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.

Monday, July 14th, 2014

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY NOLAN!

Yesterday we had quite the birthday party for our little guy.  Around 25 to 30 people were able to stop by and wish him a happy birthday.  We had Hickory Park cater most of the food (Saucy Southerners, mashed potatoes and gravy, pasta salad, and cinnamon apple sauce.  I also made a pot of BBQ baked beans, and Amy made cupcakes and a smash cake for Nolan.  We also had a lot of soda and beer for refreshments.  There were lawn games set up (bags, ladder golf, croquet) for entertainment along with the bubble fogger machine. 

Let's see if I can remember who was at the party: all four cousins (Seth, Sullivan, Paige, Evan), aunt Rachael, aunt & uncle Amy & Brandon Shostak, grandma Becky, grandpa & grandma Eben & Lynn, my cousin David Langner, Erick Ude, Dan & Ann Becker along with their baby Sebastian, Patrick & Shantelle Owens and their kids Emmet and Peyton, Jamie & Mike O'Donnell and their daughter Maddie, Tara Fisher, Lydia Metzger & Tim Nevins, and Caleb & Kristina Carroll.  If you count Elizabeth, myself, and Nolan that makes 30 people! 

The party mainly lasted from 11:00 until 2:00 in the afternoon.  Most of the people were leaving around then when it started to rain really hard.  It was a good thing the rain didn't come down an hour earlier!

Amy & Brandon advertising his birthday with chalk in the driveway.

Nolan and daddy!

All of the food: bottom row pasta salad, pulled pork, mashed potatoes, gravy, and apple sauce.  On the top of the table BBQ beans.  Upper right you can see soda in the red wagon and coolers with beer.

Nolan with Elizabeth and Erick.  He is trying to get Erick's beer!

Nolan looked like he was going to destroy the smash cake... but really he just poked at it a little and then tried to crawl away and get a balloon.

Nolan & aunt Rachael

All 5 cousins together and looking at the camera!

Nolan & Amy

Another thing that is too cute to leave out of his birthday blog... on Saturday Nolan spent a long time blowing raspberries on my stomach! 

Friday, July 11th, 2014

It's hard to believe that in just 3 days Nolan will be ONE YEAR OLD!!
Three days also happens to be how close to your birthday you need to be to have a free birthday ice cream at Hickory Park... and that is exactly what Nolan had today :)  Check out this video to watch the crew at Hickory Park sing "Happy Birthday".  For his birthday ice cream we ordered a brownie sundae which is a fudge brownie topped with two scoops of vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, hot fudge, nuts, and a cherry. 

This coming Sunday we are planning to throw a big birthday party for Nolan.  We actually will be having Hickory Park cater the food.  Amy is making him a smash cake, and I am really looking forward to watching how big of a mess our little guy makes with that! 

I might as well recap the baseball game we saw between the Seattle Mariners and the Minnesota Twins this past Monday.  It was beautiful weather for a game, but unfortunately the Twins did not play well at all and lost by a score of 2-0.  The Mariners pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma was excellent and struck out 10 batters.  The Twins only managed 4 hits all day. Oh well.  The Twins did manage to win the other three games of the four game series.

Our view from right field.

Saturday, July 5th, 2014

Greetings from Seattle!!

Elizabeth and I are enjoying ourselves quite a bit this weekend as we are visiting Christian and Emily out in Seattle!  We flew in yesterday and enjoyed a fun 4th of July at Christian's place.  He grilled some delicious cheeseburgers along with some really thick cut bacon... this seems like foreshadowing for a weekend that involves way too much good food!  Then we were able to enjoy a few drinks at his place before walking down and watching the fireworks from a boat (we stayed in the dock because it would have been too hectic to take it out on the water).

This morning we met up with Christian and Emily for a Mexican-themed breakfast at Peso's.  I had a chorizo and sweet potato hash with two poached eggs.  It was very filling, and actually we were all so full from breakfast that we didn't feel like having lunch until around 2:00.

After breakfast, we made our way over to the Pike Place Market.

Of course we had to check out the gum wall as long as we were over by the market...

Elizabeth blowing a bubble at the gum wall

I know... I'm gross!

After the market, we swung by Kerry Park to enjoy a scenic overlook of the city.    Here we have a good view of the Seattle skyline and the space needle, but it was too hazy in the distance to have a good view of Mount Rainier. 

This is the viewing room of the fish ladder at the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks.  You can see all of the salmon as they make their way up the ladder   

After our time at the locks, we finally got hungry for lunch.  We headed over to Paseo which is a delicious Caribbean sandwich restaurant.  Here I am posing with their most popular sandwich, the Caribbean Roast.  It is shredded pork shoulder in their special marinade on a homemade baguette with aioli, fresh cilantro, pickled jalapenos, romaine lettuce, and large slices of caramelized onions.  We had to stand in line outside of Paseo for over a half hour during a light rain, but it was such a good sandwich that it was totally worth it!

Friday, June 6th, 2014

So something interesting happened tonight probably around 6:45 or so...

If you look closely at the end of the video, Nolan stands up and takes a few steps! I say they count as steps anyways!  He may have done similar things a couple of times before this within the last day or two, but this was his first recorded steps!  He is getting to be so big! 

Elizabeth and I shared a Lou Malnati's frozen pizza tonight that she had brought back from Chicago recently along with a bottle of wine to celebrate our little guy's first steps :)