Today Sofi and I had an appointment at Immigration Canada. I am happy to report that she is now a Permanent Resident of Canada, with all the rights and obligations thereof!

The entire process can be described as nothing less than an ordeal. I cannot begin to express my disappointment with the entire thing from start to finish, particularly the fact that it cost us thousands of dollars and hundreds of man-hours of our time. It is perhaps the most convoluted process in the entire world supported by the least-skilled (government, naturally) staff I have ever encountered.

As seen in this weekend's Leader-Post:

My wife wrote the final exam for her course on April 1, and she doesn't have to start her next one until the end of this month, so we've gotten to see quite a bit more of each other than usual lately.

Normally my wife and I don't exchange presents on birthdays, etc. but for some reason she thought it would be a good idea to get me a gift. She bought me a Playstation 2, which was a fantastic gift but not exactly up my alley, so with her blessing I traded it in and got some things that I'd always wanted, like The Star Wars Trilogy and the final disc of my Lord of the Rings collection. I also picked up a joystick for my hawesome PVR. My wife rocks. She paid the price for her generosity, though, because I made her watch the first Star Wars movie that week, quite possibly the greatest film of all time, IMHO.

The next Friday we picked up some Chinese food and when to Holly and Ryan's for supper to visit with them and Mya. She's still tiny but growing by the day! I even got to hold her for .5 seconds before she starting crying and screaming in terror of seeing my hideous face. Saturday was more fun and games as we had my mom over for supper after Spanish class and then went to the university for the "A Night in Africa" show/concert that was put on. There were lots of cool things to see but the entire evening clocked in at over 4 hours, which is much too long to be sitting in the Education Auditorium for, so much so that we didn't even stay until the end. Oh well, what we did see was interesting, anyways. We didn't stay out late because we had to get up early the next morning to head to Grainfields to go for brunch with Natasha Bood, in town for an early Easter visit. It's always nice to catch up with friends over good food :)

Our time together has also allowed us to catch up on some things we've needed to do for a long time. Aside from our taxes, we've reserved this month for shopping and purchasing new furniture for our living room. Our current decor includes an old futon and a couch we got from Brad's family that was made in the times of the Bible and looks and feels every bit its age. We did a bit of shopping last Sunday but most of the stores were closed. We plan to spend more time over the coming weeks, but so far an Orion reclining sofa, reclining loveseat, and swivel rocker recliner set made by Palliser Furniture that we saw last night is in the lead. We'll see what we come up with!

Tonight we're leaving town for the weekend to head to the cabin until Monday for the Easter holiday. Have a happy Easter, everybody; I know that I will have a nice one. We're going to relax but also do some work clearing away the wood pile, which will be the eventual location of the new hot tub ;)

We've all heard some variant of this joke before:

Q. Why shouldn't you hit a (insert race, colour, or creed here) riding a bike?

A. Because it's probably yours.

Not only is that joke just plain ignorant, it's also pretty ridiculous for so many reasons.

Well, this afternoon it actually happened. Me and a friend were out for coffee this afternoon. We're just thinking about heading back to the office when this guy rolls slowly behind us on his mountain bike. My friend looks over, sees the man on the bike, and says to me, "Hey, that's my bike!" I laughed, thinking he was just referencing the well-known joke above, but he was serious. The cyclist wasn't in any hurry, so my buddy walked by to get a closer look - sure enough, it was his bike. The bike had been stolen last December.

We started downtown in the park and followed him across the street down the Scarth Street Mall while my buddy called the police and got them to send somebody. Meanwhile, we follow this guy on foot as he meanders around and finally parks (and locks!) the bike outside of the Cornwall Centre. The cops call us back and ask for the bike's serial number, which they had on file from the police report last December. My buddy lies down on the ground to get a look at the serial number and reads it back to the cops - it was the same bike, all right! We hang around and wait and just as this guy exits the mall a cop pulls up. The cop questioned the guy, who claimed that his brother was the one who stole the bike. Interestingly enough, this cycling enthusiast just got out of jail himself.

So, in the end, who knows what will happen to said criminal, but my buddy has his bike back (minus the original back tire, seat, bell, and generally worse for wear considering it was a $600 bike). Kudos to the Regina Police Service for showing up inside of five minutes.

When somebody asks you to go for coffee, you should go, because you never know what might happen - it could change your life. At the very least, you should consider writing down the serial numbers of your valuables or putting some identifiable after-market parts on them. My friend did all of the above and it paid off ;)

From today's Leader-Post (Regina's local newspaper) website:

For further information, please visit Chuck Norris Facts.

One year ago today, Sofi and I were married. I don't have much Irish blood in me so they obviously don't have the "lucky" market cornered.

I love my wife.

P.S. - My apologies to the hundreds of people who lost money betting that my marriage would not last this long.