Friday, July 11, 2008

Surprise Bachelor Party!

Salut tout le monde!

Je viens d'émerger d'un sommeil douteux du à l'excitation de la bachelor party que Leila et Chantal (la sœur de Janine) viennent de nous organiser en secret.

Jeudi soir, Janine passe chez moi (bientôt on pourra dire chez nous d'ailleurs!) après son boulot. De mon coté, j'ai quelques courses à faire avant le voyage, alors je laisse Janine se rattraper un peu sur le sommeil qu'elle a manqué.

En fait, Chantal s'était assurée que Janine serait au centre-ville avec une excuse bidon genre "aide moi à choisir mes habits!".

Après, vers 20h30, on s'est fait appeler et Leila nous a fait les rejoindre dans son appart, ou il y avait pas mal de nos bons amis qui nous attendaient. Parmi les invités, Marcel et Mauro s'etaient caches derriere la porte histoire qu'on leur casse le nez en entrant ou tout simplement qu'on les oublie :p

Les autres invités: Habib, Marc et Fayçal pour les gars (ainsi que mon frère Nadim), et Sawsan plus les deux conspiratrices/organisatrices, Leila et Chantal.

We quickly split into two groups. Each group went to a gender appropriate club (you know what I mean!) (if you didn't know what I meant, you need to come to Montreal and we will make sure you know) and we then met up at the very in Tribe night club in the old port. At tribe, the party people where waiting for us (Lama, Loubna and Oussama) and they were lighting up the dance floor! Nevertheless, since everybody was working, we decided to pack it up early at 1h30 and meet up for goodbyes in front of my place.

Unfortunately, when we met there, a super secret plan had been hatched and we were carried away to La Banquise, une belle poutinerie vers le plateau Mont-Royal. La poutine, si vous ne le connaissiez pas, est une invention Quebecoise. Il s'agit de frites, avec du fromage en morceaux recouvert de gravy (sauce brune), souvent avec divers ajouts (saucisses, viande hachée, champignons, oignons, etc). A heart attack in a box baby!



Donc, après avoir rinsé nos yeux, puis dansé, puis mangé qq chose de mortel, on a finit par se coucher à 4h du mat, super contents (et redoutant le reveil dans à peine qqs heures).

Merci tellement pour nos organisatrices ainsi que nos joyeux participants! On s'est vraiment éclatés et s'était une soirée d'enfer.

Quant à vous, chers lecteurs, vous nous avez manqué, mais ce n'est que partie remise!

Gros bisous,
Karim

P.S: ceci est certainement mon dernier post jusqu'à mon retour de lune de miel le 4 Aout.

P.P.S: la première transition dans les langues s'est faite à l'insu de mon plein gré. Quand j'ai realisé que j'avais switché à l'anglais sans m'en rendre compte, j'ai fait ce que tout fénéant ferait et prétendu que c'était fait exprès!

Friday, June 27, 2008

Presque terminé avec les préparatifs

Le site web a évolué un peu (commentaires les bienvenus, n'hesitez pas à être francs), les invitations ecrites vont à la poste aujourd'hui, tout le monde est déjà averti par courriel et on part dans deux semaines...

J'ai fait le tour des magasins avec mon frère Nadim pendant la semaine et on a 2/3 choix pour nos costards de mariage. Ca va probablement être tout en noir ou bleu marine, avec chemise blanche et cravate+serviette qui rajoutent un peu de couleur.

Malheureusement, du au timing, à la distance, au cout et tout simplement à la location, pas grand monde de mes amis ne va pouvoir venir. J'ai effectivement invité qqs amis de chaque ecole, uni ou job que j'ai fait et il se pourrait que juste 2 ou 3 puissent venir.

En bref, c'est un mariage familial pour demontrer un attachement avec le Liban et notre famille sur place. Il aurait été plus facile de se marier dans un petit mariage à Montréal ou avec un micro-mariage dans une petite ile des caraibes, mais ces deux options auraient été synonymes avec rupture avec le Liban.

En effet, avec nos deux vies à Janine et moi passées à l'étranger, ce marriage permet de renforcer nos liens avec ce pays toujours turbulent, en esperant qu'un jour, nous pourrons y emmener nos enfants sans hesiter par rapport à la situation politique et economique.

Voila pour aujourd'hui, on part le 12 donc pas d'updates entre le 12 Juillet et le 4 Aout, mais j'espere en mettre au moins une avant notre depart.

Monday, June 09, 2008

Wedding website - ebauche

Salut tout le monde,

Voici l'URL du site pour le marriage, qui est loin d'être terminé mais bon ça risque de changer pas mal aujourd'hui vu que je passe un peu de temps dessus.

Bisous,
Karim

Friday, May 30, 2008

Seriously, google apps!

I'm trying to set-up a website for the wedding, and the easiest thing for me was just to go and use google apps again. For those who don't remember, google apps is a cool set of free tools that allow you to configure email, webpages, calendars and other stuff.

I've used it with my saliba.ca domain, which means you can also join me on karim at saliba dot ca, join Leila at (guess where) leila at saliba dot ca etc...

It's just so easy too. I'm now creating wedding.saliba.ca and I need to build it from the ground up. Might as well say that I'm doing this with a huge rictus. I hate building web pages, the content always eludes me, even when it's for my wedding!!! :)

Any ideas people?

Kisses and love,
Karim

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The wedding, it's getting closer, it is!

Hello people,

This hasn't been updated in a long time, and I was surprised to see that I wasn't the only lazy one. The only one who's still updating regularly is Wendy...

Either way, I just wanted to remind you all that you're:
1- invited to the wedding (july 18th in Lebanon)
2- need to send me your address so I can send you a nice printed invite!

That's it!
Love,
Kash

Friday, November 09, 2007

Anyone up for some dessert?

Hey everybody!

You're all invited for some fresh apple strudel that yours truly made himself. It will be served hot with a side of vanilla ice cream.
:)

Yeah, I'm pretty happy with how my first apple tart worked out. Anyways, let's get to more pressing issues like New Year's. I haven't heard from Marcel at all and we need to decide what to do. Janine and I are thinking about going out this year, is that a valid option for you guys? What's your budget like for a nice party?

If we want to reserve anywhere, we're getting to the time where everything nice and affordable will be booked, so we need to move fast on this!

Email me or call me and let me know.
Ciao,
Karim

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Busy days and short nights

What can I say, midterm season has been going on, as well as a bunch of dues, since I had the "intelligence" of putting all my dues in mid-semester rather than later. What this means is that crunch time is right now, not in mid to end november.

Anyways, let's talk about interesting stuff: X-mas plans!
What are you guys up to? Last year we had a great time partying at Janine's place, although this year it might be quite different. We might go out for dinner and a party, or do something smaller at my place, or something different altogether.

I certainly hope Bourgui, Natalie, Marcel, Janine and I will be all together, and if some of you guys are jealous or just want in, you know you're always welcome here :)

Oh, I also received a message from Stuart Armstrong and he probably will be in Quebec around that timeframe, so he might be with us too.

That's it for today!
Ciao,
Karim

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Dinner and a board game - or how to have a great evening

Yesterday evening, we were invited by Janine's mom to have dinner at their place. As usual, the food was amazing and the company even better. There was fattoush - a lebanese salad, beef shawarma, falafel, home-made pizza, and more. Let's just say that good times were had by all and no one left the table without feeling like they were going to burst.

After a quick respite, desert was served, including some kind of apple pastry that was delicious (wrapped in thin crunchy layers of pastry), a chocolate cake and a coffee cake. Again, everything was home-made by my future mother in law, and everything was delicious. There also was a nice platter of mixed fruits, as well as Turkish coffee to help ease the digestion.

After all that eating, we just had to relax and end the evening on a board game. This time, Settlers of Catan were enjoyed by all, and although we hadn't completed the game yet, it was the team of Janine and yours truly who was ahead when we adjourned.

My collection of board games have expanded to include a few classics, such as Carcassonne and Alhambra and more. We alternate between them, and although they are all enjoyed by everyone, Settlers of Catan remains the most desired game of them all. Since I have introduced everyone to gaming with it and it's the one that has the most interactions between players, it has earned a special place in our heart.

I'll leave the list of games as well as their strengths and weaknesses to another time, so I don't gobble all my content in one humongous post.

That's it for today's update, I have to get back to work now.
Have a happy Canadian Thanksgiving (this Monday)!
Karim

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

What's new today?

I had a presentation yesterday with a strong team of individuals. As always in group work, especially when working with opinionated people, it makes for interesting times in meetings. The good thing is that we're able to find a good place to be and I've been able to smooth things out when it looks like some people are getting upset.
End result: we got a 90% on our presentation, which feels quite nice :)
The next couple of weeks are very busy, and I really shouldn't be posting here right now :p
At least I type fast hehehe
That's it for today!
Ciao,
Karim