New Year

I have resolutions in my head, but I know I'll likely follow through with none of them.

Well, maybe I'll actually lose some weight. I hit a new middle figure today in the ol' 3-digit count, once again topping my all-time high. This can't continue. I know I can drop around 20lbs in 4 months without much effort if I just commit, but that requires... commitment.

And maybe I'll improve my poker game. I had a rather unspectacular weekend, with a 2nd place finish for a couple hundred in a 45-man $26 SnG as my biggest score, followed by winning my way into the $750k on Tilt for $75 instead of the $215. I should have taken the T$ and ran, but I felt like playing some bigger MTTs. The 50-50 was a bust, as was the $22 $100. As usual, I can lay a good chunk of the blame at the feet of distraction and boredom, which are really just my own faults to deal with.

There's also a bunch on the work front I need to work on, but motivation is always hard to come by in my head. I don't really know why.

2008 was better than 2007... 2009 should be better than 2008 if I put the slightest effort into making it so.

My most immediate goal though? Get my damned home theatre set up again... where are those cables I ordered 2 weeks ago?

Packing Fudge

Figured I'd get that joke out of the way.

I decided (based on the fact I had a bunch of marshmallow creme in my fridge) to make some more fudge for the New Year's party I attended. After grabbing a couple extra ingredients, I threw it together and once again, it was a hit.

So, I figured I'd share the recipe here. It can be easy or hard, depending how "from scratch" you want to go.

First, it calls for marshmallow creme. I made my own for this since I couldn't get to a store that actually carried any. If you're looking for some at the local grocery, it's usually with the ice cream toppings, at the end of the ice cream freezers. You probably know it was Fluff, but there's usually at least a store brand kicking around too. In this case, you MAY get what you pay for, as I've made batches in the past that came out greasy and crumbly instead of smooth and tasty. However, I can't 100% attribute this to the quality of the marshmallow creme.

So, if you want to make your own marshmallow creme, here's the recipe I used, modified to make significantly less than the original.

Marshmallow Creme

Things you need that you might not have - a stand mixer with paddle attachment, and a candy thermometer

1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup light (clear, uncoloured) corn syrup (regular corn syrup will work too, but will colour the creme slightly)
1/4 cup egg whites (a retarded measurement for egg whites, but I'd guess 1-2 eggs' worth)
Another 1/8 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix sugar, water, and the 1/2 cup of corn syrup in a small saucepan. Over MEDIUM heat, cover and heat to a rolling boil. Uncover, stick in a candy thermometer, and cook, without stirring, until it reaches 242F (115C) (or, if lacking a thermometer, until a small amount forms a ball in cold water and flattens when removed - soft ball stage). 4-8 minutes total.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites and additional 1/8 cup of corn syrup in the mixer until stiff peaks form. Reduce speed to medium, and VERY SLOWLY and carefully add the INCREDIBLY HOT sugar/water/syrup mixture in a thin stream. Add the vanilla extract and crank it to high speed for 3-5 minutes, until it the mixture isn't getting any fluffier.

Done.

Makes around 2-3 cups, which is actually a bit more than you'll need for the fudge. Use the leftover for hot chocolate, or melt it for ice cream topping or something.

Chocolate Fudge

(adapted from this recipe)

I strongly suggest measuring out everything beforehand, ESPECIALLY the chocolate chips.

7 oz of Marshmallow Creme (about 200g)
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2/3 cup evaporated milk (I've seen small tins of 160ml or 5.4oz which is perfect)
1/4 cup unsalted butter (2oz, or around 56g)
1/4 tsp salt (1/8 tsp if using salted butter)
1 standard bag (250g or 8.8oz) white chocolate chips
9.2oz (260g) semi-sweet chocolate chips (total white + semi-sweet chips = 3 cups)
1 tsp vanilla extract if using store-bought marshamallow (omit if using homemade, unless you really like vanilla flavour)

- Line an 8x8" pan with foil and set aside

- In a large saucepan (pot), over medium heat (medium-LOW heat if it's a cheap pan. I've used my Le Creuset enameled cast iron pot and my Calphalon anodized one, and both were fine. But a thin-bottomed cheap pot will burn the marshmallow fast), melt the butter.

- Add sugar, evaporated milk, and salt. Stir until combined.

- Add the marshmallow creme and stir CONSTANTLY until the mixture comes to a full boil (don't expect a rolling boil like water, as this is some viscous shit). I suggest using a silicon spatula or wooden spoon. Once you've achieved a boil, cook for 5 more minutes, stirring constantly. If you want a less creamy fudge (I don't know why you would, but whatever), cook for 6-6.5 minutes instead of 5.

- Remove from heat and dump the chocolate chips in. Stir quickly to melt the chips and combine. It should all come together and be smooth and consistent. If it starts to stiffen up before you're done mixing, put it back on LOW heat while stirring, but be VERY careful not to burn it. Stir in the vanilla if you're using it.

- Pour into the foil-lined pan and spread it out evenly

- Put into fridge for 2 hours to set.

Cut it up and enjoy! Best at room temperature.

Problems I've encountered:

Like I've said, twice I've had it turn into a clumpy, grainy, oily mess. This stuff is inedible and unsalvageable and I tossed it both times after trying to save it. I blame either cheap marshmallow creme or stirring in the chocolate while the pot was still on the heat (burning the chocolate). I've had NO problem with the homemade creme and a quality saucepan providing even heat.

Make sure you really stir CONSTANTLY. Don't take a break for a couple seconds to rest your hand or do something else, because this stuff is mostly sugar and will burn quickly once it gets hot. A little bit of brown won't hurt it, but too much will affect the flavour and texture. Stir right down to the bottom of the pan and make sure you cover the whole pan. This is why I suggest a silicon spatula, as its coverage is much better than a more rigid spoon.

Pour as soon as you're happy with the consistency, because it will start to set quickly and can be a pain to get out of the pot if it does. For this reason, make sure you can actually lift and pour from the pot you're using.

Variations:

You can add 1/2 cup of chopped nuts with the vanilla if you want. I don't, since I prefer not dying. I imagine 1/2 cup of M&Ms, mini marshmallows, peppermint candies, toffee pieces, or anything else you can think of could be used as well.

No reason this couldn't be all white chocolate, or semi-sweet chocolate, or milk chocolate, or dark chocolate, or any combination of the above. I've found this combination gets the best reception though.

You could also use butterscotch chips instead of chocolate if you want butterscotch fudge.

Substitue mint extract for the vanilla extract for mint chocolate fudge. Or any extract (orange, strawberry, rum extract, etc.) to add a hint of another flavour.

Two Days

ZOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!

THIS Sunday, January 4th, and 9pm EST (that's 21:00 EST for you military types), Julius Goat will be hosting THE tournament of Sunday, January 4th at 9pm EST (21:00 EST). For a MERE $50+5 on Full Tilt (password: busto), you can toss away a percentage of your bankroll!

Superstacks! $0 added to the prize pool! NO OVERLAY AT ALL! High probability of ZERO red pros playing! Potentially dozens of donkeys willing to go all-in with 2P0K on an open-ended straight-flushing flop against 3 raisers! WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?

I know *I'LL* be there, and I haven't played on Full Tilt in over a month! I reloaded JUST TO PLAY IN THIS TOURNAMENT! It will be my first Blogger Tournament since, like, October! It will be THE first blogger tournament of 2009! I like exclamation marks! Don't you want to say you were there when your grandchildren ask? It's so much better than saying "I was porking grandma in the back seat of our new hybrid rental car! Man, your grandma needs it like a bedouin needs water." Because, you know, old people sex is gross.

I'm so there, that even if a busload of female Swedish supermodel nymphomaniacs breaks down in my BEDROOM, I won't unregister. I won't be playing poker in that situation either, but I won't withdraw my money from the game. Well, maybe I'll check in from time-to-time to see if I got aces or not, and then push all in a walk away, so that when I win the hand, you all have to wait like 30 seconds the next hand for the program to auto-sit-me-out. Because, you know, I'll have other things to do... like fill out insurance forms for a FUCKING BUS BREAKING DOWN ON THE 7th FLOOR OF A CONDOMINIUM. Also, maybe some canasta or whatever you do with Swedish supermodel nymphomaniacs.

Right, so anyway, go sign "the fuck" up for this kick-ass, brilliant, idiotic, ingeniously moronic tournament. I'm already there! Seriously, I'm sitting at virtual felt, wondering where everybody is. Helloooooooo? Hello? Oh, Hi! Didn't see you there. Welcome to the game... care for a roofiecolada?

(Bad Bankroll Management Tournament, Full Tilt - Sunday, January 4th, 9:00pm EST (21:00 EST, 22:00 AST, 20:00 CST, 19:00 MST, 18:00 PST, 26:00 UTC, 22:30 in Newfoundland) Password - busto.)

Bonne Année!

Everybody have Earth-shaking, shiver-inducing, rock-n-rollin' New Years plans for tonight?

Oh, you're playing The Mookie. That's cool. I have no money on FT until tomorrow. Such willpower have I!

I'll be at a party, possibly drinking my face off, more likely mixing drinks for people who have dubbed me their personal bartender. Let me warn you, the drunker I am, the drunker I'll make you. Also, I prefer drinks that are ONLY alcohol.

I've had trepidations about this party, mostly because the number of people I actually know there could be small. But I'm swinging my thought process over to the "fuck it, go and have a blast anyway" mentality, which is always the right state of mind to go to a party in.

Every year I don't hold the party, I'm reminded why I do. I bring all my circles of friends into one cohesive mess of bodies. 30-40 people mingling about in my condo, some getting reaquainted, others meeting for the first time, and most saying, "Hey! What's new since last week?" When I don't hold it, the groups splinter and I get pulled three ways, feeling bad about the ones I don't make it to.

Plus, I throw a pretty kick-ass New Year's hootenanny. Which is probably why everyone checks with me before organizing their own. I was asked at least 4 times in the last two weeks, "Are you throwing a party?" Silly humans should know that when I throw a New Year's party, the notice goes out in October so you have no excuse to get out of it.

So tonight I'll drive to my friend's place, drink my face off, and drive home. No... wait... that's asinine. I'll take the streetcar to my friend's place, drink my face off, and then see who wins the streetcar vs cab battle royal for the honour of taking my ass home. Driving drunk is idiotic.

Be safe, get home alive, and have a blast with whatever you do tonight. Tomorrow's a new year! Unless you're Chinese (or any of the other cultures that celebrate the lunar New Year) or Jewish, in which case tomorrow is Thursday and a strange mid-week day off.

Everything Must Go!

Remember when I talked about how terrible the retail picture was for the holidays? Worst holiday shopping in nearly FORTY YEARS.

Somewhere around 150,000 stores closed in the US this year. Another 200,000 is expected in 2009. 2000-3000 malls expected to close, most in the early Spring.

If I said I was surprised, I'd be a liar. Granted, the actual numbers are dumbfounding.

Here's a list of retail store closings. How many of these were near you?

So, with retail numbers down, stores closing, malls closing, and companies tightening belts, that means HUGE retail sector job losses, defaulted commercial mortgages, and the small banks that rely on those mortgages collapsing.

Not to mention the towns like Wasilla that are heavily financed by sales tax from their big box plazas and malls. They'll find themselves in debt or even bankrupt, cutting municipal services and public sector wages and benefits to stay afloat.

Towns go bankrupt, malls and stores close, jobs are lost, small banks collapse? Means more lost houses, more tough times, more saving, less spending, and more reliance on government help.

Military enlistment is up, which is where people flock for job security now. This costs the government more in defense spending, which is exactly where they should be CUTTING funds to try and save the US economy (since they're currently spending more than they make, which makes getting out of hock impossible). I'm sure Canada would buy Alaska and Florida off you for the right price.

So please, if anyone talks about a quick recovery... smack them... HARD. This ain't over by a long shot. 2009 ain't going to be much better than 2008.

Crackers

A story about finding money. A woman found $10k in a box of crackers she got from Whole Foods. Turns out an elderly woman had taken her life savings out of the bank because she was afraid of the economic problems. She hid the money in a box of crackers, and then forgot and returned the crackers to Whole Foods, where this other woman bought them.

I had a couple problems with the article.

Whole Foods claims returned foods are sent to compost, but a mix up had this box put back on the shelf. Later on, the finder says she would have noticed an open box, so the old woman must have glued it shut. This tells me that Whole Foods policy is actually "if it's not opened, put it back on the shelf." Which makes sense I guess, and not too many people will reverse-shoplift by poisoning packaged foods and replacing them on the shelf (yah, now you're paranoid too). It also tells me that old women are sneaky cheats. Let's assume this box of crackers is $5 because it's Whole Foods. The woman gets home, opens the box (but not the interior bag?), and decides she doesn't want them after all, so GLUES the box top back together and returns them!

Also, the couple who returned the money never heard from the old woman. You miraculously get your life savings returned after you've been told they're probably sitting in a compost heap and you don't even call to say thank you? This old woman is either senile or a complete bitch. I'd hate to be the kids on her lawn.

Save Us

Could my Full Tilt reload timing be any more perfect? I haven't missed a TOC yet, and I don't intend to start.

So much for going easy on the poker... or sanity.

And One Step Back

There's a handful of things I did wrong last night on the poker front.

I was taking care of a bunch of things as the evening progressed. I'd wandered around my fair city a bit, checking out various stores. I got home around 7, threw together a messy, hot turkey sandwhich (no more turkey leftovers! now to finish the beef), and sat myself down in front of the TV. I ate, and watched some TV on DVD. Then I watched another episode, because it was a two-parter. Then I realized I had chores to do. Then I took a phone call. Then I noticed the 70k was starting 2 minutes ago. I paid my buy-in and walked away to do those chores. Mistake 1.

I wasn't in the mindset to play, as I had other things that NEEDED doing, and in fact neglected one of those things in the end. I bought in and didn't play for half an hour. Now, I didn't miss much in that time, but the pocket jacks might have made a difference... who knows?

But damn if the DVD I was watching didn't keep dragging me along to the next episode, so I popped it into my computer and opened a window. Mistake 2.

I'm playing the $70k, a game that has a decent structure and not-so-donkish play and distract myself from paying any attention to my competition or the trends at the table.

During this, I managed to aggressively chip up, get lucky a couple times, coerce the same donkey into calling into my superior hands (AA vs AQ to cripple him and AQ vs AJ to bust him), and maintain an average stack with a not horrible M. Then that started to peter out as antes kicked in, and I went out on a hand that I don't actually regret.

KQh in position facing a raise to 3x the BB preflop. I think about re-raising, but that would commit me against a stack 3.5x my size who likely wouldn't fold. I call. Flop comes two hearts and the raiser checks. I push, figuring the overbet MIGHT get him off a non-scary flop and happy with my draw if he calls. He calls with rockets and I'm at a 2:1 disadvantage. Whoops. My draw doesn't hit and I'm done.

Now, as usual, I don't regret the hand I went out on, but I shouldn't have been playing in the first place. Ideally, I'd have registered earlier, or even satellited in cheaply, and had time to prepare. Instead, I was thirsty, distracted, and rushed when I sat down. Then I added more distraction to the mix with the DVD, and probably cost myself some opportunities to chip up early. A stronger chip position changes that final hand in a number of ways.

I might have re-raised preflop, and figured I was beat before the flop. I could have outchipped my opponent, keeping me alive longer after losing. I wouldn't have pushed on that flop, but just bet out or checked, saving myself money. In short, my previous mistakes changed my later play, and cost me the game. Which is sad, because when I WAS paying attention, I was once again on my game.

I imagine I won't see any cards tonight, nor tomorrow. In fact, it might not be until the BBmT on the 4th that I sit down at the virtual felt again.

I see January 1st (or thereabouts) as a fresh start poker-wise this time around. The last few months have seen far less poker in my life than the 3 years previous, and it's refreshing. The days leading up to the new year have proven to be a nice warm-up and refresher for 2009. I expect better things.

Thank Jordan

Yah, this Jordan. He went and posted about recurring themes in our blogs. This isn't about that. It's about his second point - that we're constantly relearning what we've learned in poker.

This was something I realized over the weekend. I'd finally reloaded on Stars and was able to play with a bit more abandon. Getting out of the doldrums of $5 turbo SnGs and $2 MTTs reminded me why I stopped playing down there in the first place. The play is simply horrendous. I'd get calls with 2nd pair no draw that would hit, or someone would flop the the double gutshot straight with unsuited 2-gappers after my re-raise of the preflop raiser. Shit like that can be disheartening, because you're relegated to playing your cards and praying for your hands to hold. Nobody can be bluffed off anything, and concepts like position and pressure are meaningless. If you can't trap with the stone cold nuts, then you're flipping coins.

So back to $20 games, and $40 satellites, and $5 rebuys (talk about a cheap way to get into the 70k - $10 invested, 20 seats, and 58 runners left at the break). It was like a dormant part of my poker brain sputtered to life as I played. Position became important again. Being cognizant of the stories both I and my opponent were telling held the key to victory. Reads meant more than knowing I had better cards, they meant knowing I could push my opponent off his sub-par hand with air. Playing the donkfest that was the World Record game was surprisingly easy until the blinds finally caught up with me after 3 hours, because my starting table had (oddly enough) some people who actually knew how to play poker. The Sunday (3.5) Million, horrible structure aside, saw well-timed moves rewarded, and well-laid traps paid off. All those things I've spent the last 3+ years learning stirred awake and came into play.

Of course, my old friend distraction came along for the ride and cost me some key spots. His buddy regret tried to get a foothold as well as great decisions were rewarded with could-have-been-magnificent suckouts if I hadn't folded, but I kept him away as best I could. The times decisions turned out to be poor and were rewarded by me NOT going busto on the river mitigated ol' regret somewhat. In the end, if I'd left the TV off and filled my screen with poker windows, I probably would have fared better. But in the end, for the first time in months, I felt on my game again. It wasn't cradle-to-grave, but there were moments of absolute clarity and runs of confidence and infallibility that I have missed. Looks like I'm getting back into the groove just in time for the new year and the Full Tilt reload. I can't wait for Goat's BBmT on January 4th.

On Bread

There are some smells in this world that are unbeatable. Fresh chocolate chip cookies. Roast turkey. Roast beef. Hell, just about roast anything. There's undoubtedly a smell from mom's kitchen that you wish you could capture in a bottle.

But universally, there's the smell of fresh bread. Be it naan in India, baguettes in France, soda bread in Ireland, rye in Russia, or the smell near the Wonder Bread factory in the US, there's nothing quite like the smell of fresh baked bread.

So I'm incredibly happy having a breadmaker on indefinite loan at my place. Sure, I'd like to mix and knead the dough by hand before shaping the loaf and placing it in the oven, but there's no way I'd be able to wake to that smell in the morning if I had to do it that way.

But every silver lining has a dark cloud. In this case, it's a very small cloud that's a lightly tarnished silver instead of dark. Recipes.

The Black & Decker breadmaker I have has a limited number of recipes supplied that cover a wide gamut of bread types. All of them work quite nicely. To expand on this though, one need turn to other source. Enter Bread Machine Magic. A book I picked up for my friend but somehow stayed with me. It has page after page of bread recipes. Some require sourdough starters, others require exotic ingredients, but most are variations on a theme. The problem is - they don't seem to be quite right.

The bread comes out fine. It's a good colour, good texture and consistency, and good size. The problem lies in the flavour. I've only made a couple loaves from the book so far, but both suffered from not quite going far enough.

The egg bread was good, but lacked the sweetness I was looking for. Looking back, the texture might have been a bit off too. The Challa my friend made (by hand) for Christmas was pretty much the exact flavour and texture I was looking for in the egg bread. So now I must look to replicate this. I suspect more egg and more sugar might be required.

The herb bread I made this weekend looks good, but suffers from lack of herb flavour and an annoying onion undertone. This may be a result of stale dried herbs, or not enough of them. The onion is understandable (1/2 cup of chopped onion sautéed for a 1.5 lb loaf), and is probably the right amount... if the herbs were more pronounced. So more adjustments need be made.

And of course, there's that big part of me that wants to say "fie!" to recipes in toto. That's the part that will get me researching what exactly makes a bread machine recipe differ from a hand-made recipe. The bread machine books claim their recipes are specially designed for machines... I question the veracity of this statement. I shall endeavour to divine proportions, weights, measures, and means in the creation of these breads, and create based on my findings.

After all, if I screw up, it's what... $0.30 worth of ingredients? $1.20 if eggs are involved.

Brief Rant

What the fuck is this Bromance shit? It's being advertised non-stop on whatever channel I have in the background (I think it's an MTV show, but since CTV owns MTV and everything else in Canada now, the ad is on every fucking channel). Brody Jenner (just discovered he even existed, shows how much I'm into reality TV) is looking for a new best friend to have a "bromance" with?

Why not just call it Gay Bachelor and end it there? At least Gay Bachelor would be mildly progressive instead of frat boys trying to pretend that competing to be friends with some never-was guy who's entire raison d'être seems to be filling in time in bad television shows is anything BUT homoerotic. How many times will the phrase "dude, this is totally NOT gay" be said?

Seriously? BROMANCE? WTF? And people thought I was gay.

You Mean I Have to Get Dressed?

Is it Monday already? I guess I'm lucky to have realized that at some point.

The extended long weekend threw me off completely by Friday. The fact I didn't leave my condo on Saturday or Sunday didn't help either. But here I am on Monday at work, pants on and everything.

So how were your holidays?

I spent Christmas Eve and the first half of Christmas Day at my folks' place. With my youngest brother in Whistler this year (did I mention he was trapped in that gondola accident a couple weeks ago? He's fine, but that was the least fun thing that's happened to him in a while), it was a much more low-key affair than usual. A handful of presents, mostly for the sake of giving presents, and generally hanging around chatting here and there. We did a full turkey dinner around 1pm, because I had plans in the evening. All-in-all, pretty uneventful.

Although I did get a fair bit of online boxing day shopping done. The online sales always start Christmas Eve, so I took advantage. Sometime this week there will be a slew of boxes arriving at my place. A new receiever (Yamaha 6190/VX1800), a Blu-Ray player (Panasonic DMP-BD35), and a slew of Blu-Ray discs and DVDs. I've also got some cables on order, so once everything arrives, it will be time to dismantle my home entertainment unit and rejig everything for pure awesomeness.

Yah, I know the point of going with the Panasonic instead of the PS3 was to avoid the receiver costs. What can I say? I'm a sucker for upgrading my technology. I opted against the PS3 simply because I know I won't use it. I barely play the games I already have on the Wii and PC and DS, and very little on the PS3 interests me anyway. I have a HD streaming device and DVR already, that is portable to boot. Plus, the Panasonic I did get was $120 less than a PS3 alone, nevermind adding on the remote, extra controllers, etc..

Now I should look into wireless bridges.

Anyway, I got home Christmas afternoon and hung out with my best friend. She's sans-family during holidays, so I'm it. We exchanged presents (tons on both sides, I now have a kick-ass vintage bar set), and then go to cooking. Christmas dinner number two was an organic sirloin roast (fantastic!), roast vegetables (great!), mashed potatoes (creamy delicious!), challa (because it's tastes so good!), and sautéed collard greens and garlic (bright and tasty!). The roast was a bit rare (still not sure why, it's possible my thermometer is suddenly a bit off, or I put it in too deep), but the ends were perfect and another 20 min in the oven fixed the rest. So between that and the turkey, I've got leftovers a-plenty for the week. There's a reason I made a herb bread on Saturday night (more on that in another post).

Boxing day was spent indoors. I woke up at 1-something and decided against hitting the crowds at the mall. Instead I hung out with my friend, watched a couple movies (FYI - Get Smart was better than expected and Semi-Pro is Will Ferrell Movie 2008, and I'm fine with that), and almost got the car stuck in the snow. I did get the car stuck behind two other cars that were stuck behind a car stuck in the snow though. I was about to back up down the street when another car came up behind me and honked... like I could do anything. He eventually clued in that he was a complete moron and backed up himself, allowing me to get off that road and head home.

Saturday and Sunday? Never left the condo. I satellited into into the $70 grand and the Sunday Million (both on Stars) on Saturday. The 70g didn't go so hot. The Million was going fine (over $3MM pot, and over 16,000 entrants, not too shabby at all) until the horrible structure caught up to me and a flopped flush draw didn't get there. The World Record tourney (35,000 entrants, wow) went slightly better, with me going out around 3100 for a small $24 profit (top 8750 paid... what ridiculous numbers). Overall, a very laid-back extra-long weekend.

A quick story. I woke up around 3-something on Saturday afternoon. At 4:30 someone knocked at my door. I wasn't expecting anyone, but wandered over and looked through the peephole. Some guy I don't know with a suitcase. He either has the wrong place or is selling something. I either case, I don't feel like answering the door in my pajamas. I wait for him to leave. He keeps knocking. Finally, he turns to go and so do I. I guess he saw the shift in light through the peephole because he turned back around and started knocking again, and calling out "Hello? Hello?". He KEEPS knocking, and tries to open the door! Finally I throw open the door and ask "can I HELP YOU?"

"Oh! Oh shit. I'm sorry. I'm... I'm... xxxC?"

"Other building."

"Damn. Sorry. I'm sorry..."

"Yah, bye."

Door closed.

What the fuck? Nobody answers your incessant knocking and cries and you keep trying? There are three towers in my complex, and it didn't occur to you that you might have guessed wrong? How about asking at the front desk where you're supposed to go instead of randomly guessing? I'm just glad my door was locked.

One final thing. A standard joke in Toronto is to make fun of Buffalo always being on fire. Think the Springfield tire fire... that's what we think of when we think of Buffalo.

Except it's far less funny when it affects someone you know. We all know VinNay. He's fine, but his friend Jeff's place just burnt down. Details are on Vin's site and the site set up to help Jeff out. I know it'd be disasterous if I lost my place, but I'd be devestated if I lost my pets as well. Go take a look, and throw a couple bucks to a complete stranger who needs help. Fuck, to have that happen over the holidays too.

World Record Attempt?

500k guarantee on Stars on Sunday. $11 buy-in. Aiming for 30,000 players!

3000 starting chips, and what looks like a fairly decent structure for what looks like a donkey tournament. That's 90,000,000 chips in play!

And the Sunday game is a $2.5 million guarantee. Looks like a good Sunday for Stars.

Merry Christmas

Jew? Muslim? Hindu? Buddhist? Taoist? Daoist? Shintoist? Confucianist? Satanist? Atheist? Agnostic? Deist? Mormon? Jehova's Witness? Rastafarian? Pastafarian? Cultist?

I don't care. Merry Christmas! It's Christmas for me, and I wish you a Merry one.

Now back to Stars, where I finally found a mildly comfortable way to deposit a few bucks. Still sitting at zero on Tilt until Seacrest wishes me a Happy New Year.

Retailers Can Bite Me

I think I'm done my Christmas shopping. Oh shit, I'm meeting with friends tonight and didn't get them anything. Whoops. Other than that though... done. Except for the friends I'll see after Christmas and get gifts for during Boxing week or something.

Anyway, last night involved some retail frustration.

First, I call up Downtown Camera to see if they have the lens I want in stock. They've got the cheapest local price I can find. Yup, they've got a bunch. I ask, "are you having a boxing day sale?" and they drop the price $30 right away with, "You can have it for $350 today".

Great! A co-worker is going there anyway to pick up a camera I recommended. Hell, he didn't know the store existed until I told him about it that morning. I've had pretty much all good experiences there. He gets there, and they claim there's no way my phone call happened. He gets the guy to ask around the store and nobody admits to talking to me. What the fuck? So they won't honour the price I was quoted over the phone. I tell him to forget it, that I'll fight the crowds on Boxing Day, since I don't NEED the lens for Christmas (but it would have been nice for some family pictures). I'm just glad he was already going, because if I'd trudged through the snow and cold to be called a liar, I would have been even more pissed off.

While this is going on, I'm heading over to a quirky shop in little Italy. They had a Christmas card that would be perfect for a friend of mine. Of course, this was two months ago. I didn't pick it up then, and of course, it's not there now. Waste of a trip and token... so I picked up another card for another friend. This one is entirely my fault though, so I can't be upset at anyone but myself.

Then I head to my next destination. This visit is relatively painless, except that the first person I got to help me grabbed the wrong model of what I was buying. Lucky for me, I had to go to another part of the store for something else and when I returned had a new clerk, who grabbed the right one. The first tried to correct him, but he pointed out she was wrong (I even asked for the specific model and she got it wrong... oy).

Then I have one more stop at a store that I know closes at 7. I'm across the road from it when I see them let people out and lock the door. I check my watch... sure enough, 6:53. Like hell they're closing 7 minutes early 3 days before Christmas. I knock on the door and they look over... I give the "what the fuck?!" look and they reluctantly open the door and let me in. Lucky for them, I knew EXACTLY what I was buying and it required minimal effort on their part. Still though, these last days before Christmas are crunch time and you close your store early? Fuck that!

Then I walked home past the spinning truck tires, honking horns, near-misses, and general chaos, happy I live downtown and don't have to drive in this shit.

Tonight is drinks with friends down the hall, but I'll have to at least swing by the ol' booze place for a gift for them. Then again, they just bought a new place, so maybe I can find something a bit more personal... not that I have any desire to actually shop.

Sweets Pictures

Finally wrapped up the baking portion of Christmas last night when I finished the marshmallows, made some wreaths, and baked the cookie dough.

That Went Quickly

How is it Monday already?? HOW? WHY? WHAT? WHO? WHERE? WHEN? HUH?

I woke up 2 or 3 times this morning in a daze. First I imagined that time didn't quite work the way it really does, but that somehow my clock was synched up with the alarm through some temporal twist of fate. My bed was also 30 miles wide yet I managed to traverse it in less than a second to slam my hand down on the "off" button (snooze is for pussies!). Then I fell asleep again. I had a dream that I was waking up like I usually do (in brief, blinking moments where I stare at the clock and determine how much more time I have), except that my sense of time was distorted and I figured 9:00 was plenty of time for more sleep. In this dream I awoke at 10am, and realized that I was already 30 minutes later than as late as I could be, and panicked. As I ran around in my parent's house in my dream, it never occured to me that I was getting changed in the den. Finally, I woke up in the real world (or is it?) and realized it was, in fact, 8:30am and while later than I'd like, it was not beyond the point of no return.

Yah, it's one of those Mondays.

I spent Friday night at home practicing ye old culinary techniques. I made marshamallows (really Alan, they're quite simple and delicious), which are essentially gelatin, corn syrup, and then more sugar, and a lot of mixing. I made mint chocolate chip cookie dough. I made shortbread and coated pieces of it with hot fudge. I called it a night at 5am (two hours of Prince of Persia were jammed in there too).

I got a phone call at the ungodly hour of 12:30pm that woke me up. I fell back asleep for another hour. I slowly got myself together and then got back to the kitchen. I wanted to make chocolate fudge for a party that night (oh the fudgepacking jokes... okay, one joke, repeated every time anyone discovered the fudge... I wonder how the recently out-of-the-closet gay guy took it... oh, wait, he made it too). The problem was... no marshmallow creme, no milk chocolate. So I made marshmallow creme (waaay more than necessary), and substituted white chocoloate and semi-sweet + sugar for the milk chocolate, and it made it better. I simultaneously made strawberry ice cream, which I added the fudge-covered shortbread to in a (generally successful) attempt to recreate Ben & Jerry's now defunct "Cool Britannia" ice cream for my best friend.

I never got around to the corn flake wreaths, which was the point of making marshmallows the day before.

I was cleaning up as my ride arrived, which was fine, since he was early. We got away to a pretty good birthday dinner and party, where the fudge and shortbread was loved by all. I got home around 3am. I wrapped presents, cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, played some more video games, and got to bed around 6am.

Then my phone rang at the ungodly hour of 1:30pm. I went back to bed, and was up at 4pm. I eventually was in a more human state in time to head out for Sushi down the road in the frigid wind. It's a 5 minute walk that's quite easy in the summer... it's a 4 hour walk through arctic tundra in the winter. The sushi was quite good though. Got back home with my friend, gave her the ice cream, baked up some of that chocolate chip cookie dough (MUCH better than last time), and got my ass kicked in Monopoly. I played some more Prince of Persia and called it a night around 2am... which brings us back to this morning.

I still want to get out after work to pick up a few last presents and cards before getting home and finally making those corn flake wreaths. Tomorrow is pre-Christmas drinks with friends down the hall, Wednesday is a half-day at work before heading to the folks' for Christmas. Thursday is Christmas lunch before coming back downtown for Christmas dinner. Friday is Boxing Day which means hitting the downtown stores for bargain hunting. I love Christmas, but man, can it can be exhausting.

New York State of Mind

The City That Best Fits You Is New York City

70% New York City 65% Philadelphia 65% San Francisco 60% Denver 55% Boston

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Well That Felt Better

It's nice when a plan comes together... more-or-less.

Got the bulk of my Christmas shopping done yesterday. I missed the company Christmas party (and more importantly, the charity auction and free box of cookies), but that isn't that big of a deal.

I'm one of those people who will break out a Christmas carol in July, but this year I just wasn't feeling the spirit. Maybe it was the anticipation of Vegas that dulled it at first, followed by being in a desert, pre-snow, and inundated with cheesy covers of secular standards. Whatever the case, with 20cm (8") of snow falling at the moment, it's feeling more like Christmas in these parts.

Sadly, I am still sans tree. I really have no need for a real one, so went looking for the faux variety. Sadly, the options were limited and not that appealing. There's still one place to check out, but somehow I doubt the Noma ones will be all that impressive.

As my mother always says, "nobody's ever been sorry about buying quality." Which probably means I take a look at the high-end ones, the Balsam Hill, Frontgate, or Hammacher Schlemmer it seems (although I've seen some good things about Tree Classics as well). Anybody have any experience with these? When did buying a Christmas tree get complicated?

A few more items to pick up, and I should be pretty much done. I'm still in shock that Christmas is less than a week away now.

Now to figure out what's actually going on that day.

Or maybe I'll just have a nice cup of hot chocolate and pull out some recipes and make some Christmas treats. Yah, this will be a year for fudge again, and cookies, and maybe some corn flake wreaths. Mmmm... delicious corn flake wreaths.

Damn, maybe I'll make those tonight... with homemade marshmallows?

Remind Me To Go Home

Yesterday's original plan:

- Come in to work
- Do work
- Do Christmas shopping on way home
- Go home
- Make dinner (the plan involved poutine)
- Call family to see what the Christmas plans are
- E-mail brother who was stuck in a gondola for 3 hours on Tuesday at Whistler/Blackcomb
- Do a couple chores
- Play 10pm PLO8 Stars blogger game
- Sleep

What actually happened:

- Went to work
- Toronto Stock Exchange doesn't open all day, so we sit on our hands and kill time
- Went to bar with a couple co-workers to meet up with our favourite ex-co-worker
- Stayed at bar until 11pm
- Grabbed and ate McD's on way home
- Checked e-mail
- Talked to friend
- Ordered and shipped a Christmas gift to Switzerland
- Slept

Yah, productivity wasn't quite has high as expected. So today I skip the company Christmas party to do some more shopping (although I just took care of a whack of it online, just in time). I endeavour to avoid the malls at this time of year, which isn't THAT hard when you live downtown, but I'll probably have to brave the big one regardless. It seems I also need a new coat, possibly a Christmas tree (artificial all the way!), and who knows what else? Elbows high! Then, if there's time, a return to the company party for the auction.

Crisis? What crisis? I'm spending like it's going out of style. I can't wait until Boxing day.

Shit, that reminds me... need to check out a couple charity sites too. I recommend Child's Play.