The 2017 100 Wrap-Up: 31 Successes.

Last updated on April 30th, 2021 at 04:56 pm

Several weeks, a few dozen photos and four thousand words later, we’ve finally made it—the Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad 2017 wrap-up, filled with stories aplenty of 365 days spent in my not-so-orthodox life.

After wrapping the year up on a quiet note (because two sick children under five will do that to you), I still felt it necessary to do this. These year-to-year changeovers offer a lot of perspective for me—with so much happening all the time, I often forget what I had for breakfast, so I write everything down. And if the height of the pile on my desk is any sign, 2017 was quite the year. But it’s also the time where I’m the most transparent, looking back objectively at everything I’ve done and celebrating successes, owning up to failures, hoping all the while that I’m somehow growing from the process.

But yeah—let’s do this as we did in 2016: look at the year in excruciating detail, figuring out what’s worth taking with me into 2018 versus what doesn’t feel part of my world anymore.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me present—the 31 things I did well in 2017! Let’s get it!

Quaker State Motor Oil Review

Last updated on April 2nd, 2021 at 07:41 pm

Disclaimer: Collective Bias, Inc. and Quaker State compensated me for this post, but I also learned a heckuva lot through the experience! You can catch more of what they’re up to on their website, or their Facebook and Twitter accounts! All tools supplied by myself were purchased at Walmart Canada.

But yes, the opinions are mine alone—if you’re looking for me, you can find me over here getting my grown-up on, learning what I can to do this “adulting” thing like a champ! You can catch me on my Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube accounts!

#OilChange #CollectiveBias


I wouldn’t exactly call my upbringing “sheltered”, but there were a number of things around the house that my parents usually took care of, not really trusting my brothers and I to manage them correctly. Cooking meals. Hanging Christmas lights. Mowing the lawn. As children, our focus was to do well in our studies so we could perform well in our adult lives… but adult Casey realizes in retrospect that perhaps he needed more balance.

School doesn’t teach us everything*—it doesn’t teach us how to manage a household budget so we don’t suffer the ills of credit card debt; it doesn’t teach us how important it is to invest early to secure a better future. Adulthood is rife with so many curveballs and undocumented lessons that it often takes us decades to get our acts together, forever learning on the fly how to do things that’ll improve our lives.

And for me, changing my oil was yet another skill to add to the list.

Subway Canada | Another Shot at Carl’s Crew

Last updated on April 5th, 2021 at 10:12 pm

If you’ve followed the blog a while, you’ll probably remember Carl’s Crew with Subway Canada, an initiative I ran with last spring that saw me utterly fail at making changes to improve my life, focusing on nutrition, fitness and changing my paradigm to make more time for things that really matter. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do it—I’m just perpetually hopeless at making my health a priority, something I should really consider changing with a son who’ll probably want me around for many years yet, and his little brother who I hope will want the same.

However — though I’d never shortlist for fittest blogger of the year, I’m not shy to recognize my issues for what they are, and Subway Canada’s been generous enough to offer a second chance at introducing some much-needed positive change in my life!

But this time it’ll be a little different.

Playing With Myself (in a G-Rated Way!)

Last updated on April 6th, 2021 at 12:53 pm

There’s a game I play every time I come back to Mississauga. It doesn’t really have a name, but the goal is always the same. It’s really simple. Here’re the rules:

You either WIN or you LOSE

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