So tomorrow I do the walk-through for our new house! And in 5 weeks and 2 days I'll be married. It's all coming up so fast.
But whereas that last post was all about stress, this one is all about happiness. B/c I am happy right now. I have tomorrow off to walk-through my house, and clean. We'll see how clean it is, but I think I'm going to rent a carpet cleaner, and start with that. I want stuff to be clean before I move everything in next weekend.
The class I taught in Regina went fairly well. Once I started teaching, I learned how poorly laid out the courseware I was teaching is laid out. The people I taught were cool, and it was a neat place to go. I spent 2 days teaching the class, and the third day working on implementation stuff with their IT guy. The best part of being in Regina though was the fact that I got to hang out with friends. People I don't see very often.
I stayed with Kari and James, who were gracious enough to put me up for the nights. In exhange I took them for all you can eat rib tips. On the company bill of course. We ate so much that combined with light eating for meals, I was full for the next 2 days. Kari and James are so great to hang out with. They are one of the coolest couples I know. They are just so much fun. The things they say and do, their quirkyness (both with each other and in general). I just like them, and had a great time staying there.
I also got to see my buddy Andrew, whom I went to CBC with. It was awesome to see him again. He is getting married 3 weeks after us in May, to his beautiful fiancee Starla. We started hanging out at CBC (Canadian Bible College) as our mindset was quite similar. We were equally annoyed with the Christian bubble, and those within it, and I found it nice to hang out with someone "real" after dealing with them all day.
My rental car was pretty sweet as well, which was a nice perk. I had asked for a small/mid-size car, but they didn't have any. He was going to give me a Chrysler 300, but that would have been an extra charge, though he could upgrade me to an SUV for free. So I snagged a 2 year old Jeep Liberty to cruise around it. It is a nice ride. And a little warning to you guys, never buy from a rental company. People drive rentals like they wouldn't drive their own. I didn't do anything terribly crazy, drove over some curbs and shit, but nothing nuts. This is just a general rule I've learned from driving with ppl in rentals over the years.
Overall it was an awesome trip. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, and was very stressed, and happy it is done with. Now to get moved and married. :)
Oh, and I'm going to Orlando in 2 weeks. Weeeeeeee!
I'll post some interior pics soon. I'll take lots tomorrow.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
6 weeks to go
So Mama Bean and I got lots of wedding stuff done this week. Well, not lots, but things that needed doing got done. We picked out and bought our wedding bands, and picked out the tuxes.
The wedding bands are beautiful. White gold comfort bands. Totally plain, and matching. Mine is slightly wider than Jo's. There were some nicer, fancier ones, but at double the price. I quite like these. They are simple, and the perfect symbol of our love. And at like $300ish for the pair, that's awesome.
The tux shopping was rather fun. I was measured and fitted rather quickly by this weird dude with a speech impediment, and then we sat around and waited for the guy to pick our styles and stuff. I think we were in there almost 2 hours total, but the second guy, the one who helped with the style choices was amazing. He let me know how the different styles fit, which ones fit smaller, or larger, and all that stuff. He was amazing. I am wearing mint green (read: kermit the frog), and the other guys will be wearing a chocolate brown.
It's nice to get that all out of the way and taken care of. I've been going nuts trying to get ready for this course I'm teaching next week in Regina. I'm so fucked. I have no idea what I'm doing and am going to show up and look like a complete tool. They will be paying $1200/day plus my expenses to have me stand up there and read the fucking book to them. :( I jumped/got pushed in way over my head on this one. I tried to salvage it, but I have way to much going on and the stress just killed me. I, along with half of my office, got really sick this week with a flu/cold, so that's totally messed me up this week. All this stress is just contributing to me being sick. And with me taking possession of the new house next week, moving Easter weekend, wedding 6 weeks from today, trying to get this house finished painting and prepped to sell, and preparing/leading for worship practices (with the one on April 1st, being our big praise/worship service). I'm going fucking bonkers.
At least with this Regina thing out of the way when I get back I can start concentrating on other things. I'm very much a focus on the trees, not the forest kinda guy, so when all I see is this massive forest, I lose it. My stress coping mechanisms suck.
So I'm very happy to have Mama Bean in my life, and even more so that she is back in town. She makes all of this a million times easier. I still don't deal with it all very well, but she makes things that much easier. I almost said "fuck it" on friday and cancelled this class, even though I have my airfare booked and everything, but at that moment Mama Bean called me, and just hearing her voice calmed me down, and I was able to think a little clearer and sort things out in my head. She's good for things like that.
Only 6 weeks until I get to wake up beside her every morning. And come home to her every night. We've been together almost 6 years. It's going to be wonderful.
The wedding bands are beautiful. White gold comfort bands. Totally plain, and matching. Mine is slightly wider than Jo's. There were some nicer, fancier ones, but at double the price. I quite like these. They are simple, and the perfect symbol of our love. And at like $300ish for the pair, that's awesome.
The tux shopping was rather fun. I was measured and fitted rather quickly by this weird dude with a speech impediment, and then we sat around and waited for the guy to pick our styles and stuff. I think we were in there almost 2 hours total, but the second guy, the one who helped with the style choices was amazing. He let me know how the different styles fit, which ones fit smaller, or larger, and all that stuff. He was amazing. I am wearing mint green (read: kermit the frog), and the other guys will be wearing a chocolate brown.
It's nice to get that all out of the way and taken care of. I've been going nuts trying to get ready for this course I'm teaching next week in Regina. I'm so fucked. I have no idea what I'm doing and am going to show up and look like a complete tool. They will be paying $1200/day plus my expenses to have me stand up there and read the fucking book to them. :( I jumped/got pushed in way over my head on this one. I tried to salvage it, but I have way to much going on and the stress just killed me. I, along with half of my office, got really sick this week with a flu/cold, so that's totally messed me up this week. All this stress is just contributing to me being sick. And with me taking possession of the new house next week, moving Easter weekend, wedding 6 weeks from today, trying to get this house finished painting and prepped to sell, and preparing/leading for worship practices (with the one on April 1st, being our big praise/worship service). I'm going fucking bonkers.
At least with this Regina thing out of the way when I get back I can start concentrating on other things. I'm very much a focus on the trees, not the forest kinda guy, so when all I see is this massive forest, I lose it. My stress coping mechanisms suck.
So I'm very happy to have Mama Bean in my life, and even more so that she is back in town. She makes all of this a million times easier. I still don't deal with it all very well, but she makes things that much easier. I almost said "fuck it" on friday and cancelled this class, even though I have my airfare booked and everything, but at that moment Mama Bean called me, and just hearing her voice calmed me down, and I was able to think a little clearer and sort things out in my head. She's good for things like that.
Only 6 weeks until I get to wake up beside her every morning. And come home to her every night. We've been together almost 6 years. It's going to be wonderful.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
An Article from The Sunday Telegragh London
Sunday Telegraph Article From today's UK wires: Salute to a brave and modest nation - Kevin Myers, The Sunday Telegraph LONDON
Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.
It seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped Glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States , and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions:It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it neverfully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.
Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British."
The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.
The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war wasacknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity. So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian.
Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and ChristopherPlummer, British.
It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who isas unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of it's sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century havebeen the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in whichout-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it inAfghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.
It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
Until the deaths of Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan , probably almost no one outside their home country had been aware that Canadian troops are deployed in the region. And as always, Canada will bury its dead, just as the rest of the world, as always will forget its sacrifice, just as it always forgets nearly everything Canada ever does.
It seems that Canada 's historic mission is to come to the selfless aid both of its friends and of complete strangers, and then, once the crisis is over, to be well and truly ignored.Canada is the perpetual wallflower that stands on the edge of the hall, waiting for someone to come and ask her for a dance. A fire breaks out, she risks life and limb to rescue her fellow dance-goers, and suffers serious injuries. But when the hall is repaired and the dancing resumes, there is Canada, the wallflower still, while those she once helped Glamorously cavort across the floor, blithely neglecting her yet again.That is the price Canada pays for sharing the North American continent with the United States , and for being a selfless friend of Britain in two global conflicts. For much of the 20th century, Canada was torn in two different directions:It seemed to be a part of the old world, yet had an address in the new one, and that divided identity ensured that it neverfully got the gratitude it deserved. Yet its purely voluntary contribution to the cause of freedom in two world wars was perhaps the greatest of any democracy.
Almost 10% of Canada 's entire population of seven million people served in the armed forces during the First World War, and nearly 60,000 died. The great Allied victories of 1918 were spearheaded by Canadian troops, perhaps the most capable soldiers in the entire British order of battle.Canada was repaid for its enormous sacrifice by downright neglect, it's unique contribution to victory being absorbed into the popular Memory as somehow or other the work of the "British."
The Second World War provided a re-run. The Canadian navy began the war with a half dozen vessels, and ended up policing nearly half of the Atlantic against U-boat attack. More than 120 Canadian warships participated in the Normandy landings, during which 15,000 Canadian soldiers went ashore on D-Day alone. Canada finished the war with the third-largest navy and the fourth-largest air force in the world.
The world thanked Canada with the same sublime indifference as it had the previous time. Canadian participation in the war wasacknowledged in film only if it was necessary to give an American actor a part in a campaign in which the United States had clearly not participated - a touching scrupulousness which, of course, Hollywood has since abandoned, as it has any notion of a separate Canadian identity. So it is a general rule that actors and filmmakers arriving in Hollywood keep their nationality - unless, that is, they are Canadian.
Thus Mary Pickford, Walter Huston, Donald Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, William Shatner, Norman Jewison, David Cronenberg, Alex Trebek, Art Linkletter and Dan Aykroyd have in the popular perception become American, and ChristopherPlummer, British.
It is as if, in the very act of becoming famous, a Canadian ceases to be Canadian, unless she is Margaret Atwood, who isas unshakably Canadian as a moose, or Celine Dion, for whom Canada has proved quite unable to find any takers.Moreover, Canada is every bit as querulously alert to the achievements of it's sons and daughters as the rest of the world is completely unaware of them. The Canadians proudly say of themselves - and are unheard by anyone else - that 1% of the world's population has provided 10% of the world's peacekeeping forces. Canadian soldiers in the past half century havebeen the greatest peacekeepers on Earth - in 39 missions on UN mandates, and six on non-UN peacekeeping duties, from Vietnam to East Timor, from Sinai to Bosnia.
Yet the only foreign engagement that has entered the popular on-Canadian imagination was the sorry affair in Somalia , in whichout-of-control paratroopers murdered two Somali infiltrators. Their regiment was then disbanded in disgrace - a uniquely Canadian act of self-abasement for which, naturally, the Canadians received no international credit.So who today in the United States knows about the stoic and selfless friendship its northern neighbour has given it inAfghanistan? Rather like Cyrano de Bergerac , Canada repeatedly does honourable things for honourable motives, but instead of being thanked for it, it remains something of a figure of fun.
It is the Canadian way, for which Canadians should be proud, yet such honour comes at a high cost. This past year more grieving Canadian families knew that cost all too tragically well.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Some old old pics
New Years Eve 2000. Aaron, Rhonda, Alex and I were all working at the pool. At midnight we went out on the deck in the minus however million to ring in the new year.
1998. That's me in the back in the middle wearing black. (if you couldn't tell) Oh wait, there are 3 in black. I'm the one in the middle of the 3 in black. with the dorky glasses. I think this was taken the last year I swam. I can't believe I still looked that dorky at 16...
And this is my little, big brother. The guy on the left. The smile is rare. (or was before Jennaka came along) It ususually only came out when he was antagonizing Jon and Andy. Though they usually did have it coming. He just got back from Afghanistan yesterday. Yay!
So those are some pics I stumbled upon on Facebook today. Thanks Alex for posting them. I quite enjoyed the trip down Nostalgia lane.
Monday, March 12, 2007
Hmmm....
Does the name Victor Ward ring a bell with of of y'all? From New York? His e-mail address was in my address book, but I have no idea who he is. So I'm trying to figure it out.
Playtime
It has been a long time since I've gone to a friends and brought my toys with me. And then when I leave, to have to pack up my toys and go. Don't get me wrong, great fun was had, but it was as I was walking out, box of miniatures in hand, that I thought to myself how weird it felt going over to play and bringing my own toys. It seemed so foreign, yet so very comfortable.
Trevor is home today. Well he should be anyway. He was supposed to come in this morning at 5am, after a week at a 5 star resort, and 5 months in the stinky country of Afghanistan. It doesn't seem like he's been gone 5 months. But then again I only ever saw him every other month anyway, and when he first joined the army I don't think I saw him for like 10 months, so... /shrug. Not a huge deal on my end. A little bigger to my parents, and his little girlfriend. But then if you've been following this for the past 5 months, you'd know that. ;)
I quit Tim Horton's on the weekend. Well, I quit last week, Saturday just happened to be my last day. One of the owners wouldn't even say hi, and the other one said I'm welcome back anytime. So we'll see how things go with life, and maybe after the wedding and the traveling and whether I get a raise or not, I might go back. We'll see. The people were great to work with, and the job is decent. The management was horrible though, and I just don't have the time right now.
Trevor is home today. Well he should be anyway. He was supposed to come in this morning at 5am, after a week at a 5 star resort, and 5 months in the stinky country of Afghanistan. It doesn't seem like he's been gone 5 months. But then again I only ever saw him every other month anyway, and when he first joined the army I don't think I saw him for like 10 months, so... /shrug. Not a huge deal on my end. A little bigger to my parents, and his little girlfriend. But then if you've been following this for the past 5 months, you'd know that. ;)
I quit Tim Horton's on the weekend. Well, I quit last week, Saturday just happened to be my last day. One of the owners wouldn't even say hi, and the other one said I'm welcome back anytime. So we'll see how things go with life, and maybe after the wedding and the traveling and whether I get a raise or not, I might go back. We'll see. The people were great to work with, and the job is decent. The management was horrible though, and I just don't have the time right now.
Friday, March 09, 2007
No concert will ever compare.
Ahhh, the sweet fuzziness that is post-concert bliss. Especially following the Best. Concert. Ever. Period.
Fuck it was awesome. He walked on stage and i was just in awe. He looked like someone's Grandpa. But then he started singing, and boy can that man belt it out. All of these songs that have defined my life. Hearing them actually being played. Seeing them make the music. Not just hearing it come out of some speakers or headphones. Actually living the music. Feeling it. Immersing myself in it. It is indescribable.
I have seen Meatloaf. Just writing it sends shivers up my spine. It was just so awesome. So many classics with a smattering of the new stuff. Music from all 3 of the Bat out of Hell albums.
Row 14 on the floor. It was mind blowing. I'm still processing it all. And will continue to.
Fuck it was awesome. He walked on stage and i was just in awe. He looked like someone's Grandpa. But then he started singing, and boy can that man belt it out. All of these songs that have defined my life. Hearing them actually being played. Seeing them make the music. Not just hearing it come out of some speakers or headphones. Actually living the music. Feeling it. Immersing myself in it. It is indescribable.
I have seen Meatloaf. Just writing it sends shivers up my spine. It was just so awesome. So many classics with a smattering of the new stuff. Music from all 3 of the Bat out of Hell albums.
Row 14 on the floor. It was mind blowing. I'm still processing it all. And will continue to.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Tonight!
Woo! Meatloaf tonight! In 2 and a half hours! Fuckin' Rights!
In other news...
Driving along the highway into town yesterday I saw a dead cat lying on the shoulder of the road. It was an orange tabby cat. (or are all tabby cat's orange?). It was still there this morning. It makes me sad to see it.
Lots of travelling in my near future, Yay! Regina for 4 days at the end of this month, Orlando for a week at the end of April, and Vancouver for a week at the end of May. Lots of fun.
Oh, and I jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. It's actually kinda cool. So many people that I haven't seen/talked to in years. Some since before highschool ended. That was quite awhile ago now. There are all these people I know. And they are all growed up. It's nuts. Anyway, you should join. lol I know there is a new one out every month, Myspace, Hi5, etc..., but I think this one is the coolest. :D
I'm off to see Meatloaf!
In other news...
Driving along the highway into town yesterday I saw a dead cat lying on the shoulder of the road. It was an orange tabby cat. (or are all tabby cat's orange?). It was still there this morning. It makes me sad to see it.
Lots of travelling in my near future, Yay! Regina for 4 days at the end of this month, Orlando for a week at the end of April, and Vancouver for a week at the end of May. Lots of fun.
Oh, and I jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. It's actually kinda cool. So many people that I haven't seen/talked to in years. Some since before highschool ended. That was quite awhile ago now. There are all these people I know. And they are all growed up. It's nuts. Anyway, you should join. lol I know there is a new one out every month, Myspace, Hi5, etc..., but I think this one is the coolest. :D
I'm off to see Meatloaf!
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