Me and some of my cheer squad after the contest

I saw a tweet a few weeks ago about a cupcake eating contest at Bakers Market and decided to sign up because I love cupcakes and I’ve never entered an eating contest before. I didn’t think much about it.

A couple of days ago I got a DM from 100.5 FM The Peak asking if I was still participating and if they could interview me the day before the event. That’s when I started wondering if I should be prepping for this. I tweeted that I was still competing and a flood of well wishes from tweeps started filling up my ‘mentions’ column. Apparently people like to see me eat! LOL

What was originally just a random fun thing to do with a friend or two turned into a contest with a name (I was the Cake-a-tar-i-an), theme colour (light pink), and no less than 13 cheerleaders who came donned in pink shirts to chant “GO ANNY EAT EAT EAT SWALLOW!!! SWWAAAAALLLOOWWW!!!!” behind me. I think at one point Lisa screamed “OPEN YOUR THROAT!!!” and I started laughing so hard that it was difficult to swallow the first couple of cupcakes I shoved into my mouth. I have the best friends and family ever!

In five minutes, 12 contestants (9 guys, 3 girls) stuffed their faces with as many cupcakes as they could. After the tweets of support I got really nervous about the contest and worried that I’d disappoint everyone by only eating two cupcakes or something.

I think this is around Minute 3

Minute 1: I began with a cupcake in hand and peeled the liner off while biting down at the same time. Bite. Squish. Water. Swallow. Swallow. Chew. Swallow and peel. Second cupcake. Bite. Water. Swallow. Chew. Swallow. Gulp. Swallow.

Minute 2: Lisa pointed out a smaller cupcake. I grabbed it. Peel. Bite. Chew. Water. Swallow. Squish. Swallow. I realized that some of my cupcakes were denser than others (different flavours and cupcake bakers) and started weighing my cupcakes as I chewed. Peel. Bite. Chew. Squish. Water. Saw a piece leftover. Squished it with my hand. Stuff. Swallow. Water. Swallow. Swallow.

Minute 3: I’m out of lighter cupcakes!! Damn. Grabbed a chunky chocolate one. Peel. Bite. Water. Oh shoot, I wasn’t thinking. Should’ve squished first. Swallow. Swallow. Water. Swallow and peel. Bite. Squish. Swallow. Water. Swallow.

Minute 4: Oh geez, gag reflex is started up. I find myself nodding as I try to swallow hard. Lisa’s screaming beside me. “SWALLOW!!! WATER!! DRINK!!! OPEN YOUR THRROOOOOOAAATTT!!!” Bite. Water. Swallow. Swallow. Swallow. Swallow. Gag. Swallow. I hear a girl in the audience say something about worrying that I was going to throw up. Bite. Swallow. Squish. Swallow. Water. Squish. Swallow. Mmm.. this one’s mint!

TEN!!

Minute 5: “THE GUY BESIDE YOU IS BEATING YOU!!! SWWWWAAAALLLLOOOWWW!!!!” and “STUFF IT IN YOUR MOUTH!!!” is all I hear at this point. There’s water everywhere from the guy beside me who has tipped over his bottle and reached for my third one. Bite. Swallow. Squish. Gag. Swallow. GAG. SWALLOW. Gulp. Water. Swallow. Bite. Swallow. Stuff. Stuff. Swallow. Swallow. STUFF. And TIME.

So how’d I do for my first eating contest? I’m proud to say that I beat most of the guys by eating TEN cupcakes in FIVE MINUTES and placed THIRD!!!! I won a tub of ice cream.

The winner (the messy guy beside me who grossed out most of the audience by literally stuffing his face and dropping chunks in his shirt in the process) had 18, and the runner-up (a tall girl on the very end) ate 11. The New Zealander on my other side who had a fantastic team cheering him on ate seven, the rest were between six and nine and one very neat eater had three.

These photos were taken by Morten Rand-Hendriksen and Philip Wu:

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The 2010 Winter Olympics came to a close tonight with giant inflatable beavers and moose, an unexpected selection of Canadian artists, and more stereotypes than you thought we could possibly cram into a three and a half hour program. The past 17 days have been an incredible experience that I really didn’t see coming and I’m very thankful that I was able to take part in the festivities in my home town. Thank you to all the smurfs and smurfettes who’ve worked so hard to make this Olympics a great one in Vancouver!

Ang and me at the Coca Cola Pavilion with our 100% recyclable neon Coca Cola bottles

While the thousands of blue uniform volunteers were working long hours and sometimes ridiculous back-to-back shifts (hearts out to Angie and Bee), SFU and UBC students had a couple weeks off of school to “study” since Transit would be off schedule servicing the games. I hope one of the requirements for all Marketing students was to visit the Coca Cola pavilion!

“Damn” is the first word that comes to mind when I think of Coca Cola. They are MASTERS at Marketing!

Ang and I waited for an hour and a half to get into the Coca Cola Pavilion at LiveCity Yaletown and we weren’t the least bit unhappy about it. The lineup was well maintained by Coca Cola staff, and when we finally got inside they herded us like little happy sheep past the Coca Cola posters, bottles and past Olympic torches. After that, we were all assembled in groups to watch a short film about Coca Cola’s history with the Olympics (brainwashing at it’s finest — I had that Coca Cola ‘Open Happiness’ song on replay in my head for the next three hours), and the screen wall opened to reveal a Coca Cola party room. The first thing they did when we got in? They gave each of us a free chilled bottle of Coke! Smart.

The Coke pavilion really played on their green initiatives from the recycling game (you literally try to catch the virtual recyclables with a recycling box), to the green t-shirts made from recycled Coke bottles, and the final recycling bin where each person received a 100% recyclable neon Coke bottle that lights up for recycling their Coke bottle.

The place was fun, had lots to do and look at (you could get your picture taken with a real Olympic torch), and was incredibly well organized. Of all the Olympic houses and pavilions I visited over the past two weeks, this one was by far the best. Great job Coca Cola! You get an A+.

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The Coca Cola Open Happiness Music Video

Sidenote: Kids, if a guy in a pimpin’ zebra suit motions that you should follow him into an unknown alley, don’t. The real world is no Coca Cola commercial.

Me and CTV’s Lisa LaFlamme

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to learn about how things work from the back end. Behind the scenes tours are my fav. <3

I had the opportunity yesterday to take a private tour of the International Broadcasting Center (IBC) where CTV, NBC and all the international television stations are filming their 2010 Olympic coverage. Here’s the run down of the place written so that you can feel like you got a private tour too:

The IBC is just one big building of impressive! At first when you walk into the large open hall it feels like any other corporate building with wide walkways, information and accreditation booths, and a set of flat panel screens showing all the current Olympic coverage. Then you begin to notice the little things like how the walls are made of intricately woven wooden blocks that conceal doors to massive ballrooms and storage areas, and that every Winter Olympic flag from 1924 to 2010 have been hung from the ceilings that are a good four or five meters high.

Look outside the floor-to-ceiling windows towards the white sails of Canada Place, and you’ll notice a barrier of logs floating in the water surrounding the IBC. There’s a little grey boat patrolling the area no bigger than a tin can from where you’re standing. It’s the diving team patrolling the area for uninvited guests looking to crash the Olympic party. I wonder if they’ve ever caught anyone?

CTV

CTV Olympic Set

Up the escalators, you’ll find the CTV floor. Over a thousand workers are busy taping, reviewing footage, editing, and eating between shifts. You walk past the front desk with your temporary guest pass and wonder if anyone will stop you. Nah, you’re standing next to a guy with Norwegian curling pants. Between the glances and the “cool pants” comments, nobody notices you or checks your badge. You’re cool.

You walk through a narrow corridor with large makeshift cubicles lining the entire side. There are about six to a dozen seats and computers in each large cubicle station, and it’s obvious people are here to work. The temporary walls are covered in notices, schedules, highlighted segment lists, and Olympic paraphernalia. It’s crazy to think that all of this was put up just for the Olympics and it’ll all be gone by the end of March.

One lonely desk sits at the end of the cubicles for the girl who distributes pins. It looks like they’re all gone now, and she turns to see who you are. A long list of names is hung beside her computer with all the workers who need to exchange their CTV jackets for larger or smaller sizes. The list has grown so long she’s taped several sheets below it as people continually write and cross off their names once they’ve traded outfits.

It smells like food. You start to see why as you pass the pins girl and walk towards the end of the floor. It’s the Cafeteria and it’s loaded with free food. Outside food is not allowed in the IBC, so they’re providing everyone at CTV with food around the clock including ice cream bars, and all the Coca Cola beverages you can drink. The smell isn’t that great and even though you’re a guest, you’re technically not allowed to consume any Cafeteria food so you turn around and head towards the studios.

Loggers

On your way down, you pass a long set of tables with dozens of tired workers with their eyes glued to their monitors. They’re the “loggers.” Their job is to watch everything that goes on in the Olympics and take note of what happened, where it happened, and when it happened. They input the information in codes to the main database so that when a journalist needs to know what time Team Canada scored, they get what they need with a stroke of a key.

You reach another narrow hallway. There are windows in this hall that look into the sets and control rooms. It feels almost like you’re in bizarro world because so many of the sets look identical but with different names above the Olympic rings. CTV. RDS. You take a non-flash picture through a window of a live broadcast. The host notices you and you hope you haven’t annoyed her. You walk away quickly.

There’s a studio open and the guys inside invite you in to take pictures. How awesome! A guy named Pascal offers to pose for you. They’re all super chill between segments and you chat a bit about who’s got dibs on the Olympic set props once they’re done filming.

In the control rooms, the seats are surprisingly empty and the keyboards look intimidating. There are so many buttons! Everyone works in shifts and another one will start soon so most of the workers are grabbing a quick bite in the Cafeteria.

The Basement

Basement Floor of International Broadcasters

The tour of the CTV floor is over and you’re on the longest escalator ride of your life down to the IBC Basement floor where everyone who’s not CTV is working. It really is the longest elevator you’ve ever seen.

You enter through a set of double doors and feel like you’re about to enter a gigantic ballroom. It would be one, except the entire floor space has been taken up by temporary blocks of rooms containing mini sets and production houses from every participating country.

You sneak a peak into the open Korea house. It looks like a student lounge complete with couches, a fridge, and a guy reading a paper. You sneak a peak into the doors to the Russian television stations. A man sits at a desk as if he’s security and looks at you as if to say “what do you want?” The Russian room is sectioned off into smaller rooms all of which are closed so you quickly move on.

Norwegian Set

The Norwegian room is packed. They’ve flown in some last minute hosts and had to create a mini set within the tight space they’ve been given. It’s hot inside with so many people and you marvel at how warmly they’re dressed. They obviously didn’t get the memo about Vancouver’s warm winter climate.

You turn a corner and find the largest section of them all: NBC. They even have their own security station! You spot the moose that Stephen Colbert rode on his show last week. His production team left it in Vancouver and NBC didn’t know what to do with it so it’s just sitting in the hall without its antlers (they wouldn’t fit through the doors). You ask the security guard if you could please take a picture with it. He says he’s technically not supposed to let anyone except NBC personnel in, but since it’s for the moose he double checks with his boss. They approve. Yay! You snap a few photos and move on before anyone realizes you’re not supposed to be there.

The Olympic Flame

Finally it’s time to visit the flame. You walk outside and see the crowds covering the entire glass wall surrounding the viewing area. Thank goodness you don’t have to be part of that mass. Sadly though, spectators have been complaining about how IBC workers were allowed to walk right up to the flame, under and around it while visitors had to stay several meters back and behind a fence. They’ve since erected a short black fence around the flame that keeps IBC workers away from the flame too so your picture isn’t as nice as you had hoped it would be. That’s ok, you got a behind the scenes tour of the IBC. And you even managed to get a picture with CTV Anchor Lisa LaFlamme (even IBC workers don’t get that privilege).

Many thanks to @mor10 for the tour!

Note: If you want to take a tour of the IBC, CTV is conducting general group tours of their floor but I haven’t figured out how you can join in on the action and the volunteers at the accreditation center weren’t sure either. It’s a mystery really.

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Everyone and their pumpkins at the annual Rogers’ Pumpkin Carving Party

I hung out with fellow Best Job candidates Erik Rolfsen and Marcella Moser in Vancouver (Canada), had dinner with James Hill and Greg Reynen in Brisbane (Australia), met up with Mitch Moffit in Townsville (Australia), and now I can tick Steven Rogers off my list too! It’s too bad Cali Lewis wasn’t in Texas at the time.

To be honest, I had forgotten Steven lived in Texas (even though his Twitter account is @Steven_in_Texas ). My bad. The last I remembered through our Best Job e-mail threads (everyone still keeps in touch), he was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa and roaming the streets of Europe! I received a message from him when we first arrived in Amarillo, Texas asking where we were planning on going in Texas and if we would be passing his way. He invited us to his family’s annual Pumpkin Carving Party, and we happily accepted his invitation!

Steven, his family and friends are all very typical Southerners. And by that I mean that they’re super friendly! I really like the feeling of New Mexico and Texas because everyone is generally nicer down south.

There were heaps of neighbourhood kids and their parents at the party all happily chatting, munching on cookies and candies, and taking part in their 20+ year tradition of carving pumpkins together. The Rogers family have a large dining room table covered in photos from past pumpkin carving parties including one where Steven is sporting an ‘80s mullet (my fav). LOL

Throughout the home, there are pictures of all their travels (and the whole family has travelled a lot). After a little tour, we started carving our pumpkins and mingling over cookies. A great time was had, and the pumpkins turned out fairly well. The only bad part of the afternoon was the attack of the mosquitoes. Both Ang and I get allergic reactions from mosquito bites and I was unfortunately bitten on the forehead. Ugh.

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Thank you to Steven and the Rogers Family for inviting us into your home!

From Left to Right: Alvin (Bessie’s husband), Morten (Angela’s husband), Bessie (cousin), Mary (cousin), Angela (sister), Lawrence (Mary’s husband), Jackie (friend), Me, and Bong (friend).

Ang, Morten and I tagged along on my cousins’ annual Memorial Day Weekend snow camping trip at Mount Rainier last week. We hiked up to Goat Island Peak at Mount Rainier National Park on Saturday and spent the night before coming back down on Sunday. These are some of the things I learned from the trip:

Sidenote: Why do they call it Goat Island if it’s not an island?

1. If you’re planning on sleeping on snow, make sure you bring a thick foam pad in addition to a sleeping pad. I was FREEZING and woke up about a dozen times because of the cold. The only upside to this was that when I woke up in the middle of the night, I got to see the stars which I would’ve missed otherwise.
2. Never hike up a mountain alone unless you know what you’re doing.
3. Never try to hike down a steep mountain early in the morning because the snow will have turned to ice overnight. If you must climb down, wear clamps and bring an ice pick.
4. Climbing down a mountain takes about 1/3 of the time it takes to climb up.
5. When climbing up, dig your toes in. When climbing down, dig your heels in.
6. Foxes are unlikely to attack you, but coyotes will consider it (they’re crazy like that). On our way down a large furry coyote crossed our path.
7. Always bring at least two extra pairs of socks.
8. “Mountain money” = toilet paper.
9. Spam musubi makes a great hiking snack because you don’t have to worry about squishing it in your pack.
10. Baby wipes are AWESOME!
11. If you end up needing a ranger rescue in the US as a result of your own stupidity, you’re going to have to pay for it out of your own pocket.
12. Levelling your sleeping area is important if you don’t want to be sliding around in your sleeping bag at night.
13. Sliding down an icy mountain head first will give you lacerations on your face. Not recommended.

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Fat Burger: The Last Great Hamburger Stand

Last Friday Ang, Morten and I drove down to the states to visit our cousins and friends. We stopped at a Fat Burger for dinner where an uninformed young woman was serving and (like many Americans) was surprised to discover that Canadian money is coloured. But, unlike most Americans (I hope), she also thought that Canadians come from “Canadia” and was excited to have visitors from such a distant country. We were about two hours south of the border.

When I took a picture of the Fat Burger sign, she delightedly hollered across the restaurant “Are you taking a picture of us to show your friends in Canadia?”

Yes. My friends and I have no lives in distant Canadia. Our only entertainment comes in the form of pictures we take of restaurant employees in foreign countries. I didn’t know how to respond. “No?” I said. Then she asked me to come over and take a picture of her. I thought she was weird but she was nice enough so I obliged.

We seemed so alien to her that Ang was convinced she took a picture of us with her cell phone when she walked past with the mop.

Easter Egg Hunts in the Chih household started three years ago with the typical search for randomly placed plastic eggs which contained chocolates, candies, and small Kinder-Surprise-type toys. Last year Ang and I decided to do things a little differently and created something a bit more involved.

The Annual Chih Easter Egg Hunt

Easter Egg Hunt basket with clues, prizes and puzzle pieces

What You’ll Need

1. A set of large plastic eggs to hold small prizes — as many or as few as  you’d like
2. Small prizes — we’ve used everything from chocolates and candies to jewelry beads and temporary tattoos
3. Paper and pen to write clues
4. One large prize
5. Ribbon
6. A basket to hold the eggs
7. A large piece of cardboard and an exacto knife to cut out puzzle pieces

Instructions

1. Create a list of hiding places for your eggs.
2. Write a clue for each hiding place and number them (ex. “In this place you can bake every different kind of cake” — oven) — alternatively, you can take a macro picture of the hiding spot and have the child guess where it is (ex. We hid an egg behind the plastic snowman that sits on top of a pink flamingo in the hallway [don’t ask] and took a picture where all you could see was the bottom half of the snowman and part of the pink of the flamingo).
3. Cut out an Easter shape (ex. egg, bunny) using the large piece of cardboard. It should measure at least 10″ x 10″.
4. On this cut-out, write out a final clue to where your large prize will be hidden.
5. Cut out puzzle pieces from this shape (one for each plastic egg).
6. Fill your plastic eggs with small prizes and insert one clue inside each egg.
7. Tie one puzzle piece to each egg using the ribbon.
8. Place your eggs in their respective hiding places so that each egg has a clue to the next egg (ex. Egg #1 should have a clue that leads to Egg #2 etc.). The last egg should contain a message that reads something like “Congratulations ____! You’ve found the last egg. Now put together your puzzle pieces to find out where I’ve hidden your Easter present! — EB”
9. Place your large prize in its hiding spot.
10. Give the basket and Egg #1 to your child to start the hunt.

Have a Happy Easter!

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