Lenie and Adi Get Hobbies

My friends Adrianna and I have been close since the first grade. Through elementary and jr. high, we went to the same school, and aside from petty arguments every preteen girl goes through, were best friends.

Come high school, we were at different schools. Rival schools actually. I remember our first few weeks of school we'd call each other every night and compare notes on the bizarre experiences of life in a big school. Our jr. high after all, only had about 50 students. Our graduating class was 17 kids we'd known since preschool. Through high school, we remained close, even when we finally made friends at our new schools and didn't need the nightly phone calls anymore.

Now in university, majoring in journalism and music, we still get together and try to maintain our sanity with two huge course loads.  Two weeks ago we got together (our belated Christmas get together) and realized how lame we've both gotten. All we really do is school, all the time, and once we'd both talked about our classes and which profs we liked, there was an awful lull. So we decided we were going to make time for our hobbies. Adrianna is reading non-textbooks again and knitting a purse. I'm painting again taking time for my creative writing.

But to really make sure we stuck with this idea, we've decided to get together every other Friday and work on another hobby; cooking. I pick her up after my class on Friday afternoon every other week and we cook something. Our first time was yesterday, and we made Gingerbread Pancakes with Butterscotch Apples, as pictured above.

We got the recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, which I think is a book everyone should have in their kitchen. They turned out very well. If you like gingerbread but find it too hard, make these. The pancakes are basically like soft gingerbread. I would also suggest making a larger portion of the apples, as people pile them on their pancakes and they don't come out even.

As a result, I am a huge advocate of hobbies. Sure I may not have the perfect GPA I had last year, but I'm happier, and I have a life.

Needless to say, my family is also a huge fan of hobbies. They get to eat the leftovers.

Try our pancakes for yourself! I've included the recipe below.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 large Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and sliced

1/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 &1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1&1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1&1/2 tablespoons ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 large egg

3 tablespoons molasses

3 tablespoons vegetable/canola oil

1. Melt butter in a large skillet. Add apples and cook, stirring occasionally until tender (about 10 min.) Stir in brown sugar, 2 tablespoons water, lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook until bubbles. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl stir together flour, sugar, ginger, remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon, baking powder, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Combine 1/4 cup water, egg, molasses and oil. Add to to flour mixture and stir till just combined but not smooth. Add additional water as necessary to reach consistency of pancake batter.

3. Brush a non-stick skillet with a little oil, heat over medium heat. Add gingerbread mixture in tablespoons and make pancakes.

NOTE: We tripled this recipe, as it only serves 4. And again, make a bigger portion of apples if you want to come out even. Enjoy!

The Epic Adventure of Page Eight

As part of journalism school, we put out our own newspaper. Not just writing it, but the students are responsible for the website and the layout of the print edition. So every month, we have what we call, Production Days, where we lay out our monthly paper. Last Friday was a Production Day, and the experience was so frustratingly memorable, I am writing it down for my posterity. Or...my sisters, who will likely be the only people to read this page.

Scene: The Calgary Journal Newsroom, five minutes before production. Students are hurrying in to get a good computer terminal so they do not get stuck with the one where the spacebar doesn't work, or worse yet, the one where the shift key is missing. Enter Mild-Mannered Elena. And yes, she is mild-mannered at this point because she's just finished her Ethics essay and is thinking, "As soon as I finish production, I can go home, and it'll be the weekend. It won't take long." (Perhaps, Elena is naive as well as mild-mannered at this point).

Enter professor Terry, who does his usual beginning of production speech (which no one really takes in) and begins delegating people to work for different section editors according to how many pages that section has.

Elena looks around (no longer mild-mannered, more apprehensive), looking for an editor she likes. Sadly, there are few. She thinks wistfully back to last semester when she could always just work with Jessica Petillot.

Terry asks for volunteers for the Theme section, led by editor-in-chief, Scott. Elena volunteers with four of her friends, as Scott looks nice enough, and Theme should be an interesting enough section to work on.

Scott comes around giving out assignments and meeting his lab rats. This months theme is the recession (surprise, surprise).

Scott: (extending his hand) Hi, I'm Scott.

Elena: (putting down the sandwich she's in the middle of eating and trying to look professional) Hi, I'm Elena.

Scott: Elena Redd?

Elena: Yeah.

Scott: Wow, I really liked your story.

(Elena's liking of Editor Scott goes up)

Pages are assigned to the five Theme lab rats; Nori, Marie, Nichole, Kylie and Elena. Each will be given two pages to lay out and edit.

Scott: Okay, who wants to do the hardest page editing wise?

SILENCE.

Elena: (Already having her ego boosted that day) I'll do it.

Nori: (consulting layout diagram) You can't Elena. Your story is on one of these pages.

(Elena secretly thinks to herself that she looks awesome, because she volunteered, and she doesn't even have to do it, cause she has a good excuse)

Scott: That's okay. I don't mind if you edit your own work.

Elena: Oh okay.

Scott: Be sure to make your photo the largest, cause it's the best.

(Elena does a happy dance in her chair)

Cocky Elena sets to work, having her ego stroked much more then is healthy, and ignores all the warnings her professors and Nori have ever given her on trying to edit your own writing.

Her two pages have three stories between them. One, which is 1500 words, but be paired down to 1100 and gets it's own page. The other two (including Elena's) are both 800 words and must be paired down to 400 a piece. Elena chooses to begin with the other 800 word story, written by Zoey.

(Elena opens story)

Elena: Oh look! Zoey wrote her story on spending less on groceries. So did I. How did our professors not notice this?

(Elena edits down to 560 words, and is also relieved that Zoey's story centers more around the Good Food Box, where hers is all about buying in bulk. She then turns to her own story, and manages to get all her carefully crafted sentences down to 700, but no further)

Enter professor Janice, or rather, Elena takes notice of Janice. She really has been sitting with Marie for several minutes by the time Elena looks up.

Elena: (raising her hand) Janice? I need a hand editing.

Janice: (getting a chair and joining Elena) Goody, that's what I'm here for. And I'm prepared. (she holds up a plastic knife for "cutting." Elena can't decide between being amused or wierded out)

(Janice then proceeds to cut Elena's story down to 430 words, with Elena whimpering the whole way through. Thankfully, Janice also helps inflate Elena's ego by being as disappointed as Elena that the story must be cut down)

Beginning of Phase 2: Now that her stories are about the right size, Elena begins arranging them in InDesign. Zoey's story stretched out across the top and her own along the bottom.

Nori: (looking over from her own computer, where she is much farther along) Didn't Scott have that page with a vertical layout?

Elena: (trying to hide her dismay) I don't remember. I'll got ask him. (Elena walks over to the back room, where editors like to hide) Hey Scott, did you want page 8 to be vertical?

Scott: Oh yeah. We're a vertical section.

Elena: Fantastic. (she slumps back to her computer and starts from scratch. This is where she makes the transition from Cocky Elena to Annoyed Elena)

Problem one: Elena's story is longer, but the photo must be bigger.

Problem two: Zoey's is longer, but her photo is supposed to be smaller.

Problem three: Elena feels like a jerk cause it sounds like she's favouring her own work when she explains these problems to her classmates.

First, she tries putting in her photo. It looks so nice she reverts to Cocky Elena for 0.3 seconds. Elena's story and headline fit in nicely under the photo. Elena does a happy dance in her chair which Kylie makes fun of.

Then she tries putting Zoey's story in. Hers is much too long to for the space. Elena tries to edit, but can't cut anymore if she wants it to make sense. Reverts to Annoyed Elena.

Next plan, move Zoey's photo into space not needed for Elena's shorter story. Everything fits, but it looks ridiculous. Annoyed Elena evolves into Ballistic Elena.

Nori, who is already on her second page, leans over, seeing that Elena is about to explode.

Nori: Just make it a horizontal layout. (she takes the mouse from Elena's clenched fist and begins rearranging the page. Elena is slightly cowed)

Scott, who is walking by: Yeah, I guess you can make it a horizontal layout if it's not working.

Elena starts the page a third time. Everything fits and she begins to work in some of the more mundane details like photo credits and bylines. Kylie gets ready to leave, having finished her two pages. Tranfer to Jealous Elena.

The page fits! Elena is overjoyed! She calls over layout professor Brad to approve it. The end is in sight......

Brad rearranges the entire page. 

Ballistic Elena returns, and begins to bang her head against the desk. Nori passes over an Advil and some guacamole.

At last, at long last, the page is done, the photos have been resized, and it's passed final approval. Now all Elena has to do is one more page.....

Not surprisingly, I was the last lab rat left in the newsroom. And do you want to know the really sad thing? This is a pretty typical Production Day.

One of those moments

Last weekend I went up to Edmonton for the blessing of my youngest nephew, Teddy. It was great to catch up with family and all that jazz, but there was one experience that really stuck out to me as a sign I am getting old.

It was Saturday night, and my whole immediate family was gathered at my sister Jaima's for dinner. By the way, my immediate family includes three married sisters, who all have kids. We all got together and ate, and then, as with any gathering of different families, the children ran downstairs to play, declaring things like, "I'm batman!" or gibbering on about awesome trucks (my sisters kids are made up of five and half boys and one girl). My little brother went with them, as the young uncle who makes an excellent horse/batmobile. And I stayed upstairs.

No, I'm not trying to say, look at me, I'm a big girl now, in fact just the opposite. I wanted to stay upstairs with the adults, wash the dishes and talk about boring stuff.

I always tell my friends I'm like an old woman. I have back problems, neck problems, and bad feet, plus I hate really loud music. I think I just proved how old and boring I am again.

I need your input!

As most of you probably already know, I write the Simple Living beat at school. Or if you didn't know that, I'm the Calgary Journal's Martha Stuart, only I'm not going to jail and I have nothing to do with the stock market.

So, as my next story I'm doing a feature on kitchen gadgets, what's necessary, what's just cool to have, which don't live up to the expectation, and I'm putting out a general question to all people who happen upon this blog:

What kitchen gadget could you not live without?

Feel free to answer in the comments.

MRC - MRU - High School

Mount Royal College is currently on a kick to become a university. Why? I have no idea. I mean, the reason I went there was because it's not a university. I like my school for it's small class sizes, tiny campus, and personal approach to education. You're professors are not researchers, they are teachers. They can actually teach (most of the time). So I am a little leery of Mount Royal becoming a university. Why get rid of the things that make you different to become as impersonal as every other post-secondary institution?

Despite my fears, last year I chose to switch from my applied degree to a full communications degree. Though I originally came to Mount Royal for the hands on approach of the applied degree, somethings my favourite professor Ron said really stuck with me. Among them, the ideas that I don't know what I'll be doing five years down the road, and I may as well get as much education as possible. I figured why not? A Bachelor of Communications can open so many doors, and I can learn about my other interests besides journalism more easily with a BCmm. Or, so I thought.

As part of their implementation of the bachelor degrees, Mount Royal came up with the genius idea to make all degree students fulfill some general education requirements. The theory behind this idea is that if we fulfill these requirements, we will be better educated, well-rounded individuals. Still sound pretty good? Meet the Geneds:

Values, Beliefs and Identity

Community and Society

Communication

Numeracy and Scientific Literacy

Okay, you may think those still sound awesome, even if I'm not jazzed about Numeracy (I did after all, throw a party after my Math 30 diploma) but hold off on your judgement for a second. To complete your degree at Mount Royal, you must complete a foundation level course in each of these areas, a level two, and a level three in two of them.

The foundations are the ones that really bother me. They're so basic you'd expect to see them in jr. high. Like the one I'm taking right now for my Values, Beliefs and Identity requirement is called The Performing Arts in Popular Culture. It sounds like an easy course, if not a bit lame, but it's all about the 1960's. 

Why the chose that decade, I have no idea. Apparently memorizing "I have a dream" and being familiar with Dr. Strangelove is essential for my overall education. Cause heaven forbid my boss may one day pull me aside and demand that I tell him about the fashions of the 60's. Forget Google, if I don't pass my 60's class, I'm doomed.

And here's another one, next semester, I get to to take my foundation for my Communication cluster. The exciting choices are Writing for the Professions (in which they teach you how to write memos) or Critical Reading and Writing (basic English course on how to write an essay). I'M IN PROFESSIONAL WRITING SCHOOL! Why do I need to go back now and take writing for dummies?

I think some of these courses would actually be very helpful for kids coming right out of high school cause what they mostly do is teach students how to learn at a university level. But come on, I've been here for two years. I think I know what I'm doing now.

I find it interesting, that in MRC's attempts to reach a higher level of education they are now sinking lower and resembling the very worst parts of high school and jr. high.

How Many Frosty's Does It Take to Drive a Person Crazy?

Ahhh, the Christmas season. Family gathers to celebrate the birth of Christ and spend quality time together. I love it, and sometimes, I hate it.

No. I am not the Grinch. I merely hate certain commercialized aspects. Mainly, the countless number of Christmas carol remakes that play for a month wherever you turn.

Listening to the radio becomes a chore. No, I do not want to hear N'Sync's version of "The First Noel," I definitely never ever want to hear Christina Aguilera adding her whiny voice to "Angels We Have Heard on High," and Barbara Streisan's version of "Jingle Bells" basically destroys the song for me.

Why do these people find it necessary to butcher classic Christmas songs? Why???? And why do they have to play them all through the Christmas season? If I want to hear Christmas carols, I want to listen to the real version, not some popstars trying to make it "jazzy."

For some reason I will not attempt to explain (because I have no logical explanation), I decided to work retail over Christmas. So far I've stomached my disgust at the gross amount of materialism I get to witness everyday, but the music, that makes me cranky.

Not only do they play horrible Christmas carol remakes, but they do it with several versions of the same song, over and over and over again. I have heard every single version possible of "Frosty the Snowman," and "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," which are Christmas songs I'm not even that fond of in their original form, let alone the ones that cover every music genre known to man.

And they play the same songs everyday. I have heard Alanis Morrisette's version of "All I Want for Christmas is You," at least once everyday this week. Ahhhhh!

But then, the worst was yet to come, as this week I heard a version of "You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch." One of my favourite songs ever, what better lyrics are there then to call someone a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce? but this was the last straw. Someone decided to take this song from the classic cartoon, and turn it into a slow, sexy jazz number? Why would they do that?

Oh the things I do to get through school.

My only comfort is that I sing in my church choir. Singing Christmas carols there has restored my faith in Christmas music.

The Lesser of Two Evils?

Out of all the things I learned this summer working as a receptionist, this lesson was the most important; there is no such thing as a good insurance company.

No matter how you look at it, insurance companies all have the same credo; delay giving people money as long as possible.

An example of this is in my car, as you may know, I got in yet another car accident while driving home from Summerland in August. My sister, nephews and I were hit by some idiot running a red. Now the police report clearly says that the accident was 100% the other guys fault, there is no way my insurance could not pay me unless they're suggesting I don't go when the light turns green, and yet, they're delaying as long as possible.

For the past two months, my car has been held by the insurance while they "evaluate whether it's salvageable or not." Come on, two months for a mechanic to look at it? Mine can do that in a day.

And of course they'll pay for a rental car while they hold ours, but of course they don't cover the insurance on the rental, so we wind up paying anyway. Don't you just love insurance? Doesn't it make you feel so secure?

I thought the evil was only part of the insurance industry, but sadly, it's everywhere in the big business world. About the same time of the accident, I lost my cell phone. Now my phone was inherited from my sister, and still under her name, so in order to replace it, I need to be the rightful owner.

First Bell told me they wouldn't even talk to me until I had a credit card. I have many frustrating adventures with my bank, finally get one, and go back to Bell. Not even mentioning the credit card, they say they need Janine's approval, so they tell me to have her call, she lives in Finland, so they say a fax will be fine. The fax will take 24 hours to process.

The day after she's faxed it in, I call Bell, and this person tells me it will take 4-5 days. I'm annoyed, but wait the 5 days.

I call that day, and what's their story this time? We don't have the fax, your sister has to call us.

By this point, I'm really mad, I've never been a cranky customer before, but I was pissed. I get transferred to a supervisor, and he tries a new story; " Give it till Wednesday, it may not have been processed yet."

Eventually, I cheat. I pretend to be Janine, change my account, hand the phone to myself and get around their whole system in 20 minutes. Isn't the business world fun?