Today I saw an ad for Herbal Magic, is this available in the US? I know a few people who were successful with the program but have never considered it for myself as it seems like from what they said it was a lot of pill popping.

Anyways, the ad had Elizabeth Manley in it. For those not in the know Elizabeth is a former Canadian Figure Skating champion who silver medals at both the 1988 Winter Olympics and the 1988 World Championships.

Do you think it is a coincidence that she has shown up on TV a week before the Olympics? Pretty good strategy for Herbal Magic as she was Canada’s darling.

It is so damn cold here right now! It was so cold that I opted not to take Bruiser out to the dog park today. Sure he could probably stay warm with his coat and his running around but me…I was not born with fur and the need to smell dog bums so I opted out.

I’m sure he was not a happy dog, but he’ll live. Maybe we should move…go someone place warmer! I always say I should have been born in Australia, I could live happily with their weather easily! Or I could go to California, mingle with the stars…I heard that Newport Beach real estate is hot right now.

I guess I should be thankful that we have not had any snow storms yet this year, unlike the Washington DC, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, etc. But this cold? This -17C…I could sure live without.

I was at Ikea yesterday (I took Friday and Monday off for a small breather), as I was picking up two cupboards for my tv unit and was marveling at how fast they can get their customers through checkout, unlike my local Metro grocery store. I think one reason is the cool ls2208 hand scanners they use rather than having drag an item over the scanning device.

Also, their customers are pretty good at aligning their purchases UPC front so it goes much faster. At my local Metro, no one is minding what way they put their groceries on the belt and of course then there are items that need to be weighed.

Oh, and let us not forget the slow moving cashier…I don’t think Ikea hires any. By the time you get to the cashier at Ikea, you just want to leave…you’ve already been there fore oh…4 hours traipsing about their warehouse.

I did get my two cupboards and a DVD organizer (Inreda DVD Rack) which I think I am going to hack, I just need to figure out how and what would make it better. I’m thinking plexiglass and a pull of some kind.

There is talk on my future home’s group wall on Facebook that my condo should be ready for occupants in May and that they hope to have everyone moved in by the end of September. You have never seen someone move so fast to try to get their finances in order and to implement some kind of workable no frills budget such as I did the day I heard this.

I have managed to cut things back on some services to save $76 a month and have paid off and down some credit cards and also using some balance transfer low interest rates to save interest.

I am now got my brain on finding a new mortgage broker (one that is local rather than 55km away and as well as checking out term life insurance quotes as I plan on going that route rather than mortgage insurance that banks try to gouge you on.

Unlike my previous job who had life insurance on their employees for the wage x 2, mine is maxed out at 25K and unfortunately that won’t even cover 25% of my mortgage.

I was just wondering, what do my American friends do with their mortgages? I know our mortgages are very different than the US and I’m wondering about what happens if something were to happen to you or your spouse. Mortgage insurance or life insurance?

I noted on Sunday that I had spent the day cleaning and now I am spending the days in pain. Muscle pain that is.

I have this bad problem of not bending my knees when doing things low to the ground and unfortunately it is not felt until a day or two later that you overly stretched some very unused muscles.

I wanna groan every time I use the washroom and any time I put socks on, lol. Two days and counting…