So I fell off the wagon, smoking wise. I made it an entire 1 week and 4 days until I drank more than my fair share of red wine and it all went downhill from there. For a week I tried again and would go 24 hours but then buy a small pack and smoke them within 24 hours, go another 24 hours without, etc. But, I’m back to it again (3 days, 5 hours & 20 mins) so let’s hope this time I can go longer.

However, I will say, I really miss it. I never felt “better” after stopping like most people do so I didn’t notice any of the benefits. Well, one benefit is that I don’t feel like dying during my 5K training, but even without smoking I feel like dying during my 5K training so the difference is minuscule.

Whatever, the main reason I need to keep it up is for everyone to stop looking at me like I’m an asshole. Okay, I get it, I smoke, it’s awful, I’m killing myself, wasting money, etc. No preaching allowed please! I know I should never have succumbed to peer pressure in high school to look “cool” but hell, cut me some slack, this is my first time trying. OK? Thanks.

Single, no dependants (pets should count!) and not legally renting, equals NO REFUND FOR YOU!

In fact, I owe the damn government $250 this year. That’s a first. Geez. Top that off with the fee from H&R Block, it’s turned out to be an expensive day.

I have a BodyBugg that my friend Jackie gave me a few months ago after she was done with it but she had already used up her “membership” to the Web-Only program. So I figure it’ll be easy enough to hop online, get a subscription and away I go tracking all the calories I burn in any single minute of the day. I like it ’cause I’m anal like that. I probably was a filer in a previous life.

Okay, so getting back to it, my opinion of the BodyBugg (as see on The Biggest Loser for at least a few seasons now and ever so popular) and it’s parent company Apex have taken a turn for the worse.

First it was what I thought a bug with their online ordering system. I filled in all the required information, it asked for country and province, SUBMIT:

Please enter State.

Revise ON to Ontario

Please enter State.

I live in fucking Canada, assholes.

Please enter State.

Okay, so it’s my browser? My computer? When in doot, reboot.

Please enter State.

Now I’m getting pissed off. I leave it for a couple of weeks and try again.

Please enter State.

Call toll free customer service. Denied. Can’t call from outside of the USA.

I email customer service.

Wait two weeks, no reply, send another email.

Got a reply!

Apex does not have an International online order set-up at this time…

You could try mentioning that on your website and NOT have choose a frakkin’ country or display state/province either.

They sent a form to fill out and a credit card authorization form that you had to MAIL or FAX in to order. Fine.

I finally do this this week (I’m a procrastinator okay?). I didn’t MAIL or FAX (how archaic) but printed out the pages, filled it in, scanned and emailed the customer service chick back.

To my shock and awe^TM I got this message back:

We apologize for the inconvenience but at this time Apex is currently not able to process international orders for the bodybugg. We have suspended the sale of the bodybugg internationally; however, you can check back with us in the future to check availability. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Seriously Apex? Seriously? You won’t take my money for a log-in to a web page?

Maybe it’s a good thing. That’s $99 I could spend on cake, cookies and ice cream instead.

In all seriousness it’s kind of shocking to go from selling Internationally online, to having to write in your order on a piece of paper (and not even an accurate form either for example it still said Zip Code and State for an International Canadian form), to not taking orders at all. It’s a conspiracy I think! Either that or they are really, really, knee deep in crazy juice.

So I’m back on the blogging wagon again. Been too long. I’l try to get out of my Live Journal protected posts safety net.

What’s been happening is this:

+ I’ve lost 19 lbs. since January 2nd.
+ It’s been 5 days since I’ve had a cigarette.
+ In that 5 days I gained 4 lbs. (I seriously haven’t replaced food with smoking, so WTF?)
+ To spite the gain, I ate McDonald’s today and feel sick so now I’m not only pissed off with gaining weight, I’m pissed at myself for justifying McDonald’s.
+ I’ve started the Couch to 5k program (http://tinyurl.com/4gtmz)
+ I’m looking for a 1-Bedroom apt. downtown Toronto for April 1st. Daunting. I’m too picky.
+ Still single!

So, 2008 had to have been one of the worst years in recent times for me. Well, maybe not the WORST but it’s really up there in terms of all round blah. There are a couple of highlights including heading down to New York City to meet up with Paul and Ali for four days and a couple of other random family moments and an inkling of some sort of a relationship that fizzled into a heap of uncertainty and then failure. What started out good, ended into confusion and blah. I think I’ll dub 2008 as “The Year of Blah”. Also, the weather really sucked (bad winter, awful rainy summer and then a crappy beginning of another winter).

2009 has already started off fairly decent. New Year’s Eve was pretty good. I got to spend time with Darcie and her husband who brought their friends Michelle and Jake and Darcie’s brother-in-law, Damon. My brother and his girlfriend had some of their friends over and we had a house full of laughing, Guitar Hero, Jello shots, lap dancing and a torn ankle (not me this time!).

January 1st, yesterday, Darcie, Matt, Michelle, Jake, Damon and I headed to the slopes (Blue Mountain) for a day of boarding. Let me preface this next part with stating that I haven’t been skiing since 1992 and I’ve never boarded in my life.

Damon was to teach Darcie, Matt and I how to board. How hard could it be right? After a few hours of barely being able to stand up for longer than 10 seconds I decided that I was going to trade my board in for skis. I had had enough. I was frustrated, as was Darcie who wasn’t able to even stand up, because the physics of it, I got, but the practise, not so much.

So after we had lunch I traded in my board and got skis no problem. Darcie was determined to actually learn to board because her Australian husband who’s never boarded or skied in his life, was making a decent go of it and was actually able to stay up.

We went up the lift for the first time after lunch. Being on skis for the first time since ‘92 I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t remember but as soon as I got off the chair and skied over to where we all met up to go down the mountain, I realized I was fine. I knew how to stop (without looking like a snow plowing fool), turn, slow down, speed up, etc. Poor Darcie however was defeated. She couldn’t stand up and stay up long enough to actually try going down. She was done and walked down the hill.

I enjoyed skiing down the mountain and my only regret was not picking up the skis when we first got there. But at least I tried boarding. After a handful of times down the mountain, I offered to swap with Darcie so she could at least get a run in before we left. So I stayed at the bottom and off she went. She also regrets trying to learn to snowboard because she didn’t fall once coming down on skis.

It was getting dark and even colder out so we decided to pack it in for the day. It was a long drive home for everyone else back to Niagara Falls and an early start was needed. They dropped me off at my place, we said our goodbyes and I went in to have a hot soak in the tub, crawl into my warm pyjamas and veg with my brother and his girlfriend (Ashley) and watched 4 hours of a COPS marathon on Showcase ACTION. Good times.

Today, I’m heading down to my parent’s place to hang out, then tomorrow it’s down to the city to meet up with a couple of friends, then it’s over to Scott’s place for the night. Sunday Scott, I and a bunch of folk are heading to the Raptors game at the Air Canada Centre. First NBA game ever for me so that should be fun especially since we have a private box to watch the game from.

To my friends and blog readers, Happy New Year and the best of everything good and great in 2009.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays!

Enjoy your family, friends, charity and a bit of drunkenness!

Groundhog Pub
Toronto, ON
December 20, 2008

Flickr Sets:
1. Mine
2. Paul Henman’s

Nothing sucks harder than cruising along in the rain at 120 km/h along the QEW -> 427 -> 401 > 410 and then getting slammed just North of Brampton by a winter storm you didn’t know was coming (or how long it has been going on) and being stuck behind some asshole at 20 km/h braking every 10 seconds ’cause the dumbass failed to put on his winter tires.

People…this happens every year. I luckily didn’t bother to take off my winter tires from last year so I was good and after half an hour of following this idiot, I caught a break and passed him. Granted I was going 60 km/h up Hwy. 10 into Orangeville, still way better than breaking UP hill at 20 km/h for the next week ’cause that’s how long it would have taken him to get anywhere close.

Yay! A map!
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2396471

I’m so very happy and proud of my neighbours today.

Tonight was like a scene from one of those awe inspiring, make you weep movies where a natural disaster has wiped out half of the country and you see the President instill hope and promises of a better future. Yes, like Deep Impact or that other one, The Day After Tomorrow. Although half the country wasn’t wiped out by any tidal waves, but wiped out by stupidity. The stupidity has receded and now Americans can rebuild the respect the rest of the world lost and America will once again be a place that people from all over the world will look to for inspiration instead of laugh at or pity. I do believe the economy will get better there soon as more people now that they may look differently upon Americans after tonight will want to travel to the USA again, to invest their time and money on a nation and especially on a people that rose up and demanded a better life for themselves.

With my experience in travelling and living in Europe, Americans were not looked upon with any sort of respect when encountered overseas (democrat or republican). It didn’t matter that I was Canadian, I was thought of as American because we talk the same (TV english!). I was embarrassed. Others, embarrassed for me and apologized for the ’slight’. “Ohhhh, I’m so sorry, I should always assume Canadian first shouldn’t I?” Now, with a newly elected government and not a win by a hair but a pretty damn good number, I don’t think I’ll be as embarrassed if at all if I am mistaken for an American. I can only hope that one day Canadians will be as energized by a politician and by change as my neighbours to the south are by Barack Obama.

America! Fuck yeah!

The pitfalls of having a giant green screen behind you! Whomever’s idea that was…FAIL WIN (for most).