I am not a coffee drinker. At all. Never have been. However I’m fairly confident that Tim Hortons’ Iced Cappuccino bears little relation to bona fide cappuccino.

That said, Tim Hortons’ Iced Cappuccino is my current most favourite drink in the whole wide world, something that, given the caffine and other goo that drinking one pumps into my body, is no doubt to my detriment.

Curious to know what the nutritional value (or deficit) of the Iced Cappuccino is, I was happy to find Tim Hortons’ Nutrition Guide [PDF] on their website.

And so I was able to learn that a 10 oz. Iced Cappuccino made with cream (apparently I have the choice of having it made with cream or with 2% milk) has 230 calories, 2 g of protein, 11 g of fat, and 87 mg of caffeine.

This compares to 78 calories, 0.6 g of protein, 4 g of far, and 106 mg of caffeine for a 10 oz. regular coffee.

If the on-shore flurry activity and general slush are getting to you, take a look at Air Canada’s seat sale, announced today. There are quite good fares: Halifax to London return for $448, Halifax to Bermuda return for $358.

Oddly enough, the Tim Hortons menu item with the most total fat is the Garden Vegetable Sandwich, with 23 g (just a titch above the chocolate glazed donut, with 22 g). And to think I’d been ordering that as a “healthy alternative”!

The USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans tells us to use fats and oils sparingly: they suggest a healthy diet contains no more than 30 percent of calories from fat. About 45% of the calories in a Garden Vegetable Sandwich are from fat; in an Iced Cappucino, it’s about 43%.

WARNING: I am not a nutrionist. We suggest you consult a nutrionist before you stop or start eating Iced Cappucinnos or Garden Vegetable Sandwiches to determine if they’re right for your diet. If you die a thousands deaths from drinking too many Iced Cappuccinos, we cannot be held responsible. But you will probably die happy anyway.

One of the most perplexing things about Microsoft Windows (any version) is that sometimes you need to click once, and sometimes you need to click twice (aka double-clicking). By this point in my life, the difference between the two is hard-wired into my DNA, and I don’t have to think about it. However when training new computer users how to use Windows, I’m at a loss as to how to explain what the difference is. How does once describe situations in which a double-click is required vs. situations where a single-click is required (esp. without using the work invoke)?
Perhaps the only honest advice I could find online to this question is on this University of Michigan website: If a single click does not work, try a double-click.

There’s an attempt at a fuller explanation on the geekgirl.talk website. It’s about 1,200 words long.

I had a weird dream last night in which I discovered that in the U.S.A., names in the telephone books are sorted by first name rather than last name. This came as a big shock to me, and I realized that I had to scurry around changing all sorts of web applications in which I’d assumed the opposite. Fortunately, when I woke up this was no longer a problem.

An interesting essay by my old friend Stephen.

Looks like Chapters has registered as an extra-provincial company as of May 21, 2001, a good sign that all that mucking about up on University Ave. is actually going to pop out as a big bookstore.

Roy Johnstone is in the process of releasing Summertime, a new jazz album (are they still called albums). For me, this is the perfect music for lying in the hammock, listening to the cicadas and breathing in the sweet smell of apple blossoms… (from the liner notes).

Terry Avery gets it right about the Festival of Lights.

Yesterday my friend Brian phoned me looking for information about WebTV, which is a Microsoft product that lets you surf the Internet and email through your television (a WebTV unit is basically a black box with a single-purpose computer and a modem).

I know something of WebTV from the “back end,” as I’ve worked to make websites WebTV-compatible over the years (they have a very good developer guide on this subject). But I didn’t know if their service was available in Canada. So off I went to the WebTV website to find that out.

For some reason, however, this information is missing from the website. Their find a retailer function only searches by U.S. state or ZIP code. The best I could find was that they have local access numbers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick (but not PEI).

So I called the WebTV toll-free number, pressed 2 for “I’m not a WebTV customer but i want to know more” and got a message back saying (and I’m not lying here) “You have reached an invalid termination; please call…” and then it gave me back the number I’d just called.

So I called back and pressed 1 instead, and then selected the option for billing problems. I talked to a very nice man, who answered on the first ring, who told me that I’d reached the wrong department. I told him that I knew this, and explained about the invalid termination. He said he could transfer me to someone in pre-sales who could help.

Then he put me on hold for 6 minutes and 30 seconds (granted he did pop back in a couple of times to apologize for the wait). Finally I got to talk to someone in pre-sales. They told me the service was available in Canada, and explained a little bit about it. I asked them where I could buy a WebTV box in Canada, and they tried to look this up in their system, but found that, like their website, they couldn’t search in Canada.

I asked them if there was someone else who could tell me this information, and I was put on hold again. Finally, at 11 minutes and 27 seconds into the call, my agent came back on the line to tell me (and I’m not lying here) that nobody there could tell me where to buy a box in Canada. I asked her what she suggested I do, and she replied that I should call around to local retailers, or try and buy a used box from someone.

I’m at a loss as to what to suggest to Brian now: can I recommend to him that he should deal with a company that makes me wait 12 minutes to tell me that they can’t help me?

Today I got to live out a life-long dream, which was to be able to say to someone on the phone “Just give Manny a call…”

Longtime readers will remember that, back in the autumn of 1999, the distributor on my 1993 Eagle Summit went kaplooyee, and, in an effort to avoid the insane $1,200 cost of a new distributor, I sourced a rebuilt from Manny at B & B Auto Parts in the Bronx for $350US.

I’m sorry to report that now a similar fate has befallen my wily friend Ann, and so when she called me looking for advice as to where to turn, I was able to relay the aforementioned “Just give Manny a call…”.

My life is now complete.