This past weekend Jenn and I set out for White Bear along with Paul and Darcie. We had a great time staying at the Kenosee Inn, eating at the Moosehead Lodge, playing 54 holes of (mini) golf, eating lots of ice cream, playing with some petting zoo animals, exploring the artistic side of Kenosee, and checking out what's to be had at the Red Barn Flea Market (such as that 'Man of Steel' you see above). We didn't have the warmest weather, so we weren't able to hit the Super Slides, but maybe next time. Check out some pictures here.
A 28 year old Moose Jaw area man is dead after an ultra light plane crashed sometime Monday evening near Saskatoon. RCMP say a student and an instructor went for a flight and were supposed to be back by 8:00pm, but never arrived.
A search was launched with the help of a Military Search and Rescue Hercules out of Winnipeg as well as the Saskatoon Police Service plane. The small ultra light was found just after 6:00am Tuesday, three miles away from the airstrip.
A 56 year old man from Saskatoon and the 28 year old man from the Moose Jaw area were found dead inside. No names have been released as the investigation continues.
Today my boss called to tell me that the man we're building a house for has died. He went down in a small aircraft over the weekend. This is really very shocking news. I had only met Ryan Schute last year. He was a man who loved to live. He was always thinking about the next thing, planning a new project or going to a new place. He has left behind a wife and two young sons. I'm sure he'll be terribly missed by his family. If you're reading this, please pray for the Schute family.
If you ever install new windows into your home, I have some very important advice for you. If you use expanding foam to fill the hole between the window and its frame, make sure you wear gloves. Last weekend Jenn and I installed some windows for some of our friends, and I used the expanding foam, figuring it's just like silicone. Wrong! Silicone rubs off skin once it's dry. The foam does not. Looking on the internet for methods of removal, one site helpfully recommended "three Hail Marys or an atomic bomb." Thanks for that.
What worked in the end was patience, water, and a lot of sandpaper... Not extremely pleasant, but I got my hands back. So, please heed my warning. Use gloves!
At the work site on which we are currently working there lives a little boy named Rett. He is four years old and can do things not many four year olds can do. He drives tractors, quads, seeders, sprayers, combines, and bobcats. Whenever we're working in the yard, this is a very normal conversation:
Rett: "What's that?" Luke: "That's a hammer." Rett: "What does it do?" Luke: "It... hammers things. Hits stuff into things. We use it for nails." Rett: "Oh. Do you have another one of those that I can use?" Luke: "Sure, Rett."
He's very much a hands-on little man. Because of this, we often enjoy asking him questions to see what answer his bright, resourceful, young mind will come up with.
At the front of their yard is a seed plant. It's a tall structure with silos for the grain seed, and all sorts of tubes and ladders. At the top of the seed plant is a Christmas star, which they plug in around the Christmas season since the seed plant is the highest point on their yard. Two days ago, seeing that Christmas star, we asked Rett,
"So Rett, was Jesus born in the seed plant? That's his star up there." Rett: "He was... Yeah, he was. He was working there when it was put up."
Interesting... So, from the mind of a four year old, the creator, sustainer, and saviour of the universe is also one of his dad's seed plant employees... Perhaps some theological training would be helpful... But maybe that can wait until he's at least in kindergarten.
Tomorrow we're off for this weekend's last installment. Saturday Jenn and I spent the day installing 9 windows into a house. Quite the task, and we got it done! It's very satisfying to see how quickly a house brightens up with new glass. Today we rested, which was welcomed after a full week of work. Tomorrow we drive down to White Bear to spend holiday Monday painting signs. I don't know if "full" really captures how this weekend has felt. But anyway, it's nice to have lots to do sometimes, and Jenn and I have had a blast working together on things -- an opportunity that doesn't come about that often.
We flew out of Victoria at 6am on June 22, and headed to Montreal. We had a direct flight from Victoria all the way to Toronto. That's over 5 hours in the air, which means we were able to watch more than two movies on the plane! Needless to say, however, we were more than glad to stretch our legs and get doing what we came for when we reached Montreal Trudeau. It's quite the transition from Victoria, from the trendy, nutritious food-eating, outdoorsy culture of Vancouver Island to the urban, fast-paced, time-for-business feel of the island of Montreal.
Jenn's family picked us up. First stop was Moores, where we learned that my tux rental had come without a shirt or tie! An issue that was sorted out in the next few days, to my relief because I'm not really in the habit of going without a shirt for weddings...
We also got to see Jason and Christina's new home! What a nice place. Great neighborhood, quiet street. And the apartment is very spacious. That will be a fun place to visit!
The week in Montreal was very much like a week in Santa's shop for elves. Each day we worked and schemed to get everything the way it needed to be for the ever-approaching Friday ceremony! There were iTune playlists to organize, toole to place, errands to run, bows to tie, dresses to alter (I didn't do that...), food to eat, phone calls to make, and lots of fun to have in the midst of it all.
To make it all more interesting, Jason and Christina were able to snag that new apartment the week before their wedding. They didn't think they'd get it so suddenly, and so amongst all the wedding preparations, all their possessions had to be moved from Jason's apartment and Jenn's parents' place! Craig, Jenn's dad, Jason, and I spent about 12 hours (from 2:30pm to 2:30am) moving boxes and bed frames and dressers and computer parts and major and minor appliances and bags of clothes and couches . . . down the stairs, through a small doorway, into the truck, over to the new place, out of the truck, up some stairs, through another small doorway, and into the apartment. It was a lot of fun, actually. Most of the time we were laughing about how much work we had. We took a little break at midnight, and went to McDonald's for a late supper. Interestingly, the LaSalle McDonald's was being used as the setting for a new McDonald's commercial. So, if you see a commercial with a jalepeno pepper on a burger, we were there when it was being filmed.
After our Micky D's treat, we finished up our moving, and got into bed for 3am. Quite the moving experience.
While we were moving Jason and Christina's life to their new locale, Jenn was throwing her sister a "hurray-you're-getting-married!!!" party. Those six girls have been close since they were born, and one by one, each of them are having their turn in a wedding dress. Jenn, Dom, and Liz, and now Chris. Only Char and Reb remain. It was a girls' night full of girliness, old home-videos, and a fun send-off for Chris into wifeliness.
The night before the wedding, Jenn and I went to Jason and Chris's new apartment to install an air conditioner (which, you must understand, is essential in Montreal during the summer. It is very sticky and humid every day, and there is truly no relief like a continual supply of cold blowing air!). That was a fun experience... It was 9:30 pm when we started, and 11:15pm when we finished sawing and installing. My apologies to the neighborhood for the terrible noise... But the great thing is that the AC was installed. Extra great since Jason and I spent the night there. To our delight, around 4am we woke up shivering, needing blankets. There is no greater feeling than being really cold after having been far too warm when you went to bed.
The next day was the wedding.
All the groomsmen met at Jason's for breakfast. We had pancakes and bacon. Excellent! By 2:40 we were donning our tuxes and taking the groomsmen pictures. Jason has such great friends! I don't think I've had this much fun in a wedding party for quite some time! The limo was to come at 3pm, to get us to the church for 4pm. However, the limo didn't show until 3:40, which is a big problem because the Mercier bridge which takes us from the island of Montreal to the south shore is usually plugged with traffic, and the closer you get to 5pm, the worse it is. The biggest shock was, after we were seated in the limo, the driver asked us, "And where is the church?" Where is the church?! Well, we got him there, but he certainly wasn't the brightest light in the socket... When we were coming up the church, we told him to turn "droite" (French for "right"), he said, "Gauche?" ("left?"). "No, droite!" "Gauche?" "No! Droite!" "Oh, okay, I go gauche." Sheesh.
When we arrived, he turned around to us and said, "Okay, so how do I get to the bride's house now?" What the --? Usually it is assumed that the driver has done his homework... but not this one! So, an uncle of Jenn's met him at a nearby Tim Horton's, and led him to the Watkins. There, he had Christina's parents go ahead of him so he could follow them back to the church (since he still didn't know where it was...), and, as Christina was waving her parents past the limo, the driver just about caught her arm in the electric window! Who is this guy?! Needless to say, he'll have some reckoning to do.
Aside from this limo-trauma, the wedding was amazing. They chose to have their ceremony in the same church Jenn and I had our wedding, Georgetown Presbyterian, which is older than Canada's confederation. So, it was very nostalgic for us, and very surreal to be back there again so soon. When Christina came down the isle, she sang a song for Jason, "You Take My Breathe Away," as recorded by Eva Cassidy. Chris has an amazing voice to start with, but even more exceptional was how well she performed on her own wedding day! With the eyes of 150 guests on her, and staring right into the eyes of her soon-to-be-husband, everybody was blown away. Watch it here:
Their reception was loads of fun. Great food, lots of family, and crazy folks on the dance floor.
By 3am, everything was cleaned up, and we were headed home. Chris and Jason were off to Jamaica and a life together. After one day's rest, Jenn and I were headed back to Caronport.
What a wedding week! I don't think we've ever seen that much family all in a week's time before! (Or traveled so far, either! 9,500 km in 10 days!) We had loads of fun, but made sure to ask our unmarried siblings to wait a couple of years before getting any ideas...
