Potatoes in the Mist

It's so hot! I just got an inch of hair cut off and I feel much lighter. My hairdresser wrote down her last name for me so I could friend her on Facebook. It's the first time I've had a friendship with my hairdresser. Truth be told, the hairdresser before her was very rude. Also very inexpensive. But I realized it wasn't worth it. This one is six months younger than me, has a daughter, and is very nice. I've been going to her for a while. Currently reading Father of the Rain by Lily King. It's more serious than the books I usually read, but I'm enjoying it. I'm knitting a cable shrug . The construction of the shrug is a little unusual, but I wrapped my head around it, and the cable pattern itself is surprisingly simple. For some reason I thought the pattern would be harder than it was. I need to figure out where I can buy a brooch, preferably online. Any ideas? I like the one in the picture.

Here are my newest books. Out of last week's pile, I liked The One That I Want (about a woman who can see the future after visiting a gypsy. In the title, "the one" means "the life that I want", although honestly she isn't given much choice in the matter; she just sees what will happen) and Hothouse Flower (a really fun, original book about the "nine plants of desire" and a woman's journey to the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, to find them). The top book in this week's pile has a story associated with it. I was at Barnes & Noble, browsing, when a man who worked there asked, "Can I help you?" with more zeal than usual. I said, "No, thanks," and he said, "Come on." Then suddenly he pressed the book into my hands, saying, "This book was nominated for the Booker Prize, and since when does that happen with a comedy? It's pure joy," so decisively that I had to crack the cover. And what do you know, it...

The newest books! The top one is written by Allison Winn Scotch, whose previous novel had a Sliding Doors premise: she was able to go back and do it over again, try it differently, and see the results. So that was intriguing. So far, her new book is good, though I can't really tell what it's about yet. The Girl on the Fridge is a short story collection. I usually prefer novels, but the stories are spiky and interesting. Yoga for People Who Can't Be Bothered to Do It looks funny. It's apparently a travelogue of sorts, though the write-up says it is "unclassifiable." I got it at Spoonbill and Sugartown, a bookstore in Brooklyn that is a bit unclassifiable in its own right. I always see books I have never heard of before when I am there. They also have two cats, though one was in hiding. Hothouse Flower looks like another travelogue, though fictional.

So here is the hat I just finished. It's the first time I've knitted something yellow. I'm also reading a book by Jane Green, called Promises to Keep. Her books are always like a warm bath.

So I saw Ethan Hawke today. I haven't seen him in a long time, but I'm pretty sure he lives in my neighborhood. Longtime readers of this blog may remember that I used to see him all the time. Anyway, it looks like he put on a little weight, which is a good look for him, and his hair was NOT greasy. Poor fellow, he was also on crutches. So, now you know. He actually looked the best of any time I've seen him. He was with a blonde chick I didn't recognize (not Uma or the light brown-haired nanny that he married).

Sometimes it's fun to knit with BIG yarn: This is the Twilight Cowl, in raspberry. Speaking of Twilight: I only read the first book in the series, I couldn't get into the second, but I like the movies. And the next one comes out June 30th. Yay! I'm reading Backseat Saints by Joshilyn Jackson. I think it's her best book yet. I've already read Gods in Alabama by her, and I have The Girl Who Stopped Swimming on hold at the library.

So I finished my sweater: It was fairly painless as sweaters go, and it took less than 3 skeins of worsted Malabrigo yarn. So it was inexpensive, too. Good books I've read lately: All Over the Map, a memoir by Laura Fraser about traveling the world and rebuilding her life after 40. This was good enough that I placed her previous memoir, An Italian Affair , on hold despite its being told in the second person. Seven Year Switch by Claire Cook. I think I must feel a bond with her because she is also from Massachusetts, but she is also a good writer. Fun, light, snappy with some hidden depths. First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria by Eve Brown-Waite. Another memoir, this time about her stint in the Peace Corps (Ecuador) and subsequent trip to Uganda to help out with AIDS relief. I'm still reading this one. It has the unexpected effect of making me want to go to Uganda, though I probably won't.

I hope you all have a good weekend. I will be going to Massachusetts, where it will be 10 degrees cooler :)

So I finished the first sleeve of my sweater...woot! I've about had it with complex lace patterns, though. The next thing I knit is gonna be a cowl. The Twilight Cowl . This will come in handy for the Manhattan winter. This weekend my baby is going to turn two. Two! Can't believe I have successfully guided him through two years. I must be a pretty awesome mother :) I finished The Lace Reader from the library. It's set in Salem, about ten minutes from my childhood home. My mother worked there for many years. So the places in the book were very familiar to me. There was also an unreliable narrator. I always love those. Now I'm reading the next book by the same author - The Map of True Places. I guess I avoided these books for a while, fearing they would be sappy. But they're not. They're kind of punchy and surprising. E is a true New York City baby - when we stepped outside the building to go to a wedding on Sunday, he said, "Taxi."