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Friday practice and I was grateful for just primary. We are a little under the weather — The Cop had a headache last night and I heard him call in sick with “a malignant brain tumor.” So colorful, he is.

Really, though, it was “just” a migraine.

I went to bed early with my mild sore throat and general run-downedness. The Cop stayed up a bit later. This morning as I got up at 4:30 (and he slept in — slacker!) he wanted to tell me about how the cat barfed after I went to bed and he had to clean it up. He actually encouraged me to sit back down on the bed so he could tell me the whole, detailed story of hearing the cat getting ready to throw up, his subsequent finding of the barf, description of the barf, and the horror of the cleaning of the barf. But let’s just cut to the last sentence, which was: “And he threw up as much as a 300 pound man.”

***

Technology for children.

Well, My Gift isn’t a child anymore, at 20. Still, I think back over her childhood and realize how good we had it, what with technology and all. When she visited her Dad for vacations, we were always in touch — generally via text message or IM. Both of those technologies are nice because they are immediate but not intrusive. You can choose whether to respond right away or not. I’ve always cut her a lot of slack about responding immediately (in other words, I don’t fuss if she doesn’t get back to me ASAP), the result being that we are in touch frequently and non-dramatically. Her dad, on the other hand, is always on her case to call more/email more/respond to texts immediately, etc. The result being that she doesn’t want to do any of those things. Ah, human nature.

Anyhow, last night she texted me an image from the audience of an event at her school. B.D. Wong (Dr. Wong on “Law and Order”) was visiting the school and did a session on gay activism in the Asian community. The picture she texted to me was of him receiving a text on his phone during the talk. How technologically Escheresque. My Gift was so psyched to see him: we are huge “Law and Order” junkies at my house. It’s probably the only TV program that The Cop, My Gift and I all like.

So yay! Dr. Wong! Almost as good as when she texted me a picture from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

***

For LI Ashtangini

Chai Latte Muffins
from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (a fantastic cookbook!)

Ingredients

1 cup soy milk
4 black tea bags or 2 tablespoons loose black tea
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup vanilla soy yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
pinch of black pepper

For topping:

1/2 cup confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

2. Heat soy milk in a small saucepan over medium til almost boiling. Add tea bags or tea, cover, and remove from heat. Let sit for 10 minutes, then remove teabags. Measure the soy milk and tea mixture and add more soy milk if it is less than 1 cup.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together oil, yogurt, sugar, vanilla, and tea mixture until all yogurt lumps disappear. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and pepper into wet ingredients. Mix until large lumps disappear; some small lumps are okay. Fill tins full and bake about 20 to 22 minutes, until a sharp knife inserted in one comes out clean.

4. Make sure cupcakes are completely cool before adding topping, or sugar will melt and not look pretty and powdery.