Saturday, September 1st, 2012

CYCLONE FOOTBALL IS BACK!!

...and I am offically exhausted.  It was a very fun but long day of tailgaiting and football fun.  Brian Gleason was in town with me and we started out the day tailgaiting with Tim Nevins and Dan Becker.  I enjoyed the tailgate atmosphere between 8:15 and 2:00, and in that time I may have also made an appearance at Mark Williamson's tailgate.  I make it into the stadium for kickoff, and we are all standing in the student section having a blast.  Lots of yelling and cheering "that's another Cyclone FIRST DOWN"...  and now I have Ames voice.  It's always fun to watch a Cyclone victory though.  Totally worth it. 

Tim is a little sleepy to start off the tailgaiting... approximately 8:15 AM which isn't too early compared to some taligates.

Games were played.

Panoramic view of Jack Trice.

Tim was more awake for the game!

 

Go Cyclones!! 

Tuesday, August 28th, 2012

ONLY 4 DAYS LEFT UNTIL CYCLONE FOOTBALL!!

In the spirit of the upcoming football season, I will make some quick predictions about how each of the Cyclone's games will shake out...


Game 1: vs. Tulsa - WIN -  Iowa State 35, Tulsa 24

Game 2: @ Iowa - WIN - Iowa State 24, Iowa 21... it's been quite a while since we've won a game in Iowa City, but do you really expect me of all people to pick the Hawks in this game? Besides, the Hawkeye running game is a mess right now.

Game 3: vs. Western Illinois - WIN - Iowa State 45, WIU 10... this is really the only sure-fire win on the schedule.  Western Illinois is terrible and has no chance.

Game 4: vs Texas Tech - WIN - Iowa State 38 - Texas Tech 35... this game will be a lot closer than last year's blowout win for the Cyclones.  I think that it is a good thing that this one is at home otherwise I think Tech has a chance to beat us.  A lot of Cyclone fans are too confident about this one.

Game 5: @ TCU - Loss - TCU 35, Iowa State 21... The Frogs are a quality football team, and there's just no way I can pick ISU to start the year 5-0.  Honestly I would be surprised if we actually run the table between the first 4 games.

Game 6: vs Kansas State - WIN - Iowa State 21, Kansas State 17... the most recent few games between these teams have been very close even though ISU has always been the underdog.  I feel that this is the year we finally have KSU's number (I'm guessing that they will be ranked in the top 25 at the time as well).

Game 7: @ Oklahoma State - Loss - Oklahoma State 42, Iowa State 28 - The Cowboys get a big revenge win after last years heartbreaking loss in Ames.

Game 8: vs Baylor - Loss - Baylor 35, Iowa State 34 - No way that Iowa State can win ALL of the close games this year, and I've already gave them the benefit of the doubt against Iowa, Kansas State, and TTU.

Game 9: vs Oklahoma - Loss - Oklahoma 42, Iowa State 17 - We are just outmatched in this contest, and our schedule is starting to get brutal.  We are starting to wonder if our quick start to the season will even get us to a bowl game...

Game 10: @ Texas - Loss -  Texas 21, Iowa State 10 - We won two years ago down in Austin, but two times in a row at Texas is a bit much to ask.  Wow, four losses in a row is hard to swallow.

Game 11: @ Kansas - WIN - Iowa State 38, Kansas 28... We finally end the losing streak and become bowl eligible with a win against the Big 12's worst team.

Game 12: vs West Virginia - Loss - WVU 31, Iowa State 24... I really want to pick the Cyclones to win this game, but I feel like a 6-6 record is more realistic than 7-5.  I would be so happy to welcome West Virginia to the league with a loss!!  We can only hope I'm wrong about this one.

Bowl Game?? I say that we go to (and win) one this year.  At least if we finist 6-6 we will have a chance to play one this year. 


Let's hope that the Cyclones make me proud this upcoming season.  Go State!!

Saturday, August 18th, 2012

TWO WEEKS UNTIL FOOTBALL!!  Iowa State vs Tulsa! 

I love looking forward to sporting events so much.  I was just talking with Lyndon on facebook IM, and it makes me want to plan a trip next year to go watch the Twins or Cubs play.  The good thing is that a lot of family members do live in cities with MLB teams, so I just need to coordinate a trip around a ball game and it will be perfect. 

Lyndon & Missy live out by Washington, D.C. => Washington Nationals game?
Christian lives in Seattle => Seattle Mariners game?
Forrest & Marla live by Denver => Colorado Rockies game?
The Gleasons live in St. Louis => St. Louis Cardinals game?

So many options!  I'm sure I could find a way to watch either the Twins or Cubs at one of these locations.  Of course 3 of those are in the National League, so it would be easier to see the Cubs play (I would rather see the Twins though).  Maybe an inter-league game would be possible though.  Last year the Twins played teams in the NL West, this year they played the Central (we saw them play the Cubs), so I'm sure next year they will play the NL East.  That means that there will be a fair chance that they will play one series out in Washington.  I'll have to remember to keep my eyes open for this! 

Enough about my constant obsession with sports for the moment.  Today Elizabeth was down in St. Louis for a zombie infested 5K race called "Run for your Lives".  I'm still waiting for her to get back to hear all of the details, but I'm sure that she had a blast.  She did tell me that her flags were taken while she was running, so she did "turn into a zombie".  I better be careful when she gets home :)

One other notable thing about today... it was the first time that I mowed the yard since we moved into our new house!

BRAINS!!

Thursday, August 9th, 2012

Today was a good day... my wallet was returned which was awesome!!  The cash that was in it served as a reward to the finder.  

Becky came down to donate a couple of items to our new house (an outdoor table, a 1800's family heirloom wooden chest).  After I came home from work she went with Elizabeth, myself, and David (he's like our family pet now), and we went out to eat.  Every time we go out to eat with Becky she insists that we go somewhere that we've never been before.  That is getting hard to do in Ames, but apparently there are still places that we haven't been.  Elizabeth heard of a fun burger place via some coworkers called Oddfellow's Burger Kitchen, and it turned out to be a perfect place to try.  The decor of the restaurant is all things odd and obscure.  There were guitars hanging from the ceiling that had wings attached to them as if they were ducks.  The menu was filled with interesting combinations.  Peanut butter pene pasta, all kinds of weird burgers, etc.  Elizabeth ordered a burger with peanut butter, I forget what kind of burger Becky had but there were caralized onions on it so I'm sure it was good, David had a Bleu cheese & cajun seasoned "Black & Bleu" burger, and I had the monstrosity below.  Two bacon cheeseburgers with grilled cheese sandwhiches as the bread.  OMG.  I actuall ate it all.  Options for side dishes were fries, tater tots, or mac & cheese. 

I will have to come back to this place!

Other fun news about today: the Iowa State 2012-2013 men's basketball schedule has been released!  I've been waiting for this for most of the summer.  It goes to show how obsessed I am with the Cyclones, when I just want to know what games there are to look forward to months in advance. 

Iowa State opens the season at home against Southern University on November 9th.  I think that a fun game to go to would be their road game in Kansas City on December 19th when they play UMKC.  I'll have to see if I can talk anyone into taking a day off from wok to go down there with me!  Of course there are lots of other home games which look exciting to me (BYU, Yale, Texas, West Virginia, TCU, many more). 

One more thing: 23 more days until Cyclone football!!

Sunday, August 5th, 2012

Well it hasn't been a very fun weekend for myself... lost my wallet on Friday and had to cancel my credit card & debit card :(  I'm an idiot. 

In other news, we've had cousin David as a house guest for a week now, and he will be staying for one more.  Since we have plenty of space in our big house we were able to offer him a place to stay before he can move back into his frat at the start of classes. 

Classes at Iowa State start on the 20th of this month... which means that football season is just around the corner!!  ISU vs Tulsa on September 1st is less than 4 weeks away!!  For some crazy reason we are an underdog to them. 

In other sports news, the 2012 London Olympics have been on for the past week.  I'm very happy that Michael Phelps has set the all time olympic medal record... by winning 4 golds and 2 silver medals in these olympics he now has 22 medals (18 gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze). 

Sunday, July 15th, 2012

This was a weekend to remember for sure.  WE NOW HAVE A NEW ADDRESS!!!

5312 Norris Street, Ames, IA 50014

Really there was so much NEW about this weekend.  It's a new life for Elizabeth and myself.  We have our new house complete with 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms (1 full, 1 3/4, and 2 half bathrooms), a two-car garage, a (mostly) finished basement, and a nice back yard.  Of course with moving into a new home there are lots of things we need to buy to furnish our home.  So besides unpacking & organizing our things this weekend we had to go out and buy a few items. 

Here is the view of the front of our home from Norris Street.

View of the back yard.

The back side of the house from our yard.

This weekend we bought a new grill, a Weber Q 320.  We actually had this set up before we even had a washer & dryer.

Today our brand new Whirlpool washer & dryer was delivered!

We also picked out some new dishes today!  We had been saving our dishes from our wedding last year for when we got a house, but once we got here the plates were just too wide for our cabinets :(  Since they were never used we were able to return them to Bed, Bath & Beyond and pick out new dishes (which fit just fine in our cabinets). 

I was due for a new pair of dress shoes for work, so here are my brand new Ecco shoes.  Yet another new thing this weekend :)

Elizabeth & I enjoyed a bottle of champagne today which was a wedding present to us (in the unbreakable champagne glasses that was a wedding present from Amy & Brandon).

It's also fun to think that exactly one year ago today (July 15th, 2011) we were in Cancun on our honeymoon.  It was on that day that we went to see the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza.

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!!