Celebrity Sightings

Even though I live in Hollywood North these days, I had to leave Vancouver to get some celebrity sightings.
On my flight back to Philly two weeks ago, I had a layover in O'Hare. There I spotted Duff from Charm City Cakes, star of Ace of Cakes. He was just waiting for his next flight; some people recognized him but he's a little lover profile.
Then last week I was at John's company's Christmas dinner and spotted a woman who looked familiar. I kept glancing at her trying to figure out if she just looked a lot like Jennifer Love Hewitt or if it really was her. It was. She was there with her boyfriend Jamie Kennedy and his parents (they're from the area).
So that's who I've seen thus far. I'll be traveling some more in the next week and hitting up the L.A. area so maybe I'll see some other vaguely famous people.

Snow!

It snowed today! Real snow. Huge big flakes that accumulated, maybe a couple centimeters. Nothing extraordinary but it was exciting because I didn't expect any snow around here. Fortunately, it wasn't enough now to freak Vancouver out. And it didn't interrupt anyone's jogging routines. I walked down to Kits Beach and explored Kits Point a bit more than I had before. I went along the seawall a bit and found a totem pole. But then I started getting cold so I went back home. But it finally feels like a real winter! I just hope it doesn't snow on Wednesday when I'm flying home.

Canadian Secrets

Slowly but surely I'm finding out things about Canada that they've been keeping secret. Today's secret: Caesars.
Did you know Canada has a drink called a Caesar? And that it is unofficially the official cocktail of Canada? Yeah, neither did I.

A fellow grad student was making dinner plans yesterday and announced that he'd be having Caesars that night. I thought he was talking about Caesar salads and thought that sounded like a delightful idea. He was on the phone and asked his girlfriend if she had Worcestershire sauce and pickles, then said that he would get the vodka. So naturally, I thought they would be pairing their salads with Bloody Marys. Wrong. Then he mentioned clamato juice. Fortunately, I didn't say anything that would reveal I had no idea what was going on.
When I got home, I decided to do some research on this. A quick search revealed the best kept secret in Canadian drinking.
Wikipedia
other website
Now, this seems suspiciously similar to Bloody Marys but it should be noted that in regular speech it's not called a Bloody Caesar. You might hear it called that but obviously the person saying that is not Canadian. This drink was a revelation to me. Remember a couple years back when clamato juice came on the scene in the U.S.? Budweiser introduced the ill-conceived "Chelada" which has since disappeared. I think if that clamato/beer combo was done correctly, I could like it though. Anyway, apparently Mott's printed a Caesar recipe on the label of their clamato juice, hoping the Americans would catch on. Nope. Didn't work. And Canada kept their secret.
Now I'm telling you and you can impress your friends with your international drink knowledge. Also, at some point over Christmas break I will be concocting Caesars for anyone who wants to try them with me.

Edit: Just spotted a Caesar in a Molson Canadian 67 commercial. Non-Canadians would mistake it for a Bloody Mary. I know better now.

Last Day of Term

Today is officially the last day of classes for this term. Whew. Now I only have one more paper, one more exam (well make that two with German), and one Latin recitation. Ok, I can do that. By this time next week, I'll be finished with all my work. I've agreed to help a professor with the index for his forthcoming book but that'll probably be a project for over break. While I think things are in control, I don't quite believe. There's that nagging feeling that I'm forgetting about something else. I've written so many to-do lists over the past two weeks that I can't keep track of them. They're essentially saying the same things, I think. Anyway, soon I'll be done with my first term at grad school! I don't even care if I did well or not, I just want to have passed. I'll probably only work up the courage to check my grades right before next term starts.

But on the fun side of things, there's a Christmas party tomorrow night and we're going to do some crafts. That's the only fun thing I have planned for the next 12 days.