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Thanks conuly, I had no idea I was going to see fridaypoll get a mess of polltakers! No pressure for me, I guess I'm going to need to up my poll ideas in the future.

So today's a busy Monday! I finally got a break between the mess of a dozen and a half things to do and some of it is still pending. I'm eating right now at 4pm and I think it's more out of boredom than actual hunger.

I started writing after ten days thinking that I should do something, then I realized I should make that poll (I can't stop talking about it, can I?) and then I got busy at home packing for the trip.

Aside from that,

Cooking
Seems appropriate that my last post was about comparing the cold to something batter dipped, as I have finally figured out how to do a properly breaded pork chop.

I've gone full-on Simpsons: I made a breaded porkchop that Michelle approves of! I think I took the cheap route and even recycled old bread doing it; we had a baguette we barely tore through that became two cups of crumbs for this tactic.

Then, added dried oregano, garlic powder, ground parmesan, some MSG, and stirred around in the bowl and did a classic egg dip. I had so many crumbs that I double dipped (I don't recommend it since the breading becomes a bit much). Then pan fry until the crust is brown, and then oven bake for half an hour on a roasting grill.

I usually remove the bone after that too since Michelle gets picky about the bones (real easy since the meat's tender enough to fall off the bone). A pork chop with the bone in it I think has a better variety of texture and flavor than a boneless set, but I could be wrong too. I'll try this again with some boneless cuts in the future. The cost isn't enough to justify the difference anyway (although pork is so freaking cheap).

Michelle telling me this was actually good though makes me happy enough to do this on a regular basis. I'm going to add ground pepper to the mix. She also liked the mashed potatoes although I didn't do a lot of work on those.

I made a ton of ma po tofu on Friday since I know Michelle likes that too. I've been a major fatass as I ate a big bowl of mixed smoked salmon hoedoepbop. I've been trying more with my cooking, and I now have a few different types of soy sauce coming my way. I just feel good that I've been able to do some new recipes that she likes.

But not all fun and games here. While working around the kitchen, I managed to find a glass splinter. Or should I say, my toe found a glass splinter. It was in a location that could be annoying if I didn't control how I walked, but was otherwise manageable.

Anyway, after we got home, we drudged on with some requisite work around the house and then it was off to Montreal.

Montreal!
Yes, Montreal! That place that's an actual city only an hour and a half away but also with a border patrol that always leaves me feeling irksome!

Would you believe this is the first time I ever went up there? The last time we visited the border, it was Quebec City which is much farther away (very pretty though, if you don't include that time we walked a few miles just to get some poutine). We got into the hotel, a Sheraton, which they offered us a discount on since we've been regulars and we debated about going here or Boston.

Turns out this hotel was booked. We had figured it would be pretty busy since they didn't have a suite at all (we settled on a king bed room in the preferred customer section which gave us access to the club room). The lobby was packed with undergrad/teenagers in suits speaking English in American accents all over the place. We couldn't figure out until later that there was a Model UN conference there that day and the meeting just adjourned.

After dropping our gear, we took a walk in... sigh, the weather was miserable. It wasn't cold, but it was melting ice. You know how much I hate transitional weather? This is one of the reasons why. Slippage was not as big a problem as you would expect in a big city, but we had our moments here and there.

I will say this: at the least, it was nice to be in a city where people half-expected you to talk like an ignorant American jerk. At least, for the vendors to do so. We wandered through the old Montreal where I promised myself to never live there with an SUV, and then through the pier, and then to some of the sights there. The two pirate ships intrigued me the most. If you've been there, you probably know it as the two ships opposite side of that humongous ferris wheel. No, we didn't go up. I think Michelle wanted to but she was afraid of me spending too much money. I told her that at 8 bucks a ticket, this would be nothing, especially since it's like 10 bucks a meal around here (though to be fair the portions here are practically MURIKA in scale).

We walked back in the dark to Chinatown, where they have their own Chinese hospital? Okay, anyway, Michelle wanted dim sum and ended up taking us to a place that only served dumplings. I saw the portions were gigantic, so I chose like spring rolls and some fried tofu.

"No dumplings?"

"I didn't bring my appetite, sorry."
"He'll eat some of mine too," Michelle added. I think she felt bad that there was only dumplings, and I kept assuring her that it was mostly because I was full from eating half a bowl of shwarma and still recovering from that rice bowl.

We then went grocery shopping because I wanted to see what we could find. Of course, I find EVERYTHING that interests me, from bagged milk (bagged milk! I swear this was like something I only saw in like really foreign countries), to a ton of stuff that I ended up swearing at myself for not seeing in our markets over in Burlington. I then saw rice rolls. Rice noodles rolled up like cold cuts and mixed with green onions and dried shrimp.

Some context: I fucking love fresh rice noodles. It's like my ultimate treat. I honestly wish I had access to a Chinese restaurant supply company just so I could get access to their ho fun noodles since I can do a ton with them. Although there is one brand that gets me close to those noodles, getting them fresh is like a godsend of a treat.

So, I decided to spend that day becoming a smuggler.

Canada and US borders I think get very shaky when it comes to declarations (edit: I just looked it up and the US is OK with this as prepared foods that are sealed aren't a problem), so I tried to troubleshoot how to bring this with us as I grabbed three pounds of rice noodles, giggling gleefully to myself at how I was going to gorge on them.

And just to push the envelope, we walked home and stopped by a market to get some Kinder eggs and baking soda. Because one site recommended making a mold of baking soda to grab the glass shard out of it.

When we got home, as it rained on us and made us realize how cold it was going to feel, I applied the baking soda, found it not as useful as I hoped. Or maybe it was as I began to carefully pry and then pull out a 1mm-long sliver of glass. My toe feels as normal as though nothing even happened.

To take advantage of Club status, we went to the club floor for snacks. Up there were muffins dressed like cupcakes, pea soup, vegetables and dip, crackers, bread, cheese and terrines. I had to have some pate, so terrine and cheese and pita bits for me.

We sat, glasses of water in our hands as we sat and stared outward to the skyline.

Okay, enough of that! Back to the room.

We sat around, relaxing. We kept hovering around CBC which we also realized is producing all these shows that made Michelle seriously want to consider moving to Montreal.

We ended up staying up late watching this Canadian film called "Dr. Cabbie." I think there was something to be said in the film as it's about an aspiring med student who wanted to be a doctor in a Canadian healthcare system starving for healthcare practitioners, but at the same time it expressed this while having Kunal Nayyar in it (!) being the sleaziest desi bro picking up on ladies left and right. The protagonist has this uncle who is married to this California blonde-gone-hippie who has serious yellow fever, and he's got this continuous on and off thing for a blonde lady. I mean it tries to defy some stereotypes but also reinforces others that made me feel weird.

Yes, I watched through it. At least until it got to 1am and we fell asleep out of exhaustion.

In the morning, we got ready and had breakfast up there and, I got to say: if you do the Sheraton Club thing? The breakfast made it worth it.

They had eggs and ketchup and hot sauce, some oatmeal that actually tastes like they cared, a pancake machine that was like a converted inkjet, and the pastries were actually surprisingly high quality crispy things. Michelle ate her inkjet pancake with some cheese (also, the cheese quality up here is nice: they even included the cheese with that black line of coal in the middle).

After leaving the hotel (no Model UN guests! WOO HOO), we took a trip to IKEA just to see what it was like. It was... like what we expected.

Actually, I shouldn't say that: I think the cafe served butter chicken which I don't think I've seen in the US?

I was tempted to smuggle some artificial caviar over but relented. Besides, the cheap stuff is still cheap no matter where I get it.

The border crossing was uneventful and surprisingly easy. We celebrated the trip back (and the return of 4G data!) by eating at a deli in Rouse's Point that he always loved and then did some shopping for some other staples before heading home. Then I became a blob and just played video games.

I have so much prepared food that I don't need to cook in awhile. All that and my pants feel too tight so I should control how much I eat anyway. Regardless, it's been a crazy time.