Sunday, March 31st, 2013

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear Brian, happy birthday to me :)

That's right.  I am officially 29 as of today.  I should also say happy birthday to my bro in-law Christian as he turns 27.  It's pretty cool that we both share the best birthday ever I think!

I guess that it's worth mentioning that today is also Easter.  This marks the 3rd time in my life where the holiday shared the same day as my birthday (1991, 2002, 2013).  The next time will be in eleven years during 2024.  I still remember my Easter birthday in 1991 when my parents hid marshmallow "peeps" around the house, and I got to run around and find them all.  I can't say that I really care for peeps anymore, but that's still a pretty clear memory I have. 

This weekend Elizabeth and I went to visit her mother Becky, and then to my parents place back on the farm.  Friday after work we drove up to Mason City, and the three of us went out for some delicious Northwestern Steakhouse steak (Becky had Walleye though as it was still Lent).  We ended up staying to about 11 Saturday morning having a nice visit before we left for my parents' place.  The plan was to make homemade pizzas and have a nice meal with the family.  However, this night will mainly be remembered for the twin calves that were born that night.  Elizabeth had never seen a baby calf be born before, and it just happened that a heifer was getting close to giving birth.  Eben took us out to watch, but it became clear that the cow may need some help.  We got her into a shoot, and Eben did his best to assess the "situation".  He could feel 3 front feet, and he said that the head was twisted sideways and not lined up straight how it should.  He tried to turn the head but was unable to get it right, so we had to call the vet.  It was a little hard getting a hold of a vet around supper time the day before Easter, but the third one we called was able to come.  It turns out that there were twin baby calves, and their legs were tangled together which made it difficult.  Luckily, the vet was able to deliver both calves naturally, and both babies and the mother turned out all right.  This all happened around the time the pizzas were starting to cook... so supper ended up being an afterthought. 

Then today we had a nice and quiet morning on the farm with a big Easter lunch complete with an angel food birthday cake for me.  It's always nice having time to see the family :)

Since it was my birthday weekend, Amy let me choose her toenail color.  She has always hated pink, so that was a natural choice :)

Mom chilling at the kitchen table.  It was nice to seen her walking normally without a cane or walker now that she is used to her new knee.

Our homemade pizzas... just before the twin calf fiasco.

Amy lighting my birthday cake today after lunch. 

Twenty nine candles!

Here are the twin bull calves (less than a day old) and their mother.

Sunday, March 24th, 2013

Well today had likely not been a good one for my blood pressure.  I was able to sleep in this morning before enjoying a tasty breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs.  Then of course there was the horribly stressful NCAA men's basketball game between the Cyclones and Ohio State Buckeyes.  It was heartbreaking to watch Iowa State's season end the way it did, but I am still very pround of our team.  The group of Seniors that Iowa State loses will be hard to replace, and it was very fun watching them play all year long.  I feel bad for Chriss Babb, as he had to sit on the sidelines and watch for the entire second half after spraining his ankle.  Still, the Cyclones managed to battle back from a 13-point second half decifit to take the lead and have a change to win the game.  Had just one more call, or one more bounce went their way, they would likely be in the Sweet 16.  But of course that is sports.  It was a good game from Ohio State, and Aaron Craft made a huge shot at the end to win it for the Buckeyes.  I hate the Big 10 so much :(

Still it was a great weekend to be a Cyclone fan.  It was great to see the men take down Notre Dame 76-58, and yesterday I was able to watch the women's team win their first-round game at Gonzaga, 72-60.

It's too bad that I will never see Babb, Lucious, McGee, Clyburn, or Booker play for the Cyclones again.  Still, I have to thank them for helping restore Hilton Magic and put Iowa State basketball back on the map. 

Here are some highlights of their big win over Notre Dame.

Friday, March 22nd, 2013

IOWA STATE CYCLONES CRUSH notre dame 76-58!!

Elizabeth and myself just got done watching the 10th-seeded Cyclones dismantle 7th-seeded Notre Dame in a game that was never in question after the halfway point of the first half.  The Cyclones played furious help defense and were clearly the better team all game.  At one point in the second half, Iowa State's lead was up to 27!  Iowa State cleared their bench (and the classy Irish, not so much) which ended up making the final score a little "closer".  What a great game by the Cyclones.  I am so happy right now.  There really is no better description than the Irish just looked foolish. 

When I say they looked foolish, I literally mean that their appearance was terrible.  Now their jerseys today were better than the all neon green ones:

God-aweful Notre Dame jerseys.

I couldn't find the exact ones that they wore today, but this gives you an idea about the ugly factor we are dealing with here.  The ones today were white with the neon, glow-in-the-dark, green trim.  They had the same green tall socks and green shoes.  To make it worse, not only did they make a statement with their ugly uniforms, they played terribly.  For quite a while (well into the second half), the Irish had the same number of turnovers as they did field goals.  If Iowa State wanted to, they could have won by 30.  Georges Niang played a solid game for the Cyclones, and led all scorers with 19 points.  Melvin Ejim added 17 (despite blowing a couple of dunks).  Tyrus McGee was 3 of 5 from three point land.  Even Bubu Palo made a three.  It was great fun for yours truly.  This marks two years in a row that Fred Hoiberg's team has easily handled a team from the Big East.

With the win, Iowa State advances to play the 2-seed, Ohio State. 

Sunday, March 17th, 2013

Happy St. Patrick's Day, and happy Selection Sunday everybody!!

The highlight of our weekend (which was a three-day weekend since we took Friday off) was taking a trip out to Chicago to meet up with friends for the annual Hooligan's bar crawl.  This is now the 8th year that a group of friends have been doing this bar crawl, which begins in Palatine and stops at bars along the Metra line until we end up in Crystal Lake, IL.  I've only done this a few years, but Elizabeth has been to most of the previous years. 

We left central Iowa on Thursday after work to head to Chicago with Erick Ude, Tim Nevins, Elizabeth, and myself.  That night we stayed in Crystal Lake, and then on Friday morning we headed downtown to spend a day in the city.  We went to the top of the Sears Tower (now known as the Willis Tower), and we went out onto the Skydeck which is on the 103rd floor.  The Skydeck is basically a thick pane of glass that you can stand on and look down to the city below you... 1,353 feet below.  Later that day we all met up with Shanae and Jackie Paulus for lunch before we headed to an ISU bar, Fizz, to watch the ISU vs Kansas basketball game.  Sadly, the Cyclones lost to Kansas, who ended up winning the Big 12 tournament over Kansas State on Saturday. 

Saturday was the big day of the bar crawl.  We had originally planned to watch the Chicago river get dyed green, but we didn't have enough time to do that before we had to catch our train back to the suburbs.  Like I said, the bar crawl was a lot of fun with a lot of old friends.  Elizabeth still had quite a bit of fun even though she was not drinking (at least she was able to take care of everyone as well).  All together there were probably 40 to 50 people in the group of us, so we basically took over each of the bars that we went to that day. 

Here I am with all of my St. Patrick's gear on...

Hooligan's 2013!

The other big thing about today is the fact that it is Selection Sunday, which I have been looking forward to for months!  We learned that Iowa State (a 10 seed) will square off against Notre Dame (a 7 seed) next Friday, 3/22/13.  The game will be played in Dayton, Ohio, and the winner of that game will play the winner of Ohio State (2 seed) and Iona (15 seed). 

It's a little surprising that I actually mentioned Notre Dame in my last post as a possible opponent for Iowa State. 

Sunday, March 10th, 2013

Today is a quiet and relaxing Sunday that I will try to enjoy as much as I can... soon enough Elizabeth & my life will get a lot more hectic and less quiet :)  Today Elizabeth is 5 months along, and July will be here before we know it!  So today I will try to relax as much as I can while it lasts.  We just made homemade pizza for lunch which was delicious as always.  Elizabeth had a sausage and pepperoni pizza while I topped mine with green peppers, mushrooms, and sausage. 

Another thing that I am looking forward to is next Sunday.  Also known as "Selection Sunday", it will be exciting to see where my Cyclones end up in the NCAA bracket and to see who they will play.  Right now, Joe Lunardi on ESPN projects ISU as an 11-seed, and he has them playing Wisconsin in the first round.  I could see ISU being anywhere from a 10-seed to a 12 seed... meaning that they would play a team seaded 5, 6, or 7th.  Let's see what teams ESPN has as those 5 through 7 seeds:

• 5th seeds:
• Arizona
• Notre Dame
• Pittsburgh
• Oklahoma State
• 6th seeds:
• VCU
• Wisconsin
• North Carolina
• St. Louis
• 7th seeds:
• Colorado State
• Butler
• Oregon
• UCLA

Chances are that ISU will end up playing a team that I didn't even list just because so much can change in a week.  ISU still has to play Oklahoma in the Big 12 tournament.  Of the teams above, I would really like to see ISU get a crack at North Carolina or UCLA... just because those are teams that have beaten ISU multiple times in the tournament before (of course we did beat UCLA in 2000 when we went to the elite eight).  It's also worth noting that ISU cannot play Oklahoma State because they are in our same league.  The anticipation of March Maddness is so much fun!

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013

WE JUST BEAT, O-S-U!!! 

That chant has a very special place in my heart... mostly because it was what we were chanting after our huge upset in football a couple of seasons ago.  Today it has another meaning :)

I just got back from Hilton Coliseum where Iowa State defeated the #13-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys, 87-76!!  This time I took Jeremy with me, and we both enjoyed ourselves quite a bit watching this one.  Iowa State led by as many as 15 points, although there were  couple of times in the second half that OSU made it a close ballgame.  I was getting nervous when Marcus Smart's steal and dunk closed the gap to 70-68 with about four and a half minutes to play.  Luckily Iowa State responded with threes by both Clyburn and McGee within the next minute to push the lead back to 10 points.  This was a huge win for Iowa State, not only because it was the second ranked team that ISU has beaten this year, but because coming in to today the Cyclones were square on the "NCAA Bubble".  ESPN's latest bracketology had them predicted as one of the "last 4 in" the tournament, so hopefully this puts them over the hump into safe territory.  This marks ISU's 20th win of the season and 10th conference win.  Of course, we still have to play well in our next couple of games (at West Virginia, and likely against Oklahoma in the Big 12 tournament). 

There were small pom-poms placed on every seat inside Hilton.

Jeremy and the back of some bald guys head after the game :)

Also, in honor of senior night, check out this dunk by senior Chris Babb!

 

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

Ok, so I've been pretty mad for the past day and a half now... and it's probably time that I "get over it".  On Monday I took my friend Tim Nevins with me to watch the "Big Monday" basketball game between Iowa State and Kansas that was aired on ESPN.  It was an epic game.  Really the atmosphere inside Hilton was hard to describe.  Everyone was decked out in gold apparel as it was "Gold Rules" day.  Of course it was a sell-out crowd.  But the deafening noise that persisted throughout the course of the game is what was amazing.  This was the loudest and best crowd that I've seen at a sporting event.  It helped that ISU made a school-record 17 three point baskets because every time one would go down the place would erupt.  The game itself was back-and-forth the whole time... until overtime. 

What has me upset is just how close ISU came to pulling off the upset.  Kasas came into the game ranked #6 by the AP and #5 in the USA Today coaches poll.  If only one of what I thought were many bad calls had gone the other way, or if Kansas would have just missed one of their two desperation three-pointers in the last minute, ISU would have had a great win.  Two specific calls come to mind.  The first was towards the end of regularion when Jeff Withey clearly (because he was the only person close enough to make contact) fouled ISU's Korie Lucious, but the officials charged the foul to another Jayhawk that raised his hand.  This would have fouled-out Withey, who ended up having a big impact in the rest of the game. 

The second was at the end of regulation when there was a curious no-call as Elijah Johnson appeared to charge into Georges Niang.  It appeared like Niang had position to draw the charge when ISU was leading 90-88 with under 10 seconds to play.  Ballgame.  Except after the no-call, as the players were both laying on the ground, the refs decide to call a reach-in foul on Niang.  This allowed Kansas to make two free-throws and tie the game which they would end up winning in OT.  Check out the video yourself.  Would you call the block/charge, or let that slide and call a foul as the palyers are both rolling around on the floor afterwards?

I just hope that ISU can use this as motivation to play well for the rest of the season.  They still have a chance to make the NCAA tournament if they play well.  Go State!!