No babysitter? No bright lights, no big city. Nope, not unless you make the trek to Chiang Mai Thai, sighing just ever so remorsefully at its arty, wood-lined dining room and the memory of your evenings traipsing through its bargain-studded wine list, as you pick up your food at the bar and drive home to your own cluttered and overly familiar surroundings. If you've hit this stage of life, dear reader, then you'll be grateful to know that the laab esan, a ground-meat salad enlivened by lime juice and roasted rice powder, travels beautifully, arriving at its destination just as room temperature as it was when you picked it up. (Unless you happen to have cranked the thermostat in your El Camino.) The fiery cashews are just as addictively salty and spicy tumbling out of a teeny white box. And the pad see yew, or noodles with eggs, broccoli, and soy, are just as resilient and sweet. Spread it all out on the coffee table, uncork your own house Gewurztraminer, and consider the backlog aging in your TiVo, and you just might start to make peace with this new stage of life.