This blog is a gift to my wife, Renee, and my children, Adele, Athan, Audrey, Anne, Amelia, and Andrea.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Half Marathon Fundraising Goal: 8.2% ($410) Reached!

It's me again!  Thanks to all those who have so generously donated, we have reached 8.2% of our goal in just a couple of days!

For those of you who may have missed it, I'm running a half marathon this coming Fall to raise funds for the kids' school!  It'll be a good challenge for me as the farthest I have ever run to date is around 8 km.  In addition, if we reach our fundraising goal, I will shave my head again this year!  Please help me make this happen!  Thanks so much in advance!

Donate Here: https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/lumen-veritatis-academy/Help-me-to-raise-money-for-my-school-walkathon-2017-w/

See me like this again!  Donate today!



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Sunday, May 28, 2017

Help Me Run a Half Marathon (and Shave My Head Again)!

Hi Everyone! It's been a while since I've posted on this blog.  GDI (Ainsworth's parent company) decided to buy another company and merge us together.  It's been a grueling few months going through the transition and still feeling the effects.  Hence, I've been fairly quiet.

Didn't Know I Loved Running Too!?
As some of you may remember, our family raised funds for the kids' school around this time last year through a Walkathon.  With your support, we beat our goal and as a result, on top of the Walkathon with the family, I also shaved my head and legs!  This year, I am humbly asking for your help again!  On June 10th, the families of the school are participating in a 5 km Walkathon.

While shaving my head and legs were not on the top of list of things I had planned to do, they weren't terribly difficult things either.  To make things a bit more interesting this year for both you and I, I would like to ask you to sponsor me to run my first ever half marathon (21.1 km)!  Running has always been something that I liked to do, but it's not always something that I actually did.  I guess this was mainly due to laziness.  Just this spring, however, I started running more regularly, in anticipation of the fundraising event...that was until around the end of March, when my work hours just went out of control.  Things are getting a bit better now and I will resume my training again.

I'm aiming to do a half marathon in the Fall, around September or October.  I haven't chosen the actual event that I will be running at, but there's no shortage of them.  I'll keep you all posted.

Ok, It's Not All About Me!
Sorry, actually, the universe actually does not revolve around me!  Let's not forget the young ones that this fundraiser is all about!  Adele is finishing grade 2 and Athan will be graduating from Kindergarten!!  Lastly, since Renee returned to work in January, Audrey has been attending the pre-K classes.  They all enjoy being at school so much, but I think the most important part of all is the safe and caring environment that the school provides.  The teachers are all excellent and dedicated, and all of the students are so well behaved.

One of the things that, as a parent, we're afraid of is bullying at school.  I'll have to confess...there was a time when I was in grade 6 that I played the role of a bully.  It wasn't because I was intentionally malicious, but it was because a number of kids had been mean to this one kid, and that I somehow thought that being mean to him was acceptable and somehow in a twisted way...fun.  And reflecting back to that, it was partly because the school culture did not promote a safe environment for the kids, where kids cared for each other.  We're fortunate that Guiding Light and the Heralds of the Gospel (the school and the religious order which co-runs the school) focuses a lot on the virtues of faith, hope, and most of all, love.  Renee and I would occasionally ask Adele if kids are mean to each other or if there are bullies at the school, and each time, she would reassure us with a confident "no".

Audrey's First Day of School...a Little Nervous!

Just a few weeks ago, when we were having pho with another family from the school, the kids spontaneously held hands and sang a grace before meals, without any reservation.  Thinking back to my days as a kid or even not so much as a kid, I would feel embarrassed to even make a sign of the cross in a secular setting, never mind break out in song.  I was so proud to see them as witnesses of the faith, much more so that I ever was.  Athan has also recently started genuflecting when he enters a church, without us ever teaching him to.  It's great to see the kids grow in faith and love!

Please Help!
We need all the help we can get to support the school and the Heralds of the Gospel in continuing to provide the education that will develop the Catholic leaders of tomorrow!

Our goal this year is $5000.  I'm sure with so many generous folks out there, this is absolutely an achievable goal.  But to give you some enjoyment, on top of just doing a 5 km Walkathon and running a half marathon, the following are the things I will be doing as we get closer to the goal:

$3000 - I will be shaving my legs again and posting a video of it on Youtube
$5000 - I will be shaving my head again and posting a video of it on Youtube
Other? - I'm open to suggestions to make things more interesting!  Leave me a comment!


As usual, you will be getting a tax receipt for any donation $20 or greater.  You get the receipt immediately...so no waiting till tax time.  With most of you, you will be getting back around 40% of your donation through tax credits.

Thank you so much for your support!  Salve Maria!


All Saints Day Celebration - Even Renee and Anne Dressed Up!


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Thursday, November 3, 2016

Best Mobile Plan...Seriously!


I'm a frugal guy.  Kijiji and eBay are my best friends when it come to spending money.  So, when I say I see a good cell phone plan, it's a good cell phone plan!  Let me give you some background.  Since around 2012, I've been with, first, Mobilicity, and then Wind Mobile.  I really couldn't justify spending $60+/month on a cell phone plan x 2.  With both of these carriers, you essentially have unlimited calling and data, but with 2 big caveats: poor signal quality and coverage.

I've lived with them because there really was no alternative when it comes to the Big 3 (Rogers, Bell, and Telus, and their subsidiaries like Fido, Koodo, etc.).  Let me cover the 2 caveats.  First, signal quality was extremely poor with Mobilicity, and pretty poor with Wind.  You will have dropped calls and slow/no data connection fairly frequently.  Outdoors, you'll probably be ok, but once you go into a building, you've got a 50/50 chance of getting little to no signal at all.  Second, coverage sucked big time!  Once you're out of (sub)urban areas, you'll go into roaming.  Side note: Wind has a fairly good local roaming plan and a great US roaming (no sarcasm there).  For the US roaming add-on, you pay $15/month and you'll get 1 GB data and essentially unlimited text/calling.  I digress.  Anyway, if you travel outside of urban areas a lot, Mobilicity and Wind are likely not for you.

Then, one day, I found Public Mobile (PM).  PM is a not a household name by any means, but they provide a pretty competitive service.  They were bought by Telus in 2013 and eventually began operating on the Telus network.  So, the 2 caveats of Mobilicity and Wind are non-issues.  Signal quality and coverage are both up to par with Bell and Rogers.  What's great is their prices.  Currently, I have one of my lines on its 90-day pre-paid plans.  I get unlimited province wide calling/global text, voicemail, and 6GB data to use in this 90-day period (2 GB/month) for $38 a month ($40 - $2 discount for signing up for auto-credit card payment).  They are able to keep their costs low because they don't have a real call centre.  Support is provided by fellow users and a few moderators on their forums.  So, if you participate in the forums and are helpful, you can get up to $6 off per month.  So, the plan is really going to cost me about $35/month.

It's a pretty good plan, but I've been used to using way more than 2 GB/month.  So, I've put off putting myself on the plan, until one day, they started a promotion of doubling the data at no extra cost.  So, I can get essentially 4 GB data/month at $35/month, on the Telus network with no contract (well...90-day contract)!  I don't think that can be beat.  The only minor caveat is if you're out of province, you need to buy a fairly reasonably priced add-on for data and minutes.  I don't travel a lot and when I do, I'm traveling for work, so I would use my work phone...so not a big impact for me.

This promo ends November 20th.  If you don't believe me, at least believe Red Flag Deals.  The thread there has more than 450 likes.  See the details there.

One more thing, if you're signing up and would like to thank me for this information, use me as a referral so I get $1/month discount...muahahahaha!  Ask me for my number (it's not my cell #).
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