On Tuesday July 8th, I finished editing the video I took from The National concert back in April. It was an awesome concert as I wrote about, read about it here, and now you can watch 25 minutes of it!
As the night wore on, and it was about midnight, I saw LaxAllStars was having a stick trick competition. (LINK to the contest with my entry at the bottom) I decided to put in some effort and nail the required combo. It took me more tries than I wanted to, but I finished the trick nonetheless and edited it into a video by 2 am. Officially entered for the contest. My entry is below:
July 9th, Wednesday, let's skip ahead to around 8pm when women's league was starting for lax at work. There were only 4 of them, and there was no goalie, so I threw on some box goalie skirt for a cup and jumped in net. It was not as terrifying as I remember it being when I was in highschool, but I am older, and these girls are better, so I didn't have to worry about getting hit on my body as much. It was fun and on the way home, Beth and I stopped at this place near our house called The Wing Stop. We ordered up 10 boneless wings, 5 lemon pepper and 5 parmesan garlic. I'm not sure if it was because I was so hungry, or just simply because they were, but these wings were absolutely delicious. Way better than anything from BWW. We topped off our boneless wings with some fries and a drink. Great night.
On Thursday July 10th, after I got home from work I cracked my final Man-O-Awe beer from Three Floyd's and drank it down while enjoying some taco dip my mom just made. We used some chips from Whole Foods that I had received a month back from a team party I was at. What was astonishing was that this bag of tortilla chips cost over $9. Who in their right mind would pay $9 for a bag of chips? I couldn't believe it, but the chips were a bit old, so we threw them in the over to make them hot chips to have with our taco dip. Delicious.
Friday July 11th, Happy 7/11. After the day at work I headed to the bank to deposit some checks. When I got near the bank, I noticed a handful of fire engines and police cars, parts of the road blocked off, and the smell of gas in the air. To my luck, the bank was closed because of some gas leak at the lot next door. Not being able to deposit my checks, I then headed to my next stop, the dentist. Turns out I need another gold tooth, so I stopped by and set up my appointment for next week. Afterwards, I was tired of having these checks, so I drove across town to another bank and made my deposit. On the way home I stopped at Best Buy in hope of finding a new sound system or soundbar, but nobody there was of any help and all I got asked about was my cable provider and told how I can lower my payments. Thanks Best Buy... not. This is why retailers across America suck and have terrible service now. They don't pay their employees enough, and then they don't care about them, so if there are any questions or arguments about pay, they can just replace that person with some other incompetent person who knows nothing about what they are selling. I went to Best Buy a few weeks ago and asked about camera lenses. All the guy working in the area told me was, "Uh... yea a lot of people buy this one, it's pretty popular," AKA you have no idea what you are talking about. Thanks for nothing. Now I know there are some people who know the product and are specialists, but this number seems to be declining every day as companies could care less about their employees.
Once I got home from running all my errands. I fired up the grill with my dad and he cooked some delicious ribs. I finished up with some lemon pepper chicken and a couple of brats for later. Grandpa Bob was coming over hence the fancy meal of Ribs with corn, salad, mashed potatoes, & bread. A fantastically scrumptious meal. We spent the entire evening with G Bob at the dinner table, first eating, then drinking some after dinner wine he brought from California, and then talking about anything and everything from natural disasters, global warming, that sweet lady mary jane, and hiking. With G Bob only coming out to Chicago twice a year, it was great to catch up and hear stories for the evening. The night was a bit disappointing as it was the full SUPER moon of July, the Full Buck Moon, but it was unfortunately very cloudy and stormy out, so no moon pics from this month.
Saturday July 12 started with me going to work for 5 hours, then coming home. The results were in, and since I was the only entry in the contest I won. The guy who ran it did have some nice words about me though. (LINK to article about me winning the contest). Here is what he had to say:
"First off, last week we only had one legit entry for the Combo Contest, so I was a little disappointed, until I saw the video. Yaboysjcubed absolutely killed the combo adding his own style and a few things I’m not sure I can even do.
Well done yaboysjcubed, you made me feel like I officially have to step my game up while I am here in Denver."
After watching Brazil lose to the Netherlands aka Holland aka The Dutch (too many unique names), Beth and I packed up and headed out around 5pm. We drove over to Rachel's Uncle's place for another grad party in Burr Ridge. It was fun hanging out with Rachel's family and eating some delicious Mexican food, while watching Bo the giant Golden almost eat a young boy, who was so happy about eating fruit kabobs. It was also interesting introducing Beth to Rach's family and having her experience that. Thanks to Beth for going and Rachel for having us! At around 7 pm we decided to hop in the car and head out to Libertyville, for a sweet Hotel Extended Stay party John was having. We got there in about an hour and then saw John's diggs for the summer (he is living in a hotel for work). We just chatted for a bit, then loaded up Mario Kart 64 for some Drinking and Driving. After the game everyone was ready for bed, in preparation for the big day at Six Flags tomorrow! We packed 3 people in the Queen bed and John volunteered to sleep on the solid rock ground.
Sunday July 13th began with a wake up and workout kinda day. John and I pumped out a quick circuit before heading out to Six Flags. On our way we stopped at Subway to get some breakfast (it was already 10:30 so it counts as lunch?). We picked up some tasty subs, thought about eating half and saving half for later, then ate the whole sub. Six Flags was just a stones throw away from John's hotel party pad, or as he would say, in his backyard, so we were there in no time. We came in the rear entrance, which ended up going under the American Eagle, the first time we have ever come in this way. We thought we would for sure get free parking since we found the secret entrance, but unfortunately it cost more, $25 for the day. We parked the car and then headed toward the park, excited to take on the new fastest, tallest wooden coaster, The Goliath.
Despite all of Rachel's talk about getting sick on coasters and what seemed like not wanting to go, it turns out she is a Six Flags expert, knowing the park forward and back. After we spoke with lame Kevin who's favorite ride is Raging Bull and works at Six Flags but has not rode Goliath, and got our season passes, which no longer require a picture ID, quite the let down, we started off our day at Six Flags. This was the first thing we decided we will write in our complaint letter to the Six Flags CEO... All employees need to have rode all the rides... mandatory.
To Rach's misfortune, we would have to do the park backwards, since we were on the side of the Viper, instead of Superman. She still knew the entire order and I even threw out a map I picked up right when she told me, "It's all up here" and pointed to her head. So in true Maluta fashion, we rode the Viper first, as we walked toward it, the line was out of the gates, we all couldn't believe the line could possibly be this long. As John, Rachel, and I stood in line, Beth walked forward about 20 feet, then waved us over. The long line was to get into the water park, and there was absolutely no line for The Viper... Ahh tricky! Quite the start, then we got up near the front of the Viper and talked to some guy who was working and told us to wait about 2 minutes, since some nerds decided to use their fast pass and we had to let them by... even though there was no line anyway, but he wasn't cool. Another thing to add to the complaint letter to the CEO.
Rachel and I rode the Viper together, our first coaster together! After challenging the viper, we headed over to Raging Bull. This wait was significantly longer than the Viper, probably a little under an hour. We asked some young lady to snap some photos of us waiting in line, of course, like she said, the shadow was pretty bad, so we have a dark person in each photo effort, turned out pretty decent anyway.
Once near the top of Raging Bull, we all decided to wait the extra 10 minutes for the front row! Despite not getting the teal car like we wanted, we all were pretty stoked to ride front row, even Rachel who initially said she was not going to go no hands, until we were at the very top of the drop and began to go down slightly, she immediately grabbed my hand in the air and yelled out! Front row on Raging Bull was amazing and awesome. Flying threw the air so gracefully.
Once off Raging Bull we continued our walk around the park and stumbled upon a mystery coaster none of us had ever seen before. It had some loops and was red, but none of us were sure what it was. We finally found the entrance to this new coaster called X-Flight. Turns out they built it in 2012. It was a pretty cool concept, a kind of mix between superman and batman, where the cars are actually to the side of the track, versus above it. Very interesting to see and ride from the side compared to the usual on top of the track. The ride was actually thrilling and quite enjoyable. Definitely the surprise gem of the trip!
From X-Flight we headed over to the All-American American Eagle. The best ride in the park in my opinion. Classic wooden coaster that I like to call "Ole Rickety" There was absolutely no wait for this ride, so we just had to take the 5 minute walk where people used to wait in line in the 1970s to get to the Red/Blue split. We first headed toward red and rode in the back seats to get more rattle, more shake, and a more of your car is flying off the track feeling. After riding red, Rachel was getting a bit of headache so she took a break while Beth, John, and I jumped a gate and headed back to ride blue. We each had our own seat for the blue, I sat in the very last seat. Blue was just as fun and shaky as red, what a fun ride. Both times we rode it, our color train won (2 trains go at the same time and go on different tracks).
After American Eagle we headed over to wait in line for the new beauty of the park, The Goliath. We waited for about 90 minutes, in which the whole regular time of the World Cup took place, and then finally got onto the new wooden coaster. Although there was plenty of steel on this wooden beast, we hopped into the coaster. The lap belt was the tightest and most secure I have ever felt, along with a shin belt. The crazy part was that there was no shoulder harness or belt, but this coaster goes upside down! Insane! The Goliath starts off with an 85 degree drop that goes straight down. Again Rachel did not have her hands up initially, but right when the drop started, snagged my mid air and began to scream out with joy! The Goliath started off with a bang and did not disappoint throughout, it was a series of twists, drops, turns, and loops that we all wished did not end. Instantly became our favorite coaster from the day, living up to the hype, unlike the Dark Knight poop ride from years prior.
After Goliath we headed back to the car to have some lunch. Brats cooked from the day before that I had brought, some water, and chips. We listened to the first overtime of the World Cup while eating lunch as well, but still no score. It was around 4:20 when we headed back into the park. We were all pretty hot so we decided to start off with some water rides. The first was Roaring Rapids, the giant raft ride that gets you wet with water hoses and sprayers, not the waterfalls that they don't let you go under. It was only about a 30 minute wait and we cooled off so it was worth it. Feeling the water fever, we decided to wait for what we thought was the log ride, the Yankee Clipper. This ever so promising great ride turned into a dreadful 45 minute wait, where we saw a guy wearing gold grills, an african american man who seemed to be homeless, and was defintiely alone, try to squeeze his way onto the ride with 2 little girls and their mom, and a very creepy "dad" who was brushing his son's long hair in a very creepy manner. Even with all of this strange stuff happneing, it would not have been so bad until....enter The Yankee Clipper From Hell.
For our seating arrangement, we decided to appoint Beth as the captain, and she sat alone in the front seat. Then in the back it was led by Rachel, with me behind her, and John bringing up the rear. Now this is canoe style seating, so we didn't really have seats, but instead were sitting in each others laps. The ride started off smooth and we took a smooth ride out in the water. Then as we approached the steep incline up, the gates in front of us closed and horn sounded. There was a boat stuck on the incline above us, and then our boat headed straight for the closed gate. As we shouted out, "Brace for impact," we did just that as we crashed into the barrier with a bang. Then we looked behind us as another boat, oh these were boats, not logs, but we saw logs passing us the other direction....was headed right for us. Again we had to brace for impact as this boat crashed into us. Then a worker came running down from the top of the incline and shouted toward us, "I cannot come any closer so listen up, there is a delay in the ride, please remain calm and do not move, we will do our best to get you all out safely and as quick as possible, Thank you." Must have been ride protocol, since we were all laughing at how terrible this ride has been so far. In the meantime the logs kept floating past us from the opposite direction and another boat crashed into us. Finally after about 15 minutes of sitting comfortably in between John's thighs, the gates opened and we headed up toward what we would hope be the rest of the great ride. Instead at the very top, we turned, then took a drop down, where Beth was hit with all of the water right in the face, and bam, the ride was over. What a waste of time. Thanks a lot Kevin of Great America. And that was The Yankee Clipper From Hell. This will be going in our complaint letter.
After that piss poor experience, we headed over to Batman to wait in only about a 45 minute line. Batman has by far the best waiting experience, with the classic cop car into the fire hydrant, little children screaming, and that dush dush noise in the tunnel and up the stairs. The ride was fast and exciting, lasting about 40 seconds, 10 seconds more than I had predicted. After Batman it was already getting pretty late, so we decided to get a funnel cake, Maluta tradition again. Originally we were going to just get the funnel cake, but then it came to my attention that I could get a funnel cake with a pound of ice cream on top of it for just 50 cents more? How could I not go that route. Unfortunately, the woman in front of me with her 4 kids felt the need to have each of them pay separately for their OWN funnel cakes and drinks, so it took 4 times the time it should have. First of all, why are each of your 10 year old kids getting their own funnel cake. Second, why do they all need to pay separately? I understand building character and teaching lessons, but at Six Flags? Come on lady. Put it in the complaint letter.
While we were waiting for the cake, John of course claimed he wasn't going to have any. Good thing we got 4 sporks because we all devoured it once we set it down on the table. Delicious!
The final ride of the day was upon us. Superman. The wait was the second longest, taking just about an hour, but it was a great ride to end the day with. We wished that it could have released us at the peak of one of the hills and just parachuted us to our car, but instead we all vowed to take the ride in silence, with praying mantis hands up. For the photo, we all had our eyes closed and despite trying to look serious and sleeping, we had cracked smiles, but maybe it was just the G's pulling our face skin back.
Finally the day was over, we walked back to the car, drove back to John's hotel, then drove back to Rachel's apartment. After spending an hour or two there, Beth and I drove back home to our house.
A great & successful Six Flags Great America trip!
On Monday July 14th, I went to get my oil changed at Meineke. I stood there for about 20 minutes, waiting for someone to come help me at the front desk. Finally when someone did, it was just to tell me that their computers were down and I should come back in about an hour.... Thanks for nothing, another day without the oil changed, and another day of bad service. This place seems to always let us down. I was a bit frustrated so I headed over to Best Buy and bought a new Vizio 5.1 Soundbar system. Since no one had helped me earlier in the week, I did some research online and decided to go with the highly rated Vizio system. I am excited to set it up and use it in the new apartment with Rach's TV. Should be a great combo and really increase the sound quality for the place! Afterwards I came home and did a bit of cleaning before heading to work. After work I watched some of the home run derby. Luckily it was delayed enough from rain so I was able to watch. But wow, what a terrible home run derby. One of the guys who made it to the finals had only hit 2 home runs in the first round and some how advanced....Luckily the Cespidas guy can hit some out of the park and put on quite the show for the second straight year. He still hasn't learned to speak english though... which isn't terrible, but for a professional player, somewhat expected?
After the derby and an eventful weekend at Six Flags, I cashed it in and headed to bed.
YaBoy is out
Josh
