End Blog

Though it kills me to do it, I will be decommissioning this site.

As you can see from my post history (the last post being 6 month ago), adding posts has become a lesser priority in my life, and for good reason. This blog has fallen by hard times ever since the arrival of Leah and now seems utterly impossible to add to with Sonya. I will miss the forum for sharing details of our life, but there are other mediums to accomplish this. The thing I will miss the most is the process of creative writing.

To provide an alternative, I suggest you 'befriend' me on Facebook (ask your grandkids if you don't know what Facebook is) to get the updates on my life and help us stay connected. As well, I do try to regularly add photos on picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/martyneu).

End Blog

Seattle Weekend

Toast to the Groom

I am a longtime friend of Jeff’s and am honoured to stand with him today as his best man. As part of our agreement, one of the conditions that has me standing here in a rented tuxedo is that I get to toast the groom, an honour that Jeff did for me at my wedding.

My friendship with Jeff goes back over a quarter of a century. Our parents are good friends and we often visited the Banows and shared summer camping trips with them. While I’d known Jeff through these visits, it was through Boy Scouts that our friendship was forged. I know for a fact that no other person in this room has spent as many nights in a tent with Jeff as I have. He was always on the left side of the tent, I was always on the right and some sucker was in the middle where the tent leaked. I think some of those suckers might even be in the room with us tonight.

The next chapter of our relationship was written right here in Saskatoon. Being older than Jeff, I left him in Esterhazy to attend the University of Saskatchewan, but convinced him to follow me here by suggesting we become roommates. The following year, he and I lived together in a residence room on campus. Once again, he was on the left, I was on the right, and several nights included another sucker on the hideabed couch in the middle. And I know that some of those suckers are in the room tonight.

During our University years, Jeff and I shared a passion for football and our beloved Saskatchewan Roughriders that is still very central to our friendship. In those years, it wasn’t cool to be a Roughrider fan like it is now, but we kept the faith through some pretty lean years. His love of football illustrates a few traits that I admire in him. He is a traditionalist, a purist even, and he is unfailingly loyal, as a football fan and as a friend.

When I completed my studies, I left the city and the province to pursue a career and our friendship continued without skipping a beat. Even though I live 9 hours away, we still see each other at least twice a year, always centered around a football game. One of these visits is always Grey Cup weekend. Beginning in 2003, Jeff and I have travelled to each Grey Cup since then and have plans to continue this indefinitely, despite what the wives may say.

I have a story to share with you all about Jeff. This past November, he and I travelled with a few other friends to the Grey Cup in Montreal. On the Friday afternoon, he and I went for a walk downtown and he took me by the Grey Cup merchandise store to show me the sweater that he had picked out as a gift for Vanessa. For whatever reason though, he didn’t buy it then. The next day, we went back to the same store to make the purchase, but the sweater was sold out. With his mind set on getting his fiancé this specific sweater as a gift, we checked out as many of the merchandise stands as we could looking for the same sweater, but we could not find it. By Saturday night, he was starting to sweat. It turns out that he had made a promise that he would bring a gift home with him. Jeff takes gift giving very seriously and he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to deliver. He tried to play it down as no big deal, but I know him better than that and it was eating him that he did not have a gift.

On Grey Cup Sunday, Jeff and I did what we always do, relax after a late Saturday night by going out for a nice meal and then just killing time by walking around downtown Montreal. Our walk lead us to a fashionable department store in Montreal’s shopping district. We walked in and a light bulb went off in Jeff’s head; He would buy Vanessa a nice sweater from this department store as a gift.

Now, I’ve been married long enough to know that purchasing clothes for women is not a good idea. While his initial idea of a Grey Cup sweater might have worked, he had now waded in way over his head. I should have talked him out of this idea, but Jeff can be stubborn and I don’t think there was any changing his mind at this point. Besides, I was very curious to see how this would play out.

So, for over an hour, he was sifting through the racks trying desperately to find something to suit Vanessa’s style. He was asking my opinion, but what do I know about women’s fashions. He was asking other female shoppers in the store for their opinion. He even found a mannequin with hair that matched Vanessa’s to hold the sweaters up against.

After all of this, he finally decided on the sweater he was going to buy for her. However, this lead him into his next conundrum, what size to get her. Now, he was definitely in trouble. Not wanting to give up after all of this effort, he finally gave Vanessa a call from the store to confirm the sizing. With his purchase in hand, and a weight lifted from his shoulders we resumed our day.

I told this story for 2 reasons, the first reason is to show Vanessa Jeff’s thoughtfulness and to give her the full story on the sweater from Montreal. The second reason is that the story doesn’t finish there. The following morning, Jeff had a very early flight but I still had another day in Montreal before my flight home. We said our goodbyes and off to the airport he went. With a day to myself in Montreal, I went for a walk that lead me back to the shopping district. Thinking of Jeff’s struggles to find a suitable gift, I thought of my own bride who was at home with a 6 month old teething baby while I was enjoying Montreal with the guys. Inspired by Jeff, I found a gift, face cream, not clothing to take home with me.
This is the second reason for the story, to show the rest of the room what it is like to be Jeff’s friend. Whether it is through encouragement or good old-fashioned guilt or shame, he forces us into being better people by being his friend.

With that, Ladies and Gentlemen, I’d like for you all to stand up, raise a glass and drink a toast to a good man, a good friend and to wish him good fortune in being a good husband.

To the groom.

Hadramout

This passed on by a former co-worker in Yemen. It is a pretty polished video of the area where I used to work. Quite an amazing place.

Vacation

We had our first family vacatioin in a long while last week. Wife says that vacation is for doing all the things that you like. I kept a list of the things I like that I got to experience on the trip"

-Eggs Benedict
-Travelling new roads and seeing new country
-Boat ride (on the Kootenay Ferry...and it was free)
-Beer sasusage
-CBC Radio
-Orange Juice with pulp
-Crossing the border
-Spending time with wife and baby girl
-Kayaking
-Afternoon Naps
-Cinnamon Buns
-Reading (finished a book)
-Camping
-Americano coffees
-Farmer sausage
-Peanut Butter Smores
-Big Lakes
-Covering somme ground (1,300 Kms in total)
-Not thinking about work