Friend Making Monday

If you’ve taken part in Friend Makin’ Mondays before then you are familiar with the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to read and comment on a couple of other posts.

This week’s topic is ‘Feeling Fruity’

1. What is your favourite fruit?

I would say that my favourite fruit is Golden Delicious Apples

2. Is there a fruit that you really really don’t like?

Asian pears!  Ugh gross!

3. If you could only drink one fruit juice for the rest of your life, what flavour would it be?

Apple juice I guess.  I don’t really drink juice at all unless you count Poweraide Zero

4. Tomatoes – fruit or vegetable?

Tomatoes are a fruit because the seeds are on the inside.

5. How many portions of fruit do you eat a day?

Usually I have fruit at least once a day since it is dessert at daycare for lunch, and then we usually have it as part of snack too

6. if you were making a smoothie what fruits would you add?

Strawberries and bananas, why mess with perfection?

7. Are you allergic to any fruits?

Nope!

8. Do you have a favourite fruit recipe? Feel free to share the recipe with us.

Of my own? Banana bread I guess.

9. Do you have any fruits that are local to your area?

Ontario grows Apples and pears and peaches and such I believe, but I don’t know of any local orchards.

10. What is your favourite fruit pie?

I would say Strawberry / Rhubarb pie, but technically strawberries are not a fruit, they are a berry, so Apple.

Now it’s your turn to answer the questions. Don’t forget to come back here and leave a link to your post in the comments, so we can check out everyone’s answers.

Have a great day

When No One Is Watching…

Yesterday I got home from work and went for a bike ride.  It was a bit windy, but I had just run the previous morning and so I wanted to change it up.  I always find it helpful to get out and do something after a stressful day at work.  It helps to clear my head, and to be able to go in to work the next day with a better outlook.  With that in mind, now that I work with children all day I go ride my bike or run or workout or whatever alone, where no one is asking me questions and I don’t have to teach anything.

Amber wasn’t home for the evening last night either so after an hour of bike riding I quickly made dinner and then went into town to pick up a book and as I was driving I felt like if I was quick I could do some more at home even.  Without Amber there I could basically do whatever I want, and not feel like I was losing time with her.  This is pretty much my fitness plan for when we have the kids here.  Get up early still, and while Amber is just moseying around getting ready and they are hopefully still asleep, I will go run/bike/workout that way I still get my time to be all fitnessy and I don’t have to do it at the expense of family time.  I might be way off with this plan, especially if the baby still has colic when she comes, but it is the plan heading into the whole adventure.

So I got home from town and thought, there is nothing on TV I want to watch right now, I have nothing on the PVR that I’m dying to watch, it’s beautiful outside.  I’m going to go run 9K.

So I did, I put on shorts and a shirt and out I went again to do about another 46 minutes of working out simply because I could.

When no one is watching – I do fitness.

Batman’s 75th Give Away

Like I said, giveaway, but not here, over on The Mighty Chrispy blog!  Check it out here!

The Mighty Chrispy’s Batman 75th giveaway!

Enter for a chance to win:

A copy of Batman: Gotham Knight on DVD

Trailer here:

And this Original Art that I have:

Two pretty cool things that can be yours very easily.

Happy 75th Birthday Batman

it’s been long known around here that I am a Batman fan.  He’s been mentioned at least a dozen times on this blog.  And so for his 75th birthday I thought I would just suggest to you that you might want to go check out a few of what I consider to be the best Batman stories that I have.  I know you are busy, I’ll keep the list just to five.

 

5. The Long Halloween

The Long Halloween is heavily influenced by film noir and films such as The Godfather. The series continues the story of Carmine Falcone introduced in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Set early in Batman's career a few months after the events of Year One, the story revolves around the gradual transition of Batman's rogues' gallery from simple mob goons to full-fledged supervillains. It is also the origin of Two-Face. As the story unfolds, Carmine Falcone hires "freaks" (Poison Ivy, the Riddler, the Scarecrow, and the Mad Hatter) in an attempt to stop the Batman and restore power back to the family, only to discover that the freaks are more powerful than he expected.

4. Batman: Year One

Bruce Wayne returns home to Gotham City from training abroad in martial arts, man hunting, and science for the past 12 years, and James Gordon moves to Gotham with his pregnant wife, Barbara, after a transfer from Chicago. Both are swiftly acquainted with the corruption and violence of Gotham City.

The animated adaption of this is one of the few animated Batman movies I have ever gotten Amber to watch! But it’s also kind of slow paced with not gigantic action sequence, more of a character story witch is what she likes.

According to IGN it is one of the most important graphic novels ever written.

3. Batman: Hush

Hush is a 2002-2003 comic book story arc that ran through the Batman monthly series. It was written by Jeph Loeb, penciled by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Williams and colored by Alex Sinclair. The story depicts a mysterious stalker called Hush, who seems intent on sabotaging Batman from afar, and it includes a large number of guest appearances by Batman villains. It also emphasizes the romantic feelings between Batman and Catwoman.

I finally bought this book mid 2011 I think and reading it was what really got me back in to comics.  It’s a fantastic story with really great Jim Lee art.  After reading this and hearing that DC was doing all new #1 books, I signed up for a subscription! and have been collecting since!

2. The Dark Knight Returns

The Dark Knight Returns is a 1986 four-issue comic book miniseries starring Batman, written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Miller and Klaus Janson, and published by DC Comics. When the series was collected into a single volume later that year, the story title for the first issue was applied to the entire series. The Dark Knight Returns tells the story of Bruce Wayne, who at 55 years old returns from retirement to fight crime and faces opposition from the Gotham City police force and the United States government.

So many people list this as their favourite Batman book of all time.  I don’t simply because the art is not all that great, the story is however, amazing!  There is an animated adaption of this book as well, also amazingly good.

1. Death of the Family

"Death of the Family" is a 23-issue comic book story arc first published by DC Comics in 2012 featuring the fictional superhero Batman and his family of supporting characters. The arc spans several titles featuring characters of the Batman family including: Batman, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Catwoman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Suicide Squad, and Teen Titans. The story involves the return of Batman's arch-enemy, the Joker, and his plan to destroy all of the people Batman has come to rely on over the years: the multiple Robins, Batgirl, Catwoman, Alfred Pennyworth and Commissioner James Gordon. The title is a reference to the classic Batman story arc "A Death in the Family" (1988), in which the Joker murders Jason Todd.

The most current one on the list and an amazing story as well, if not a little bit twisted.  Snyder writes and Capullo draws a fascinating Joker.  A really great read!

Stay turned later today for a giveaway!!

Also check out The Mighty Chrispy for a Batman comic that I am writing and drawing!

Morning Run

Over the last few weeks I have switched shifts a few times here at work.  I regularly have the early 7-4 shift and while that is awesome for pretty much everything else, it’s not so great for fitness type stuff.  Especially in the summer time.

Each of the mornings that I have switched shifts I have made a point of making use of the time and heading out for a run.  The air is much cooler and the sun is only peeking through the trees and so I makes for a very enjoyable bit of time to be out and getting some work in. 

A lot of days it’s an amazing benefit to be able to have that switch, like today.  By the time I go home today it’s going to be about 30ºC (about 86ºF) and it would be blazing hot in the sunshine.  So today it was awesome to get the run in early!

This is something I am going to attempt to be able to do for the rest of August and part of September.

When do you like to run?  In the coolness of a morning, or the blistering heat of the afternoon?

The Comic Book Store

You’d think as a 34 year old man I’d scoff at the idea of going to the comic book store.  That as a guy that plays hockey and teaches karate and ‘does fitness’ I’d be more in the group of folks that mock those that traffic the comic book store.

Quite the opposite.

I think now that I am who I am, I am even more confident about being in there.  But I also wonder if that idea that like fat, lazy, lonely guys are the only ones that read comics is gone thanks to fact that movies about comics have pretty much taken over the theater and are generally seen as awesome.

The Store I go to on the regular is Dixon’s Books.  It’s an older couple that owns and runs the store and they are nice and welcoming.  Jeff’s cards and comics one street over on the other hand seems completely unwelcoming and in fact a bit condescending.  Dixon’s has my business, Mrs. Dixon (I assume) seems to be about 80 and she chats me up like my grandma would, is eager to give me things that are on the counter and generally makes my experience enjoyable.

To be fair I haven’t been actually going to the comic store for all that long.  I mean I have been into Silver Snail in Toronto a few times a year since I was in University (so about 15 years now).  most of the comics I have now are volumes of the New 52 from DC that I bought from Chapters online because it’s a 34% discount!  It’s kind of a pain to be about 6-8 months behind the monthly printed version, but far cheaper.  I do get Batman and Nightwing (now Grayson) in the mail each month though.

I didn’t make a point of going to the store until the guys that made me love The Flash, Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato, started working on Detective Comics. With how good their run and the Flash was (and still is for me since I’m months behind as mentioned above) I couldn’t wait that long to get me hands on their work on the Batman.

I really don’t get why comics get a bad rap, that people scoff at them as ‘just for kids’ or at least that has been the case in the past I guess.  they have such amazing and varied art styles!

And they have really great, fun and intelligent stories.  Pick up any book by Scott Snyder, or Geoff Johns and you’ll see what I mean.

There is such a variety of comics as well.  If you are not into superheroes there are still westerns, romance, mystery and comic versions of best seller books and movies as well. 

They are a fantastic tool for learning to read, or learning a second language, in fact it’s how Jim Lee, artist and now Co-publisher of DC learned how to read English (he’s from Korea)!

Comics are great! And you should go to the Comic store, and if you are in Peterborough, you should go to Dixion’s Books!

The Brighter They Are, The Faster They Go

I bought new runners on the weekend and when I showed them to Amber she commented that they were very colourful.  I said, ‘I Know, that’s how you know they are fast!’

Yeah that’s right the colour makes you faster.  She was sceptical.  I knew it was a fact.

Today it was really cool in the morning and somehow I convinced myself that it was actually really cool even by the time I got home from work and so I put on my new shoes and ran up the trail and back, 7.3K.  My previous best time this year for this was 37:35, my time tonight was 36:11!  was it because I had the new super colourful shoes on or was it because I was trying to run really fast to make my statement true?  Who knows.  What I can say for sure is that the new shoes felt like I had almost nothing on my feet, so much lighter!

I’ve heard so many times that the shoes don’t make you better, and as long as you have suitable footwear for what you are doing I kind of agree with that.  However, today, this change made the difference!

So It’s Been A While Huh?

It has been months since I have been typing here and ‘Why is that?’ you ask.  Well mainly because my time has been filled with way too many things to be able to sit back and type.  The main part of that is that the spring was such a slow time, with cold crappy weather.  I’ve been making up for lost time in a big way.

Biking like mad!  This year so far I’ve just got my mountain bike instead of my dad’s road bike, so I go a bit slower on average, but I’m working harder for my distances and times.  Considering all the time I lost with the weather and having two weeks so far being sick this year I’ve pretty much caught right back up with my distances from last year. 

I’ve ridden over 800km and run over 350km since the start of the year.  In fact today I just rode 38k, and it feels great!

There is of course other things besides the biking and running that have gotten in the way of writing.  We, that being Amber and I, have been going along the process of adopting a child (or two) and in the last month we’ve been tapped by the Children’s Aid Society to actually foster-to-adopt two little girls!  A one year old and a baby that will only be about 4 months maybe by the time we get her!   It’s going to be an amazing time here for sure!  I’ve already got the running stroller that switches to be a bike trailer as well so that I can take these little ladies out on bike trips.

This year I’ve also finally be watching the CFL, I’m pretty sure I put that idea forward last year but never followed through, this year I’ve watched quite a few games, hopefully I can get to a game or two before the season is over.

I’m hoping to have a bit more time to write again, and so, you’ll be hearing from me again soon!