In other news, "Eureka" rocks.

Bed, Bath and Beyond is my new nemesis.

Sunday morning, I had a dream that Penn State had decided to raise funds by instituting a sort of gourmet bake sale. They redesigned one floor of the library to be all plush carpet, rich wooden panelling and expensive armchairs upholestered in red jaquard, and they installed several cases of the sort you'd expect to display your finest china in. These, they filled with baked goods. Now, most of the baked goods came from some poncy gourmet baker, and cost accordingly, but they were also soliciting pastry donations from staff. Having a yen to do some baking, I agreed to submit my apple cake and biscotti. Even in the dream, I didn't think this made much sense. I mean...how were they expecting to keep all this refrigerator-needy food on the floor of a library? Wouldn't it have been more appropriate to host such a cafe in, I don't know, a building where wealthy donors actually go?

I woke up wanting to bake.

Why're you looking at me like that?

Biscotti came quickly to mind, due to some recent conversations. But to do that, I needed some things. So far, I've been unable to find a way to bake biscotti without creating the mother of all messes, so I figured I'd buy a pastry cloth or silicone table cover or something. On top of that, I was tired of putting up with our old crappy cookie sheets that've been abused and ruined. So, off I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Now, when I walked in I saw that they were having a feature sale on floor lamps. Indeed, I thought, we've needed one of those for the corner of the living room ever since my old one died. Oh, and look at the very reasonable prices on quality bedding! I've really only got one decent set of summer bedsheets left, and these are...ohhh, so soft (seriously, check out the Beechwood jersey bedsheets. My god). And...well, I did want a new set of headphones, and these aren't expensive, oh, and a flour sifter would be really useful, since I do bake a lot of bread, and...

I put back the very pretty-smelling candle and the hand-juicer, resisted the impulse to pick up the futon cover (which we do sorely need, as our only current one is dry-clean only, and that's not a safe arrangement in a house where I live), and merely made note of the underbed storage boxes, fluffy mattress cover, mixing bowls, towel sets, and oh-lord-it's-so-comfy chair, which we have nowhere to put even though it's incredibly affordable.

I stayed the heck away from the pots, pans, and utensils. Those're way too expensive for impulse-purchasing, but it would merely have been painful to look at the beautiful cookware that couldn't come home with me.

The biscotti turned out nicely, but while the pastry cloth did help me avoid a mess on top of the table, it didn't really make the biscotti-making process any cleaner. Just moved it to a different surface (granted, one that's machine-washable). I can't figure out how to get the biscotti dough to be anything but a viscous, runny, superglue-like mass without dumping in two cups more flour than the recipe calls for.

Hmmm. Co-worker suggests a breadhook...