Hello everyone, bye Roxie

Bad news first: After 14 and a half years of being my parents' permanent baby (and, by extension, my needy little sister), my dog Roxie died yesterday.  She had been having various health problems, went south on Saturday and was found by my parents on Sunday.  Danny and Nora saw Roxie when they ended up at my house on their ill-starred cross country voyage.  RIP.  

I definitely miss dogs.  Our whole house ate Sunday night in Alexandria at the home of two women who do doggy foster care and have no fewer than five miniature and toy French poodles in their care at the moment.  As miserable as it might seem to some, I found myself somewhat jealous that they get to put doggy diapers on their 15-year-old "puppy."

In other news, I am doing well.  School is all right--I am working on class, an individual research project, and a couple of collaborative projects.  Nowadays it's not so much about strict time management as finding slow points in the flow to enjoy, say, an hour of video games with Hammad.  

It's not quite so bad as it sounds, though.  I only have class on Monday and Wednesday, and during the other days I have recently found more and more time for baking.  A week or so ago, I made "whoopie pies." Though I had nary an idea what the thing was, the name was too good to pass up.  Whoopie pies are kind of like big gooey oreos: two small chocolate cakes sandwiched around a buttery marshmallow creme filling.  They were good, but so rich it was best only to take one bite at a time.  For the dinner with the poodle women, I made "buttermilk jumbles," which turned out to be madeleines without the madeleine pan--they were soft and very light tasting.

Well, having Presidents' Day off has been nice.  The weather here turned warm today, but it is supposed to snow again before Saturday rolls around.  :-|  I definitely do miss California!

Well I'll see you guys around.  My spring break is coming up in a week and a half--if I'd planned further in advance maybe I could have arranged a trip back to the Bay Area to see some of you (Lauren, I could probably just rent a car and meet you in southern Virginia, whatcha say?!).  As it stands I will probably just take in a quiet week in our nation's capital.  I do miss you guys a lot though--it was great to see Nora over winter break, and if any of you ever find yourselves in New York (let alone DC, which is a must-call situation), remember that I'm a phone call and perilous Chinatown bus ride away!