(BOOM. I know. It's huge. Even my doctor said so after she pulled out a measuring tape and got to measuring my belly with what seemed like unabashed relish. The baby, however, is totally normal-sized, average, even, and yes, there is only one in there, but don't think I haven't been asked about a hundred…

Hellooo! I'm still here, folks, just on the other side of the screen, in fact. But the thing is, I've been hiding. Shhhh. You see, I'm in the home stretch, delivering my book in February (which apparently is four weeks from now? Stupid, silly, good-for-nothing calendar) and as a result I've been gripped with the…

My mother is the youngest of three children. That's her on the far left. My aunt Laura is next to her, my grandfather is the white-haired dude in the middle and on the right is my uncle Oreste. This photo was taken 14 years ago, at my cousin's wedding. I love how happy everyone looks.…

Friends, I have had the flu. Or something like it. For the past week, I have felt little better than death warmed over. I have been tired and cold and my throat has hurt and sitting upright for more than twenty minutes has made me want to weep quietly into my mug of hot water…

Hello, friends. It's 10:33 pm in Berlin right now and instead of drinking a gin & tonic on the balcony or staring at an outdoor movie screen or, frankly, sleeping, I am sitting in a café near my apartment with free wireless because my Internet connection at home inexplicably stopped functioning sometime yesterday afternoon. Fantastic…

Thank you all for your comments and emails, congratulations, kind words and best wishes! They've gone and made this very happy woman even happier still. I've spent the entire week visiting my husband (hee) in Kassel, writing like a woman possessed (25 days until my delivery date!) and taking long walks in the improbably beautiful…

A week before the wedding, I had a little case of dress regret. I'd bought the first dress I tried on back in December (on my birthday, no less, if that isn't a sign) on a stroll up the Ku'Damm and then basically forgot all about it. (That's what having a book manuscript due six…

In the end, it was the most beautiful day of my life. I didn't expect it to be, had nothing but foolish nerves about all those people! looking at me! can't I just sneak past them and surprise them at the altar, er, fig tree? But when my father and I walked down the aisle…

Berlin has cast a spell on me these days. Ruby-like strawberries barely last two days on the kitchen counter. White asparagus burst with juice under the blackened thumb of a farmer at the market. The days are full of soft breezes and sunshine, big puffy clouds dancing like cotton wool across the sky. Yesterday, while…

This is my kitchen cupboard, my secret shame. Or not so secret, if you came over for dinner some time. I get a little bit of agita every time I open the cupboard and a bag of dried beans or a bottle of vanilla extract almost comes flying down. Don't get me started on the…