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Archive - June, 2004

----- 06.29.2004 --------
Well, here I am, not quite 3.5 weeks after breaking my rib and I'm out there pretending like it never happened. I'm no 100% yet, not even close actually. BUT, I did go to the gym last night and it felt great! Yes, it hurt! No, I couldn't lift much. But I was there and that's the main thing. What's even better is I woke up this morning and I wasn't in pain for a change. Sure, there was a bit of pain, especially getting out of bed, but I didn't need a pain killer for a rare change. And I seemed fine all day! And then tonight, Chris & I went for a blade! Nothing too serious, maybe 10 or 12 Km, but atleast I'm back at it. And I'm feeling good for it! So.... look out footy, I'll be back in no time :) I'm really looking forward to this weekend! Rebecca & I are heading up to Ottawa for Canada Day. From what I understand, it's a hell of a party! Friday eve I'm taking a train back alone and Rebecca's got some family stuff for the rest of the weekend. I'm not sure what I'm going to do just yet... It's a nice long weekend so I only hope the weather's nice and I can spend most of it outside. I may stop off in Cobourg (sp?) on the way back and party with Chris. Dunno yet. Anyway, if I don't write, I hope everyone has a great Canada Day! Cheers!

----- 06.26.2004 --------

So I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 tonight. I'm not really sure what to say about it. I think I'm glad to have seen it, but it was very emotional. There were scenes that had me on the edge of tears. So, you've been warned... Prepare to feel sorry for people. Prepare for your inner sense of compassion to get the better of you. Atleast that's what I went through and it's rare for a movie to do that to me. Having said that, this is an extremely political movie. There are some funny parts, but without a doubt, the message is clear: George W. Bush should not be in office. Who should be there? I dunno... but he's a scary guy to have in the driver's seat! I've read some of Moore's works and I won't say that I learned many new facts. If you haven't read up on his stuff, then you may be shocked to find out a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. The accuser of propaganda spreads it himself, in the literal sense of the term that is. Dictionary.com defines Propaganda as: "information that is spread for the purpose of promoting some cause". This movie fits this description exactly! I'm glad to be one of the first to see this movie... I think we'll be talking a lot about it in the days to come as people witness it themselves. All in all, I walked out rather moved. Rather depressed, but rather moved. We're in a sad state of affairs! And how we got here is ridiculous! Unfortunately, it can't be undone! The damage is done and I don't see a new president repairing the kind of damage Bush has done to the American people in the Middle East. A rep has been developed that won't fade easy! Maybe with time, but definately many will always hate the US from now, which is pretty sad. Anyway... that's all I'll say about that. Last night I went to see "The White", a Led Zeppelin cover band, at the Hard Rock Cafe. They sounded great! I went w/ Rebecca, her roommate Christie, and my friend Mike, who I work with. I guess you could say it was a double-date. Afterwards we went for some late night Golden Griddle... MMmmmm. Anyway, It's Friday and other them seeing Fahrenheit 9/11, it's pretty much a low-key Friday for me. Btw, the image of the bill was handed out outside of the the Theatre. There were many people handing things out! This bill seemed so cool I just had to scan it for y'all. Tomorrow morning I'm going to Footy. Not to play, but to ride the pine. It'll still be quite awhile before I can get back in there, probably another 3 weeks unfortunately :(. Tomorrow night we're going out for "Rookie Night". I'm not sure what's involved, but I'm told I should worry. Yikes! Anyway, I'll tell you about it later... unless it's really bad, and then I won't ;P OK... G'Nite!

----- 06.23.2004 --------
Hmmm... where to start? Let's start with the good news! It may sound bad, but "Single Rob" is dead. OK, dead's a harsh term... but he's gone for an undetermined amount of time. I'm happy to say that I'm now half a couple :) Things between Rebecca & I have been going so well that we decided we'd where the boyfried/girlfriend titles. And I couldn't be happier! :) So what's next? I dunno... one day at a time. In the near future, we're planning on going to Ottawa next weekend to celebrate Canada Day. I've never been on Canada Day, but from what I hear, it's a blast! Last night we went out for dinner and a few drinks then ended up a Milwaukees. Tuesdays are Karoke night. We had soooo much fun! Neither of us sang, which was fortunate for everyone there, but it was still fun. It was mostly ringers... they're all really good karokers (?). And now for the bad news. OK, so there's no "bad" news for say... but there might be tomorrow when I can't move. I went to the gym tonight for the first time in 3 weeks. As much as it hurt (broken rib, remember?), I struggled through a bunch of exercises. Some hurt more then otheres. I just had to get back in there! I was going nuts! I felt soooo lazy!!!! I figured 2.5 weeks is enough healing for my rib and it's time to start working out again. I lifted really light... probably %10 - %30 what I normally lift. I really struggled too for some! But I compensated with lots of reps. Sadly enough, I couldn't push 25 lbs/side on the hammer strength ISO-wide grip bench press. That's sad! I had 90lbs per side before! It just hurt too much on 25's, so I put on 10 and pumped 100 reps. I think that stretched me out a bit and I ended up going to 35 per side. Some machines were easier then others. Shoulder press? OWWW!!!! The hammer strenght one wasn't too bad, but they have a military grip shoulder press machine that was SUPER tough for me! It hurt sooo much! My last set had no weight on it even! In some respects I really felt like a wuss, but in others, I felt great to back at it after only 2.5 weeks. I'm sure when the percacets where off I'll feel it! The doc told me I could and if it hurts too much, it's either too much or too soon. So, keeping to that, I'm going to shoot for 3 days/week. Hopefully I'll get back to where I was at by August... but we'll see. Anyway, I better sign off. I've got Grocery Gateway coming in 10 minutes or so. I hope everyone's doing well... cause this kid sure is :) Take care!

----- 06.20.2004 --------
Here's a really short post. I thought this pic was really funny!

----- 06.20.2004 --------
I down chillin at my folks' place just outside of Windsor right now. I came down to spend Father's Day with my Dad. It's about 8 AM and I've been up for quite awhile. I woke up in a lot of pain this morning. This rib o' mine's been killing me! Sometimes it's not too bad, but that's mainly only when I'm taking something for the pain. There have been a couple days over the past week where it surprisingly didn't hurt too bad when I woke up, but most days I'm not that lucky. On the days it doesn't hurt right from the start, I do what I can to avoid taking any pain killers. I've been good right up until night time on a few days. I'm really starting to feel lazy! I can't do any exercise! That'll change Monday or Tuesday, once I'm back in the big smoke. I've decided to go back to the gym. I won't be able to lift much, but I'll start w/ whatever I can. Even if I've got to use a fiver on the preacher curl pad, I'll do it. I'll push whatever kind of weight I can given a tolerable pain threshold. If I don't get back in there soon, it'll be too long! I don't want to get into the habit of saying "No, it still hurts..." and never go. It's like a cold. You suck it up and you go. I was thinking of going to footy practice Tuesday, and still may. I won't be able to do ANYTHING, but I want the team to atleast remember my face for when I eventually do make my return. Oh yes, you heard me right.... my return! I just looked out the window and I see green everywhere! There's a cute bunny tucked int he grass and birds flying looking for worms or other food. It's such a beautiful day out! It sure beats my view of the Gardiner back in TO!!! Ahh... nature's cool :) So... what have I been up to since my last update? Good question! Sunday I BBQ'ed a Beer Can Chicken. This link provides the actual recipe I used. I got it from my Weber's Big Book of Grilling. It's a great book and I highly recommend it. Not only does it have over 350 recipes, which is more then any other grilling book I came across, but it explains the different techniques you can use in the art of grilling. Anyway... the chicken turned out AWESOME! My buddy Blake & I were up on the roof BBQing it. It tasted so good that we decided we'd try to BBQ a feast weekly, splitting the work between us. We tried this out on Thursday with great success! We had ribs, scallops, garlic shrimp and salmon skewers! It was a feast indeed! What else happened this week? Oh ya.... remember a couple months ago I went for that Biophotonic Scan? Well, I've taken Lifepak for the past 2 months and now I was going for a followup scan. 2 months ago, my score was 17,000. It's a count of the anti-oxident "Betacartonoid" (or something like that... I'm sure you can read it in the scan marketting BS), which is supposed to defend my body from the damage of free radicals. Anyway, this time my result was 23,000. An improvement, yes. BUT, these vitamins didn't give me the energy my others did, didn't make me feel as good, AND were WAY more expensive. I've switched back to my Jamieson's Power Vitamins for Men. I don't believe in Lifepak. I personally think it's get rich scheme brought to your friendly pyramid schemers over at NuSkin. My buddy Blake went too. He scored 28,000 2 months ago and jumped to a whopping 40,000!!! When asked if he'd been taking the lifepak, he said sometimes. He went through less then a month's worth over the 2 months. I was taking it twice daily as recommended. When asked if his habits changed over the 2 months, he said ya. In fact, he said he's been going to the gym much less, smoking more, partying more, and eating worse. And his results improved?!!? So then, the rep says "Wow, you've got great genes. See what even a little bit of Lifepak can do for you!!!" What a crock of shit!!! That confirmed my decision to switch back. Anyway, here I am, a half hour later still blabbering away :) I better call it quits soon. My apologies to any of you with dialup :) I was going to head back to Toronto on the 5:30 train, but I've changed my plans. Instead, I'm going to get a ride to London w/ my sister Nicole around 1:30 - 2 this afternoon. I'll meet Rebecca who's already there and we'll drive back together. I've been seeing more and more of her lately and things are going well between us so far. She's really amazing! Well... that's all for me now. I'm sure more happened this past week, but none of it's coming to mind right now. I think I need more coffee :) That's all folks! Oh ya, and Happy Father's Day to all the pops out there!

----- 06.12.2004 --------
Mo Pain, no gain! What do I mean by that? Well, I'm in mo pain then you can imagine! Unless of course you've busted a rib before, then you've been here. And no gain? As long as I'm on the bench, so to say, there won't be any gains made in the working out department. No gym for a while... I miss it already! Oh well... time will heal. So, as my last update compains about being on percacets, now I'm going to bitch about being off them. OWWW!!!! Yesterday I went percacet-free. It was pretty damn funny! It's like everything from the past week had been sitting in my head, waiting to be processed. Not only did the percs numb my pain, but they numbed my sense of humour too. It's like every joke and funny thing was waiting to be processed and yesterday my good buddy, humour, came back. I missed him so much! I had an ear to ear grin on all day. Everything seemed funny! And this was being off drugs??? Strange... But at what cost is this sense of humour of mine? A great one! Having it back also means dealing with the pain in my right side. On the bright side, my lung is all but healed. I saw the specialist yesterday and he said it looks like I'll have a full, normal recovery. I'll even be able to keep diving... I just need to wait a month or so. That's alright, I had no plans on going right away anyway. So, now I just need this rib of mine to heal. I've been told it will take 6 - 8 weeks. I figure I'll be back on the footy field in another 3 ;) 2 nights ago, Thursday night, I went to a concert w/ my buddy Blake. He had a couple tickets to see "Sounds of Seattle" at the Pheonix night club. What an awesome show!!!! It was a band covering the best Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, and Soundgarden tunes! That's definately my favorite musical era! They were album perfect! It was awesome! I've never had a chance to see any of the 3, and by no way is this the same, but it is how they'd sound in concert. It was sweet! And then last night, I went to see Troy w/ Dave. It was an alright movie. Nothing I really needed to see on a big screen, but it was entertaining. After that we went out for a couple pops and then I called it quits and went home to bed. Now that I'm up, I'm just waiting for my groceries to come. I've order quite a bit of meat and I look forward to some sweet BBQing this weekend. Well, I guess that's all for now. Time to turn to my XBox for some entertainment. I got a new game, Full Spectrum Warrior, and it's awesome! It's sooo intense! I get right into it :) I've been waiting for it to get released for about 9 months now. I'm really starting to think it was worth the wait! It's a whole new genre and style of gaming. Something that I think will be copied by many others in the future. This is the 'Doom' of the next generation of gaming. OK, maybe it's not THAT epic :) Cheers folks!

----- 06.09.2004 --------

If there was a Led Zepplin tune that could describe me right now, it's have to be "Dazed and Confused". These percacets (pain killers) are really starting to frustrate me! Sure, I'm not Albert Einstein by any means, but I'm usually not this slow! It's getting hard to concenrate and think on these things! Everything is in perpetual blah. Yes, I'm very grateful not to be feeling pain, but I miss the highs and lows of life! This sedated shell I'm living right now is getting tiresome! Oh well, it shouldn't be that much longer. Tomorrow I've got another Xray, and then I'm in to see the thoracic surgeon on friday. He'll have a look at my 5 xrays (2 on saturday + sunday + tuesday + tomorrow) and let me know how my "apical pneumothorax" is doing. In english, that's a popped lung. You learn something new all the time! Besides the blahs of sedation, I'm doing alright. I'm not feeling much pain, except for when I wake up or when the painkillers start to wear off, then I'm in a world of pain. Well, that's not really true... it only hurts when I breath ;) So, this past sunday I missed the Ride for Heart that I've been looking so forward to :( In less then a week, with your support, I was able to raise $920 for the Heart & Stroke foundation!!! I've made a "thank you to my sponsors" page. Be sure to check it out. I think I'll do a make up skate. I'll be sure to take lots of pics :) It shouldn't be tough doing 20K, so maybe my makeup skate will be a little more challenging. 30 K? Sounds fair, don't it? What's that? I should do 40 K? Well, let's see how this lung of mine heals first. Well, I better get to bed. My eyes are drooping shut and I'm really losing concentration... or whatever I had left of it. G'NITE!

----- 06.06.2004 --------
Well, Saturday was my first footy match. As great as it was, I ended up getting injured. Here's what I wrote on my blackberry while I was killing time (10 hours!) in the Hospital yesterday:

[06.05.2004] Well, I'm just laying in a hospital bed, trying to kill some time. Whoah, back up a second! In a hospital bed? Yes, that's right. I got some pretty bad luck in the footy department. Today was my first match and it was great! I had a blast out there right up until the 3rd quarter. At that time some huge monster tackled me. He wrapped his arms around me and took me down. My weight plus his (all 250 lbs of it) hit the ground. His arm was under me and my ribs took the blunt of it. So, I came off the field and worked to catch my breath on the sidelines. When I couldn't catch my beath fully by the end of the game, I figure the hospital was a better place then home. After some xrays they determined that I broke my 10th right rib. That didn't surprise me too much... But there's more! Lucky me, I ended up with a puntured lung!!! Fortunately it's not tooooo bad and I should be good to go again in a few weeks. So, here I lay, killing time on my blackberry. I've been here about 5 hours and it's 7:30p now. I have another set of xrays at 10, and then hopefully they'll let me go home. Unfortunately I won't be able to participate in the ride for heart :( It's 20K, so it wouldn't have been too hard for me anyway, but that's not the point. Maybe I'll do a "make-up" blade for the sake of all of you who sponsored me. Speaking of which, I was thrilled to get $880 in sponsorship!!! I'll post all of you supporters up on a special page :) Well, these percacettes (pain killers) are wearing off. I better find a nurse and get some more :) well, I'm off to la la land... (or will be soon), so I'll end it here. Cheers! Oh wait, one more thing! After footy practice last tuesday I went to WWE Smackdown. Yes, wrestling! It was a lot of fun! My buddy blake went w/ me. If you get a chance to go, go for it. It's a fun evening! Ok, that all for now. For real. Nurse! :)

Now back to today (June 6th). It's 9:30 AM, and I just got back from a 2nd trip to the hospital. I had to go this morning to make sure that the tear in my lung had not expanded and that the lung was doing alright and not collapsed. More xrays on tuesday and I've got to set up and appointment with a Thoracic Surgeon tomorrow. The "Surgeon" is a respiratory expert.... and no knife will be needed (fortunately!). I'm just looking out my window right now at the bikers on the gardiner. It's the ride for Hear today. I really wanted to go, but obviously that's impossible. I'll have to call them over the next couple days and figure out how to get them my pledges. Oh well... sh!t happens I guess. Well, I'm going to go play some video games or something. I think I'll stop typing since I'm pretty hazy anyway. I took a couple percacets when I woke up. You wouldn't believe how much pain I was in!!! I don't even know how to describe it! Although everythings sounds pretty bad, I'm doing well, all things considered. I plan on working tomorrow as well. Take care folks!

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