Orange Cinnamon Stuffed French Toast

This was today's breakfast adventure. First I took a loaf of french bread and sliced it into clamshell pieces. Then in the middle of each I put a mixture of orange marmalade (mostly), brown sugar (little), and cinnamon (less). I made 5 of these.

Then for the egg mixture, I combined:

• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ground cinnamon

Overall it turned out pretty well. My motivation for the brown sugar in the middle was that my orange marmalade is pretty sour. I probably should have used less. Also, the center mixture was slightly runny. If I had any on hand, I would have mixed in some cream cheese.

This seems like a recipe for Anders since the middle is essentially sugar. And of course I doused it with cinnamon maple syrup.

My goal was to use up some of my eggs before I leave next week, but instead I ended up using up most of my bread. Now I'll have to go buy more bread. Hmph.

The American's Guide to Canadian Elections

Are you confused about the Canadian election process? Or are you confused because you didn't know Canada had elections? Either way, prepare to be enlightened.

If you like parties, then Canada is the place to be! There's quite the variety. Besides those boring Conservative and Liberal parties that no one would even want to crash, there's more exciting choices like the Marijuana Party, or the now extinct Rhinoceros Party, so named because politicians are "thick-skinned, slow-moving, dim-witted, can move fast as hell when in danger, and have large, hairy horns growing out of the middle of their faces." Some even get together to have a Bloc party (presumably named such because they all live so close together).

Monday was the 39th election in Canadian history, but how did it come to be? Voting every 4 years or so would make too much sense and could be unnecessary (why waste time and money when you don't have to?), so instead Canadians vote whenever they feel like it. It could be months, years, or decades between elections. Basically, whenever a big enough group decides they don't like who is in charge, everyone votes all over again! Or, the group that is in charge could just decide they want adventure and the possibility of losing an election by calling one.

Once an election is called, it's off to the races to see who can get the most money, I mean votes, as any party will earn $1.75 for every vote they get. Despite this payoff, there is surprisingly no strong effort to "get out the vote" or other voting % raising campaigns.

There is real beauty in this spontaneity. There's no time to run huge elaborate campaigns and blow tons of money, because there are only a few weeks between the calling of the election and the actual election. There's time for a few debates, attack ads (click "military presence" at right), and parodies here and there, but before you know it, it's time to vote. In fact, the density of yard signs and TV ads is much lower relative to the US.

The election itself is shrouded in secrecy. Exit polls are illegal. To further promote real democracy and eliminate copycats, ever since the first election, it has been illegal to report the results of other parts of the country until the polls have closed in your time zone. (Well, 2 elections ago this ban was lifted, but it was put back.) This even makes it illegal for a pot-head to call his or her newfie aunt to find out what is going on. Just compare that to the American primary elections which last for weeks, a perfect demonstration of copycat voting!

As the real figure-head of the country, the prime minister is an important position, despite no mention of the position in the constitution (except for one minor clause requiring meetings with the provincial premiers (governors)). Nevertheless, the citizens never actually vote for the prime minister. Instead, they vote for people (members of parliament) who will then vote for the prime minister. Outrageous! Oh wait.

Since the prime minister must be a member of parliament, things really get interesting when the party leader loses in his or her election to parliament. In this case, things are fudged around to get the leader in somehow. This doesn't happen very often, but has happened in the past. It also provides a good chuckle for everyone not in that party.

So, the winner is the party with the most members of parliament. They pick their leader to be the prime minister and life goes on. If there is no majority, then expect little to get done and get ready for a new election in 1 year 7 months and 5 days (on average).

There you have it! Now you see why only 64% of Canadians voted.

The Results Are In!

The Conservatives win with a minority. So, will 13 years of social progress get wiped off the map? Or will Canada be returned to the correct set of values? It all depends on your point of view!

Lets check the 'AP Top Story' headlines in the U.S. to see what they think about the election in their slightly larger neighbor. In order, we have...

1. Alito Nomination Goes to Full Senate
2. Prime Minister Named Emir of Kuwait
3. Gonzales Says NSA Criticism Misleading
4. 4 Killed in Small Plane Crash in Calif.
5. FDA Panel Recommends Ban on Some Inhalers
6. DaimlerChrysler to Eliminate 6,000 Jobs
7. UPN, WB to Shut Down; New Network Formed
8. Ky. Gov. Refuses Pamela Anderson's Request
9. Poor Work Performance Blamed on Internet
10. Mario Lemieux Is Retiring Again
11. Man Has Cardiac Arrest at Cardiologist Ball
12. Investigator: U.S. 'Outsourced' Torture
13. Pre-Katrina Warnings Not Heeded
14. Saddam Trial Is Delayed Until Sunday
15. Conservatives Win in Canadian Election

So there you have it. That's the list of what is more important than a completely new government in Canada.

Can you name the outgoing and/or incoming Canadian prime minister? No? Well, can you name any Canadian Prime Minister? No? Well how about any prime minister of any country?

Vote!

Don't forget to vote today!

George Foreman Waffles

Yes, it is possible to make bluish waffles on a George Foreman indoor grill. Actually, it's quite easy. Why blue? Why not?

First, take that drip pan dish thing that they give you and turn it upside down an put it under the front legs. This elevates the grill to be almost perfectly level. Spray it with PAM (or something) and pre-heat it (while you finishing mixing the ingredients).


Don't forget the blue food coloring. Then pour the batter onto the back 2/3 to 3/4 of the grill. Don't fill the entire grill with batter. It will start to thicken up right away and will not slide out the front.


Then grill away! Stop when the steam stops coming out (5 min or so). As you can see, it has grown to take up the entire grill. Good thing you didn't fill it full!


Just lift it off with that plastic spatula thing they give you with the grill. Pour on some Canadian maple syrup and dig in!

More Airplanes

Tonight I booked more flights to get me to a conference in south Florida (Boca Raton) in March. To get it at any sort of reasonable price (about C$700), I had to book it as 2 different tickets, one Air Canada YYJ-YVR-SEA and another United SEA-ORD-PBI. Then I had to pick the arrival and departure times to get as nice as possible for switching airlines in SEA. The interesting thing is that the YYJ->SEA flight costs considerably (26%) more than the SEA->PBI flight. That's just crazy, but probably explains why Air Canada actually turns a profit, unlike most airlines.

I'm a bit worried about the return flight as I only have 45 min to switch airlines in SEA. However, I should be able to give United my Air Canada flight details and they will route my bags through correctly. If not, I'll get them eventually. I just hope the flight isn't so late that I miss the connection as Air Canada won't take an excuse of United being late.

As a frequent flier who isn't, I try to get as many miles out of anything I fly. So, originally I had planned on the following itinerary: YYJ-YVR-SEA-SFO-IAD-CLT-PBI + PBI-ORD-SFO-SEA-YVR-YYJ, which, as you can imagine, took quite a while to find and cannot be booked on any website. However, I found that the simple route that I picked above will actually get me about 400 more miles that this crazy mess of 58+ hours of travel time. That's because what I ended up buying was available on the United Airlines website, so I got the booking bonus and such of 2,500 miles for being a new customer.

Anyway, if you are looking for something that is actually useful, here is the best website for finding the cheapest tickets: ITA Trip Planner. What makes it the best is the fact that they don't sell anything. This just searches all of the fares in existence (that aren't sold out) to locate the cheapest price possible. You'd think Expedia, Travelocity or Orbitz would do this, but they don't because they want to make money. If you find a price on that website, then you can book a ticket at that price (+$10 booking fee to talk to a human) by calling the airline reservation desk.

If you want to get really fancy (like me), you can use the advanced options to search for the super huge mileage flights that they don't want you to know about.

Oak Bay

Today I walked around Oak Bay, which is a very nice walk. It is the area located on the very southeastern tip of the island, just east of Victoria. It was named after the Garry oak tree, which is the only oak native to western Canada and is found almost exclusively on the southern part of the island and on the gulf islands (no, not the Gulf of Mexico, duh). So, I set out to take a picture of them, and I believe I did. Since the trees are currently leafless and acornless, I'm not sure, but the trees I found looked nice anyway. The one I took a picture of is located by the entrance of the Victoria Golf Club, the oldest golf club in Canada (1893).




P.S. This is a completely different topic, but this is hilarious (thanks Ben).

Airplane Photos! (Not Mine)

Photographs are cool. Airplanes are cool. Photographs of airplanes are wicked mad crazy cool.

Breaking Records

We are currently on track for the most consecutive days of rain in Victoria! (You have to see it as exciting somehow.) Today is the 26th day of rain and we will break the record if it keeps raining through Friday, Jan. 20. Here's the details:

"Rain records are also in sight for Victoria, though that city is still 10 days short of the 32-day record that began Jan. 6, 1953.

"Since the rainy streak began in that city -- Victoria recorded its 22nd day of consecutive rain Monday -- 150 mm have fallen on Victoria, 50 per cent more than a normal rainy winter, Environment Canada forecaster Anne McCarthy said.

"Normally, the city would have seen 30 hours of sun in the 22 days, but the total has been just over half that amount."

At least it didn't stop on Friday the 13th.

Website Update

Today I thought it would be a good idea to update my website, since that hadn't been done since July. I didn't really change much, but I did spend some time to put up 4 more photos on my page of wallpaper photos (newest on top).

Also, I removed the ads from this blog and my website. For December, they earned me 6 cents (US!) and so far this month I've made 1 cent. It's not worth looking at them for that.

Officially Canadian

I am now officially a member of the male Canadian population.

War Against the Odor

I am very excited today because after several months and the 4th battle, I think I have won the war against the strange odor in my room. I promise you that the odor has nothing to do with me, it is part of the room itself. But, strangely it did not appear until about a month or more after I moved in.

The odor likes to hide under my bed where the air is cool and trapped. So, I thought it was a problem with the carpet, so I moved the bed and bought that Arm & Hammer carpet powder and swept (vacuumed) the entire carpet. That made my room smell good, but then the next day it smelled like old fart. That was a few months ago. Then I came back from vacation and walked in my room and couldn't stand the smell.

Saving you the details (as if anyone is still reading by now), I located the source of the odor to be a missing brick in the bricked up fireplace in my room. The cold air has been coming down the chimney and in through the hole, bringing the funky odor with it. This explains why the smell did not appear until it started getting cooler outside than inside. Well, I filled the hole and 2 other smaller ones with a spare brick lying around in my room and some plastic bags and newspaper. Now, the day after I did this, I walk in my room and smell the air fresheners, not the funky odor!

Either that, or I'm just used to the smell now and don't notice it.

Back to BC

I flew back to Victoria last Wed., the first day of classes. Wow they start early. But, I think we get out in April. I didn't miss any classes though, because I'm not taking any this term. I'll just audit 2 of them.

I didn't get back until 00:30 on Thursday, because my United flight was 1 hr 40 min late, causing me to miss the 7pm ferry. After we arrived, the customs line was huge and the residents' line was even longer than the visitors'. I was pretty mad about that, but that was for no reason because I still had to wait on my luggage after waiting in the customs line for 30 min. I was glad and surprised to see that both of my bags made it to YVR, because one of them is made of a material that the stickers don't stick to. They put 4 stickers on it in hopes that one would stay, but when I saw it at the end, it had 0 stickers. After that, I ran to catch the last bus to the last bus to the last ferry to the last bus to the last bus of the night. Then I walked another 8 min or so to get home.