First blog with the new format, which means I will only be covering larger events that happened during February. Let's start it off with Thursday February 2nd when Dario came to work and we strung up a Mikey Powell Voyce, McDonald's themed stick. Hot. Off to a great start of covering only larger events.
That night I picked up Rachel, Torie, and Nikki from Alex's place in Andersonville and drove everyone home. Chauffeur status.
The next day on Friday February 3rd, our new couch arrived and the guys who delivered it were so nice they helped me take down the old one to the garbage. Later that day I heard the garbage truck out the window and was able to capture the final moments the couch had before being violently crushed. Check out the Vlog to see it! During the day I watched the movie Crimson Peak directed by Guillermo Del Toro. A solid and spooky film. I met up with Rachel for dinner that evening at Hopcat where we enjoyed some pizza and beer. That night we watched the movie Groundhogs day, in honor of groundhogs day. I can't recall if I had actually seen this Bill Murray classic, but it was pretty funny. Check it on Netflix.
On Saturday February 4th, Rachel and I enjoyed steak lettuce wraps before meeting up with John, Melissa, and Beth at Begyle Brewing in Ravenswood. After enjoying a brew at Begyle, we walked down the street to Dovetail brewing and had a drink there as well. Cool little microbreweries right in the middle of a neighborhood. We finished the night off at Fountainhead, which is a restaurant/bar near where Beth lives that has a huge list of beers and liquors. I went with a whiskey flight for the end of the night. We stopped at Beth's place for a little bit before finally heading back to our place at 1:30a. John and Melissa slept over. Funny thing about this whole event was that Torie and Tim went to the same Breweries earlier in the day and we had no idea. Great minds think alike.
We began the next day, Sunday February 5th with a few breakfast sandwiches from McDonalds to enjoy our hangout session. Later that day, after prepping some food for our SuperBowl party, we headed to Mary and Jeff's for puppy bowl. It was the last time we were going to see Michele and Jordan for some time, as they will be moving to Dallas soon. After the hanging for the puppy bowl and saying our goodbyes to Michele and Jordan, we headed back to our place for the Super Bowl. Brian, Megan, Rachel's parents and Beth all came over for the game. The first half included the Falcons absolutely dominating and mostly everyone being happy. Beth made cupcakes, we had chili cheese dip, cookies, veggies, and some other snacks as well. In the second half, we witnessed what was probably the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, as the Patriots won in overtime after tying the game in the final seconds. Very fitting for this year's sporting events, as we saw the Cavs comeback down 3 games to 1 against the Warriors in basketball. The Cubs comeback down 3 games to 1 against the Indians. And now the Patriots coming back down 28-3 with 2 minutes left in the third quarter. Sports can be amazing sometimes. Crazy.
Wednesday February 8th was a significant day, as I decided to shave my mustache. It was a great run of about 2 1/2 months with the stache. It will be back my friends. After shaving the mustache, I met up with Rach and Becca at Benchmark for a couple of drinks in Old Town. We finished the night off at Angel's Burritos. Splitting a torta and quesadilla.
The following day Thursday February 9th I hit up Buffalo Wild Wings with a couple of my boys after work. Tasty and sweaty with the hot sauces.
Back to the weekend, Friday February 10th was another work from home. Around 5p I headed to Sarah and Colin's before heading to Lucky Strike to do some bowling for Alex's birthday. Bowling was fun, although in 2 hours we only got through about a game and quarter because there were 9 people in each lane, and I also bowled pretty terribly. But hey, bowling in the city! We grabbed some dinner at Chipotle after bowling and my stomach was super upset. Since I was in so much pain, I ended up catching the bus home, while Rachel stayed out with friends. Dumb stomach.
My stomach was feeling better the next day on Saturday February 11th. That night Rachel and I took an Uber over to Becca's for her going away party. She is moving to Arizona for a new job! After playing a few games with friends at her place, we headed out to the River North club, "Untitled." But unfortunately while I was waiting in line, they pulled me aside and said I was not allowed in because I was wearing white gym shoes. We tried to plead the case that it was Becca's last night and seriously? But no luck, so screw that place and we headed to Moe's Cantina instead. The night was super fun, but it is sad to say goodbye to another friend. Becca to Arizona, while Michele and Jordan are off to Texas. Looks like we have some new places to visit in the fall!
The next night, Sunday February 12th, I drove up to Evanston to catch the Robert Ellis (and Jenny O) show at Space in Evanston. Pretty dope and tiny venue in the back of a restaurant. I met John and Melissa there, and also met a coworker of John's as he came to the show with his girlfriend too. Robert Ellis provided an awesome and comical show. He was wearing a NASA space themed suit to fit the venue and he played the guitar like a champ. After the show we met him and talked about seeing him open for Deer Tick in 2013, as well as seeing him at Ancora Coffee in Madison in summer of 2015. He was a really nice and chill guy, very humble. After the show we parted ways and called it another successful weekend. I'll hopefully have his whole show up here (link soon).
February 15th was my Dad's birthday. Happy Birthday dad! My mom won my niece and nephew $10k for their school. Here is a picture of my mom accepting a thank you card from the class. Nice work mom!
On Friday February 17th, I picked Rachel up from work and we met my parents out at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. I had the ultimate nacho burger and a beer. Tasty. We hung out with my parents back at their house until about 11p, calling it a night.
The next morning, Saturday February 18th, I broke out my lacrosse ball collection, which has grown quite large over the years, in preparation for the 2017 season. Then around 11a we headed down to Kankakee to visit Rachel's grandpa. After an enjoyable lunch visit with Grandpa, we drove to my Grandma's to visit for dinner. She made my favorite for dinner, roladan. Yummm. We drove back to Chicago that night and hung out with Beth at our place.
Beth slept over that night, so the next morning Sunday February 19th, I drove her home before spending the early afternoon editing The Weeks concert I attended last February.
Valentine's Day was up on us. Rachel and I started our date night by going to see the new 50 Shades Darker movie. After the movie we headed over to Geja's Cafe Fondue restaurant in Lincoln Park. The dinner was by far the best food we have had since the honeymoon! Everything at this restaurant was fondue style. The actual start was a small garden salad, but that didn't include any fondue so let's skip ahead... So we started off with a cheese fondue accompanied by bread and fruit. The warm cheese on top of the fruit and bread was sooo rich and tasty. After the appetizer, we were brought out the main course. A platter of raw meats that we would cook ourselves in our boiling pot of soybean oil. Chicken, steak, lobster, scallops, and shrimp. Each had a specific time you would cook it for on your fondue stick and it was so succulent and tasty. My favorite was the lobster, just so damn good. The main course also came out with veggies like mushrooms, peppers, broccoli, and onions. After taking our time and enjoying all of the delicious meat, we were brought out the dessert fondue. Hot melted chocolate to dip our pineapple, apples, bread, bananas, and of course, marshmallows. After the best meal we have had in six months, we walked over to the J Parker rooftop bar at the top of the Lincoln Hotel. It wasn't a typical February day, so the rooftop was open and Rachel and I headed out to sit by the fire looking out at the city. We met some people from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Texas while we enjoyed a drink on the rooftop. What a great way to close out an amazing Valentine's Day. I love my wife Rachel!
We took the next day off of work, President's Day, Monday February 20th. My mom had won us 2 tickets to the Auto Show and Rachel and I had never been before, so we decided to check it out. I had also never been to McCormick place, despite driving under it almost every day. We took the "L" there and went straight for the Honda section. The new CRV and the new HRV were looking pretty cool. It is funny, we walked around the auto show looking at all the midsize SUVs as if we were planning for a family soon. Not quite yet, but we learned a great amount about the new vehicles of 2017 including the 3rd row seating that can be folded down, as well as the entire roof being glass in the back of some of the cars. We walked around pretty much the entire auto show for about 3 hours. It was a fun experience and I think we would do it again next year! Favorite cars were the Honda Pilot and Nissan Pathfinder. Can you guess who liked which?
We took an Uber home from the Auto Show and decided to get some Lou Malnati's pizza for dinner. We were planning on starting a new diet on this day, but chose to push it back by one more day.
The new diet began on Wednesday February 22nd. Rachel and I will be doing the Whole 30 diet which is a 30 day "cleanse". The diet basically prevents us from eating unhealthy carbs and anything processed. No bread, no dairy, no pasta, no rice, no beans for some reason, no artificial sugars, no chips, no pretzels, basically no snacking at all. So what can we eat? Meats, vegetables, fruits, and nuts. Seems like it may be doable.
Saturday February 25th Alex came over for Turkey Burgers (no bun of course, new diet) before we walked over to Matt and Caitlin's place for Matt's birthday. We played a fun game that connects to your phone called Quiplash before Rachel and I headed back home around midnight. Also be sure to check out The Weeks concert I went to on this day one year ago! Finally got around to finish editing it.
Rachel and I drove over to Beth's on Sunday February 26th for the Academy Awards. Beth made a tasty chili for us, as well as Austin, Christine, and Shanna. The awards were mostly going to LaLa Land, as they had a record tying 14 nominations. Rachel and I were getting pretty tired near the end of the night, this new diet is really throwing us off as we don't have a ton of energy, so we headed back to our place. The craziest part of the night was when they announced LaLa Land as the best picture. There was quite the delay before the award was announced, as the guy presenting the award seemed a little unsure if he was reading it right. The cast and crew came on stage and began giving their acceptance speeches. About 2 minutes in to this, someone grabbed the microphone and said, "Moonlight, come up here, you won best picture." And all of sudden the best picture belonged to Moonlight. What a turn of events! The guy who announced the award then explained how he delayed presenting it because it said, "Emma Stone, LaLa Land." Which was the winner of the award directly before Best Picture. They somehow gave him the same envelope. Mad confusion, but understandable on how this greatest mishap in Oscars history came to be. Good night!
The lacrosse season has officially begun. Monday February 27th was the first day of Cats Tryouts. This years tryout was about 50 degrees warmer than it was last year. It was about 50 degrees out and actually quite nice. We will be doing most of our practices at North Central College before we can use the grass fields. The squad is very talented this year and I believe will do big things. Excited for it all to come together. The focus is for practices to be at a faster pace, since I am officially now the 2nd longest tenured Coach in Neuqua history. Pretty crazy. They have had about 13 straight years of 1 and done coaches. I had 4 coaches when I was there, the guys after me did, the guys after them did, but I am back for a second straight season, making me the first back to back head varsity coach since 2003-2004. Let's do it. Go Cats.
I hope you enjoyed this new blog/vlog. Although now that I am done I realize it is very similar to the old format. Probably unrecognizably different to most. We will see what March brings, as I may change up the format once again.
Let's do it!
Josh