The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

A beautifully written book, full of life, by a man who could only blink one eye.

The "blurb" at the front of the book says this:

"The editor-in-chief of French Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that resulted in locked-in syndrome when he was 43 years old. He died just two days after the French publication of his book."

He dictated the book by blinking his left eye when his scribe said the letter he wanted--an amazing feat. But even more incredible is the content of the book. It is a beautiful affirmation of life.

It is only 125 pages long, with not a word to be missed. I think it's a must-read.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

After seeing the movie, I had to read the book. In my world, movies are never better than books, but in this case it is nearly a tie. In fact, the movie may win by a nose.

I did like the book. It fills some gaps in the movie (of course), but I actually like the resolution of the movie better.

The story is set in England. The Hales family moves from the pastoral south of England to the industrial north of England. It is a completely different way of life, and they must adapt. There is drama and romance, two elements that enhance any book for me.

Gaskell was a contemporary of Dickens. This book was first published in one of Dickens' periodicals, Household Words, in serial form, and you can tell. Gaskell herself was a little frustrated with the page/word limitations set by publishing in this form. She added a little filler when it was published as a book, but it still reads a bit like a serial.

It's worth reading. It's definitely worth seeing the movie (BBC version, with Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe). If you are a reader, do both. If not, well then, I leave it up to you.

Passing Time

When I taught 4th grade many years ago, I had a saying on the wall right above the clock:

Time will pass, will you?

I have a clock in every room, so I can keep tabs on the time. Recently my downstairs clock has stopped keeping regular time. I changed the battery, and it ran fine for a couple of days. Then it became erratic again. Yesterday Audrey discovered why. She came around the corner to see Austin standing right near the clock. In five minutes the clock had advanced thirty minutes. Audrey asked Austin if he had changed the clock. He said, "I wanted it to be three o'clock." She inquired if he'd changed it any other times. "Yes," he said, "Yesterday I wanted it to be five o'clock."

If only it were so easy.

Thank You

... to the Delta Airlines employee in St. Louis who whisked my father-in-law onto an earlier flight and into first class for the final leg of his flight. He'd been flying about 40 hours already, helping a sick missionary return home. He had two flights left to get him to his final destination. This wonderful employee rushed him to an earlier flight which got him there in one flight instead, and in first class.

Five hours saved. After forty hours, you better believe that was a blessing.

Sisters 2010

We returned from Hawaii and two days later I took off for our Sisters Weekend. It is the yearly gathering of Linford sisters (Elna, Orva, Ann, Amy) and sisters-in-law (Diane, Audry, Jennifer, Sally). My mother-in-law usually joins us, but this year she is on an LDS mission in Hong Kong. We've been doing this since 1991, when Amy engineered the whole thing. We haven't missed a year since.

It traditionally takes place the second full weekend in March. We begin Thursday evening, and go until Monday morning. There is not a minute to be missed. Over the years we have gathered in San Jose California, Lake Cavanaugh Washington, Orem Utah, Salt Lake City Utah, and Wellesville Utah.

Sometimes we go out to eat. Sometimes we see a play (Jane Eyre, Forever in Plaid). One year we all went to Elna's piano performance in Fairfield, California--Grieg's Concerto in A Minor. We've had a private tour of the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. I'm sure there are many things I am forgetting to include.

Mostly, though, we stay in. We have only a few days to enjoy each other, and we don't want to miss out. We usually discuss a book. Perhaps our longest and most thorough discussion was These Is My Words by Nancy Turner. This year we talked a little bit about A Return to Modesty by Wendy Shalit. I'm sure it would have been a more detailed and lengthy discussion had anyone but me finished the book before we got together. Perhaps next year.

We often watch at least one movie together. This year I was introduced to North and South.

I'm hooked. I now have another epic movie to watch besides Pride and Prejudice. Sally says, and I think I have to agree, that it has the best cinematic kiss ever.

We gathered in Wellesville, at the home of Sally's parents. They are so generous to share their lovely, large home with us. We sleep upstairs, and play downstairs. (Her parents try to retain some peace in their own quarters on the main floor.) It's my favorite place that we go. It is far enough from home that we are not caught in the web of our families' needs. We are an insular group, living in a bubble for a few wonderful days.

In our Sunday best:

back row: Diane, Audry, Sally, Ann, Amy

front row: Jennifer, Elna, Orva

The first year we met, Amy gave us all a hostess gift. Since then we have each brought a gift for each of the others (same gift to all sisters). It's better than Christmas. Some gifts are large, some are small. Some are easier to get on a plane than others. One year I was going through the airport with a giant frisbee, about the size of a hula hoop. I got several questions, and startled looks.

Here we are each holding the gift we gave. We are all wearing the red aprons that Elna gave us, each with our own name and "Sisters 2010" embroidered on it. We are also all wearing at least one of our "glam gloves" that we got from Sally. We will all be stylin' as we do our housework now.

Back row: Amy, Sally, Audry, Diane

Front row: Jennifer, Elna, Ann, Orva

This year became the ultimate year of the project. Jennifer, Orva and I brought our sewing machines. Audry borrowed Sally's mom's machine. We sewed and sewed. I did some quilting, Audry made pajamas, Orva made several pillows for Amy's new sofa, mended, and did some modifications to various dresses - hers and her daughters', and Jennifer went to town making purses out of placemats. Elna and Ann helped us all by cutting, pressing, pinning, and unpicking our mistakes. We could not have accomplished so much without them.

Work stations: Amy and Ann are holding up some of the pillow covers in the back. Clockwise from left at the table are Jennifer, Diane, Sally, Orva, and Audry.

This time we are paying attention to the camera. We've added Elna to the picture, holding Orva's quilt made from a skirt she made when she was very young.

Pillows with Ann, Orva, and Amy. The pillow with the various colored flowers is my favorite, and I've been trying (in vain) to convince Amy that it would look much better at my house than hers. Sigh.

Jennifer is holding all the purses she made. She was a little factory.

Here are all the purses laid out on the floor. She let us each choose one as our gift from her. It was very hard to decide! I chose the red, yellow, and black striped one, second from the right in the middle row.

By the end of the weekend, these were most of my remainders (there were a few more that didn't get retrieved from the trash can):
All in all, it was a great weekend. I love these sisters, and all the time that I can get with them is a treasure to me.

Guilty Pleasure

True confession: I love this movie. It caught me from the moment Billy Crystal spit his grape seeds into the car window, and I was fully engaged to the very end.

The grandkids were gone for a couple of days, so I popped in the DVD to watch while I was sewing this morning. It has a few language problems, and of course the topic is not for toddlers; I took advantage of their absence to enjoy this film all over again.

The dialogue is witty, the soundtrack is exceptional and I love the cast. It is my favorite movie Billy Crystal has made. I remember laughing at the clothes and hair they depicted for the past when the movie was brand new. Today I giggled to note that what was current when the movie was made now seems just as outdated.

I love some of the lines from this movie. Here are just a few that I noted today:

Late night conversation between Harry and Sally, "That's the good thing about depression; you get your rest." (It's nice for me to find some humor about depression.)

Harry explaining to Sally that there are two kinds of women, low maintenance and high maintenance. "You're the worst kind: you think you're low maintenance, but really you're high maintenance."

Harry has just seen his ex-wife, and tells Sally he doesn't think his ex looks very good. "Her legs must be retaining water. Believe me, the woman saves everything."

Nora Ephron did a fine job with the script.

I also love the older couple interviews that are interspersed throughout the story. Some of them remind me of me and Ray - finishing each other's sentences, correcting small facts.

It's just the kind of movie I like to watch while sewing. I've seen it so many times that I can miss some of it and not be lost. By the same token, I know when to pause my machine to catch some of the best parts.

Thursday Workday

Today Trish and I finished our quilt tops. No picture reveal - I'm going to wait until it's all quilted.

Stay tuned.

Finally, It's Done

My mom gave me a new quilt book for Christmas. It looked intricate, but kind of fun. I had a new granddaughter due in a little over a month, so I picked out a pattern from the book, and the week right after Christmas bought the fabric. I have to say I love the fabric. I was all set--a month until the baby was due, lots of time to sew. I got right on it, and cut it all out.

Then I got pneumonia.

Still, I persevered, even though I was sick, trying to sew about an hour a day. Then, after I had done about three rows on each of the squares (which took days), I was ready to throw the whole thing out. It was indeed intricate, and it was no fun at all. I hated the process of making it.

But as I said earlier, I loved the fabric. What to do? After about three hours of trying to figure out how to salvage the quilt, I hit upon a plan. I crossed my fingers, and hoped it would work. I really had to do some scrambling to use what I had already cut in a completely new pattern. I trimmed up what I had done, added some different rows, and voila, it turned out all right after all.

Diane turns eight weeks on Saturday. She'll receive it on Sunday. She'll never know it was late. She'll also never know she almost never got this quilt!

Finished: March 24, 2010

Size: 37 inches X 44 inches

Pattern: Bundle of Joy (of which the making was not) from Positively Pineapple by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith (p. 14)

and

My own invention (a scramble to save the fabric)