May the Best Man… Have a Happy Birthday!

Due to a hectic weekend of work and helping one of my best friends move, I don’t have time for a long and wordy posting, loyal reader. But I do want to take this opportunity to wish a very happy birthday to my very own best man, Mr. Andrew Langer!

For those who know him, Andrew needs no introduction. A lot of you may recall his two guest posts over the years. I met Andrew when I first joined the Quality Assurance department back when we both worked for Teletech, and it wasn’t long before we struck a friendship based on our love of movies and things geeky. 

Ever since, Andrew has been the first one I turn to when I need advice, and the first one who hears all my major news after Erica. It was no surprise, then, that I wanted him to be by my side on the most important day of my life.

Happy birthday, old buddy, from Erica and I! I hope you have a good time at your party, you deserve it old boy! 

My First Cretons

It’s not often that I get in the mood to cook, loyal reader. But on Monday night, since I had on hand two pounds of ground pork I wisely purchased over the weekend, I had the idea of making for the first time a batch of cretons.

You may remember my mentioning this Quebec delicacy in one of my post-holiday blogs. It’s a meat spread made of pork and seasonings, and it is very tasty and satisfying on toast. Well, the time was ripe for trying my hand at importing cretons to Newfoundland.

I started up by mixing my ingredients, then I had everything simmer for 2 and a half hours. The delicious meaty aroma filled the apartment and made my mouth water. I couldn’t wait for the morning, as cretons need to chill overnight for best results. 

I’m glad to report that, while not perfect, the first batch of cretons turned out pretty damn good. How satisfying to have them for breakfast every day this week. I also shared them with my fellow carnivorous buddies, and can’t wait to get their feedback.

I already have plans to improve the taste the next time I make some by increasing the amount of seasoning, since my first try was not as flavourful as they should have been. But as in every craft, practice makes perfect.

So next time you visit me, loyal reader, have a feed of cretons on the house!

Wedding Show No. 1

The wedding plans are truly beginning to take shape, loyal reader. This weekend Erica and I attended our first wedding show together at the Convention Centre. 113 booths were awaiting us and vying to offer their services for our special day.

It may not be manly for me to admit, but I love those shows. It’s a great chance to see different options and to get inspired. I’m always impressed with the imagination and originality of some of the companies that cater to the wedding industry. From creative cakes to funky photography, the choices are endless!

There were even a few booths devoted to sensuality and sexuality. In fact, Erica won a bottle of chocolate-flavoured massage oil at one of them.We have not yet used it, but it can’t be bad!

As an added pleasure, we ran into my old friend Stacy and her sister Stephanie, whom I had not seen in a few years. What a delightful surprise to find them there and introduce them to my beautiful bride! The four of us teamed up for a very enjoyable afternoon exploring each and every booth.

This wedding planning is one of the most exciting things Erica and I have ever done in our lives. We can’t wait for the big day and the fruition of all our plans!

Happy Birthday, Meatball!

I can’t believe it has been six days since my last post, loyal reader. I knew my posting would be sporadic, but I didn’t know it would be this sporadic.

I hope I may be forgiven since I had an even busier week than normal. Between work, blood work, getting my driver’s license renewed, playing paintball, going out with friends and attending birthday parties, updating this blog o’mine fell a bit by the wayside.

Nonetheless, it is good to be so active. Time sure does fly. As for tonight’s topic, I would simply like to take the time to wish a happy (belated) birthday to my good friend Bryan, also known for some reason as the Amazing Meatball, a nickname coined by my best man Andrew a long, long time ago.

I’ve met Bryan through Andrew over the last few years and he has time and again proven to be a generous, hilarious and loyal friend. So much so, in fact, that I decided to include him among my groomsmen. And his gallant gal Janine is one of Erica’s bridesmaids, to boot! 

So happy birthday, Meatball! Thanks for your friendship, buddy, you’re one of the good ones!

Drive-By Screaming

It’s not often that I complain about something, loyal reader, but tonight I feel I have to, as I have once more experienced one of my all-time pet peeves tonight.

Has this ever happened to you? You’re walking home from work, tired but content after an honest day’s labour, looking forward to getting back to your castle and taking it easy. You walk on the sidewalk, minding your own business, perhaps lost in pleasant thoughts of a lovely home cooked supper, or thinking back upon a good joke one of your coworkers told you. Suddenly, and without provocation, someone loudly yells or barks at you from the passenger-side window of a car passing by, sending a shock wave of adrenaline rushing through you and making you jump three feet in the air.

Seriously, jerk in a car? Seriously? Is this really amusing to you? Congratulations, you’ve come upon a perfect stranger and triggered a pre-programmed reflexive response from him, one ingrained from millenia of fight-or-flight situations. How is that in any way humourous? Scaring the living spit out of a totally innocent bystander isn’t cool. Any idiot can do it. And in fact, only an idiot does it. 

So if you’re one of those, loyal reader, please quit it. 

My apologies for the rant, but even I have limits sometimes!

Congratulations, Dad!

I’d like to take a moment if I may, loyal reader, to congratulate my father on his new job. After months of unemployment and many, many applications, he has persevered and scored a pretty sweet gig with IBM.

As you can see, dad, and has you have taught me throughout my life, good things happen when you don’t get discouraged and keep at it. Congratulations, you deserve this new job 100%!!

Shopping Date

With our finances finally back in the black and benefiting from a reasonable safety cushion, loyal reader, Erica and I decided today to do something we had not done in a long time. We headed over to the Avalon Mall and had ourselves an afternoon of shopping.

We didn’t come back with much, mind you, but it was great to be out and about, looking at things, treating ourselves to lunch and picking up a few items. Erica’s shopping was more successful than mine: she managed to snag a new wallet while my visits to the Bell store (for a new battery for my old faithful Samsung 920) and EB Games (for an XBox 360 copy of Lego Star Wars) left me empty-handed. 

Thankfully, a fun excursion at the dollar store followed by a round of groceries together provided us with a lot of new things for our Bond street abode.

While it may not be the manliest things to admit, I really enjoy shopping. Even when I don’t buy anything. You never know what you’ll discover and check out!

One Year Later

Today marks a sombre anniversary here in Newfoundland , loyal reader. One year ago, Cougar Flight 491, transporting workers headed for the offshore oil fields, went down in the frigid North Atlantic waters. Out of 18 passengers and crew, only one survived.

 

Nowadays, an inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court justice Robert Wells is analyzing the events of those fateful days in order to recommend improvements to air transportation safety. I hope that it will last to important changes to keep our men and women of the offshore safe during their travels back and forth. It’s a hard enough job once you’re out there, away from home in the middle of the ocean for weeks at a time.

 

March 12, 2009 was a reminder to us that no matter what century we are in, working out at sea is a risky endeavour. It reminds us that our current prosperity doesn’t come without a price, and we can be grateful every day for the people who fly out there doing a dangerous job to keep our economy going.

 

Today I would like first of all to pay tribute to the lives lost in the crash of Flight 491, and to be thankful that at least one person survived.

 

Second of all, and on a more personal level, March 12, 2009 was also the day I was first diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. It has been a challenging year to say the least. I believe I have documented it fairly well since then on this very blog, and I don’t want to rehash those thoughts.

 

Suffice it to say I want to take the opportunity once again to thank everyone who has supported Erica and I throughout this past year.

 

The people of Teletech, especially my good friend and former boss Doug Purchase and our site director Tammy Bird. Both went above and beyond in supporting us in all kinds of way. Best of all, they made sure I could keep doing the job I loved (and getting paid for it) during my recovery period. They have made a hard situation much easier to handle.

 

To the doctors and nurses at the Health Sciences Center , I could not say thank you enough for saving my life. I have received such great care. On top of the medical stuff, simply having nurses and doctors drop by for a chat when they could was a real morale booster. I’ll never forget your dedication.

 

To my family, particularly my sister, who offered her bone marrow to save my life. My parents, whom I have grown closer to during this tough time and who have welcomed my angel Erica in the family fold.

 

To Erica’s family, especially her mother Pauline, who despite not really being someone who enjoys traveling, nevertheless did not hesitate to move to St. John’s for a month to be with her daughter during my hospital stay. Thank you Pauline for taking care of Erica, and for keeping the apartment spotless until I came back. You have made me so proud to soon be able to call you my mother in law!

 

To my friends, Andrew, Bryan, Jeanine and the others, who have come to visit me in hospital and brought me all kinds of things to keep me entertained during my confinement to a hospital floor. I would have gone crazy if not for Andrew’s books, Bryan ’s DVD player and Fitzy’s chess set.

 

Finally, and as always, the true hero of this situation is my wonderful fiancée Erica. You would not believe the strength that this amazing young woman found within herself to support me during the cancer treatment. I’m afraid that she bore the brunt of the emotional blow. Erica had to handle giving news to everyone who asked for it, taking care of the stuff that I usually take care of, on top of dealing with the possibility that things could get much worse. She also had the stress of losing our home while we were supposed to go to Halifax for abone marrow transplant. It has been, I’m sure, one of the hardest years of her life. I wish that I hadn’t been sick so that she wouldn’t have had to go through it.

 

However, this experience has in many ways been one of the best things that happened to me. It has given me a great deal of perspective on life. It has solidified our love and our relationship. There aren’t many men who can say that they have definite proof that they will have a long and strong marriage, but that is exactly what has happened to me.

 

And so on a day of reflection one year after two tragic events, we can remember the hardship and tragedy but also look forward to a stronger future. For the workers of the offshore, better safety is on the way, and as for myself, in 4 years time I will be declared cancer-free. Our future is bright indeed!

He’s Like the Wind

Once more, I apologize for the sporadic frequency of my posts these days, loyal reader. As I previously explained, my job has me going to bed a lot earlier nowadays, and with the nighttime being my peak writing time, I’m afraid this blog must temporarily suffer from infrequent posting.

Infrequent does not mean rare, however, so I still will be regularly posting new adventures, such as tonight’s paintball report.

I’m very proud and happy to say that my second night on the paintball field was even better than the first. Gone was the fear of getting hit and out came the gutsy moves. I decided to base my strategy on the main advantage I have over most of my competitors: speed. I’m not very accurate with my shots, and I am not really aggressive, but my buddy Andrew paid me a great compliment when he said I move like the wind, going from one spot to another in a flash. 

It’s just such a rush to be constantly on the move, dashing from relative safety to relative safety, all the while keeping an eye out for people aiming at you. It’s the thrill of hunting while being hunted yourself. 

I fully intend to keep on going with this paintball thing. Here’s looking at next week!

Back in Liberty City

You will probably remember, loyal reader, that I gave Grand Theft Auto IV a rave review a few months back in this very blog. I’ve been playing the game since last fall thanks to my good friend Doug, who lent me his copy of it. I loved the game so much that after giving it back to him, I decided to buy it for myself this weekend as a little birthday treat.

Today I popped the game back in and stepped back into the shoes of Niko Bellic. It’s a testament to the amazingly detailed world created by Rockstar that it truly felt like I was coming back to an actual place after a short trip away. When I was driving through the streets of Liberty City, it never felt like I was replaying a video game level. It actually felt as if life had been going on as usual even though I wasn’t playing the game for the last several weeks. 

It’s the first time that a video game has immersed me so successfully in its universe. In most video games, the world around you seems designed specifically for the adventures you’re about to have. For example, let’s take, I don’t know, Doom. It makes no sense, other than to provide obstacles to avoid, to have pits of corrosive acid in the middle of a research facility. Likewise, you have to wonder if the people who use the base on a daily basis when it’s not under attack have to walk halfway across it to get a special keycard simply to ride an elevator up one level.

This is turned on its head in GTA IV. There are landmarks and buildings aplenty, and most of them have nothing to do with your missions whatsoever. Just like every real life city I’ve lived in, as Niko I drove past several shops and restaurants without actually ever using them. Of the thousands, possibly millions of people in the game, I only interact with a few. Yet all passerbys seem to be going somewhere. Or they hang out together in logical groups. 

So geeky as it sounds, it’s a real pleasure to be back on the mean streets of Grand Theft Auto IV. Time for me to get those last few Achievements!