Best of 2014

Best Jcubed Video - The only video from 2014 with all 3 members. From the beginning of the year.

Best Vacation: Colorado Camping Trip with Friends. The start to our love for the great outdoors.

Best Movie: The Only movie Rachel and I saw in theaters, Gone Girl

Best Song: Colorado by Jmon & Melissa - A masterpiece crafted around the campfire in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.

Most Played Song on my Itunes: Shake it Off by Taylor Swift - Thanks Rach

Best Concert: Deer Tick at The Metro & Blue Bird Theater. A tie! Where Mange was played magnificently.

Best TV Show: Breaking Bad Series was incredible. A breakout year for TV watching in my life as I have been binge watching TV series.

Best Moment: Rachel and I got Engaged at the top of the John Hancock.

Now, back to the Blog...

Tuesday January 6th, 2015. A night of home made beef sandwiches. Thanks to Rachel for keeping the bed warm by putting on the flannel sheets. Watched Shutter Island that night

Wednesday January 7th I watched some American Horror Story Season 4. It was also a super cold day out. At my parents place I had some soup and Cognac. A new kind of alcohol discovered and indulged in that evening. Watched some Walking Dead that night.

On Thursday January 8th I finished the book Shutter Island and ended up snowed in in Naperville. Watched some more Walking Dead that night.

Friday January 9th started with some 30 for 30s, the ESPN special about Randy Moss and Rand University. To sum it up, Rand University is located outside a 711 in Rand, Virginia, the hometown of Randy Moss. Stay in school or you end up at Rand U! We went to a party at Sarah and Aly's apartment that evening and enjoyed friends company.

The weekend started with Saturday January 10th, where I watched Illinois State University blow the division 1-A National Championship for football on tv. That night, Rachel and I made one of my favorite meals, Beef Stew. We took my Mom's recipe and cooked for about 45 minutes in the oven, the beef stew is so tasty over some rice. We drove back to Naperville and went shopping that night. We then watched Guardians of the Galaxy with Beth in her room, but I fell asleep about 30 minutes in, an early morning ahead.

Sunday January 11th was Tryout day for my Fox Valley Team. After some quality tryouts and tough decisions, I should have a great team this year!, I picked up Rachel and we headed to St. Charles for the baptism of my nephew Nikolas. He was so quiet and good while being baptized and took the whole thing like a boss. Look at that baby's cute baptism hat. Awesome. The after party was at their new house and we had some Chipotle catering, mmm. When we got home that night, I shoveled the driveway at our apartment since they don't seem to do that at this place. Afterwards, Rachel and I started our new workout plan and got a solid workout in. Get big 2015!

On Monday January 12th, I finished Season 3 of The Walking Dead. And that was about it for this week!

Until Next Time.

Ya Boy Josh

Happy One (New) Year of Blogs

Tuesday December 30th, after a day of work, I went shopping and then picked up Beth. We then drove to my place in the city where Rachel made us some spaghetti for dinner. We relaxed the rest of the night.

Wednesday December 31st, New Year's Eve! Cam came to visit and we were fortunate to find him a parking spot with the help of Grant. After hanging out for a bit, we all got ready and then had a few people over to our place: Brian, Sarah, Colin, Matt, & Caitlin joined us for snacks and games. We played cards against humanity, as well as friends and enemies. Around 10pm we headed over to Kim's place for a party and we were not liked by many, as we (I) kept counting down well before midnight arrived. Finally midnight came and we all cheered and celebrated. We then got our coats and left around 12:30am. 2015 was here!

January 1st, 2015 was spent with a morning of mimosas and a lot of football being watched. Michigan State put on an amazing comeback and won their bowl game. We then got some dinner at Duke's which was delicious and we got an awesome Thursday deal. I had 4 burger bites and got a free 12 wings since it was buy one item, get one free! Duke's is always an enjoyable time and probably my favorite place in the area.

After Duke's we walked over to Lincoln Park Zoo and enjoyed the Zoo Lights. Check out some pics from the night where we saw handfuls of sad monkeys, ice sculptors, lighted animals, & pretty lights. Also learned that ice sculptors use a special machine to keep the water flowing so the ice appears to be clear, just like a frozen river bed. This will be the new way I make ice cubes. No more cloudy ice for me!

Beware of the Rainbow Tunnel! This tunnel was a tricky part to the Zoo since it was outside the zoo and we ended up in this tunnel when they closed the zoo doors on us, so we had to walk around the outside with no lights, how sad.

On Friday January 2nd, I headed to work for the first half of the day, then once home I made some rigatoni pasta for Cam, Rachel, and I for dinner. We then met up with friends and walked over to Mary & Jeff's for some Edward 40 Hands. With a lack of 40s in the 5 liquor stores we stopped at, our little group ended up just have 25oz cans, which worked out just fine.

After the party ended, Rachel, Cam, Colin, Sarah, and I hit up a bar across the street for one last drink before they had last call and picked up some Fat Sandwich on the way home. Cam, Rachel & I split the fat milf. Tastyyy. It also snowed on the way home, first snow of the year!

Saturday January 3rd started with me clearing snow off my car, then a bit of work. I picked up gas for an all-time low price of $1.79. Will prices continue to drop!? It rained on the way home and Rachel and I watched a bunch of Mad Men. We made a delicious pork dinner and then had some wine & gummies to go along with our lovely 4 hours of chatting to end the night.

On Sunday January 4th, Rachel and I spent most of the day watching TV shows. We finished season 3 of Mad Men, and season 2 of The Walking Dead. Both shows are solid. We went out to get some groceries and saw where the Best Buy close to us got robbed earlier that morning. Crime scene! Had a couple of buffalo ranch McChickens for lunch and after watching TV for a few hour we made succulent beef sandwiches in the crock pot for dinner. Sooo good.

After a work lunch at Lou Malnati's and a day of work, I spent my evening watching a few episodes of The Walking Dead Season 3 and then shoveled my driveway and sidewalks at my parents place around midnight!

Great end to 2014 and great start to 2015. Looking forward to the year. Maybe next week I'll post a review with bests of 2014 and some goals for 2015.

Josh

A Christmas Miracle

On Tuesday December 23rd, I worked and then played some lax after, the first time playing lacrosse in a long while since I moved to the city and don't have time to stay and play anymore. Fun stuff. I drove back to Chicago that night and hung out with Rachel for a bit before bed.

Grandma with her Grandkids & Great Grandkids

Wednesday December 24th was the first Christmas Eve Rachel and I were to have together. I spent the morning slaving over some scrumptious chocolate covered pretzels, and Rachel made a delicious breakfast casserole. We did these things while having some mimosas of course! We packed our car full of presents, oh how I wish I was a kid again, getting awesome toys and gadgets, and headed out across town. We had Christmas Eve at my Grandma's as usual which was a lovely time for the family to be together. We then headed back to Naperville. On the way there I finished The Shining by Stephen King on tape. A great novel and actually way way better than the movie. We then opened Christmas presents with Beth and my parents. Once the presents were open and we watched a few family videos, we headed to New Lenox for my first Midnight Mass. What an experience. Got to love Church at midnight. It helped that there was an awesome choir providing the music for the evening. Afterwards we hung out with Rachel's family and then I got to experience a Hyma sibling tradition where they put on Lethal Weapon and wrap Christmas presents. Since we got a late start, we ended up being up until 4 am. Santa is on his way, get on your Santa Hat! Hard to believe this was 7 years ago. Freshman year of College on break.

December 25th, Christmas Day 2014 was here. We headed to Rachel's grandparents and had a great Christmas Day Dinner. I headed home by myself after the party was over since I had to work the next day. I watched the movie Rush with my parents and Beth. A great inspirational sports movie about formula 1 racing. I highly suggest all those to watch! I then watched a few Walking Dead episodes that night. Emma and Anna can't believe it's Christmas! 4 Years ago!

I spent Friday December 26th at my parents after work and had some of my Mom's chili. Yum. Then I watched a bunch of Walking Dead episodes and fell asleep late into the night. Oh, I also got gas for under $2.00. A Christmas Miracle for us adults. I think this is the lowest gas has ever been since I have been driving, circa 2005? Or at least since I've been filling up with gas since 2011... ha

Saturday December 27th was another long day at work, and I also successfully changed my windshield wiper blades, with some help from a co-worker. He had to get the blades off for me, as they proved to be more difficult than I thought they would. With new wipers installed, that are a bit too large for my windshield, I will welcome rain/snow with open arms (still hasn't happened). Rachel and I watched The Shining that evening which had a way different and worse ending compared to the book. I sound like such a book nerd.

New pots, new pans

Rachel and I finally cashed in all of our Jewel stickers on Sunday December 28th, and ended up getting a nice 12" non-stick skillet, a 12" every day pot, and a 13.5" lasagna pan. A $160 all for free! Well, actually we had to spend $4,100 to get these 3 pots, but luckily we didn't spend all of it, our parents and some other relatives did as well. Thanks everyone for chipping in! Now we get to cook with these new pans! We got some Wendy's for dinner, and as I received my food, a nice gentleman with dreadlocks said, "You have a great night, OH, and Nice hat too." I smiled and replied, "Thanks, Go Titans!" When I got home I attempted to change our kitchen faucet out. After about 3 hours of working, I finally was successful at getting the old sink faucet out and the new one in. Then I came to the conclusion that somehow the cold faucet ended up getting clogged because only the hot water works, but it works great! Yahoo!!

Gotcha son! Mission half complete!

On Monday December 29th, I ended up having to work late which I wasn't happy about, so I picked up 3 Buffalo McChickens on the way home. I finished Mystic River, on tape by Dennis Lehane. It was so strikingly similar to the movie, there were really no differences at all. So it was solid and great, just like the film. That night I ended up watched a lot more Walking Dead episodes before falling asleep late.

Oh for Christmas this year I was very satisfied with many wool socks, warm gloves, lovely sweaters, power drill, car shovel, whiskey, gift cards, a wine rack, an awesome calender, & a Titans Hat for Johnson from Management. Go Titans.

Get ready for my year in review for next week! As well as my top lists of 2014!

Josh