I am happy to report that our wedding photos are now online! Point your browser to http://www.derekburt.com/photos/wedding/ to check them out! Of course, you'll need a password to see them ... if you don't have it already, just e-mail me. If you're not a douchebag, I'll reply with what you need to get access.

For those of you who are lucky enough to sneak a peek at the pictures, please post a comment here with links to the snapshots and moments from the wedding you like the most - I'd love to do a "Best Of" post on the website with your favourites!

Just sent out via e-mail ...

-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Burt [mailto:burt12d@uregina.ca]
Sent: Mon 30/05/2005 11:14 PM
Subject: *7th* Annual GREAT CANADIAN CABIN PARTY

Greetings one and all,

This is the e-mail I know you have all been waiting for!

This year, from July 21st through the 24th, the 7th Annual GREAT CANADIAN CABIN PARTY will be held at my cabin located in scenic Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, a short drive south of Maple Creek, approximately four hours west of Regina or 3 1/2 hours southeast of Calgary. Don't miss the 3rd Annual Sometimes-shirtless Golfing Tournament and more!

You can view photos of my cabin and links about the park at my sister's website:

http://www.geocities.com/halibelle/mycabin/

For some photos of last year's shenanigans, you can check out my website at:

http://www.derekburt.com/blog/2004/09/14/1095213447000.html

Here is all you need to know:

WHO?
-if you are receiving this e-mail, you are more than welcome
-bring all the friends you want, just clear them with me ahead of time
-troublemakers will have their limbs broken and then be thrown off my deck (approx. 20 to 40 ft high)
-if this e-mail was forwarded to you, you might want to check with me first! (burt12d@uregina.ca)

WHAT?
-the 7th Annual GREAT CANADIAN CABIN PARTY

WHEN?
-July 21st to the 24th
-start showing up anytime on Thursday, July 21, 2005
-we will be packed up and gone by 5pm Sunday, July 24, 2005

WHERE?
-215 Ben Nevis Drive, Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan, Canada
-take the turn off south to Maple Creek off the #1 Highway, once you are past Maple Creek you will see the turnoff into the park (a right turn about 20 min. south of Maple Creek). After you pay your money and go through the park gates, go straight. You will see a lake. You are only allowed to travel clockwise around the lake. Do so until you see the paddleboat rental to your right (lakeside). Then look left and up, way up. You will see my cabin. Check in and then get directions on where to park your car.

WHY?
-Fun, guaranteed.*

I am expecting a large number of people to be attending this huge event. The cabin is very large and there is sleep space for lots of people. However, if you prefer to get a campsite (there are many available a 2 min. or less drive from the cabin) you can reserve one by phone at (306)662-5484. Ask to get close to the lake and you should be set. A list of park fees, etc. is located at this address:

http://www.se.gov.sk.ca/saskparks/ParkInfo/parks/park.asp?park=Cypress%20Hills

With this many people coming, it might be a good idea for people to get together to pitch in to buy food or even some kegs!

Just a further FYI:

Bring Your Own Booze/Mix
Bring Your Own Sleeping Bags
Bring Your Own Tents (unless you don't mind sleeping on the floor)
Bring Your Own Food
Bring Your Own Coolers (for beverages, we have a fridge for food)
Bring Your Own Golf Clubs (unless you don't mind renting)

Cooking facilities (bbq, stove, fridge, etc.) are all available on-site. Coin-operated showers are only a short drive away. There is a golf course/mini-golf/volleyball/tennis/horseback riding/bike path/anything else you could possibly want there. I would, however, suggest picking up any liquor/offsale you need in Maple Creek, and cigarettes tend to be expensive in the park as well. Keep in mind that this is a provincial park, and there is a park entry fee. If you are really scared of the outdoors, there is a year-round resort hotel about 50 yards from my cabin as well - for more information or bookings, call (306)662-4477.

WHAT HAVE PEOPLE LEARNED FROM ATTENDING PRIOR GREAT CANADIAN CABIN PARTIES?
-Don't bother getting a campsite, there is lots of room at the cabin and it sucks having to leave at night
-The more you drink the more fun you will have
-People who don't attend literally have no idea what they're missing!
-Don't forget to bring your bathing suits!

It would be really appreciated if you could RSVP with me in advance!

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at (306)539-1157 or via e-mail at burt12d@uregina.ca. Donations are appreciated ;)

Regards,
--
Derek
"El Esposo Terrifico"
burt12d@uregina.ca
http://www.derekburt.com/
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>>>THE FUTURE AND THE TRUTH ON MY ROOFTOP, WHOA<<<
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* - FUN IS GUARANTEED!!!!! :) :) :)

On Tuesday afternoon after a doctor's appointment Sofi and I signed up at the YMCA for a month-long trial membership. I'm happy to report that so far it's going pretty well. I like the facility and have no major problems to report so far, other than the fact that I have only gone once, because, as usual, I totally overdid it my first time out and severely injured myself. Once I can move my arms I will go again.

Tuesday night Sofi and I watched Man on Fire, which was a good movie and for me a very scary one, because I have been to Mexico many times and being kidnapped (especially if you are white) is a very real everyday possibility in the big cities there.

On Wednesday night Sofi and I dressed up nice and joined Mike and Jenn at the Saskatchewan Liberal Association's annual Leader's dinner. It was at the Hotel Sask., so it was a pretty classy affair. The guest speaker was Ralph Goodale, who is an absolutely amazing speaker. The food wasn't that great, but otherwise we had a good time. Thank you to Mike for getting us tickets, it was very much appreciated!

The next morning it was back to the Hotel Sask. for an IBM Rational seminar called Requirements Across The Software Development Lifecycle. It was pretty good but most of it was old-hat since I already use their products and know most of the theory. It was an early morning for me like most of this week, because I spent most nights this past week up super late working on a client proposal for work. I am happy to report that it is finished!

This morning we hit the road shortly after noon and went to the Cathedral Village Arts Festival for a few hours. I had never been there before and was pleasantly surprised by the number of vendors and such there. I ran into Garnet Hanna and got to chat with him for a bit. Even though the weather wasn't that great, all in all it was a nice way to spend an afternoon:

This afternoon Sofi and I finally went to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith! I am still at a loss to describe my feelings about this movie. It was pretty much entirely spaceship, lightsaber, death, death, lightsaber, spaceship, death, death, murdering children, lightsaber, spaceship, death, death, lightsaber, which meant it was wall-to-wall action (more than I've ever seen in a movie!). The one thing I do know is that after the movie I felt incredibly sad. I am not sure if it is because the movie deals with sad stuff or I am just sad that this was the last of these movies. I think Anakin Skywalker and my childhood both died today.

This week I'm hopefully going to Blair's grad on Wednesday afternoon and then helping Mike move on Thursday night. Darcy never ended up coming to Regina this weekend, but he says he'll be coming next weekend, so watch out for that. Next weekend is also Mosaic, which I'm hoping to catch this year. We'll see!

In case you thought I was just blowing smoke up your ass about the amount of paperwork we had to do for our immigration application:

We had a great weekend at the cabin. The weather was great for May long and it was very relaxing. Last Friday was my mom's birthday so on Saturday we had friends and family out to the cabin to celebrate:

My buddy Mark from work was staying out at the park so we spent quite a bit of time with him and his two children. On Sunday we drove an hour south to Eastend to check out the T-Rex centre, which was a great way to spend an afternoon:

Unfortunately, the tail-end of the weekend was marred by the behaviour of a certain J. Bradley Young. You see, in case you have been somehow incapacitated over the last few decades, you know that the last installment of the Star Wars trilogies was released last Thursday. I desperately wanted to go, so I called my bosom-buddy and life-long pal Brad and asked him what the plan was for everybody to see the movie. He suggested that perhaps we get everyone together and go the week after to avoid all the crowds. I agreed with him, but I was disappointed that we were waiting - after all, I have spent dozens of hours of my life just waiting in line to see these movies and they are a big part of my life.

During the re-release of the original trilogy in 1997, I lived in Assiniboia, so for all three movies we would drive the two hours (one-way) into the city and then wait in line for hours in the freezing February weather for a chance to get a good seat for the opening show. When the first episode came out, Tyler and I even camped out overnight to get tickets! For the second episode, I didn't camp out overnight but I did skip out on work to see it opening day. Waiting to see Episode 3 just didn't seem right - I was sad that we were getting older and seeing the movie opening day was no longer quite as important.

It turns out, however, that seeing the movie on opening day was very important, at least to Brad, because he went to see it without me that day! My true friend Blair was at Brad's house when I called Brad to arrange when everyone was going to see the movie and called me shortly thereafter to inform me of Brad's plan to lie about not seeing the movie and go with me anyways. Like Anakin before him, Brad betrayed one of his best friends for his own selfish aims.

Time and time again I write on this website about that selfish son of a bitch Brad and all the dumb-ass things he does, and time and time again he cries about how he feels bad and how it wasn't his fault. You be the judge!

This weekend Darcy is coming to town and is probably staying at our house. I'm planning on heading to the Cathedral Village Arts Festival on Saturday afternoon. Also, sometime this weekend me, Sofi, and Darcy are going to to see Episode III, so anybody who is actually my friend (read: not Brad Young) is welcome to join us.

Last night Sofi and I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning photocopying and putting the finishing touches on her immigration application. It feels so good to be done and hopefully we'll get the results back soon.

Sofi and I are off to the cabin in about an hour to enjoy a nice long weekend. The weather promises to be great and there will be lots of friends and family out there so I can't wait!

I leave you with your May long weekend moment of zen from the May 14, 2005 edition of the Leader-Post (hat tip to a Regina beacon of intellectual thought):

This morning I went to Walmart early to buy an umbrella so that Sofi and I could head to the Leg to attend The Queen's official welcome to Canada and to Saskatchewan. It was super rainy but it was a great experience to personally witness the greatest amount of ceremony the country can muster. The Prime Minister and the Premier and The Queen all gave fantastic (albeit short) speeches.

I was also very proud to see my dad involved in Her Majesty's protection:

Click for more:

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This past Monday Sofi stood in the cold at the Prairie Dog for 45 mins. to get her hands on a couple of free passes to Monster-in-Law, but when we went to the show on Wednesday we got there too late I guess, because they were all sold out. It wasn't all bad, because I ran into Nick's parents and his brother and got to say hello for a while, and it gave me the opportunity to get Sofi to watch Episode I in preparation for this month's release of the final installment of the trilogy. She had never seen any of them so I figured I'd start her off in story-order instead of release-order because I didn't get the original trilogy on DVD for Christmas like I planned :(

We went to Mom and Dad's for supper on Friday night which was fun. We stayed afterwards for pretty much the rest of the night.

Saturday morning we got up early and walked a few blocks to Fiona's b/f Evan's place, where we met up with her and Azure-Dee and hit the town garage sale hunting.

Sofi, Azure-Dee, and Fiona checking out bargains

We had a good time haggling over junk. I picked up a clock radio (I'll finally be able to get a clear signal to listen to Radio One at night!) and a book for less than $5 and that was fine with me. We went for lunch afterwards at The Tap, which was good food and great conversation. Fiona is moving to Calgary in a couple months because Evan is going to medical school at the U of C so it was nice to spend some quality time with her before she leaves.

That afternoon I finally went to the doctor to finally find out what the hell was growing inside the left side of my face, and it turns out it's some kind of cyst. He prescribed some meds so I'm hopeful it will be a thing of the past soon, because at this point it's just pissing me off. Sofi and I spent the rest of the afternoon going to pretty much every single mattress place in the city, and I think we've nailed it down to three places: Sears, Father's Furniture, and The Bay (only because they are having a 50% off sale and we have a huge gift-certificate, so that brings their prices down to regular levels). It was exhausting and I hope we pick up something soon - it will be nice to cross that off the to-do list and make sleeping that much more comfortable :)

On Sunday I went grocery shopping and we busied ourselves at home trying to fill out the last of the immigration paperwork. That night we went to Brad's house - Sofi, to attend some kind of houseware party hosted by Steff, and me, to get Brad the hell away from there. We went to the Galaxy and saw Kicking & Screaming, which was a funny show for a 'G' rated flick! We relaxed with a beer in Brad's garage before Sofi and I headed home for the night.

A few housekeeping items:

• The deadline for the Big Game Draw application is May 31, so if you'd like to come hunting with me and Nick, let me know, because we've got two spots open on our sheet.
• Cabin party invites will be out soon - it is scheduled for July 21st to 24th, so take work off now!
• Sofi and I are going to the Cathedral Village Arts Festival and Mosaic - anybody want to join us?
• I am taking work off on Wednesday morning to head to the Leg for the Queen's visit - again, anybody want to join us?

For those of you living under a rock, I am home from the best vacation I've ever had in my life!

In short:

• U2 in San Diego was great
• wedding was great
• Puerto Vallarta was great
• Hawaii was great
• Las Vegas was great
• being married is great

Now that that's out of the way ... we got home late on April 21st after letting a crazy cabbie drive us home. We got home bag-less since Air Canada lost all of our bags. Still, it was nice to be in our new home!

We had a great welcome back to Canada. That Friday we went to Brad's to enjoy some BBQ and fine brews. That Saturday we had supper with the folks and then, after a quick visit to Brad's house to say hello to his parents, we went bowling at Nortown with Hali and friends. Probably the most notable thing about the weekend was when we went shopping for groceries - the first time I had done so since April of last year and the first time for us together :)

One of the fun things that me and Sofi bought was matching cell phones. We decided that getting our own cell phones was in the end about the same price and more convenient than me keeping my cell and getting a land-line. I'm excited about my first new phone in like 3 years and the fact that it has a camera so I won't be caught with my pants down when I meet celebrities :)

My first day back at work was on Monday, April 25th. I am moving into a different role at work where I will be working less on developing actual code and more in terms of designing the entire solution for clients. I'm pretty excited about it, but so far it's meant that I have a ton of work to do, which has its ups and downs. On the bright side, rest assured that my traveling is over for a long while - I'm looking forward to settling into life in Saskatchewan for at least the next year or so.

Tuesday, April 26th was the big moving day - Marco's moving day. His 8-month work term in Swift Current (his home town), coupled with my recent marriage, meant it was time for him to go. He lived here for about a year and 8 months, and even though I didn't live here for most of it, I can tell you he was pretty much the best roommate a guy could ask for. If you are looking for one, he'll be back in Regina in January so it's definitely something to think about! We had some great times and I was definitely sad to see him go, but life goes on, I guess.

Marco and his family packing

That weekend my buddy Colby from B.C. came to town for his grandmother's 90th birthday party. I met him and his family at the airport and then me and Colby went to Earl's, where we met up with Blair for a late lunch.

Colby taking a picture of Blair taking a picture of Colby

After work, Sofi and I went to the Taste of Spring festival, courtesy of two tickets provided by Tyler as our wedding present. We met up with Tyler and all his gang there and had a great time. Thanks for the tickets, dude! Afterwards, I dropped Sofi off at home and went to Brad's to check out the poker action there and enjoy a few brews before hitting the sack.

Jerrod, Brad, and Colby playing poker

The next Saturday we spent the afternoon getting the car fixed (minor leak) at the dealership. Fortunately for us, we ran into Brian Leitch there and got to hang out with him for the afternoon. It was great to catch up with him since we hadn't seen him for quite a long while. We drove around town buying various things and then hung out at our place for a while before picking up the car.

Brian visiting our house

That night we went to Colby's aunt and uncle's house before all of us ended up at The Tap. Now, I hadn't been there for literally years, but it was amazing. They have this thing called the "Team Pitcher", which is 125 oz. of import beer for less than $25. After 3 of those, we had a great night :)

As usual, all that fun came with a price, because I was hurting so much the next morning that I was simply unable to say goodbye to Colby at the airport :( We had a pretty lazy day on account of my alcohol-and-self-induced disability!

That Monday marked the beginning of ball season. This year I am playing on my work team. We won our first game by a million runs, which was fun, even though it was a little cold. It feels so good to be involved in a team again - one of the many perks of being back in Regina.

This past Friday we were supposed to go out for supper with Mike and Jenn but they cancelled on us, so we went out for supper with my mom and sister just down the block at the Fireside Bistro, where we had an unbelievably good meal. Highly recommended! It's a very private place, too, so if you are looking to impress your date, that's the place to do it. Saturday we shopped until we dropped all over Regina buying Mother's Day presents and then capped off the evening with some so-so SNL. Sunday was awesome - we went to my parents' place for an amazing brunch, went shopping at about a billion places trying our best to spend some wedding gift certificates, and then went right back to my parents' place for some awesome steak. It was a good day, to be sure!

Tonight we got our ass kicked in ball, but I had a great time nonetheless. We went to the Broken Rack afterwards, which was fun, especially since we saw Char there, who I hadn't seen since Stacey's wedding, I think.

As I type this, I am sitting in my living room chair in my housecoat connected to the Internet wirelessly while Sofi and I are both watching RAW. Could I possibly be anywhere else than Heaven? :)

Just so you know, next week Will Ferrell will be hosting Saturday Night Live, so you know exactly what I'm doing next weekend :)

Whew ...

Thanks to Blair for passing more great photos of me on my honeymoon my way!

Here's me riding a shark:

Here's me sitting on a volcano:

Here's me riding a tiger:

What an awesome honeymoon!!!!!