About Me

Video Clips

Sustainable & Local Food

On the Needles

Very cool handbag knit using Banana Silk in Rangi Changi. 90% complete.
A funky vest to be worn over a sheer white top knit using Tahki Cotton Classic in Blue Slate. Top-down pattern in the round by the venerable Knit & Tonic. 70% complete.
Short-sleeved sweater by the lovely Amelia Raitte. I've only just swatched using Jo Sharp Soho Cotton in Thyme.

All-Weather Woobees

All-Weather Woobee: Water-Resistant Baby Blankets

Listening to

Feist: Let It Die
Lovin' her. She walks a line between the emotional and tongue-in-cheek. Her BeeGee's cover, Inside & Out, is so, so fun. (*****)
Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
So reminiscent of Dinah Washington and Barbara Lewis. Watch her acoustic sessions on youtube. There's no denying she's something special. I hope she gets her life together because I think she's a special talent. (****)
Feist: The Reminder
Embarrassing that it took an ad on the Apple website to turn me on to this amazing force. I am so smitten with her I can hardly stand it. (*****)
Lucinda Williams: West
Haunting.
Tori Amos: American Doll Posse
I'm embarrassed to admit that my 5 year old knows a lot of the words.
Wilco: Sky Blue Sky
Hate it Here—brilliant!
Half the Perfect World
Boozy with romance. (****)
Modern Times
Cannot get enough of this blues-y album. (*****)

Recently Rented

Across the Universe
There's something so satisfying about watching some of your all time favorite songs fictionalized on film. Normally I'm not a big fan of musicals, but for too many reasons to count, this one rocked! (*****)
No End in Sight
The list of very prominent insiders who agreed to be interviewed in this exposé on the US failure in Iraq is, in a word, staggering. I was left feeling like someone had just been slapping me across the face for an hour and a half. You know, in a good way. (*****)
Michael Clayton
Who doesn't love layered characters and a tense, gripping plot? Tilda Swinton's performance really knocked my socks off—all that lonely psyching herself up and the moment of her final realizations. Wow. (****)
Gone Baby Gone
It's extremely rare that a movie make me contemplate my own morality to the point where I'm still hashing it out weeks later. Such a complex tale with overlapping story lines and intense emotions—3 cheers for Ben Affleck (and his wonderful cast) for totally pulling it off! Can't wait to see what he directs next time around. (*****)
The Business of Being Born
As much as I wanted to love this documentary (such a passionate subject for me), I only just liked it, a lot. I wished it could have been more profound, made its point more absolutely and been a lot less NYC elitish. Classic case of my hopes being sky high. It was good. Watch it. (****)
Into the Wild
Profound, inspiring and beautifully acted, this movie about making the most of our humanity is both uplifting and sentimental. Emile Hirsch bowled me over again and again. Loved Eddie Vedder's soundtrack too. (*****)
Eagle vs. Shark
Jemaine Clement, of Flight of the Conchords fame, is brilliantly despicable in this black romantic comedy from New Zealand. But as his lovesick girlfriend (sweet Loren Horsley) slowly learns more about why he's such a schmuck, you can't help but smile, cringe and wish them well. (****)
Waitress
Such a sweet, deadpan, non-cliché fairytale with the ever-adorable Keri Russell, not to mention Nathan Fillion, who is pure perction as her OB/GYN lover. I found it refreshing to see a pregnant character struggling to connect with her baby and accept what the future has in store. (****)
The Lives of Others
Edge-of-your-seat and elegantly told film about a patriotic man in East Germany whose blinders are slowly removed as he is forced to choose between his convictions and condemning an honorable man. (*****)
The Fountain
Love stories don't work without chemistry, and Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz totally have it, in abundance. Watch it because it's beautiful. Watch it because it's trippy. Or hell, watch it for the most seductive, sensual sex scenes in recent memory. (*****)

On my nightstand

Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
After a long library wait, I finally have this in my hot little hands, but now I'm having trouble actually picking it up. The first chapter leads me to believe this one isn't necessarily going to teach me anything I don't already know.
Laura Lippman: What the Dead Know: A Novel
I felt shockingly undisturbed by this story of an infertile couple who loose their adopted teenage daughters to a kidnapper. The frequent time and perspective jumps didn't seem confusing some much as convoluted, and I'm always irritated when I figure out the big twist a chapter before it's revealed. (***)
Al Gore: The Assault on Reason
I don't usually find non-fiction books about politics to be page-turners, but this one has me on the edge. Deftly balances democratic ideals with the problems we face as modern-day, plugged-in Americans. (****)
Barbara Kingsolver: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Inspiring, intelligent and passionate. I haven't read a Kingsolver book I didn't love, but she takes it to another level for me with this memoir of a year spent feeding her family with local and homegrown food. I'm already dreaming of an expanded garden this summer. (*****)
T.C. Boyle: Talk Talk
Read this entire book in one blissful, hangover-induced stupor. I love the varied points of view of T.C. Boyle's novels. An identity thief, a deaf woman and a special effects artist--those are some pretty interesting perspectives... (****)
Randine Lewis: The Infertility Cure: The Ancient Chinese Wellness Program for Getting Pregnant and Having Healthy Babies
Love her descriptions of how Chinese medical doctors view the body and health. She gives me hope. (****)
Angela C. Wu: Fertility Wisdom: How Traditional Chinese Medicine Can Help Overcome Infertility
Dr. Wu practices in San Francisco, and after reading most of this book, I'm very tempted to go see her. Her recommendations are so counter-western-intuitive, but her written explanations make me hopeful. (****)
Kazuo Ishiguro: When We Were Orphans
I've been trying to read this for years, but I'm finally past the 100 page hump. So, it's looking like I might actually finish it this time. (***)
T.C. Boyle: The Inner Circle
A riveting fictional account of sex scientist Alfred Kinsey and his apostles. Such a page turner. I always find myself drawn to Boyle's naïve characters, probably because they're so believable. (*****)
Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Intricately blends history and politics and our modern food woes. Loving every word of this very important work. (*****)

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Biography

In all honesty, I am a mom who pretends to work part-time, in other words: while my child is in school, cooperates or sleeps. Currently trying to get a new business off the ground, my husband and I work too much, play too little, but manage to love on each other and our daughter Ella enough for a family of ten, which, incidentally, I would love to have some day. It’ll never happen. My husband, Matt, is fourteen years my senior, and although he’s only 45 he can’t imagine still having infants in his fifties. Can’t blame him for that. I’ll be lucky to get two—damn lucky.

Let’s see, I grew up all over the place: Alaska, Kansas, India, Sweden, Pakistan, The Philippines, Israel, Jordan. Actually, I left for college during the move from Pakistan to The Philippines, but spent summers and holiday breaks in Manila, Tel Aviv and Amman. I’m the daughter of a military dad and a state department mom, and I think having moved around is quite a significant aspect of who I am and how I live my life.

Matt and I met when I was in my early twenties, fresh from college where I earned degrees in Fiction Writing and French—very useful, don’t you think?, and we pretty much fell in love during our first conversation. We were married a year and a half later, and almost two years after that I gave birth to our sparkly, generous, loving girl, Ella Claire.

Although I don’t think of myself as an alternative-type mom, I’m sure others might argue to the contrary. For instance, I used cloth diapers, breastfed my toddler, buy organic food and natural products whenever possible and don’t ever watch television.

As far as hobbies go, I’m a knitter and even have a little knitting group that meets every Thursday night to eat dessert, chat and try to knit something that we don’t immediately rip out upon getting home to realize that the conversation was obviously way too engrossing to concentrate on K2 P2. A good accompaniment to knitting, I rent lots of movies (just because I don’t watch TV doesn’t mean I’m not a couch potato). In addition to my bill at the video store, I spend the greater part of our money on food. I manage to exhaust the majority of my time, or so it seems, cooking and cleaning and saying, “No, please don’t touch that, again.” I try to throw in a few laughs, hugs, thoughts of “Oh, yum!” and some reverence for all the fortune in my life because, hey, it’s a good one.

Interests

kids, my husband, friends, food, knitting, movies, books, wine, bitter dark chocolate, sailing and fantasies of life in France.