for all our mutual experience, our separate conclusions are the same

I was just as lazy today as one would expect me to be on vacation. I woke up around noon, watched the soaps until three (when I was driven away from the TV by the regularly-scheduled appearance of Dr. Phil), took a shower, went to the grocery store with my mother, and then came home and idled away the rest of the day. We're still working on that eighteen-pound ham that we had for Christmas dinner yesterday; luckily my mother froze most of it, so I may only have to have another two or three ham sandwiches before the refrigerated supply is gone. Actually, I adore ham sandwiches and could keep eating them for quite some time. Sadly for me, this will not be my fate--and sadly for my whole family, I am intent on making several dishes from the Russian cookbook that I got for Christmas. The trip to the grocery store was to procure ingredients for borscht (mmm, beets), pelmini (meat dumplings), and holubtsi (cabbage rolls). So, I expect to spend most of the day tomorrow cooking, with little or no expectation of reward at the end. As my father put it, borscht may never have been very good, but it was better than the fish-douche soup that we sometimes had in Ukraine. Pleasant, eh? I do like pelmini, though, so it should be good, although it's suddenly unclear to me why I'm putting in so much effort to make something that I only marginally like, when I now have easy access to all of the delicious foods of my youth that only the Midwest can produce. Regardless, I like cooking, and I like to irritate my brother (who does not seem overjoyed at the prospect of borscht), so tomorrow should be lovely.