Saturday, April 13th, 2019

Well to start with I would like to say that today is a sad day in general for me as it marks the 4th anniversary of Lynn's passing  :(

However, on a happier note, today was also the 13th annual Cy's House of Trivia contest at Hilton Coliseum.  Our table name for this evening was "Best Kempt Secret", in honor of Kyle Kempt, who led Iowa State to an upset win over the Oklahoma Sooners a couple of years ago.  In fact, we had the honor of having Kyle sit at our table for one of the trivia rounds tonight!  He came across as very polite... and he didn't really help with any of the trivia questions, but it was fun having him at our table.  One funny story about him... during one of the intermissions, I was in line for the bathroom, and Kyle came in line a couple of places behind me.  I talked with the rest of the people in line for the bathroom, and we were in agreement that Kyle should cut in line to the front... but he was too modest and insisted that he did not want to cut in line.  So, he really did seem like the humble or modest type.

Our table consisted of myself, Elizabeth, Tim Nevins & George (from WRNL and tailgating), Dan & Anne Becker, and Mike & Jaime O'Donnell.  Besides Kyle Kempt, we did have John Walters (the voice of the Cyclones) sit at our table.  I believe that we finished in 36th place, out of 100.  One of the rounds was all about beer, which we did well in.  There was also a round about identifying which American war it was referring to, based on a few small clues.  Another fun note, but I did win a raffle prize of two tickets to the ISU vs Texas football game for the upcoming football season!

Previous blog posts for Cy's House of trivia include:

• 2017
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012

Saturday, March 23rd, 2019

Well, it's the best time of the year for basketball fans.  March Madness is well under way, and today I was able to be a part of that for the Women's tournament at least.  Since the "Twister Sisters" are a top 4 seed (a 3 seed to be exact), they get to host the first two rounds of the tournament at Hilton.  So tonight I was joined by Amy, Logan, Elizabeth, Nolan, and Maxwell to watch the 3-seed Cyclones blow past the 14-seed Aggies of New Mexico State, 97-61.  This was Logan's first time at an ISU sporting event.  It was cute watching him eat the clone cone, because he just couldn't get enough of it, and he definitely wanted more when it was gone :)

Bridget Carleton was the player of the game for Iowa State, as she led the team with 23 points.  I guess that should be no surprise, as she is currently in second place on ISU's all-time scoring list, and she has a shot to take over the #1 spot if she does well in the tournament.  Carleton was joined in double figures scoring by Alexa Middleton (15), Ashley Joens (14), and Kristin Scott (12).  This is the third time that I have been in attendance for an ISU NCAA tournament game.  The other times were oddly enough both against Florida State.  The first time was back in 2001, when the Cyclones won to move onto the Sweet 16, and the other time was a victory for the Seminoles in the first round back in 2014.  

Logan enjoying his first clone cone!

A view of the action in the first half between Iowa State and New Mexico State.

Speaking of March Madness, I was bummed yesterday when the ISU men lost a close game to Ohio State in the first round of the tournament.  Since their season is now finished, I thought I would look back to the men's games I attended this season:

I saw Cyclone victories against...

• Alabama State
• Missouri
• Omaha
• North Dakota State
• Eastern Illinois
• Kansas
• Oklahoma State
• West Virginia
• Oklahoma

...and I attended losses vs:

• Kansas State
• TCU
• Baylor

All in all, it was a fun season.  Having the Cyclones go 9-3 in games I attended was pretty good, but it is always disappointing to watch them lose.  My favorite game of the year had to be the Kansas game.  In case you were wondering, the Cyclones went 8-4 in the games I attended last year.

Sunday, March 17th, 2019

Well, I've got a lot on my mind today after a fun weekend trip to Chicago with the family.  Today is also one of my favorite days of the year, as it is Selection Sunday, and it's St. Patrick's Day.

First, I wanted to review our fun trip to the Windy City.

• Thursday: We left Ames early on Thursday morning to head to Chicago.  We were able to drop off our bags at our hotel, the Warwick Allerton.  We were very happy with the hotel, and the doorman was very helpful during our stay.  Anyways, after dropping off our bags and having the valet park our car, we walked over to Macy's where the kids got to check out the Lego store.  They enjoyed building their own Lego figurines.  Then we took a little detour you could say.  Nolan got a bad "Owie" when he stumbled stepping up a curb and ended up hitting his right ear against a fire hydrant as he fell.  His poor ear turned all black and blue, and it was really hurting him.  Poor guy.  We tried to find a doctor to look at him, but after a while it seemed like he would be ok with some TLC and a cold pack... so we didn't bother with the doctor.  After all of that, we did manage to have a nice supper at Gino's East.  Well, Elizabeth and I did.  Maxwell tried some pizza I believe, but Nolan didn't think that looked like pizza.  So we fed him some cashews and snacks that we had on hand.  The pizza was great though.  We ordered a large deep dish half sausage and half spinach.  
• Friday: We headed over to the Field Museum to be there when it opened, and we were able to get a good amount of exploring done.  My favorite part was of course all of the dinosaur fossils... Sue to T-rex, the stegosaurus, triceratops, titanosaur, apatosaurus, parasaurolophus... they were all great to see.  Nolan enjoyed the "Grainger Hall of Gems", where he was able to see all types of precious gems such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, amber, topaz, etc.  We also went to an "Underground" exhibit, where you pretended to be shrunk down to 1/2 an inch tall and looked at bugs and all things under the soil.  We were also able to see some mummies, which were cool.  Friday afternoon, we took the kids to Navy Pier where they had fun at the Children's Museum.  It was basically full of all sorts of interactive things for kids, like digging up pretend dinosaur bones, playing with toy cars on different tracks, being able to dress up like a fire fighter, etc.  Friday night for supper we went to a place called FTW (For the Win).  It was a bar/arcade, kind of like a Dave & Busters.  One memorable thing from that was when Maxwell won 1000 tickets playing some plinko-style fishbowl game.
• Saturday: We grabbed a quick breakfast from a local donut shop before watching the Chicago river get dyed green for St. Patrick's day.  Then we rode the "El" up to Belmont and back, just so the kids could experience the train.  After checking out of our hotel, we headed to the suburbs where we saw a performance at Medieval Times.  We ended up being sat in the Black&White knight's section, and of course he was the winner!  The boys seemed to enjoy the show, and they especially liked the toy swords that we bought them.  

Nolan and myself at Gino's East.

Pizza!!

Here I am posing with the stegosaurus at the Field Museum.

Elizabeth and Maxwell in front of the triceratops.

Elizabeth and Nolan in front of the Field Museum.

Sue the T-rex!

Here Maxwell had just won 1000 tickets at the arcade.

Dying of the Chicago River.

Medieval Times

Now today I also have quite a bit of basketball on my mind.  Iowa State had an amazing run over the weekend by defeating Baylor, Kansas State, and Kansas en route to their 4th Big 12 tournament championship in the last 6 years.  The Cyclones were selected as a 6-seed in the Midwest region today, and they will face Ohio State this coming Friday.  I am really looking forward to that game and hoping the Cyclones can get revenge for that Aaron Craft game from a few years ago.  I suppose I will save my end-of the season listing of which basketball games I attended this year for another day... as I need to start filling out my bracket!

Monday, February 25th, 2019

Well, I'm happy to say that Iowa State is back in the win column after having a rough week or two recently.  Tonight Jeremy Seago went with me to witness Iowa State's convincing win over Oklahoma, 78-61. 

It's not just the Cyclones who've had a rough month of February.  It's been awfully cold and snowy this month, and there have been quite a few snow days for Nolan's kindergarten class (today being one of them).  Earlier this month, Nolan missed a week of class due to Influenza A.  Then this past weekend Maxwell broke our 50-inch TV by smashing it with a long Lincoln Log.  To top it off, he pulled the chandelier down from above our dining room table this weekend as well.  So yeah, I'm READY FOR MARCH.

As for the game, it was close all of the first half, but the Cyclones ended up pulling away in the second thanks to a good defensive effort.  Iowa State was led by Marial Shayok, who dropped in 21 points.  The only other Cyclone in double figures scoring was Talen Horton-Tucker, who had 18 points. 

Tonight marks the sixth time that I have attended an ISU-Oklahoma basketball game.  The Cyclones have won five of those six meetings (tonight, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013), while the Sooners won back in 2003.  That 2016 game against Oklahoma was quite the memorable one, as the Sooners came into the game being ranked #1 in the country.

Iowa State won the opening tip.

Iowa State 78, Oklahoma 61.

Saturday, February 9th, 2019

This afternoon I took Nolan with me to Hilton Coliseum to watch the ISU basketball game vs TCU. Other than the game itself, we had a good time.  Nolan enjoyed the atmosphere and seemed to actually pay attention to the game itself.  He would ask me what the score was often, and was actually cheering on the Cyclones.  Unfortunately, there was not much to cheer for today.  The #17 ranked Cyclones played like garbage for most of the game and ended up falling to TCU 83-92.  Michael Jacobson was about the only player for Iowa State that I thought played well.  He scored 16 points on 8 of 10 shooting.  Nolan and myself split a clone cone though, so we had that going for us, which was nice...

I believe that this was Nolan's 16th basketball game that I have taken him to.  The last time I took him to a game was vs the Missouri Tigers earlier this season.  Today's game was Nolan's 6th conference game.  He's also seen games vs Baylor in 2018, Texas in 2018, Texas Tech in 2017, Kansas State in 2016, and TCU in 2014.  That 2014 game vs TCU was much more entertaining than today's. 

As for myself, this was the 5th time that I have seen ISU play TCU (and the first time that the Cyclones have lost).  The previous games were 2017, 2015, 2014, and 2013. 

Nolan insists that the red ice cream tastes better than the yellow...

Wednesday, January 30th, 2019

BBRRRR... Today was a frigid winter day in Iowa.  There was some damn thing called a polar vortex, which as I understand it is a low pressure system of cold air that normally sits over the North Pole, and it somehow moved this far south to give us some extreme cold temperatures.  In Ames, we had a new record low for January 30th, as it reached 22 degrees below zero.  For a while this morning it was actually colder in Ames than it was in Antarctica (it was only -11 degrees there this AM). 

So that terribly cold air made for an especially brisk walk to and from Hilton Coliseum tonight.  I did manage to brave the elements to watch the 20th-ranked Cyclones dispose of West Virginia, 93-68.  Iowa State dominated for the majority of the game, as they led by 17 points at halftime.  Lindell Wigginton was the player of the game for Iowa State, as he led all scorers with 28 points.  He was joined in double figures by teammates Marial Shayok (18) and Nick Weiler-Babb (14).  One memorable moment from this game was late in the second half when West Virginia's coach Bob Huggins was given two technical fouls in a row and ejected for arguing with the referees.  He was so mad and just screaming at the refs, and it was enjoyable to watch him get thrown out.

Tonight marks the 4th time that I have attended an ISU-WVU basketball game.  The Cyclones won in 2018 and 2013, while West Virginia won the 2017 match-up. 

Tip-off between the Cyclones and Mountaineers.

Saturday, January 19th, 2019

What a difference a week can make.  Last Saturday, Iowa State had just lost it's second conference game in a row by falling at home to Kansas State, 57-58.  It seemed that any hopes of challenging for the Big 12 conference title were gone.  However, after a big win on the road at #8 Texas Tech on Wednesday, the Cyclones were able to come back home tonight and defeat Oklahoma State, 72-59.  All of a sudden, the Cyclones find themselves tied for 1st place in the conference and squarely "in contention" again. 

I would say that the player of the game for Iowa State was Marial Shayok.  He led the team in scoring with 20 points, and he connected on 4 of 8 from three point range.  He was joined in double figures scoring by Lindell Wigginton (14), Cameron Lard (12), and Nick Weiler-Babb (10).  It feels nice to be mentioning Lard, who had missed the previous couple of games due to an ankle sprain.

Tonight was the 6th time that I have seen Iowa State and Oklahoma State play.  The Cowboys won last year, while the Cyclones were victorious in all of the other contests (2017, 2015, 2014, 2013). 

GO STATE!