* live in chicago *

Happy Wedding Matthew and Leema

2008-06-12T23:47:00.005-06:00

Our friends Matthew and Leema got married last Sunday. Good times were had. Happy wedding you two!

The happy couple being bounced on chairs!

My favorite tie. We both looked amazing!

My new official wedding shoes.

The wedding was at the Swedish American Center not the Sweetest American Center.

Robert Nanna's Photo Journey

2008-06-12T23:30:00.005-06:00

Last Friday Kara and I went to check out the opening night of Bob's photo exhibit at the Threadless store. After a few headaches trying to find parking we settled on a parking garage and headed on up. The idea behind it was that Bob and a friend of his started with a polaroid photo and gave the last photo to the next person and took a picture of it. The Neverending Polaroid I think is what it was called. Anyways, I remembered having been a part of this at some point so we came to find ourselves and other friends. Pretty amazing how with the hundreds of photos he had over the years I don't believe I saw the same person more than once. Bob, it was really great to see this and I appreciate the time you put into it.

The start of the photo journey.

Most of the photos. Bob in white shirt with cat.

Tim Kinsella (of Joan of Arc), Me (of me), Brian Peterson (Fireside Bowl) - photos taken at Fireside Bowl 6/10/01

Erik Bocek (then of Joan of Arc), Kara, Pete Croke (now of Rollo Tomasi) - photos taken at Fireside Bowl 6/10/01

Audio Recording Guy (dude who records tons of shows), Amanda Keeler, Mike D (roadie dude from Milwaukee - probably doing Promise Ring at the time) - photos taken at Metro 4/7/01

don't know who the people are sandwiching Chris Baronner (in the middle - of Ethyl Myserve and Metro fame)

Labor Day!

2008-06-06T17:57:00.003-06:00

This years labor day was pretty awesome. We went to our friends Ryan and Mary's home and spent it with friends and digging out on their new grill and groomed up back yard. We got to have our first samples of the first iteration of Teese Vegan Cheddar Cheese! For reals? Yeah. Not ready yet but soon!

Kara and Keith

Keith, Jay, Swade and half of Ryan

Ryan, Ry & Mary's across the street neighbor and one of her little ones, Meredith, Jill and Dan

1/4 Dan and Mary

I didn't get any photos of them but Mary made killer vegan Twinkies. Yeah dude... I'm forever going to be fat.

Teese Vegan Cheese at Food Fight - Portland

2008-06-05T23:38:00.002-06:00

Sanitary public market!

2008-06-05T23:37:00.002-06:00

Pikes Place Market - Seattle, WA

Happy Wedding day John and Laura!

2008-06-05T23:36:00.002-06:00

The whole reason Kara and I ventured out to Seattle and Portland was to celebrate my good friend John Frazier's wedding to his new wife Laura. Kara had briefly met John years ago in Austin at SXSW and neither of us had met Laura yet. The wedding was awesome and at a really beautiful resort that sat on top of a waterfall about 40 minutes outside of Seattle. Apparently the waterfall is famous and was in Twin Peaks but I'm not familiar with this.

John and Laura!

These cupcakes were pretty damn amazing and looked really awesome!

Kara looking nice and cute!

I wore my fanciest shoes to the wedding.

This is the waterfall. Totally amazing view and I wish I could still be there.

John and Laura Frazier. I'm sure you don't read this but your wedding was wonderful and we're glad we were able to spend it with you!

Ground Kontrol - Portland

2008-06-05T23:35:00.002-06:00

Portland had this really rad bar called Ground Kontrol that had lots of great video games. I'd say it was more of an arcade than a bar. Totally 80s style and brought me back to being 10 again.

They had Dr. Mario. I didn't even know this was available in a full-size arcade game format. Kara marched in, got the high score and told Portland she was the ruler. One quarter and she played for nearly an hour. Where's her documentary Donkey Kong guy???

Experience Music Project - Seattle WA

2008-06-05T23:33:00.001-06:00

This was rad. At the EMP they had this media room of interviews with all sorts of music people about all sorts of different things. Very entertaining and educational. My favorite was this booth that had interviews on these 4 songs. The Spinal Tap one was hilarious. Those dudes can go on and on and on. My favorite thing is them talking about how black the menu of their DVD is. Anyways... Me and Bobby McGee is one of my all-time favorite songs. I love Kris Kristofferson.

The EMP from up on top of the Space Needle. I took a crap in the bathroom up there. I think it was the highest up I've ever been when I pooped. Yeah, pooped on the space needle.

Cupcakes = love

2008-05-27T07:32:00.001-06:00

Mary made these for Ryan's birthday. Amazing icing. I would eat a bowl of it for breakfast.

Ducks!

2008-05-15T07:30:00.000-06:00

DMX Was Here

2008-05-11T23:07:00.001-06:00

Keeping with my theme of dogs being mentioned in my posts tonight I give you this photo. DMX is all smiles!

Dogs in hoodies = good times

2008-05-11T23:05:00.001-06:00

This dog belongs to Erik's neighbor Amie. She cuts my hair real good and makes me laugh. Her dog has this really great hoodie. Kara took a few pictures of me having a bro-down with the dog but they turned out too dark

Here's the crappy thing about cats.... They don't wear hoodies.

Happy Birthday E-Dubs!

2008-05-11T23:03:00.001-06:00

Last night was my friend Erik's party for his thirtieth birthday. Good food and people. Good dogs running around the "partio". A little Mario Kart WII was played.

Happy birthday buddy!

Braid - Chicago, IL - Midwest - USA

2008-05-06T18:23:00.002-06:00

I've seen Braid all over the Midwest from their first show to one of their last shows to their reunion beginning and the end of the reunion. There was no better place to see them than the Fireside Bowl. I somehow came across a video from Ashes (early/mid 90's hardcore-ish band) and was pretty stoked on it. via the web that is YouTube I started exploring other videos from the Fireside and this one made an appearance.

This was from the Tree Records Postmarked Stamps Party, held in maybe 99. It was a really fun weekend. Lots of friends from out of town. Lots of in town friends. I remember helping Ken Shipley (CEO and big-talker from Tree Rec's) hang all those silver spray painted stars from the ceiling. I'm sure I got the cancer from the soot falling from the ceiling onto me that night.

A few years later I started dating this girl and I'm now married to her. She was also at this show although we didn't know each other back then. In her apartment when I first met her she had one of those silver stars hanging from the ceiling of her dining room. I'm sure that star is still somewhere tucked away in all our stuff here at home.

Punk rock small world story number 937.

New cap

2008-05-04T17:40:00.004-06:00

Kara is not too stoked on this. I am very stoked on this. I've never been a hat guy and I've always had a thing for dudes that wear non-standard (not ballcap) hats. Well, it's really only been young dudes. I'm apparently not a young dude anymore. Kara swears that she saw an old guy checking out my new cap after we walked out of Target and I put it on.

Exciting! This is a total golfer hat and I can't wait to wear it while golfing. Not so exciting! This cap clashes with my "shirt of the summer". Can't have two alternating plaids.

I also just realized that this is a total Andy Capp cap!

Jehu, the cat

2008-05-01T21:32:00.002-06:00

This is my friend Chris's cat, Jehu. It had a different name when adopted but Chris chose to gave it a better name. Jehu seems to like the chicks, not so much me. This is a picture of Jehu going crazy playing with a rope.

Sad X Five

2008-04-30T22:25:00.003-06:00

The day after enchanted castle kara and I went to this antique store we frequent every month or so just to see if anything catches our eye. This did AND it was a steal at 325. We are on the lookout for a new media stand and this fit the bill perfectly and matched with our dinner table and a few other Danish pieces (I hate myself for saying that) in our place. Sadly it wasn't to be as our tv was slightly too big. Never thought I would complain about a tv being too big. My dude club card may be revoked.

I'm a bit backed up...

2008-04-30T21:29:00.002-06:00

It's been a few weeks since I've posted. Not for lack of trying though... For whatever reason Blogger has been acting up for me and I've finally found a workaround.

The photo of the day thing I was doing was great but I'm just not capable. I found myself struggling every night at bedtime to find a photo and then wishing I had taken photos of the key parts of my day. DRATS.

Blogs are weird man. I don't use it for personal shit about myself. It's just kinda like a short memory diary. Not important stuff but mostly the little things I like to remember. No stress dude. I have enough of that shit already in my daily job life.

unicornz on carpet, video games and go-carts = one good Friday

2008-04-30T21:21:00.001-06:00

I went with my friends Keith and Ryan and Ryan's son Jude to the Enchanted Castle in the suburbs a few Fridays ago. It was good. We went to Ryan's work and I ate fresh vegan ice cream straight out of the machine. Chicago Soydairy is one dreamy place and I'm not just saying that because it's a part of my life. Years before I even met Ryan I was a fan of his product. I'm so lucky to be a part of it!

After Enchanted Castle we rolled out and had some Indian food. All-you-can-eat fried bread. Probably not the best thing for my body but incredible to eat.

24 hours of awesomeness

2008-04-11T22:33:00.000-06:00

chicago diner
reuben and cake
starbucks
MILF ISLAND
yucky work (not necessarily awesome)
sleep
wake
drive
starbucks and red hen scone
yucky work (still not so awesome)
grilling (i've stepped down as sr. griller)
negotiations
best buy
ps3
blockbuster
starbucks (a bit of a problem?)
home
vegan taco pizza not really more like tostados with teese
chick flick
cookies
yucky work (still not part of the awesome crew)
now

This was actually more like 36 hours.

038 - Record playing at Club Foot

2008-04-11T00:42:00.002-06:00

This was my vantage point for 3 hours of record playing.

037 - My first beard

2008-04-08T23:52:00.003-06:00

Pardon the myspace style self pic. Notice the awkwardness of my trying to take the photo.

I've never had a beard. I've had attempts but always bow out due to excessive itch. I've never groomed it before so I've ended up with a week or so worth of unruly and itchy scraggly face. This marks my first honest to goodness attempt at grooming and growing. I'm told to play through the pain (or in this case, the itch).

I'm excited. 32 years in so I feel this is something I should do once. Also when this is done I can get a few days of a pretty sweet dirt-stache out of it.

Today's iTunes purchases

2008-04-07T18:49:00.003-06:00

(1) Just Fine by Mary J. Blige
(2) Santeria by Avail
(3) Santeria by Sublime
(4) Race for the Prize by The Flaming Lips

I can explain each of these..
(1) Heard the song in a commercial recently and thought it was a good time. Bought it this morning and it's made me feel so positive about everything, even when things have seemed shitty recently.

(2) I was just telling Kara on Saturday how I've had this love / hate thing with Sublime for a while. I've always had quite a soft spot for this song. Something about the line "Believe me when I say that I got somethin for his punk ass" that's so sweet. Why did I buy the Avail version? They rule and it felt more palatable to buy their version.

(3) See above. The Avail version was awesome but I really wanted the original. I listened to it about 6 times.

(4) So this song... This song has been plaguing me for some time now. I've heard bits and pieces of it on a commercial on Sirius radio but didn't know what it was and I think I may have heard it once in a store at the mall. Anyways, both places that gave me no idea as to who it was. So armed only with my memory of the song I pulled my friend Erik aside and asked him if he knew who it was. Comedically I hummed it and did the drum beat. He left angry and I left still not knowing who it was. Then I get back to my office from lunch today and i heard the snippet on a commercial on Sirius. So I asked my co-worker Sam to go upstairs and grab Erik and have him come down to my car. Sam thought this was strange with no frame of reference as to why. Erik thought it was odd and thought I was going to hurt him. I rewound the Sirius radio (thank you technology) and within 1 second of hearing it he knew exactly what it was. I bought it and listened to it once and now I have that out of my system.

New Design

2008-04-06T22:34:00.002-06:00

I decided to make a new design for the site. I'm fond of it. i wanted to get back to a Chicago theme. Now that Spring is getting into gear (finally) I'm getting excited about the city again! Time to get re-energized.

Today I busted out my bike for the first time since Fall. It felt nice to be back out in the streets again casually rolling around. I tool a nice bike ride through the neighborhood and explored a few streets I hadn't seen before. I wish I had taken some pictures but I didn't. What good was that?

034 - So excited!

2008-04-05T23:39:00.002-06:00

The weather is finally warm enough. My second season of golf has begun! Tonight I went to the driving range for the first time this year. I was fairly afraid of being rusty as I'm not very seasoned yet. Yesterday was my first year of serious golf playing. I hit the range at least twice a week starting early summer and by mid-fall I was on the course once a week. I probably only played half a doze rounds of golf last year but it was enough to get my feet wet. I didn't start building up any confidence until the end of the season though.

So I was pretty scared of being rusty and forgetting everything I had picked up before. This wasn't the case! I hit pretty well last night and was getting decent distance. Still hitting tot he right a bit, but not curving. Pretty much just a straight shot to the right at about a 2 o'clock position. Still in the rough...