Gas on the Cheap

Song of the Week: Mississippi Rain by the Weeks. Found these guys when they opened for Deer Tick back in 2014 at the Metro. They sound a lot like Kings of Leon. I'll be seeing them again in a couple of weeks! Check them out!

Meanwhile, gas is the cheapest it has ever been in my life (I think). I paid a mere 1.47 per gallon the other night. Road tripping across the US seems a whole lot more affordable now!

The Blind Hockey video I made has been getting reposted about the internet a bit. Check out a couple of the links. Link 1 Link 2

Tryouts for the Cats are exactly 29 days away. Looking to be a great year for the boys. It is all starting to come together here.

Last week The Edge restaurant and bar closed nearby, now another one bites the dust. Best Buy is no more! I am hoping some better places move in, but who knows how long that may take.

Finally, I am still on that iPhone4 life. With seeing all these new smart phones floating around, they all have one problem in my opinion, they are way too large. Is there a smart phone similar in size to the iphone4 that is out there? Any tips on this would be appreciated! Otherwise iphone4 forever!

TV Show of the Week: Nothing yet, thinking about starting Game of Thrones though!

Video of the Week: GoPro: NHL After Dark is a new YouTube series featuring some of the stars of the NHL. The camera work and skill in this video is off the charts! I look forward to these coming out weekly.

Movie of the Week: Soaked in Bleach. A newer version of the Kurt & Courtney movie. This 90 minute documentary movie about the murder of Kurt Cobain does the job that Making a Murderer does in 10 one hour episodes. Check it out on Netflix.

Until next week.

Yaboy Josh

Champions of the 27th Annual

Tuesday September 30th 2014, Rachel made a tasty crockpot dinner for us, involving some sliced potatoes, ground beef, onions, and peppers. We enjoyed this scrumptious meal while watching House of Cards

Wednesday, the first of October was a big day in the Maluta family, as my brother and his wife had their second child. A boy this time, named Nikolas. Sophia is such a nice big sister. Congrats to them as their family continues to grow!

On my way home form work I finished the 3rd book in the Ender series, Xenocide. Very philosophical and a bit tough to "read" at times as they used actual asian people to read the parts with Wang Wu and Ching Chong, and Han Faedzah. Those are the actual names, but I have no idea about the spelling since I only listen to books these days. Solid book, but time to switch up to a different type of book.

Thursday October 2nd, I stopped at Jmon's on the way home from work. He actually lives like 2 minutes off of the highway on my way home which is pretty sweet. We hung out, played some synthesizer and enjoyed a succulent meal of chicken, rice, broccoli, and salad prepared by his father. I also began my new book on tape this day, Devil in the White City. I am excited to learn about some of the history behind Chicago. I also started to watch the show Freaks and Geeks, a 1999 series with stars like James Franco, Seth Rogan, & Jason Segal. A pretty hilarious one season series about life in highschool from both the "freak" perspective and the "geek" perspective, as they deal with daily highschool problems and begin to change as people, trying to find where they belong.

Friday October 3rd, I woke up and played some ping pong with Grant. After work that night, Beth met up with me at Buffalo Wings and Rings for some dinner. We got 20 wings with a variety of sauces: lemon pepper, parmesan garlic, bourbon bbq, & fajita tequila lime. Mmm Wings. That evening we watched some Freaks and Geeks. I am trying to burn through this 18 episode season, plus it is hilarious. Worth a watch people! 

Saturday October 4th 2014 marked the 27th annual NIU tournament. A tournament we have been playing in for 4 years, first as the Muffin Men, and now in our 3rd year as the Apaches. We have taken home one first and one second place in those 3 years, it is time for us to return as Champions. I met up with Gio & Jay at Gio's and we waited for Watson to arrive. It was absolutely freezing out, so cold that I saw the first snowflakes of the year intermixed with the rain, perfect lacrosse weather I guess? To our luck, Watson had an emergency to deal with and ended up being an hour late, but we wisely cracked a Rolling Rock to stifle the cold. 

After a 45 minutes drive, we arrived at the tournament and prepped for our first opponent, Northern Michigan University. They were a much better team then they had proved to be in the past, but were still no match for the Naperville Apaches, as we rolled to a 15 to 7 victory. I contributed with 3 goals and 5 assists. In the cold weather, the GoPro got knocked off my helmet in the first 5 minutes of the game, but at least one of my goals was on tape! We drove over to grab some Chipotle for a team lunch in between games. I got a burrito bowl, supposedly you get more food?

Our second game was against one of the worst teams I have ever played against, Judson. We rolled to a 15 to 8 victory. I had 3 goals and 3 assists, pretty much all in the first quarter. The fact that I was teaching their defender how to play and where to be in certain scenarios speaks to how poor their team is coached. It didn't help that one of the "starting" defenders told me they were going to put the scrubs in soon when they were down 5-0. I didn't say it, but all I could think was, dude, YOU are a scrub. Especially considering he was wearing a winter hat over his helmet. I mean sure, I was wearing camo fleece pants tucked into my red socks, but I was putting out, as always. 

Only 2 games on Saturdays, so we headed back and then I drove back to Chicago. About 5 minutes after being home, Brian came over with some Dominoes pizza. Shout out to Brian for making the delivery and supplying. We ate some pizza, watched an episode of Freaks and Geeks and bussed it to the heart of the city for the Great Chicago Fire event that was going to take place on the Chicago River that evening.

The stage was set, a barge with a wooden house in the middle of the river. In fact, there were a series of these down the river, we were at the farthest one west and could see one of them to the east. As we listened to some news anchor tell some facts about the fire and saw people light some chalices on fire, the suspense begin to grow. Then we watched a glowing house not burn for about 30 minutes as the crackling sounds of fire were heard over the sound system. The other house we could see a bit down the river was on fire, but it was a pathetic rate it was burning at. Then after 30 minutes of waiting and standing in a packed crowd, they said they were having some electrical difficulties. Oh really? Couldn't tell! While waiting, we made jokes about the fire and songs like The Doors, Light my fire, Billy Joel, We Didn't Start the Fire, etc. People in the crowd began to chant things about the burning of the building, but the only one that caught on was a chant of... "fire" "fire" fire." How lame. Look at the pretty buildings though.

We waiting another 10 minutes or so and then decided to follow some people out of the crowd, as we walked over a bridge on the river, they announced they would manually light the fire. Can't believe it took them 45 minutes to come to that conclusion. We kept walking and caught the bus home instead of waiting for the "Not So Great Chicago Fire."

Highlight of the night was when we stopped at Walgreens and I had a terrible poop, but we picked up some cookies and ice cream to make some homemade ice cream sandwiches. As we watched I Love You, Man we enjoyed our ice cream sandwiches which turned out to be the smallest break and bake cookies one could buy. Check em out

The next morning, Sunday October 5th, I drove back to Gio's and he drove us to NIU for the championship game. We were to play Wisconsin for the championship. We had beat them down 2 years ago in a game, but this year they only had 2 teams instead of 3 and were much better. It was a tight game, but in the end we came out on top by a score of 7 to 4. The GoPro stayed on the whole time and I ended up with 2 goals and 1 assist. A sweet finish to the 27th annual NIU tournament. Champions for a second time!

After the game the team stopped at Fatty's, a local NIU hangout with delicious food and drink. With the trophy in the middle of the table, I dined on the Fat Boy burger, a tasty double meat meal. 

After driving home, Rachel and I took to the town to try and buy some food. Trader Joes was overwhelming with people everywhere doing their Sunday night shopping. We left empty handed and took a walk around the block, looking for somehwere to buy a lamp. To our luck we stumpled upon Home Depot, went inside and found a standing lamp for the bedroom. Perfect! We picked up some McDonalds for dinner. That night I trimmed the world map to fit our new frame and built the lamp while watching some Sunday Night Football. 

Monday October 6th started with some measuring, drilling of holes, and hanging of the map I had finished the night before. I cleaned up the apartment a bit and at work that day. Beth's rooomate and best friend from college, Paige, surprised Beth that afternoon by showing up at our house! What a nice friend! Shoutout to friends!

On the way home from work I stopped at the library and found a ton of steals for a buck each. American Hustle, Dallas Buyer's Club, Gravity, & 2 other movies I can't remember at this moment. We got some Gioradano's pizza for dinner and I watched a bunch of episodes of Freaks and Geeks.

And that wraps up my last week. Get pumped for next week friends. Zebrahead and MXPX concert ahead. As well as a Blood Moon Wednesday morning at 4AM. Be there.

Josh

Movie Marathon

Not too much went down this past week, some of it is still a work in progress, this may also be the first week this year I do not have any pictures to show for, so enjoy reading/watching videos.

On Tuesday March 25th, 2014, I attended a great high school lacrosse game between Neuqua & Naperville Central. This crosstown rivalry went down to the wire with my alma mater taking the one goal win.

Fast forward to Friday March 28th, & I am picking Rachel up from train in Naperville. We then headed over to Gordon Biersch for dinner. We each had a tasty beverage to along with my chicken, mashed potatoes, rice & beans. Rachel had some fish 'n' chips along with some asparagus.

After finishing up dinner, we arrived home to my cousins Emma & Anna who were awaiting our arrival. We watched some home videos for a bit, before conjuring up an idea for a video to shoot. We filmed the video & it came out great!

Emma, Anna, Beth, Rachel, & Josh perform and make a one shot music video for Happy by Pharrell Williams from Despicable Me 2

Before we headed to bed, Emma had a great plan to do a little Sleepers 101 video where we see how Rachel & Beth sleep. Brilliant!

Saturday March 29, Rachel & I woke up around 8 and got in the car to go see a four hour seminar about health. Picked up some helpful tips & great information on some things to eat & not to eat! Afterwards we headed over to Emma & Anna's house for a family party for both of their birthdays. After celebrating with more pizza, we turned on the movie Frozen. It was my first time seeing it, and I thought it was a pretty solid Disney film. After the party, Rachel, Squid, & I headed to Jewel and picked up 3 bottles of liquor at their big half price sale. After getting home, we then played hearts with my parents and Squid. It was my parents & Squid's first time playing, but it was a fun time for everyone, except Squid who lost. Ha! After this it was getting late, but we put on Runner Runner. Rachel & Squid fell asleep, but I stayed up for the whole movie. It was a decent flick, but nothing too special.

Sunday morning we continued our movie marathon trend by loading up Monsters University. I loved the movie Monsters Inc. and this prequel was just as awesome. By far the best movie of the weekend. We followed this up with Harsh Times, a Christian Bale movie where an ex-solider battles with trying to become a cop while struggling with an alcohol addition. Enjoyable, but overall depressing movie. We headed back to Jewel for Rachel to pick up some groceries & then headed to the city. At Rachel's we made a delicious lettuce wraps dinner. During dinner we watched two episodes of Breaking Bad season 3. The show is getting good & hopefully we can finish it by the end of the year?

Monday morning I had to wake up at 5:45 am and drive to work. After a day full of three 2 hour classes Gio & I hopped on over to Crosstown for dinner. I ordered 5 parmesan wings & 5 chili garlic grilled tenders. We also had a dark revolution beer that was delicious. Opening day for baseball, so we watched the White Sox beat up on the Twins as we enjoyed our spicy meal.

That sums up my week, nothing too eventful. But a lot of movies...Here are some other classic films I watched this week: Sunset Blvd & Citizen Kane. Decent old time films.

A couple of video clips to spice up this post

Epic Meal Time makes Epic Pretzels. Yum!

GoPro offices look fun. Creative soccer dribbling video in the GoPro office.

HeliYum beer by Sam Adams. Clever!

A man struggles to control his addiction. Thanks Phil K for the link

Below is a video highlight I just finished up editing from a Benedictine University game on March 16. Hopefully will film a couple of college games this week!

Until Next Week!

Josh