Special days that require gift giving have always been difficult for me. You know the drill, you look at tons of stuff and never seem to know what to get. Valentines Day is definitely one of those special days. I know I should know what to get my love. This knowledge should reside somewhere in my brain, the hint has been dropped, the request has been made. But like the typical guy, who listens to that? In one ear and out the other? Did it even make it in one ear? How does a Valentines Day gift request from my wife of 14 years make it past the latest episode of CSI or the Hockey Night in Canada broadcast? 

 Answer: it doesn’t. So like every other year I'm left to muddle through the sea of chocolates, flowers and Hallmark cards trying to guess what will keep me in the good books and out of the dog house. This year I copped out and did the flowers and chocolates thing. To add the personal touch I made my wife a Valentines Day cake. What do you think?

Exercise - It’s been a slow get back into the routine since returning from Mexico but I did make it to the gym twice this week. Did 20km on the bike both times.

Diet- Now that I am no longer exposed to the buffet I have started to drop some of the weight I gained. There’s nothing like eating like a pig to pack on the pounds. I am so frustrated with the weight loss issue I have decided to fast for a week. So nothing but fluids for 7 days is the goal. So far so good. Sure would like a piece of that cake though. My timing sucks. I also succumbed to the evil week in Mexico and started smoking again. I grabbed a pack when I got back too. The upside to this is I now qualify for the 2004 quit smoking contest, it sounds cool you go with out smokes from March 1 to March 31 and you could win a Car. I'm doing it with my next store neighbor because you need to have a buddy. I was going to stop again anyway so this is an added bonus.