Every time I have a cold, I wish I also had a recliner.

Things that are uncomfortable:

- sitting up

- lying down

- closing my eyes

- keeping my eyes open

- thinking

- sleeping

Things I have cancelled or skipped due to illness:

- lunch with the gang from the big telecom company

- book club

- boxing (probably)

- strength class

- circuit class

- work

Things I have not wanted to do in the last week

• Go to work (tired, must sleep)
• Go to sleep
• Deal with unnecessary apple-picking drama
• Write an e-mail to Sparks parents (especially since I don't work with Sparks anymore)
• Go to boxing (this is becoming a theme ... again)
• Dishes
• Eat the eggplant-filled dish I made (it was good)
• Go to the doctor
• Go to the gym 
• Burpees (I started a campaign to make sure the instructor knew they were so easy it was practically like having a break. Turns out he's too smart to fall for that.)
• Deal with my Kobo, which forgot it had any books on it, again
• Figure out how to print in colour at work ... again
• Fix the doorbell
• Replace the light bulb in the kitchen
• Read the book I borrowed from my former manager
• Buy new socks (1/2 of my socks are sprouting  holes again)

Most of them I did anyway.

Except the last 4.

Ouch

This weekend, I went over to a friend's house and tried the Wii Fit.

Long story short, I now have a Wii Fit. (Oddly, I don't actually have a Wii. Luckily, Wanda does.)

I'm enjoying it, although I wouldn't really consider it a workout. I mean, it's better than sitting on the couch, but I used it for a couple of hours this weekend and I never broke a sweat.

I also went for a long walk yesterday since it was so nice out.

Between the two, I'm so sore today. The muscles in my upper back are sore (Rythym Kung Fu), my forearms are sore (the marching one with the drums), and the muscles on the outside of both ankles are sore (that might be the walk).

Do you know what the problem with having two sore ankles is? That's right, it's hard to limp.

Tonight I tried the one where you're flying (Bird's Eye Bull's eye, I think).

I shudder to think how sore I'll be tomorrow.

How I Failed Online Shopping

A couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Air Miles Shops. Now, normally I ignore marketing e-mails, but this one offered a 5% -20% discount and bonus Air Miles at Chapters. I had been planning to buy a few things at Chapter, so I figured this was a good opportunity. The discount was available until Monday.

On the weekend, I went through the site and accumulated a shopping cart full of stuff - a Kobo cover, a DVD set, and some kids' books for Christmas gifts. I followed the instructions, put in the promo code, entered a gift card number and a credit card number for the balance, and got the message that the promo code wasn't valid on that order.

I went back to Air Miles Shops and checked the offer. There were no restrictions.

I sent off two e-mails - one to Air Miles Shops and one to Chapters. In both cases, I gave them the promo code and explained what I was trying to do. I asked how I could get the discount.

Both promised a response within 24 hours.

Chapters responded first - on Monday (the last day of the offer). Here's part of their answer: "If you were unable to redeem your coupon at the time you placed your order, we can certainly help. ... we can only adjust your order after it has shipped. Once you receive your shipping confirmation email, please let us know and we will apply the coupon to your order at that time. ... Please note: If the items on your order do not qualify for the discount, we will not be able to process the coupon to your order."

That was nice, but didn't actually help because I still didn't know what items on my order were disqualifying me for the discount. (In fact, I didn't know that it was an item on my order - it could have been the total cost of the order or my mailing address or the zodiac sign I was born under.)

Air Miles Shops took longer to get back to me - five business days, in fact - but they did have the answer. They gave me some Air Miles and blamed the restriction on Chapters, saying that Chapters didn't allow the discount to be applied to electronics and accessories. That's right, it was the Kobo cover that was disqualifying me. However, it was 4 days too late for me to get the discount anyway.

I gave up.

Fast forward to tonight, when I decided to go through the accumulated mail. As is usual for this time of year, I received a Lego catalog. This was on the cover. It was expensive - $79.99 - but I really liked it.

I started checking out that site. I picked a few specific bricks I know my niece will enjoy, then I added that set to my cart.

I wasn't planning to buy today, but before I left the site I decided to see what the price on that set was in US dollars. The answer? $59.99.

I checked out the current exchange rate. $79.99 CDN is $78.58 US.

I walked away.

And that's how I failed at online shopping.

Yay!

I worked from work today. It was very frustrating, because I had sporadic, reoccurring network problems. I was always able to reach the development servers, but was not always to reach the internet or our mail server. In order to fix the internet/mail problem, I had to disconnect and reconnect the ethernet cable - which dropped me from the development servers.

The good news is that I'm finally starting to feel better. I'm not completely better - I'm still coughing - but I'm not nearly as exhausted as I was. This is wonderful news. I'm going to continue taking it easy for the rest of the week, since I have to be ready for camp on Saturday. Hopefully next week I'll be back to normal./

Whining

I probably mentioned yesterday that I have another cold. This is the third one this year and the second one this month. This is far worse than the first one I had. For one thing, I cannot get warm unless I'm in bed. Lying on the couch under 2 blankets doesn't work. Taking a hot bath doesn't work. Working at the computer definitely doesn't work.

I'm hoping that this doesn't last long. I hate being sick all of the time.

In good news, today was another beautiful sunny day. The snow continues to melt, and spring is definitely here. The driveway has vastly improved since a week ago - there are no major icy patches.