And the Academy Award Goes To...

Song of the Week: Go! by Common who just won an Oscar for his song Glory in the movie Selma. Turns out my Aunt and Uncle went to highschool with him! Amazing!

Tuesday February 17th, Rachel and I had some soup and bread for dinner and watched the movie Pay it Forward. Such an inspiring movie about a boy with a plan that in the end, comes true. Although I thought the end of the movie was rushed, it got the point of the movie across even more.

Wednesday February 18th, after work I did some organizing and cleaning, find old toys such as this home made toy bomb that was made with batteries from probably 1999. Oh childhood. I also finished the second novel in the Mitch Rapp Series by Vince Flynn, Kill Shot. Got to love how much of a badass that Mitch Rapp is. 

On Thursday February 19th Rachel and I made a delicious stir fry that we enjoyed whiling watching an episode of Mad Men season 5. 

Friday February 20th was another record setting day. This time I set a new personal record, shooting 98 mph with my right hand and 92 mph with my left hand. Both are 1 mph more than I shot a week ago. At this rate I will hit 100 in 2 weeks, but probably not unless I get into shape! After work I headed home and did some more cleaning and organizing.

I began Saturday February 21st with an early morning practice. After that practice I headed home and then Rachel and I went out to The Other Side bar for some lunch. We split a hamburger and chicken tenders while I enjoyed a Sheep IPA beer. This bar was really cool and I will definitely be back, considering while I was there they played great music (no country or rap), had delicious and inexpensive food (a hamburger and fries for $6.99!?), and the staff and environment was warm and welcoming. After that we headed over to my Aunt Jan's for a little family game night. We played games similar to charades and then charades as well. We enjoyed some pizza, whiling having fun with the family. Sophia & Nikolas were there as well and cute as ever. Baby Nikolas is always laughing and smiling, such a good baby! I also was able to play a little prank on Emma and Anna by changing their sign "Coat Service" to "Goat Service." Ahh I'm so funny. We played some spoons to end the night and then Rachel and I headed home and then went to bed.

Sunday February 22nd was another early morning for me as I had to go coach. After a scheduling meeting which was terribly designed and unorganized, I came back home and chilled before making some delicious chicken alfredo pasta for dinner. After dinner, Rachel and I planned on having the 87th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on as we did other things, however, we ended up watching the whole show in its entirety with Neil Patrick Harris hosting. With having only seen The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, & The Grand Budapest Hotel I thought all the Oscars given out were appropriate, but really I have no clue since I haven't seen any of the other movies. I filled out an Oscar sheet and only got 5 of the categories correct. There were some great inspirational speeches, focusing on giving thanks and loving your parents, suicide prevention, equality for women, equality for all people of other race, gender, sexual orientation, & religion, and being yourself & being weird. The big winners from the night when it came to total number of awards won was The Grand Budapest Hotel  and the film Birdman. I can't wait to get my hands on all of the films that were nominated and see if the winners were truly deserving. 

Here is a list of all the nominees and winners.

With that being said, here is a picture of Rachel and I from game night that I am now posting in honor of the Best Picture: Birdman.

Monday February 23rd was a simple day. I wrote my blog, then Mozilla crashed and I lost it all, so I had to rewrite it, losing some of the original spunk it had. Went to work and then went home and watched The Walking Dead episode from the night before and started to watch a 30 for 30 about the Russians side of Miracle on Ice, interesting perspective and awesome coaching techniques so far!

Video of the Week: Live performance of Oscar nominated Everything is Awesome. I had no idea it was written/performed by Tegan & Sara as well as The Lonely Island!

Movie of the Week: Oscar winning short film, Feast!

Coaching is about to get real busy.

Talk in 7.

Josh

Long Way Down, Spider Friend, & Lego Sprinkles

On the 22nd of July, after work I headed over to my cousins house to hang out. I arrived around 5:30p and jumped in the pool with Beth, Emma, & Anna and a couple of their friends. After having some water fights, doing some cannon balls, and starting a whirlpool, I got out. I was the last in and first out by the way... oo I am getting old. We had some homemade spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, along with some bread that we dipped in some olive oil dish, quite a tasty meal! Thanks Aunt Jan! We had saved a little room for dessert, so I drove Anna & my aunt over to Andy's to get some frozen custard. While looking at the menu, I saw a custard that involved putting any type of topping in the middle of your custard. Okay I am just going to call it ice cream because custard sounds weird and it tastes like ice cream anyway. So I had the brilliant idea to jam pack the middle of my ice cream concrete with sprinkles. A dream come true for a young lad like myself. Once I decided on having sprinkles, I then decided on what ice cream I would have around my sprinkles, with the help of my Aunt I chose cookies & cream. A great choice. While eating our Andy's we played a little bit of Wheel of Fortune on the Wii. Afterwards, we loaded in The Lego Movie. I had only heard great things about this movie so I was excited to watch. Laying in between all of Anna & Emma's legos, Anna and I got comfy and began to watch with a bag of popcorn on hand. The movie was fantastic as expected. I came to the conclusion that I, just like the main character, was just an ordinary lame boy who followed the directions as a child. I was no "Master Builder." The movie also made me realize that it is okay to let go of some things, and not have them be "perfect" forever. Things that we buy or use are intended to be used and worn, they can't stay new forever and we shouldn't stress over that.

After the movie, and a little bit longer of hanging out, I headed home. As I was driving I realized that there was a spider web on my side mirror. As I picked up speed, I realized there was a spider clinging on for life, I slowed down a little and he was able reestablish himself behind the mirror, safe and sound for the night.

Wednesday the 23rd of July, my parents wedding anniversary, started the same way the previous night ended, me observing my spider friend who survived the ride home and was busy spinning a web together. For work, I created an amazing goalie save video from earlier in the year. The save is pretty awesome, partially luck, partially skill, and a whole lot of awesome. It got some internet traction, so check it out! That evening I continued to go through some old items in my room, getting rid of some stuff and boxing other things up. Preparing for the move and being inspired a little by the Lego Movie, some things just have to go!

A freshly spun morning web

Spider on the move while I am on the move

Thursday July 24th, 2014 was the best day of spider activity so far. As I was driving to work, the spider had successfully spun up a great web. You know when you pull up to a stop sign or a light and all those gnats fly around your side mirrors? BAM. My spider friend had pulled off the perfect execution. At least 6 gnats flew right into his web. I was actually in awe as it was happening and stayed stopped at the stop sign for a good minute. Watching him quickly crawl across his web from gnat to gnat, spinning a web around each of them, securing them into place. I was witnessing natural murder, and it was incredible. This spider had really impressed me the last few days just by staying on my side mirror, but now he was doing work. As I picked up speed going down the road, getting to 50 mph, one or two of the gnats flew off, but the rest of them stayed nice and snug. A tasty meal for my spider friend. As sad as it sounds, I was becoming attached to this spider and thought of him as my pet. I enjoyed seeing him in my mirror and look forward to seeing him day in and day out.

When I left work that afternoon, all of his food had been eaten and he was still there, just sitting in his web. What a bro. After work I took a few photos of some pretty flowers in my yard, and watched a handful of episodes of The Long Way Down. Part 2 of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman's travels. This time they are going from the top of Scotland and traveling south to the bottom tip of South Africa. Oh and all on motor bike, just like last time. I also played in men's league that night as well.

On Friday July 25th, I headed into work and was greeted with a donut. Then I had some little caeser's pizza for lunch. A pretty solid day so far. When I got home from work around 5pm I had some Jack's pizza, pizza for lunch, pizza for dinner. I then began to put some work in on my Prague photobook. I am making a photobook for each of my cities I visited in Europe, this is my 5th of 9 book I am doing. They are full of great pictures and great memories. I am only making them when I have free photobook coupons, but should get ahead and do some prior when I have the time. That night I got a fire going in the back yard, started it with some lint. Man does that stuff burn up quickly. I barely hit one spark from a sparkler to it and it went up in flames, should be good starter material when in Colorado. John came over to hang out by the fire, and we put in my 2nd failed bag board, and burned it right up. After our fire we went inside for a bit and found my old gas mask I had bought from some reason a long time ago. It will be a great addition to the Colorado trip. Ya never know?!

Saturday July 26th started with an early morning so I could work on and finish my Prague, Czech Republic photobook. I then headed to work and then drove to Rachel's after work. Once in the city, I was craving some soup, so cooked up some Mrs. Grass soup for lunch. Despite Rachel criticizing me for wanting to have soup in the summer, she also had a bowl and was far from disappointed, as she went back for more. Told ya so! We pretty much decided to have a lazy Saturday by watching an episode of Breaking Bad, a few episodes into season 4 now, and The Long Way Down. We rolled through a few episodes of Long Way Down and took a quick nap. After our nap for about an hour, we drove over to jewel to get some ingredients for our dinner, which was going to be..... Buffalo Chicken Dip. I had to shred some chickens, and the dip turned out to be delicious and we enjoyed it with chips and celery. See the steps and cooking process to the dip in the photos below. During dinner, we streamed some music through youtube and played Taboo with Sarah and Colin.

On Sunday, July 27th, we woke up and watched a couple of episodes of The Long Way Down, just leaving one left. In the afternoon Rachel and I met up with her friend Becca to play some volleyball at the beach. Brian ended up coming as well and we had some fun playing beach vball. Reminds me of senior year of highschool when we played at commissioner's almost every day of the summer. After volleyball Brian and I took a dip in the water, which was actually not too cold, and then we headed home. On the walk home, we came across a chair that sat probably 20 feet high. I stared at it and wondered, hmmm, is this art? or is this a challenge? I got about halfway up before I decided it was probably best to go back down. Some friends came over and we had a little BBQ, while we were outside, the apparent founder of Goose Island Brewery leaned over the fence and gave us a 6 pack of Endless IPA. This guy has lived next door for almost 10 months, and now decides to give us a 6 pack and "welcome" us to the neighborhood? I can't figure out if this guy was genuine or him and his wife would think it was funny to tell us this small white lie. Anyway, it was the talk of the BBQ. After downing a couple of hot dogs, I headed over to the softball fields with Rachel and the rest of Aly's team. Rachel isn't usually on the team, but was filling in. I had the benefit of not having to play, so dipped into a few more drinks that I probably should have for a Sunday, but what the heck. I was getting into the UMP a little bit, trying to get calls to go our way, but was unsuccessful as the team fell by 8 runs or something. After the game, which flew by, we headed home and planned on watching the last episode of Long Way Down, but instead I fell asleep almost instantly.

Monday, July 28th I woke up and drove home, then ordered my Prague photobook and headed to work. After work, I was tricked into attending one of our Speed & Agility classes, and boy was it tough. I am so out of shape and it was a great workout, especially for my hip flexors. I feel like I have always had weak hips, so I kind of wish I had this type of speed training back in high school or college. Guess I wouldn't have paid for it though... so whatever. After work I finished up The Long Way Down, what another great series and successful trip for those guys. Pretty awesome, gave me a great perspective of Africa and gives me the desire to travel, I love it! Thanks to Phil K for the original suggestion of Long Way Round & to Netflix for having Long Way Down as well and hipping me to it.

I also put a bunch of movies on hold from the library for the weekend coming up. A few Star Wars movies, some Christian Bale movies, and some others. Next week should be a good one that will end with a trip to Michigan and a hangout with Nolan.

See ya next week!

Josh