It's been a long time, sweetie ...

Okay, okay, a very long time. Not only that, but I still don't feel like writing complete thoughts, so here's a bunch of point-form about the summer and what I've been up to:

• Summer means Big Brother in the Burt household, and I've watching every season for almost seven years now. My lady Jedi Janie almost made it to the end, so I'm content with the way things went down. I really wish there was a Canadian version of this show, because I would seriously own it.
• The 8th Annual GREAT CANADIAN CABIN PARTY was another success. The new hot tub at the cabin was a fantastic addition! Everyone was pretty lame, with most folks going to bed and getting up early, but at least I had an excuse - I found out later that I had a throat infection. This year I stayed at the cabin almost an extra week afterwards, but it was a brutal time because I spent most of the time in bed or eating ice cream.
• As I mentioned earlier, I made the switch to Linux on each and every computer I use at work and at home, and I haven't looked back. Windows sucks.
• I got a new laptop with gobs of RAM at work and it's pretty awesome. It has a huge battery and seemingly lasts forever. I do have one problem, though - the screen resolution is incredibly high (1400x1050). It gives me a new appreciation for web design, because lots of sites either look bad or are hard to read, and they are sometimes both.
• The word of the summer was wedding.
  • I MC'd my buddy Janson's wedding, and it went like clockwork. We had a blast for the remainder of the reception as well. Good times.
  • Sofi and I drove all the way to Sundre, AB for my friend Christine's wedding. It was also good times. I went up early to Banff to meet up with Colby and Shannon and then later picked up Sofi at the airport in Calgary and we all had a great weekend in Sundre. It was super awesome to visit with lots of folks from Assiniboia and surrounding area that made it up for the wedding. I'm looking forward to our 10 year high school reunion next year!
  • We drove down to the Boodlini wedding in Carlyle in August and stayed at my sister's in Redvers in between the festivities. Not only was it quite possibly the coolest wedding I have ever been to, but we had a great time to match. How many weddings can you think of that involve gorilla suits, cookies, Angel Sombrutski, rave music, baseball games, hay rides, and mandatory shots at the receiving line. I can't begin to describe how fantastic every minute of it was - just perfect and a perfect reflection of the happy couple. I also got to ride in a combine for the first time in my life at my sister's b/f Clayton's farm. Small town Saskatchewan rules.
  • I just got back from an amazing week in Toronto that culminated in Nick's wedding to Allison. I am very proud to say that Nick asked me to be a member of his wedding party, and I accepted. He is a true friend, unlike some others that come to mind. I won't get into all the debauchery over the week, but sufficed to say, it was a good way to cap off the summer. I would, however, be remiss if I didn't mention a few vague keywords and highlights:
    • "What makes you think I won't cut you?" - fun with weapons
    • ...at Degrassi High!
    • Tryin'a catch me ridin' dirty!
    • "What's 'homer-red' mean?"
    • The glass floor
    • The Grey Goat
    • Boodlini pizza
    • Gibson's Finest
    • Hojo Aurora
    • Lunch with Candace in Greektown ... "Do you want to have Greek or ... Greek?"
    • The theme from "The Golden Girls"
• I spent a lot of my spare time this summer work on a new website for CIPS Regina. It turned out okay and I'm pretty impressed with the CMS system we got going on the backend.
• I bought a set of golf clubs and immediately improved my game by about twenty strokes. Too bad I likely won't improve much further ;)
• I had an omnipresent feeling of unease all summer, and I'm not sure why. I think I'm over it now, though. The good news is that for me, unlike Blair, if something bad does happen to me, something twice as good will happen shortly thereafter. Speaking of Blair, his website is back up and running - you should have a look and leave him a nasty comment ... it's really fun.
• I received my professional designation this summer, so I am now officially Derek Burt, I.S.P.
• This summer was a pretty active one for me. I started running outdoors pretty seriously and was racking up some decent daily and weekly distance until I put my program on hold for holidays. I am getting X-rays soon for a possible stress fracture in my leg, but it hasn't stopped me running, playing soccer in the park, or playing slo-pitch with my work team. We had a great season weather-wise and I made the most of it.
• Over the last four months or so I've had the opportunity to watch some decent movie movies:
  • Brilliant
    • Ghandi
  • Great
    • American History X
    • Falling Down
    • March of the Penguins
  • Fun
    • M:I 3
    • X-Men: The Last Stand
    • Superman
  • Whatever
    • Cowboy del Amor
    • Two for the Money
    • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
    • Free Enterprise
    • The Da Vince Code
    • Day of the Jackal
    • Crash
    • The Sentinel
  • Boooooooooo !!!
    • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
• "Interestingly, frequent Internet use is associated with a decline in local knowledge and interest in living in the local area." - I'll say. This summer I finally admitted to myself deep down inside that living in this province is starting to eat me up inside. I've lived in this province my entire life, and the grass keeps getting greener and greener everywhere else. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think to myself that I live in a socialist wasteland of sloth and selfishness. Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic place to live, but the economic, social, and physical safety we enjoy comes at a big price - our future. Hundreds of thousands of people have left this province, why haven't I?
• I finally broke down and switched almost all my banking to PC Financial. It just got to the point where I couldn't take any more fees. The moment I switched I immediately saved $150 a year and they even gave me $10 just for setting up a payroll deposit. They also pay obscene amounts of interest. I used to be the biggest advocate of credit unions in the world, but now Conexus is so big they couldn't give a flying fuck about me or any other of their customers. It's amazing that after decades of loyalty they would treat me worse than most banks would if I just walked off the street. I still have my mortgage and car loan there, but eventually they will be gone, too. Why put up with impersonal service from them when I can go to a bank and get impersonal service for less?
• My hair is way too long. It's insane.

P.S. - I might not have come back from the dead if it weren't for the many folks I ran into over the course of the summer, some I hadn't seen in literally years, who told me they keep up with me via this site, even if it's only once in a while. To you I say this: I write here because you don't call.

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 ;)

It's been a month since I really sat down and wrote about all the lame things happening in my life, so rather than construct a compelling narrative, I'm going to phone it in:

• Holly and Ryan finally had their baby and we went to visit them at the hospital. Her name is Mya and she's super cute.
• The Machinist is a pretty good show but is most remarkable for the fact that Christian Bale slimmed down to less than skin and bones for the role (it's really quite the sight).
• The time was finally right for Sofi and I to sign up at the gym again, this time on a more permanent basis. It's funny that after many months of not going to the gym I haven't weighed so little in close to a decade. On the downside, I still weigh a lot.
• I finally got around to watching American Beauty, which has been on my computer for years. It was a quality show - ranking up there with the best I have ever seen. It's a real Death of a Salesman for the boomer generation.
• I went out for drinks after work last month and there was a sales rep handing out free Heineken so everyone at the table got a free pint
• I have perfected the art of waffle-making with the waffle maker I got from the Chinese gift exchange at Christmas and it's what I usually have for breakfast.
• We used a coupon we got from Hali and Clayton at East Side Mario's - it was mostly good food with generous portions. It's also a chain so everything was the same as the first time I ate at one in Pennsylvania.
• Sofi and I are trying to sit down and plan what to do with our home. Step 1 - get rid of our ridiculously old and destroyed couch. We have been shopping for furniture already (I fell in love with an awesome chair) but are going to wait until we have a proper home furnishing/decor plan.
• I am a good worker and do lots of things in my spare time for work that I don't have to.
• My ass still hurts from falling down snowboarding. I think I might have seriously injured myself.
• I (somehow) broke a blade on one of my hockey skates so I went out a bought a brand-new pair for the first time in something like 13 years. They hurt like a bitch but it feels good to have a new pair. They were expensive but if they last half as long as my last pair I'll be made in the shade.
• Our dryer door has been broken for something like two years. We have been holding it shut with an old stool that Blair gave me the entire time, and it's been a huge pain in the ass. I fixed it the other day by picking up a $3 part from the fine folks at Re-Appliable Parts on Dewdney Ave E. I highly recommend this place if you need to fix any of your major household appliances!
• When I started playing hockey this year, I budgeted about $300 for ice time plus small amounts of cash for a couple new sticks, tape, and a new pair of socks. I have since spent over $100 on sticks alone. I break a lot of sticks and I don't know what to do.
• Two of my best buddies have recently come back into my life. Johnny K. is back in town managing a restaurant a few blocks away from my house and Darcy showed up out of the blue to watch the Super Bowl with us at Jerrod's folks' place. Good friends are hard to come by, so hopefully these guys won't turn into strangers again.
• Blair and Kyla just moved into their new house and I helped paint the place a little bit and I lifted exactly one couch inside. I drank more beer than I was worth.
• I took Sofi to La Bodega for V-Day and everything about that place was fantastic.
• I am constantly surprised at the strength of the Latino community in Regina. There are a ton of them in the city and they have cool things like weekly radio shows and have fancy social occasions all the time. We went to one at the Abstractions Cafe a few weeks ago and it was a lot of fun.
• My PVR is the greatest thing since sliced bread and has totally changed my life. This past weekend I learned how to burn DVDs, so now I can burn a DVD of any show that's on TV that I want. It's fantastic.
• Janson and Kara's wedding is coming up soon and the three of us got together to discuss it a little at the Mill last week. I am going to be the MC and will do my best to not make them hate me while at the same time insult Tyler at every possible occasion.
• My Dad loves steak so we took him to Vic's Steakhouse in the Regina Inn for his birthday on Mike's recommendation. The food was great and I would highly recommend it, but the place closed its doors for the last time last weekend!

Since some people apparently can't get enough of me, I feel compelled to write. Not to mention I haven't done so in a good month ;)

Sofi and I had a great trip to Mexico to close out 2005. Aside from some flight delays that results in us spending the night in Dallas on the way down (not to mention missing the David Copperfield show), the trip was fantastic. We spent much of our time in Guzman, but did travel to Guadalajara a few times to do some shopping and see King Kong in the VIP Theatre, complete with leather reclining seats and waitresses with beer. We spent Christmas with the family enjoying great food and great company. We also drove and spent a couple days in and around Morelia checking out neighbouring Patzcuaro and visiting the monarch butterfly sanctuary. We spent New Year's in Manzanillo at Las Hadas, which was awesome. We did some clubbing, some jet skiing, and generally just enjoyed being in paradise with the family. I have to say that the highlight of the entire trip to Mexico was definitely visiting my niece, who is quite possibly the cutest kid in the history of the universe:

Isabel at Las Hadas 2005

It's impossible to sum up a great trip like the one we had with plain words, so I'll try to do it with a picture of my feet:

Think about what you did for New Year's and then go back and look at that picture again :)

I spent the night in Minneapolis on the way home but finally made it back to Regina on Wednesday the 4th. It turns out that Colby was still in town, so I visited with him that afternoon and then went out with the boys that night to watch him referee the gold medal game of the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge. He did a great job and we had fun watching!

I wasn't able to party that night because I was going in for my wisdom teeth surgery the next morning. The surgery itself went fine, mainly because they put me out. When I awoke, I didn't feel any pain but was pretty swollen. My dad picked me up and we joined folks at Brewster's South for a goodbye lunch for Colby, since he was leaving that afternoon. I had to have ice cream, though, which was pretty funny since I had no feeling in my face and was basically disabled. I spent the next 48 hours, give or take, in bed. I wasn't in a lot of pain (thanks to the painkillers), but I definitely wasn't mobile. I took it easy over the following week or so and didn't venture out beyond work, getting groceries, and picking Sofi up from the airport that Monday.

Before we left on our trip, we had supper at my parents' house and exchanged a few of our gifts. I got fantastic presents this year, including all the hardware I needed to build by own PVR built on MythTV. It was a painful process to get everything up and running but dozens of hours later I now have a fully functioning system and hundreds of gigabytes of space to record whatever show I could possibly want, along with a billion other things that the system does, like surf the web, play music, play videogames, etc. It's an amazing addition to our home, to say the least.

Aside from the aforementioned King Kong, though various media, my new PVR, and thanks to the Mexican black market, I've been able to see a ton of movies lately, including: Cinderella Man, Flight Plan, Ali G Indahouse, and Just Like Heaven. None of them were really worth writing home about, but I guess I just did. Beyond films, however, there is television, and the Burt household has been watching a lot of 24 recently, including the Season 5 premiere. That show is pretty much the best thing going right now!

Last weekend Sofi and I spent our Saturday and part of Sunday on a secret project with a number of close associates. I am not allowed to reveal the details of the operation at this point, but sufficed to say someone will get a big surprise in the near future. Don't worry, it's not you ;)

I'd like to take a moment to personally congratulate Jesse Wilson on his recent engagement. Nice work, buddy!

There have been some things going down at my current client site so I could be experiencing a change on that front very soon. Today I picked up Nick at the airport and dropped him off at his folks' house. Sofi and I are going to the Pats game tonight. Tomorrow we're heading to the funeral and then things are pretty open for the weekend at this moment, depending on what Nick's plans are. We had a good skate last week so hopefully hockey will fit in there somewhere!

The CIPS presentation I helped put together a few weeks ago went off without a hitch despite some small technical difficulties. It was perhaps one of the largest luncheons the group has ever held, with approx. 116 people registered. I'm glad, because it was very important to me that as many people got to see and hear this subject material as possible, particularly given it was from one of the foremost experts in Canada. If you are interested, you can see the presentation material here.

Otherwise, if I haven't been at work, I've been pretty much laying low at home over the last week and a half or so. We went out to The Tap after hockey last Saturday night for a dose of beer and bad service, but we weren't out all that long. Unfortunately, Tyler wasn't able to join us because he spent his night at the hospital getting 7 stitches. You see, Tyler and I ran into each other and I was wearing a facemask - he wasn't. Don't get me wrong, though, just because it was an accident doesn't mean I didn't want him hurt somehow, or don't hate him with every fibre of my being ;) On another hockey-related note, yesterday's noon-hour hockey was brutal because we only had 8 guys show up and no goalies :(

Last night we went to Sofi's office X-mas party at the Wascana Country Club and I had a good time. They had fun skits and games that I enjoyed even if I didn't get all the in-jokes. It would be nice if my company could do something similar, but I think in the end we're a little too big for such an intimate affair.

Today I've made progress removing tasks from my "to do" list, but found a break early this morning to watch Johnny English. Glad I didn't pay for this one in the theatre, but it was still a fun way to spend 90 minutes. I was excited to learn today that there is a Mr. Bean 2 in the works - it would be most welcome :)

I have no less than 4 X-mas parties left this season, so that should cover all of my social activities before the holidays. Otherwise, it's a mad dash to get what we need done in the next couple weeks before we leave!

It's been a long time, sweetie...

The weekend before last was jam packed with activity. I spent my lunch hour that Friday playing hockey and that evening Sofi and I enjoyed some fine pizza from Copper Kettle while watching a few episodes from the second season of 24. On the Saturday Kyla came over for her first Spanish class and the three of us had fun trying to pronounce strange (to some of us) words. That night was filled with more Spanish, as we went to an acreage outside of White City with a large group of Spanish-speaking folks and had a great time with good tequila and a huge bonfire. That night was also Brad and Steff's annual Hallowe'en party. Even though we showed up late and didn't wear a costume we still had a great time and so did everyone else, as per usual.

I didn't do a whole lot the next day other than study a bit for my exam. What little work I did paid off, because on Monday and I wrote my test and I am now a Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform, 5.0 Edition. It doesn't mean a whole lot considering I've been doing work far above that level for a long time now, but some people still like to see the paper! I celebrated by going to Best Buy and buying Star Wars III and the special edition of the Office Space DVD. I couldn't help myself and watched the Star Wars movie that night :)

I missed the last basketball game of the season that Tuesday, because due to a miscommunication in my family I didn't have a vehicle to drive there. It was no matter, however, because I got to see the end of the Habs game on TV and it was a thriller! We are doing WAY better than I expected this season and I couldn't be happier.

Last weekend was lots of fun as well. I spent Friday night at Bonzinni's with various co-workers enjoying frosty beverages and I had a good time. We had another Spanish class on Saturday and then Sofi and I joined our friends Dennis and Jessica at Kelsey's for supper. Afterwards, we went to the Rainbow and watched Wedding Crashers, which was a fun movie. We bid them goodbye after the movie, because I had to play hockey that night and my wife even came out to watch us. The next morning I watched another movie, The Warriors, which was a lot tamer than I expected but still a good way to spend a few hours - it reminded me a lot of Escape from New York. We went to my parents' house on Sunday night for supper. We also picked up a bunch of 24 DVDs that Zab had dropped off for us - thanks, buddy!

On Monday I finally turned the furnace on and found out that it didn't work. Let me clarify - I found out that the new programmable thermostat I bought didn't work. After some fiddling I discovered a broken wire and resolved the problem, so I was relieved. It now works like a charm :)

I've spent my last few evenings socializing with Nick, who made an impromptu and short visit to the city. Last night we went to BP's South with Mike, Joachim, and his buddy Peter, which was good times. Tonight after my CIPS meeting, I joined Nick at Zab's house to hang out and drink some beers with them and Tyler, Blair, and Jerrod. Nick's flying out tomorrow afternoon but I'm grateful for any chance to see the guy, even if it is just to bust his balls for a couple nights.

I'm leaving town on vacation after work tomorrow for the next week or so. I'm hopefully going to be hunting in the Maple Creek area for most of that time. This year I only got drawn for antlerless mule deer but we're also going to buy some white tail tags so that should be plenty. If anybody is interested in some deer meat, let me know. If you're a vegetarian, you don't know what you're missing. If you're against hunting, then you're just plain wrong. Don't just take my word for it, any biologist will tell you the same!

Last Tuesday I went to my first ever LOSURS meeting, and it was about what I expected. There were about a dozen of us in a room speaking binary for a couple hours, which for geeks like me is a good time, I guess. I was pretty disappointed that the planned talk on MythTV didn't happen, since I'm thinking about building just such a system, but I still learned a lot and have signed up to be a regular member.

The next morning I took my car to work and drove down to our head office to enjoy a fantastic breakfast filled with French cuisine in support of our office's United Way campaign. Mmmm....

That Thursday we played what was probably our last game of outdoor soccer for the season. I am hoping we get a regular indoor game of some type going, because team sports sure beats other forms of exercise.

On Friday I played hockey and noticed a marked improvement in my play. I feel like I'm back to the point where I can actually play instead of just skating around. That afternoon I went to the Broken Rack for a pool night organized by CSSS and CIPS Regina. I had a good time playing some pool and meeting some people, but then me and my buddy Mark from work decided it was time to relocate. We made our way to the Freehouse for a few hours and then capped the night off at O'Hanlon's. I spent WAY too much money and drank WAY too much, but had a fantastic time otherwise - or rather, because of it :)

Saturday was recovery mode, but it was also a pretty good day. I slept in and then filled the rest of my day with sports. I watched the Riders lose, watched some of the Habs game, Sofi and I went to the Pats game, and then I played hockey that night. Pretty much the perfect day :)

On Sunday I got up early to watch Napoleon Dynamite, and honestly, I was disappointed. It was more of a "quirky" movie than a funny one. I had heard so many good things I guess I just expected too much :( I spent the rest of my day punishing myself for my behaviour over the weekend by cleaning the house and catching up on work.

This week was a pretty busy one. I had a conference call pretty late on Monday and later watched RAW, which was pretty good except for the ridiculous quality of the announcing - anybody interested in watching the PPV in a few weeks? On Tuesday I went to a CIPS luncheon and then played basketball before my (brief, and in the parking lot because nobody had any keys) union meeting that night. I had even more CIPS stuff to do on Wednesday but I got lunch paid for so that made it all right :)

This weekend I am planning on laying low. I've got some studying to do for an upcoming exam. I am playing hockey on Friday and Saturday. I am also going to the last Rider game of the season on Sunday. That's enough for me, I think :)