February 19th, 2017 - 89 days to Keycon

Unfortunately my weight has been doing a yo-yo so I can’t report on a lower weight than last week, I’m sitting at 289.6 lbs, but I can report that I’m moving along with my goals.

I’m working on incorporating more exercise into my regular day. I’m going to try to be consistant with my push-ups on a day to day basis and adding jumping jacks into the routine. Something physical to get my heart rate up and hopefully kick start some real weight loss.

Had a simple breakfast this morning as well. Grape tomatos, shredded hash browns and bacon.

I hate to admit it but I am feeling a bit discouraged about my attempts at weight loss. Despite my weight falling below 290 it has been steadily creeping upwards again despite the fact that I have been drinking nothing but water for the last few days with one evening having a couple of rum and sodas.

In other news, Riley and I are continuing to look at ideas for a Youtube channel. Riley has desperately wanted to become a youtuber so when I was running down ideas and watching some youtube channels, like the backyard scientist, I started thinking, why not a science channel? Riley loves science and a lot of these channels include ‘science’ experiments. It seems like a natural idea.

I put forth the idea to the boy and he loved it, so it’s a go.

It’s going to take a couple of weeks of pulling materials together. But in the mean time I figure we can go through some ideas together to see which ones we want to include.

So stay tuned for Wrecking Ball Science.

As we move forward Riley and I will need to test out some of the experiments beforehand and look at the science behind them. Part of my plan is to get Riley learning without him realizing he’s learning. I’m hoping this will also develop into a lifetime love of science.

The other benefit is that it gives me a chance to work on my film making skills so we’ll both be gaining an education. It’s a win-win concept for everyone.

It’s taking a bit of sourcing, trying to find materials in the city: it’s starting to look like I’ll need to order a bunch of stuff off Amazon. I know we can just use stuff we can find at any dollar store to begin with, but I really want to use proper flasks and beakers to add to the science ambiance.

It’s always been a problem with me. I can’t start something without the “proper” materials. Everything has to be perfect from the start. Everything has to look professional. And it’s that mindset that never allows me to start anything. It’s a personal flaw that I really need to get over.

We hit a couple of thrift stores yesterday and found a couple of books and some glassware that’ll work. We found a non-graduated beaker that I’m pretty sure started life as a french press, but will do fine for our uses. We also found some stoppered glass bottles that we can use to store material. A lot of the stoppers are broken but there a few that still work. They can all be made use of.

We also grabbed a couple of books on kids science experiments and Chemistry for dummies.

All in all it was a successful day. Riley and I got some bonding time and we moved forward on our goals.

Forward and onward to SCIENCE!

February 15, 2017 - 93 Days to Keycon

Today I'm going to be sharing a post from a little over three years ago. Three years ago when I found out my life was going to change significantly. And boy has it...

The blog post, from my soon-to-be-deleted blog, maybe, was titled: Thoughts on becoming a father:
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!” 
― Hunter S. Thompson

Ah, the late, the great Gonzo professor of journalism Hunter S. Thompson.  Strange that I should start a post about my, as yet, unborn child.  A little stranger coming into my world to change my life forever.  Or at least for eighteen years.

It started with Batman.

There we were, two Thirty-somethings watching The Dark Knight Rises.  Maybe it was Anne Hathaway's catsuit.  Perhaps it was Tom Hardy's hypnotic voice.  One thing leads to another and, well I won't say anymore on the subject.  But I blame Bane.

Damn you Bane!  This is your fault!

Five and a half weeks later I get an ominous message via Facebook.  Yup.  She's pregnant.  She should'n't have been able to get pregnant, or so her doctor said.  But there it was in a little conversation box at the bottom of my screen telling me that my life is about to change.

What could I do.  Suicide was'n't an option.  I started looking at travel prices to Tibet with the vague thought of becoming a Yak farmer.

What?  It's a good life.  You get to wear a funky hat and a Yak fur coat.  And when you get lonely there's plenty of pretty Yaks for one to fu...

...nevermind.

I took a couple of days to collect my thoughts and talk to a few people.  Then I called her back.

We agreed to meet and discuss options.  We met at Portage Place for lunch.  I was a bit nervous as I knew she would be.

                            My baby mama ~ A geeks eye view

Well, we sat and we talked and we decided that it was going to happen and that we could easily co-parent.  We began making the announcements to friends and family.

My mothers initial reaction was less than enthused.  You see, as of this point she was not aware that I was seeing anybody so I'm sure she was picturing some heroin-thin, chain smoking prostitute named Candy.

I'm sure she was pleased to have seen Jenny, who has more of the girl-next-door thing going on, walking into their apartment.  Jenny charmed them.



My mom has always wanted to be a grandma, but with my troubles keeping relationships together it did'n't seem that it was going to happen.  The best her and my father could hope for was cat sitting from time to time.  Their small hairy grandchild.

Now she's not only going to have a grand child, but she also gets to spend time with Jenny's two young children as well.  She's thrilled and is already spoiling them.

It's odd that I should have started off this post with a quote from Hunter S. Thompson.  When we started discussing baby names Jenny suggested Hunter if it should be a boy.  After a moment of shock I realized that I had never considered the name but was immediately struck by it.

Hunter Toews.

I like it.

It took several months before the child would present it's junk.  Between legs together, umbilical cord in the way and a shadow from Jenny's belly-button, the brat was doing everything but covering it's privates with one hand and flipping us off with the other.

He's since started co-operating.  We are pleased to discover that we are having a boy.  We're now at 32 weeks, but he's measuring at 37 weeks.  He's going to be a chubby boy like his daddy.  Unfortunately he's also inherited my clown feet.

Got his daddy's clown feet.

Well, here we are, approximately four weeks to go.  It seems a little unreal.  This is actually happening. But I'm looking forward to the arrival of Hunter Brian Daniel Toews.  My legacy is secured.

And my sleep is threatened.  So what?  It's going to be a hell of a ride.

And here we are, Three years later on that little strangers third birthday. Has it been a hell of a ride so far?

I'm going to have to say yes. 

The past three years have flown by and it's been a privilege to watch that little man grow and advance. some of it still doesn't seem real. We've had ups and downs since then. Jenn and I got married and I'm not a father to one, but to three kids. My life has changed ultimately for the better. 

This year will be Hunter's first trip to the con. I'm looking forward to it!

~Brother K'Bob

Another weight loss post

February 07, 2017 - 101 days to Keycon

This blog was meant to be a day to day of one year in the life of a fan, a year getting ready to re-enter Winnipeg's fannish community, but is somehow turning into a weight loss blog.

I've been sick for the last couple of days. All of us have been sick really. We’ve had a cold/flu that’s gone from one to the other, I thick Riley, our eldist, is the only one that has been unaffected.

The illness has definitely helped, I was at 288.8 this morning which was a good feeling. It’s nice to see some results after a month of being good. While I haven’t completely cut out soda, I’ve reduced it to once or twice a week and not a whole bottle of it in one night either.

I’m also starting a new experiment today; I’m getting up fifteen minutes earlier. It’s not much but it allowed me to make breakfast, a thing I don’t often have time, or desire, for in the morning.

I made breakfast burrito’s. In this case they were egg, onion and ham with home made salsa. To drink is water with Mio, a non-sugar flavoring.

I would have made the tortilla’s to go with it, but I didn’t have the time. I think sometime this week I have to sand and re-season my cast iron frying pan to make some fresh flour tortillas.

For those interested, the salsa recipe is from www.food.com:

Chi-Chi’s Salsa Copy Recipe

2 green onions, diced
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
1 dash Tabasco sauce
14 ounces stewed tomatoes

Directions

Cut up stewed tomatoes and combine in saucepan with onions, fresh tomato, salt and pepper.
Bring just to a boil.
Boil hard 1 min and remove from heat.
Put half of mixture through blender just to mince fine, but not to puree.
Return to remaining half of mixture.
Cool and refrigerate in tightly covered container.

I didn’t put in the tabasco sauce because I wanted the kids to try it. However, even without, the pepper adds a bit of bite so I’m expecting that they’ll probably say it’s too spicy.


I also screwed up and bought crushed tomato’s leaving me worried that I might have made spaghetti sauce instead of salsa.

I would recommend that you only pulse the mixture, I ran it through a couple of times and pureed the sauce, leaving me with a smoother texture than I would have liked.

It yields approximately two jars of sauce and, unfortunately, in the off season for tomato’s, costs about the same. However I’m reasonably confident that there are fewer preservatives in the mixture and overall it’s probably a bit healthier and more natural.

I’m going to experiment in the next couple of weeks with adding garlic and other ingredients to it to change up the flavors a bit and see if I can come up with a K’Bob Signature sauce.

Cause why the hell not.

To add a bit of a fannish notion to this blog, the idea for breakfast Taco’s came from none other that Robert Rodriguez in the behind the scenes portion of Sin City. Sin City Breakfast Taco’s.

Check the video below.

It's the most important meal of the day.

~Brother K'Bob