Mound Town

Tuesday December 2nd, Rachel and I finished season 1 of Mad Men, loving the show so far. I also played some Super Mario 64 on this day. Check out our new sweaters we got! PS: I put this picture here so it would be the main blog pic. Hashtag Blog problems. Now enjoy this Deer Tick Holiday Song while you read about my life.

On Wednesday December 3rd, I had some old expired eggs in the morning and the whole afternoon I had stomach issues. Finding myself in the bathroom every 5 minutes to let what surely was not poop out of my stomach. I blame the eggs. I watched some Always Sunny in Philadelphia that night, as well as the movie Snowpiercer. Snowpiercer is set in a post apocalyptic future and takes place on a train. Basically the train is the only thing left on earth, as everything outside has froze, and there is a society within the train, including a class system, rich in the front, poor in the back. That sentence had a lot of commas and I am unsure if they were used correctly. Anyway, great movie, and if you have Netflix I highly suggest a watch!

Thursday December 4th I had a NV lax meeting and then came home to an empty home, so I loaded up Snow Mounds into my editing system, had some gummies and a couple beers and popped out this instant classic of a Jcubed video. Enjoy our first B&W silent film. Welcome to Mound Town

On Friday December 5th Rachel and I spent the morning and afternoon looking at potential wedding venues, driving all over. I then had work, and that night Rachel picked me up from work and brought me some homemade beef sandwiches my mother had made for me. Delicious as I drove over to Rachel's parents to spend the night.

Saturday December 6th, the full cold moon, was another day of wedding venue exploring with a McDonald's trip in between. Basically weddings are overwhelming and people plan way too far out so there are very few dates left, so we shall join them, aka wedding will now be in 2016 sometime! More info to come at a later date. That night Rachel made us some tasty Jack's pizza and I dominated some Call of Duty MW2 on the computer. Yes I am a PC gamer, lame I know, and yes I am still playing Call of Duty from 2008. Ball so hard.

Sunday December 7th, a day that will live in infamy. Pearl Harbor remembrance while I slum around the apartment. Made a pasta sausage lunch meal that was tasty, played some more COD, and went out and bought a new lamp to add some vibrancy to the main living space. Rachel and I had some Pot Belly flat sandwiches for dinner while watching the Lego Movie. What a great film. After Rachel headed to bed and I couldn't sleep so I watched some Mad Men and American Horror Story Season 4.

On Monday December 8th Christmas came early, as our Deer Tick Sweaters arrived and we couldn't be happier with them! Check em out above.

I started American Horror Story Season 3 as it was just released on Netflix and watched some more Always Sunny as I strung some Christmas lights at my parents house and in my old bedroom! Weird to say it is my old bedroom! Adulthood!

Also check out this hilarious list of Acronyms Yahoo claims Parents need to know about their kids and texting. There was a more appropriate list above this that reminded me of the AOL days like (PIR) Parent In Room and stuff like that. This NSFW list is absolutely hilarious and I highly doubt anyone texts this stuff.

With that being said GYPO and TDTM, we will see you next week.

YaBoy Josh

Give Thanks

Tuesday November 25th, I finished my latest audio book, Catch 22. A classic novel that invented the phrase That's a Catch 22. The book was pretty good, about airplane pilots and their struggle to complete all the necessary missions without being crazy, taking place during World War II. When I got home from work I realized I forgot my parking pass, had to end up writing a note in my window and praying my car would still be there in the morning.

Wednesday November 26th, short lived anticipation, my car was there. After a free lax day at work, I picked up some Beck's Black Sapphire Beers and celebrated Black Wednesday with my friends in Brian's basement. The idea was proposed that we go to DT napes like we did the year prior, but I vetoed the idea and explained how after 5 minutes of being out amongst the crowds we left for a friends basement, so why not just cut out that middle step? We played some ping pong & cards against humanity. Brian's dad was kind enough to bring us down chips and dip, popcorn, and other treats. Thank you Keith, but no thanks to you Brian, JK thanks for having us over. Check out the funniest card of the night in my opinion.

Thursday November 27th was here. Thanksgiving. Rachel and I spent our first Thanksgiving together, and ended up doing the double Thanksgiving which I was not disappointed in since I got double meals. It was wonderful spending time with both sides of our family, although it felt a little strange having to either leave early or arrive late, but was a pleasant day overall. I guess I can say what I am thankful for as well. I am thankful for the most wonderful woman in the world, my fiance Rachel, my family, friends, and enjoying every minute of this wonderful life that I have been blessed with. After the meals, we went out and got some black friday shopping deals. Most of the crowds were gone by 9 pm and all them dvds we wanted were still around, so it was a success hitting up Walmart, Target, & Meijer. Also we picked up a sweet mirror, some tupperware, and a whole bunch of frames. Wow am I becoming more and more adult every day or what?

On Friday November 28th, I went to work and then hit up some Black Friday Shopping Deals again, stopping at Disc Replay and Target. Picked up 9 movies for $19 bucks so that was solid, even though the more and more I buy, I think how my collection will soon be obsolete with all these streaming options and digital movies. But I guess some people did the same with VHS and still watch those so... long live the DVD! Everyone at my parents house seemed a bit under the weather, so I cooked up some soup for dinner and then Beth and I watched Despicable Me 2. I ended up falling asleep on the couch around 8 and eventually made my way to my own bed and slept many hours.

Saturday November 29th was a big day for Rachel and I as we checked out our first wedding venues with my mom and both her parents. We then had lunch at the Morton Arboretum, I picked up that Caribbean Jerk Chicken Sandwich. The cafeteria style restaurant reminded me of good old Richie Marketplace and even came equipped with lunch trays. Lovely.  Rachel and I did some more wedding planning once back at the rents house and then realized I couldn't go get the pizza we had ordered since I had one too many wines, so my dad drove. Rosati's pizza for dinner. Around 8 pm I headed over to Phil's for some Halo action. After a couple of games, and a couple of drinks, Rachel finally agreed to play and we had fun playing halo until about 1:30am. Rachel and I had some pretty awesome names, guess which ones they were below! We then played some fusion frenzy and ended with drinking games and got back to my place around 3:30a.

On the last day of November Rachel and I celebrated the end of the month with a trip to McDonalds, 2 mcchickens and a mcdouble for yaboy. We took care of some things around our place and then had a tasty chili chicken dinner over rice. We then entertained ourselves with 4 episodes of Mad Men. Nearing the end of season 1.

On the first day of December, I added to my photo collection with some new frames I got on black friday.

I ended the first day of December decorating my sister's room with a plethora of Christmas lights. Photos here!

A semi-relaxing week ahead!? Snow Mounds nearing completion!

Josh

Friendsgiving

On Tuesday November 18th I stopped by my Grandma's on the way home from work and had a delicious dinner of rolladen while spending time with family. Kirsten was in town from Germany so it was good catching up with her. I dropped her off at her hotel on my way home and called it an early night, still recovering from a cough.

Wednesday November 19th was a simple day and I watched some Video Game High School. Done with season 2! Now watch this hilarious Tosh.0 skit making fun of Sports Center for ripping off his segment.

Thursday November 20th Rachel and I got an edible arrangement from a mystery person who turned out to be her 2 friends Michele and Ashely. So nice of them to send such a treat! We enjoyed the fruit with our Dinty Moore Stew dinner over rice. Stewtastic reminding us of fresh stew under the blanket of stars in Colorado when we were camping. That night we started the show Mad Men and watched the first 2 episodes about advertising writers in New York in the late 1950s / early 1960s. I watched some Always Sunny right before bed as well. Funny show.

Friday November 21st I started the morning by loading up some Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and prestiged for the 2nd time. I had been sitting at rank 70 and figured I would start over. Why not? The game is like 8 years old anyway and I haven't played since 2011. That night I got home from work and Brian came over around 11 pm to play some N64. We decided to load up Diddy Kong Racing and ended up playing ever single level / trophy race / battle zone possible. After all probably 50 races or so, Brian was doing well, except in hover levels, I still had not come in first, and it was nearing 1:30AM. So Brian said, you will win this last race. We picked the first level and I was in the lead for most of the race. Brian was just sitting near the finish line with rockets loaded up, taking out the computer players to secure my win. Then on the last lap I lost the lead and with the finish line in sight, I sat in second place. Brian, thinking the race was over, began to spray rockets toward us. One of the rockets hit the computer player in first place and I zoomed past him and across the finish line at the last second, FIRST PLACE! We both erupted in cheers and high fived. An incredible ending to a night of sucking.

On Saturday November 22nd, Rachel and I hit up the Jewel and did some grocery shopping. While we were in there we got some free tastes of vodka and given 2 free blue moon glasses. What a start to the shopping trip! Afterwards we prepared a salad, and my Aunt Elaine's peanut butter bars for dessert to bring over to Torie's for Friendsgiving!

Around 3:30 we hopped on the L and headed over to Torie's. We got there around 4pm, enjoyed drinks and appetizers with friends as we waited for the monster 20 lb turkey to finish cooking. Around 5:30pm the turkey was carved and the people began to fill their plates with turkey, mac & cheese, cheesy potatoes, grandmas gravy, salad, asparagus, a few other things I don't remember now, & of my peanut butter bars of course. After dinner, we had some apple pie shots topped with whipped cream as well as some apple crisp. Warm and filling!

After some card games and spoons at Torie's we headed over to Cody's for Chris's birthday around 10pm. We finished off the night by buying Schlitz beers for $2.75 and actually buying them out of it. No Deer Tick on the juke box, but some other decent bands and tunes. We got a cab home and called it a night.

Sunday November 23rd started off with a Jack's pizza for breakfast, followed up by 2 McDoubles delivered by Squid for lunch. Squid hopped over to hang out and help us clean and plan after hanging out with her friends the night before. Around 3 I drove us back to Naperville and I worked for a few hours. When I arrived back home I cooked up some meatballs and we had toasted meatball subs with tasty crinkle fries for dinner whiling watching another 2 episodes of Mad Men.

Monday November 24th was a big day as I finally got us renters insurance, so now if the place burns down we are covered. Solid! I also spent the morning watching an episode of American Horror Story season 4, and afternoon working on and finishing my fourth Luta Lax video. Some beach lax from earlier this summer with Cam, Nolan, Rach, & Beth. Check it out!

Since I had the day off, I was able to get a lot done around the apartment and am feeling relatively organized. Rachel and I cooked up some tacos for dinner. Succulent as they were topped with onions, peppers, lettuce, cheese, & rice. A few more episodes of Mad Men and the night was over.

A big night in America as the police officer from the Michael Brown Ferguson Case was not indicted and the town has continued to riot and burn down the city. Here is a clipping from the trial from Darren Wilson's POV. It reads like a movie script and will be interesting to get to the whole case. It also bothers me how the media portrays Mr. Brown as a poor innocent little kid, this is him an hour before robbing a convenient store. He doesn't look so little, 6'4 300lbs. But at the same time some of the facts from the officers side of the story seem a little too real to be true and his face only showed minor damage. Crazy stuff and a very interesting case that has a sad ending regardless of how much the media twists both sides stories and how much both sides lie.

Thanksgiving next week, family and friend time! Also looking to finish the highly anticipated Snow Mounds!

Enjoy the holiday!

Josh