It was really nice to see my family. But this Christmas really sucked. I have never been so pissed leaving a holiday gathering. Why somebody invited the aunt that nobody likes is beyond me. I almost wonder why I bothered to go. The most fun I had was hanging out with my brother in South FL away from all of the bullshit. Christmas Day was filled with fights and crying and me trying to get people to fucking smile. Even though I have come home to an empty apartment and no plans for the night its way better than having to hear people bitch about about who said what to whom. I hope you all had a better holiday than me.

I have been here since Thursday, I was promptly whisked away from my parents house near Daytona Beach by (e:john) to enjoy a few days in South Florida. It was mostly filled with driving and shopping but we did get a chance to sample a few good restaurants and watch the Maple Leafs beat the Panthers in overtime last night.

A few nights ago we went to an Argentine Steakhouse called Beafeaters in Hollywood. I went there in March last year when I was here. This place is pretty awesome. It is reasonably priced and they have some really good stuff that is hard to find elsewhere. For dinner I had the gaucho plate. It consisted of Churrasco(which is skirt steak), Blood Sausage, and Sweetbreads. I know nothing about Argentine cuisine but based on the menu offerings it seems to consist of meat, with sides of meat, our waitress also offered us a meat appetizer. It all tastes pretty good washed down with a pitcher of sangria. I have been told that Sangria is what the tourists drink in Spain and it usually consists of leftover fruit that is about to go bad. Which I tend to believe, but it doesn't stop me from drinking it because its damn refreshing when it's hot out. Afterward we stopped at the bar next door which has a great selection of beers that I have never seen outside of their respective countries. It appears the bar owner is Polish, and they have about 12 or so types of Polish beer, and an even bigger selection of Belgian Beers. It was strange to see a guy in a Blue Tusk shirt. Blue Tusk is one of the bars in Syracuse with a pretty decent selection of tap beers. I think they boast 69 or something like that.

They hangover cure was at Churchills, a British pub in Little Haiti to watch the Liverpool vs. Portsmouth game. I had my first bangers and mash ever, pretty greasy and delicious, sausages with mashed potatoes and a thin light onion gravy covering it. Since I'm on vacation we decided to get a nice Strongbow buzz going before noon in order to start the day off right. We did some shopping for ingredients/stuff and I found some brew appropriate for my Christmas day. This was the first time I have ever found Hofbrau Dunkel in this country. Although I did find out they have Hofbrauhaus locations all over the world other than Munich, including Miami, which is probably why they had it at this liquor store.

Saturday we went to the Toronto vs. Florida game at the Bank Atlantic center in Sunrise. Thankfully (e:john) and (e:lizabeth) are half season ticket holders and had an extra for me. I haven't ever been to this arena to see a game but of the few I have been to I would have to say it's the nicest. It's kind of odd to see the lone banner hanging from the rafters. There were as many Toronto fans in the crowd as there were Panthers fans. It's similar to being in Buffalo, there is no shortage of Ontario plates around here. There a bunch of restaurants serving "Canadian Cuisine" which I can only assume means poutine. I can't really think of anything else that is strictly Canadian other than maybe peameal bacon. So anyway Florida lost the game in OT on the penalty kill due to a bad call.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Since there has been two posts regarding Absinthe I thought I might share the lesson I recieved last night on how to drink the stuff. So I guess you are supposed to take this leaf shaped spoon with holes in it, and place a sugar cube in the center. Pour the absinthe over the sugar, and then light the what hasn't dissolved on fire. It gets cloudy and actually tastes slightly less like lighter fluid.

The last week of my life has been devoted to studying for my bio tests that are over as of 10:40 this morning. It has been trying reading the same chapters and reviewing the same dissections over and over. So tonight I am rewarding myself with some delicious home cooked well somewhat cooked food. Tonights menu was Steak Tartar and Frites. I have never tried to make this before but it was pretty fun. Really the single most important part is to use fresh sirloin and fresh eggs considering they are both raw. I know, I know it's dangerous to eat this. But I love this dish so much that it is worth the risk. There are a lot of ingredients but they are all pretty cheap except for the Cognac. So in no particular order you will need beef, egg yolks, parsley, dijon mustard, ketchup, cornichons, capers, onions, worcestershire, hot sauce, cognac, black pepper, and anchovies. You could if you were so inclined to read a recipe and measure all of it. But I just mixed the wet ingredients with the chopped beef and added everything else till it tasted good. I served it with some Samuel Smiths Oatmeal Stout. Making fries at home is a terrible mess but they taste so freaking good. I guess there is a bit of irony that I cooked the one thing that wouldn't harm me if eaten raw. But who the hell wants to eat raw potatoes? There is something very attractive to me about eating something that could potentially have me in the fetal position for a week. It's time I step it up though, I really need to visit a licensed Fugu chef one of these days!

This is really starting to piss me off. I can't find one bit of information on the subject that pertains to the actual theory. I seriously doubt that there is a real theory behind it. Everything I seem to find on the subject of ID is supporters trying to debunk Evolution. How is this the basis for a scientific theory? I think my favorite things to read are the Irreducible complexity and the watchmaker arguments. The creationists that are trying to get this crap taught in public school are either disturbingly misinformed or blissfully ignorant. I have watched two documentaries this week on this so it has really been on my mind. This semester I have been taking an Evolutionary Biology class and to be honest it wasn't my favorite subject from the start. But in the last month it has really become much more interesting. To study something that is amazingly still controversial is strange. I love to watch people walk forward to the professor to argue at the end of lecture. It seems odd, I have never witnessed someone question a physics professor on the validity of the theory of gravity, yet there they are arguing against Evolution because "it's just a theory". I guess I don't understand why some people of faith want so badly to insert hypotheses that are unable to be tested into the public school science curriculum. It is a dangerous thing to teach bad science to students. As an agnostic it actually wouldn't bother me to teach some sort of religion class in schools as long as it were and option and not mandatory. But keep it out of my science class!

So browsing through some airline forums yesterday I stumbled upon this little gem. . If you don't feel like reading I will sum it up. Apparently there is an airline called Metis Transpacific and is based in Macau. They allegedly offer three flights a week from Vancouver to Macau. The only problem is they don't actually exist. Their website is complete with photoshopped pictures of their aircraft and incorrect data about them. . You can purchase tickets through their website, however after you have made arrangements you can't pay by credit card, they want you to wire money to them. I can't believe there would be a rube dumb enough to fall for that. I guess wikipedia was initially fooled however. .

Have I mentioned I can't wait for this semester to be over? I'm starting to get nervous about getting into this Nuke Med Tech program. Last year they had 44 applicants for 14 spots. Hopefully my enthusiasm and grades in everything else will make up for my bad grade in physics. I do think physics is interesting but I just don't think in mathematical equations.

So I should be more concerned with finals but really all I can think about is where the hell I'm going to go on vacation this spring. It's really a shame the dollar sucks right now, that has pretty much ruled out a big potion of Europe this year. The thing that really sucks is all the cheap flights are to places that are really expensive. Sure a flight to London can be found for under $500 if you look real hard, But I would be limited to a week considering the cost of getting around and sleeping and such. Anyway so far my travel destination hopefuls are down to Vietnam, India, Iran, Dominican Republic, Northern Spain, Mozambique, Seychelles, and Mexico. In all likelihood Spain and Seychelles will not happen unless I hit a massive windfall this spring. Also cost of flights to Iran and Mozambique may rule those out. Does anyone have any suggestions to really awesome places that are off the beaten path, that are relatively cheap to travel in/too?? Preferably they will have cheap beer as well.

Ok so I know (e:paul) was interested and (e:drew) said he could be dragged out if it was planned. So I'm thinking of going out for sushi on Monday if anyone else is interested. I would like to try Wasabi because I have heard its really good. Does anyone have an opinion of that place? But I would definitely return to Kibirashi again. O is definitely out, I think their food sucks. Let me know, because I am definitely going but I figured it would be fun with more people than just myself.

"That Tenderloin was so juicy I could have sworn it was Filet Mignon!" He tipped so well that I didn't have the heart to tell him.

Well not really my hometown, or my relatives for that matter. I just bought my tickets to go to Florida to see my family for Christmas. I was so excited to find nonstop tickets at decent travel times for $213. I am the self-proclaimed king of finding good airfare. But this is way cheaper than the usual jacked up rates around holidays. Let me tell you how excited I am to be flying my 10th airline and my 6th Boeing jet. Most people get on the plane and ignore it, but I love flying on different aircraft. After this I only have three Boeing jets left before I have flown all of their commercial production models. I have never flown Airtran before so I'm hoping it's a good airline. Has anyone ever flown them? Also on the subject when did Jetblue become so freaking expensive? They used to be the first place I looked because they were so cheap. Now they same flight dates would cost me over $500! I have no loyalty to airlines whatsoever, those frequent flyer programs are so lame anyway. Everything is restricted and sometimes you have to fly standby just to redeem your miles. I really hope Virgin US comes to Buffalo so we can have some nice price wars between them Southwest and Jetblue.