I'm hitting the road tomorrow-- catching a bus to Pittsburgh to visit my friend Meredith for a few days, then taking another bus from there to Chicago on Thursday. And in preparation for this, I've somehow managed an extraordinarly productive day, despite the fact that 5+ hours of said day was spent traveling back and forth from, and watching, an excellent Orioles game at Camden Yards.

Not only did I get all my packing done, and fit most of what I need to bring into the amount of luggage I can maneuver (although my baking pans will have to journey by mail, it seems), but I also managed to sort through several million of my mom's recipes. Now, granted, I started that task previously (which led to, among other things, last night's souffle-making attempt in which the result of my mom's and my combined effort was a "sort of" success), but there was much left to do. And while there are a fair number of recipe cards which my mom's just letting me physically take, there are many more cards, plus all the recipes I wanted from her cookbooks, that have had to be laboriously copied over. Because it seems wisest, I have been doing this on the computer, and now have a lengthy text document full of recipes.

As I observe my selections, I can't help but notice that a disproportionate number of the recipes happen to be for desserts, because there's something about dessert recipes that make my heart (or my stomach!) leap with the conviction that I'm surely going to want to eat whatever the dessert is enough to go through with the making of it. I just need to face the fact that making my own desserts will take more time, effort, and money than just buying dollar cookies or a half-gallon of ice cream for desserts, and so if/when I choose to do so, I'll be treating myself to the fun of making, eating, and sharing.

I have found a fair number of intriguing recipes (as well as a couple of familiar ones) for entrees, too, which seem like they might be good additions to "the usual" on nights when I'm up for spending more than 10 minutes making dinner. I have this image of myself picking out dinners with lengthy preparation times in order to put off starting homework, although that may very well translate into being too lazy to work that hard and instead finding ways to procrastinate that involve sitting on a couch, so we'll have to wait and see.

Au revoir; in all likelihood, the next time I post it'll be from Evanston.  ¶ 1:38 AM