You know it's a FABULOUS wedding when you spend 15 minutes explaining to the father of the bride, in extreme detail, why you never book musical tickets until you've confirmed that the male lead is a hottie.
Also, the speeches took less time than the 12 minute long Spice Girls dance remix.
BEST.WEDDING.EVER
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Quarterly Update - Q2 2010 - Celebrity Stars
I didn't forget, I just wanted to split the posts.
#1 Sean Hayes
Best known as two-time Emmy winner Jack MacFarlane on Will & Grace, Sean Hayes officially came out in March by posing on the cover of The Advocate. Sure, he played a gay guy on TV for nearly 10 years, so it wasn't super-surprising, but it's kind of nice when they finally do it. For those of you who want a GLBTTI history lesson, The Advocate is an all-gay magazine that has ONLY featured out homosexual males on the cover since it was released. Also, you can urbandictionary GLBTTI to figure out what the TI stands for.
Sean wins the Celebrity Star of the Quarter, though, for his opening performance at the Tonys in June. See link below, or YouTube Sean Hayes - Tony Awards - Piano. The first minute of this blew last year's Elton John - Liza one-two punch out of the water for most awesome opening ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DBHRQh4ss0&feature=related
In case you were also wondering, the hottie in the picture above is named Dan Wells and was featured in no TV that I recognize.
#2 Cristianu Rinaldo
Before our eyes, he's changed from a sort-of-hot, always-falling-down-for-no-reason Portuguese footballer into a TOTAL HOTTIE. See before & after to the left. Word on the street is he's now the daddy of a baby boy, which will be good timing for my mid-life crisis when I turn 50 (do the math). OK, I just wanted to put up pictures.
#3 Green Day
As you can see in the Tony Broadcast, Green Day released a hit musical on Broadway. Even Spider-Man failed to do this, and they had Bryce Dallas Howard cast! They've been around like forever without a break, and they're still completely awesome. And didn't get smoked in the face by a set like Bret Michaels last year.
Feel free to post alternative Celebrity Stars below if you have suggestions!
#1 Sean Hayes
Best known as two-time Emmy winner Jack MacFarlane on Will & Grace, Sean Hayes officially came out in March by posing on the cover of The Advocate. Sure, he played a gay guy on TV for nearly 10 years, so it wasn't super-surprising, but it's kind of nice when they finally do it. For those of you who want a GLBTTI history lesson, The Advocate is an all-gay magazine that has ONLY featured out homosexual males on the cover since it was released. Also, you can urbandictionary GLBTTI to figure out what the TI stands for.
Sean wins the Celebrity Star of the Quarter, though, for his opening performance at the Tonys in June. See link below, or YouTube Sean Hayes - Tony Awards - Piano. The first minute of this blew last year's Elton John - Liza one-two punch out of the water for most awesome opening ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DBHRQh4ss0&feature=related
In case you were also wondering, the hottie in the picture above is named Dan Wells and was featured in no TV that I recognize.
#2 Cristianu Rinaldo
Before our eyes, he's changed from a sort-of-hot, always-falling-down-for-no-reason Portuguese footballer into a TOTAL HOTTIE. See before & after to the left. Word on the street is he's now the daddy of a baby boy, which will be good timing for my mid-life crisis when I turn 50 (do the math). OK, I just wanted to put up pictures.
#3 Green Day
As you can see in the Tony Broadcast, Green Day released a hit musical on Broadway. Even Spider-Man failed to do this, and they had Bryce Dallas Howard cast! They've been around like forever without a break, and they're still completely awesome. And didn't get smoked in the face by a set like Bret Michaels last year.
Feel free to post alternative Celebrity Stars below if you have suggestions!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Quarterly Update - Q2 2010
Hi Team!
This marks the first update that was posted through the blog itself - I hope you enjoy the multimedia additions! This update will be split into a few parts, since it was a very, very busy quarter. The elevator pitch is I quit my job and I'm now homeless, jobless and living in my parents' basement in a room that smells vaguely like old yarn mixed with new mould. Awesome.
April - May
The period from Easter to Victoria day went by very quickly, and was not a whole lotta fun on my part. I went home for 36 hours on Easter weekend for the first time since first year university in 2004. It was nice and quiet, but I spent most of that weekend wondering how I was going to finish the Worst.Job.Ever, which I'd been posted on the week before. I should have realized then that this sucker would still be dragging out by the time I quit my job entirely at the end of June.
To segue a bit, yes - I quit my job at the end of June. There were several contributing factors for this, but the bottom line is that my job stopped being fun. Between Easter and Victoria Day, I woke up every single morning and didn't want to go to work that day. This happened for about two months straight, at which point I gave Big D an end date of June 25th and prepared to leave. The best part was when I got staffed on a new job during my last week because "no one was available", then got an email on Monday at 11am from someone who was available. Uh . . . thanks? Also, I owe you a vacation payout, but you're not getting it until I get my pension contributions back.
June
June was a big month. The lynch-pin behind quitting my job was earning my CA designation, officially on June 17th, 2010 (unofficially May 19th). I also turned 25 and lost my keys in a related incident (see post "Dude, Where Are My Keys" below), which was a bit of a fail. However, the beer store managed to screw up the charges for the birthday liquor, so I basically got 4 cases of beer that (as of yet) have not been charged to my now-cancelled credit card. WIN!
I also saw THREE Musicals in a 14-day stretch at the start of June. I went to see Mamma Mia! in Toronto (Review below), Evita at Stratford (Review below) and Urinetown in Woodstock (Review pending). The first two had been planned for a while, but we were having dinner in Woodstock two days before Urinetown, and the restaurant had this flyer. So we looked into it, booked the tickets, and . . . it turned out to be high school students. See the upcoming review for more details, and my thoughts on this.
During this side-trip, I also went to Chapters and bought their KOBO e-Reader. As you know, I'm a HUGE technophobe who's been living without a cell for 6+ months. But the e-Reader is the only way I could think of to transport all of my books across the planet. The best part is it comes pre-loaded with 100 Classic Novels (which are free to download anyway due to copyright expiry, but they saved me the legwork) that I've been working through.
The Big Move
The main reason for quitting my job is to move to Australia or New Zealand ("ANZ") to be closer to Kyle. I tried getting a transfer to Australia through work, but there was nothing appropriate for my experience and qualifications. I say I'm moving CLOSER to Kyle because I'm not convinced I'll find a suitable job in Dunedin, South Island. This town's population is about 123,000 people (ie. Kingston, ON) and is in the middle of nowhere, so unless I get in with the University or municipal council (both of which are unlikely) I'll be moving elsewhere. So the headhunters are currently working on that.
I spent most of June putting together my immigration package for the Draconian New Zealand government. There are a few ways to get into the country, and the most likely options for me were either:
1) Essential Skills in Demand (ie. Chartered Accountant). The problem with this is you need to have a job offer and be sponsored by your employer, but many employers won't hire you unless you have a valid work permit. This is basically a circle of stupid if you ask me.
2) Partnership. Because Kyle is a grad students, it's quite easy for his dependents to move to the country under his sponsorship. They like partners of grad students, because they are unlikely to end up on social assistance. So this was the best bet, and the basis for my application. The application required
- medical test ($250)
- X-rays ($60)
- application fee including Kyle's notarized passport($160+$40)
- NEW Canadian passport with photos, even though mine doesn't expire for 18 months ($15+65)
- criminal records check with fingerprinting ($75)
- proof of partnership (joint bank accounts, lease agreements, beneficiaries of wills, etc.)
As you can tell by my notes above, this process has been quite expensive. I keep telling myself that I will recoup at least double of the $600 or so dollars PER YEAR because I no longer have to pay Ontario taxes. Take that, McGuinty!
The hardest part about the entire thing was actually putting together an audit file of proof of partnership, which was 8 years on June 25, 2010. The big problem is we don't have joint anything (which I've kept intentionally separated since day one) and haven't officially lived together since December 2005. So I wrote the government a letter which outlined all of the locations and credentials that we've obtained and attached a bunch of random things, like my old phone bills and some emails dating back to ~2007ish.
The emailed back a week later and said they needed more proof, so I applied to some of my oldest friends - Ms. Kubacki & Ms. Kaitlynn, who FINALLY gets married this Saturday - to see what they could come up with. I found two thank-you cards that we'd received for wedding gifts (Thanks, Dawne & Derek!) and printed about 10 emails from 2005 to 2010 which consistently mentioned Kyle & myself, usually with a naughty reference of some sort.
The best was this abridged excerpt that I'd sent Kaitlynn in 2006:
"Hey, we're stopping in London to look at housing on the way and should be in Windsor for dinnertime. Since I don't really want to sodomize your parents' house, what are the sleeping arrangements for this weekend?"
Did I really send that in to the government? You betcha. (In case you were curious about the weekend in question, I ended up getting really, really sick and wasn't fit to sodomize anything).
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
To wrap things up, I received notice last week that my VISA came through, so I'm leaving Canada on July 30th, 2010 with no intention of returning until about next April or May. I do NOT have a job lined up, and we have no housing - yet. But I'm pretty sure I'll land on my feet, or at least in a ditch that's filled with delightfully drunk kiwi students.
Stars of the Quarter
1) Kaitlynn & Lauren. Without them, I may not have gotten my VISA approved.
2) Andrea - I've arrived at her place on several late nights at her place, and she still hasn't complained - yet. Hopefully Buffy will smooth it out.
3) Kirsten - she went to Evita and really, really tried to keep me safe on my birthday. It just wasn't in the cards. *PUN*
Stay safe, and don't do anything I wouldn't do,
Dustin Delegarde, CA
(Captain Awesome first, Chartered Accountant second)
This marks the first update that was posted through the blog itself - I hope you enjoy the multimedia additions! This update will be split into a few parts, since it was a very, very busy quarter. The elevator pitch is I quit my job and I'm now homeless, jobless and living in my parents' basement in a room that smells vaguely like old yarn mixed with new mould. Awesome.
April - May
The period from Easter to Victoria day went by very quickly, and was not a whole lotta fun on my part. I went home for 36 hours on Easter weekend for the first time since first year university in 2004. It was nice and quiet, but I spent most of that weekend wondering how I was going to finish the Worst.Job.Ever, which I'd been posted on the week before. I should have realized then that this sucker would still be dragging out by the time I quit my job entirely at the end of June.
To segue a bit, yes - I quit my job at the end of June. There were several contributing factors for this, but the bottom line is that my job stopped being fun. Between Easter and Victoria Day, I woke up every single morning and didn't want to go to work that day. This happened for about two months straight, at which point I gave Big D an end date of June 25th and prepared to leave. The best part was when I got staffed on a new job during my last week because "no one was available", then got an email on Monday at 11am from someone who was available. Uh . . . thanks? Also, I owe you a vacation payout, but you're not getting it until I get my pension contributions back.
June
June was a big month. The lynch-pin behind quitting my job was earning my CA designation, officially on June 17th, 2010 (unofficially May 19th). I also turned 25 and lost my keys in a related incident (see post "Dude, Where Are My Keys" below), which was a bit of a fail. However, the beer store managed to screw up the charges for the birthday liquor, so I basically got 4 cases of beer that (as of yet) have not been charged to my now-cancelled credit card. WIN!
I also saw THREE Musicals in a 14-day stretch at the start of June. I went to see Mamma Mia! in Toronto (Review below), Evita at Stratford (Review below) and Urinetown in Woodstock (Review pending). The first two had been planned for a while, but we were having dinner in Woodstock two days before Urinetown, and the restaurant had this flyer. So we looked into it, booked the tickets, and . . . it turned out to be high school students. See the upcoming review for more details, and my thoughts on this.
During this side-trip, I also went to Chapters and bought their KOBO e-Reader. As you know, I'm a HUGE technophobe who's been living without a cell for 6+ months. But the e-Reader is the only way I could think of to transport all of my books across the planet. The best part is it comes pre-loaded with 100 Classic Novels (which are free to download anyway due to copyright expiry, but they saved me the legwork) that I've been working through.
The Big Move
The main reason for quitting my job is to move to Australia or New Zealand ("ANZ") to be closer to Kyle. I tried getting a transfer to Australia through work, but there was nothing appropriate for my experience and qualifications. I say I'm moving CLOSER to Kyle because I'm not convinced I'll find a suitable job in Dunedin, South Island. This town's population is about 123,000 people (ie. Kingston, ON) and is in the middle of nowhere, so unless I get in with the University or municipal council (both of which are unlikely) I'll be moving elsewhere. So the headhunters are currently working on that.
I spent most of June putting together my immigration package for the Draconian New Zealand government. There are a few ways to get into the country, and the most likely options for me were either:
1) Essential Skills in Demand (ie. Chartered Accountant). The problem with this is you need to have a job offer and be sponsored by your employer, but many employers won't hire you unless you have a valid work permit. This is basically a circle of stupid if you ask me.
2) Partnership. Because Kyle is a grad students, it's quite easy for his dependents to move to the country under his sponsorship. They like partners of grad students, because they are unlikely to end up on social assistance. So this was the best bet, and the basis for my application. The application required
- medical test ($250)
- X-rays ($60)
- application fee including Kyle's notarized passport($160+$40)
- NEW Canadian passport with photos, even though mine doesn't expire for 18 months ($15+65)
- criminal records check with fingerprinting ($75)
- proof of partnership (joint bank accounts, lease agreements, beneficiaries of wills, etc.)
As you can tell by my notes above, this process has been quite expensive. I keep telling myself that I will recoup at least double of the $600 or so dollars PER YEAR because I no longer have to pay Ontario taxes. Take that, McGuinty!
The hardest part about the entire thing was actually putting together an audit file of proof of partnership, which was 8 years on June 25, 2010. The big problem is we don't have joint anything (which I've kept intentionally separated since day one) and haven't officially lived together since December 2005. So I wrote the government a letter which outlined all of the locations and credentials that we've obtained and attached a bunch of random things, like my old phone bills and some emails dating back to ~2007ish.
The emailed back a week later and said they needed more proof, so I applied to some of my oldest friends - Ms. Kubacki & Ms. Kaitlynn, who FINALLY gets married this Saturday - to see what they could come up with. I found two thank-you cards that we'd received for wedding gifts (Thanks, Dawne & Derek!) and printed about 10 emails from 2005 to 2010 which consistently mentioned Kyle & myself, usually with a naughty reference of some sort.
The best was this abridged excerpt that I'd sent Kaitlynn in 2006:
"Hey, we're stopping in London to look at housing on the way and should be in Windsor for dinnertime. Since I don't really want to sodomize your parents' house, what are the sleeping arrangements for this weekend?"
Did I really send that in to the government? You betcha. (In case you were curious about the weekend in question, I ended up getting really, really sick and wasn't fit to sodomize anything).
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
To wrap things up, I received notice last week that my VISA came through, so I'm leaving Canada on July 30th, 2010 with no intention of returning until about next April or May. I do NOT have a job lined up, and we have no housing - yet. But I'm pretty sure I'll land on my feet, or at least in a ditch that's filled with delightfully drunk kiwi students.
Stars of the Quarter
1) Kaitlynn & Lauren. Without them, I may not have gotten my VISA approved.
2) Andrea - I've arrived at her place on several late nights at her place, and she still hasn't complained - yet. Hopefully Buffy will smooth it out.
3) Kirsten - she went to Evita and really, really tried to keep me safe on my birthday. It just wasn't in the cards. *PUN*
Stay safe, and don't do anything I wouldn't do,
Dustin Delegarde, CA
(Captain Awesome first, Chartered Accountant second)
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