Monday, July 9th, 2012

HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY TO ELIZABETH AND MYSELF!!!

It's hard to believe that we've already spent a year together as husband & wife.  It really only seems like it's been a couple of months. 

So for our first anniversary I designed a shutterfly photo album made up of only memories from our first year together as a present for Elizabeth.  We really have had a fun-filled year including our awesome wedding (best ever in the history of weddings), our honeymoon to Cancun, moving back from Illinois to IOWA, going to lots of Cyclone sporting events, our trip to Seattle to visit Christian, Cy's house of trivia, our trip to Minneapolis, making trips to see our family all the time (watching Seth act in two different plays in St. Louis or watching Brandon play the mayor of Whoville).  It really has been a great year!

Tonight for supper we went out to eat at Fuji Japanese Steakhouse in Ames.  It's always fun to have Hibachi where the chef cooks right in front of you and entertains you with tricks.  Elizabeth ordered Filet Mignon Hibachi while I had the Filet with scallops.  Then we split a Philadelphia roll as an appetizer. Yummy!!  There was also a special where you could buy one mixed drink and get a second for free, so we each had a couple good drinks to wash it all down with. 

Four mixed drinks for the price of two?  OK!

Our hibachi chef "cooks with love" when he makes his fried rice :)

Happy Anniversary!!

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

I'm very proud today that my favorite Cyclone over the past year, Royce White, was drafted #16 overall in the first round by the Houston Rockets!  I'll miss seeing him play here in Ames, but I'm glad that he will have a chance at a great NBA career. 

Here's a link to a highlight reel of him as a Cyclone.

Another word on the NBA... I should update my previous predictions as to how the 2012 NBA playoffs finished.  Basically, it turned out as my worst nightmare. The team I hate (Miami Heat) won the NBA championship, while my Chicago Bulls lost in the opening round as the #1 seed.  Horrible.  A large reason for all of this was the devistating injury to Derrick Rose as he tore his ACL. 

Here were the actual results (and my predictions):

First round:
76ers over Bulls in 6 (Bulls in 5)
Heat over Knicks in 5 (Heat in 6)
Pacers over Magic in 5 (Pacers in 4)
Celtics over Atlanta in 6 (Celtics in 5)
Spurs over Jazz in 4 (Spurs in 5)
Thunder over Dallas in 4 (Thunder in 6)
Lakers over Denver in 7 (Lakers in 7)
Clippers over Grizzlies in 7 (Clippers in 6)

Second Round:
Celtics over 76ers in 7 (Bulls over Celtics in 6)
Heat over Pacers in 6 (Heat over Pacers in 6)
Spurs over Clippers in 4 (Spurs over Clippers in 5)
Thunder over Lakers in 5 (Thunder over Lakers in 6)

Conference Finals:
Heat over Celtics in 7 (Bulls over Heat in 7)
Thunder over Spurs in 6 (Spurs over Thunder in 6)

Finals:
Heat over Thunder in 5 (Bulls over Spurs in 6)

Ok, so if you overlook the fact that the team I picked to win lost in the first round (blame Rose's torn ACL) I actually didn't make too bad of picks.  I picked the winners in 7 of the 8 first round match-ups and 3 of the 4 second round match-ups.  In two of those I even picked the number of games correctly (just a lucky guess there).  That Derrick Rose injury was just heart-breaking.

Also worth noting... we will be proud home owners in just over a couple of weeks!!!

Sunday, June 24th, 2012

Today Elizabeth and I just back home to Ames after a fun weekend down in St. Louis where we were able to watch our nephew Seth perform in the play High School Musical Junior.  He did a very fine job playing his part as "Mongo", especially considering that they put on the performance after only 1 week of practice!  We enjoyed going down to support him, and it's pretty neat that he is enjoying acting at such a young age. 

Saturday before his play I went with Sarah and Elizabeth to the Montelle winery where we enjoyed some cheese and a few samples of wine before buying a few bottles to bring home.  My favorite was the Chambourcin. 

It's also pretty crazy to think that in just a few weeks we will be MOVING INTO OUR NEW HOME!!!! 

Sunday, June 10th, 2012

This afternoon Elizabeth and I just got back from a busy and fun weekend in Minneapolis.  We went up to Mason City Friday after work and then headed up to Minneapolis ealry Saturday morning.  First we went shopping all around Ikea, then to Matt's Bar to try some Jucy Lucy burgers, and then to our ballgame.  The game itself was a blowout, but it was still fun to watch the Twins play well.  After the game we stayed at the Millenium Hotel in downtown and had supper at Buca di Beppo. 

Outside of Matt's Bar, home of the Jucy Lucy!

Our lunch order before the game.

The famous Jucy Lucy as seen on Man vs Food!

Digging into my burger!

The cheese stays hot & gooey.

Elizabeth enjoying her Jucy Lucy.

The view from our seats at Target Field.  We sat in section 332.

Just before the first pitch.

Scott Diamond pitches to Jeff Baker in the 6th inning

Saturday was our 11 month wedding anniversary, and it was nice of the Twins to honor us with 11 runs in their win:)

I was just looking back in my log of games on ESPN which I have attended, and I wanted to make note of all the MLB players which I have seen hit a home run during a regular season game and when:

• Manny Ramirez as a Red Sox vs Twins 8/7/05
• Gabe Kapler as a Red Sox vs Twins 8/7/05
• Jim Thome as a White Sox vs Twins 7/25/06
• Jason Kubel as a Twin vs White Sox 7/25/06
• Jason Bartlett as a Twin vs. White Sox 7/25/06
• Joe Crede as a White Sox vs Twins 7/25/06
• Tyler Colvin (2 HRs same game) as a Cub vs Reds 7/4/10
• Drew Stubbs (3 HRs same game) as a Red vs Cubs 7/4/10
• Paul Janish as a Red vs Cubs 7/4/10
• Brandon Phillips as a Red vs Cubs 7/4/10
• Jonny Gomes as a Red vs Cubs 7/4/10
• Corky Miller as a Red vs Cubs 7/4/10
• Aramis Ramirez as a Cub vs Pirates 5/29/11
• Trevor Plouffe as a Twin vs Cubs 6/9/12
• Alfonso Soriano as a Cub vs. Twins 6/9/12

Sunday, June 3rd, 2012

I just got done printing off our tickets to see the Minnesota Twins and Chicago Cubs play next Saturday the 9th of June.  It's going to be a lot of fun heading up to Minneapolis for a weekend of baseball, shopping at the Mall of America, and hopefully some good food. 

Right now the scheduled starting pitchers for our game will be Jeff Samardzija for the Cubs and Scott Diamond for the Twins.  Samardzija currently has a record of 5-3 with a 3.09 ERA while Diamond has a record of 4-1 with a 1.86 ERA.  Diamond actually got the win in a game today against the Cleveland Indians allowing 3 unearned runs in 7 innings. 

For quite a while the Twins and Cubs have both had the worst records in baseball this season, but as of right now that distinction belongs with the San Diego Padres (18-37).  Currently the Cubs sit at 18-35 while the Twins are 20-33.  They are each in last place of their divisions, so this won't exatly be a game of huge importance.  Either way we should have a fun time watching a game at least.  This will be my first time in the Twin's new stadium, Target Field, which they opened in 2010.  The last Twins game that I went to was back on July 25th, 2006.  That was a really good game where the Twins won at the Chicago White Sox 4-3 and Johan Santana was the winning pitcher.  Speaking of Santana, he just pitched the first no-hitter in Mets history on Friday.  Good for him, even if there was a missed call in that game which erased what would have been a fair ball and a hit. 

Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

I would just like to congratulate one of my old DMU classmates and roommate Mitch Thole on his marriage to Jacqueline Timmons this afternoon.  It was a very lovely ceremony.  Best wishes to you both!

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

Today I did return for a half day of work after what has been a very sad and stressfull week.  Elizabeth said it all in her blog, so I'll just leave it at that. 

On a happy note, it is fun to remember back 2 years ago today that I proposed to Elizabeth in a park in Palatine, IL. 

Also, happy birthday to my wonderful mother-in-law, Becky!  It was nice of her to come down and spend Tuesday with us this week.