It’s January 12th and it finally snowed here in Chicago! Technically, it’s snowed a few times before, but it barely stuck, so I don’t count it. But today, we got real snow. 4-6 inches! I wouldn’t normally welcome snowfall, but I’ve got a snowmobile trip next weekend and we really needed some snow in the Midwest.

Anyways, here’s a few pics I snapped of the first Chicago snowfall of 2012.

A handful of photos from my birthday today.

Even Google knew it was my birthday.

Templeton Rye Old Fashioned

Bacon-wrapped meatloaf from Uncommon Ground

Beth got me some Molly's Cupcakes

Beth also got me some new watch straps

I’m planning on taking Beth to Doughnut Vault on our way out of town tomorrow morning. To celebrate a new year, DV is making special birthday cake doughnuts. YUM. It will be her first visit to the shop, but not first time having the baked gems. Can’t wait!

Not familiar with Doughnut Vault? This is a fantastic video made during the Chicago Food Film Festival.

See you in 2012!

The Doughnut Vault from Mode Project on Vimeo.

This is just great. It’s exactly what you’d expect from pro atheletes, but there’s some pretty clever song titles going on here. Kudos to the team that put this together. I’d buy their album, but I’d have to find the place where professional hockey team Holiday singing albums are sold.

If you can’t see the video above, click here to watch it on YouTube.

I saw a comment on Facebook that this guy was using Google + to get pages indexed “in four minutes”. So, I want to test this. As soon as this post goes live, I’ll be sharing it via my Google + page. At that point, I’ll be checking Google for the post URL once a minute until I see it’s indexed. I’ll report back with the result!

UPDATE: Sure enough, right around four minutes later the post got indexed.

Just some quick backstory: a few years ago, I attempted to create a group for cool guys in Chicago to get together, drink, smoke, chat, whatever, really. The initial enthusiasm was strong, and most of us being internet geeks, tried to carry this community online and begin building this ultimate network of content and community. Fast forward to today, and it never really got off the ground, and now Chicago Guys is just a site riddled with random male focused content that sits relatively idle.

So the other day when my good friend and initial Chicago Guy member Caleb Gardner invited me to his inaugural FWD: gathering, all those memories of male bonding and fraternity and conversation came rushing back. Only this time, I knew that the format of it was different, and right.

The first FWD: meeting gathering brought an interesting group of men together. Some internet marketers, some advertisers, some software engineers, even a cancer survivor. In Murphy’s Snug (downstairs bar) at Johnny O’Hagans, we all gathered and shared some drinks and light conversation. After an introduction from Caleb, we all sat around two tables and began discussing… several issues and ideas that men of today face. Stress. Stereotypes. What it means to be a man today. The talk got rather deep for an inaugural meeting, but these thoughts and ideas were clearly important and on everyone’s mind. The conversations left me satisfied and yet eager for more.

If you’re feeling that media doesn’t represent the man that you are, that you think you are, that you think most men are, then I invite you to join the next FWD: event to share in some dialogue with us. Clearly you are not alone, and there are several men in Chicago that don’t agree with some of the perceptions of ‘the modern man.’ We’re not out to change the world, though when you bring together smart, motivated men, anything can happen.

Check out the few photos I took from the night, and follow the hashtag #fwdmen on Twitter.

FWD: Chicago founder Caleb Gardner

Caleb Gardner leads the first FWD: meeting

Trying to be a little more active here, so here…we…go!

2011 has been a wild ride for me, but one completely full of action and seemingly no rest. This weekend was no different. I had a wonderful time with my girlfriend, family, and my hockey team. Let’s begin, shall we?

Saturday

Dane County Farmers Market – Madison, Wisconsin

Beth and I have been to the farmers market up in Madison a few times, and we’ve always really enjoyed it. So I decided with nothing really on our plate for the weekend that we should go. So we woke up at 7:30am Saturday and hit the road on a 2.5 hour trip up to Madison. The weather was a little brisk, but really quite nice for a stroll around Capitol Square and the downtown Madison streets. It just so happened that we also went on the day that Nebraska would make their Big Ten debut against the Wisconsin Badgers, so downtown Madison was bursting with fans from both schools. And if that wasn’t enough excitement, there was also a Marijuana Harvest Festival on campus. Don’t ask me how it’s possible for people to be smoking pot right on the sidewalk, but they were.

After spending time downtown, we headed out of town and stopped at a park along the lake to walk our dog Jack. Apparently I didn’t get any pics of him, but take my word for it, he enjoyed getting out.

Thus ended our time up north. We made the 2.5 hour return trip to get ready for our next adventure…

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off at Wrigley Field

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has always been on of my favorites. Aside from Animal House, there probably wasn’t a movie I’d seen more times than Ferris. I’m a Cubs fan. I love Wrigley field. The chance to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off inside Wrigley Field? Once in a lifetime, no doubt. Beth and I scooped up some tickets and made sure we were part of the history. Thanks to Groupon who put on this entire extravaganza, as 26 year olds, we took in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off from the bleachers of Wrigley Field. Surreal. Oh, yeah, We also broke a Guiness World Record for singing in the round. NBD.

After sitting out in 50 degree temps on a cold bleacher, after a day that we already spent time in Wisconsin, we were completely whiped out. But we couldn’t head back home before a stop at Ian’s for some delicious pizza. Hell of a Saturday if you ask me!

Sunday

We got to sleep in a bit on Sunday, which was needed after a ridiculous Saturday. We got going around 1pm and packed up the car to head to my parent’s house in Joliet. Why did we head there, you ask? To play with new new puppy Toby!

My parents picked up Toby last Monday, and he’s an 8 week old Lab-Pit mix. Mostly lab, as you can see by the photos. He’s got such a sweet personality and is incredibly well behaved for a puppy. I give it a few more weeks before that all changes….

Finally, after spending time and having dinner with the folks (and doing an oil change and rotating tires on Beth’s car), we head off to Aurora for my playoff hockey game. I play defense, and my line kept the other team off the score sheet. They only managed one goal against the other defense pairing, and we rolled to an easy 8-1 victory. Phew. A great weekend, capped by a great team performance. Couldn’t ask for more! Check some pics below:

First Blackhawks pre-season game is streamed live online

So excited- hockey season is officially back! And even better, there are two Toews in the lineup tonight, two!

My grandmother was a nurse. I date a nurse, whose mother and sister are also nurses. I’ve been in hospitals a fair amount lately, but even these statistics shocked me.