Cake Hour Cackle: Another one's off to Medical School in...ta, da! Tennessee!

The amount of murine dendritic cells isolated in the laboratory is going to take a precipitous decline now that the researcher mainly performing that function has finished her work and departed to take off to medical school in Knoxville, no..Chattanooga..that's not it, Memphis...nope,...Murfreesboro, er try again...what's left? Oh, NASHVILLE, Tennessee! Who knew they had a medical school there to go with the Grand Ol' Opry and the Parthenon. Nashville...the name conjures up Country Music and the Robert Altman film of that name from the 70s. Whatever happened to Ronee Blakely now that you mention it? Her song "Tapedeck in his Tractor" was a classic, no?

Something's afoot!

Another one's off for medical training with a bunch of Methodists!

Not a bad combo!

Tennessee here I come!

But I digress, our star departee for the day started as an undergraduate student and continued her career as a post-baccalaureate in research applying for medical school in the meantime. Her acceptance came from Meharry Medical College and so off she had to go. We had a going away fete featuring goodies from Lasalle Bakery in Providence and a nice bottle of French wine for a toast to her future success.

The crowd gathers for the celebration...

...and a bit of a toast...

...and a gift of a book about the great Influenza epidemic...

......hilarious don't you think?

Being a fan of the strawberry shortcake cake from Whole Foods we went with one of those from Lasalle and also a classic chocolate cream pie. The shortcake was food with a strawberry filling in the center instead of just cut up fresh strawberries as in the Whole Foods case. It's a little bit sweeter in that regard but good nonetheless. The chocolate cream pie was indeed classic. Lots of whipped cream on top of a chocolate pastry cream/chocolate pudding filling. There might could have been a bit more chocolate filling but that's a minor point. It's good that there are bakeries around making things the good old fashioned way.

Getting down to the business of eating!

As a departure gift we presented a nice impressionistic type painting of Waterfire a well known Providence attraction where they light small bonfires along the downtown rivers and everyone walks around aimlessly looking at the fires, listening to music and breathing in the smoke. It actually is an interesting spectacle and has put given Providence a bit more cachet. For more information check out http://waterfire.org/. They are even planning a flash mob!