Gas on the Cheap

February 1, 2016

Song of the Week: Mississippi Rain by the Weeks. Found these guys when they opened for Deer Tick back in 2014 at the Metro. They sound a lot like Kings of Leon. I'll be seeing them again in a couple of weeks! Check them out!

Meanwhile, gas is the cheapest it has ever been in my life (I think). I paid a mere 1.47 per gallon the other night. Road tripping across the US seems a whole lot more affordable now!

The Blind Hockey video I made has been getting reposted about the internet a bit. Check out a couple of the links. Link 1 Link 2

Tryouts for the Cats are exactly 29 days away. Looking to be a great year for the boys. It is all starting to come together here.

Last week The Edge restaurant and bar closed nearby, now another one bites the dust. Best Buy is no more! I am hoping some better places move in, but who knows how long that may take.

Finally, I am still on that iPhone4 life. With seeing all these new smart phones floating around, they all have one problem in my opinion, they are way too large. Is there a smart phone similar in size to the iphone4 that is out there? Any tips on this would be appreciated! Otherwise iphone4 forever!

TV Show of the Week: Nothing yet, thinking about starting Game of Thrones though!

Video of the Week: GoPro: NHL After Dark is a new YouTube series featuring some of the stars of the NHL. The camera work and skill in this video is off the charts! I look forward to these coming out weekly.

Movie of the Week: Soaked in Bleach. A newer version of the Kurt & Courtney movie. This 90 minute documentary movie about the murder of Kurt Cobain does the job that Making a Murderer does in 10 one hour episodes. Check it out on Netflix.

Until next week.

Yaboy Josh

A Start to the Season

January 25, 2016

The FV Season started on Saturday 1/23, I am coaching a C level U13 team this year which is a nice setup for the busy year I will have with Varsity. First practice and some kid already hit me in the face with his stick. Joy!

Song of the Week: Pretty Pimpin by Kurt Vile. Shout out to John for showing me this jam. Potentially may see this guy come April.

The Non-Drinking streak is over folks. Stopped at a standstill at 20 days in to the new year, thanks to the woman at Jewel who was giving out free tastings of wine. How could we say no? We indulge in some more wine later that night, she sold us a bottle of the sample... So we go 20 days without drinking, only to realize that we just end up snacking and eating more food, but it was good for our livers I am sure!

After practice, Rachel and I met up with Rachel's bro Phil and Dad, as well as my mom to pick out our Tuxes for the wedding. Gonna look baller. Later that evening Beth, Rachel, Rob, & I all hung out watching some Gossip Girl and complaining about the complainers of the world. During this time, I came to the realization that before YouTube and videos online, I would search for videos on KaZaa (similar to Napster) and then torrent/download them. Was anyone else in the same boat as me? Now it is amazing that almost anything you want to see can be found on YouTube or similar video sharing websites, and you don't have to download anything!

In the meantime, I have been training endlessly on Mario 64, dominating Bowser and all his minions, claiming 120 stars and meeting with Yoshi for a secret rendezvous a top the castle while Peach bakes a cake for me. But seriously, I got so frustrated a few times with the video game I would just yell at the TV, tell Mario to suck one, and then shut the game off. Only to come back 2 minutes later and get back after it. My gamers out there know the feeling.

A couple of quick shots to sum up the weekend. Rachel, Beth, & I drove past a car with 2 goldens in the back, lovely guys! Rachel even yelled at the guy in the passenger seat for sleeping when there were such beautiful goldens in his presence. Also witnessed the closing down of The Edge Bar & Grill down the street from us. We had only been once, but this place was open 24 hours a day! Kind of sad to see it go!

Video of the Week: Finished editing the Tallest Man On Earth show John, Rachel, Melissa, & I attended at Hope College back in September. Great show!

Movie of the Week: Get Hard with Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart. Sad dogging it from here on out. This movie got me hard.

TV Show of the week: Finished up Making a Murderer. Sad times. Being poor and living in a small town where you are not on the side of people with power seems like a very bad combo. Personally I think Steve Avery is innocent, even though the show is scripted and edited to do just that, it seems very hard for a couple of "dumb" folks to clean up a huge mess. Also his poor nephew who doesn't seem to know left from right gets pulled into it. I am a man of conspiracies though so would love to see some argument for the other side.

Podcast of the week: Serial season two. P.O.W Private Bergdahl leaves his post and gets captured by the taliban. Finally released after 5 years. Is he a deserter and traitor, or should he be let free? First 5 episodes down, released bi-weekly now. Give it a listen!

Thanks for reading, see ya next Monday!

Josh

Bear Down Chicago

January 16, 2016

Rachel and I spent the end of 2015 enjoying time with friends and started the new year of 2016 by doing just the same! We went over to Brian's in Wrigley and hung out with Adam, Brian, & Megan watching Iowa get dominated in the Rose Bowl game against Standford and also played some cards against humanity. Check out some photos from the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016.

Song of the week: An initial suggestion from Sarah that has lead to a constant playing from Rachel. Biebs is back!

Rachel and I found love for old school arcade games as we spent an evening with my good friend Cam from college playing games at Emporium Bar and Arcade in Wicker Park. We especially enjoyed Michael Jackson's Moonwalker and Q*Bert. Q*Bert was game of the night and we are now professional Q*Bert players as we cracked the top 23 multiple times!

On Sunday January 3rd, Rachel and I had the privilege of attending our first Chicago bears game. Before we even got into the stadium, we found out that NO bags are allowed in. This was bad news since we had Rachel's purse. Luckily Cam was with us, and he was kind enough to take her purse and carry it around the city like a grown man with a satchel. The Bears were taking on the Lions and we had some top notch seats. Rachel was able to snag us two seats in her company's box, after a little drama weeks before. The view from the box was not only stunning, but it was nice and toasty warm in the box as well. As we looked down on the peasants below in the stadium, we watched our Chicago Bears lose a somewhat exciting game in the closing minutes. It was super awesome being in the box, having free food and beer, and being treated like kings. When the dessert cart came by I snagged a little sack of delicious sour gummies. To top off our football game experience, William "The Fridge" Perry was in the box next to us and was recognized at half time for his career with the Bears, including a Super Bowl title in 1985. A great way to experience our first Bears game, similar to the way Rachel experienced her first Hawks game (10th row when I rode the Zamboni)! My only gripe was that since it was cold out, the box windows were closed, and you really couldn't hear the sounds of the game as I would have imagined it. But I would take being warm and comfortable over hearing Jay Cutler speak words. Woo!

After the Bears game we made a stop at the Field museum since it was a free day for Illinois Residents. This was our first time here probably since we were in grade school. Sue was in the building, but did you know they don't even know if Sue is a boy or girl? Dino Facts.

Starting on Monday January 4th and until now, I have not had any alcohol! It's almost been two weeks and Rachel and I are feeling great! Just doing this to boost our goal of getting into great shape for the wedding. We will continue to drink, just hoping to knock down the frequency and maintain our beach bod figures, once we get them...

In November last year, I had an amazing opportunity to film the first ever blind hockey event in the Midwest. After the holidays and going through over an hour of footage with multiple edits, I finished the video which was presented to the board of USA Hockey with hopes of Blind Hockey being adopted as a discipline within the USA Hockey's Disabled Section!

Beth's Blog is back in action this year! Be sure to hit up for a weekly post!
Her latest blog post revolves around being the book worm she has always been and her reading goals for the year.

Movie of the Week: The Imposter, insane and crazy documentary about a missing child who is found years later. Watch on Netflix.