Happy St. Valentine's Day

I must confess, Dear Reader, not only did I not post yesterday, but I did not make any cookies either. But I have an excuse. Yesterday was the first practice of the season for Special Olympics basketball. The first day of my thirteenth season coaching. A couple of the players have been on my team for the whole ride. We are the Eugene Kodiaks. There are also teams with the monikers Grizzlies, Polar Bears, Panda Bears, plain old Bears, and our new children's basketball skills group, the Malayan Sun Bears. The next practice will be after the holidays, so I can get back to baking, and writing about baking. There is a bowl of cookie dough in my refrigerator right now, awaiting its fate. Not just any cookie dough mind you, but my great-grandmother's recipe for Oatmeal Cookies. Of course, I doubled the recipe, and will prepare another double batch tomorrow. Then, on Friday, I will frost them. I've posted about this frosting before so won't go back into it again. Now, where was I when last I posted? Oh yeah. Chocolate Crackles. I cranked out 142 of them, bringing my total to 580 cookies. I'll wind this down now as the Oatmeal Cookies are either in the oven baking, cooling in a single layer on the primary cooling rack, setting in rows of four in stacks of three on the secondary cooling rack, in dough form on the second cookie sheet ready to go into the oven, or still in the mixing bowl, part of the greater, yet diminishing whole blob of dough. All this mathematical computation and inventory is good for me. It keeps my mind sharp for Fantasy Baseball. And, Dear Reader, the Philadelphia Phillies' pitchers and catchers start reporting to Spring Training two months from tomorrow.