"I'm Made Of Wax, Larry, What Are You Made Of?" Music Video

Life

Sometimes I just wish it was easy.

New Tattoo

New Tattoo, originally uploaded by mchowes.

Fireworks From The Beach

Fireworks From The Beach, originally uploaded by mchowes.

Happy Fouth Of July from a beach in Evanston.

Beans Burrito

Beans Burrito, originally uploaded by mchowes.

My favorite cat Beans laying in a rolled up rug that looks like a burrito.

I Saw Johnny Depp

I'm excited to see Public Enemies because I got to see several different locations while they were shooting it in Chicago, including one block from my old apartment in Logan Square.

Look for this house in the movie!

http://www.publicenemies.net

I Can't Get Enough Of This Album

Go It Alone - The Only Blood Between Us

I wish that I would have found out about this band a long time ago so I would have had the chance to see them live.

All my favorite bands are broken up so I'm not really surprised.

http://www.myspace.com/goitalonehc

This is my kind of day.

This is my kind of day. Overcast and about 68 degrees., originally uploaded by mchowes.

Overcast and about 68 degrees.

Interviews With My Nieces

We went over to Cait's sister's house the other night to hang out and bring all our little friends candy from San Francisco.

Cait interviewed our niece Olivia. It's a little hard to hear and kind of choppy and dark, but funny none the less.

Cait also interviewed our oldest niece Madison.

Both girls make us laugh all the time. I'm glad to me related to them and I look forward to being their uncle for long, long time.

I'll have to get some better light and have them talk louder next time!

Rest In Piece

My PC is starting to go down hill. It works fine for the most part except one little piece, the part where the power chord plugs into the computer. For some reason it won't charge even when the chord is in the computer. It's not even that old of a PC. I'm bummed.

I think it might be time to become a Mac family.

The Beach

The Fort Miley Beach. I know that it's sideways until half way through, it was the first time I use the camcorder function on my G1.

San Francisco Part Quatro

Cait and I had another great trip to San Francisco this past weekend. We attempted to do all the things we hadn't done on our previous trips including driving around in all the different neighborhoods, hiking at Fort Miley, and eating at Dottie's True Blue Café.

I hit up The Hundreds several times to pick up the Johnny Cupcakes x The Hundreds collaboration for myself and the diehard fans on the Johnny Cupcakes Facebook Group.

On the day we rented a car, we drove up to the Twin Peaks which gave us a spectacular view of the city. It was pretty breathtaking.

We rode the elevator up to the 31st floor for more great views of Union Square and the downtown area every chance we had. We purposely waited so we could get our own elevator.

We did some of the staples too like the Boudin Bakery, In-N-Out Burger, the Bay Bridge, AT&T Park, and our favorite restaurant in the Ferry Market Building, The Slanted Door. If you haven't eaten there, I highly recommend it! www.slanteddoor.com

Here are a few of the pictures from my phone. I'll post better ones soon.

My Snooze Button

Everyday this little beast doesn't allow me to fully enjoy my snooze button on my alarm clock because she jumps on my head and cries for her can of food. She also tries to burrow under my blankets until I am out of bed.

As much as I would love a few extra minutes of sleep every morning I enjoy getting a morning greeting from this face.

The Metal Shaker

I know The Secret.

Listen To This Now.

Opening Day

Chicago, IL. The Chicago White Sox and the Kansas City Royals.

Johnny Cupcakes Grilled Cheese Party

On Saturday night Johnny Cupcakes threw an outstanding Grilled Cheese Party at The 44th Ward Dinner Party for all of his Chicago fans.

There were roughly 100+ people in attendance and I bet all of them got at least a few minutes of one on one time with Johnny.

I had the multi-grain sandwich with goat cheese and cheddar and Cait had the sourdough with American and garlic herb butter. So delicious!

The only thing to make it better was Ketchup. It's pretty much like extra thick tomato soup that is served at room temperature.

Pinky's up to be classy!

Giselle had the best grilled cheese smile!

Cait and I had just enjoyed our delicious grilled cheese sandwiches courtesy of Johnny!

Johnny took pictures, signed autographs, and listened to stories with everyone in line until about 10:30pm.

It's incredible how he makes himself available to interact with his fans and it makes me appreciate his brand that much more.

Plus, they had these really great photo booths build into the bar and we got to take pictures with Johnny.

I had so much fun and I can't wait to meet Johnny again at future events and lectures. The whole experience was fantastic and I enjoyed meeting all the people in the Chicagoland area that are fans of the brands as well. I hope to hang out with them again soon.

The night before the party, Johnny had been in town for a little while and he called me up completely out of the blue and asked if Cait and I wanted to hang out, get food, and see a movie. Cait was working when he called and I had a car full of junk from our storage unit that we were in the process of moving. I missed his call, but called him back and asked if he could wait about 45 minutes while I ran home to empty my car and then come get him from his hotel.

I picked Johnny up and we went to eat at Bite Cafe in Bucktown. I told him the last time I had eaten there the waitress was wearing a Johnny Cupcakes shirt and that I thought it was cool because it was one of very few times I had seen someone else in Chicago wearing a shirt. Maybe because it's cold here for half the year and everyone has their winter coats on. Johnny went up to her and starting talking to her and she mentioned she had a doughnut company and she regularly sells her over 50 flavors of doughnuts to local area restaurants. We split an awesome peanut butter and jelly vegan doughnut for dessert. Johnny and I enjoyed our food and conversation about our favorite music, girls, the future of his company, Victory Records, touring, dates, and everything in between. Cait was able to meet up with us later in the night at Bite after she got of work to join in on the good time. Johnny was extremely generous and treated me to dinner. It's heartwarming to know that Johnny cares that much about his fans to go out of his way to treat them like this. I love that he represents a substance-free lifestyle and meeting him twice this weekend made me appreciate everything he does in a completely new light.

I look forward to watching his brand grow and I can't wait to see everything he has in his head come to life in every way that only he can make possible. Thanks for everything Johnny.

www.johnnycupcakes.com

Pan's Labyrinth

Cait and I had movie night on Friday because so we could stay home and take care of our kitten Reggie who was just spayed.

We bought Pan's Labyrinth at one of our regular trips to Target and it turned out to be a pretty crazy movie.

I definitely need to watch it again to get more into it. I definitely think Guillermo del Toro is an oustanding director/producer and The Orphanage is one of my favorite horror movies of recent. I recommend them to anyone who hasn't seen either!

Springtime Fever

The weather is finally starting to warm up and people are coming out to enjoy it.

Twice this past week we have gone to a playground near Mike and Giselle's after dark to play. It's not like any playground I remember playing on as a kid. They have swings and a bunch of things to climb on or hang from, but no slide, bridge, or monkey bars like I remembering having. It brings back memories of staying out late in the summer with friends and just being outside every spare minute I had.

Spring is here!

Redesign!

I just redesigned my blog to make it look cleaner.

March Madness

I can't wait for selection Sunday to see who makes the NCAA tournament and fill out my bracket. I seem to always pick Pittsburgh to win and I think it might actually happen this year, but I'll wait to see how everything pans out.

I carry my completed bracket around with me everywhere for several weeks with a red pen to cross out my wrong picks and a yellow highlighter to highlight my correct picks. By the time the Final Four rolls around my bracket looks like it's been filled out on a Kleenex and has holes on all the creases.

I can't wait to catch the March Madness!

New Clothes

I got five new shirts delivered to me yesterday which completely made my day.

       

My friend Matt was in Boston a few weeks ago and was able to stop by the Johnny Cupcakes store pick me up the Yellow Crossbones and View Baker designs for me. I think in the course of me begging him to stop by the store I managed to get him addicted to the brand. My collection is now up to 18 shirts and Matt walked out of the store with five shirts of his own only to order three more on the internet later that night.

I was especially excited to get my second hand numbered limited edition Johnny Cupcakes shirt. This design is the first in a series called "The Bakers Dozen" and only 130 of each design will be printed, I got #91. I had to get a medium as they were out of smalls, but I am still proud to own one of these.

       

I made friends with a different Matt who live in the UK. He was able to hook me up with some really cool plaid shirts from his clothing company Criminal Damage. Check them out here: http://www.criminaldamage.co.uk.

It just so happened that I received all five shirts on the same day, so needless to day my wardrobe is set for the next week.

The Globe Pub

I've never been into soccer (or football, depending on what country you're from), but I went with Mike and Stephane early Saturday morning to watch the Arsenal vs. Fulham game at The Globe Pub.

Mike is a HUGE Arsenal fan having just been to the UK for a game the weekend prior. I wasn't as into as most of the people there seeing as it was my first time and I don't have a specific team to root for. I can't say that I 100% know what is going on during the games either because I don't know all the rules, but I definitely enjoyed myself while at the pub and would be happy to go back anytime.

It was a completely different position for me to be in, considering I never go to bars/pubs. My only experience with bars/pubs has been loud, dirty, dark, hot, and overcrowded with over-drunk people. This place was nice and clean, well lit, and comfortably filled with proud fans. Granted we went there at 9:00am which I know is probably the complete opposite had we gone at 9:00pm. They had a pretty good breakfast too. The Eggs Florentine were delicious. I think the trick for me to have a good time at a bar is to go early in the morning and eat breakfast.

The Class

Entre Les Murs (Between The Walls) or the US version, The Class, wasn't my favorite movie, but the experience surrounding the film was interesting.

We went to the Landmark Century Theater last Friday with Mike, Giselle, and Giselle's friend's boyfriend, Stephane. Stephane has lived in Houston for the past two years but is previously from France. It was an enlightening situation to get Stephan's perfective not only on the movie, but various other topics that were discussed during the evening. It's not everyday that you get to see a foreign film and sit next to someone who's from the country of the film.

The movie itself was rather long and didn't tell much of a story. It was slow moving and provided more of a "looking in" perspective as opposed to a any sort of creative feeling. Maybe I was expecting something more, but it didn't capture my interest.

It's Been A Long Time

...and a busy week. This weekend should be a lot of fun even though we are expecting a snowstorm overnight that should leave us with around eight to ten inches of snow.

I have a basketball game tomorrow at 2:00pm, Blake's first birthday party at 4:00pm, and then Rick, Randy, and I are having "Metal Night" at 7:00pm. We are planning on watching American Hardcore, Get Thrashed, and Heavy Metal In Baghdad. There will also be a lot of frozen food combinations
that will blow the mind.

February needs to end ASAP.

Valentine's Day Eve Eve

I need to finish up getting everything prepared for Valentine's Day for
Cait tonight while she is in class! Two of my previous ideas for this
year have already fallen through so let's hope everything works out by
Saturday!

Tonight we'll probably head to Mike and Giselle's for our ritual TV
watching of The Office and America's Best Dance Crew. Thanks Randy
Jackson.

I've been listening to The Deftones on shuffle today at work and it's
been so great.

Toddlers & Tiaras

What a scary show. I feel bad for the kids.

A Taste Of Spring

I thoroughly enjoyed a taste of spring this past weekend with the weather getting up to 60 degrees and probably about 95% of the snow melting. Friday night consisted of our ever popular panino night, a new hair cut (which is starting to grow on me, no pun intended), and finished off by yet another trip to Margie’s Candies. Cait and Giselle found a new little grocery store in Bucktown called Olivia’s Market which just so happen to have Giselle’s favorite mustard, Honeycup! They bought some excellent deli meat and a spread of other sandwich ingredients for us to create our individual panini. After dinner, I headed out to get my haircut. It’s a full blown mohawk which even I was not anticipating, but I sort of like it now and I think I’ll stick with it for the time being. I meet up with everyone again after my haircut at Margie’s to indulge in Grandpa’s Turtle. Cait and I split on this time which ended up being the perfect amount for both of us. This has become our standard Friday night.

Saturday was beautiful outside. It was sunny and warm with a slight breeze and everyone was out enjoying the weather. Cait and I decided to tagalong with Mike and Giselle to visit a few of their potential wedding venues. We drove all over Chicago to stop at the 63rd Street Beach House, The Harold Washington Library, and the Architectural Artifacts Atrium. It was like we were tourist in our own city. All the places were very unique in their own way. By far my favorite was the Architectural Artifacts Atrium because of all the neat stuff they had their. I'll have to make another blog post with just the pictures.

Mike and I had a basketball game with Tom in the early afternoon. We had been undefeated up until this point. Unfortunately we got blown out pretty ridiculously and even worse, Tom got jacked in the lip and bleed pretty significantly causing him to sit the rest of the game out.

After showering up and waiting for Cait and Giselle to finish up their mani/pedi appointments we decided to eat at our favorite Mexican restaraunt, Pancho Pistolas. We all indulged in nachos and steak tacos. Cait and I wanted to go see Coraline afterwards, but we were both tired and decided to spend the night in, which eventually turned into a Back To The Future marathon because we ended up watching all three movies over the remainder of the weekend.

This has ignited our mission to watch (and re-watch) all of our favorite 80's and 90's movies.

Overall this past weekend was just a taste of things to come this year. The weather was a reminder that spring is on the way even though I know it's going to go back to below freezing soon enough.

Sick

I can't breathe through my nose and it's driving me nuts. I'm overdosing on orange juice and cough drops. At least my throat isn't on fire anymore. This weather this weekend is supposed to break into the fifties and I want to feel well enough to enjoy it.

iTunes Charts #9 + Totem Pole #58

Today was excellent. The new A Day To Remember album, Homesick, came out today on Victory Records and it is doing fantastic! Far exceeding expectations and out performing across the board. As of right now it is #9 on the Top Albums Chart on the main page of iTunes which is a huge milestone for me and the work that I have put into this album. I have to believe it will do better on the chart and continue to get closer to number one. To see this band grow over the past few years has been remarkable as well. I was there during their showcase in the summer of 2006 and I have had a hand in their development being in the sales department at Victory Records and I couldn't be more happy for them today! I'm anxious to see how well they will be doing next week!

Check it.

To top it all off I got my limited edition, Totem Pole design Johnny Cupcakes shirt. I received #58 of the 200 made. It is the first one I have been able to get that is a VERY limited edition because the majority of them numbered designs are only available in the retail stores. I look forward to adding more numbered designs (and non-numbered designs for that matter) to my ever growing collection!

Today was a wonderful day.

Groundhog's Day Update

The state of Pennsylvania must be the focus for every major news event today. First, the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Superbowl last night and now good old Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. I am preparing for another six weeks worth of winter. Too bad it's supposed to be 47 degrees on Saturday which is going to seem like a heatwave. Goodbye snow!

Football's over so here's to the Chicago Bears 2009/2010 season! I wonder how many spots I'll move up on the season ticket waiting list this year.

Less than two weeks until pitchers and catcher report for spring training too! Major League Baseball is right around the corner. We need to get our tickets to a Seattle Mariners game in May during our vacation.

My very limited edition running of 200 Johnny Cupcakes - Totem Pole shirt is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I will be anxiously awaiting the UPS truck to see what number out of 200 I will have.




More to come...

Superbowl Sunday

I am expecting the Pittsburgh Steelers to win, but I'd like to see the Arizona Cardinals upset the Steelers. I'm looking forward to the commercials more than the game.

The Last Of January

The year is 1/12th of the way over already.

The last day of January was excellent. It started of with some nicer weather as we got above freezing for the first time in a long time. The sun was shining and some of the snow began melting. The hope for spring is all the more real with Ground Hog's Day tomorrow (even though it doesn't mean anything).

I had a basketball game at noon and we played extremely poorly by dropping passes and not getting rebounds. We were down by seven at half time but we started playing much better defense and we ended up winning by two within the last few second. So we remain undefeated at 3-0. In two weeks we'll have a double header and I already know that I'm going to be dead after that.

Cait and I received a gift card to Chili's for Christmas from my uncle, so we decided to use it up in one shot by taking Mike and Giselle with us. I didn't know Chili's was the hot spot in town because this place was packed with a 40+ minute wait! After about 10 minutes Mike was able to box out everyone out and snag a table in the bar area. We decided to get a bunch of appetizers and share everything rather than entrees and it worked out perfectly.

There is a Half Price Books around the corner from the Chili's and once Mike heard this, we had to go. I'd have to say it's his favorite store, not just because it's a bookstore, but because they are half price too! They have music and movies too and we found out that they have board games as well. We found a glow in the dark Ouija board for only $5.00 and decided to get it. I never had one of these as a kid and I guess none of my friends did either because I never used one and as a result have never had anything eerie or strange happen while using one. After asking several times if a spirit was present, we had no results. I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen, but I was bummed that nothing happened for some reason.

The only logical spot for dessert was to revisit Margie's Candies and get some more outstanding sundaes. It was crowded as usual, but there were some overly annoying people who were obviously not from the area. It was cougar-like moms and their weird tough-guy boyfriends/husbands. They were loud and started getting in the face of one of the people working there because they did not get seated fast enough. After getting the the poor guys face he mocked him by trying to be buddy-buddy with him and giving him a side hug. Kind of put a damper on the experience, but I still enjoyed the banana split, it's beats the milkshake.

After giving up on the Ouija board we watched a couple of episodes of our new favorite show It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and called it a night.

February is here.

Randy Jackson

I'm realling feelin' you dawg.

Winter Karma

Sunday night while we were watching the girls slumber party classic, Now and Then, we could hear someone struggling to get their car out of their iced over parking spot. Gears shifting and tires spinning are a very familiar sound to anyone living in the Midwest during the winter.

Mike and I threw on our shoes and coats and with one big push we were able to get his car out of his spot. As soon as he was unstuck he got out of his car and practically hugged us. He was very thankful and told us where he lived and mentioned if we needed anything to just stop on by. As we were walking back in Mike said, "well, that should bring us some good karma the next time our cars get stuck."

Sure enough. It snowed last night and all the snow from the previous weeks had been frozen under the freshly fallen snow. I got in my car this morning and tried to get out of the small space I was already crammed into, when my tires just started spinning. I tried rocking back and forth for about 15 minutes. I even e-mailed work to let them know that I might be a little late due to my dilemma. At one point I got frustrated and got out of the car even though it was in drive. It didn't go anywhere which just made me even more frustrated to be outside of the car and watch the tires spinning on the ice. After another minute or so of rocking, two guys helped me push my car out of the spot toward freedom! I was just as excited as the guy who we helped Sunday night and I got out and shook both their hands.

They definitely have good karma for the next time either one of their cars get stuck in the snow. I know I am going to rack up all the car-pushing-karma I can get because there is still a lot of winter left which only means more snow.

G1

Google has a fairly new cell phone out available through T-Mobile called the G1 and I am considering switching to one when my current plan is up in a few months.

Overall, I am a huge fan of Google and all the applications they have to offer (Picassa, Gmail, Analytics, Blogger, etc.). I am very intrigued by the Android operating system and I can only imagine the type of applications that will be available in the future as a result of it being open source. The full QWERTY keyboard seems to be a huge plus for me. Coming from the Sidekick 3, it looks to have the same set up, but with the addition of the touchscreen for everything but typing. For some reason I can't get over typing on the screen itself which is probably why the Blackberry Storm has very little appeal to me.

I am still debating between the Apple iPhone and the G1 and having only used each very briefly, but having read various reviews of each, I am leaning toward the G1. I am beyond ready for a full-Internet capable phone.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Margie's Candies

For dessert on Sunday night, we decided to venture to the "Chicago legend" known as Margie's Candies. This quaint little restaurant, ice cream parlor and chocolate candy store opened in 1921 at the corner of Western Ave. and Armitage Ave.

At first it smells terrible, but only for a second. I'm not sure if it's only by the front door or if you just get used after a few seconds, but it goes away eventually. Although, at some points during your visit you may get a waft of garlic bread even though it's not on the menu. All smells aside, this place is full of history and delicious ice cream. It's always ridiculously crowded and everything on the inside looks like it has been colored with decades of cigarette smoke. The walls, tables, and booths are yellowish-gray and even the paper place mats have a yellowish-gray design on them.

There is a good amount of history including visits from Al Capone, The Beatles, and several other famous people that can all be read about on the Wikipedia page.

Cait ordered the cleverly named "Grandpa's Turtle".

She shared some of the amazing turtle with me.

I figured I'd go with the standard chocolate milkshake. It did not disappoint.

They are all set up for the Valentine's Day rush for boxes of chocolate.

I think someone special might be getting one of these this year, but only if she'll share! This is definitely a destination that needs to be frequented much more often.