We admit it-- we were a little tired of the whole "shiny happy Apple" thing when Steve managed to wrangle the company into the good graces of Wall Street and the press. After all, AtAT was launched back in 1997, in an atmosphere of unprecedented doom and gloom. Half the population thought Apple was going to collapse at any minute, and the other half thought it had either already gone out of business or had been bought out by Microsoft. That's the stuff of drama, baby! It was like mother's milk to us.

So of course we were ambivalent when this latest round of bad karma swung around to smack Apple upside the head. Ever since the earnings warning in September, the company's stock has been twitching on the floor, the pundits are back on the "beleaguered" bandwagon, and Apple's having an all-around tough time catching a break. While we're never happy when Apple's in trouble, at least things had gotten a little more exciting. It's not just like old times, but we've definitely gotten a hit of gratuitous nostalgia from all the hand-wringing and brow-furrowing.

The problem, though, is that the nostalgia got old really fast. Yes, we remember the "bad ol' days," weren't they thrilling, blah blah blah. Frankly, we're tired of the strife; it's not even exciting anymore, because it's the same old story over and over again-- flat sales, anemic stock performance, and "can Apple rebound?" As suspense-builders go, it's not the most compelling story on the shelf. At this point, we'd gladly welcome a ray of sunshine just to break the monotony.

Canada to the rescue! Yes, while the short-term forecast may be overcast for Apple here in the U.S., Apple Canada's reportedly looking at sunshine and clear skies as far as the eye can see. According to The Toronto Star, our neighbors to the north managed to increase unit sales by a whopping 46.8% over the same period last year. That's almost twice as much growth as Apple racked up in the States. And lest you think the Canucks just got lucky, the year before that, Apple Canada's growth was 32.6%. The Canadian branch is clearly on a tear of legendary proportions.

Okay, okay, so there's one teensy little cloud on the horizon: a research firm called the Yankee Group claims that despite Apple Canada's sales growth, the percentage of Canadians with Macs is actually somehow dropping-- to 3%, down from 3.5% the year before. But why focus on the negative? Those of you stateside who are sick to death of all the Apple-angst in Cupertino should just lock your sights onto Apple Canada's impressive sales numbers and rest happy in a Canadian state of mind. We'll let you know when it's safe to head back south.