Thank You Past Scott

Scott with lots of mass density

On Sept 5, 2011 past Niki and past Scott made a lifestyle change. We started doing the "slow carb diet" found in the book The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferris. Past Scott was feeling inspired after hearing Ferris interviewed on The Nerdist. As well, my recent birthday, and license picture that went with it, were very depressing. Normally in those situations I say, "Screw you future Scott", and don't do anything, but not this time.
At that time I was 260lbs, and well on track to eating my way to 300lbs. I feel about food much in the same way an alcoholic would feel about beer, but maybe a little more so. Today, December 21, 2011, marks the point when the scale said 220lbs. I've probably also lost around 3 inches to my waist. Maybe a little more.
My goal was to hit that before Christmas. It's a few days early, but present Scott would like to thank past Scott for making a me positive decision. Present Scott really dislikes the word diet, prefers it to me more permanent, and will keep endeavouring to make me positive decisions. Hopefully future Scott can continue to enjoy being not obese, and having clothes that don't press uncomfortably against his belly. The fact that I don't consistently shove large amounts of delicious sugar based items into my mouth are in part due to my lovely wife Niki. If you would like to see a couple of examples of the food we have been eating, you can check it out at Niki's blog "The Slow Carbavore". That is about it, I encourage anyone to start making "you positive" decisions, it feels great. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Cheers,
Scott

Less mass density. mmm pie.

New York City

At the beginning of November, Niki and I flew to NYC for a Tim Minchin concert. Just for the weekend, a sort of whirlwind trip. It was fantastic, I love New York, and can see why people would live there. I would live there. It's a huge city, with everything you would ever want or need, with almost a small town feel. The people are friendly, and so many little shops and businesses. It's odd, whenever I travel I feel like the people should be different. I don't mean, like another culture or something, I mean different like in aliens from outer space different. This always leads to a little shock and sadness when they are just like us, but with accents and odd customs.

The Friday night we arrived was the Tim Minchin concert. He was witty, funny, touching, and a great artist. Everything a person would want in a concert. He sang all the songs I wanted to hear, and few I didn't know, but am very glad he included. Minchin did two encores, and led the entire theatre in singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah". He said he loved travelling America, getting large groups of atheists together, then getting them to sing Hallelujah. That got a good laugh. The crowd singing was actually a very beautiful moment. After the show we waited around to get my DVD/CD combo signed. He was very gracious, though limited in time, and signed all he could. I got to say a few words, nothing embarrassing as is usual when a person meets someone they admire, and he even gave me a spontaneous hug. The whole trip was worth that one concert, and if you can ever see the man in concert, I highly recommend him.

Saturday was our day to check out the American Museum of Natural History and Central park. After the Minchin concert, AMNH was by far my favourite stop. I especially loved the "Hall of Human Origins". I talked to a PhD fellow about the mixing of Neanderthal DNA and human, saw lots of fossils, and generally went a little science crazy. The Fossil Hall seemed like it would never end, with giant turtles and even an Albertosaurus. It was fantastic. We only spent about four hours there, but a person could spend days. It alone could be a reason for a person to love NYC. After the museum we walked back to our Hotel via a lovely walk through central park. Stopped by Strawberry fields. We were lucky, as we didn't realize it, but Sunday was the NYC Marathon, so everything would have been closed off or really crowded. Our hotel, which was very nice, was close to Time Square, so we spent a lot of time walking to or from it, catching the subway there and whatnot. Saturday evening we checked out a comedy show at The Comic Strip. The comedians were funny, but unfortunately a few in the crowd did not know how to be a good audience. Hint, when you are at a comedy club, if you do or say anything but drink and laugh, you are a tool. We grabbed a pizza slice on the way back to the hotel.

Sunday was our walking and Broadway day. We meandered from our hotel, down through Little Italy, China Town, occupy wall street, Wall Street, and finally Battery Park. It was a lovely, albeit tiring, walk. I ate like a pig all weekend, had a mini pie every day, and didn't gain a pound. I didn't see many overweight people walking around, and I think I know why. If you live in Manhattan, you walk. Lots. The Lion King we saw at night. It was a great show and deserves all the accolades it has received. We even met a performer in Starbucks before the show. He noticed my poppy, as he was originally from Toronto. Asked what we were up to, and we said Lion King. He laughed and said he would be "2nd wildebeest on the left". Very nice fellow, wish I had taken a picture with him. We capped the weekend off with a visit to 30 Rock and going to the top of Empire States Building.

That is a quick summation of the weekend. It was a great trip, and I could probably type for pages on all the little reasons I love NYC. I suggest just planning a trip there yourself. More pictures below. :-)
Cheers,
Scott

August and Wedding Tips from Moose Jaw

The month of August has ended. This summer has gone by way too fast. I turned 32 sometime in there, which was a shocking reality. Niki had a book printed of all our blog posts so far, as my present. It's nice being able to turn the pages, see all the pictures and what we've done since we got married. Speaking of married, we went to Moose Jaw for a wedding of our friend Colin and his beautiful lady Kimberly. Even though we don't get to see him much, Colin is one of my favourite people. It was a very fun trip. The hotel we stayed at happened to be the location of the last Peter Gzwoski morning-side broadcast. Which made me all sorts of excited! My favourite morning side episode is his interview with Carl Sagan. I strongly recommend listening to it. We did the Chinese tunnel tour. Canada was not so nice to Chinese immigrants, holy racist batman! If you can ever do the tour, we highly recommend it. Most of all the wedding was great, the way weddings should be. I laughed a little more than usual, as Colin is prone to make me do. Fortunately, he didn't giggle uncontrollable through his vows. Thankful for that, would hate to be at a wedding where the groom did that...*cough* *cough*

Anyhoo, sad to see summer slowly winding down. Going back to my birthday, on that fine day, we ate some super hot wings, saw a fringe show, and generally had a good time. My car decided to catch fire. Saturday had a nice, it was my birthday, visit with the Klassens. As my womb evacuation day was on a Wednesday, we had a get together at my parents on Sunday, where Niki made a chocolate/raspberry trifle. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. My favourite liquor store in the whole world also imported some beer I had been requesting from Denmark, so I drank that. All in all, a good month. September is gearing up to be even better, with Lindsay(sis-in-law) arriving tomorrow, so I should get back to cleaning the house.
Cheers,
Scott
PS - As always, more pictures can be had by clicking on this link and going to our Picasa pictures. 
PPS - Here is a video of very special song being sung at the wedding. It's apparently a tradition. I would say it's the best tradition ever. Unfortunately, I didn't get the whole explanation on why it's a tradition.

Edmonton Folk Music Festival 2011

The Secret Sisters

The Hill from the top

Mr Matt Andersen

Deep Fried Oreos

Our favourite fellow volunteers

     For the second year Niki and I volunteered as Liaison Security for the EFMF. It was fantastic. I had forgotten how much fun it was. The constant music, the colour of the hill filled with tarps and people, the food, and the general fun atmosphere. If you have never been, I suggest planning for next year. Tickets sold out in two hours this year, so it will definitely take planning. Or you can just try and volunteer like us. They feed you and you get to go to the volunteer party afterwards. Delhi to Dublin played this years party on Friday night, and we had so much fun dancing to their music. Made us instant fans. Niki and I also had dinner with Peter Brown one night in the volunteer tent. We very much enjoy his radio stylings and humour, so that was a treat. I was very excited, but tried to be cool. On top of hosting Radio Active, he is the producer of CBC's 'The Irrelevant Show'.
If you asked me for a quick list of my favourite performers from this year, I would say: Matt Andersen,  Brandi Carlile, KT Tunstall, Delhi To Dublin, and The Secret Sisters. I could name quit a few more, but those are the ones at the top of mind. I would suggest going to these artists web pages, and if they come to your town, go see them. Matt Andersen gave me goose bumps and no one does a Johnny Cash cover like Brandi Carlile. More pictures can be found here.
Cheers,
Scott

Edmonton Sunset

Hovan's Birthday Trip

All our tix

At the beginning of June I went to Victoria for a little trip to visit my friend Hovan, for his birthday. He's a proud new father, and as such doesn't get out much anymore. For his birthday his lovely wife let us watch movies, play video games, and generally do the things working and parenting full time don't let you do. We ended up seeing every movie playing at Silver City in Victoria. Hangover II was probably my least favourite, while I enjoyed all the others. That's a picture of all the movie tickets. The island seems to be fertile ground, so I also got to see some new babies, and see some about to be new babies. Feeling the baby who was going to be Niko move around inside my friend Yarrow was amazing. I've never felt a baby move around like that before, it was brilliant. All in all it was a good trip, and I am very much looking forward to Christmas when we get to go out there again. We did a stop at Phillips Brewery in Victoria too. They do this thing called a growler, and I got one and brought it back to Edmotnon. Alley Kat fills it up for me when needed, so that has me pretty happy. As always, more pictures can be found at my picasa albums.
Cheers,
Scott

Months of Photos

It's been a long winter, but spring is here. I've finally gotten around to putting up pictures of our last few months. A lot has happened. We went to Mexico, where our camera got stolen. Sad day. There was curling, Said the Whale and Tokyo Police Club, lots of board games, visits from friends, Logicon, a trip to Victoria to see friends and family. Many good times. The lack of a camera has been a bummer. Oh oh oh, I held baby turtles!! They are so cute. It was definitely the highlight of Mexico, especially since it was the wrong time of year to see baby turtles.
Just for you Brad, the victory shot of Rhonda after she DESTROYED us all at settlers last weekend. The caps was justified.

The viking helmet only gets worn by winners.
Here's the links to pictures of the last few months.

Make it stop

     The snow just won't stop. Although not a record breaker, no one has seen this much snow fall in awhile. My parents left for Hawaii just as it all started, the stinkers. I'm just really tired of shoveling, and hearing people on the Wimpy Coast say how cold and snowy it is. When you have temperature highs above zero and know your snow will melt shortly, keep your opinions to yourself please. I do like the cold in some ways though, and if I had a snow blower, I don't think I would care about the constant snowfall.

The new year has started off well otherwise, Irwin and Rita Harder stopped by Edmonton, so there was a mini Homewood get together. It was thoroughly enjoyable. Niki was unable to come as she had the cold that I gave her. Such a bad husband. Avoid the cold going around if you can, it seems to be one that likes to stick around for a couple of weeks.
I've uploaded some more pictures from December to our picasa albumns, 2010 ended well, we even got to see Santa.
Stay warm and drive safe,
Scott