Sunday, July 30th, 2023

 Today our family returned home from Christmas in July, which was held at the Honey Creek Resort by Rathbun Lake.  Prior to this weekend, I had never been to this resort or to the lake.  I think that it turned out to be a great place to host our family's annual get-together.  

The hotel had a nice indoor pool, there was plenty of space for the family to gather together in conference rooms or at an outdoor shelter, and of course the lake provided plenty of fun.  Amy and Brandon brought two kayaks, which the kids enjoyed going on rides in.  Elizabeth was able to do some paddle-boarding.  

On Saturday we had a family trivia competition, where David had come up with all of the questions.  My table, nicknamed "Team Dinos" at Logan's request, brought home first place.  We also played a board game called "Hues and Cues", which I thought was a lot of fun.  All in all, it was a fun weekend with the family.

Emma, Logan, Maxwell, and Nolan enjoying time together at the beach.

Amy taking Emma for a kayak ride. 

Friday, June 23rd, 2023

 I just returned home from a fun trip up to Minneapolis, where I took Nolan and Eben to see the Twins play against the Red Sox.

We drove up yesterday morning and were able to check into our hotel (we stayed at the Cambria Hotel) before walking over to Target Field.  We picked this game to go to because recently Nolan has somewhat randomly decided to be a Red Sox fan.  This way we were both able to see our favorite teams play.  It turned out to be a great game for myself, but not so much for Nolan... as the Twins wound up winning 6-0.  

Joe Ryan pitched a complete game, 3-hit shutout for the Twins.  It was the first complete game shutout that a Twins pitcher has tossed in 5 years!  He struck out 9 Red Sox, while allowing no walks.  We also witnessed 3 home runs from the Twins.  Byron Buxton crushed two homers himself, and they were each over 465 feet long!  Carlos Correa also homered for the Twins.  The starting pitcher for the Red Sox, Justin Garza, had a rough outing and only lasted 1 inning.  

We sat in the second row of section 130 out in left field.  For most of the game we were able to be in the shade, which was nice, because it had to be about 90 degrees.  

After the game, we drove down to the Mall of America.  Nolan was able to ride a few rides at the Nickelodeon Universe theme park, and then we stopped to get some Legos at the Legoland store.  

Finally, we headed up to Matt's Bar for a classic Minneapolis treat, the Jucy Lucy.  It is basically a cheeseburger, but the cheese is inside of the meat patty.  I had been here before with Elizabeth back in 2012.

This marks the 9th time that I have seen a regular season MLB game.  The previous games were:

• 6/22/19 - Minnesota 5 @ Kansas City 3 (10 innings).
• 6/21/15 - Chicago Cubs 8 @ Minnesota 0.
• 7/7/14 - Seattle 2 vs Minnesota 0.
• 6/9/12 - Minnesota 11 vs Chicago Cubs 3.
• 5/29/11 - Chicago Cubs 3 vs Pittsburgh 2.
• 7/4/10 - Cincinnati 14 @ Chicago Cubs 3.
• 7/25/06 - Minnesota 3 @ Chicago White Sox 2.
• 8/7/05 - Boston 11 @ Minnesota 7. 

Myself, Nolan, and dad outside of Target Field

Here is Nolan with our view from section 130 in the background.

Nolan and Eben outside of Matt's Bar.

Sunday, May 7th 2023

 Today I drove home from a camping and fishing trip to Yellow River.  Nolan accompanied me on the trip, and we met up with the Seagos (Jon, Matt, Jeremy), Tyler, and Keith.  Originally I was planning to take our whole family of 4 on the trip, but Elizabeth ended up having her gallbladder taken out last Monday, so she needed to stay home and rest.  Then I gave both boys the choice to either stay home with mom or come camping with me, and Maxwell decided that he would rather stay home.  Anyways...

Nolan and myself arrived at the Little Paint campground around 5:00 on Friday (we stayed in camp site #120).  I had picked up Nolan from school a couple of hours early just to make sure we had plenty of time to get up there and set up camp.  It was a good thing that we got camp set up early, because we did end of having a a decent amount of rain that night (about 3/10ths of an inch from what I could find online).  After we set up camp we did try our luck fishing.  Nolan and I walked down the path a ways at Little Paint.  We went to the spot where he caught a fish immediately two years ago, but not even a nibble was had this time.  We tried a couple of other spots (including the rock wall to the left at the first fork in the trail), but still no luck.  We came back to camp and hung out around the fire in a light rain.  The rain persisted and was annoying for quite a while, and after Nolan went to bed it picked up (and Matthew and myself ended up getting pretty soaked).  As it turned out, Jon also got soaked that night... as his tent had a leak in it.

On Saturday Nolan and myself tried our luck fishing at the hole right by camp, and it turned out to be good luck.  I caught 2 rainbow trout, and Nolan managed to catch one all by himself!  He was having some troubles figuring out how to cast, but by the time the day was over he had it figured out nicely.  During the middle of the day, we rode to Prairie du Chien with Jon, Matt, and Jeremy.  Jon had to get a new tent, and the rest of us bought some New Glarus beers.  After spending too much time driving around, we went back to the same fishing hole close to camp.  Jon caught a brown trout, and Nolan caught two more nice rainbow trout!  I was very proud of him for doing so well!  So between Nolan and myself we had caught 5 trout, which was our limit for the day.  

Saturday afternoon and evening ended up being gorgeous weather.  I was expecting scattered thunderstorms, but nothing came of it besides being overcast.  We were able to enjoy a nice campfire with basically no wind and great temperatures.  

This was the third time that Nolan has been up to Yellow River fishing with me.  I'm not sure how many times I have been up there, but here are some past trips: 2021, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, and 2012. 

Nolan with the Harpers Ferry boat sign

Nolan holding up the stringer of fish we caught Saturday afternoon.  Nolan caught the top two, and Jon caught the bottom one.  

Sunday, April 23rd, 2023

Yesterday I had a lot of fun participating in "Cy's House of Trivia".  Amy came over from Omaha to join our table "Kalscheur Klub", which also included myself, Elizabeth, Dan & Anne, Ryan, George, and Jess.  Our table ended up placing 12th out of 100 tables, which I believe is the best that we have ever finished.  To make it even better, Ryan ended up winning the golf raffle prize!

Categories for Cy's House of Trivia included: Famous Iowans, "Clone Cones", movies in a picture, US history, beginning of business, musical math, emoji states, and Cyclone weather alert.  

I was able to chat with John Walters a little bit, and I asked him what the loudest moment was in Hilton that he can remember.  He thought of a few different possibilities, but the first moment that came to his mind was Naz Long's buzzer beater 3 to force overtime against Oklahoma State.

Saturday, February 25th, 2023

 Well, today I took Maxwell with me to Hilton, where we watched the #23 ranked Cyclones drop a game vs Oklahoma, 61-50.  Iowa State has really been in a slump recently, as they have lost 7 of their last 9 games.  Not exactly the way you want to be playing heading into March...

I believe that this was the 24th basketball game that I have taken Maxwell to.  He still has not seen ISU defeat the Sooners.  Kansas, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech are the other conference teams that he still needs to see the Cyclones defeat.  

As for today's game, the Cyclones were leading by 5 points at halftime, but for a large portion of the second half their offense completely stalled.  I would say that Tamin Lipsey was the player of the game for Iowa State, as he scored 10 points and had 4 steals.  Gabe Kalscheur was the only other Cyclone in double figures today, with 12.  

Today was the 9th time that I have seen ISU play Oklahoma, and it is only the second time that the Sooners have won.  ISU was victorious in 2022, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.  The only other game that OU won was back in 2003.  

Overall this year I attended 11 men's basketball games.  ISU won nine of those and lost the last two.  I was happy that I was able to cross Kansas off of the list of teams that Nolan needed to see Iowa State defeat, and it was fun to cross Texas off of that list for Maxwell.  

Wins:

• Kansas
• Texas
• Baylor
• Western Michigan
• St. John's
• North Dakota
• UW-Milwaukee
• North Carolina A&T
• IUPUI

Losses:

• Oklahoma
• Oklahoma State

Saturday, February 11th, 2023

 Today Eben came down to visit and brought us some meat from a beef that took to the locker recently.  We ordered Pizza Pit for lunch (one sausage and one Canadian bacon / pineapple pizza).  Nolan proclaimed after trying it that pineapple does not belong on pizza.  We then spent some time watching old home movies that Eben had made.  Those were the highlights of the day.

I also took Eben over to Hilton today, but unfortunately it was a stinker of a basketball game, as #11 Iowa State fell to the Oklahoma State Cowboys, 64-56.  The Cyclones shot poorly from the free throw line, hitting only 9-19.  I would say that Tamin Lipsey was the player of the game for ISU, as he had 12 points and 6 rebounds.  The only other Cyclone in double digits scoring was Aljaz Kunc (13).  

Today was the 9th time that I have attended a basketball game between the Cyclones and Cowboys.  Iowa State has won 6 of those games (2020, 2019, 2017, 2015, 2014, and 2013).  

Saturday, February 4th, 2023

 LET'S GO CYCLONES!!

Today Nolan and I were able to watch an exciting win by the #13 Cyclones, as they defeated the #8 Kansas Jayhawks, 68-53.  

This was the 29th time that I have taken Nolan to a men's basketball game, and it was his 11th conference game.  After today's win, the only Big 12 team that he has not seen Iowa State defeat in person is the Oklahoma State Cowboys.  The other conference wins that Nolan has attended are: West Virginia in 2022, Oklahoma in 2022, Texas in 2020, Baylor in 2018, Texas Tech in 2017, Kansas State in 2016, and TCU in 2014.  

Today was the seventh time I have attended an ISU / Kansas basketball game, and it was Iowa State's third win.  The other games where I saw the Cyclones defeat the Jayhawks were in 2019 and in 2015.  

As for today's game, I would say that Jaren Holmes was the player of the game, as he led the team with 15 points.  He connected on 4 of 6 from three point range.  Holmes was joined in double figures scoring by Osun Osunniyi (13) and Tre King (10).  The Cyclones forced 20 Jayhawk turnovers, compared to only 10 for Iowa State.  

Today's game was "Gold Rules", and there were golden pop-poms on every seat.

GO CYCLONES!!