It is that time of the year. Bring out the grill, bring out the charcoal, and bring out the meats.
Last Tuesday, the 20th of May, Rachel took the train from the city out to Naperville to visit me. What a wonderful amazing woman I have! I had picked up some burgers earlier in the week, so we were planning on grilling them. A storm was brewing in the skies, and it took us over 45 minutes to drive 9 miles home from the train station. Thanks Naperville traffic.
We got the burgers grilling, and the storm began to roll in, unfortunately I didn't get the coals quite hot enough to cook them in the 6 minutes they required in the directions. After about 20 minutes of grilling, the wind started to blow and the rain began to come down. I just finished up with the burgers, getting them inside with just a little bit of water on them. Not a bad cookout.
On Wednesday May 21st, I suited up with my team for practice and finished editing a BenU v Aurora lax game from earlier in the season. I think it turned out pretty well. Check it out below.
On Thursday morning, I mowed my lawn, and worked on a highlight tape for a customer of mine. In the afternoon around 5, after work, I headed over to Benet Academy to film a second round playoff lacrosse game. Benet took on Hinsdale Central and I was able to film the game at John's Alma Mater. They have some solid players on the team, a few going D1, and I think have a real shot at winning state in the A division, which has been won by New Trier or Loyola for the last 10 years or so. I picked up some BK on the way home, 2 for 1 whoppers, allowing me to have some dinner and then lunch for Friday. Check out the highlights from the game, which I pumped out in a little less than 24 hours. Another solid edit in my opinion.
On the 23rd of May Friday, I practice a little bit with my team again, as we had a scrimmage against our C team. I mixed the 2 teams together and it turned out to be pretty fun. I finished the video above later that night.
On Saturday, while the semi finals for lacrosse were happening, I secured a regular season title for my FV 8th grade team, beating the other undefeated team by a score of 7 to 5. Now we just have 2 weeks and 2 tournaments left! Wow the year has flown by! For dinner, John and I decided to have another cookout, grilling burgers and a couple of hot dogs in his back yard this time. Charcoal is king, and that is all we use, so we did that up. Later that night, I met up with Brian, Chris, Alyssa, Zack, Jessi, and a couple of other friends for a few drinks at Tommy Nevins down the road. They had bud light specials that came in a red plastic Blackhawks cup for the game. I was able to snag 8 of these from our table to take home for Squid. Go Hawks (even though they have been sucking). Rachel was at the WhiteSox game while this was going on and sent me this cute picture.
Sunday the 25th, I was scheduled to have a private lesson at 10am, however, the person never showed up. This was pretty disappointing since that meant I could have headed to the city earlier, however, I didn't let it ruin my mood. At around 11am I drove into the city to hang out with Rachel. After lunch we walked about a mile and half down Clark, to where I may be residing in the near future, and went to Dave's Record shop with her roommate Aly & her siblings. It was a pretty cool shop and they had a BUNCH of records, new and old to choose from. I didn't pick up any this time, but I see this becoming a place I will be spending a decent amount of time. Got to love the feel of an old vinyl album. After the record shop, we picked up a couple of ice creams from McDonald's. I went with the vanilla cone dipped in chocolate and Rach had a oreo McFlurry. Tasty on a hot spring afternoon.
After McDonald's we headed on a walk and stumbled upon a hidden Lilly Pond. It was so peaceful and calming, just a beautiful setting to have on such a lovely day. After hanging out there for a while and seeing a mother duck and some ducklings, we walked down to North Ave beach and enjoyed some time at the beach and in the sun.
That evening Rachel and I headed to a restaraunt in the oppostie direction we usually head out, but it was actually closer than the others we normally go to. It was off Lincoln and called Risselli's or something like that. We each had a beer and some delicious pizza with sausage, onion, and green pepper. Very tasty. We walked back home and then played one on one Taboo, even though the game claims it is for 4+ players, we played with 2. Take that Taboo. After some wine and taboo, we headed off to bed.
Monday May 26th allowed us to extend the weekend since it was Memorial Day. We woke up relatively early and headed down to the beach around 10am for an early morning, since storms were predicted for noon. Luckily for us the day was perfect and sunny, no storms ever rolled through. When at the beach, we met up with Brian and Shaina and watched Brian play volleyball for a match or two. In typical Brian fashion, he invited us over to "play" but didn't let us play because he claims we were not good enough. Rachel's roommates Mary and Aly and their boyfriends came down about an hour later. We also met up with Ashley and one of her friends from Lombard. After spending some hours in the sun, and going up to my thighs in the chilly water, Brian, Shaina, Rachel, & I walked through Old Town over to the Burger Bar and had some tasty burgers for lunch.
Speaking of lunch. Hot Dogs or Legs? You decide!
That evening, Rachel and I played bags with Aly and her bf Jay while grilling up some BBQ chicken. We had BBQ chicken sandwiches for dinner which were delicious. We watched the first episode of True Detective which seems like an awesome show. I am excited to perhaps catch a few more episodes. After watching the Blackhawks do poorly in the first and second periods, I headed to bed for an early night. I guess I missed watching both the semi finals and the National Championship for lax this year. That is alright, I wasn't a big fan of any of the teams. Spoiler Alert, Duke Wins.
I drove back home on Tuesday morning of the 27th, then headed to work. After work, where Beth was interviewed, I got the grilll fired up one last time for this week and grilled up some Italian Sausage. I then diced it up and threw it in some pasta I had made along with a home made vinegrette sauce that involves oil, vinegar, garlic, honey, and salt & pepper. A pretty tasty dinner I might say. The storms looked to be brewing again, but held off on this Tuesday.
All this talk about Cookouts and Grilling makes me want to post our past Cookouts. Enjoy watching and I'll see you next week.
Can't wait for more cookouts with YaBoys this summer.
Josh