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Just over three years ago my wife Michelle and I were expecting our second baby.  The pregnancy was normal...no complications...everything was fine.  Or so we thought.

It came as quite a shock when my wife Michelle started having contractions...two months too early!  Michelle was rushed into surgery for an emergency C-section.  After a horrifying, emotional flurry of nurses and doctors completed the operation I finally laid eyes on my 4 pound, 2 oz son Brandon.  Neither one of us got to hold him or hardly look at him before he was rushed away to NICU.
 
When I got to the NICU I was shocked to see my tiny newborn in an incubator, hooked up to all kinds of monitors and wires. There was even a breathing tube coming out of his mouth. I sat down next to him and was able to put my hand inside the incubator and his little hand curled around my finger.  

That's when I noticed the plaque on the incubator.  It read "Donated By Z99's Radiothon".  

Wow.  It hit home.  YOUR donations to the Radiothon bought a piece of equipment that saved MY baby’s life.  For that I will always be grateful.

Brandon spent 25 days at NICU.  It was the toughest, longest 25 days of my life.  Michelle spent every waking moment at the hospital while I juggled work, hospital and spending time with our then two-year old Jake.  It was a trying, emotional time. We couldn't have done it without the amazing staff at the NICU.  To say the nurses and doctors are AMAZING is an understatement.  At a previous Radiothon someone once described them as "Angels Among Us".  I couldn't agree more.
 
Luckily, our story had a happy ending.  Brandon is a happy, healthy, super-active little 3 year old who loves to torment his older brother.  If you have ever donated to the Zed Radiothon in the past or if you're considering doing it this year, our family would just like to say:
 
Please give to the Z99 Radiothon Thursday and Friday.  CC, Lorie and I will be staying awake for 36 hours to raise money for equipment they need in the NICU.  Your donations save babies' lives.

You know those ratty, torn $5 and $10 dollar bills you always come across?  They are soon to be a thing of the past.   Our cotton dollar bills wear out after 2 years.  They are about to be replaced with thin polymir or "plastic" bucks.  The new plasti-cash will be almost impossible to tear, tough to counterfeit and, good news...the new money will be waterproof!  I don't have to worry about the bills in my pocket going through the washing machine anymore.  I'd be independatly wealthy if not for all the money I've lost to washing machines over the years. 

The new plastic dough will be introduced in 2011.  No word on who will be on our new money.  Who would you like to see on our bills?  Former PM's like Trudeau?  Maybe a sports icon like Wayne Gretzky?  Or a pop culture icon like (gulp) Celine Dion? What about Don Cherry?  Or Mr. Dressup?

Tomato crisis!  If you order a burger at certain Wendy's across the country you now have to ask for a tomato on your burger or you won't get one.  It's new money saving venture for Wendy's because of the inflated price of tomatoes.   Florida's mid-January cold snap destroyed 80% of their tomato crop which mean tomato prices have doubled. 

Thankfully, a new Florida harvest will be collected next month and prices should stabilize.  I was a little worried.  Not because I like tomatoes (I actually despise them) but I was worried that this would affect the price of ketchup.  Considering the amount of ketchup I go through, if the price doubled, I'd be broke by the end of the month.  My name is Buzz and I'm addicted to ketchup.  At my house ketchup is one of the four major food groups...along with bacon, chocolate and the mystery food wrapped in tin foil at the back of the fridge.

On a totally unrelated note, singer Katy Perry is set to star in her first movie.  It will be the role of a lifetime as she prepares to play Smurfette in the upcoming Smuf movie.  She should be perfect.  I wonder if the soundtrack will include her hit "I smurfed a girl and I liked it".

Have a great Tuesday!

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards went last night in L.A. hosted by Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin.  A very exciting evening in Hollywood...the limos were running, the champagne was popping and the Botox was flowing!

I've never understood the reason why actors get botox.  As an actor, your profession requires you to display great depths of emotions using your facial expressions, yet in an ego-fueled quest to look younger they insert needles in their faces rendering them numbed and expressionless.  Face lifts are even worse...unless the celebrity always want to look surprised.  Only in "Holly-weird".

Sandra Bullock won her Razzie Award for "Worst Actress" a few days ago for "All About Steve". She even showed up in person to accept the award!   Last night she won "Best Actress" for "The Blind Side".  She is now the first actor to win a Razzie and an Oscar in the same year.  Congratulations Sandra, you suck and you're awesome!   Now THAT"S versatility.

Normally I find the Oscars pretty boring and a great cure for insomnia.  They weren't too bad this year, although they seemed to be lacking one major ingredient...celebrities!  Where was Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise or Jack Nicholson?  The cameras kept focusing on George Clooney because he was the most famous person in the room. 

All I can say is thank God for PVR's.  I was able to watch a 3 and half hour show in about 30 minutes.  With the push of a button I skipped the boring awards like "Best Foreign Film"...unless you're staring in it - who cares!?!.  The PVR is the greatest invention ever.  Next to penicillin.

For the complete list of winners and red carpet pictures click here.

Juno nominees came out yesterday and Michael Buble leads with 6 nominations.  2 of those nods are for the producers of Buble's CD "Crazy Love"- Bob Rock and David Foster. 

The Juno list of nominees is very diverse this year as the Juno peeps are obviously trying to juggle popularity, talent, and sales of artists to appeal to more music lovers. 

Best Album nominees include: Michael Buble, Billy Talent, Diana Krall, Johnny Reid and Lorie's boy toy Justin Beiber. 

Best Group nods go to: Hedly, Metric, Blue Rodeo, Billy Talent, and the Hip. 

Fan Favourite: Nickelback, Maxime Landry, Michael Buble, Johnny Reid and Ginette Reno.

International Album: Black Eyed Peas, Britney Spears, Kings Of Leon, Taylor Swift and the uner-sexy Susan Boyle

And joining the classic rock playlist that is the Juno Hall Of Fame....Pam Anderson's favourite band - April Wine. Pam Anderson is April Wine's favourite groupie.  For a couple of reasons.

Juno awards are April 18th from St. John's, Newfoundland.

American Idol. 5 hours of Idol this week. The guys sang last night, the girls sing tonight, and then the results show goes tomorrow. Talk about Idol overload! The ladies were supposed to perform last night but one of the contestants, Crystal Bowersox was hospitalized for a medical issue (sources say complications from diabetes). The ladies will sing tonight...with or without Crystal. Hope she's OK...she was my pick to win the whole thing.

In other Idol news, Simon allegedly got engaged over the weekend. No, not to Ryan Seacrest, instead he's marrying his Idol make-up artist. Her name is Mezhgan Hussainy. He's 50 and she's 36. He's rich and cranky...she's beautiful and has a diamond ring on her finger that is the size of a baseball. Simon chose her because of all his girlfriends, she reminds him the most of himself.

I wonder what Simon thinks of this picture of Clay Aiken groping his fiance...

Oh. Thumbs up?  I guess he doesn't mind.

Are you watching American Idol this season?

Saskatchewan sent 11 athletes to the Olympic Games; 9 of them are coming home with medals:

 Bobsleigh

. Lyndon Rush, Humboldt - 4 man pilot- Bronze Medalist

Curling:

. Ben Hebert - Regina- Team Martin- Gold Medalist . Cori Bartel - Humboldt- Team Bernard- Silver Medalist

Speed Skating:

. Lucas Makowsky, Regina -Team Pursuit- Gold Medalist

Hockey (Women's): Gold Medalists

. Colleen Sostorics, Kennedy

. Hayley Wickenheiser, Shaunavon

Hockey (Men's)- Gold Medallists

. Patrick Marleau, Aneroid

. Brenden Morrow, Carlyle

. Ryan Getzlaf, Regina

Congrats to all!  We're proud of you!

By the way....80% of Canadians (more than 24 million of us) watched at least a portion of the Olympic hockey game on Sunday night.  Amazing, eh?  A bit of a different story in the U.S....only 10% of their population checked out the game.  I can't beleive hockey is such a niche sport in America.  Is it not violent enough?   Maybe it's too fast for our American friends.  Maybe we should slow it down so they can keep up.  I'll start talking and typing slower as well.  Kidding!  I kid because I love!

What a game!  We wanted a close one, but not that close!  I knew there was a reason we had that Crosby kid on the team!

Before the game scalpers were asking as much as $13-thousand dollars for a pair of tickets!  More money than scalpers were getting at the Super Bowl.  These tickets were literally worth their weight in gold.  Organizers say you could fill the arena 18 times based on the requests for tickets.  I watched the action from the comfort of my own home...as cool as it would have been to be there at least at my house the bathrooms are cleaner and the beer is cheaper.

Forget Own The Podium...it`s Gold The Podium!  Canada wins the most gold medals at the Olympics..14 gold!  That`s more gold medals than we`ve won at any summer or winter games.  It`s also more gold than any other hosting nation.  By the way...did you know that the gold medal is worth $10-thousand bucks?  That`s what each gold medal winner earns from the C.O.C.  (that`s their money, not taxpayers so don't panic).  In total they paid out more that a million to athletes for their medals.

Celebs at the games...US stars Stephen Colbert, Usher and Vice President Joe Biden were spotted at several events.  Canadian superstars like Wayne Gretzky, Michael J. Fox, Donald Sutherland, Brent Butt and PM Harper were spotted as well.  Who knew Donald Sutherland was such a huge curling fan?

Highs and Lows of the Olympics...Lows: Death of the Georgian luger, Torch malfunction during the opening ceremony, a lack of snow at Cypress.

Highs: Alex Bilodeau winning our first gold on Canadian soil, Joanne Rochette's triumph, a record number of gold medals for Canada,  a renewed national pride, and of course one helluva party!  Let's hang our livers out to dry for a few years beforte we get ready to kick Olympic butt in London and Russia.  Oh Canada!

Did you see that story about the Killer Whale at Sea World in Florida that killed it's trainer.  Scary.  Lots of people saw that whole thing happen...the whale grabbed the trainer and thrashed her around in the water like a rag doll. 

It turns out this is the THIRD death this whale has been involved in...one of those deaths happend at the aquarium in Vancouver before the whale was sold to Sea World in Orlando. Does that make it a "serial" Killer Whale?.  In my opinion - if an animal's mouth is bigger than you are, stay the hell away!

Woooo.  Go Canada!  We spanked the Russians 7-3 last night at the Olympics.  One Russian player said the Canadian players were like "gorillas coming out of a cage".  Next up for Canada is a semifinal game tomorrow against Slovakia.

Yesterday was our best day at the Olympics (so far)...4 medals in women's bobsled and skating.  Did you see how mad the Korean's got after they were disqualifyed and stripped of their medal for a rules violation?  Wow.  If they were handing out medals for being mad, Korean would have swept the podium.

They are becoming the "Worldwide Pants".  The loud and tacky pants worn by the Norwegian curlers are suddenly the height of Olympic fashion (move over Canada mitts).  The American company behind the "razzle dazzle trousers" say they are running out.  The perfect gift for the color blind curler on your shopping list.

Tonight...Womens hockey.  Team Canada vs USA.  If we win tonight it will be three gold medals in a row.  K-Mart's (Kevin Martin) undefeated team takes on Sweden while Cheryl Bernard plays the Swiss in curling action.  And the women's figure skating final is tonight, with Canada's Joannie Rochette.

Go Canada!