As Brad put it so succinctly as his Messenger nickname, summer is officially OVER!

For me, it has been a very memorable summer - I've learned a Hell of a lot, met some fabulous people, and gotten to see my fiancée a lot more than I'm used to, so I would count it as a huge success. That and I missed pretty much all of the coldest summer in Regina that I can remember, so life is good.

My latest adventures began on the 19th, when I hurried from work in Philadelphia to get to the airport, only to find my plane had been delayed. Once we actually got on the runway, we were last in a long line of aircraft, so we ended up getting to Minneapolis considerably later than planned, but I still had enough time to hit the duty-free shop before getting on the plane. I should also mention the considerable amount of alcohol consumed on both flights, as I was upgraded to first-class yet again, baby! When I finally arrived in the chilly Regina night, Mike was there to pick me up once again and we went back to my place. We ran into Wayne Tunison (who lives across the street from me) and he gave me a nice bottle of scotch for a housewarming present (yes, I've been there over a year but we don't cross paths that much for some reason!) - I sure hope I have time in the near future to invite him over for a drink! Mike came upstairs and we enjoyed a drink together before it was time for me to hit the sack. I had work in the morning, you see!

Well, it wasn't work per se, but I did have a bunch of stuff to do in the morning, mainly organizing things and waiting to get my new laptop - a brand-new T41! It has wireless built-in, along with Bluetooth, 1GB of RAM, and it's super thin and fast (kinda like Brad, right, Steff?) and I couldn't be happier with it. Hopefully it'll be the last one I need for a while. I met up with my parents for lunch at Mr. Sub which was neat to see them after 3 months. During the afternoon I spent my time running errands before picking up some beers and heading to my manager's house for a work BBQ. It was just for our team at work so it was an intimate affair, but it was great to see everybody since I had been gone for so long. We had great drinks (well, I don't remember enjoying the margaritas ;) and even better food and it was a great time. My manager has a cool place and there was lots to see and do. I only wish I could have stayed longer, but I had things to do the next day so it was best that things didn't get *too* out of hand. Just as the night was ending I got a call from Blair that him and Jerrod were at the Owl, and Bernie was in town for holidays so I thought it would be a good idea to meet up there for a while. Initially the line was way too long but thanks to my fabulous friend Peter who is also now the manager of the Owl, he managed to skip the line and head directly to the boozing. My sister and her friend Nicole were there when we got in so I bought a round and we went from there. We didn't stay all that long but it was still good times.

Getting up on Saturday, however, was another matter. I felt like garbage, but as usual, since I was on vacation I became indestructible and was able to get up when otherwise I would have spent the day in bed and on the couch watching movies. I had to be in Assiniboia for Stacey and Reagan's wedding at 2PM. I managed to wake up and be packed and on the road before noon, so I rolled into town around 1:40PM.

It was a nice little ceremony, with Stacey looking just about as happy and radiant as a person can be. I met up with Darcy after the ceremony and we hit the Bar-B so we could grab some drinks and food. Afterwards, we drove into Limerick and drank at the hotel for a couple of hours before heading to the supper. I wasn't invited to the supper but since Darcy cancelled his date I got to be his date for the wedding. It was good eating, let me tell you. Afterwards the speeches were super long but entertaining nonetheless, and they had a photo slideshow on DVD that was cool as well, something that has started to be a common thing at a lot of the weddings I've been to. After supper it was time for the serious drinking to begin. There weren't a whole lot of people that I knew at the wedding, but definitely enough to have a good time. Me and Darcy kept slipping his teenage cousins drinks and got them super drunk, which was hilarious. I got to visit with lots of folks I hadn't seen for a while, which was awesome. There was even a little controversy with some jackass picking a fight with the Maid of Honour (my friend, Char) that resulted in her getting pushed to the ground trying to intervene. The last thing I remember was going across the street to the hotel to get more cash, then getting even more drink tickets, then dancing, and then waking up in the cold inside my car the next morning. Judging by the vomit outside my car door and on my shirt, I had a good time the rest of the night. It was super cold out that night (near freezing) and I couldn't find my keys to turn on the heater (thinking that someone wisely took my keys to stop me from driving) but eventually I succeeded. Later in the morning I drove into town to Darcy's mom's place and had a shower before heading back out to Limerick with Darcy for the gift-opening. After saying our goodbyes, I dropped Darcy off in Assiniboia and went to visit with Shelda for about an hour before hitting the road once again.

Instead of driving back to Regina, I headed straight East through Weyburn and Carlyle to Redvers to visit with Hali, who just started her teaching career there after finishing school in the spring. She's the Core French teacher there, and is filling in lots of other subjects as well. I met her at her apartment where she had some excellent Lemon Chicken already prepared for our meal. We watched the South Park movie while we ate and then got in the car and took a tour around town and the school. It's a neat little place with everything you'd expect in a small town. Later that night we watched Nuit de Noces, which was a pretty funny French movie that Hali saw in Quebec when she was there.

The next morning we got up and had some clubhouses at the Three Brothers Restaurant before I dropped her off and made my way back to Regina. That night, I met up with Janson, Kenny, Tyler, Brad, and Sanson at the Mill. It felt good to be back in familiar territory as we spent the night shooting the shit and closing the place - as usual!

Tuesday I was all about running errands all over town. I went out for Chinese smorg with my former colleague turned friend Mark, which was delicious as usual. The good news is that I finished everything that I had to during my short stay back in Saskatchewan! I even picked up a great CD (Play with Me) and some good DVDs (X2 and a childhood favourite The Black Hole). I went to my parents' place for supper, which was good eating. It felt good to be back home, even though the place is even more empty now that Hali doesn't live there either. When I got home I spent my time doing laundry and packing, and then I watched Starsky & Hutch, which was just not a good movie with few laughs. I will, however, never think of dragons in the same way again! ;)

The next morning I got up much earlier than I had originally planned, and after picking up the necessary booze and groceries, I hit the road once more, this time on my way to Cypress Hills for the 6th Annual GREAT CANADIAN CABIN PARTY! I made it to Maple Creek in record time, around 3pm, and visited with my grandparents for about an hour and a half before heading to the park and setting up. Brad and Blair were supposed to arrive around 4PM but made it in closer to 6PM so I had a bit of quiet time before the party was ready to start. I had taken out some deer steak to thaw so we enjoyed some good food along with our problem drinking. It was a cold day so there wasn't much more to do than light a fire and drink a lot!

Brad made some kick-ass breakfast that morning, including his famous eggs and some excellent hash browns provided by Blair. Later on the rest of the crew started to show up, including Jerrod and Ryan, Mike and Jenn, and we even had Blair's girlfriend's brother Justin and his buddy Matt join our party after their first-ever camping trip backfired and they decided they had had enough. My old high-school drama chum Amy Auchstaetter even showed up to spend the night on her way out to the Vancouver Film School's fall acting session. There was nobody around the lake yet, so we got to be rowdy and loud. Lots of drinking, poker, and fire was the name of the game and we didn't make it to bed until roughly 4AM - good times!

Friday everybody was reeling from the late night we had the night before but we were still able to be mobile around noon. We had yet another great breakfast as we waited for the rest of the party to show up. Slowly but surely throughout the day and night we were joined by Steff, Kyla, Warren, Shannon, Holly, Tyler, and Zab. It wasn't quite the late night like we had the night prior but it was fairly good weather and we all celebrated Mike's birthday in style by enjoying his fabulous culinary skills as he cooked us 4.5 lbs of premium steak (or as I called it - "Steak and Hate"!). We shut it down around 2am, but really only because of the big day we all had planned for Saturday.

Saturday morning a bunch of us had planned to head to the golf course by noon for the 2nd Annual Shirtless Golfing Tournament. We got up a little late so we didn't get to have a very serious breakfast and didn't even have time to shower, but we made it to the course just after noon. Me, Brad, Blair, Zab, and Jerrod were raring to go, but the place was packed and we couldn't get a tee time until 3:40pm, but luckily there was a cancellation just as we were leaving and after a half-hour we got on the course. It turned into the 1st Annual Non-shirtless Golfing Tournament because of the weather, but it was still warm and sunny enough for most of the course that we had a great time. The rain came crashing down on us on the 9th hole, but luckily we evaded the lightning in time to finish our round, although we were all pretty much soaked. I am happy to report that I equaled Warren's score of 72 on 9 holes, so he can promptly shut the fuck up about his score until the next year's tourney! I'm not much of a golfer, but there is something to be said for a sport, like curling, where drinking can be an integral part of the game! When we got back to the cabin we were informed that Nick and his brother had showed up in our absence, so it was definitely time to get crazy. The beer was flowing and the music was playing and everybody was having a great time. Azure-Dee showed up later in the afternoon on her way back from visiting family in Fernie. Even later on that night my cousin Megan and her crew stopped by to say "Hi!", and I'm afraid to say I think we gave them a rough time, but that's pretty much where my memory fails me. All I remember is drinking and dancing the night away and I only had to say "Yes, Sir!" to the COs once, so we did alright!

Sunday most everybody was up early for some reason, and the day was all about cleaning the cabin from top to bottom and then hitting the road. Everyone was pretty much gone by 1PM and the cabin was cleaner than when we left it - thanks for all the help, folks! I locked up and went into Maple Creek around 2PM to visit with my grandparents and my parents who were on their way to the cabin for the holidays (and who delayed their holiday at the cabin so we could have one - thanks, folks!). I was out of the Creek about a quarter after 3 and back in Regina around 6:30pm. My last night of vacation was all about doing laundry and packing to leave for Philadelphia once again!

Sunday night was also my first chance to connect back with civilization via the Internet in almost 5 days, and when I logged on to my work e-mail I found out that most of the team that I have been working with over the last 4 to 8 months has been sent home and the client has stopped work on all but two of the projects we were working on, and they just happen to be my projects, so I will still be working in Philadelphia with a small team until the end of September it looks like, but after that my engagement will be over. As you probably already know by this point, things in business can change on a moment's notice (and often do), but you'll hear about it here first once I know things for sure.

As I am typing this update, I am stuck on the runway in Minneapolis. As usual, the moment there is any sign of any bad weather (and I mean a DROP of rain), the entire Philadelphia airport shuts down so they won't even let us take off from here to get there. We're about two hours delayed already and there is no sign of it letting up anytime already. Did I mention I hate airports? ;)

Hey folks, as you can tell, I've been super swamped for more than the past month at work, but it will all come to a stop for a short time because I'm heading home for vacation! I'm going to be flying back late tomorrow night for 10 days of fun in the (maybe) sun. Here's my schedule in case you are interested:

• Friday, August 20 - Regina - Work BBQ
• Saturday, August 21 - Assiniboia/Limerick - Stacey Mellquist's wedding
• Sunday, August 22 - Assiniboia/Redvers - hangover from Stacey's wedding/visiting Hali
• Monday, August 23 - Redvers/Regina - Heading back to the Queen City/drinking
• Tuesday, August 24 - Regina - drinking
• Wednesday, August 25 - Regina/Cypress Hills - CABIN PARTY!
• Thursday, August 26 - Cypress Hills - CABIN PARTY!
• Friday, August 27 - Cypress Hills - CABIN PARTY!
• Saturday, August 28 - Cypress Hills - CABIN PARTY!
• Sunday, August 29 - Cypress Hills/Regina - CABIN PARTY!/back to Regina ...
• Monday, August 30 - Regina - flying back to Philly

Feel free to give me a call on the cell if you're bored!

Sorry for keeping my life on the QT for a while, but it was a necessary evil! After a journey (a story that is just simply too long for me to detail here) that took me by land and by air through Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Sarnia, back to Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, and Guadalajara all in the space of 24 hours, I successfully picked up the finally-completed engagement ring this weekend and delivered it to its destination:

That's right ... she said YES, and now

Sofía and I are officially ENGAGED!

April 2nd, 2005 ... be there or be square!

Howdy, y'all ... a big "FUCK YOU!" goes out to almost everyone that I know closely in my personal life, as today was, yes, my birthday, and outside of my family and my fabulous girlfriend, I heard nary a word of felicitation aside from Brad and Blair. Now Blair is a very, very, VERY young man (after all, I am more than 600,000 seconds his senior), but he showed a great deal of maturity today, considering he is barely old enough to walk on his own, by taking time out of his day to wish me a good one. Brad also, for the first time in his life, used good judgement and sent me an e-mail to wish me a happy birthday instead of calling (to save me the over $1 a minute it costs me to receive phone calls while I'm in the USA). I guess we know now who really gives a damn vs. those who are looking out for #1, now, don't we?

I spent today at work getting a bunch of stuff done, then after the gym, me and Dave and John went out for some food and some brews. If it weren't for their company, this could easily have been the worst birthday ever - yet another example of why I hate birthdays!

Go fuck yourself, San Diego.

Update: Props to Christine and Lina, who also sent me birthday greetings, except to my Hotmail account, so I didn't get them until days later :)