First Birthday As a Married Man

July 1, 2016 - On this Friday, I took the day off and decided to head to the Will County Court office and get our Marriage License. Originally planned to get 10 of them, but the kind woman working told me that would be far too many. Ha! Rachel took the train to Naperville and that evening we drove out to the Ruffled Feathers Golf Course to attend our first wedding as a married couple. Jackie from Camp was getting married to Tyler and it was set to be a mathtastic wedding! It was a lovely night, the food was delicious, the friends were great, and the dancing was on point as the kids are saying these days. Solid first birthday as a married man! Congrats Jackie and Tyler!

Saturday July 2, We did a quick photo shoot at Rachel's parents house, and had some delicious burgers for lunch Rach's Dad cooked up. That night, Beth, Rachel, & I watched Jurassic Park 2 in our apartment. Vince Vaugn's breakout film if you didn't know.

We started the morning of Sunday July 3rd, by hitting up Stan's Donuts for the first time ever. I got some kaptain krunch donut, was a decadently filled treat. Beth and Rachel (and me a little) cooked up a pasta salad, coleslaw salad, and an all-american strawberry and blueberry cake for the party to be happening later in the day. We also ate some of that pasta salad and a bacon topped romaine lettuce food of sorts for lunch. After we had some grub we headed over to Sarah and Colin's new apartment downtown. They have a rooftop pool on floor like 30 which was amazing. I was the only brave soul to swim, but did so in elegant fashion. The party was hopping, with great drinks, snacks, food, and friends. Sarah made this amazing Jello watermelon vodka dessert. A tasty and fun way to enjoy the night. Check them photos.

On Monday July 4th, America! I celebrated by staying in the city and watching Jurassic World with Beth and Rachel. Afterwards we went and hung out with Mary and Jeff at the Fullerton grass/beach area all day, getting some sun and enjoying the view of the skyline. We then walked to a little place near the golf course close by to have some drinks/dinner. After stopping at Mary and Jeff's pad, and our place, we headed over to grassy area again to watch the Navy Pier fireworks with some more friends. They were a little underwhelming since they were so far away and the booms came long after the bright flashes of light, but it was still a solid show. We finished the night off like every night should be finished off in the city. At Frank's bar. Amazing place, everyone of the appropriate age should attend. Happy 4th of July everyone.

July 5th, Tuesday, After a days work I started Bloodline Season 2. Season 1 was top notch, pumped for season 2, although Squid tells me it is a little slower paced. 

Wednesday July 6th, is a very sad day for a very sad reason. A star of many Jcubed videos, a dearest friend, and the best dog I've ever known, Izzy, past away suddenly. It was a shock to everyone as she had just turned 9, which is very young for a golden. See more about her in this special blog dedicated to her.

Thursday July 7 was a historic day for all my slither.io lovers. I made it to 3rd place in the game I was playing. Highest score I ever got and just 200 points shy of 2nd! Slither on my fellow snakes. This eve I stayed in Napes and went too dinner at Buffalo Wings and Rings with Beth in memory of Izzy. 

July 8 a Friday, blessed us with another beautiful sunset, which is always a great site from our "balcony." We also jumped on that Pokemon Go life and caught some pokemon in our apartment. Not the best players since we only play in our place, ha. Rachel and I finished the night off with a game of Yahtzee! This is how we are spending our friday nights... are we married and old?

Saturday July 9th, Rachel was sweet enough to put together a fun little birthday party for me. It involved ping pong, beers, and friends. What a great combo! A new place downtown called SPiN is now one of my favorite places. It has tons of ping pong tables with a lot of space and endless balls. I felt like I was a pro ping pong player the way the balls just kept being supplied to me by these guys walking around with ball picker uppers. John, Melissa, Brian, Megan, Beth, and Grant joined Rachel and I for a night full of ping pong fun. Despite Brian winning our little tournament that we had, it was super fun and I gotta make sure I get back soon. After, we stopped at a Tiki Bar for one drink, it was pretty cool, but super crowded.

On Sunday July 10th, we were in the table tennis mood so we watched a documentary called Top Spin about some of the best players in the USA and their journey to try to make it to the Olympic games. After I drove Beth to the train that day, Rachel and I walked down the street to our local movie theater that we knew about but had never been to yet. We decided to check out the new film Secret Life of Pets. Pretty funny and cute animated film about what our pets do when we aren't home. I would rent it from the library if I was you.

Video of the Week: What's that? Another video of squid dancing around to JT? You got it.

Movie of the Week: The Secret Life of Pets

Keep on keeping up with the blogs. More to come soon!

Yaboy
Josh
 

Weird Al Fireworks

Tuesday July 15 - My sister borrowed all 10 of Rachel's seasons of Friends and has commenced watching. She is already on season 4 and I will occasionally watch some episodes with her. Even though I have seen a bunch, I will see some that I haven't seen and I can see why it is Rachel's (and my Aunt's) favorite show. Very funny and timeless.

It is official, Weird Al is back. He announced that he would be releasing 8 new music videos and songs from his new album Mandatory Fun, and he did just that. The guy has always been, and still is the best parody/comedy artist around. Dominated by his accordion and creative lyrics, he provides a unique style that is unmatched. I grew up with him during childhood and he is still killing it today. Give a listen to all the new songs/videos.

On Wednesday July 16 I started off my morning by going to dentist and getting a tooth prepped for a crown. More gollldddd. While being operated on, I had a great view of the pond outside, and while sitting there I saw plenty of ducks, a duck family & what look like otters running around across a cement platform in between the pond. Now I highly doubt there are otters around here, so I am going to guess they were muskrats of some sort. Fast little guys. Afterwards I drove over to the oil change shop and got my oil changed no problem this time. Later at work, the famous guy who broke the lacrosse record for fastest shot (Zakk Dorn) came in to hang out for a bit. It was interesting hearing his story about the events that took place and how it all went down. He ended up shooting 117 while there, still not his fastest. I used his stick and shot 96 with my right and 93 with my left. New records for both hands, as my previous records were 93 and 88 respectively. Perhaps the Epoch sticks that flex do make your shot slightly faster, or I was just in the presence of Zakk that gave me the ability to shatter my record. Since I play with Zakk, it was awesome in this video about "The Shot" when he gives a shoutout to our team, The Naperville Apaches. Boss status.

Thursday July 17 was a simple day, I set up my sound bar which I currently just connect to my phone or other music playing device and have just been playhing music, since my TV in my room is too old for it to work, but the sound is great and I can't wait to hook it up to Rachel's nice TV! Later that night we had mens league, good to get some lax in.

On Friday July 18th, I worked until 6 then drove to the city. Rachel and I ordered Jet's Pizza. We discovered that you can order a half and half of any pizza you want for no extra cost, so we went half BBQ chicken and half chicken parm. Don't forget the Turbo crust. Smart. As we dined we watched Breaking Bad and then Hot Rod, falling asleep on the couch.

Saturday July 19 started off with Rachel & I watching the last episodes of the Long Way Round, a great show my friend Phil tuned me in to. It is about Ewan McGregor and his friend Charlie Boorman embark on a 20,000 mile route from England across some western European countries, across Russia, Kazakstan, Mongolia, the Road of Bones, through Alaska, and the rest of the USA and finally ending in New York... Oh and all this being traveled on motorcycle. A great 9 episode series if you are into travel and culture of different areas. While browsing Netflix later, I found out there is a Long Way Down, same two guys, this time traveling from Scotland south through Africa about 15,000 miles ending up in South Africa, I am excited to start it to say the least..

A little around 2 pm we headed to the beach with John and his two Native American friends that were visiting from the reserve in South Dakota. After playing some volleyball in the water,  I taught one of them some lax tricks, since they were a lax player. Jason Derulo or some lame rapper dude was having a concert at North ave beach, so we were actually at went a little bit south to Oak Street Beach. On our walk back, we ended up basically back stage for the last 20 seconds of the Jason Derulo concert, interesting. After getting back form the beach, Rachel and I took the bus to Chili's for dinner in downtown Chicago. I decided to get the smokehouse BBQ burger and Rachel got the Quesadilla explosion salad.  After a tasty dinner, we head over near LSD to see the firework show at Navy Pier. We started to hear them going off and started to sprint toward the street which was only about 100 yards or so away. Wanting to stay at the same pace, Rachel and I ran hand in hand, which was was goofy and funny, but it felt so right! We saw the firework show and shared a moment with a woman driving a hospital bus who was parked watching the fireworks as well. At one point there was a very cool firework and we went "oooo" and the woman turned and says something along the lines of, "That was awesome." Moments shared with strangers, always a good time. We walked about 2 miles home, threw on the Great Mouse Detective and fell asleep on the couch for a second straight night.

Sunday July 20 - Started off the morning by going to the store with Rachel and getting necessities, aka food. We then watched an episode of Breaking Bad and ate a meatball sub sandwich that we made. I then drove over to Uncle John & Aunt Chris's place in Mokena. It was fun and enjoyable hanging out with the family and talk about camping gear I'll need on my trip. Cousin John was there, as well as Beth, my Mom, & Dad. We had a delicious dinner of brats, chicken, beans, corn on the cob & and few Sam Adams, as well as a Guinness. I think this was my first Guinness since I had one fresh from the tap in Dublin, Ireland.

Later that night, I started to clean out my room, and go through old toys and memories. I leave you with a few pictures from the night of Beth and I.

IMG_1869.PNG

The next day, Monday July 21, I stopped at the bank and the library in the morning. At the library I couldn't resist the great deal on Magic Mike ($1). After all, it was the first midnight showing movie I had seen since Pirates 3 or something in high school and Rachel & I's only midnight showing movie....thanks summer camp. After work, I got home and continued to clean out some of my old things. Get excited for pics of old things next week.

Thanks for reading!

 

Josh