I’m a simple guy.  I have pretty simple tastes and the glass I put my drink in is an example of that.  I was always a fan of Dean Martin and his swaggering, faux-loaded persona.  I have a memory of his glass being simple as well  (that could have been the poor resolution).

For a long time I’ve been using green, patio rocks glasses.  They’re big (which means less refills) but they’re also pretty cheesy looking.  I was cruising Canadian Tire, having just finished a paying job, and spotted some plain but heavy old fashioneds for about $8.  While it was more than Value Village wanted, they were perfect.  I scooped them and brought them home, proud as punch.

Arriving home I unpacked them, washed them, and put them to the test.  Perfect.  Or so I thought.

My wife noticed the glasses and wrinkled her nose.  Bad sign.  I had anticipated this reaction and kept the receipt but I was going to talk my way out of it, or so I thought.  She thought they looked cheap.  I countered, “simple.”  She countered “cheap.”  Ouch – not going well.  She said that if I didn’t like the green patio glasses that I could use the crystal rocks glasses.  Now we’re getting somewhere.

The pattern is called “Pinwheel.”  Not exactly simple.  I said I would give them a try.  I dropped the first three ice cubes in the glass and they made a very loud, very any-harder-and-they-would-break type of noise.  I got the look.  I said, “if you want me to use them, this is how they’re going to be used.”  Amazingly that passed for logic.

So now my drinks are sipped from crystal.  It’s fancier than I’d like.  I have to refill more often than I’d like.  I have to be more cautious than I’d like.  But I have a happy wife, which I like.  In a world of compromise I would say that this is one that I can happily live with.

Below is a picture of the three glasses.  I’m sure you can pick them out but consider that one glass is cost $0.99 for 4, one cost $8 for 4, and one cost $8 (and I had to ask if it could go in the dishwasher!).  I think I know which one Deano would use.

We were on our way to Science North this morning and decided to caffinate at Timmy’s.  We skipped the local Tim’s in favour of a drive-through, assuming it would be quicker.  We stopped at the Tim Horton’s in Nobel, Ontario because it was on the way and in a high traffic area.  Usually these types of locations are faster because they’re more experienced.  Not this time.

Our first dilema was whether to run in or drive-through.  Looking at the lineup in the drive-through I decided that running in would be quicker.  As I was parking I noticed that the line inside the place was to the front doors – drive-through it is.

There were about 5 cars ahead of us in line which, at my normal Tim’s in Belleville on Cannifton and College, should take about 5-6 minutes.  I knew we were in trouble when we didn’t move at all in 5 minutes.  When we finally got to the ordering wicket the conversation went as follows:

“Do you serve English Toffee?”  (I have to ask because not every location does, for some reason.)
“No, we don’t.”
“OK, a large French Vanilla will be fine then.”
“Actually, we’re out of cappuccinos.” (Now I’m annoyed because you shouldn’t be out of anything at a Tim Horton’s.  Period.  I’m now not getting anything for myself because I’m P-O’d.)
“Fine.  A large double cream, one sugar, a peach juice and a blueberry doughnut.” (I meant the one that was on the big poster by the ordering window since it’s a featured product.)
“OK, $4.12.”  (This is when my wife guesses that we’ll get the wrong type of doughnut.)
We get to the window and I check the doughnut.  Sure enough, it’s some kind of glazed blueberry thing.
“I’m sorry, I wanted the blueberry doughnut you have on the poster by the ordering window.”
“Oh, you mean a blueberry jam filled doughnut?”
“No.” (My wife then remembers they’re called ‘blooms’ and calls it out.) “A blueberry bloom.”
“We’re all out of those.”
“Ok, fine, a strawberry bloom then.”
“We don’t have any of the blooms left.” (WTF? Now I’m just plain mad.)
“Ok, fine, any blueberry filled doughnut then.” (We’ve now been at the window for a good 5-7 minutes.)
She goes to get the doughnut and is clearly not having fun, has no helpers, and will not receive anything close to something resembling a tip.  I take the doughnut and decide that it is the last time I ever visit that location.  I’ve tried, several times, to be patient at this location but I’ve had enough.  And I’m a patient guy.

I feel bad for the girl at the window.  I’m sure she hates having no help and not having any product to deliver.  At the same time, a little help when I’m ordering would have gone a long way to soothe the pain (when I asked for an E.T. she could have then told me they had no cappuccinos instead of making me go down the list).  Let this be a lesson to customer service reps everywhere, there’s always a chance to save the sale.  A smile and a kind word do wonders.  Up until the doughnut I was still a possible “be-back.”  Not anymore.

If you’re from Tim Horton’s and reading this, that Nobel location has been a disgrace for several years and while I’ve only been there maybe twice a year it has consistently underperformed.  They’ve lost sales from me, screwed up orders, been short of stock, and been quite simply too slow for the brand Canadians have come to know, love and trust.  Do something.

So I was poking around on my MacBook and noticed that there was a chess game (aptly named “Chess”).  I decided to give it a go even though I last played chess in, oh, probably elementary school.  After a few humiliating games I tried to get semi-serious and actually put some thought into my moves.  I was just starting to think that I’d gained the upper hand when the Mac cheated!  I thought it was a fluke so I “undid” my move and tried it again but the darn thing cheated again!  It’s hard to really show it without video but I promise you, it happened.  Below are my screenshots to prove it:

Before moving my pawn into F4:

After moving my pawn and before the computer’s retaliation:

Now here’s where the computer cheats.  Pawns may only take pieces moving diagonally and here he takes my pawn, sitting in F4, by moving to F3!  Even if it was checkers this jump wouldn’t count for anything.

No more Chess for me.  The game’s hard enough without the computer cheating to beat me.  Good night, Irene.

I borrowed the title of this post heavily from my friend, Rene, who lamented on how he was busy but how he had to find time to keep up appearances on his website.  I, too, find myself in the position of being so busy that keeping my site up to date has taken a back seat to actually doing the work.  But please don’t let it sound like I’m complaining.

The past month has seen me busier than ever before.  I expanded my business to include my favourite hobby, home theatre and movies in general, and wouldn’t you know it, my web business blows up.  I’ve released 2 sites already this month and will have another 3 before the July page flips to August.  While it puts stress on the home life, the nature of the beast is such that you must strike while the iron is hot.

Since my biggest project of 2009 so far has now gone gold with only minor updates remaining (niagaragreenbelt.com) I feel it’s time to update the site.

To date I’ve partnered with great creatives like Brock, Rene, Aron and Gabriel and the work seems to be flowing nicely.  The even better news is that I’m very busy at Sears Canada and the work there seems to be rounding me out.  Not only can I code your front end website but I have the ability to do the dirty, SQL back end too.

Let me just close by saying that 3G has finally arrived in Belleville, but it hasn’t reached into Prince Edward County.  Typing on an iPod Touch is not as easy as it is on the Blackberry, and that isn’t easy in the first place (with chubby digits).  I’m now trying to Tweet as much as makes sense but I’m still not paying enough attention to my LinkedIn account.  I still love my PS3 but even more so now that I’m streaming iTunes from my Macbook.  And lastly, why hasn’t Adam Sandler been making kids’ movies all along?

Oh yeah, and I’m an uncle again!  Congrats to my sister Maija, brudder Jonny, niece Lexi and only nephew Jonah Watson Goward (7lbs 5oz).

Gary Vaynerchuk is proudly loud and obnoxious.  Normally I wouldn’t listen for more than a few seconds to a guy like Gary but his honesty makes him somewhat likable.  That glimmer of hope is why I spent a little time reading his site and watching some of his videos.  It wasn’t until I watched a video of Gary at a Web 2.0 Expo, lecturing about building a personal brand, that I knew how smart he really was (although he’s dangerously close to Tony Robbins territory with how motivating he is).

Gary essentially begged the audience to quit doing work that they hate.  He asked them to figure out what it is that they really like to do and do it.  Make that the foundation and then figure out how to make money from it.  That said, I’ll be launching a new site in the next couple of months.  Fingers crossed…