There's a Robot in the Office

On Wednesday August 17, 2016 I worked all day, then enjoyed yummy Blue Apron burgers made by Rachel for dinner. If you don't know, Blue Apron is a meal service that sends you fresh ingredients and a recipe to cook those ingredients with. It is nice because everything you need is already portioned out and included in the package. The bad thing is that they claim: "it will take 20 minutes to prep and 20 minutes to cook" but whenever we cook one it always takes 90 minutes to 2 hours for us to finish and eat. Great food and tastes though, so many flavors! We watched Mr. Robot episode 4 of season 2. Getting good.

Song of the Week: It's Different For Girls by a band that I thought was a new Indie band, but after researching has been around since 1996. of Montreal.

Thursday August 18, we had another Blue Apron dinner. This one was catfish and it was quite enjoyable as well. Thanks to Rach for cooking it up once again. I believe this was only the second time having catfish, the first time being back with Andrew Mewborn and John at Swamp Guinea in Georgia back in summer of 2008. Oh yeah, here is a photo of that.

Rachel and I watched episodes 5 and 6 of Mr. Robot season 2 that evening before calling it a night. The next day on August 19th, a Friday, I had McDonald's for lunch and ended up working pretty late. When I got to my parents house I watched season 1 of The Office with Beth while having a few PBRs and doing laundry. Slept at my parents obviously.

Saturday August 20, I had McDonald's for lunch, again, wow I am unhealthy. I had to work in the morning that day and when I finished I headed back over to my parents and grilled Italian sausages and potato slices for my parents and Beth for dinner. Beth and I ended up watching half of season 2 of the office on this day. After I finished eating I headed over to New Lenox where I hit up The Bulldog restaurant bar with Jordan (Michele's bf) and Cory (Ashley's fiance). They had been there for a couple of hours as all of our ladies were at Mary's bridal shower. After a couple of drinks, the girls arrived and we had a fun night. Rachel and I drove back to her parents around midnight and spent the night there.

On the morning of Sunday August 21st, Rachel and I headed down to Kankakee to visit Rachel's Grandpa. We had lunch and enjoyed a little over 3 hour visit with him. Afterwards we headed to the cemetery to meet up with my family for my Grandpa's 10 year death anniversary (blog about Grandpa here). Rachel and I then stopped at target on our way home. We spent about 2 hours shopping around and I put the Cartwheel app to good use, coming up with $8 of savings. Woo! We had a productive night around the apartment doing some organizing and cleaning. We still can't figure out why we are only productive once the sun goes down though... We were up until at least midnight again, we stay up too late.

Monday August 22nd, the start of another week. After work I cooked up some Trader Joe's kung pow chicken for dinner. My computer is really pissing me off, and it sucks (read about how it is super frustrating here). I am in the process of backing it up again on a new external hard drive and we will see if it works this time. Mr. Robot episode 7 was mind blowing! Whoa! That was just insane! If you aren't watching Mr. Robot you need to start now! Season 1 is on Netflix and season 2 is currently being aired on live TV. That night Rachel and I cleaned and organized around the apartment a little bit.

Another day another cavity, on Tuesday August 23rd, I visited the dentist to get that filling that was previous filled, filled again. These teeth are rough. I listened to the second episode of Up and Vanished. The podcast I talked about last week about a missing girl from Georgia. Decent episode. That night I got home late from work, called it a night.

TV Shows of the Week: The Office and Mr. Robot - both on Netflix. Get on it. This is actually my first time watching the office all the way through, hilarious as always. And oh look at that screen shot from Mr. Robot season 2, it's Darryl from The Office.

Inspiration of the Week: YouTuber Casey Neistat, who vlogs about his daily life and also makes short movies. He is one of the few YouTubers where I will actually watch 10+ minute videos all the way through. The amount of work he puts into each video and the details are something that seem to be unmatched by anyone right now. From using cool gadgets, to drone footage, to time lapses, to pulling off crazy stunts. He does it all! I have only recently started watching his stuff, but have really been enjoying it. His story of sticking to what he loves and working hard for it is very cool. His hard work has given me new ideas and plans for this website, my YouTube channel, and my blogs. Hopefully I can put some of them to use soon. I honestly don't know how he manages to have ideas for a daily video, film everything, edit the video, and post them daily.  Here is one of his most recent videos with a visit to Chicago as he drives his son across the country for the start of college. Be sure to check out his channel and watch his vids.

Video of the Week: This cool mashup of a bunch of movies (230 to be exact) singing The Offspring's Pretty Fly (For a White Guy).

A few more blogs will be coming in the next week or so. Keep your eyes peeled.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

 

Josh

Tournament Champions & a 10-0 Start

On Tuesday April 21st, I hit up the dentist and found out I had 3 cavities. Unsure how this is possible since I have had all of my teeth filled multiple times, racking up well over 50 cavities over a lifetime. We took a bus to our first away game of the year and won a close 6-4 match at the top of the hill.

Deer tick is making new music! Hell yes! The boys are back in the studio. Get pumped.

Wednesday April 22nd, began with a trip back to the dentist to have those 3 cavities filled. After three practices, I headed home to Chicago and got some Renaldi's pizza with Rachel for dinner. A lovely little mid week city date with some tasty pizza and a beverage. Summer Shandy because in Chicago, it is always summer...

On Thursday April 23th, we played the arch rivals WV and dominated with a 12-4 win, putting us at 9-0 on the year. It was good to see and play against players I had coached last year for FV. Filmed the varsity game after, check the footage below. I had some Giordano's deep dish pizza for dinner thanks to the fam. Tasty. Sleep on.

Friday April 24th started with some donuts, I had 3 with sprinkles, fat. I had some left over pizza from Renaldi's for lunch and then hit up practice. After, my family went to Wings and Rings for a tasty dinner. I had a lovely burger with a shandy for dinner. We watched some ACC college lax on tv. Good family times!

Saturday April 25th proved to be a busy day. It started with another win for the cats in the pouring rain. 10-0 on the season. Good start so far. Immediately after the game, I shed my wet clothes and drove up to Milwaukee for a FV tournament. My teams played well and my 8 grade boys ended up winning the whole thing. We got medals, no trophy. Great for the kids, but lame for us coaches. We want the trophazz. I then drove back to Chicago to celebrate Rachel's Bday at our place by having a little party. It was gonna be a chill night for me, but then I found out my 2 games for Sunday morning got cancelled. Time to rage. I ended up meeting 2 folks from Ireland and showed them my Ireland photobook. I am so cool. We hit up LP Stadium since Gas Light was at capacity and jammed out to Deer Tick on the juke box. Loved it. Our waitress knew the song, "These Old Shoes" and danced to it with us. Great night.

On Sunday April 26th, after being awoken by a phone call to reschedule the lax games, I picked up some McDonald's for Rach and I, but was a bit upset when I saw the price of the McDouble has risen to $1.45 and the McChicken to $1.19. The McChicken spokesman is on the verge of heading elsewhere for his dollar deals. Unbelievable. I had to drive out to Wheaton for the game and ended up just reffing it myself because no refs showed up. What a waste of time. At least the weather was nice. Once back at our place, I finally figured out how to work our patio grills. No propane, no charcoal. All I had to do was turn on the grill. The gas must be fed straight from the building. Only took us 8 months to figure it out. Alright! Rachel and I grilled some tasty burgers and asparagus that evening. We also met our neighbors Jason and Kristin who were also grilling. Yay neighbors. We watched Mad Men while enjoying our food.

Monday April 27th a pretty basic day. Had work, then practices and then ate some soup. Beth and I redboxed, The Theory of Everything, a Stephen Hawking documentary. It was a pretty good movie in which I actually learned a fair amount about Hawking's early life and his development of ALS. I highly suggest this movie, for the acting of Eddie Redmayne was phenomenal. And you guessed it, it is the movie of the week!

Video of the Week: The boys are back! Get excited with this Deer Tick live concert from NY

3 more games for the cats ahead, as well as more for the kids. Lax on

Josh

Shut it Down, Eat Some Pizza

On Tuesday October 14th, I picked up a free Nancy's Deep Dish Sausage Pizza and ate it for dinner while watching house of cards with Rachel. Cost $1.65. Thanks Rachel and the Ditka Dash!

Wednesday October 15th. I finished Devil in the White City on tape, a great book. It was cool to read about Chicago in the past, the World's Fair, and even the serial killer HH Holmes. I plan to do a little more research on the history of Chicago, and I am starting by reading (listening) to The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. That evening I started to watch the show Dexter as well. Had some Nancy's Pizza for dinner. No surprise there.

A day later, on Thursday October 16th, I went to the dentist and had no cavities, but braces? Really Doc, come on man. You know it's quality of my current teeth that allows me to get all the ladies, and makes me known in the film industry. It's Ya Boy and he ain't ever getting braces, not even invisaline son. Went shopping for groceries and found out that there are 2 different kinds of tuna, west coast and east coast. Bumblebee is from the west coast and starkiss is form the east coast. Thanks for the knowledge kind Jewel Osco lady.

I also found out why Zebrahead sounded a bit different at the concert. Their lead singer changed in 2005 and almost all of the songs I like are from before 2005. It starts to make sense now why it sounded different and they played more of their new stuff. Check out this video from their show at House of Blues (Cali) back in 2003. I wish I was there for that. Amazing.

That day at work, I had pizza again, this time Jet's Pizza for lunch. Hit up the store for fresh food on the way home and got a good workout in. Rachel and Becca got home from their work outing and we ordered pizza, once again. Sarpino's this time. At least I am mixing up the pizza companies right? That is my last 5 meals of pizza.

On Friday October 17 I got a solid workout in the morning, then headed over to my brother's house to visit the family. The new baby boy was cute and sleepy, napping the whole time I held him. Although I did hear some grumbling down below if ya know what I mean. Sophia was crawling under couches in a diaper and running around the house. Wild child. To no one's surprise, I had left over Nancy's deep dish pizza for lunch yet again. A 6th straight pizza meal. A lax mom hooked me up with some hot chocolate again that evening. Different mom this time, but amazing. Thanks! That evening the family loaded up Jcubed videos to watch on the big tv with our latest Roku purchase. Oh so many great memories and videos. Good family time. One of my favorites and a classic from the night.

Saturday October 18th I went up to Michigan to close it up with my Aunt Ruth. We cleaned up some beds, blew water out of some pipes with an air compressor, and drank a handful of beers while grilling some chicken. The grill was pretty moldy so I also had to clean the grill off before and after the meal! We found a couple of mice living in the bonfire pit in a bag from earlier in the summer. Perhaps you can spot the mouse in the snapshot to the right. We grilled up barbecue chicken for dinner and I learned a little trip about chicken and indirect heat. Always indirect grill your chicken, it may take a little longer, but the chicken will not blacken and will be oh so juicy. Also get your chicken thighs, for they are the juiciest compared to a breast. We headed back home after dark, but I was able to snap a couple of quick photos while up there. One being of the trailer during the fall, which I am not sure I have ever seen. And the other photo was of the night sky. Quite the amount of stars! Not as many or as clear as Colorado, but a decent shot.

When I got home that night, I was pretty tired and fell asleep before midnight.

On Sunday October 19th, after a day of watching some football, editing some videos, and getting another workout in, Rachel and I made a delicious dinner. Grilled and breaded chicken covered with cooked apple slices and cooked onions. All simmered for about 15 minutes and then served over some butter noodles. Delicious. 

On Monday October 20th, I had a chest and back workout in the morning and went in to work. After work I had some hangout time with John, Squid, and Izzy. A little monday night football to end the week. Then John and I walked about the town, checking out a local graveyard, a bit spooky, but saw the graves of many forefathers in the area, including those that our elementary school was named after. When then walked across town like a couple of old people, and saw the best Halloween decorations the area has to offer, a yard full of hundreds and hundreds of fake graves, statues, ghosts, ghouls, dead people, pumpkins, and more. Awkwardly ran into a guy we went to high school with who lives in the house next door, but managed to avoid eye contact and say few words, and then quickly made our way home.

A week of parties ahead. See you then playas.

Josh.