Monday, April 22nd, 2013

Happy Earth Day to all.  This must me one of the lamest holidays there are.  It's not that I have anything against the Earth or recycling or anything, but how many "holidays" do we need?

This past Saturday should have been a holiday though as it was Cy's House of Trivia!!  This marks the second year in a row where we've attended this event.  It's really hard to get tickets for this event.  In fact, we likely would not have been able to go except that I won a "lottery" that Iowa State held.  Five new tables were chosen this year in the lottery, and I was #2.  I believe that this means we will be able to attend next year as well, but after that we will need at least 2 tables not to renew their tickets.  I definitely want to go every year that I can!  This may be the most entertaining sporting event of the year for me.  I'm just so happy to be able to meet some of the players and coaches! 

Our team name this year was "Tyrus McGee's Fan Club".  I chose this on the chance that the organizers would put Tyrus at our table this way... and wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what happened.  They had Tyrus sit at our table right off the start in Round 1.  I talked to him a little bit about him vs coach Hoiberg in games of HORSE, and I thanked him for being a fun Cyclone to watch.  Other notables that sat at our table were ISU's offensive line coach, Chris Klenakis, and I believe the Swimming & Diving coach, Duane Sorenson.  We also had the chance to meet and greet quite a few other Cyclones during the night.

Tyrus and me, just chillin'

Our team with Coach Paul Rhoads

Elizabeth with CPR after she won an autographed football via raffle ticket

The Gleasons with Jamie Pollard

John Walters and myself

Korie Lucious

Myself, Anna Prins, Chelsea Poppens, Ann, and Tim

Our group with Cy

Wednesday, April 10th, 2013

Another busy weekday for myself as always... Today I woke up around 5 AM, had a little time to shower, make breakfast, etc, before I headed off to work.  Mondays & Wednesdays are my early days of the week as I need to be in Marshalltown before 7:00 for my first patient. 

As of now I'm happy to say that Elizabeth and our little one are now in the third trimester!  July seems like it's so far away, but I know that it will be here before we know it. 

Of course there are now other things growing in our house besides a baby... I've just started a few seeds in a tray of potting soil for our garden this year.  Right now I have some "Better Boy" tomatoes, some Bell Peppers, and some "Gardener's Delight" tomatoes.  It's my understanding that the Better Boy variety is more of a traditional full sized tomato that should yield well, and the Gardener's Delight is a small, cherry tomato.  I also just found out that I should have likely started these seeds back in February.  Oh well.  I'll still give it  try, and if they are late to mature I'm sure it's no big deal.  It's not like the seeds cost much money anyways.  Since it's the first year I've been in charge of a garden, I'm not expecting a garden like Marcia used to have.  I may go and buy a tomato plant that's already started anyways just to make sure that we have something.  I'm also planning on planting some carrots as well.  Not sure if anything else will make the garden yet or not.

Tomato ands pepper seeds getting ready to be planted.

Saturday, April 6th, 2013

SPRING IS HERE!!!

This has been an enjoyable Saturday now that the weather outside has finally turned for the better.  Hopefully it lasts!  We enjoyed a high in the mid-60's in Ames. Our day included some "spring cleaning" as we organized the house (I even vacuumed).  Another sign of spring was our first grill-out of the year.  I cooked up some burgers from the Salton farm & some hot dogs.  We also played some ladder golf and relaxed on lawn chairs listening to music.  I am really looking forward to grilling out regularly this year! 

Ingredients for our cook out: Burgers, mushrooms, tomato, cheese slices, hot dogs, buns, and of course I needed a couple of beers :)

My view while playing ladder golf.

Burgers, hot dogs, and twice baked potatoes in aluminum foil.

Here I am manning the grill.