waffles!

I've been home sick four days with a cough/low grade fever/congestion/sore throat thing. Last night I slept well for the first time since I got ill, and I feel, comparatively, great.

I haven't cooked anything to speak of since I moved. This morning I thought "I'll make waffles!" The recipe called for melted butter: I have no microwave. Milk: I have none. Baking powder: haven't gotten any since the move. Vanilla: ditto. Substitution time!

Melted butter: canola oil. Milk: mix plain non-fat yogurt with water. Baking powder: mix baking soda with an acidic ingredient - lemon juice. (Amusingly, the following two statements are in the same paragraph on the Arm & Hammer web site: "you may not substitute ... Baking Soda for baking powder in a recipe. ... To make the equivalent of 1 teaspoon baking powder, mix 5/8 teaspoons of cream of tartar with 1/4 teaspoon ... Baking Soda." Well, I have no cream of tartar, but the point is to get acid to react with the sodium bicarbonate, so lemon juice will do.) Vanilla: skipped it.

Lastly, my waffle iron is really more about making those delicate heart shaped cookies than it is about waffles -- I can never get my waffles airy enough.

Wouldn't you know it? These were the best waffles I've ever made. Great texture, nice flavor.

I'm settling into my new job, and I am having a ball. I'm working on a prototype of the "next generation discovery environment." Basically, it's long since past time to give library users better tools to find the information they need. Of course, others have already been working on this, so I'm building on existing tools. This means quick success! Woo hoo! The prototype isn't public yet, so I can't show it to you. I can tell you it's cool to once again work for a library with over five million items.

I've been biking to work every day. There's no where to park near my office anyway. And it's about as fast to walk to the free Stanford bus at the University Ave Caltrain station as it is to bike in. I need to get the appropriate gear for rainy weather ... before next October or so. Read it and weep, you Ithacans!

Shindy cat has LOVED having me home. I, however, am going batty for company.