Beginning again, with two cinnamon dishes

Two iced Pillsbury cinnamon buns in the car ride from Longwood Drive to the Shirley commuter rail station, with a can of diet Mountain Dew (followed by immediate cardiac arrest, or nearly). At work, a slice of cheesecake around 2 PM, courtesy Sassan's wife's aunt. Then a round piece of chocolate flavored with orange bits, from England I'm told by the Dean that offered it from the package when he passed by my desk. Perhaps three-quarters of a liter of Diet Pepsi during work on the Core journal, with student editors hovering around me. Dinner was Taco Bell: a "$5 box" with a hard taco, a cheesy, greasy burrito, and some kind of two-ply taco consisting of hard taco wrapped in refried beans, frijoles refritos, and a flour tortilla. Also a paper sack of cinnamon twists, a bite of J.'s chicken burrito, and a cup of Diet Pepsi. A day without vegetables; sigh.

A single-meal Sunday

Brunch with Julie A. at Border Café up on Route One, before we went to see The Fighter. My usual -- a tumbler of their orange soda (not diet -- shame, shame) and Gulf Coast seafood enchilada, with black beans instead of jambalaya, and a scoop each of sour cream and guacamole. Toxic, savory, creamy, delicious. Recognizing my folly halfway through the meal, I pulled up short, and set aside a little less than half of the plate to take-away. That, later, was dinner, reheated, with Jenna on the couch. Also three pastelitos with a sweet cilantro dipping sauce -- Julie was on the prowl for an appetizer. Following her lead, I also ordered and emptied a Corona light.

In the car on the way to the cinema, Julie shared her stash: a baggie of cake balls, leftover from a party the night before whose culinary theme had been just that: balls. Red velvet cake from a box mix, shaped into truffle-sized spheres and rolled in icing and candy sugar. Crazy good. I had maybe five.