The time is near....

wedding
Originally uploaded by lancemartel.

The wedding day is nearly here. I am officially on my last day at work and wrapping things up for a nice 2 week vacation.

Michelle and I were engaged on Dec 20, 2003 which seems like along time ago now. I recall the day she first posted our wed-site on the Knot. It read 500 days to go...now in the picture you can see it's 2 days. The entire experience and particularily this week has been surreal. Time just seems to fly by and I grow more nervous each day. The nervousness is knowing that Saturday is the biggest day of our lives and every friend and family member will be there to share it with us. I'm torn between wanting it to be here but also sad that this is the one and only time Michelle and I will organize anything like this together.

I guess it's time to remind myself that a wedding is not about the planning and the event itself. Its about starting a new life together...in good times and in bad; in sickness and in health.

I will see you on the other side....

Putin Steals Super Bowl Ring

http://www.sportsline.com/nfl/story/8606343

How funny is this:
Kraft showed the ring to Putin -- who tried it on, put it in his pocket and left, said Russian news reports.

It's like something from a Seinfeld episode. I'll be interested to here how this gets resolved. Hopefully not World War 3.

Happy Birthday Roscoe

Today Roscoe turns 2 years old.




Happy Birthday Eve Mathew Growden!

Things to not do the week before you get married

1. Get injuried severaly enough to warrant a cast, crutches..etc. Antyhing that will result in an inability to move or wear a tuxedo.
2. Beware of facial lacerations which could results in serious post-production work on the photography.
3. Don't trash talk your peers are work since they will likely need to cover for you during the honeymoom.
4. Do not make any promises in regards to pre-wedding night partying or pre-ceremony beer funnels.
5. Do not forget to get a haircut.
   

Let your dog get even with this evil bastard

Political Pet Toys Bin Laden The most wanted man on Earth is now the most wanted pet toy. Let your dog get even with this evil bastard. . 5.75"Hx5.25"Wx3.25"D

Weekend Festivites

So the triathlon relay was a complete disaster. I'll admit my swim was pretty poor given it's not the strongest event in the first place and I usually make up lots of time on the bike and run. Cinnamon's bike was horrific! It started off with a good plan that Cinnamon would take it easy for the first 5km and then adjust his pace accordingly. That plan went on the toilet when Cinnamon's adrenaline took over and he burnt himself out after the first 3km. At 3Km there is a large hill which he had to walk the bike up...??? In total the 20km bike took him 49 minutes which is beyond terrible.

This gave us some good laughs on the way home and coined his new nickname "Pace".

Ryan's run was decent but we still ended up last place in the relay.

Michelle's stagette took a turn for the worse when she polished off a bottle of vodka and didn't even manage to leave the hotel room. Not sure if there will be a make-up date for the stagette or not. :-)

15 Days

Holy crap the wedding is two weeks from tomorrow. Don't forget to buy us a gift. :-)

This weekend is Michelle's stagette. Looks out for her on the College St bars since I think that is where she is going. To keep myself busy, Keefer, Cinny and I are going to Muskoka to run the Sprint Triathlon Relay on Saturday at 4pm. I have ran this race myself before although I wanted some company for the drive. So I'm doing the 750M swim which should take about 15 minutes.

After we are heading back to TO and a few of us are going to head out for some drinks. We will see what sort of shape Michelle is in on Sunday.

Finally....a Space Elevator

Space Elevator - wikipedia

Toronto Storm

storm in toronto
Originally uploaded by lancemartel.

Crazy weather tonight when so very low black clouds rolled through mid-town Toronto. It looks like a black way rolling across the city. I took this shot and some others posted on Flickr. Bogacz eat your heart out.

Lost Balls

Minor crisis at work today around a book called "Lost Balls".

How appropriate is that!

I think the balls are found at this point and under control.

Cycling is fun

Michelle and I and another couple went camping this past weekend. We left Friday afternoon and Michelle dropped me and the other guy off in Stratford to complete the remainder of the trip by bike. It amounted to 80km in bad heat with T-storms warning.

Approximately 10km in I began to feel the heat a little...not that I was hot but things didn't quite feel right. That is the danger of cycling in heat is that the wind cools you off but you lose a lot of water without noticing. At this point I began taking my gatorade consumption very serious since I knew it would be a long trip if I didn't hydrate properly. From that point on no real problems from heat.

My buddy was looking a little rough at 20km and I took the pace down a notch. At 40km he blew a flat and we changed it in 10 mintues. At around 70km I felt great and took it up a notch for the last home stretch...was moving at a good clip of 35-39km/h for the last 5 kms. Could have easily did 10km after...any more than that would have been tough.

It total..the ride took just under 3 hours and we averaged 27km/h. I drank 4 bottles of gatorade and 2 power gels.

By the time we arrive Michelle had set up the tent at the site and I had a few beers. The trip itself kinda sucked due to the exteme heat and the bacteria warning at the beach made me hesitant to spend too much time in the water. Came home sunday mid-afternoon craving some air conditioning.

Bachelor Party Summary - Day 2- Saturday

I woke up feeling pretty good all things considered the night before. Had a little breakfast with Litkey/Martin. Went up to Fykers room and the chest paint was out. I hooked up with the "E" in "Go BLue Jays". See pictures a few posts before.

Headed over to the Jake and it was an amazing stadium. Here are the highlights of the game:

- Non-stop heckling of Jay's announcers PatTabler and Jamie Campbell
- Heckling Coco Crisp
- Long rain delay caused everyone but my Slop, Hedge and Cinny to stick around.
- Tabler mentions us on the sportsnet broadcast as a "boisterous" bunch of Canadians.
- Beers got shut off too early so we suffered through the last couple innings dry.

Jay's lost but it was a great expereince. After leaving the stadium there was a cool bar across the street. Sure enough there is Keefer, Howe and Marty drunk as skunks. The had also made friends with a Stag and Doe party so we drank with these people. Had the shirts off in the bar for pictures etc. Marty was totalled and was spitting on people..he has a problem. Finally went back to the hotel to find everyone else HAD A NAP and quietly watching a movie. From here on in pure chaos:

- I funnelled numerous people using Molson Kick for napping.
- Marty passes out and I poured beer on him.
- Headed to a cool bar with a rooftop pation.
- 3 tequila shots in the first 3 minutes upon arriving.
- Few other bachelorette parties should up and my buddies had my shirt off and were letting girls sign me.
- Ended up completly covered in markers and pen (front and back) and barely remember anything after the tequila's
- Got back to the hotel and I recall a brawl in the elevator and nearly getting injured.

All in all it's a miracle I lasted all night and is a testament to red bull and Molson Kick..you can party all night on that stuff.

Bachelor Party Summary - Night 1 - Friday

Here is a timeline of the activities:

DAY 1 - Friday
1pm - Meet with the boys at Kipling station to begin the adventure.
3pm - After stopping at duty free and buying 100 cold shots (for 5 guys) we crack the first one in the car in Buffalo. Driver Pat does not drink.
4:30pm - Eat a MacDonalds somewhere in Pennsylvania.
4:35pm - Sloppy shits pants in car
4:45pm - Drive resumes after Sloppy runs into the woods to change his underwear.
6:30pm - Arrive in Cleveland and Jay hands my a huge red bull type drink.
7:00pm - Partying in rooms has commenced and everyone has arrives. Someone brought a stupid wig that I have to wear.

After that time seems to fade away but here are the remaining memories:
- Funnelling 3 different times in the hotel room
- Visiting the strip bar and getting numerous lap dances. I was well behaved.
- Matt Knucklestein
- On stage at the strip bar and getting whipped by my own belt. Also some punched to the back of my head from the three strippers who beat me up on stage.
- Kuhner livid that I didn't get naked on stage.
- Crowd gets split and we end up at a dance club. Brad K is picking up every girl in the place.
- I begin to feel ill and Ryan/Pat and I grab a cab home.
- I pass out in the room and Cinnamon sometime after breaks into my room and jumps on me. I resume sleeping.
- Kuhner is so drunk he pisses on the floor of his room.

Pretty eventful given that was only the prelude to Saturday.

Go Blue Jays

gobluejays
Originally uploaded by lancemartel.

This is a shot of my bachelor party in Cleveland. We were on our way to see the Blue Jays play the Indians and a number of us had painted our chests with Go Blue Jays.

We spent to majority of the game yelling at Jamie Campbell and Pat Table (Jay's announcers) and Coco Crisp. Game had a rain delay but a couple of us stuck around until the end. There was a lot of beer that day.

Cleveland Mis-Spelling

g__ay_s
Originally uploaded by lancemartel.

I got called out to blog a bit more about the stag and upcoming wedding. Here is a picture from Cleveland just prior to the game. Just a drunk mis-spelling.

YMCA 5KM Relay Challenge

So the first race of the year is in the book. My company submitted a number of teams and I ran on a co-ed team with some co-workers in my department.

Our combined total was 1hh 40min which put us around 25m 12s per runner. Not bad considering the heat was a little much an it's early in the season. I struggled and was not feeling so good...I think I've had a bug this week since I have been really tired every day and a little achy. Overall it was a good time....

Results posted here.