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 ...