A Day, A Week, Hemant, A Year

Since moving back to Saskatoon in 2005 I’ve been hosting the annual Geeks in Basements New Years Eve Extravaganza - a gathering of my closest friends to celebrate the coming of the new year. This also happened to be the first one that would take place in Michelle’s and my new house.

Since Saskatchewan was going through such a bitterly cold stretch we thought it would be a great idea to give the 2009 party a Caribbean theme. Our guests were informed to show up in their best island gear and enjoy some Jamaican style cuisine and groove to some funky reggae beats. We even announced that there would be a special prize for the most impressive getup.

Marla and Charles were the first guests to arrive and they sure did impress us with their costumes. All Marla needed was some suntan lotion and she could have jumped a plane to the West Indies.

Unfortunately as more guests arrived the quality of the costumes diminished. And when I say diminished I mean were non-existent. At least Michelle and I had enough leis for everyone to wear. Besides the “dressing up stick-in-the-muds”, the company was still top notch and everyone had a fantastic time.

As usual I laid out the “community camera” for people to fire off shots during the night.  I actually had no idea that there were so many picture taken until tonight when I pulled the photos off of the camera.

Feel free to check out some of the better shots on my Flickr site by following the links below.

• Thumbnails on Flickr
• Slideshow on Flickr

And in case you hadn’t guessed, Marla won the prize for best costume - a bottle of Malibu Rum.

I never made another post following the wedding announcement back in September so I thought I would give a quick update. Michelle and I have gotten the major things sorted out including the venue for the reception, the photographer, and the DJ. The bridal party are ready to go with Michelle having found hers and the bridesmaid dresses. As far as I know they are all fitted and ordered. I too have found what the men will be wearing, but I’m pretty sure they have not went and got fitted yet.  I may have to give them a deadline. Michelle being the crafty person she is has been spending a lot of her time creating our invitations and ’save the dates’. We are going to have a lot of people needing to travel a reasonable distance for the wedding, so we figured ’save the dates’ would be a good idea. Michelle finished those up last night and will be mailing them out in the next couple days. Only expect one of these fabulous creations in the mail if you’re a traveler.  If you live close by, consider this your official ’save the date’.

I guess the last major thing Michelle and I keep ignoring is where the actual wedding ceremony will take place. We’ve found that when you’re not getting married in a church, your options become quite limited in Saskatoon - especially when weather could become a factor at the tail end of September. If you have any suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.

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

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

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.

To celebrate my buddy Kipp’s 30th birthday, a group of his friends and family all met in Edmonton for the weekend. The agenda included water slide and wave pool fun at the West Edmonton Mall’s World Waterpark on Saturday afternoon. For the evening we had tickets for a show at a comedy club, The Comic Strip, in the mall.

I was supposed to travel to Edmonton Saturday morning with the infamous brothers, Travis and Todd. Since they both backed out at the last minute, I ended up making the trek by myself. Here is a picture of me driving to Edmonton (I was bored).

I was on the highway by 7:40 in the morning and was parked in the West Edmonton Mall parking lot at exactly 1:00 pm. Even though I made pretty decent time, water sliding was scheduled for 1:00 so I needed to get my tail in gear to hook up with the crew. After finding the waterpark, I bought my ticket and got changed (not before figuring out how to use high-tech locker system). The waterpark was insanely busy and I thought I would never find anyone. But I immediately ran into Kipp and his brother Ben and we made our way to one of the slides. The lineups were out of control and we probably waited for 15 or 20 minutes for the 30 second ride. Since we had a party room booked for 2:00 and we had about fifteen minutes to kill, we decided to get one more slide in. The lines were even longer and Kipp and I waited for at least thirty minutes. This slide took about ten seconds to go down - but it was a pretty fun ten seconds.

We were a little late for the party, but we were pretty sure they wouldn’t cut his cake before he got there. After eating some of the delicious cake and visiting with everyone, a few of us headed over to the “bar on the beach” for a couple cold ones.

The wave pool was looking pretty good so we decided to spend some time in there, rather than in lines for the waterslides. It was awesome as always, despite getting feet in the jaw and knees in the back of the head. After our eyes were filled with chlorine, and our legs had turned to Jello, we thought we had better get more watersliding in. The lines were no better than before and we ended up getting only one more slide in before having to leave to get ready for the evening’s events. Below is a picture of me in my bathing suit at the waterpark.

After checking into our hotel and getting ready we headed back to the mall where we planned on eating at a restaurant on “Bourbon Street” before heading to the comdey club. It turned out that all of the restaurants had around ninety minute wait times for a party of 12, and this just wouldn’t fit into our schedule. Curtis and I decided to just go grab something in one of the food courts and the other guys went to eat at the comedy club.

The comedy show was super-funny and we all had an awesome time. The MC was an Edmonton radio host and he was surprisingly good. There was also a couple other opening acts as well as a Bubbles (from Trailer Park Boys) look-alike who was great. The main act was John Wessling, a dude from Texas who was on Last Comic Standing. He had everyone laughing hard. Since we were out of the club at around 10:00 eight of us just headed back to the lounge at the restaurant and hung out before calling it a night.

On Sunday we all went to Denny’s for breakfast and then went our separate ways. Curtis rode back to Wilkie with me. As we passed Sherwood Park we decided to go visit my brother and his family since it was still early. We visited for a couple hours before heading out.

One thing I noticed while in Edmonton was that service there (and apparently all of Alberta) is terrible. People in restaurants, hotels, etc. were either rude, ignorant, or incompetent….or a combination of the three. I personally have never seen anything like it. Apparently the reason is because there is a real shortage of service workers in Alberta and places are under-staffed, or hiring anyone they can. I understand that, but come on - that doesn’t give you the right to do a half-assed job or to be rude.

Other than the service issues, the weekend was great. I got to see a lot of people that I havent’ seen in a while like Kipp’s brother and sister and their families, as well as some old friends from high school. I took a few pictures while at the waterpark and you can see them here.

It was my nephew Jayant’s third birthday on Friday, and his party was scheduled for Saturday afternoon. I thought this was a good opportunity to take an extra long weekend so I booked Friday and Monday as vacation. I drove out to Wilkie Friday morning to pick up my parents and we arrived at my brother’s place in Sherwood Park mid-afternoon.

The weekend was fun and it gave me a chance to visit with my brother and his family - I hadn’t seen them since the summer. Most of the time was filled with playing with my nephews and playing Xbox 360 (mostly Gears of War) with my brother. The party was also a good time - not a huge event, but just a few of my brother’s and sis-in-law’s friends.

My parents and I left Edmonton around 12:30 Sunday afternoon after the Raptors game, despite my father’s objections. He likes to leave early, but I was driving so I was the boss. The drive was enjoyable, and even more so since the Raptors blew out the Los Angeles Clippers (all you nay-sayers should act early, because the bandwagon will fill quickly).

I was planning on staying the night in Wilkie, but I decided to just drop my folks off and drive straight through to Saskatoon. I thought I would use my day off on Monday to take care of my passport stuff. I rolled into the passport office around 11:00 am, and finally was out of there around 2:00. It wasn’t as busy as it was a week or two ago, but three hours is still long. It was quite the setup - waiting in lines to wait in other lines. Once I actually saw the Examiner, I spent maybe three minutes with him. I do feel bad for people who waited in lines as long as I did, and then were told their forms were inaccurate, or they were missing certain documents, but I think a lot of them just didn’t read the instructions. People were showing up without a guarantor’s signature, passport photos, etc. Luckily I took the thirty seconds to read the instructions.

Anyway, I took some photos while in Edmonton and you can see them here. Enjoy.

The 3rd Annual Geeks in Basements New Years Extravaganza was celebrated at my place as we bid farewell to 2006 and welcomed in 2007. The night was a blast, and I’m glad that so many of my friends were able to attend. Most of the day was spent shopping and preparing for the party. Thanks to those who helped me get stuff ready.

I’ve posted some of the better pictures taken during the evening. You can view the pictures here.

Best quote of the night goes to Jeffrey’s wife, Rachel - “This party is really grown-up”. Keep in mind they had to leave early.

Even though The Team Dream Golf Getaway 2006 wrapped up about six months ago, I have yet to make a post about it. For those of you not familiar with this event, it is a weekend golf getaway which a group of friends make each year in the Spring. The guys trek out to Elk Ridge, near Wascesiu National Park, Saskatchewan for a couple rounds of golf, some great food, and a lot of ’spirits’. I guess it doesn’t take too much of an imagination to figure out that this weekend is filled with juvenile shenanigans that only a group of men can accomplish. I believe this was the fifth annual Team Dream, but it was the first I had the privilege of attending since I no longer live on the other side of the country.

Without getting into too the gory details, I’ll just say that the weekend was very eventful. The weather wasn’t terrible, but it definitely wasn’t the greatest. We got a little bit of rain and it was a little chilly at times, but nothing crazy like the previous years had to endure. The course also wasn’t in the greatest shape since a lot of rain had passed through, so that took away a little of the enjoyment, but really, we were there to hang out and just have a good time - which we did.

Even though we were there to chum around, there is always a competitive aspect to the weekend. The twelve of us were split into two team and took part in a match-play style of game, similar to the Ryder Cup. The teams were as follows:

Fringe Benefits

• Marshal Herzog
• Adam Revitt
• Ryan Shuya
• Jason Fenrich
• Drayton Goodall
• Hemant J. Naidu

The Cleveland Steamers

• Bob Johnston
• Mitch Herzog
• Todd Weber
• Clint Keller
• Kipp Lucas
• Travis Weber

Even though the teams were more-or-less evenly divided, The Cleveland Steamers managed to steam-roll Fringe Benefits by a score of 6 - 2 (I believe - someone correct me if I’m wrong), claiming the grand prize - The Garden Gnome. Perhaps I will be able to share in this glory next year.

I managed to take quite a few pictures during the festivities and I have posted the better ones here. I wish I was able to take more shots of everyone playing golf, but it was difficult to get any unless you were in my group or in the group ahead or behind. I was able to get a lot shots during the festivites off of the course, so sit back and enjoy.

I was planning on having a nice, relaxing Labour Day weekend. In fact, I even took Friday as a vacation day to give myself a four day weekend. My brother and his family were going to be at my parents’ place in Wilkie, so I was going to head back there to do some visiting, and hang out with my nephews. Then I remembered that I had a wedding on Saturday. For some reason, I thought it was the weekend after Labour Day. Since I didn’t want to miss my brother’s visit, nor the wedding, I decided to do both.

I was going to drive to Wilkie Friday morning and spend the night. I was then going to head back to Saskatoon Saturday morning so I could take in the wedding and reception. I would return to Wilkie Sunday morning, and make my way back to Saskatoon on Monday. Man, for a guy who was planning a relaxing weekend, I sure was running around a lot.

Amway, even though I didn’t get to catch up on any sleep (I think I actually got behind) I am glad I decided to do what I did. I had a great time with my brother, his wife, and my two nephews. The wedding also was a blast - small in size, but big time fun.

The main reason for this post was to point you to some photos from the weekend. Photos of my brother and his family can be seen here, and the wedding photos can be seen here. Enjoy.

I turned thirty nearly two years ago, and Curtis, one of my best friends, hit that milestone on July 29th. His family planned a big 30th birthday bash at their cottage in Turtle Lake this passed weekend which, as I understood it, was supposed to be a surprise party. Despite losing its secrecy early on, I managed to keep my attendance unknown until the last moment - when I actually arrived at the cottage. There were a ton of people who attended, including Curtis’s family, relatives, and closest friends.

The weekend was a blast and blew by as we took part in all sorts of games and activities. Bunnoc was a big hit, probably as much as it was when idle Russian soldiers played it in Siberia during the 1800s. Who would have thought that throwing horse bones could be so much fun? Cups was another favourite, a game which involves a Frisbee, four poles and four plastic cups. Even when we ran out of activities, new ones were invented. VolleyDisc was born when we couldn’t find a ball to play volleyball at the beach.

Since this was a Fenrich get-together, a grand feast was on the agenda. Being that thirty is such a monumental age, what could be more perfect than sacrificing a pig? Ok, we didn’t actually sacrifice a pig, but one was roasted in an underground fire pit concocted by Mr. Fenrich. It was quite the setup, and the final result was delicious. The night was capped off by a fireworks display at the beach put on by some of the boys. It was pretty cool.

I managed to take a fair amount of shots during the weekend, and have posted the better ones here so you can share in on the festivities.

New Years Eve always seems to cause a dilemma for everyone when trying to come up with plans for the evening. Now that I was settled into my townhouse I decided that I would have my closest friends over for the evening to ring in the new year. The guest list was worked out and the invitations were sent about a week prior to Christmas.

The agenda for the evening was nothing more than for friends to sit around and enjoy each other’s company, some food, and some spirits. I spent the day of the party getting everything ready - picking up food that I had ordered, preparing Hors D’oeuvre I decided to make, and getting things straightened out around the condo. There really wasn’t much to do, but I ended taking longer than I expected.

It was good for everything to get done so I could just wait around for my guests to arrive. The evening went well, and think everyone had a good time. I was a little worried there wouldn’t be enough food, but it looked like I had exactly the right amount. Thanks for everyone who managed to attend and make the evening a success, and I’m sorry a few of you didn’t get a chance to stop by. Maybe next time. Special thanks goes out to Travis and Curtis for helping me with food and spirits, and getting things ready.

Please take a moment to check out some shots I took during the evening by clicking here.