There's a Robot in the Office

On Wednesday August 17, 2016 I worked all day, then enjoyed yummy Blue Apron burgers made by Rachel for dinner. If you don't know, Blue Apron is a meal service that sends you fresh ingredients and a recipe to cook those ingredients with. It is nice because everything you need is already portioned out and included in the package. The bad thing is that they claim: "it will take 20 minutes to prep and 20 minutes to cook" but whenever we cook one it always takes 90 minutes to 2 hours for us to finish and eat. Great food and tastes though, so many flavors! We watched Mr. Robot episode 4 of season 2. Getting good.

Song of the Week: It's Different For Girls by a band that I thought was a new Indie band, but after researching has been around since 1996. of Montreal.

Thursday August 18, we had another Blue Apron dinner. This one was catfish and it was quite enjoyable as well. Thanks to Rach for cooking it up once again. I believe this was only the second time having catfish, the first time being back with Andrew Mewborn and John at Swamp Guinea in Georgia back in summer of 2008. Oh yeah, here is a photo of that.

Rachel and I watched episodes 5 and 6 of Mr. Robot season 2 that evening before calling it a night. The next day on August 19th, a Friday, I had McDonald's for lunch and ended up working pretty late. When I got to my parents house I watched season 1 of The Office with Beth while having a few PBRs and doing laundry. Slept at my parents obviously.

Saturday August 20, I had McDonald's for lunch, again, wow I am unhealthy. I had to work in the morning that day and when I finished I headed back over to my parents and grilled Italian sausages and potato slices for my parents and Beth for dinner. Beth and I ended up watching half of season 2 of the office on this day. After I finished eating I headed over to New Lenox where I hit up The Bulldog restaurant bar with Jordan (Michele's bf) and Cory (Ashley's fiance). They had been there for a couple of hours as all of our ladies were at Mary's bridal shower. After a couple of drinks, the girls arrived and we had a fun night. Rachel and I drove back to her parents around midnight and spent the night there.

On the morning of Sunday August 21st, Rachel and I headed down to Kankakee to visit Rachel's Grandpa. We had lunch and enjoyed a little over 3 hour visit with him. Afterwards we headed to the cemetery to meet up with my family for my Grandpa's 10 year death anniversary (blog about Grandpa here). Rachel and I then stopped at target on our way home. We spent about 2 hours shopping around and I put the Cartwheel app to good use, coming up with $8 of savings. Woo! We had a productive night around the apartment doing some organizing and cleaning. We still can't figure out why we are only productive once the sun goes down though... We were up until at least midnight again, we stay up too late.

Monday August 22nd, the start of another week. After work I cooked up some Trader Joe's kung pow chicken for dinner. My computer is really pissing me off, and it sucks (read about how it is super frustrating here). I am in the process of backing it up again on a new external hard drive and we will see if it works this time. Mr. Robot episode 7 was mind blowing! Whoa! That was just insane! If you aren't watching Mr. Robot you need to start now! Season 1 is on Netflix and season 2 is currently being aired on live TV. That night Rachel and I cleaned and organized around the apartment a little bit.

Another day another cavity, on Tuesday August 23rd, I visited the dentist to get that filling that was previous filled, filled again. These teeth are rough. I listened to the second episode of Up and Vanished. The podcast I talked about last week about a missing girl from Georgia. Decent episode. That night I got home late from work, called it a night.

TV Shows of the Week: The Office and Mr. Robot - both on Netflix. Get on it. This is actually my first time watching the office all the way through, hilarious as always. And oh look at that screen shot from Mr. Robot season 2, it's Darryl from The Office.

Inspiration of the Week: YouTuber Casey Neistat, who vlogs about his daily life and also makes short movies. He is one of the few YouTubers where I will actually watch 10+ minute videos all the way through. The amount of work he puts into each video and the details are something that seem to be unmatched by anyone right now. From using cool gadgets, to drone footage, to time lapses, to pulling off crazy stunts. He does it all! I have only recently started watching his stuff, but have really been enjoying it. His story of sticking to what he loves and working hard for it is very cool. His hard work has given me new ideas and plans for this website, my YouTube channel, and my blogs. Hopefully I can put some of them to use soon. I honestly don't know how he manages to have ideas for a daily video, film everything, edit the video, and post them daily.  Here is one of his most recent videos with a visit to Chicago as he drives his son across the country for the start of college. Be sure to check out his channel and watch his vids.

Video of the Week: This cool mashup of a bunch of movies (230 to be exact) singing The Offspring's Pretty Fly (For a White Guy).

A few more blogs will be coming in the next week or so. Keep your eyes peeled.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Josh

Dirty Sheets Alumni Game Aftermath

I spent Monday August 8th, 2016 doing adult things. After work I went to the dentist, only to find out that my old fillings are falling apart, so I need to get my old cavities that were already filled, filled again. And I thought I couldn't get any more cavities since all my teeth are filled. How lucky. Afterwards I headed out to sports clips to get my hair cut. The woman was very kind to ask me if I was getting ready to go back to school. Yep, still look like I am in high school. With my fresh 'do,  I headed to my parents and did some laundry, then cleaned my car seats for the first time ever. They sure were dirty! Saw a pretty cool little leaf bug while that was going on. Talk about being an adult. This is what I do with my free time!

On Tuesday August 9, I got creative at work and set up some lax Olympics. The kids seemed to have fun with it. I even made a medal podium. For lunch we headed to Draft Picks where I got some steak fajitas. Tasty. After work, I picked up Rachel in New Lenox, then we drove down to Kankakee, to spend time with Rach's grandma. When we got back to Chicago that night, we watched the Olympics and Rach tried on her new Patagonia sweater that my mom won. For an even more attractive look, they put a Mountain DEWcision logo on the back of the hoodie. Looks like this will be worn with the hood down always. Quality sweater though!

Wednesday August 10th was an extremely say day. Rachel's Grandma passed away at the age of 93. Such an amazing and remarkable woman. I feel lucky to have been able to meet and spend time with her, but wish I could have known her longer (read more about her inspiring me to blog more here).

That evening for dinner Rachel cooked up a blue apron dinner for us. Spicy chicken and korean rice cakes. Very enjoyable with such scrumptious flavors. I had too many drinks that evening and bumped our new little pot thing off of the bathroom sink. Needless to say, it shattered, but I barely touched it. It was ridiculous. That night we watched Mr. Robot Season 2 Episode 3.  On my way home from work I also started a new podcast that is similar to Serial. The podcast documentary is about the unsolved disappearance of Tara Grinstead. She went missing on October 22, 2005 from her home in Ocilla, Georgia and hasn't been seen since. It is called Up and Vanished and is produced by Payne Lindsey. The founding member and director of all the classic Right Side of the Tree videos. Which actually all are no longer on YouTube for some reason, but I was able to dig up this one. My guess is they were removed so Payne could focus on a more serious career as a director and now investigative podcaster? But who knows.

Happy 2 month anniversary! Wow time flies. The last two months have been extremely busy, but also super fun and amazing. I love being married to the most wonderful wife! I love you Rachel! I spent Thursday August 11th, at work watching the beast put on a faceoff clinic. When I got home from work I was pretty tired so I took a nap. We celebrated our 2 month anniversary by getting some Papa Johns. I ordered a pepperoni zaa, but as I was walking home with it, I realized they gave me a cheese. When I went back in they apologized, made me a new one and even gave me a free 20oz soda. Wow, the perks for having to wait an extra 10 minutes. 

I worked late on Friday August 12th, went to my parents, drank a six pack of bud lights and ate two bags of popcorn because what else would you do on a Friday night with your rents?  

On Saturday August 13, I was hosting a Neuqua alumni game at Commish turf. The park district actually pulled nets out for us at our request, but they of course were still locked to the fence when I got there. I had no idea how many people were going to show up, and since it was the first game in about 7 years, but I had promoted it to all the alumni I knew, as well as offered it up to current players to participate as well. With the short week notice we still had about 12 alumni and 12 current players come to play. I called the PD and got the goals unlocked and we actually scrimmaged for about 2 hours. It was super fun and a great success considering the short notice and gap in time since the last game. Hopefully I can make this an annual thing and at least double if not triple the participation for next year. After the game I headed to Nevins with Carron and Curley, the only other 2 "old" alumni as we were about 6 years older than anyone else there ha. I had a pretty tasty burger and a couple of drinks as we discussed life, lacrosse, and alumni games for the future. Fun times. I then hopped in my car and headed back to Chicago. 

Once I got back to the city Saturday evening, I did some things around the apartment, as Rachel was out at Mary's Bachelorette party. Stop, if you haven't checked out the song Dirty Sheets above by The Orwells, do so now... . I wasn't sure if the show started at 8:30p as it said on the flyer, or if that is when The Orwells went on. As you know from my blog last week, I arrived way too early to the New Madrid show. This was on my mind as I left my apartment at 8:15. As I started walking away from my building, I thought hey, there is no way I will make it to the show by catching busses and walking, but I do have a car. So I turned around, went up to my room, frantically did some research to find out when the boys would be playing, found a link that said the entire show starts at 8:30, but there are 3 bands before the Orwells, so I calmed down a little. I grabbed my keys and then headed to the show via car. I found some free parking in the neighborhoods around the venue Chop Shop & 1st Ward.  I got into the venue which was a little small chop shop and restaurant in front and then some glass windows separating the concert venue in the back. Pretty cool setup. There was also a set of stairs once in the venue which I headed up to see the view from above. Once I was up there I knew this would be my spot. Not too crowded, a great view, a solid spot for a guy riding solo who was looking to record the show.

The first band was already playing once I got to my spot. Joe Bordenero & The Late Bloomers. I really only caught a couple of their songs by they were pretty decent. Next up was Post Animal, a Chicago band that had a few songs I could vibe too, but they were a little too "metal" sounding for me and I don't think I would really listen to their stuff unless I was in the metal mood. While I was watching them perform, I felt someone behind me watching. It hadn't been that crowded yet so no one was behind me before that. When I turned around to glance I saw the lead singer of The Orwells checking out the show. Pretty cool. An exceptional moment during the Post Animal set came when one of the photographers put down his camera, and then went up the side of the stage and leapt off turning his onto his back in midair. No one was expecting it and there was not enough of a crowd to hold him up so he smashed a chick and the ground pretty hard on his back. Well that was exciting! The 3rd band that took the stage was pretty awesome. The Symposium was lead by a guy who came out in vibrant gym shorts, a tee shirt, and gym shoes, my kinda guy. I really enjoyed their set and the comedy the lead guitarist/vocalist brought to the stage. The Chicago indie rock style had me head nodding to their jams. Check out their music here!

Finally around 11:30p The Orwells took the stage. A band that is out of Elmhurst, IL that has extremely high energy, pumps the crowd up, and gets the people going absolutely nuts. I have listened to their music for awhile now and really enjoy their "english" style punk rock, but wanted to get a taste of it live, and I surely did. Despite the signs, there was a lot of moshing, stage diving, and crowd surfing throughout their performance. These guys I think just turned maybe 19 or 20, but they surely know how to rock. The lead singer Mario Cuomo (who looks similar to Robert Plant) is a wild guy who only sings, and really puts on quite a show when he is up there. From swinging his blonde hair around, to standing against the wall in the back, to crowd surfing, to screaming his lungs out, and to even chugging beers and liquor mid set. These guys know how to throw a party. I could not stop head bobbing and swaying to their music. It was an incredible show with tons of highlights. I was able to record it all on audio and also get a decent amount of it on video as you can see below. Fans kept getting on stage, jumping off stage into the crowd, then crowd surfing back to the front, to do it all over again. All while this was happening other guys near the front would be smashing into each other and other people who were enjoying the show. Mosh pits and crowd surfing make me smile, but at a distance. Absolutely wild. I was glad to be in the upper deck as my mosh pitting days are long past me. At one point during the show a random fan was up on stage standing with his hands up. Mario comes up behind him while singing and pushes him forward. At the same time he lost his balance and fell down off the stage on top of the fan in the crowd. He then was down in the crowd for a little bit. While this was happening he kept singing, rock n roll baby! I moved around to a few different spots from the balcony throughout the show, and then went down to the floor level for the last song. Once Mario was done singing, he left the stage and the band jammed for a couple of minutes before ending the night. That was electric! I will definitely be going to see these guys the next time they are in town and I wouldn't be mad if ya'll joined me.

Video of the week: This John McCauley show from 2005 just surfaced on the internet and it is gold. Even before the entire band Deer Tick was a thing! Vintage stuff, McCauley explains how the bands name came to be and plays a few classics for us. Oldest footage of Deer Tick I've seen to date. A must watch!

Podcast of the Week: Up and Vanished. The podcast documentary is about the unsolved disappearance of Tara Grinstead. She went missing on October 22, 2005 from her home in Ocilla, Georgia and hasn't been seen since. Produced by once Right Side of the Tree star, Payne Lindsey.

Much more coming soon.

Josh

And She Smiles

August 4th, 2016, Thursday, Took my car in to the shop thinking the squeaky breaks meant they were about to break (har har). Luckily they were all right. Rachel makes a very good salmon dinner with rice. This is the first day I took my wedding ring off since the wedding to clean it.

August 5th, Friday, Rachel and I went to Tarascas after work for a jumbo margarita happy hour. Woo happy hours! We enjoyed nachos and chatted about current events happening in and around our lives. The strawberry margarita was very large and very tasty. Around 7 pm the 2016 Olympics in Rio began and we watched the opening ceremony, which was, weird, but I guess the home country always does something in their style. Lots of dancing around and weird aluminum foil flags, not to mention a 100 yd catwalk. Interesting, but not interesting enough to keep me from going to the New Madrid show. 

Around 8pm I headed out to the Empty Bottle to see New Madrid play. My plan was to take a couple of busses and get there just in time for the show to begin at 9pm. I wouldn't find it out until I got there, but the opening band didn't even come on until 11. I took a bus halfway there, but then couldn't find the next bus stop for the life of me, so I jumped in a cab and got to the show just before 9pm. I went inside and was literally, one of maybe 10 people in the place. I then realized that the other 9 people who were at the bar, were the musicians who would be performing. The venue was really tiny. The stage was probably no more than 20 feet from the bar, but it is a perfect setting for a smaller show. Don't have to walk too far for your drinks. Anyway, I felt a little awkward so I left for a few minutes to walk around outside. When I saw some more people lining up to get into the show, I headed back and asked some people in line if they needed tickets. I had an extra ticket since I was flying solo and got some girl who was in front of me in. I would have got the guy she was standing by in, but he said he was on the list. Oooooo. Once I got her in, she offered to buy me a beer which I took her up on.

I followed her up to the bar and she asked me what I wanted, I said I'll make it easy, just an Old Style, which were running for $2 this fine night. What should have been a short 2 minute exchange turned into a painfully awkward 10 minutes of me standing there. She honestly looked like me when I first started going to bars at the ripe age of 22, kind of just standing near the bar, but not being assertive. Then when she didn't get service she would walk over to a different section of the bar, only to have the bartender just go to the section she was at. Multiple times I almost was gonna tell her not to worry about, but I held on. I earned this $2 Old Style! While waiting awkwardly behind this girl, I tried to be nice and ask a couple of questions, but pretty much got one word answers and nothing more. Yikes!

Finally she was able to get me a beer and I said thank you and cheers'd her, as she walked 2 feet away to her friends, who were equally as uninviting and awkward. Reminded me of the classic scene from Dumb and Dumber.... "Hey guys, Big gulps huh? Welp cya later"

I went over and stood between two of the doors and drank my beer slowly while waiting for the bands to come on. 9:15, 9:30, 9:45 all passed, no sign of anyone playing yet. Wow I really got to this show too early ha. I almost considered leaving a few times, but finally around 9:55p more people started filing in to see the show. Apparently they all got the memo that the show didn't start until 10. I finished my beer and considered asking that chick for another since she owes me about 5 more to cover the ticket! But no one would want to suffer another 10 minutes of waiting for a beer, so I went up to the bar and got 2 more Old Styles. The beer I didn't pay for tasted better, it always does.

Finally at 10pm the first band came on. Luke Henry & Rabbitfoot. A chicago band who had a good crowd. I stood front row off to the left and listened to them while enjoying my drinks. They were pretty good! I polished off my 2 beers and picked up 2 more beers before the next band went on. This next band had a little more energy and put on a pretty solid show. The Tomblands are another up and coming rockband from Chicago. Here is a link to some of their music! Check em out. The crowd and ladies loved their one guitarist named Danny. He was getting the people amped up on this Friday night at Empty Bottle.

After the Tomblands left the stage, I grabbed 2 more Old Styles before New Madrid took the stage. I was front middle, along with 2 other guys. Most of the crowd, which probably topped off somewhere between 75-100 had gone back to the bar. I assume most of the fans were there to see the first two local bands. In fact, I might have been the only New Madrid fan there, but I was loving it. A little bit larger girl who smelled like she hadn't showered in a couple of days made some conversation with me while we were waiting for New Madrid to come on. She seemed pretty nice, had no idea who New Madrid was, was just there to see new music, but really could have hit the showers. Stanky. Finally New Madrid came out and they killed it. They played a lot of their new songs off of their Magnetkingmagnetqueen album. At one point I had to use the bathroom pretty bad, small bladder problems, so I did so. I was able to get back to the front row when I came back, I love small venues. Just after this the boys played my favorite jam of theirs, And She Smiles. If you didn't start playing it at the beginning of this blog, go back and do so. Straight jam. I was definitely feeling the music and despite my audio recorder not working, I was able to video nearly the entire And She Smiles song (video link to come in the future).

After they played for a little over an hour, the show ended and I went to the bathroom one more time before heading out. On my way out I ran into the lead singer, Phil. I let him know how I had seen them open up for Diamond Rugs back last year and have loved their stuff ever since.  He was a pretty cool guy and sold me the latest 2 albums of theirs. Dawn Teeth Rattling, which was a record day store release and then their new album, Magnetkingmagnetqueen. I of course was the only person at the merch table, but I let Phil know I thought they could have started a little earlier, he agreed. Haha. An amazing show and I told them to come back soon, so hopefully they do. If you have never listened to New Madrid I suggest you do. I like to classify them as a psycadellic rock band out of Athens, GA. I cabbed it home and hit the hay once I made it home. Fun night.

New Madrid vinyl records I bought above. Lead singer I met setting up the stage below.

The next day, Saturday August 6th, Rachel and I got some McDonald's for lunch, then we drove down to Kankakee to see Grandma. That night we had dinner with Rachel's parents at the Bulldog Tap House in New Lenox. I think I got some sort of burger, it was good. That night we got back to the city around 11:15p, thinking maybe we would go out with some friends. Unfortunately no one was around and we are old, so we just curled up in bed and called it a night.

On Sunday August 7th, Rachel and I did a Corepower Sculpt class which kicked my butt. I almost passed out a couple of times, so just kinda laid down for parts of the class. I am so impressive! For lunch we ate a couple of sandwiches. In the afternoon we met up with Ashley and headed to the grassy beach area to soak up the rays and enjoy the beautiful weather. Water looking nice!

Sunday evening Rachel and I cooked up some zucchini boats, which remind me of pizza boats, but with zucchini as the bread. We cut up this HUGE zucchini and were able to make 2 trays full. Topped the boats with some ground chicken, sauce, cheese, onions, peppers, and more! Shout out to Beth for the idea. Shout out to mom for supplying the giant zucchini. Shout out to Rachel for cooking it! Yum.

Stay hungry my friends

Josh