The Sweatshop of Love Blog

I woke up this morning with a huge man in my bed.

Me and Arnold

I had to take pictures because it might never happen again.

HEAVY Kitty

Arnold is the loudest purrer I have ever heard. Waking up with all like 20 pounds of him on my chest, purring like a motor boat, I thought I might have somehow been run over by a car in my sleep, only to wake up with it still running and on top of me. But, it was just Arnold, looking for a morning cuddle, which I was more than happy to return. I miss my babies.

Biggby

So here I am at Biggby Coffee, which, after having been sitting here for two hours, is a lot bigger than it needs to be.

Two Dudes, One Fireplace, and Fox News!

It was me and these dudes when I got here at about 8:30. Now there are two other people here with computers, one guy with a broken arm, and two old women drinking mochas. The internet is fast (maybe relatively, everything moves kinda slow up here), and they have six different kinds of self serve coffee. 16 oz for $1.90 and all the internet I could ever want? I’ll take it! I’ve been uploading pictures with reckless abandon all morning.

Breakfast of Nappers

I kinda took yesterday off. I woke up early because it is freaking cold here and the tent was not warm. I moved to the living room with a blanket, a cup of tea, and Chocolat, which I’m loving. But, again, we picked a book for Knitting Book Club that everyone will agree is excellent! I can’t imagine anyone not liking it, it is just universally appealing. I read half the book yesterday, between naps, the Tigers game (on real TV! It was awesome), more naps, and eating. Breakfast was lemon yogurt with fresh raspberries and raisin bran, with an English muffin with peanut butter. I love that my mom has yogurt around all the time! It is nice to mix up oats now and then.

VERY Good Sandwich

I couldn’t have been more excited to see some pumpernickel bread in the bread basket, and I quickly decided on a Swiss, (Mommy) cucumber, and roasted red pepper hummus sandwich on toasted pumpernickel. Amazing! The Swiss and the pumpernickel should be best friends forever.

Matthew's Sandwich

Ok, Look Closely!

My baby brother Matthew and I were watching the Tigers game, and I must have dozed off, because when I looked over at him he was eating this sandwich.

“Shit, dude, when did you make that sandwich?”

“Just now.”

“What’s in it?”

“Two eggs, ham, cheese, and spicy Doritos.”

I love him.

Asparagus Strudel

ASPARAGUS! And Corn

My mom picked up this asparagus strudel  on her road trip around Lake Michigan with my dad last week (yeah, it’s weird), and it was awesome! PT and I had a savory strudel in the winter that his mom gave us, so I was all about it. The asparagus was tender and very juicy and the herb-cheese was perfect. I biked over and picked up some fresh corn sometime when I wasn’t sleeping, and it was a perfect accompaniment.

I also, over the course of the day, had three pieces of cherry pie with ice cream. 4-7 pounds, y’all!

Socks Finished!

Next Sweater!

I also finished my socks yesterday. I guess I wasn’t as big of a bum as I thought I was. They turned out so cute! I even got my mom to start her first pair of toe up socks! She is using size threes instead of size 2s, so I’ll have to keep an eye on her. I would hate for them to be too big when I’m sitting right next to her and could stop them from being too big.

AND I was glancing through my new Vogue Knitting Magazine and found this sweater. How cute is that?! I need to knit it. Yes, I see the seed stitch front, and the seed stitch edging. I’m pretending I don’t. It can’t be that much, right? I don’t care. I must knit this jacket.

I’m going to go buy a cookie, because I’m on vacation. I’m going to chill here at my new favorite coffee shop in Allendale for a couple more hours, then I’m headed over to the g-rents to make some peanut butter pies for the week.

Oh. Oh yes. More about those later.

Newleaf Natural Grocery delivered the second produce box yesterday and it was full of fun things!

Pudge is Happy

Greens, blueberries, a pineapple, cilantro, apricots, garlic, baby carrots, and, again, bananas! I was happy to see this babies.

Pudge Rodriguez was happy to see the greens. The cat loves greens. And bread. And liquid of any kind. And the blueberries she attacked after I quick put the greens away. She just basically loves people food. Whenever I’m in the kitchen she is in there with me, sniffing out what I’m making, trying to steal nibbles of whatever I’ve got out. She is growing into her name, and I’m not talking about the catcher. (FAT! SHE IS GOING TO BE FAT!)

Banananana

I promptly made myself a big bowl of blueberry and banana oats with a sprinkle of cinnamon and a handfull of Scooters, with a slice of crunchy peanut butter and banana toast.

1/3ish cup of milk, 1/2 cup oats, half a banana, a sprinkle of blueberries, cinnamon and Scooters. These blueberries are out of control and I can’t wait to make some pancakes! Muffins? Just stick my face right in the carton? There are many possibilities.

PT's Pasta Dinner

My Lunch

PT must have also been very excited about the produce box; I found this picture of his dinner from last night on the camera. Looks like chard and lots of olives and onions. I cooked up this swiss, cucumber, mustard, and lettuce sandwich on homemade bread. It was lovely. I love having so much produce around. I feel like I never need to go grocery shopping! I need to figure out what to do with all those greens, though. Lettuce wraps? No one can eat all that in salad form.

Stupid Bag

I also finished this stupid bag. I hate it. The side seams are stupid. Why would you crochet this closed? I have half a mind to pull it out and knit the whole thing again in the round but I don’t care enough. It’s a biking bag, after all. It doesn’t have to be perfect. I just get irritated when I see how lumpy the seams are.

My pin looks good on it, though! This is the first thing I’ve put that pin on that I’ve actually knitted. I have one on all my purses and bags and jackets etc etc, but I feel good that I’m finally using it for it’s purpose.

… though I don’t really want people to know I knit that since it looks like shit. Shit. I really need to hire someone to do this marketing thing for me. I seriously suck at it.

I’m chilling out, recovering from 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins (PT and I toured Logan Square, hitting up both within walking distance of my apartment), the tiger’s loss (though I will say they were down 7 runs and didn’t give up, and am as happy as I can be with an 8-6 loss), and finishing The History of Love this afternoon. As far as I’m concerned this book more than made up for our Playing With the Grown-Ups debacle of last month. More than anything I’m excited about what the Knitting Book Club has to say about it. Having read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for our first month’s book, and Nicole and Jonathan being married and all, there are some obvious correlations that I’m anxious to talk about with other people who have read both books.

Extremely Loud aside, I loved The History of Love. I love how it unfolded, how the mystery was laid out before I even realized I was looking for a mystery. I loved Leo. I loved everything about him, everything he did, everything he said. I cared, which wouldn’t be a big point to make had I not just been coming off a book where I would rather have killed everyone than read another page about any character in it. I cared so much that I cried through the last 20 pages, and for 10 minutes after finishing it. And I’m sorry its over, and I’m sorry it is back at the library.

But enough! I’ve got to save some of this material for Monday.

The History of Love, and Lentil Soup

I cooked up some lentil soup when I got home from work this afternoon and ate it with a piece of homemade bread, while reading. Then I cleaned my bathroom and read more. Cleaned the kitchen and read more. Sipped tea and read more.

I did not work on my sock though! And I still haven’t finished my quilt.

Fresh Mango Oat Bowl

PT and I found mangoes 3 for $1 at this Hispanic grocery store over the weekend, so we chopped one up and threw it in our oats this morning. Delicious! Fresh mango is so versatile! Throw it in fish tacos=winner. Throw it in oats=winner. Throw it in a burrito=winner. Throw it on ice cream=winner! You just can’t lose.

Sauteed Veggie Sandwich with Rosemary Potatoes

Last night for dinner PT and I made seriously amazing rosemary potatoes. We sauteed up some onions, peppers, and carrots and threw it on some homemade bread with pepper jack cheese and, in my case, fake bacon.

But seriously I can’t look at this food right now. Despite the walking we had to do between Baskin Robins, I’m feeling a little rough right now. Apple Pie Ala Mode was the champion ice cream flavor, though, if you were wondering.

Side Note: I’m kind of obsessed with my blog stats so I check them all the time. It is fun for me to see what weirdos search in order for my blog to come up. Examples: ‘Sandra Bullock with Dildo’, ‘Using Light Sabor as Dildo’, and ‘Dildo Quilt’. I blame Brijeet.