Saturday, August 30th, 2014

Part of being a sports fan is suffering through the disappointment of defeat .  You are not always able to enjoy victory.  You try to enjoy the big wins when you can, but you have to realize that losing is part of the game.

Having said that, today's loss by the Cyclones to North Dakota State was especially difficult.  Iowa State was dominated by an FCS team.  At home.  For a second year in a row.  It seems like this entire football season has basically finished before it ever began.  My prediction that the Cyclones would win 5 games?  It looks like a joke.  I hope they can win two...

I was able to capture a couple good videos early on in the game when it looked like Iowa State would have a good day... one is Allen Lazard's first career pass reception (48 yards), and the other is the 3 yard touchdown run by Aaron Wimberly that was set up by Lazard's big play.

I believe that I have been to 31 Iowa State football games so far.  In those games, Iowa State has won 18 and lost 13.  I would say that my top 5 most disappointing ISU football losses that I have attended are:
1) Today's 34-14 loss vs. NDSU.  Losing by 20 to an FCS team is unacceptable for ISU. 
2) Last year's home opening loss to UNI, 28-20. 
3) 2009 loss to Iowa, 35-3.  It always stinks to lose to the Hawkeyes, but this was a blowout and an embarrassment. 
4) 2011 loss to Texas, 37-14.  This one was 34-0 at halftime and never even close.
5) 2002 loss to Connecticut, 37-20.  Iowa State was actually good that year (we had Seneca Wallace), but they found a way to lose to underdog UConn by 17 points. 
Honorable mention disappointing losses: Houston Bowl loss vs TCU in 2005 (27-24), Liberty Bowl loss to Tulsa in 2012 (31-17).  It's always disappointing when you make along car trip to a bowl game just to see the team lose.

What are my 5 favorite wins for ISU football that I have attended?
1) 2005 win vs. Iowa, 23-3.  The Hawkeyes were rated #8 in the country.
2) 2007 win vs. Iowa, 15-13.  I always enjoy a win against the rival Hawks. 
3) 2002 win vs. Nebraska,  36-14.  It was the first ISU/Nebraska game that I went to, and it was a fun victory.
4) 2004 win vs. Nebraska, 34-27.  I'm happy to say that Iowa State is 2-0 against Nebraska when I have been there.
5) 2002 win vs. Texas Tech, 31-17.  This was Seneca Wallace's "The Run" game.

Monday, August 25th, 2014

Today I wanted to make a few predictions for how the ISU football team will do this year (since the first game is less than a week away), but before I get to that I need to say how cute Nolan is!  I was gone over this past weekend since I had a CEU course in Wisconsin, but Elizabeth and Nolan still managed to have a fun time without me...

Elizabeth gave him fresh blueberries for the first time... which he loved!

On Saturday they went to "Fan Fest" where Nolan was able to explore the court in Hilton Coliseum.

The cheerleaders thought he was adorable!

Even coach Rhoads was happy to meet Nolan!

I definitely missed out on a good time...
So now I will attempt to predict how the football team will do this season.  This is never easy to predict ahead of time, but the last time I did this in my blog (2012 season) I picked 8 of the 12 regular season games correctly. Last year I did not make predictions for the whole season, but I was definitely surprised by how poorly the team did last year (3 wins, 9 losses).  Let's see how well I do this time around...

Game 1: vs. North Dakota State: WIN - Iowa State 31, NDSU 24

Game 2: vs. Kansas State: Loss... Ok, so I don't feel like picking scores for each game.  I'll say I'm concerned ISU will have trouble stopping the run game against K-State.

Game 3: @ Iowa: Loss.  I feel like this game could go either way, but I'll pick against Iowa State for once since it is a road game.  Again, stopping the run may be an issue for the Cyclones. 

Game 4 : vs. Baylor: Loss.  After the embarrassing 71-7 loss last year to Baylor, I almost have to go against ISU in this one.

 Game 5: @ Oklahoma State: Loss.  This is a possible upset for Iowa State, but again I will pick against them for now and hope to be pleasantly surprised.  If there was an "upset" game that I would like to pick it would be this one.  I'll say OSU wins by 3 points.

Game 6: vs. Toledo: WIN.  Finally Iowa State gets back in the win column against Toledo for homecoming. 

Game 7: @ Texas: Loss.  It's not often that ISU beats Texas... I'm not guessing that this year will be any different.

Game 8: vs. Oklahoma: Loss.  Speaking of teams Iowa State rarely beats... yeah.  Is it basketball season yet?

Game 9: @ Kansas: WIN. Iowa State has won the last few meetings between these teams, and I don't think that will change this time around.

Game 10: vs. Texas Tech: WIN.  I will say that this November 22nd game in Ames with the boys from Lubbock, TX will be a little too cold for their liking.  Cyclones win a close game.

Game 11: vs. West Virginia: WIN.  A three game winning streak?  Why not?  Iowa State wins by 7.

Game 12: @ TCU: Loss.  I'm calling for a close loss in this game... a victory would have sent the Cyclones to a 6-6 record and a bowl game.  Alas, we come up just short.

Overall, I have the Cyclones winning two more games than they did last year and finishing at 5-7.
 I will keep my expectations relatively low for the football team for now and hope to be pleasantly surprised with a potential bowl game :)

Monday, August 18th, 2014

Today after work Elizabeth and I participated in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.  This is a challenge that has recently gone viral, and many famous people have already participated.  The purpose of it is to raise awareness for the terrible disease ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.  Once a person is nominated to participate, they have 24 hours to either be doused with a bucket of ice water, or to donate money to ALS.  Yesterday, I was nominated by my sister-in-law Sarah Gleason.  Elizabeth and I plan on donating money, but we also wanted to to the challenge and nominate others. Today, after taking the challenge, I nominated my sister Amy, my dad Eben, and my friend Dan Becker. 

Here is a link to my YouTube video.

And here is Elizabeth's video.

I must say that I was expecting Elizabeth to douse me with water quickly, so when it turned out to be slower than I expected I was a little upset. I think it turned out pretty funny though.  The memory card on our camera was full and cut Elizabeth's video short, but we just barely captured her getting drenched. 

Sunday, August 10th, 2014

Elizabeth and I just got back from our trip to Las Vegas, and we are pretty exhausted right now.  Becky was nice enough to watch Nolan for us during our "Mommy, Daddy, Vegas trip!". It sounded like he was a good boy for grandma over the weekend... we definitely missed him a lot on our trip though!

We flew out from Des Moines on Thursday for Las Vegas.  There was quite a large group of people that we met up with out there (about 20) including Erick Ude, Sara & Mike Kazlauskas, Jen Schumacher, Lucy & Vishal Patel, and others.  We all stayed at the Flamingo, and most of the time Elizabeth & I spent time with Sara and Mike who we were sharing a hotel room with.

To cover the highlights of each day... Thursday night we went out on the old strip on Fremont Street.  We saw a street performer that was a pretty good magician there, and we hung out at the Golden Nugget.

Friday morning we went out for breakfast with Mike, Sara, and Erick at Hash House a go go.  Oh my goodness, the portions of breakfast food there were huge.  Now, this is one of the famous places that Man vs Food host, Adam Richman, ate at on his TV show.  On TV he ordered the fried chicken eggs benedict, but none of us wanted to attempt that.  I had the corned beef hash with poached eggs, and it was possibly the best corned beef hash I've ever had.  Mike ordered the Fried Chicken and Waffles, and it would have been plenty for two people to eat...

Mike trying to decide how to attack his breakfast.

My breakfast... and Erick being silly in the background.

Friday afternoon we spent laying around the pool at the Flamingo... and playing some video poker.  I enjoyed quite a bit of video poker over the weekend :)

Yes, they do have live flamingos at "The Flamingo".

Friday night I took Elizabeth up to one of my old favorite casinos, Slots-a-Fun.  It's a small, hole-in-the-wall casino by Circus Circus. That is where I won about $750 back in 2008... most of it on a table game called Let-It-Ride.  Unfortunately, the casino had changed quite a bit since I was last there.  It no longer had any kind of table games... only slot machines or other automated games :(  So, we stopped by Circus Circus instead to gamble.  After that, we went up to the Stratosphere.  We went up to the top and had an amazing view of the city.  We also bought passes to go on unlimited rides, the best of which was the "Big Shot". 

On Saturday Elizabeth and I went with Mike and Sara to In-N-Out Burger for lunch.  I have heard a lot about this fast food chain before, but this was the first time that I had ever been to it.  I must say that the "Double Double" animal style was a delicious burger... maybe the best "fast food" burger that I have had. 

After lunch we headed over to the Luxor to see the "Bodies" exhibit.  It was pretty cool to see how well different systems of the body were preserved and on display, and it really gave us an appreciation for how amazing the human body is.

That night we went out for a fancy supper with the entire group of people, we went for a ride in a stretch limo, and then most people went to a dance club afterwards.  Mike and I went gambling instead after the limo ride.  We played some blackjack at a $10 table at Treasure Island, and then played craps at Caesar's Palace.  Mike had to basically teach me how to play craps again since it had been so long since I last played it... but that was probably the most fun I had gambling during our trip.

As far as gambling went for me during the trip, I believe I ended up somewhere between breaking even or winning around $20.  That's pretty good considering everything that I played.  I made 4 sports bets, played hours of video poker, craps, let-it-ride, and blackjack.

Mike and myself sitting down for a little video poker.

I had good luck hitting "Four of a Kind" hands...

...of course I was only betting 25 cents at a time, so each of these hands I only won $6.25.