't take to the author's voice. I found him self-indulgent and self-pitying, and his attitude toward those around him, both prisoners and others in his life, was rather condescending. Your mileage may vary.
I resisted picking up "The Hunger Games" for a long time, finding the subject matter -- a dystopian North American country that represses dissent and subjugates its people in part by conducting annual games in which teenage children from each province fight to the death -- so dark and violent that I wasn't sure I'd want to read it. But so many people have recommended this to me that I was wavering. Until my middle-schooler read the first book of the trilogy and really liked it. So as he began the second installment, "Catching Fire," I started "The Hunger Games." I wasn't prepared for how quickly the book would suck me in, or the imaginative power of the world the author creates. Although the subject matter is violent, it's presented not gratuitously, but as a lesson against oppression and brutality. My kid raced through the second and third books and I wasn't far behind. A terrific, brilliantly-imagined, vivid set of books that had me captivated.
