Only 86 lbs to go.

Feels good to have moved a tangble step away from 100 lbs.  Wow.  Its a daunting amount of weight.  For perspective for the skinny people who just can't fathom this, imagine how it would feel if I were to ask you to carry 8 - 24can cases of pop on your shoulders.  Thats 100lbs.  That would be quite exhausing (actually it is quite exhausting).  I have lost a case.  Hooray.  Although - you still can't tell.  My tube top is still in the package.

I just churned out another essay under the wire.  It is due tonight at 11:55.  I tried all weekend to read the article I was to be referencing.  It was so dry that it has taken me 5 days to actually read the 30 pgs (full of illustrations) and actually compute what it was trying to say.  Talk about inefficient.  At least my Italian homework is done.  You can copy me this week Norma......I owe you a few.

Spent the weekend with mom and dad.  Mr. Councillor has effectively wiggled his way into overseeing...you guessed it....the dump!  Hooray.  Democracy and diligence can win the race.  He will also be governing veterinary services and the dog pound.  Its all glamour in the croft.  I hope we don't end up with any new pets.......

Also - this just in..... my parents for the first time in 36 years will not be on the continent to celebrate my birthday, as they will be lying on some damn beach in the Carribean.  All of this council work has made them wealthy globetrotters, much to my shock.  They'd never go on vacation if it was Stevie's birthday!  Honestly. 

In bigger news - it is 55 days until my birthday.  Given that my social network has been radically reorganized - thank you LifeLabs - and given that I will not be in the croft for it.....I have some planning to do.  As always I will still run with a theme, which this year is........

Magenta, Magic, and Magnets

Do with it what you will..........I think this year I'll do a prize for best interpretation of the theme.  You all work so hard, it would be a shame to not provide positive reinforcement :).

Big News!

I'm down 11.5 lbs, even though you wouldn't believe it to see me.  Only 88.5 to go.  I've completely eliminated sugar and my Tim Hortons stop in the morning.  Yay me.

In other news...my GO chronicle of the day "Good Morning Passengers...welcome to Union station, your final stop.  Take a moment to please check around and take all of your belongings with you.  As a reminder, crossing the track is illegal, so please use the stairs and elevators provided.....Oh and passengers, could you all do me a favour and help me out, please look around and if you see anyone napping, give them a gentle nudge and let them we are here."  Good greif.  You bet Mindy....any thing I can do to make ur day go real swell is what I am all about.

In interview news....I have another at OAHPP on Thursday.....things are moving and shaking.

Italian tonight.  Haven't done my homework.  Thank goodness I have a light day...... :)

Its damn cold

Today the furnace kacked - and the house is taking a a good deal of time to re-warm.  So at 8:14pm, I'm already tucked in bed, and hating every minute of the homework I have to do.  Ay yi yi.

So back to GO Transit............Did I mention how much I loathe this organization?  Why?  because they have you by the short and curlys and you have not choice as a commuter but to use them!

Here is what go says on GO:

What Is GO?

GO Transit is Canada’s first, and the Province of Ontario’s only, interregional public transportation service for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area of Southern Ontario with service extending to Niagara Falls and Kitchener-Waterloo in the west; Orangeville, Barrie, and Beaverton in the north; Stouffville, Uxbridge, and Peterborough in the northeast; and Oshawa and Newcastle in the east. We carry nearly 55 million passengers a year.
Since May 1967, GO Transit has evolved from a single GO Train line along Lake Ontario’s shoreline into an extensive network of train lines and bus routes. Since day one, more than a billion riders have taken GO – to work or school, and home, or for leisure activities. GO provides commuters with safe, fast, reliable, comfortable, and direct service to downtown Toronto and other urban centres

I have some concerns with the above highlighted OVERSTATEMENTS.

Additionally there is a 5 part passenger charter:
1.  We WILL DO OUR BEST to be on time
2.  We will always take your safety seriously
3.  We will keep you in the know
4.  We will make your experience comfortable
5.  We will help you quickly and courteously

Now in GOs defense, the charter was new at the end of 2010 - but let me give you a view into the GO reality.  Since the creation of said charter, there has not been a day where they have not met their targets.  As an aside - do you know how many people get hurt on beside or under go trains every year?  Shocking - 5 people died in 2010.....but lets start small.....let just arrive on time, forget alive.

I never, and I mean NEVER arrive on time.  There in the last week have been 4 technical issues delaying my train - and I have chosen a different departure time each time.  Its viral.  But they never said they'd get me to work on time - they said they'd try.  Have I ever accepted that spiel from an employee?  Um no.  Gee Chris I tried... c'mon.

They take my safety seriously?  Really - 3 kernels of salt on a tiled 20 stair climb ain't safe, particularly while I'm being trampled by the hoards behind me.... Well I guess if they don"t state it - their wanton disregard is inferred - so they better write it down.  Every train always has at least 1 car where the emergency response bar isn't working - and the "Customer Service Ambassador" in coach 5 announces it like every 5 minutes.....wow that grinds my gears.  I'm trying to nap for pete sakes.  So every 5 minutes they announce as well, that if you don"t feel safe (like say you are sitting by a terrorist), please feel free to move to coach 5 where ambassador "Mindy" or "Jim" will look after you.  Gee - that won't be awkward getting up after the call and crawling over everyone to get to safety......"Gee, whats she afraid of....."

We will keep you in the know.....well thats true.  They announce every shortcoming every 5 minutes so they can pour salt in the wound over and over and over...."Just want to announce folks that the doors are not working and our departure from Union is now delayed 20 minutes.  Please be patient.  Oh and the other train you could have taken in the mean time?  Yeah its already gone too.......we"ll let you know as things progress"  Thanks for the update Ambassador Jim. (Ambassador Jim is cute by the way....always take the 315 home...)

Comfort?  Well, sometimes I have have to sit on the stairs or sit on someones lap.  Sometimes there is no heat, sometimes there are no metro papers, and sometimes I have to hike 2 miles from the parking lot to even get to the station.  Yeah - that is pretty comfy.  Thanks GO people.

Couteous help can come very quickly when the sole options for the helpee is the helper saying "I apologize for the inconvenience".

Sigh.  Monopolies.  Gotta hate 'em.

So here is what makes me NUTS after I hike 2 miles in a foot of snow, sit on some old guys lap with nothing to read, not being able to nap because ambassador Jim won't lay off the mic, and then having to skid down 2 flights of stairs to hook up with the mole people.  Here are the walmat greeters of Dirtville:

2 people standing in front of a little glass box - making sure we all pay.  They don't make change, or sell tickets.....they just occupy that space.  Its fascinating that there are 2 budgeted salaries for this function.  Grrrr.  Just use the ticket guys 2 feet to the left.  Save some money Toronto.  Outfit these 2 with brooms.  Ay yi yi. I'm so annoyed.  I should get a tea and have a break.

However before I close, here is something cool I spied underground today.  What the heck is this?

Its a home made ski/skateboard bike?  Check out the arm strap for handy tunnel carrying.  I wonder how it propels?  Its pretty cool anyway. 

Well, I'm thawing out.  Gotta read about 12 articles tonight, so must get at it.  Top chef is on in 3 min...... Marcel and The French Guy are still in it..... sweet.

7 lbs in the right direction!

Woo hoo.  This weekend wasn't such a bust after all.  The snowman has moved another glorious 2.5 lbs to the right, and all is well with the world again....apart from my new hatred for GO transit.  Today may be the worst service day in history - but I cannot digress now as I have a very critical assignment due by 11:55, and I was not able to complete it from 9-5 :)

Interview on Thursday......

I'm in too damn deep....

Woo, what a weekend.  Dreading my weigh in tomorrow.  I went off plan....but not so badly that I will have gained, but I sure as hell didn't lose.  But a major coup - I made hollandaise from scratch.  Sweet.  I really should cook for a living.

Learned about 4 hours ago that I have an assignment due TOMORROW for a new course that started last Friday.  Holy shit - am I supposed to do academics on the weekends?  I was only gonna do it during office hours...... :)

Great weekend, topped off with this blog entry.  Went to the Tim Burton exhibit at TIFF Lightbox.  Pretty neat.  Paid homage by watching Beetlejuice and EdWood.  Classically Burton.  But avoid Sweeny Todd in your Burtonmoviethon.....crazy blood bath

Golden Globes on.....J Lo presenting now....finally not dressed like a skank in public.  I'm such an award show junkie.  Go Colin F.  Public speak your ass off!

So lemmee tell ya - I've seen 2 particularly odd things this week worth sharing. First - this signage from the bowels of the TTC - that in this snowy wonderland this week - was an absolute pig pen...but I digress...

Funerals Are Now Affordable
Complete Basic Cremation	$1,695
Burial & Graveside Service	$1,800
Funeral with casket	$3,200
HST, Fees & Disbursements         Included

I encourage you to visit this site.  I don't understand the Harry Potter Phoenix logo.  But what is concerning that if you live in Ajax, its gonna cost you about $200 dollars more for services than if you say live in Oakville.....but generally speaking:

You can get cremated: 1600
You can get buried: 1800
Include a casket: 3200.

Sweet deal.  I say we buy today and get in on the deal before the prices go up.......clearly the organization has money and is reputable clearly demonstrated by the elaborate ad campaign being used in the TTC tunnels....I guess when you are crammed in there with the herds of mole people, you do often pray for death, and might turn to these good people.

While at Italian class this week, I found myself waiting out side the rest room:

I just LOATHE it when people hand make signs......note the wet paint and womens googley eye notations.  Good grief.  In my previous life - this was a major issue in the labs and collection centres.  Employees were forever handwriting shit on labels and what not, to communicate some damn concept in either a demotion of service, or to advise their colleagues to please "not do" something.  Of course, how could we expect better, when as an organization we refuse to give staff computers and printers in the 21st century?  The company will get them one day....when the world has converted to the iPad 100%, those beleaguered staff will finally get the Commodor C64 they've been yearning for, and they can print all of the "closed for lunch" signs they want on don-matrix paper.

So this week is a big one.  3 new job prospects.  I might remind you all, I need one.  This is my current existence:

I can't live like this much longer......I've had such a fall from grace.  I miss my door and lid so much.....I want it back dammit!

Wish me luck this week kids....

Now back to the globes and all the drunk stars.......dreading tomorrows weigh in :( 

Monday and the Snowman has moved!

Hip hip hooray.  My snowman flabometer has trudged to the right.  Applause!

Big news this weekend.  I may have made Scrabble history amongst my circle of peeps.  89 points for SQUISHY.  Shared this with roomie who could not have been less interested.  Its all about using all of your letters people.  Needless to say, I was pretty jazzed.  If only B had been playing so she could also have felt the sting of a sealed loss......(insert evil cackle here!)

I saw a most odd live performance this weekend:  Fairy Tale Ending - the big bad family musical.  Needless to say it was everything I expected for the low low price of 12$.  I think I knew where we were heading when i got my photocopied program and lined up at the box office (a tent on the corner of Adelaide and Bathurst).  It was just an odd telling of how several fairy tales were ending tragically and villains had gone wrong and were in a criminal line up, and the crazed detective had to figure out why the endings were changing for the worse in the stories....ay yi yi.  Spoiler alert!!!  It was the narrator who committed the crime!

Apparently: "Fairy Tale Ending is a topsy-turvy yet touching tale of a young girl coming to grips with loss and the reality of growing up".  I gotta tell you.....I didn't totally get this.  Of course, once I realized one of the actors had a prosthetic hand (with french tips), I was pretty distracted and fascinated by it for the rest of the show, so may have missed the critical moment where we all got our moral of the day.  Morbidly - I want to know what happened to her hand.

Shout out to the wolf......amidst all of the overacting by Goldilocks, the chronic whingeing of Jill, and the overbutchified detective.....you managed to shine through anyway.

Check it out....you have 6 days left to rush for tickets..... http://www.fairytaleending.ca/index.html

Guiltily, I had nachos at the Banknote afterward.....but I had the ones with the least cheese!

NO CREAM IN MY TEA TODAY......I did it!

Lentil soup tonight.....don't know the recipe unless I'm actually making it so will document as I go and share tomorrow!

Slippin into the groove

Happy Friday everyone.

Tough start to the month on the ugly shoe quest.  Everyones in boots...and all fairly pedestrian at that!  C'mon people.  I was going to start and ugly toque campaign, but feared the need to get waivers signed for posting head shots on the internet......

How about a new perspective.  BEST shoe of 2011 (so far)....

Behold minion!!!  My winter BOGS.  I wore them in public today wearing turquoise plaid pants.... A pal once told me - your outfit doesn't have to match, it just has to "go".  Oh it go baby!

BOGS have 2 key features....a Wellington-like galosh bottom and a Gortex top.  Uber warm.  And note the pull on hand loops up top.  Sweet for the wearer with a more portly calf meant to be standing waiting for the ever late GO train!  But also, if you need a quick shopping bag, they are sturdy enough to fill with canned goods and you can carry easily with the reinforced hand holes.  They are a bitch to pull off tho.....Guarantee these will not wear out in my lifetime.  Thanks Santa for keeping me fashion forward. 

2 more days to make weight loss magic on my first weigh in.  A bit of a muddled week.  Followed the rules sometimes, reinvented rules other times. 

TRIUMPHS?  Got my tea down 2 sizes.  I need to be switched to milk or peppermint tea by the time Italian class starts.  Totally off all sugar (yay) and totally off snack foods.  Went to the movies.....only had a tea!

FAILURES?  Still have cream in my tea.  Haven't ramped up my water intake.  Haven't balance my dairy consumption.

All baby steps grasshopper.....

Saw the gym 2 times in 4 days.  Did a trip on the below contraption the other 2 days:

Say hello to the "Ab-Doer Twist".  We just happen to have one in the cupboard, purchased as seen on TV, marketed beside the "Snuggie" blanket with arms, and the Magic Bullet.

I won't lie...I'm hurting in my more than generous flanks to be sures.  The gist is that you sit on it (in front of Oprah of course), pull the Wildebeast Horn handle bars up to chest height, and start rocking back and forth side to side, add a twist.etc......  There is pretty decent resistance in the back bar so all the right muscles get engaged to flex it.  The orange foam rolly thingy?  That is some kind of spinal safety feature....but is ultimately a fab massager......I should be seized up into a ball by bed time.

So the movie I viewed was "The Kings Speech".  Now as much as I adore Colin Firth, I really gotta say, come Oscar time, Geoffry Rush should have been deemed the star of this movie and be vying for the best Actor nod - performance was so so good. I will own the DVD, but propelled not by my need to have a complete Colin Firth collection (because he's awesome**), but more to start a Geoffry Rush collection.  Its a great flick, with a really solid perspective of what it must have been like to have been a Royal pre-war time.  What a complicated lineage in that family. Buckle in Ms Middleton. I think I'll start to research it......we are after all standing at the threshold of my burgeoning University career.  Might as well ramp up........

**with the obvious exception of "The Importance of Being Ernest......gawd

Silver is not the end of the world Canada

My gawd - its only Hockey.....and junior hockey at that.  Ugh.

So have we all heard about this insanity? :

The world would like to rid the text of the racial offenses and update to be more culturally apropos.  Really?  Wouldn't this be a nice time for the education and child rearing systems (sometimes one in the same) to use this as an example to mold young minds about the need for social and cultural equality and to further reinforce why the racial references within Huck Fin are taboo?  Mark Twain is rolling in his grave to be sure...... There are so many other critical things to be worked on in the planet...how did rewriting Huckleberry Finn get to the top of the list.  Idiots.

But on the redeeming side of things...have we heard of this guy (you have to be right on the blog to view him)?

Ted Williams looks like your typical homeless person. However, due to this video that has gone viral, the scruffy Columbus, Ohio-native won't be a jobless person for much longer.  He has received 1000 job offers - and I can't even get 1.  Maybe the cardboard sign is the answer to success....Skippy, are you with me?  Wanna go down to Lakeshore and Jarvis and panhandle for a job?? 

Good for him.  He's been off drugs for 2 and living in a house for 2 years.  He should have a lid in a few days.  Hope it doesn't come with a carton of meth!  Rock on Ted.

PS.... I'm down to a medium tea with cream......should be weaned off by the end of the week!

Day 2 - a tougher climb then anticipated

Heres what I am missing.  Cream.  I love tea with cream.  Today dear readers I cut myself off of Hortons XL Steeped Tea w 3 cream.  I know its only 3 points - but they are wasted to be sure!  i tried it with milk.....and it just ain't gonna do, so I need a whole new beverage.  Mint tea likely.

I'm not totally WW organized yet.  I skipped breakfast.  I just couldn't coordinate a coffee cup, water bottle, gym bag, commute bag, scarf, mitts, badge, ipod, and a chapstick all in one flourish before take off.  Clearly this will take effort the night before.  Noted.

So far I've gobbled 10 points out of my allotted 30.  I'm behind on water, dairy and veg.  Shit.

Ah well - I'll score a skinny latte for the way ride home - and tack on 3 points, and knock off the dairy, and have a big ass salad for dinner.  I'll drink on the tread mill tonight.

I need to decipher the recipe for this:

The # 2D at Thai Express. Soup w Chicken, about 4 cups of it.  Looks good, tastes good, except it will sting you 8$ a day to eat your watery bowl of chicken chum for the sake of the ultimate shed.  I can do this cheaper at home.  I really think its just a matter of chicken stock with a few threads 'o chicken dipped in it, and some cellophane noodles & sprouts.

So while I did not get any nasty shoes for Christmas (for once) - I did get some nifty socks.  Check these babies out!

These are "shark socks"..and you insert your foot into the shark mouth.  They make a pretty freaky puppet too :).

I've also happened upon a fairly neat website this holiday.....

http://10minutemail.com/10MinuteMail/index.html

This website provides you with a temporary email addresses that expire within 10 minutes. For those nasty websites that ask for your email for verification, but just end up sending you a bunch of junk in the process.  Genius I tell ya.

My man Skippy also shared an epic YouTube link today.  Mesmerizing for the techie.  Thought I'd share.  Click below.  Back to the grind......



to resolve or not to resolve

So on January 3, with all of the Christmas chaos finally wound down, I have been able to find my room again, and can happily nestle in to scribble down my first blog of the year.  I have a half blog in my pending files that I started on Dec 23, but just couldn't get my act together on quality.  Although...I could do a quick photo montage of some of my gifts, that came with a claim of "you'd look so good in that"...and big laughs would be comin for sure!!......good grief.

Tonight, Top Chef All-Stars has hit the Food Network.  Awesome - nothing nicer than having a competition of all past contestants that placed second and third (suckers) .....you just know they all have an axe to grind.  Awesome.  Nothing turns my crank more than strife. I'm rooting for an Angelo vs Marcel finale.  Challenge tonight is cooking a frozen scallop.  Gawd I wish I knew how to cook a scallop.  I could totally do this show if it didn't include seafood.  This is why I'll never be a great chef I'm afraid.

Tomorrow, back to 'work' via la Go Train in search of the first ugliest shoe of the year, and then back to whatever it is I do.

So - do I make New Years resolutions or not?? I routinely do not, but in a year currently laid out with very few "for sures", I might as well ice out a few.

1.  Keep up the Blog, and aim for 20 avid followers.  (Brittany - you need to get better at recruiting)

2.  Get a freakin job!  Although I would love, and I mean love, to just open a day spa....so I'm noodling that around too.  Need a few backers.

3.  Lose 100 lbs.  This is big - and will take much commitment on my part, but I think I can do this.  I've done 80 - but have gained it back plus a few - so I have got to smarten up.  I have added my progress tracker to the blog main page so you can follow along (chrispective.blogspot.com) and keep me honest

The reality is that I can no longer blame the job for my weight gain, that has just snuck up over the past 4.5 months.  Its a matter of balancing some activity with a few less double doubles.  Ay yi yi.  I think I'll stick with the weight watcher plan.....I know how it works.  Just a matter of doing it...besides all of the content is Google-able now, so I won't have to go to the sad sack meetings.  And its better than ordering those damn online meals Kirstie Alley, so stuff it.  I still need the ability to drink.  Its my reality.  WW will support my habit!

So there we have it.  Its game on.  First weigh in will be Monday morning.  I need to have unloaded 2 lbs. 

If you see me head first in a box of turtles....please pull me out dammit, and set up an intervention.  STAT