help me! i think i have a spending problem...

...my mother belongs to one of those book clubs where you buy one book at "full" price and get a whole bunch free. Kind of like BMG. Lately they've been having a $9.99 sale - all books are ten bucks! So I started browsing and clicking and whatnot, and suddenly the screen is telling me that I can only add so many books to my cart at a time and I've ordered too much. So I try to pare it down as best I can, and end up with eight selections. Eight selections that if I had bought at normal, non-grad-student prices, would have cost me nearly $300. Yup.

So here is what I got:
The Professional Chef
Bones
Ripe for Dessert (I just made the gingerbread upside-down cake with some pluots and peaches I bought at the Alemany Farmer's Market...yum!!)
Mangoes and Curry Leaves
Tartine
The Cooking of Southwest France
On Food and Cooking
The Quick Recipe - I initially put this in my shopping cart not realizing it was put together by the Cook's Illustrated folks...I think it will become a very important addition to my cookbook collection. Already just leafing through I've found many recipes that I want to try for "everyday" cooking (let's be honest - while some of the other books I bought are gorgeous and have delicious-sounding recipes, it is not every day I'm going to attempt scallop souffles or osso buco) and for some reason my boyfriend loves to flip through it even though it has waaaay fewer pretty pictures than the other books. I'm debating buying a bunch more as presents for people.

Anyways, these books could not have come at a worse time, when the gray weather makes me want to do nothing more than bake desserts or spend all day making risottos or roasting meats. Except I really need to get cracking on this whole PhD thing. Gah.

hee hee...

Reading this this morning reminded me of a conversation I had with my brother last summer on a hot day...

Me: God, it's so hot. Ooh, you know how there's iced coffee? I wish people made iced hot chocolate!
Brother: Um....it's called chocolate milk, you idiot!