Monday, April 2nd, 2012

The word of the weekend is: SEATTLE! 

Yes, Elizabeth and I spent a great, fun-filled weekend up in the Pacific Northwest visiting Christian and friends.  We took today off for a "recovery day" which was a smart idea.  On to the pictures...

Christian greets us at his place on Thursday, March 29th.

At the Seattle Locks... where the salt water and fresh water meet.

Boats traveling between salt water & fresh water must be raised/lowered to different water levels.  Here is a boat before it is raised up.

...after it is raised.

Christian & Brian outside of Red Mill Burger.

I enjoyed the Verde Burger, Elizabeth had the Blue Cheese & Bacon Burger, and Christian had the Double Bacon Deluxe Cheese Burger. 

The Onion Rings were voted "Best in America".  Yummy!!

Fremont Troll

The view of Seattle from Gas Works Park on Friday, March 30th.

This was the tug boat that Christian used to work on. 

Our breakfast at the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at Thursday night to Friday morning.  They served us a delicious spread of stuffed french toast, sausage, fruit, coffee & orange juice.   The french toast was awesome!  I believe they were Marionberries on it.

Brian & Christian at the Space Needle.

Outside of the Pike Place Market.

Gum Wall

Elizabeth adding to the Gum Wall.

There were a ton of flowers at the market!

Elizabeth was so happy with her tulip.

Crab at the market.

Post cards that I sent to Amy & Brandon (top), and Eben & Lynn.

We spent Saturday "Riding the Ducks" on a great tour of Seattle.

The salmon we bought at the marcket.

Monday, March 26th, 2012

Let's see.  Today is just a regular Monday, but the fun part about this Monday is that I only have a 3-day work week!  So it's like a Wednesday already for me!  This weekend Elizabeth and I travel out to Seattle where we will visit Christian!  This will be the farthest west that I will have ever travelled... beating out Las Vegas as the previous record holder.  I'm not sure if we will visit the Pacific Ocean, but that would be cool since I've already seen the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea... and most of the great lakes.  I don't believe that I've seen Lake Huron, but the others I have. 

Other things about today... I started work at 7:00 AM in Marshalltown like I normally do on Mondays & Wednesdays.  I gave a short in-service over lunch about my continuing education course that I took a couple of weeks ago.  Manual Therapy of the Lumbar Spine.  Pink argyle socks were the choice of the day.  Oh, and I'm still enjoying the life of a 27 year-old. 

Happy 8th Birthday to Sullivan today!!

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

77 to 64


I don't think that I'll have to expand very much on this blog post in order to remember today.  Congratulations to Iowa State!  What a great season.  I'm very happy for this team to have their hard work finally pay off for them as they beat the defending national champs.  Right now I'm listening to Dick Vitale talk them up.  Awesome.  How often does that happen?  I'm pretty sure I read that Dickie V has never been to Ames for a game.  Next up, Kentucky. 

Monday, March 12th, 2012

Today I am filled with March Madness anticipation.  I can't wait for the games to begin!!  I've filled out about 8 brackets so far. 

Just looking at some of the teams in the NCAA tournament field, and I see that ISU has beaten 6 of those teams a total of 7 times (Kansas State twice).  Those teams are: Kansas - #2 Midwest, Baylor #3 South, Kansas State #8 East, Texas #11 East, Lehigh #15 South, and Mississippi Valley State #16 South.  It's kind of neat that I've been to 3 of those games and have been able to see a total of 4 teams that made this year's tournament.

Iowa State can definately play with any team in this field if they are on. 

I'm also looking forward to the women's NCAA selection show so that I can see where the ISU women end up.

Sunday, March 11th, 2012

What a long weekend so far...
All weekend long I have been down in Des Moines at a continuing education course at the Mercy South Physical Therapy location for lectures and lab sessions about manual therapy and the lumbar spine.  It was actually a very good course to take as it was a good refresher of my manual skills and showed me a few different techniques to use at work.  Still it was hard to sit through class from 8 to 5 each day this weekend. 

One thing that made it worse was that on Saturday morning while I was in class I had a text message from Elizabeth which said to call my parents ASAP.  Ok, that doesn't sound good.  I get a break in class and call my mom's cell... and my aunt Deb answers and explains to me that my dad is being transported to Sioux Falls hospital, and they are not sure exactly what happened yet.  OH SHIT.  She tells me just to wait until they can update me further.  Turns out that he just had a bad allergic reaction to medicine and was fine shortly after he reached the Spencer hospital.  They just sent him on to Sioux Falls to run tests and clear everything.  At first when he collapsed at home people were worried that he had a heart attack.  Very scarry. 

Another thing to note about today is that it's Selection Sunday.  The NCAA tournament is finally set!  Until this Thursday, March 15th, PUBLIC ENEMY #1 = CONNECTICUT.  That's right.  Iowa State earned the #8 seed in the South region and will match up against the #9 UConn Huskies. 

Right now I'm not sure exactly how happy I am about this match-up.  Overall, it seems that ISU was given a very difficult draw in the tournament.  They ended up as an 8 which is just what I didn't want because it means they have a very small chance to reach the Sweet 16.  Then UConn is a tough draw for a 9 seed.  They are the defending national champions of all things, and they are very well coached. 

To be honset though, I would like to have ISU match up against teams that are at least noteworthy (defending national champs qualify).  The other 9 seeds ended up being Saint Louis, Alabama, and Southern Miss.  I think UConn is a harder match-up than the other 9 seeds, but if we were playing Saint Louis I really wouldn't be as excited about it.  Southern Miss would have been fun just because their coach used to be our coach. 

If Iowa State is lucky enough to advance past UConn, they will have to play the overall highest #1 seed, Kentucky.  It looks like we have our work cut out for us.

Monday, March 5th, 2012

I just wanted to document that today is the first day since November 15th, 2005 that the Iowa State Cyclone men's basketball team has been ranked by the Associated Press.  YAY!!  Finally, a little bit of respect for my Cyclones!  They have deserved to be ranked all year.  They cracked the top-25 with a ranking of #25. 

Since my last blog, the Cyclones have also garnered a few more accolades. 

• Coach Fred Hoiberg was voted Co-Big 12 Coach of the Year by the coaches.
• Royce White has been voted Big 12 Newcomer of the Year by the Big 12 coaches.
• Royce White was selected to the All-Big 12 first team.
• Scott Christopherson was selected to the All-Big 12 third team.
• Chris Allen and Melvin Ejim received honerable mention selections.

Thank goodness that they are finally receiving some well earned respect!!

Saturday, March 3rd, 2012

WOW.  I love my Cyclones!  They just wrapped up their 2011-2012 men's basketball regular season with a huge victory at home over Baylor (ranked #9 AP, #10 ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll).  It's too bad that we didn't make it over for the game today.  It seems like this past year I've missed all of the best games (football vs Oklahoma State, the basketball game tonight, and their win over Kansas earlier this year).  Oh well.  I don't mind watching them win big games on TV. 

So what I really wanted to talk about today now that their regular season is finished is to compare the accomplishments that this year's squad has achieved compared to previous teams.  Fred Hoiberg has really done a nice job as coach to turn this team around.  It's nice to see us finally beat some teams that we haven't had much luck against for a while.  It's nice to finally have a respectable basketball team, and it will be great to go back to the NCAA tournament later this month!!  To start with, I just want to list ISU's conference wins this year along side the last year we defeated said opponent.  Keep in mind that it is currently 2012! 

March 3rd: ISU beats #9 Baylor at home 80-72.  (last home win vs Baylor 2010-11 season)
February 25th: ISU wins @ Kansas State 65-61.  (last road win vs KSU 2009-10 season)
February 22nd: ISU beats Texas Tech at home 72-54. (last home win vs TTU 2008-09)
January 18th: ISU beats Oklahoma State at home 71-68. (last home win vs OSU 2007-08)
February 18th: ISU beats Oklahoma at home 80-69.  (last home win vs Oklahoma 2006-07)
January 31st: ISU defeats Kansas State at home 72-70. (last home win vs KSU 2005-06)
January 4th: ISU beats Texas at home77-71 (last home win vs Texas 2003-04)
January 28th: ISU upsets #5 Kansas at home 72-64.  (last home win vs Kansas 2003-04)
February 11th: ISU beats Texas A&M at home 69-46. (last home win vs A&M 2003-04)
January 7th: ISU wins @ Texas A&M 74-50. (last road win vs A&M 2002-03)... I was in high school still!
January 21st: ISU wins @ Texas Tech 76-52. (last road win vs TTU 1999-2000)... remember the Y2K scare?
February 4th: ISU wins @ Oklahoma 77-70. (last road win vs Oklahoma 1995-96)... Wow.  Bill Clinton was re-elected that year over Bob Dole.  The movie Independence Day was the year's top grossing film.  I would have been in 6th grade.

Those are a few long streaks that have ended.  Other noteworthy accomplishments this year:
Winning season... sadly the first since 2005-06.
12 conference wins... the most since 2000-01 (we were 13-3 that year, regular season conference champs).
NCAA Tournament berth... the last for Iowa State was 2004-05.
Defeated a top-10 nationally ranked team... last was #5 Kansas State 2009-10.
Defeated two top-10 nationally ranked teams... 2000-2001 was the last year when we beat Kansas twice.

Hopefully their list of accomplishments for the year continues to grow!!  GO STATE!