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Note that while the photo on the coupon shows an Angus Mushroom Melt, the fine print clearly states that it is valid for any Angus Burger – at participating restaurants.

I used this coupon at the Harvey’s located in Boucherville last week and 2 Angus Burgers with bacon & cheese as well as a large diet Coke came out to about $9 including taxes. Sweet deal if you like real grilled burgers dressed the way you like!

Just for the record:

Best score was me with 116, Tristan with 92 and Zachary with 61.

L’équipe était pas mal tous la, en plus des familles et amis pour supporter ….

Photos à suivre une autre fois

Je suis déjà allé une fois il y a quelques années mais disons que ce n’est pas tout a fait mon style d’endroit pour sortir. Par contre, si vous cherchez à rencontrer quelqu’un pour t’amuser (ahem, c’est quoi le diction en anglais : here for a good time, not a long time ?) le Lovers est possiblement pour vous. En plus de ne pas vraiment aimer le style de place, j’en ai aucunement besoin maintenant…

Les consommations sont assez couteuses, mais bon – pas plus que n’importe quel autre club ou bar similaire. La musique est un peu mainstream, mais c’est rélativement bien quand même!

Le cout d’entrée pour le club est normalement $8 par personne et le laissez-passer permet à deux dames d’entrer sans frais. Le coupon est valide jusqu’au 29 aout 2009.

Je doute qu’ils accepteront une copie imprimée du coupon, alors je vais expédier le coupon à la première personne qui laissera un commentaire ci-dessous expliquant pourquoi vous méritez l’avoir. Je réserve le droit de choisir le commentaire gagnant!

C’est important que vous laissiez votre vraie adresse de courriel en inscrivant votre commentaire, sinon je ne pourrais pas vous contacter pour prendre vos coordonnées pour le coupon. Votre adresse de courriel ne sera jamais dévoilé ni partagé.

Le Lovers Bar Rencontre est situé à 8245, boulevard Taschereau à Brossard.

View Larger Map

Some other people have contacted me about the best way to get last minute tickets. Sure, you can check out Craigslist or eBay, but at this point that’s pushing your luck a bit and IMHO the best buy is to get the tickets directly from the Anthony Robbins UPW 2009 online ticket site – where by the way, they’re still offering up to $300 off tickets. I stand corrected on my previous articles and reviews of Tony Robbins that they would never keep a ticket sale going until this close to the actual UPW seminar event date. Maybe the depressed economy and recession is holding back a lot of people from heading out to see Tony.

I still wish that I could be going to see Anthony Robbins live in action, but it will have to be for another time – preferably at a Canadian venue.

For those attending UPW 2009, here is a map to the Meadowlands Exposition Center:

Anthony Robbins UPW 2009 location map – full size

C’est certain qu’il est difficile, voir même impossible, d’accepter le départ de quelqu’un à un si jeune âge, on peut simplement garder des précieux souvenirs et en tirer des leçons pour le futur.

Il n’y a pas encore de détails concernant les funérailles mais une page Facebook a été créée ou il devrait y avoir plus de renseignements.

L’enquête par les policiers sur l’évènement est toujours en cours, mais apparemment Frederik était un passager dans l’automobile quand le conducteur de 17 ans ait perdu la maîtrise et a heurté un arbre. Le conducteur, ainsi qu’un autre jeune passager, a été grièvement blessé…

Je discutais l’autre jour avec une amie / collègue concernant les tarifs spéciaux offerts par les lignes aériennes pour des cas de voyages reliés à des urgences familiales. Ces tarifs sont généralement seulement disponibles pour des voyages internationaux et dans le cas d’un décès ou “décès imminent” …. J’ai réalisé par la suite que je pourrais, sous peu, avoir besoin d’utiliser ces tarifs…

Selon la page officielle d’Air Canada:

personnes qui doivent prendre l’avion en raison du décès ou du décès imminent (soins intensifs, crise cardiaque, phase terminale de cancer, accident grave) d’un membre de leur famille immédiate.

Veuillez noter que ces tarifs spéciaux représentent une réduction fixe sur certains pleins tarifs sans restrictions, pour certaines liaisons internationales seulement. Aucune autre réduction n’est applicable. Les tarifs pour urgence familiale sont offerts uniquement pour des vols aller-retour assurés par Air Canada et Jazz.

Dans bien des cas, il est possible d’obtenir de meilleurs tarifs en magasinant en ligne à aircanada.com. Les tarifs pour urgence familiale visent à offrir le maximum de souplesse pour les passagers qui doivent voyager à l’occasion d’une urgence familiale, mais ils ne représentent pas nécessairement les meilleurs tarifs du marché.

Pour bénéficier de ces tarifs réduits, il faut réserver directement avec Air Canada en mentionnant le code de référence CIC*160/33 ou ACP #671717. Comme Air Canada mentionne que ces tarifs sont pas nécessairement les plus bas disponibles, je suggère de vérifier es autres tarifs disponibles via un engin de recherche de tarifs comme Kayak.

Voir l’information détaillé sur le site d’Air Canada.

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I was discussing the other day with a friend é colleague about special fares offered by airlines for travel related to bereavement or family emergencies. These fares are generally only available for international flights and in the case of death or “imminent death” … I realized afterwards that I may, shortly, find the need to use these fares…

According to the Air Canada official page:

for those who need to fly due to the death or imminent death (e.g., the patient is in intensive care, has suffered a heart attack, is in the final stages of cancer, has been in a serious accident, etc.) of an immediate family member.

Please note that special bereavement fares represent a fixed discount off specific, unrestricted, full fares on certain international routes only, and that no other discount may be applied. Bereavement fares are available only for round-trip bookings on flights operated by Air Canada and Jazz.

In many instances, a lower-priced fare may be found by shopping online at aircanada.com. Bereavement fares are intended to provide maximum flexibility for passengers who must travel during a time of family emergency but are not necessarily the lowest fares available.

To take advantage of these fares, you have to book directly with Air Canada and mention the reference code CIC*160/33 ou ACP #671717. Since Air Canada states that these fares are not necessarily the lowest ones available, I would suggest checking for other available fares available using an airfare search engine like Kayak.

See detailed information on the Air Canada site.

It’s cold outside
And the paints peeling off of my walls
There’s a man outside
In a long coat, grey hat, smoking a cigarette

Now the light fades out
And I wonder what I’m doing in a room like this…

When routine bites hard,
And ambitions are low,
And resentment rides high,
But emotions won’t grow,
And we’re changing our ways,
Taking different roads….

As I was muttering about the mess, putting a little bandaid over the miniscule little scratch on my foot and trying to keep Lady Grey (cat, not resident Princess) I thought to myself.. it could be worse.

Naturally, I twittered my mishap.

Then I saw a tweet about a Continental Express plane crashing in Upstate New York.

Continental CO 3407 in flames (David Dupre, AP)

You can read Twitter for 3407 (and you can try the search term CO3407 too)

Of course, eyewitness or webwitness reports (i.e. Twitter) are notoriously unreliable, but once there is critical mass, data tends to gel into information.

I’m back off to sleep, but thus far it appears to be Continental Express flight CO3407, which was flying from Newark to Buffalo. It was a codeshare flight operated by Colgan Air and a De Havilland DHC-8-400 Dash 8/8Q apparatus.

In a chilling bit of “delay tracking” the online flight tracking service FlightStats.com shows flight CO3407 as being “landed” albeit 117 minutes late….

It doesn’t look good – 50 dead or so. Unfortunately this is not going to be the Miracle on the Hudson. The FAA has confirmed that there were 44 passengers and 4 crew members on board.

Suddenly, my broken glass seems so trivial.

Mogens Olesen was another victim, who cashed an Allstate Bank cheque for $5500 … that bounced – hard!

Luckily, in the Mogens Olesen case, the RCMP managed to bust Michael Onesmus red-handed and he wasn’t too keen on responding to the CTV W-Five camera crew after his conviction…

W5 contacted the Royal Bank in a surprise walk-in interview, and tried to have a chat with Gordon Nixon, the CEO of the Royal Bank. She made it as far as his PR person, who had W5 and their TV crew go back down to the lobby and speak to another staffer… who then

Jay Stark, the VP of RBC’s fraud division said that the client who cashed the check – even after it cleared the RBC check clearance process- is ultimately responsible for a counterfeit check… and can be held against YOU for up to 6 years after you cashed a check… and get the funds (that they cleared) back from you!!!

Unbelievable…

Mr. Stark said he would look into having their policies and wording re-looked at, and so forth… don’t hold your breath.

Basically, one of the victims, Mike Fitzpatrick of Vancouver, is still on the hook to the Royal Bank for $26,000 that he received from the shady British “investor” named James Moon….

What it boils down to is that you could be held liable for a rubber check you deposit, even after your bank “clears it” for you.

Smoking is indeed an expensive (and risky) habit …

I’m flickin’ back and forth between Dr. Helen Fisher on ABC 20/20 ; she’s Chief Scientific Advisor for Chemistry.com a big dating site with an awesome domain name and has spoken at the TED Conference too. When I turned the system on, it was tuned to CBC Newsworld with The Fifth Estate show Strangers in Paradise about how people get totally owned and into Second Life…. living in a total fantasy world.

Times sure have changed from when I met my first real girlfriend at the bus stop outside the apartment.

Alors, c’est l’heure de diner encore et je réalise que ceci n’est probablement pas le contenu le plus appétissant à savourer en dinant, mais je crois que je vais partager cette vidéo (assez directe) qui démontre comment se fait l’éveinage de veines varices. Non, ce n’est pas une vidéo de ma chirurgie (30 incisions … ca serai longue comme clip)… mais ca montre assez clairement comment c’est fait. Ce n’est pas pour les prudes…

Well, Tony Robbin’s Unleash the Power Within seminar series is getting closer and closer – the show goes down March 12-15… in the “New York Area.” Yes, the area. I don’t know why they haven’t published a specific hotel or venue yet, nor even if it will be in an NYC borough or across the river in New Jersey, for that matter!

Nonetheless, the show is definitely on and they still have a few discount prices ($500 off!) left on some of the seats;

• General admission tickets are $695 instead of $995
• Executive tickets are $895 down from $1295
• and finally VIP tickets are discounted to $1095 from $1595 (!!!)

These discount prices will expire on February 2nd…

The Diamond and Diamond Premiere tickets are the regular price of $2095 and 2595 respectively.

If any ticket holders or Tony Robbins staffers have information about exactly where the UPW event will be held in New York, please leave a note in the comments below. It sure would be helpful for those trying to plan accommodations. It is, after all, barely 7 weeks away!

… which had my moms flight AC9132 (codeshare with Lufthansa LH1051) returned back to Dresden from Frankfurt since the latter was closed.

(updated this info 8:34 EST)

The airport was shrouded by fog and the control tower had no access to weather data, forcing the cancellation of all flights.

Airport operator Fraport (FRAG.DE) said 38 departing flights and 37 flights scheduled to arrive were cancelled while 25 mostly long distance flights en route toward Frankfurt were re-directed to Cologne airport, about 200 km (120 miles) away.

The mysterious flight tracking tools have either no information except for FlightStats which shows AC9132 / LH1051 as being “diverted” (!) … and “This flight landed at different airport then it was originally destined to.”

Problem is it doesn’t show where it was diverted to and landed (yet) but I know it has since it was my mom who left me a message with brief details about the closing of Frankfurt and flying back to Dresden and then back to Frankfurt.

Anyhow, she made it back to Frankfurt (FRA) but instead of connecting as usual onto the AC875 flight to Montreal, they’ve booked her on LH470 to Toronto … and ultimately to Montreal on one of the Air Canada Montreal-Toronto shuttles… so far it’s looking like a 5 hour delay all in all, if all goes well to get from FRA to YYZ … and then from YYZ to YUL. Oh wait, it’s snowing here in Montreal!

As of 8:30am EST, LH470 from FRA to YYZ was delayed at least 35 minutes based on the last update ; originally schedule to leave at 1:30pm (FRA time) … now it’s 2:30pm there, and the LH470 flight status shows it as stills scheduled to leave at 2:05pm … with the note:

It is currently later at the departing airport than the expected departure time and the flight is not yet active. This may indicate a delay or cancellation. It may also be that the departure information has not reached one of our data sources yet.

The joys of flying… and networks… and weather networks…

Footnote: She was also on AC875 flying into Montreal when it got lengthily delayed another time … September 11, 2001.

Tristan Majumdar dressing as goalie

Bravo à Tristan pour son beau travail (encore) dans les buts avec les Conquérants de St-Basile-le-Grand dans leur match contre les Éperviers de St-Bruno hier soir… victoire 3-2 !

After so many tough games this first win of the season is well deserved!

Zachary Majumdar au centre avec Hockey St-Basile MAGH-2

Bravo a Zachary qui a réussi son premier tour de chapeau (3 buts dans un match) ce matin lors du match de son équipe MAGH-2 (rouge) vs. St-Lambert…

Zach était particulièrement en forme pendant que Tristan, et moi, l’encourageai de nos superbes places dans les estrades a l’aréna Jean Rougeau à St-Basile-le-Grand.

Après son deuxième but Tristan est allé donner quelque conseils a Zachary, durant un changement de ligne, concernant l’idée de faire des feintes sur le gardien de St-Lambert. J’avais dis à Tristan que ça, c’est le travail de l’équipe de coaching (Patrick Germain est le directeur de coaching des équipes Pre-Novice / MAGH a Saint-Basile) mais bon, que veux tu, un frère veut toujours (sans le dire) aider son plus jeune a mieux jouer. Ca fonctionné et quelques minutes plus tard, Zachary avait réussi son 3e but.

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Hats off to Zachary who had his 1st hat trick (3 goals in a game) this morning in the game between his MAGH-2 (red) team vs. the visiting St-Lambert…

Zach was particularly in shape while Tristan, and I, cheered him on from our great spots in the stands at the Jean-Rougeau Arena in St-Basile-le-Grand.

After his second goal, Tristan went to give a few tips to Zachary, while there was a line change, suggesting he try faking shots on the St-Lambert goalie. I had said to Tristan that it was the job of the coaching staff (lead by Patrick German, coaching director of the Saint-Basile pre-novice / MAGH teams) but alas… a brother always wants to help out (without admitting it) his younger sibling to play better. It worked and Zachary scored his hat trick 3rd goal a few minutes later.

Vicks VapoRub Jar

Now this is one of those news stories that really makes me wonder… why? First of all, Vicks has been around over 100 years. CBC does mention that the bottle has a disclaimer saying that use of the product on kids under two years old should be under the advice of a physician only.

In fairness to the CBC, they were basically reporting on a peer-reviewed study published in Chest by Dr. Bruce Rubin of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine… The January issue of Chest published the study which was authored by Dr. Rubin along with Dr. Juan Carlos Abanses and Dr. Shinobu Arima.

Vicks VapoRub (VVR) [Proctor and Gamble; Cincinnati, OH] is often used to relieve symptoms of chest congestion. We cared for a toddler in whom severe respiratory distress developed after VVR was applied directly under her nose. We hypothesized that VVR induced inflammation and adversely affected mucociliary function, and tested this hypothesis in an animal model of airway inflammation.

Crystal Harrel of Procter & Gamble (yes, they own Vicks) was quoted in a timely response:

“Vicks VapoRub has a long-standing history of being safe and effective when used according to package directions. Where marketed, it is in compliance with the applicable health and safety regulations.”

Interestingly enough, Dr. Rubin – who published the study – suggests that Vicks VapoRub never be inhaled or placed under the nose; even in adults.

I’m guessing the study didn’t assess ravers who use Vicks to accentuate the Ecstasy/MDMA effect…

Apparently Jett Travolta had a history of seizures and suffered one on Friday at about 10:00 am. While some reports in the past said that Jett was autistic, John Travolta denied that – saying it was Kawasaki Syndrome – some sort of lymph node illness.

Ironic that my 96 year old grandmother made it through major surgery today, yet a 16 year old succumbs to a sudden death.

More details from the AFP:

CNN has also published a nice story including the statement from the Travolta family about the untimely passing of Jett.

Something more to (keep) teach(ing) Zachary and Tristan with the new Wii Fit and associated games