Archive - Jan 2008

Hehe - I just read a post over on Duane's blog about his fight against the evil DARTH JEALOUSY and figured I'd do my small bit to help him out. (The free print he's offering up is good incentive too - I'm a sucker for 'free shit') While I don't know Duane that well, I have met him a few times (last time was at the Raw Banana wedding) and enjoy reading his blog. Good luck Duane!

Just for good measure - I think I'll include this little gem:

I know the recently Rogers made some changes to their data rates, I don't have the specifics here and I'm feeling a bit lazy right now so I wont take the time to look them up. Anyways, suffice it to say they've made some changes. I'm not sure when those changes take effect but I can tell you that as of my last bill - their data rates are still outrageous! Take a look at the following which was on my latest bill:

Details of data usage
Date         Rate prd   Volume (KB)    Total Charges ($)
1 Tue JAN 08   OD          320.00           16.00

I've decided the time is right for us to get a new TV. I know I want a flat panel TV (can you even buy CRTs anymore??) but I haven't quite decided on what exactly to get. I figured I'd put this post out there and see if I can solicit some information / opinions from others.

In terms of options, I'm set on some things, but either undecided or apathetic on others. For instance, I don't think I want to go any smaller than a 46" widescreen for size, but I'm not sure whether to go with plasma or LCD (or should I wait for the LASER TVs to start selling?). I'm sure it has to be an HDTV but should I go with one that supports 1080p? (probably) Another must is its ability to display a standard def signal well - lets face it, a lot of the channels we watch aren't available in high def.

The Fredericton Curling Club hosted the Curl for Cancer Curling Bonspiel this past Saturday, Jan 12th. I'm proud to say that Team Haggerty, sponsored by TNT Building Supplies, was the top fundraising team, bringing in a total of $1200! While I was not part of the team that did the actual curling, I did contribute to the fundraising. Perhaps next year I'll be able to make it to the tournament. Grand total (so far) raised by all teams in the event was $18,188 with some money still to come in. This amount far exceeded expectations so all involved were extremely happy! By the way - consider this fair warning that I'll probably be hitting you up for a donation next year. ;)

Photo of Team Haggerty to come shortly I hope...

The original plan (that Trev had proposed) was to get out for some DG on Jan 1st. Sadly that didn't happen. It was a combination of things, one of which was the approaching snow storm, another was the fact that Amy was sicker than a dog and wouldn't have liked to be left alone with Liam while I was out having fun. Anyways, suffice it to say we didn't get out on Jan 1st. We did however, get out this past Saturday, Jan 5th for a round. It was Trev, Dave and myself who went. I believe a good time was had by all, but at the very least, a good time was had by me.

I got back onto the bike the other night, and that is definitely a good sign considering it is only January - last year I think I may have cycled 2 or 3 times all winter. Granted that was on rollers, which are significantly harder to use than a stationary trainer. So while Steve is off cycling in NZ for the next 3 months or so, I've got his trainer and have actually started using it. The first obstacle was changing the back tire on my bike, something I've never done before, or at least not on a road bike - I remember changing tires on my 'dirt bike' when I was a kid. Anyways, I picked up a trainer tire (Continental Ultra Sport) on the advice of my friend Paul. I got the tire from Kunstadt Sports in Kanata. For some reason I got a great deal on the tire - it was marked for $45.99 but after ringing it up, they only asked me for just over $41 - taxes in! Sweet! I got the new tire installed with no issues and hooked the bike up to the trainer. Unfortunately the 'resistance change lever' for the trainer was meant to be mounted on smaller diameter handlebars (25-26 mm) so I have been unable to mount it to my bike which has the larger diameter handlebars (31.8 mm). I'm still trying to think up a complication that I can rig up - I think some copper plumbing pipe will be involved. I started with an easy 45 minute ride while I watched The Celebrity Apprentice. As you can see from the picture to the left, I also set up the camera to take a few shots of me while I rode. It was good to get some exercise in again, and doubly good to be on my bike again. Now I just need to try to keep it up. :)

I was watching TV the other day and and ad came on for something - I wasn't watching very closely so I don't know what it was for. Anyways, at the end of the Ad, there was a bit about winning an iPhone. You had to text something to some number to be entered into a draw. Again - I didn't really catch the whole thing, but I think I remember the disclaimer about the texts being that they cost $x CANADIAN per text. This suggests that the iPhone will be available in Canada pretty soon wouldn't you say? Anyone else see this ad?

Happy New Year to everyone out there. I didn't make any new year resolutions this year (I rarely do) although I would like to do a better job at keeping the ole blog up to date. We'll see how that goes. I was going to try to write up a review of 2007, but since I'm feeling lazy, I decided that I'd just export our Christmas newsletter to PDF and make it downloadable from the blog. Afterall, Amy did a good job of summing up 2007 already - no sense in duplicating effort. I'll also add in the 2006 newsletter since I never did get around to making that one available. (Warning: For some reason the 2006 newsletter is 11.63 MB as a PDF! The 2007 newsletter is only just over a meg.)