Monday, May 27th, 2019

Happy Memorial Day!

This weekend we drove out to Omaha to meet the newest addition to the family.  It was cute having the boys meet Emma and see how little she is!

Emma was a little cranky when I first held her, but she calmed down soon.  She was a very good cuddler :)

Nolan holding his cousin Emma!

Nolan just had to hold up a dinosaur mask...

Saturday, May 11th, 2019

I just wanted to make a quick post tonight to recognize the newest member to our family.  Earlier this afternoon Amy & Brandon welcomed Emma Lynn Shostak into the world!!  I believe that Brandon said that baby Emma arrived at 1:15 this afternoon, weighing 8 pounds and 9 ounces.  I can't wait to go out and see her sometime!

Monday, May 6th, 2019

This past weekend I took Nolan with me for my annual trout fishing trip up to Yellow River in Northeast Iowa. On Friday I picked Nolan up an hour early from school, and we made the drive up there in about 3 hours and 45 minutes.  We set up camp... I believe at campsite #120.  The Seagos were there (Jon and Matt anyways), and Tyler was there.  Jeremy would not get to the campsite until early Saturday morning.  Anyways, on Friday we enjoyed a nice campfire, and I made some s'mores and roasted marshmallows.  Nolan did not want a s'more... only a roasted marshmallow.

Nolan at the Harpers Ferry sign.

Here we are at our tent!

On Saturday, I got up with Nolan early, had a quick breakfast, and we set out to go fishing by 7:00.  First we tried the big fishing hole by camp which is my favorite spot, but after 30 minutes with no luck we decided to move on.  We walked down the trail to the first fork and took a left and followed it all the way to the rock wall.  Again, not even a nibble at that spot.  Finally, we went further upstream to the next hole (it would be straight at the first fork and then immediately left at the second fork).  There we caught a nice rainbow trout using Nolan's spiderman fishing pole, and Nolan used the net at the water's edge to bring it in.  At that point Nolan wanted to head back to camp and show off our fish to everyone.

Nolan carried the trout all the way back to camp with his net.

After hanging around camp for a while and having lunch, I would head out again with Nolan to go fishing.  Nolan, Jon, and myself went back to the hole where we caught the first fish.  Jon caught a small brown trout there (and Nolan helped to net the fish), and he released it back to the water since it was small.  Shortly thereafter Nolan's spiderman fishing pole broke, so we headed back to camp to grab our backup pole (Maxwell's Paw Patrol pole).  Since we were at camp, we just started fishing at the hole close by camp.  There I managed to catch 3 more fish (two rainbow and one brown trout), and Jon caught one nice rainbow trout.  During that time, Nolan was half bored and would wander back and forth from camp and the fishing hole.  He was excited to see 4 fish on the stringer!

Nolan holding our stringer of 4 fish.

My favorite fishing hole by camp.

By the time I had cleaned our fish, Nolan had passed out back in our tent.  He took a 3 hour nap!  That's something since he usually doesn't nap at all.  Once he woke up we made a little supper for him and hung out around the campfire.  Matthew made some roasted duck for the adults, which was quite good.  I cooked one of the trout we had caught in some aluminum foil with butter and lemon, and it was very tasty. Nolan enjoyed throwing pieces of cardboard into the fire. 

On Sunday, I packed up camp and headed home around 8:30.  So the only fishing we did was on Saturday, and between Nolan and myself we caught 4 fish.  All in all, it was a very fun weekend, but I was happy to sleep in my own bed last night!  Here are links to previous fishing trips to yellow river: 2018, 2017, 2014, 2013, and 2012. 

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.