Mark and Reesa's Wedding Part 2

Friday was spent welcoming friends and relatives. Reesa, her Mom, Mark, Stacey. Jay, Dori and Riley had breakfast with me and Helene in the hotel restaurant. And then we hung out in the lobby and welcomed people as they showed up.

Roberta, Carman, Jonathon and Marla, Sonia, Shelley and Zev, Bernie and Adon, Jack, Tammy, Laura, Zach, Alana and Jordan all arrived and were greeted by me and Helene. Our job was to say hi and then to show everyone Riley. Of course it was her Zaida that she wanted!!!

Lunch was Thai on Denman with Jay, Dori and Riley with Stacey joining us after a bit.

More sitting and visiting and then I took Jay, Dori and Riley back to the their hotel, waited for Jay to change and then back to the Bayshore.

A quick shower and then we all went to the first real event of the wedding weekend. Mark and Reesa had chartered a cruise (The Magic Moments) for their friends and a few family members. A dj played, hors d’ouevre and dessert were served. And it goes without saying that drinks were served.

The cruise took us to an area called Indian Arm. The scenery was beautiful passing through a sort of inner passage - mountains, homes, scenery - were all spectacular.

It was fun meeting Mark and Reesa's friend and spending time with our families. I've met many of their friends before so we did a lot of catching up. Mark and Reesa have an interesting cast of friends. They are all interesting and each has their own interesting stories. We also finally met members of Mark's latest band - Bison BC. It turns out that James (a Bison member) is originally from Winnipeg so there was lots to talk about.

No Apologies and no promises

I haven't blogged since the middle of August. Lots has happened since. We finished our extended vacation in Nova Scotia, England and Sicily. I actually have some entries written and my journal is filled with notes. I may bring that part of the fall up to date.

The rest of the fall and the winter so far have been focused on getting my mother into a proper situation and doing the work for my sabbatical.

I began my sabbatical on January 1, 2009. My university is very, very generous when it comes to sabbaticals. After 6 years a faculty member 'shall not be unreasonably denied' a sabbatical and subsequent to a first year long sabbatical we are allowed to take 6 months sabbaticals after every three years. I took my first sabbatical many years ago and my most recent year long sabbatical was in 2004/2005. This sabbatical is for 6 months from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2009.

An unusual part of this sabbatical is that I am going to teach a class. I received a grant to develop an online course. The course I am developing is EC&I 809 Program Evaluation. I have been working on this project since last spring.

I spent the month of January and a few days in February working on this course development, consulting with program evaluators at UBC and working on a project with Dr. Adriana Zylmans. Editing the Business Education Digest also took its fare share of my time. I think I have found someone that will do a great job at being the webmaster for BED. The website is in dire need of updating

But now I am in Florida taking a winter holiday. We are at my brother in law's home in Boca Raton and will spend a few days here before we head off for a cruise. Our good friends Mark and Pat Mulatz are with us and I am looking forward to spending this time with them.

More tomorrow - perhaps