Happy Halloween Henry

oh, and adios, while we're at it. I listed Henry today in the local trader magazine, online. It wasn't long before I had a call from a middle aged couple from Newfoundland who wanted to take him. I knew I couldn't take him when I move, so needed to get him in with someone else, so thankfully a nice lady came and picked him up. So this is a Happy Halloween indeed. Goodbye Henry! Have fun in your new home. Now it's just me and Stormy. The boy.

Call Centres

Yeah. Necessary EVIL. I hate them. And I hate that 90% of the people working there can't fucking speak English. Had a fun go-round with Bell Expressvu's call centre tonight. Sigh. So I received about a dozen or so automated phone messages telling me to replace my smart card. It's just a card that goes into the receiver, looks like a debit card or a hotel room card key. Trouble was, I didn't get the new smart card until about 5 messages in. So I finally get the damn card and follow the simple instructions to replace it. It went relatively smoothly. I called Bell Expressvu to confirm what I was doing was right, because I didn't want to take the card out (which I had never done in my life) and lose all my programming. They talked me through it, and my programming was up and running again in minutes. Groovy.

Trouble was, I kept getting the fucking phonecalls to replace my smart card AND then messages on my receiver, popping up over any program I was watching, telling me to replace my smart card. WTF? So tonight I decided to call them again, and as them, what the hell, people? Of course I got an immigrant who couldn't speak English. He stumbled through the process, told me that the card I had in there was the old one, and to put the new one in. WHAT? I told him I already did that, and had actually already confirmed with someone that the new one was in there. Apparently it wasn't. The card that came with my receiver when I bought it was the new one. They sent me an old one. Great. Ok, so I went through the process AGAIN. He tells me the card is now activated. A message on the screen says the card is being activated and warns me not to touch anything. Don't worry, I won't! Then call centre idiot tries to hook me up with some new programming, "never before seen in Canada!". Fuck off (I didn't say that out loud). If anything, I want to trim down my programming because I don't get a chance to watch it all. I only upped my package for my housesitter this summer. And now I'm moving again, and am too busy to sit around watching ALL the channels. So please reduce my package, please. Idiot tries to sell me the new and improved package again. Fuck off. I am not interested. So Idiot puts me on hold, allegedly for just a few minutes. 10 minutes later we were disconnected. Idiot. Whatever, I'll change the programming some other day. Now let me get back to Grey's Anatomy.

Um, where did all my channels go? I have just 8 or so channels...instead of about 600...WTF? Sigh...I can't believe I have to call those idiots again. I wait for 2 hours as he said, to let all the programming download...2 hours later, and I still have 8 channels. Ok, I can't believe I'm doing it but I am calling them again. Another fucking person who can't speak English...and hers is even worse than the previous idiot. Better still, she's copping an attitude, and talked over me constantly throughout the call! Anytime I tried started to talk, she talked right over me, and dismissed what I said. I explained to her that I had called twice before, and was told each time the card was activated. I asked her why she kept talking over me and didn't let me speak. She told me she did this because I didn't have anything new to say. Um, WHAT? Listen you snotty bitch, I am a loyal customer and you are insulting me, ignoring me, and being rude to me? (I didn't say that out loud...I am generally not as pissy out loud as I tend to be in my head). She promised that my card had indeed been activated. I asked her if there were any notes saying this had already been done twice before. She said "no". Fuck. Great. I asked her then if she was going to put any notes in, or would I be calling back for a fourth time to do this yet AGAIN. She assured me that she was, and that I could destroy my old card. Yeah, right lady. Like I'm going to trust you any more than I trusted the previous two idiots. Fuck off. I think I'll keep the card and see if you did your job tonight or just dinked me around like the other two assholes.

Sigh...call centres. And don't even get me started on the voice activated menus Bell has...they didn't recognize me saying the word ENGLISH, so put me into a Spanish menu...Jaysus H. Christ. And I can SPEAK English.

Crackberry Crumble

I did it. I bought a Blackberry Curve 8330. I friggin love it. I can see how people get addicted to it. All I want to know is why I didn't buy one before? LOL. I didn't have my own cell phone, just one owned by my employer for work purposes. And I didn't want to use it too much. As well, they offer much better long distance plans on cell phones up north than they do on land phones, so to hell with them, I will use a cell! And I couldn't have just any cell...I had been interested in the Blackberry aka Crackberry for some time now, and yesterday was the day. I had gone in there looking for the one they had on sale, but they sold out of them right away. However I still got an awesome deal and an awesome device. Nothing like retail therapy to take your mind off things...as well as give my parents new options for getting in touch with me, particularly with the way things are these days. Now I gotta go play...

Crapped Out

So to speak. I choked down 5 bottles of the lemon mix, the cayenne tablets, the senna, and followed that up with two giant size slices of pizza...yeah, pizza. I lasted until about 7:15pm. I rethought the whole idea and decided it was not the right time or cleanse for my particular body. With my fibromyalgia, bursitis, and knack this year for getting colds (5 so far!!!) I didn't feel I needed to tempt fate further by compromising my immune system with 10 days without eating. Granted, eating pizza is not particularly healthy...so my new plan is to buy more healthy foods when I go grocery shopping this Friday, and just eat healthy, get on the treadmill regularly, and just take better general care of myself instead. Let's see how that plan works.

And how did I feel today? Well, I managed the drinks well enough, but about 2pm my stomach started to roll, rather, LURCH as it all churned around down there, and because my bursitis was so bad this morning, I ended up taking some Tylenol and ibuprofen for it (it's the only over the counter combo that works) and the ibuprofen is likely what contributed to the lurch. I also have a pounding headache, which is normal for caffeine withdrawal, except I don't drink tea or coffee, and am not addicted to Coke or Pepsi (like my sis).

So there you have it. Master Cleanse - 1, Me - 0.

The Master Cleanse - Preparation

Yup. I'm gonna do it. I've thought about it for a few years, ever since I first met folks who did it. They crapped out early, just 3-4 days. My daughter started it yesterday and is doing well with it so far. Her roommate and a friend are also doing it with her, so I was inspired to finally try it myself. I am off red meat today, only liquids tomorrow and then on Wednesday I begin with the cleansing lemonade.

The ingredients are simple and I have modified it to suit my taste and availability of ingredients here in the north. I'll be taking senna laxative tablets at bedtime (instead of the tea - tea makes me gag), and taking the cayenne pepper in tablets instead of in the drink (the idea of that powder floating around in my lemonade makes me gag) and then the drink will be just maple syrup (the real stuff), water and fresh squeezed lemon juice. There is a salt water drink you are recommended to drink in the morning, however I don't know if I can do that...reminds me too much of all the times I nearly drowned in saltwater ocean...

The photo is not mine, but ripped off from someone else. I chuckled when I saw the baby wipes, but know why they are there...my daughter informed me that her laxative tea worked VERY WELL today...and I was reading on one of the web boards that there may be a burning ring of fire as toxins exit the body...nice.

One also cannot have alcohol, pot, tobacco, or any other non-prescribed drugs during the cleanse either, so smokers will have a hard time with it. My daughter's roomie has already broken THAT part of the fast and puffed back 10 ciggies today.

They also do not recommend any strenuous physical activity during the fast, as you'll likely pass out. I don't think I'll have any difficulty there...heh heh.

So there you have it...I'll post as often as I can on my progress (though not so much on the bodily functions, thank you very much). I have visions of passing out downtown as I walk from one office to the other, at the feet of a crack addict...let's hope that doesn't happen...

The Boys In Bed

They barely fit in there together, but often they cram in and curl up together. Cute.

New Inspirations

I moved the furniture in my apartment again. Nothing new. If I'm not moving homes, I'm changing around the one I'm in constantly. Today is was bringing the desk from my bedroom out into the living room so I could put my computer on it. I usually like sitting down at the coffee table on a cushion, but it's getting harder and harder to get up sometimes, from that position...ARRGGHHH, I'm getting old. Now my computer is on the desk. The desk is in front of the big living room window that overlooks Tin Can Hill, and at the moment, the moon is shining brightly at me. The northern lights will be out before long, and I'll see them from my desk too, with the lamp off, of course. So I think I may have moved to a place of new inspirations...and I have those five journals to fill up with them.

ADENOCARCINOMA

That's the cancer my dad was diagnosed with this week. It's in his bowel. They don't think surgery is an option at this point. They do think it's been there a while, growing silently. If he had a colonscopy 10 years ago, they might have found polyps and could have removed them before they became cancerous. Anyone over 50 should get a colonscopy, whether they have any symptoms or not. It could make a world of difference.