Sunday, October 14th, 2012

Today is basically a recovery day for Elizabeth and myself after our trip to Chicago over the past few days.  I spent all day Thursday, Friday, and then 4 hours Saturday morning at a continuing education class in Rosemont, Illinois.  It was a very interesting class called Chain Reaction 3D which covers Applied Functional Science, and it was taught by "the father of function" Gary Gray. 

While we were in town, Elizabeth had fun shopping at Ikea, we got to see Timmy & Alana for a little bit, and we were able to enjoy some quality Chicago cuisine that we don't get to have very often.  This trip was actually the first time that I've been back to Chicago since we moved back to Iowa last year.  I made sure that we had my favorite sushi, Sushi Para in Palatine, which we enjoyed on Thursday after my classes were done.  Then on Friday we met up with Timmy & Alana for Exchequer Pizza. 

Menu at Sushi Para

My first plate: Volcano roll, 4 salmon sushi, 4 tuna sushi, 2 massago, 2 eel sushi

My second plate: Under control roll (bottom), a Chicago roll (middle), and 2 salmon sushi

Myself trying a piece of the Under Control Roll

My last plate, another "Under Control Roll"... it was so good that I needed one more!

Friday night's dinner was at Exchequer's in downtown Chicago.

Large pepperoni and sausage deep dish.

There is so much cheese on the deep dish!

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

I've got a little time this afternoon to blog... my schedule at work is just so slow today for some reason! 

Anyways one thing that I enjoy doing that I wanted to highlight here in my blog is keeping track of the previous sporting events that I have been to.  This should come as no surprise if you keep track of my blog anyways... it's mostly about sports or food :)

The way I keep track of all of my past sporting event attendance is through: www.espn.go.com/travel/passport

It's a fun thing that you can sign up for through ESPN which allows you to accumulate statistics on the different teams which you have seen play.  Things like their record vs each other, points allowed, points for, etc, for any given season or all time.  I'll just go into a little detail here to show how some of my most often watched teams have done...

College Football:

• Iowa State: 16 wins, 6 losses
• 599 points for, 422 points against... it also breaks it down between each season
• They were 6-1 when I was at the games in 2002 (the days of Seneca Wallace)
• Colorado: 0 wins, 3 losses
• 54 points for, 78 points against (all 3 vs ISU... 2005, 07, and 09)
• Iowa: 1 win, 2 losses (games against ISU... 2005, 07, 09)
• Nebraska: 0 wins, 2 losses (games against ISU in 2002, 04)
• Texas Tech: 1 win, 1 loss (2002 and 2012 against ISU)
• Kansas: 0 wins, 2 losses (2002 and 2011 against ISU)

Men's College Basketball:

• Iowa State: 13 wins, 2 losses
• 1,124 points for and 932 points against
• Oklahoma in 2003 & Drake last year were the team's I've seen ISU lose to
• Texas: 0 wins, 2 losses (2004 & 2012 against ISU)
• Kansas State: 0 wins, 2 losses (2003 & 2012 against ISU)
• Northern Iowa: 0 wins, 1 loss (2006 against ISU)

MLB:

• Minnesota Twins are 2-1 when I've seen them... 1-1 at home and 0-1 on the road
• Chicago Cubs are 2-2... 1-1 at home, 0-1 on the road, and 1-0 at neutral site (spring training)

So that is just a quick look at most the teams that I have seen play more than once.  I've also seen some NBA games, but I didn't bother to list them here.  I really wish that it would also keep track of women's college basketball, but for some reason it doesn't.  So just for my memory I wanted to list the few ISU women's games that I have seen...

• 3/18/2001 - Iowa State 85, Florida State 70 (NCAA tournament game)
• 2/5/2005 - Iowa State 73, Texas 69
• 12/11/2011 - Iowa State 77, Mississippi Valley State 47

Hopefully I can make it to a women's game for this upcoming season as well.

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

It's hard to believe that tomorrow will be October already.  Anyways, this has been a fun weekend and a busy one at that.  Today Elizabeth and I met up with Robin, Jason, and the girls.  We gave them a quick tour of the new house before going out to eat at Hickory Park.  Yummy!  I had my usual barbecue dinner which is delicious! 

Me, Elizabeth, Robin, & Jason outside of Hickory Park in Ames.

After lunch today we swung Slumberland Furniture in Ankeny to pick out a few things for the house.  We ended up ordering a new dining room table with 8 chairs, a sofa, and a sofa chaise.  Both the sofa and the sofa chaise are a grayish color that will be perfect for our living room upstairs. 

The other highlight of the weekend was another Cyclone football game, but this time the result was sadly not in our favor :(  The evil Red Raiders of Texas Tech wound up victorious, 24-13.  I thought our defense played very well, but our offense was terrible.  Too many unforced turnovers.  Steele Jantz drove me crazy.  Oh well.  We're still 3-1, and there is a lot of the season left to play.  The only thing is that conference play will likely only get tougher from here on out.  The one awesome play of the game that really got the crowd wound up was ISU's first touchdown - an 87-yard interception return for a touchdown by A.J. Klein.  Any extremely long touchdown run is always very exciting. 

During this play in the 2nd quarter, Seth Doege's pass was intercepted by Jaques Washington!

Panoramic view of Jack Trice Stadium on 9/29/12.

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012

Well today was a fun-filled day and it's now the end of a memorable weekend.  To quickly recap the weekend, yesterday I worked a couple hours in the morning (I only have to work 3 Saturdays a year at a clinic for high school kids that get hurt in football games that Friday).  Then most of Saturday afternoon was spent relaxing and watching football and the new show on Netflix that we are in to, Revenge.  Today I went with Seago and Jeremy to Adventureland, spent a little time at Prarie Meadows, and then out to eat with the boys and Elizabeth at Outback steak house. 


The football I was watching Saturday was AWESOME because it was absolutely heartbreaking for the Iowa Hawkeyes.  Maybe it's bad that I take so much pleasure in their misfortune, but oh well.  I only caught the second half of the 4th quarter, but that's when all of the fun began.  Central Michigan was leading 23-21 before the Hawkeyes scored 10 points and appeared to put the game away with around 2:00 minutes left.  All they needed to do was stop the Chippewas from scoring.  It was great then to watch CMU march down the field and score a TD with 45 seconds left in the game (which made it 29-31 Hawks).  At this point the 2-point conversion looks like a must for CMU... which they fail.  Hawk fans rejoice.  Next comes the onside kick which almost never works.  Initially this did not work as the Hawkeyes recovered, but CMU was saved by an offsides penalty which forced them to lose 5 yards and re-kick.  On their second try they amazingly recover the onside kick after one Hawkeye appears to jump out of the ball's way.  Then after a Hawkeye 15-yard personal foul and another Chippewa first down they are left with a 47-yard field goal attempt to win.  The kick was a low, line drive which was just enough to clear the uprights and break the hearts of Hawkeye nation.  Smile.  Here are the ending highlights. 

Today I went with Seago and Jeremy to Adventureland because they were able to get a few free tickets, and they had to be used by the end of the month. 

This was only the start of the fun.  We end up at Prairie Meadows casino after Adventureland, and we had quite a lucky day at the craps table.  By we I mostly mean Seago and Jeremy, but it was still fun.  After our winnings we decide to meet Elizabeth for supper at Outback Steakhouse in Ankeny. 

My prime rib was a little on the rare side, but it was still good.

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

I have had a very enjoyable day to myself thus far.  For no particular reason I decided to take today and tomorrow off from work just to use a little of my vacation time.  It's nice to have a 4-day weekend now and then! 

I just got back from what I'm sure was my best round of frisbee golf to date.  I had 7 birdies in total, and I finished at 4 under par!  Much, much better than my last round which I blogged about.  I would say that since then I have probably played only 4 or 5 times, so it was quite a surprising improvement in my play today.  There was almost no wind to deal with which must have helped a little bit.  Check out my scores:

Hole #:                      Par:                  My Score:
1                                3                       3 - Par
2                                3                       5 - Double Bogey
3                                3                       2 - Birdie :)
4                                3                       3 - Par
5                                3                       3 - Par
6                                3                       2 - Birdie :)
7                                3                       2 - Birdie :)
8                                3                       3 - Par
9                                3                       2 - Birdie :)
10                              3                       3 - Par
11                              3                       2 - Birdie :)
12                              3                       3 - Par
13                              3                       2 - Birdie :)
14                              3                       4 - Bogey
15                              3                       2 - Birdie :)
16                              4                       4 - Par
17                              3                        3 - Par
18                              4                        4 - Par

Total                         56                      52 (-4)


That stupid hole #2 always gives me problems.  I was quite happy to actually make a par on hole #18 which is very long.  I probably should note that I was playing from the amateur tees instead of the pro ones... but come on, I'm not really good at frisbee golf anyways.

What else do I have planned for my day off?  No big plans really, but I do think that I will make a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup.  Mmmm.

Sunday, September 9th, 2012

Jeremiah George and David Irving hoist the newly designed Cy-Hawk trophy after a 9-6 victory.

WAY TO GO CYCLONES!!!  It had been 10 years since the Iowa State football team has been able to get a win on the road in Iowa City, but that streak is over!  Even despite poor ball handling by the Cyclones in the red-zone they were able to find a way to win.  They turned it over 3 times inside the Hawkeye 11 yard line... not usually a recipe for success.  Luckily an interception by Jake Knott on Iowa's last possession was able to seal the win.  The game's only touchdown came on ISU's opening drive when Steele Jantz found Aaron Horne for a 5-yard TD. 

Overall the game was much lower scoring than most people expected after last year's 44-41 triple-overtime thriller.  I must say that I did predict a 3-point ISU victory (even if I was a little high on the overall score).  Through two weeks my preseason predictions are looking pretty well thus far:

• Week 1 score: ISU 38, Tulsa 23 (I picked ISU by 11 points, 35-24)
• Week 2 score: ISU 9, Iowa 6 (I picked ISU by 3 points, 24-21)

There's a very strong chance that I will have picked Iowa State's first 3 games crrectly as they should be able to handle Western Illinois fairly easily next week. 

This all reminds me that it seems like the odds makers really never give ISU enough credit.  I read here that in 14 games against BCS opponents the past two seasons, Iowa State has been the underdog 13 times.  Of those 13 games Iowa State has won 7.

Of course the Hawkeyes seem to always be favored against us even though Iowa State has won 9 of the past 15 meetings between the two teams.  If you consider the point spread of ISU vs Iowa games the bias becomes a little more obvious:

• 2012: Iowa favored by 4 (ISU won by 3)
• 2011: Iowa favored by 6 1/2 (ISU won by 3)
• 2010: Iowa favored by 13 1/2 (Iowa won by 28)... that's 1 Iowa covered the spread
• 2009: Iowa favored by 6 1/2 (Iowa won by 32)... that's 2 Iowa covered
• 2008: Iowa favored by 13 (Iowa won by 12)
• 2007: Iowa favored by 18 (ISU won by 2)
• 2006: Iowa favored by 14 (Iowa won by 10)
• 2005: Iowa favored by 10 (ISU won by 20)
• 2004: Iowa favored by 20 1/2 (Iowa won by 7)
• 2003: Iowa favored by 5 1/2 (Iowa won by 19)... that's 3 times Iowa covered
• 2002: Iowa favored by 2 1/2 (ISU won by 5)
• 2001: (I couldn't find this point spread, but I read that Iowa was favored and ISU won 17-14)
• 2000: ISU favored by 3 (ISU won by 10)
• 1999: ISU favored by 3 1/2 (ISU won by 7)
• 1998: (I couldn't find this spread either, but I read that Iowa was favored and ISU won 27-9)

So to summarize my findings of the ISU-Iowa game over the past 15 years, Iowa State beat the point spread in 12 of those 15 meetings.  Iowa was favored in 13 games, yet ISU still won 9 of the 15.

Hawkeyes = overrated.

Most of the old point spreads I found here.

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!!