How to Quit Like a Man

For the first time in my life I quit. It was a significant milestone in my story and I felt like I was going into uncharted territory. It went against the way I'd been raised and it was uncomfortable- but it was the right thing to do. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, hopefully you'll find the things I learned to be helpful.

Compensating for Drift

Combat Weather Airmen practice land nav

This month I hit the land nav course as part of my training to be an Army officer. Somewhere along the way my battle buddy and I got pretty disoriented. [Enter 2nd Lieutenant joke here]. Okay, it happened a few times. In this article I'll share some practical knowledge about what I learned on how not to get lost and the correlations it made me think of in our own lives.

Date Night Dinner: Penne Rustica

Most of the time we eat to meet a need. Other times food is an art. This is one of the latter times. So whether you're looking to impress your woman, or you just appreciate good, quality food this is a recipe your mouth doesn't want to miss. In all fairness, this is a KTF knock off that fixes the mistakes of the original (i.e. you won't find any seafood in here). The original comes from Macaroni Grill, so you could just skip all this and go there but where's the fun in that? [Editor's note: Yep. That's about as mouth-watering as our photos get. Sorry it's not mommy blog quality, but KTF is looking for a photographer...]

Plans For a Custom Garage Workbench

The workbench is the heart of any shop. It reflects the worker using it, and it's quality impacts the quality of the parts being built. I've designed this bench from some great ideas others came up with- I picked the ones I liked and the result is this bench which is great for a garage or basement. It features a transportable miter saw table, a heavy duty assembly table, plenty of tool storage and it's compact design allows it to fit in the workspace you have. The table can be built on a tight budget and with just a few basic tools.

Movie Review: The Avengers

I've never read a comic book and I didn't see all of the prequels. Truth be told, I'm getting a little tired of the super hero themed movies so my expectations for this one weren't too high. With all that in mind, I didn't figure I'd be writing a review on this one so my journalism cap wasn't on. By the time I realized how awesome this movie was going to be, it was too late for objectivity. Consider this more of a: "Things Tim Thought Were Cool" vs. an actual review.

Making Couple Friends

Before I started dating Angela, I knew it was a done deal. That's a story in and of itself, but I was convinced she'd be the last person I would date. Turns out that's not entirely true. Now before you go spastic, let me explain. Eventually, there comes a point in your relationship when you come out of the magic pixie dust cloud and remember you actually need other friends. But the world is changed. Whether you're dating or married, you've made some level of commitment to your woman and that will impact what your other relationships in a big way- turns out the process of making friends with other couples is like dating all over again. Only it's more complicated.

Project Inspiration

Preview of the KTF Workbench Project

Recently I've been on a kick to build something. Anything. (Hence all the posts like this and this, and some of the ones that are in the works like how to build a workbench, and plans for a sweet man cave...) So before we go back to our regularly scheduled programming, I thought I'd share a neat tool I've found to help get all those mental masterpieces into a more tangible format.

Every Man's Slaughterhouse

For the modern cow, the transition from roaming the range to Big Mac is just another day in the life. It is so easy in fact, that the cow doesn't even see her demise coming. The process is designed to be as humane as possible, giving Bessie no reason to fret as she's taken to the chopping block. Moments later the butchering process begins and the spoils are sent around the world to carnivores like myself to enjoy. This isn't an article about my views on the morality of eating animals but something far more serious- just like cows, we can be lulled into a demise we didn't see coming.