Wow last night was AMAZING. One very, very good day. Elizabeth and I met up with Erick Ude and Jen Schumacher and went to the BEST Halloween house party ever. It's hard to explain how awesome it was... they had their own haunted house in their 4-car garage (complete with a chain saw maniac, complete darkness, odd things hanging from the little walkways like plastic bats and strings and stuff that feel weird), so we had to walk through that before we were allowed to enter the house. The chainsaw guy scared Elizabeth pretty well. We didn't know the owners, kind of a friend of a friend thing, but they were very hospitable. So they also had an amazing spread of goodies for their guests... guacamole, orange & black tortilla chips, homemade brownies, little smokies & bbq sauce, buffalo chicken dip, basically lots of little hors d'oeuvres. Also very good jello shots.
After sampling all of the goodies, we went downstairs to find a karaoke machine (one of their friends is a real DJ). Naturally Elizabeth is in heaven. We all sing lots of songs, one of the girls at the party was an amazing rapper... I even sang some Tenacious D. Meanwhile downstairs they also had a keg and lots of beer pong & flippy cup. I was 3-0 in beer pong :) Oh, and the ISU/Texas Tech football game was playing in the background. I was soooo happy seeing them have a blowout win, on the road, AGAINST A RANKED TEAM, in a place where Iowa State had never previously been victorious. I could probably write a huge blog just about this game and how happy it made me, but I'll keep it short. I believe Iowa State was a 17 point underdog going into the game... and it's funny seeing all of the "expert predictions" before the game. Here is a better link about how the game actually turned out. Hopefully the Clones can keep it going next week against Kansas when mom & dad come down for the game.
To make my sports night even better, the stupid, evil Iowa Hawkeyes lost to a HORRIBLE Minnesota team 22-21. This is almost as good as when we beat Iowa this year... I mean we beat, no... destroy a ranked team on the road, and the Hawks lose to probably the worst team in a AQ conference this year. In the 4 weeks leading up to the Iowa game, Minnesota lost by 13 points to North Dakota State (they play in a lower football division even), they lost by a score of 58-0 to Michigan, 45-17 to Purdue, and 41-14 to Nebraska. Hahaha... but they're good enough to beat the Hawks :) You might think it's silly that I take so much pleasure in Iowa losing, but I really, really just don't like the Hawkeyes. Understatement. Anyways, I was also happy to see Nebraska beat Michigan State, and to see losses by Colorado and Texas A&M. It would have been hard for me to script the college football weekend better.
Ok, back to the Halloween stuff. Eric and Elizabeth had a funny two-person costume of Garth and Kat from SNL's Weekend Update. Check them out:
We had a fun and busy Sunday thus far... we went shopping at the mall & I picked out a Halloween costume, Elizabeth made some delicious star-shaped sugar cookies, I carved an awesome jack-o-lantern, we roasted the pumpkin seeds, and Elizabeth made me a yummy tortellini in a homemade cream sauce with garlic, spinach, and tomato so I can bring something good for lunch tomorrow. Oh, and earlier we made some homemade guacamole (and we at the whole thing today). Lots of time in the kitchen, but it was a fun day! Check out the scary jack-o-lantern...
Happy Columbus Day 2011! I guess?? One of those holidays that I really had no idea it even was a holiday until I look at the news. But anyways, WAAHHOOOO! COLUMBUS, YEAH. YOU ROCK!! IT'S A HOLIDAY!
Ok, I'm sorry about that. Anyways, to get to my point for the day... it's really nice to come home from work to have a nice home-cooked meal waiting, and that's what Elizabeth did for me today :) She made a nice Italian salad with prosciutto, pepperoncini, salami, pepperoni, carrots, tomato, lettuce... all that good stuff. Then a red wine vinegrette. Yummy. After that she served me some delish beef enchiladas.
The nice Italian salad that Elizabeth had waiting for me when I got home :)
Beef Enchiladas.
So thanks to my lovely wife we enjoyed a very nice supper today. One more thing that I would like to note is my score from Frisbee golfing yesterday. I went and played at the course just north of Freddy Court. Here is how I fared on each hole: Maybe I can compare the next time I play to this time...
Hole #: Par: My Score:
1 3 3 - Par
2 3 5 - Double Bogey
3 3 3 - Par
4 3 3 - Par
5 3 4 - Bogey
6 3 4 - Bogey
7 3 3 - Par (I hit the goal and almost had a birdie)
8 3 3 - Par
9 3 3 - Par
10 3 3 - Par
11 3 4 - Bogey
12 3 3 - Par
13 3 2 - Birdie :)
14 3 4 - Bogey
15 3 3 - Par
16 4 4 - Par
17 3 4 - Bogey
18 4 5 - Bogey
One month ago today I started my job at SportsPlus in Marshalltown :)
In response to my previous post, I did in fact buy tickets for the ISU/Texas football game... and it was a disaster! One of the worst performances I've ever seen from Iowa State. ...but let's not dwell on that.
Right now I'm at home watching the Detroit Tigers play the Yankees in a decisive ALDS game 5. The Tigers are leading 3-1 over the hated Yankees. Some time I will have to make a post where I detail which teams I hate the most and why. Speaking of baseball, on Tuesday this week I took Elizabeth to see the movie Moneyball. We both really enjoyed it, and I would suggest that you see it even if you're not a big sports fan. Brad Pitt plays Oakland's general manager Billy Beane, and the movie documents his struggle to succeed in a small market in a game that is inherently unfair because of the cash that rich "evil" teams like the Yankees spend to buy all of the best players. Very entertaining.
Other sports news on my mind is the constantly changing college conference landscape. As of this year, the Big 12 only has 10 teams and will be losing Texas A&M next year. Right now Missouri is openly exploring the possibility of changing conferences. So screw the Tigers and Aggies. Even if Missouri stays in the Big 12 I will like them the least of the remaining schools. Then just announced today, the Big 12 has invited TCU to join the league. It may take some time for them to consider, but I think that it would be a good addition to the league. It will be fun to see if more teams will join the league... but as for now we basically need to have Missouri make up their mind. Rumors on ESPN now say that other schools being considered for the Big 12 may be Louisville, West Virginia, BYU, or possibly Tulane. I would prefer teams in a close geographic location to teams like WVU. I guess we'll see how ridiculous this all turns out.
Today was a busy day at work for me, and of course it was Elizabeth's first day at Well's Fargo! It will take her a little getting used to for sure, but hopefully it will be rewarding and enjoyable. I came home from work today (got back around 8), and Elizabeth was making a nice homemade pizza with 4 types of cheese and sausage. Yummy!
I spoke to the parents for a while today on my drive home (lots of time to talk as I drive back from Marshalltown), and they were able to start on the soybeans yesterday. It's nice that they were able to get an early start on one field at least, and they were yeilding about 68 bushels/acre. They probably won't get much done on the new addition to the house for a while now that it's the start of harvest season, but at least all of the outside work is done.
I'm excited about starting coin collecting again :) I've found some fun videos and websites about coin roll hunting, and now I really want to search through a bunch of half dollars to find my own silver coins!
On another note, I'm planning on getting hillside tickets with Matt Kovarna for this weekend's ISU game against Texas. Both teams are 3-0, so it will be a big game!! The Longhorns come into the game ranked #17 in the country. Let's go State!!
First and foremost, I would like to wish my sister Amy a happy 25th birthday today.
Second, and the reason I'm blogging now instead of going to bed like I should, is because for the past couple of days I really have had a hard time getting images of extremely arrogant Hawkeye fans out of my mind. I don't know exactly how it is that a person can be so annoying, but they do it perfectly. I'm not speaking about all Hawkeye fans, but it's an alarmingly large portion of them. The ones who feel "entitled" and assume that "their shit don't stink". At my new job, tailgating before the most recent ISU/Iowa game, in the bars watching the game... many times over the years in the past, I've encountered tons of these narcissistic shit heads.
More specifically, the thing that annoys me are all of their disrespectful, dismissive comments about Iowa State. The, "of course Iowa State has no chance this year" comments. "It's going to be a blow out". At work I heard some people trying to talk about the game before hand somewhat-intelligently, you know, actually talking about football. However, all they could say was something like "no, there's really no chance for Iowa State this year". Their quarterback sucks, they could hardly beat UNI... then they would give all of these half-wit reasons why the Hawkeyes are the best team ever. It reminded me of the years when I heard Hawk fans at the start of the year say how they would go undefeated or go to a national title game. All the while as they dream of how awesome they think they are, these misguided Hawkeye fans belittle and degrade the Cyclones.
This is tragically poor sportsmanship, and it's a disorder. The symptoms of this syndrome, I'll call it Rhabdo-Arrogant-Hawk-Dickhead- myolysis, grow stronger whenever the Hawkeyes beat the Cyclones at something, or when society as a whole gives any kind of attention to these poor fools. As a nation, we must raise awareness of this terrible disorder, and we must prevent it's spread of idiocy, narcissism, and general poor understanding of the sporting world. Rhabdomyolysis is literally the breakdown of muscle tissue which is then absorbed by the body, filtered by the kidneys, and pissed out in the urine. I believe that some Hawkeye fans are aware of this. The new strain that I'm speaking of, Rhabdo-Arrogant-Hawk-Dickhead-myolysis, is the degradation of once useful sports knowledge which is then filtered by the "brains" of the most clueless, Neanderthal Hawkeye fans, which is then pissed out of their mouth in the form of verbal diarrhea directed at putting down the Cyclones for whatever reason they can.
There sadly was once a time when the Iowa Hawkeyes did dominate the Cyclones in many sports, notably football. This was a long time ago, and the belief of Hawkeye superiority is no longer valid. Many of these Hawkeye victories came in the early 1900's. I'm talking before World War 1. Then there was a more recent time in the late 80's and 90's where the Hawkeyes won. News flash, THIS IS NOT THE 80'S OR 90'S. It's 2011.
Consider all of the ways in which the Hawkeyes are no longer "dominant". Since the year 2000, the Iowa State-Iowa football series has been tied at 6 wins each. Better yet, since 1998 Iowa State has won 8 of the past 14 meetings between the two teams. If you consider the Cy-Hawk series, which is a trophy presented to the school which wins more of the athletic competitions between the two schools for any given year, the teams have alternated winning it every year since it's inception in 2004. Iowa State has actually won more Men's and Women's basketball games over that time period (as well as a few other less popular sports: Volleyball, Men's Golf, Gymnastics, Men's Cross-Counrty). Hawkeye fans are quick to point out that they don't care about basketball though (unless it's a year when they actually beat us). They only care about football. The last I checked, Iowa State just beat Iowa THIS YEAR in football! It's not like it's a rare thing when it has happened roughly 57% of the time over the past 14 years.
So Hawkeye fans please get over yourselves. I'm not trying to argue that Iowa State is superior to Iowa. All I'm trying to say is stop thinking that Iowa is far superior to Iowa State. You're not. Stop telling us that we have no chance to win. We do. It's actually a greater that 50% chance. You are not dominant. You just have a terrible case of Rhabdo-Arrogant-Hawk-Dickhead-Myolysis.
I recently found an old youtube clip which proves that this disease has been around for a number of years. Alarming. Listen to how the Hawkeye fans sound, how hypnotized they are at their glorious Hawkeye football team. The team that was ranked #8 in the nation. Listen to how Iowa State had no chance. This may have just been 2005, but it sounds like every other year to me.
