My Current List

1. Standing in a store, with my credit card in hand, while the sales person answers the phone to someone who hasn’t shown up yet.
2. Hotel rooms with windows that don’t open. I’m not asking for grandiose balcony exits here, just a simple window that cracks enough to dilute the stale “hotel air” that pervades every lodging.
3. Anti-smoking zealotry that denies smoking airline passengers a smoking area past security.
4. Smokers that are not respectful of those that don’t want to inhale smoke!
5. Any dining establishment that doesn’t have WiFi.
6. Taxes & hidden extra charges being added to advertised sale pricing.
7. Disguised charitable donation drop-offs that do not openly declare they belong to a for-profit enterprise.
8. Telemarketers who think it’s okay to phone me during my dinner hour. Despite my number being on the National Do Not Call registry.
9. Cable companies that replace the original advertising on a TV channel with their own repetitive in-house garbage.
10. The chiming musical notes that are background for the local forecast slot on my local weather channel.

The Story of 1001 Diets

2012-02-02 Update

I’ve crept up the weight gain hill so many times that I was beginning to believe that I was just a weak willed, greedy pig. And it’s still possible that I may well be just that but, over the past 4 or so months, I’ve dropped just over 50 lbs.

I may have discovered the holy grail of dieting but I’m only going to share if it continues to prove out over time & I drop at least another 50.

Watch this, hopefully ever increasing, space!

Football = Soccer = QPR

C’mon you Rrrrrssss!

I’ve always been a football fan but I’ve been a Queens Park Rangers supporter since seeing my first live game in Loftus Road (west side of London, England) way back when I was still a nipper. It was pretty impossible to follow them when I first moved to this side of the pond but in recent years, the growth of the Internet has made information access & updates much easier.

This season though, the Rs made it back to the Premier League (still the best league in the world!) & now they’re on TV every week, woohoo! I still think, despite the number of years I’ve spend here, that it’s really great to watch a sport for 45 or so minutes, without having commercials popping up every 3 or 4 minutes! Yeah, I know it’s complex having to plan bathroom visits & snacks for that big a chunk of time but I gotta tell ya - it’s worth the planning so you can really get your teeth into the game for that length of the half.

Thankfully, the sport is increasing in popularity more & more every year. And the international interaction between the North American leagues & the European leagues in increasing in sync with that. Guys like the US team star, Landon Donovan, are over plying their wares in the Premier League during the off season. Donovan is doing his thing, very successfully with Everton at the moment while Canada’s own Junior Hoilett is full time member of the squad at Blackburn Rovers, a Premier League team.

There is only one “football” & soccer is it! Give it a try, you might find yourself on the edge of your seat for 45 minutes at a time & that might even quality as exercise!

QPR ‘til I Die!

PS - If anyone knows of any other QPR fans in the GTA, can you please connect me with them. I’m tired of going into big populations of Man United, City, Spurs & Gunners fans in Toronto pubs, I need some more SuperHoops!

Who’d be a Sales Guy!

Isn’t it just excruciating for a sales guys to absolutely 100% know that he’s got a better solution for a customer but the customer doesn’t get it & won’t listen long enough to get it.

Isn’t it just excruciating for a customer to hear yet another sales pitch on a product that he’s been offered by 43 other sales guys, none of which could offer a superior product, price or service than his existing supplier!!!