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
