My Domestic Day Off

Today was a wonderfully productive, wonderfully domestic day.

It all started when I decided to do laundry, and realized we were almost out of detergent! This necessitated a trip to the grocery store, but first, Mike came home from work (on the way from one job to another) for lunch. We made delicious avocado sandwiches with my homemade hummus, and I realized we were almost out of that, too! Another reason to go to the grocery store.

So, after lunch, I hopped on my bicycle and rode to the store. There, I found three great deals: 3 organic white onions for $1.19, 7 organic avocados for 99 cents and 3 artichokes for 99 cents! (Our grocery store, the Berkeley Bowl, has a great shelf of "seconds" produce, molding/ bruised / sliced veggies & fruit bagged and repriced, often with ridiculous deals such as these. Or, about a pound of limes for 79 cents.)

I arrived home and proceeded to start on a spree of domestic bliss: First, I used four of the avocados to make a delicious guacamole. Then, I made hummus. Finally, I found two half-finished loaves of bread ( a rosemarry ciabatta and a walnut-sourdough) and made croutons! Now, as I write this, vegan shortcakes are baking while fresh strawberries macerate with sugar.

Also, today, I did all of Mike's and my laundry (is there a grammatically correct / aurally pleasing way to construct that phrase?), plus all the towels and rugs. Then, I made a Star Island-style laundry rainbow. Unfortunately, as I was hanging the laundry, the sky clouded over and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees, cancelling my plans to go on a hike up in the hills.

So, while the laundry was in, I knit and listened to This American Life & Democracy Now!. When Mike got home, we played Scrabble (and when LP inquired, discovered that the world record for points scored in a single game is 830!). While waiting for Mike to play, I was happily knitting along on the Long Socks. Then, the yarn started acting all crazy like, dramatically changing weight, and breaking. I guess this is what I get for buying the $2.50 / skein Lion Brand, which is what I get for working less than full-time at just about minimum wage (CA). The yarn will still work, and Mike is still excited about the socks, but just look at the difference in the sizes of the strands! And this is only one round apart. Plus the knot... this is just leaving me very disappointed.

I have determined to buy some recycled sari silk yarn to make the great Unbiased bag from Knitty. Even though the stuff is expensive (comparatively), it's a great cause. I can't decide whether to brave eBay, or to just suck it up and buy the stuff from an online retailer (or, better yet, my LYS). This stuff is just gorgeous, and I love the idea of supporting a cottage industry empowering women to financial independence (which feeds into my heistation to purchase the yarn on eBay... how do I know where the proceeds are going, although the sellers obviously had to buy their yarn somewhere...?)

I also discovered this lovely pattern for knee-high socks that I am going to make for myself, as the mate to Mike's Long Socks. I just hope they allow knitting needles on the plane for our cross-country law-school exploring marathon.

UPDATE: SS suggested I may have been influenced by this video we watched last night. (From Feministing.

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