Lou Reed's Sunday Morning Incarnate

I really haven't watched a lot of football this season, by my own standards. Certainly not as much as I have the past couple years when I lived with Drew. The Baltimore games are never on here, since Providence is a AFC city in a different division than the Ravens. Plus, the Pats are so good that you don't really need to watch the games past halftime (the first quarter in some cases.) You know when you start watching a show and 15 minutes in to it you realize you've seen it before and already know the ending? It's kind of like that.

Gwen astutely pointed out that there has also been end of season and playoff baseball on almost every Sunday so far this NFL season, which is more important to me anyway. But with the World Series coming to a conclusion in the next few days (hours), I can at least pay a little more attention to football, although I doubt I'll be watching many more games save for the few times the Ravens have a national game, and I've already marked my calendar for those.

Instead of getting up on Sundays and watching football from 1pm to 10 pm like I've done the past few years, I've been spending Sundays with Gwen. We usually get coffee in the morning or early afternoon at Blue State Coffee on Thayer St. I like it because they use fair trade and organic products, but don't push their liberal values down the throats of their customers. Plus they make good soy lattes, and Gwen loves their iced and hot chai.

After we've finished coffee and what we can accomplish of the Providence Phoenix crossword, she and I are usually busy the rest of the afternoon. Today we went to the park and took some pictures of the Providence skyline before coming home. Last week we went to her parent's house, had dinner and watched the Sox game. A few weeks ago we went grocery shopping. But generally we're busy most of the afternoon. It's nice because we get to spend time together that we haven't had during the week.

Then, alter at night, she falls asleep on the couch and I watch NFL Live to see what I've missed. It's a winning combination.

I've been trying to cook more lately, also generally on the weekends. I made the best pulled pork I've had since the Georgia Pig the other day. Marinated overnight, and simmered for 11 hours in the crock pot, doused in apple cider vinegar, honey, ketchup and onion. Tasty. It was my treat for the first game of the world series. I enjoyed it with an ice-cold tall boy of Narragansett.

I also tried my hand at some there bean paella. It was a recipe from the Book "Beans" by Aliza Green, a woman who I interviewed a while back for the Chestnut Hill Local. You'll notice me on the left there poring over the book. Gwen's had her camera out more often recently, as a sidenote to this whole post. It sounded interesting, so I figured what the hell. It didn't seem like the recipe would produce that much, so I doubled it. Big mistake. I spent the entire afternoon cooking beans, chopping a variety of strange ingredients, and wondering what the big freaking deal is over Saffron. You know that shit's $15 or more for a quarter ounce?

I ended up with about 5 pounds of paella, enough to fill a large pot twice over. There are still leftovers in the fridge, although they are in that stage where I know I'm not going to eat them but I can't throw them out yet. Don't ya hate that? I feel so guilty about throwing it away, but I suppose after eating paella every day for almost a week, it's time for a break.

And now, your moment of Zen: