A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

This past Tuesday night was very exciting for me.  I asked Michelle to marry me, and she accepted (like there was any doubt).  I’m sure most of you who are reading this have already heard the news, so I’ll just give you the details of the events leading up to the big moment.

A few weeks ago Michelle and her mom spent a few days in Edmonton at a lingerie trade show.  I saw this as my chance to go ring shopping.  I went to GMG Jewellers and explained to a salesperson what I wanted in my ring - a hybrid of my vision and what Michelle had hinted to me over the last few months. After looking at a few different designs, I made my decision and told them to go ahead and build it. I would return in a few weeks to pick it up.

The next day I told Ryan that I had just bought an engagement ring. Since Michelle’s birthday was coming up I thought that I would propose on that day. I wasn’t sure if this was a cheesy idea so I ran it by Ryan. He didn’t think it was, so the plan was set - I would propose on Wednesday, October 8th.

I was told the ring would be ready on September 17th. The day came and went without me picking it up. I didn’t want to get it too early fearing that I wouldn’t be able to stick to the plan. Another week passed, and September was coming to an end. I couldn’t take it anymore. I was too excited and picked up the ring on Tuesday, September 30th at lunch time, with the intention of doing it that night.

This was a busy week for us so it didn’t leave me many options. Tuesday nights we have ballroom dancing class and always go out for dinner afterward. We had previously agreed to go to a new Indian restaurant on 8th Street that night. However I had decided that I wanted to propose downtown along the river, and since 8th Street is nowhere near downtown I cleverly said that I was craving sushi and suggested the Samurai (which is right on the river). She agreed and my plan was underway.

While we were eating our sushi I kept mentioning how nice an evening it was and that we should go for a walk along the river, especially since we rarely do this. This is where my plan fell apart. Michelle was completely against a walk, stating that we needed to get home because she had a bunch of tests to mark. I tried to change her mind but was unsuccessful. I didn’t want to be too persistent because that would have been fishy (no pun intended).

As the conversation changed to Michelle’s trek up Mount Fuji while in Japan my mind was racing, desperately trying to concoct a contingency plan. Needless to say I still don’t know anything about her climb. I must have been pretty convincing since she didn’t suspect that I wasn’t listening to her.

After leaving the Samurai, and failing one more time to convince her to go for a walk, we made our way back home. The easy thing to do would have been to postpone the proposal. However I started the day telling myself that I would be engaged by the end of the night, and damn it, I was going to make it happen.

While Michelle was catching up on her email in the kitchen, I placed the ring in the middle of the bed, and dimmed the lights. I went to the kitchen and said that we should practice the dance we learned that evening. As we danced, I led her to the bedroom where her ring awaited her. The rest is now history.

See everyone next October.

My good friends Kipp and Steph got married this past Saturday in Saskatoon. This was a wedding that I had been looking forward to for some time, and I am pleased to say that it lived up to my expectations. The wedding was at the United Church on 3rd Avenue and was short and sweet. I think the ceremony was under thirty minutes, and since it was pretty hot outside with no air conditioning, this worked out well.

We had a fairly large chunk of time between the ceremony and the reception so a bunch of us went for drinks at the the Freehouse to kill some time. I’m pretty sure I’ve had Caesars here before, but I don’t remember them being so delicious. These were the greatest Caesars of all time. Five-thirty quickly approached so we headed over to the Victorian where we had dinner reservations for twelve.

This is a fairly upscale establishment and I was looking forward to eating here for some time. The twelve of us made quick work of some huge appetizer platter, which made it difficult for me to finish my steak dinner. I managed to clear my plate except for a quarter of a new potato. I just couldn’t fit anymore food into my gut.

Even though cocktails weren’t scheduled for another thirty minutes, we figured we had better make our way to the reception at Louis’. For some reason Louis’ misquoted how many people they could seat for the reception. Kipp and Steph advised us that we be there early if we wanted to ensure we got a seat. We were the first guests outside of the wedding party and immediate family to arrive, so we had our pick of seats.

We spent our time mingling with the guests during cocktail hour.  I wasn’t sure what to expect with the reception in Louis’ (not Upper Mub) since I had never seen one held here before.  I am happy to say that it looked really good, and was a nice location for a wedding reception.  It’s pretty convenient to have the full bar and DJ booth at your disposal.

The program started at nine o’clock and was emceed by Kipp’s sister Regena.  The program, like the wedding was quite short, with a toast to the groom and bride, as well as the welcoming of Kipp and Steph into their new families.  The program ended with the bride and groom addressing their many guests.  It was all nicely done.

The rest of the evening was a great time filled with lots of visiting, spirits, and dancing. The DJ was kind of funny, and was having a little trouble keeping the dance floor full. When I went to request a song I mentioned that I used to DJ at Louis’ back in the day. He quickly called me into the DJ booth and said something like this:

Dude. You have to help me. This is only my second time DJing and I don’t want to screw this up for the bride.

I gave him a few suggestions and a list of songs that I figured would work out well. It seemed it helped him out a bit and people started to make their way to the floor. I’d like to think it was my song list, but there’s a pretty good chance it was just because people started to fill up on drink.

Michelle and I were there until the end of the night, which ended shortly after two o’clock AM.  There wasn’t many left at this time, but it was pretty cool to see Kipp and Steph there right until the end as well.  I don’t think you see the bride and groom stick around this long very often.  After saying our good-byes and thank-yous, we called it a night and grabbed a cab home.   What a great wedding.  Thanks Kipp and Steph!

You can see more pictures from the day by following the links below:

• Kipp & Steph in Black & White (Thumbnails)
• Kipp & Steph in Black & White (Slideshow)
• Kipp & Steph from the Community Camera (Thumbnails)
• Kipp & Steph from the Community Camera (Slideshow)

Since buying our house back in February, Michelle and I were planning on throwing a housewarming party. We initially were hoping for May, but that just couldn’t happen. Who’d have thought owning a house would make one so busy?   Before we knew it summer had arrived and we figured we better have the party now, or it would never happen.

When we started putting together the guest list, it didn’t take long to realize that this could end up being a fairly large shindig. We figured the more the merrier and sent out the invites. Most people RSVPed in some acceptable manner, but for some reason clicking “YES” or “NO” in the Google Invites continues to confuse people.

Michelle and I spent the few days beforehand getting ready for the party - buying booze and food, and getting the house and yard ready to accommodate a barrage of people. When the day arrived, it was also on the day of Saskatoon’s big Sidewalk Sale so Michelle was obligated to help her mom at her store for most of the day. I spent the day prepping everything, then my parents showed up and were able to help me out. Luckily Michelle got off early so she was able to put together all of the food platters.

Before we knew it people started showing up in waves. I was planning on BBQing at a nice pace, accommodating people as they arrived throughout the evening. How wrong I was. Everyone seemed to show up right at 6pm on the nose. I was BBQing like a madman for over two hours, trying to keep people fed. I guess you live and learn, but at least everyone got to eat.

The evening went really well, and I think everyone had a pretty awesome time. I know I did. The final count was about 45 people including myself and Michelle. It was pretty packed for a while, but luckily the weather was nice so people were able to hang out out on the deck and the backyard. It was also great that Michelle’s and my parents (and a bunch of her extended family too) were able to meet for the first time. They didn’t get a chance to visit much, but there will be much more time for that in the future.

I just want to end off with a big thank-you to everyone who showed up to help celebrate the purchase of our new house. We also really appreciate those people who were there until the bitter magnificent end (4am), and helped us get everything cleaned up. It really made Sunday morning a joy to wake up to.

As many of you know, Travis and I share the same birthday - April 13. We generally don’t do anything to celebrate this historic date, but this year we decided to round up a group of friends and go out for a nice evening filled with food and spirits. The plan was to go to the Freehouse, but I had trouble booking a table for 20 since they already had a couple of large groups reserved. The Barking Fish was our contingency plan, and I was eager to go since I had not yet been there.

Dinner was great, and the atmosphere was exactly what we were looking for. We spent the majority of the evening at the lounge, and due to a majority ruling, we ended up at Whiskey Jacks - a place I am not a fan of. Being good sports, we followed the crowd to the bar, but could only take it for a few minutes before Michelle and I decided to call it a night. The evening was great and I’d like to thank everyone who came out to celebrate my birthday. You can check out some photos from the night by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr
• Thumbnails on Picasa
• Slideshow on Flickr

The basement in the house was finished, but Michelle didn’t like the colour, nor the batons that were running every four feet. The plan was to remove the batons, re-mud, sand, and paint. Luckily Michelle’s uncle Ray was willing to help us with this. Seemed like a pretty easy job until Ray came by to do the assessment. As it turned out, the lower level of the wall (the house is a bi-level) actually had paneling nailed over the drywall, and that’s why the batons were there - to hide the seams. So our fairly simple job turned out to be ripping off the paneling, re-mudding all the drywall, sanding, and painting. Uncle Ray got to work right away, and I got out of the way.

For the next couple weeks, Uncle Ray and Michelle’s dad David were in and out of the house doing their thing. I wasn’t of much use until the sanding stage where I actually did some work. It wasn’t the most exciting work I’ve done, but since it was improving our house there was actually some satisfaction.

Once the sanding was complete Michelle and I started on the painting. The lower wall was going to be a dark brown and the upper wall a light blue. We started with the priming and quickly revealed further wall imperfections. Uncle Ray had warned me that further mudding and sanding would be required after priming so he had filled me in on mudding techniques. I managed to re-mud, sand, and re-prime the problem areas, leading us to the painting stage.

The blue went on quite nicely and only required two coats, but the brown was much more problematic and required three. While I was on the home-stretch of applying the brown, I tried to touch up one of the walls that had semi-dried. Big mistake. This rookie error required me to redo the entire wall. This however did not affect my spirit.

When all was said and done, the painting ended up taking a week. I hadn’t painted in a long time, but I did remember really hating it. I can safely say that I still hate painting. I hear so many people say how easy it is, but I honestly don’t think so. It is so difficult to get everything looking nice and even. Ours ended up being decent, but far from perfect. It definitely could have used a pro’s touch.

Michelle and I then stayed up until nearly 3 am setting up the room. It was good to get the TV finally connected. I was really starting to miss my Raptors, and watching movies. We have only set up one half of this room, mainly because we don’t have the furniture for the second half yet, but it is now completely functional as a TV room. I sure love not being in a condo, and in a house where I can watch movies very LOUDLY.

We still have some plans for the basement which includes replacing the carpet with the new carpet from upstairs when we put in the hardwood, and adding a bar and “lounge” type area. I’m really looking forward to getting everything completed. I really want to thank Michelle’s uncle and dad for working so hard to get our basement how we wanted it. And it’s great to know that Michelle and I got through our first home reno without killing each other.

You can see more photos of the house (and the renos) by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Filckr
• Slideshow on Flickr
• Thumbnails on Picasa
• Slideshow on Picasa

Just over a month ago I posted about my dire housing situation. My landlord had sold the condo I was living in and I needed to be out by the end of March. Well I thought I would give a quick update on that whole situation. Two days after finding out about my place, Michelle and I looked at a house in Erindale in Saskatoon (actually about a five minute walk from Curtis’ new condo - yeah, the imaginary one). A day after that we made an offer on that house and it was accepted. Michelle wasn’t even in Saskatoon at the time - she was out winter camping (yeah, winter camping) with her school so I was sending text messages to her with updates such as:

• We’re putting in an offer on that house we looked at.
• They rejected our offer. We countered, and they accepted.

I believe the response I got was something like:

• OMG

We got all of our financing in order the following week, got Michelle’s condo on the market, and that was that. Her condo sold in no time and our possession date was set for March 18th. So in less than a week I went from being fairly content in my rental condo to being a proud new homeowner. Here’s a picture of Michelle entering our house for the first time. As you can see, she was very excited.

We hired movers for March 28th as to give us enough time to pack. As usual, packing sucked, but it did give us a chance to toss out some of our stuff. I managed to go through my clothing and fill five giant garbage bags to donate to Community Living. I also was able to get all of my recycling sorted out, and man, do I have a lot! I’m gonna be a millionaire when I take that stuff in for refund. Well maybe not a millionaire, but I’d be surprised if I can’t pay off our mortgage.

The movers did an awesome job and nothing got damaged. I cannot stress how well worth it is to hire pros. If you got a move coming up I highly suggest you go this route - it’ll be worth every penny. Unpacking started immediately and went on for days. The kitchen proved to be the real dilemma due to limited cupboard space, and our ridiculous amount of kitchen stuff. We had to go and buy a pantry to ease some of the pain.

I was able to put up with the mess for a couple days, but I finally hit my threshold and went on an unpacking rampage. Everything is more-or-less in order now except for the basement where Michelle’s dad and uncle are fixing some drywall. They are scheduled to finish up in the next couple days so Michelle and I plan to paint down there this weekend, and look forward to finally getting everything organized. Thankfully my brain is able to dimiss the chaotic state of the basement because it is in a “renovation” state. We also plan on installing hardwood on the main level in the very short term, but once that is all done, we’re good to go. None of this work was actually needed, but it was something both of us wanted to do.

So somehow Michelle and I have become one of those couples that have home projects on the go. I’m not sure how that happened, and I’m equally unsure how much I am actually going to be involved in these projects beyond the planning stage. My renovation skills are limited and I’d prefer to have things done properly. Why just the other day I screwed up the installation of a toilet paper holder (it actually wasn’t my fault - the wall was being childish). Luckily Michelle’s dad was there to save the day. I redeemed myself by installing the towel holder without incident.

I haven’t taken many photos of the house yet so stay tuned for those in the upcoming days. And let me take this moment to officially invite you over for a visit. Now that things are less chaotic here I’ll be a much better host.

I was going through the pictures on one of my cameras and I came across this doozy. Jeffrey and Devin introduced us to the “Man Pizza” a little over a year ago and it has become somewhat of a Sunday tradition. Curtis and I made some recently and this particular one turned out incredibly well so we just had to take a picture. Plus we thought it would be a great way to show Jeff what he was missing while in Montreal. He truly does love the “Man Pizza”.

You may be wondering why it is called the “Man Pizza”. I can’t even guess how much this thing weighs, but it’s heavy. The dough is homemade (I bought a fancy new breadmaker just for this), has two cans of pizza sauce, nearly a pound of pepperoni, loads of mushrooms, and a ton of cheese. But the real kicker is the habanero Tabasco Sauce that is added to the pizza sauce. This stuff is HOT, but it tastes delicious. Devin added so much once that he was genuinely scared that people were going to get hurt. He was so concerned that he couldn’t even eat his pizza.

Since friends who cannot handle the “Man Pizza” have started to join us during our pizza nights , we have created “Little Boy Pizzas”. They too are delicious (you can actually see one in the background of the pic), and lets us experiment with different recipes, but they will never compare to the “Man Pizza”. And they don’t have quite the same effect the next morning.

This past weekend I flew out to Toronto and met Jeffrey who was arriving from Montreal. Jeffrey was interested in seeing a Raptors game while he was out in that part of the country, so that seemed like a pretty good excuse for me to meet him there. It had been over two years since I attended a Raptors game at the Air Canada Centre, so this was a great opportunity for me to feed my addiction. Since we were going to be there for a few days, we also got some tickets to Evil Dead : The Musical. It would also work out for me visit my many friends in Guelph.

Before I left Saskatoon on Friday, I checked the Toronto weather forecast for the weekend. It wasn’t looking good as there were major snow storm warnings issued for all of southern Ontario. I was lucky enough that I got in just before it started up so it didn’t affect my flight.

I got to Toronto early in the afternoon and decided to rent a car since I was going to be traveling between three cities. I was supposed to get a compact such as a Ford Focus, but for some reason I got downgraded to a sub-compact, getting stuck with a Hyundai Accent. To my surprise, it didn’t turn out to be as bad as I was expecting. I met Jeffrey downtown at the Eaton’s Centre. We had some time to kill before the Raptors game at seven o’clock so we went to the St. Lawrence Market and bummed around. Seeing that market again really made me wish that we had something like that in Saskatoon. We bought some fresh fruit and chowed down while being geeks on our respective internet tablets. You gotta love free wi-fi.

We headed to the Air Canada Centre a little early since I wanted to try and get my picture taken with, “the man, the myth, the voice”, Chuck Swirsky. For those of you who don’t know who this is, he is the play-by-play voice of the Toronto Raptors. He’s has become a favourite among the team’s fans, and has gathered somewhat of a cult following. He is known for his use of personal catchphrases during the games such as, “Get out the salami and cheese mamma! This game is over”, and “That was sick, wicked, and nasty!”.

I had emailed him to see if I could get a pic with him and he told me that he was always outside Gate 1 about 50 minutes prior to tipoff, and would be happy to meet me. So Jeffrey and I hung around the area waiting for him to show. We were about to give up, when he rolled in, blaming the storm for his tardiness. After he jumped in on the Raptors TV pre-game panel, I managed to swipe a picture with him.

Even though getting to meet Chuck was enough to make this whole trip worth it, I figured we should still go and check out the actual game versus the Washington Wizards. On the way to our seats we crossed paths with some of the Raptors Dance Pak. I couldn’t refuse after the ladies swooned over me and wanted to get their picture with me.

Our seats turned out to be better than I was expecting so that was a great. Another added bonus was that the ACC offers free wi-fi, letting Jeffrey and I further display our geekiness with our internet tablets. The game didn’t start off too well for the Raptors, but they got their act together creating a pretty entertaining match. It went into overtime, but the Raps couldn’t pull it off. Disappointing, but it was still and exciting game.

Following the game we grabbed a bite to eat before heading out to Chris and Kaleigh Kuzma’s pad. They are some friends of Jeffrey, Rachel, and Michelle and were nice enough to let the two of us stay with them. We did a little visiting, but we were all pretty tired and called it a night.

When we woke up Saturday morning, the snow was really coming down, and was accumulating very fast. Since the weather wasn’t cooperating and Jeffrey and I had done the Toronto tourist stuff multiple times, we just decided to go see some movies before we headed to the Evil Dead show. We saw 10,000 BC which I enjoyed more than I probably should have, and Semi-Pro which was just another cookie-cutter Will Ferrell flick. You can likely wait for both of these on DVD.

After the movies we met Chris and Kaleigh for dinner and then we headed to the Diesel Playhouse for the musical. I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but since it was critically acclaimed and had been voted “Toronto’s Favourite Show”, I had a pretty good feeling. The first two rows were called the “splatter zone”. You probably can imagine why it is called that. Jeffrey and I made sure to get tickets directly behind this zone since we didn’t want to get sprayed with blood. As it turned out, our seats were “unofficially” in the splatter zone. We were provided with ponchos to help keep the washable blood out of our clothes.

All I can say is that I completely enjoyed the show from the moment the curtains opened. It was much more of a farce than I was expecting and the music was great. Once the mayhem started to reach a climax in one of the final scenes, the blood started to fly. At one point I was taken by complete surprise and took a stream of the red stuff directly in my face. It was hilarious….but the “blood” definitely didn’t taste good. I can’t help but recommend anyone in the area to check out this show. It’s a great time.

Jeffrey was heading back to Montreal on Sunday, so I dropped him off at the train station. But not before having to dig the rental car out of a ton of snow. Knowing that this may be a tricky endeavor, it had been bothering me all weekend. As it turned out, with two shovels going we had the car out in no time. I headed out to Waterdown (just outside Hamilton) to visit my buddy Shawn, his wife Wendy and their new baby Sabrina. The highways were actually not too bad considering how hard the area was hit with snow that weekend, so I made it to their place with no catches. I spent the night with them, and we didn’t really do much other than visit and catch up on what has been going on in our respective lives. It was a great visit.

I left Waterdown Monday morning and headed to Guelph where I had lunch plans with some old friends from the Co-operators. I stopped in the office and said hi to some old colleagues before a bunch of us headed to a new pub close by. Since it was spring break, I didn’t get a chance to see a lot of people I wanted to, but it was great to see everyone else. Once we finished up there I went to see my old landlord Dominic. It may seem kind of weird to go visit a landlord, but this guy was awesome, and he and his wife did a lot for me. Probably the greatest landlord in history.

I was staying with my buddy Danny and his girlfriend Aislinn at their new house in Guelph so I headed over there. He gave me the grand tour and we spent the rest of the afternoon playing Guitar Hero : Rock the 80s. We went out to a pub for some pints and a bite to eat, and were lucky to have a couple of old buddies join us. The party animal Khamsy was a little disappointed that we were being so tame. He had big plans for me that night involving “praying at church” (ask me in person about this), but I wasn’t up for a crazy evening.

My flight back to Saskatoon was just after noon on Tuesday, so I said my farewells to Danny and Aislinn and made my way back to Pearson International in Toronto. Luckily all of the snow situations were under control and my flight was not in jeopardy. The trip was like a whirlwind, but it was awesome to see so many of my old friends, and get a chance to see Guelph again. I really love that city and was surprised to see how it has boomed over the last two years, becoming the fastest growing city in Canada. Toronto was fun as usual, but the terrible weather was a limiting factor…guess I’ll have to plan another trip.

You can see more pictures from the trip below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr
• Thumbnails on Picasa
• Slideshow on Picasa

Michelle and I decided to take a quick trip to the Rocky Mountains this past weekend. I had been wanting to do this for the last year or so, but just never got around to it. Since Jasper isn’t that far from Saskatoon, and my brother and his family could act as a halfway point in Sherwood Park, we decided to just make it a weekend getaway. We left mid-Friday afternoon and and pulled into my brother’s place around 6:30 where we would spend the night. This gave me the chance to hang out with my nephews who I hadn’t seen since the summer, and introduce Michelle to a piece of my family.

We left Sherwood Park shortly after 7 Saturday morning which had us rolling into Jasper around 10:30. We didn’t have much of plan other than doing some hiking, so we made our way over to the The Jasper Information Centre. It turned out that the person on duty was more interested in going for lunch than in recommending what trails we should venture upon. In all her wisdom she gave us some trail maps to figure things out. While finalizing our route over lunch, we realized that the maps we were given were for the summer trails (I also came to an understanding that I like relish on my burgers). Despite this we felt that the trails on the mountain around Pyramid Lake would work out fine.

We checked into our hotel, The Sawridge Inn, and got dressed for the hike. Our room had a beautiful view of the dining room. The hike we mapped out was to take roughly two hours since we didn’t have a lot of daylight. I’d never been on a hike, let alone one in the mountains so I was quite looking forward to it. Luckily there was snow tracks along the way, because there is not a lot of markers on the trail. After trekking uphill for around ninety minutes, we emerged on a cliff with a great view of the Athabasca River and the surrounding mountains. After firing off some photos, we continued on our journey.

As we plunged deeper into the wilderness we had the privilege of seeing a huge Mule Deer up close as it scurried away. It wasn’t too long from then that we realized we were completely lost. None of the markers were making sense anymore as we tried to figure out what trail we were on in relation to the map. We decided to backtrack a bit and get onto a different trail that coincided with the map. This route would take a little longer, but at least we knew where we were going. Or did we?

Things really started to fall apart as the trail took us higher up the mountain into heavy snowfall. According to our calculations we should have passed a fork in the path some time ago. It definitely seemed like a bad idea to be going higher as we ran out of sunlight. Once again the map made no sense and we were completely turned around. The direction of the sun didn’t jive with what we were seeing on the trails either. I decided to pull out my new Nokia n810 which has a built in GPS to try and get a lock of where we were, or to at least find out what way was north. The stupid thing couldn’t get a proper satellite lock, or was malfunctioning, or was having its signal scrambled by the Borg. Either way, I didn’t realize until later that it was trying to get a satellite lock and was showing old coordinates. I must learn patience.

It was too late to backtrack again since we surely would have run out of light, so we decided to push forward. Since I am a prime human specimen, I had no problem ascending the face of the mountain, but I did have to stop quite often to wait for Michelle. This too didn’t seem like the best idea since the sun wasn’t going to wait for us before setting. After about an hour of climbing uphill, the trail started to descend, and my blood pressure followed suit. We came to a fork in the trail and we thought this would surely let us pinpoint our position. Instead it further confused us since we saw a marker labeled ‘2h’. This wasn’t even an option of where we thought we could have been on the map. It didn’t matter. We continued down the trail with our fingers crossed. It wasn’t long until we heard a car whip by on an invisible road through the trees. We both let out a sigh of relief. At this point we figured we would come out a few kilometres south of where we had parked, but it would be no big deal because we could just follow the road to the car. Instead we were pleasantly surprised to emerge from the trees into the very parking lot we had parked. Happy. Yes. Confused. Completely.

Now that we actually were at a trail map showing our position, we were able to trace where we had been. It turned out that we were in a “wildlife movement area” described to hikers as, “trails that are discouraged for travel in order to restore habitat”. As clueless as we were, we are also convinced that someone had tampered with the trail markers. Our original path was supposed to follow markers ‘2b’ for most of the way, which we did. As it turns out we were on ‘2h’ for the majority of time and never once saw a ‘2h’ marker (except near the end). Michelle thinks that someone ‘jiffied’ the ‘h’ to look like a ‘b’. Conspiracy theorists unite.

Following this debacle, we just went back to the hotel room and got ready for a nice dinner. We walked into the heart of the town and went to a place called Wicked Dave’s. Everything about it was great. I ordered the Hell’s Jerk Chicken which had plenty of warnings in the menu in regards to spiciness. Even the server warned me that it was rated 9/10 on their heat scale. I held strong. As delicious as it was, I think it only warranted a 5/10 on Hemant’s Heat Scale. Following dinner we just crashed back at the hotel since we were completely exhausted from the day’s events.

Sunday we just grabbed some breakfast at the Black Sheep Cafe which was delicious. What was even greater was that they provided free wireless, letting me play with my n810 a little. We bummed around town a bit more and contemplated taking a different route back to Saskatoon, but decided against it since it would have taken a little too long. On that note we said goodbye to the Rockies. While filling gas in Lloydminster, we were lucky enough to be graced by the, “cleanest washrooms in Canada”.

Despite being a super-quick trip, Michelle and I had a great time. Sometimes it’s good to just get out and do something different. Since we had so much fun, we’re already planning our next extended trip to the area this summer. I’m also going to plan our hikes a little better - you know, like taking a flashlight and maybe some matches along with us. I’m just glad that my parents didn’t have to see something like this on the news Saturday night: “Two city slickers require search and rescue operation from beginner mountain trails near Jasper, Alberta, Canada.”

You can see more pictures from the trip below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr
• Thumbnails on Picasa
• Slideshow on Picasa

This past Friday we went out and bought Rockband for the Xbox 360. We were lucky to find a copy of this game since it has been flying off of the store shelves since it was released. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s pretty much Guitar Hero on steroids. Instead of just getting to play the guitar or bass, you get to also play the drums and sing. If you think that sounds crazy, well you’re right - it’s a gong show.

We found that the guitar playing was pretty similar to what you would find in the Guitar Hero series. The drums proved to be quite difficult, but I was able to consistently play them on the ‘medium’ setting by the end of the evening. ‘Hard’ proved to be nearly impossible.

It took a little while for anyone to take take on the lead vocals, but after a few beer the courage levels increased. My rendition of ‘Run to the Hills’ by Iron Maiden proved to be ridiculous. Gordo managed to please the crowd while hamming up his performances of ‘Say it Ain’t So’ by Weezer, ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ by The Ramones, and ‘Ballroom Bliz’ by The Sweets.

I also managed to take a number of videos during the evening which proved to be solid gold. After some prying, I think I have managed to get Gordo’s permission to post his performance of ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’, as well as one illustrating ‘how serious we took our performances’. The only catch is that I will have to post my performance of ‘Run to the Hills’. I’ll try and get these up as soon as possible. As for the other videos, I believe his verison of ‘Ballroom Blitz’ is off-limits. See me in person to get a look at these. In the meantime you can check out the rest of the pictures from the evening. Rock on!

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr
• Thumbnails on Picasa
• Slideshow on Picasa

It wasn’t long ago that I blogged about attending Noodle’s stag. Before we knew it December 31st had arrived, and we found ourselves at his and his lovely bride Krista’s wedding. Having the wedding on New Years Eve sounded like a great idea, and it proved to be an awesome time.

The wedding was at 4:30pm at St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Saskatoon. Luckily I was still on vacation so I didn’t have to worry about checking out of the office early. Travis was Adam’s best man and from what I hear, Krista kept him quite busy with wedding duties. As far as I can tell, he did a pretty good job. Gordo, Todd, Kipp, Steph, Jason, Cheryl, Michelle, and I had the privilege of attending the nice ceremony (play slideshow below).

We were in and out of the church in just over thirty minutes, and then headed straight to the Radisson for the rest of the festivities. Since we’ve had previous experience of being unable to find a taxi on New Years Eve in Saskatoon, most of us decided to just stay at the hotel. We checked in and made our way to cocktail hour.

The room was done up incredibly well, and was quite beautiful. I was impressed. All eight of us were seated at the same table where we enjoyed each other’s company, and the program prepared by the wedding party. Roast beef was the main course of the meal, and it was delicious. I ate too much for dessert, but I figured I was allowed since I was on holidays.

The rest of the night we spent dancing and performing other shenanigans. I gave everyone a little taste of my mad break-dancing skills that I mastered over twenty years ago. As with most weddings our crew attends, we danced until the DJ shut it down. Since we used so much energy over the evening, we ordered some delicious pizza in Kipp’s room and completely devoured it.

This was definitely a New Years Eve I will remember forever, and would like to thank Adam and Krista for letting me share the day with them. I wish them all the luck in their future together, and wish everyone else the best in 2008.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr
• Thumbnails on Picasa
• Slideshow on Picasa

This year I decided to take two weeks of vacation around the holiday season. It had been a while since I had done this so I was really looking forward to the time off. I didn’t really have any major plans during my holidays, hoping just to have some downtime with my family and friends.

This year my brother and his family decided to stay in Edmonton for Christmas while my sister and her family celebrated in Chicago. My parents decided they just wanted to stay at home in Wilkie, so I was content with just spending a quiet Christmas with them.

I made it back in time for the annual Wilkie Outlaws Rib & Wing Night (photos) at the Wilkie Civic Centre. I had heard a lot about this event and since I had never attended it, I figured I would check it out this year. It was really busy there, and I got to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen in some time, which was great. What wasn’t so great was that they ran out of wings before I got a chance to buy any. Luckily I was able to scam some off of a generous friend.

That was pretty much the only time I left my parents’ house. Well, that’s not completely true. I did head to the Co-op to buy some milk on Christmas Eve. Other than that I spent my time visiting, reading, surfing the net, watching TV, and napping. These few days seemed like the prime opportunity for me to do some needed catching up on sleep.

Christmas day we had the traditional turkey dinner which my mother prepared to perfection as usual. After filling up during the meal, I chowed down on all sorts of baked goods and other unhealthy delights. As good as it is coming back to Wilkie for a visit, I always leave feeling fatter.

• Xmas Day Photos (thumbnails)
• Xmas Day Photos (slideshow)

It seems that Adam had a bit of spare time on his hands and decided to “Elf” some of the guys. Pretty funny stuff. Watch the video here.

This past Friday was the stag for my buddy Adam, also known as Noodle. His wedding is New Year’s Eve so a group of his friends decided to go and tear up the town for his one last hoorah. The evening started with fifteen of us having a nice dinner at Earls Restaurant. As much as I enjoy the atmosphere and food at this joint, the service was terrible. It was difficult to understand why a table of fifteen guys would have trouble ordering drinks at a stag. By the time we finished our meal we didn’t have much time to get out of the restaurant and to our next destination at TCU place for the Just For Laughs show. After our waitress had to ask three different times what each of us had, we finally got our bills and hit the road. The service made me feel like I was in Alberta. Luckily the company at Earls was great, and overshadowed the poor service.

We ended up being late for the show, but only missed a little bit of the host’s opening stint. The theme of the show was Relationships : Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places, and it was hilarious. Including the host, there were six acts and all were really strong. The comedians performing were Greg Behrendt, John Wing, Fiona O’Loughlin, Louis Ramey, Kevin Brennan, and Tom Papa. The easily enjoyed the final three acts the most.

Once we finished up at the show, we made our way to Winston’s Pub where we would unwind and finish off the night. After the guest of honour and most of the crew headed home, the remaining five of us tried to find a cab, but no one would take us because we had one too many to fit. In all of our wisdom we decided that it was a better idea just to get a hotel room while we were downtown. We were denied rooms at The Besborough, The Ramada, and The Sheraton - even after Todd tried explaining to them that we were a famous rock band from Los Angeles.

We finally managed to find a cabbie that would take the five of us in his car after a little coaxing and bribery. The evening wound down at my place as we ate pizza and reflected on the evening. If the stag is going to be any indication of the Adam and Krista’s wedding, it’s going to be a great time. I also want to throw out a big “thanks” to Travis for organizing the evening’s events. You can get to photos from the evening below.

• Thumbnails
• Slideshow

This weekend my good friend Jason turned the “Big 30″, so he and his wife Cheryl put together a little swaree to celebrate the occasion. Guests were to arrive at their house for drinks and hors d’oeuvres at around 8:00 Saturday evening. There was also golf scheduled for the afternoon, but due to terrible weather, that didn’t happen. I wasn’t planning on golfing anyway since I’m a fair weather golfer, and I was pretty sure the weather wasn’t going to cooperate for this time of year. My predictions were dead on.

There was a good turnout for the festivities including our crew, and Jaosn’s many teacher and Rosetown friends. From my observations, everyone had a great time and were fairly well behaved…except Todd. It was good to speak to people I hadn’t seen in a while, and to celebrate this big milestone in Jason’s life. You can see some photos from the evening here (slideshow) and here (thumbnails). Enjoy.