Nerdiness has reached new heights.

Casey's post today struck a chord with me. You know, I like food, too! Always have. You all know (especially if this isn't your first time visiting) that I enjoy going out to eat, that I do it often, and that it is my goal to eat my way through Zagat's and The Washingtonian's Top 100 list (thank goodness I have partners in crime for these daunting tasks). Amazing how, at one point in my life, I was thinner than stick thin (CB likes to liken me to a certain WWII "hero," who I shall not name for fear of offending).

Casey likes to watch shows about food. So do I! I have become quite enamored by the Food Network as of late. I know it's hip and trendy, so I'm just on the bandwagon with that. Now on to the nerdiness: among my favorite Christmas gifts this year were...cookbooks. At my super fun gift exchange, I traded a very cool and fun wristlet (along with a Starbucks debit card!) for two spoontulas and a cupcake cookbook. Wow. And, Jizzle, who didn't even need to be told that I would love them, got me three very cool books, too; slightly selfish were his motives, though, as I'm sure he expects me to use the books and not just read them (and he needed easy access to photos of Giada). And, yes kids, I read them. I actually sit down and read them as if they were novels...except I skip around some and don't read them in the proper order.

This new fascination has also [unfortunately] gotten me readdicted to ebay, my own personal gambling haven. In the past week, I have bid on and won no less than five highly renowned books of cooking (some of which I didn't know were veritable cooking bibles until told so by LBB who, let's give her some nerd props, too, claims to own over 90 cookbooks but remains, as my mom says, "the smallest person I've ever seen."). This means several things: (1) I'm a great and steady bidder who doesn't falter under pressure (2) I get so into the "game" that I end up bidding, sometimes, more than the book is worth (more often than not, though, I get them for dirt cheap) (3) I get packages on an almost daily basis and (4) I am a reckless spender (but that is neither here nor there right now).

On a side but somewhat related note, in case anyone is interested, I finally finished Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. And I will never eat eggs benedict or mussels again (at least not without seriously contemplating it first).