Project 365 Day 365: Out With The Old

On this final day of 2010, and the final day of this Project 365 blog-a-day business, it is only fitting that we toss the Christmas tree out on the deck. And by we, I mean Amy, since my recent exploits on the basketball court that resulted in a sprained ankle prompted me to "take it easy" and act in a supervisory role only. I am happy to say that with much rest and leg elevation, my ankle continues to feel better, and I hope to be be walking with only a slight limp soon!

The Project 365 blog has been an interesting experiment in attempting to document some event from each day of the year, however insignificant. Amongst the many posts about basement rearrangements and meals and mismatched socks, hopefully there was an interesting tidbit every once in awhile for our faithful readers. It will be a neat reference to be able to go back in the future, and jog our memories of some of the things that happened during our first full year after moving back to Ames during the summer of 2009.

For 2011, we are planning to ease up on the volume of posting and try for updates on a weekly basis or thereabouts. Quality over quantity! We apologize to those who couldn't get enough pictures of canned goods from our grocery shopping trips, but we'll try to make the less frequent posts worth your while in the future.

Happy New Year!

Project 365 Day 364: Ankle Update

With some passing of time since yesterday's update, I am finally ready to admit that my sprained ankle was not directly caused by the Iowa State football team failing to make a bowl game this year. It really just came down to me thinking I could play recreational basketball like a 20-year old with my 30-year old not-very-conditioned body.

I found that I had some trouble walking this morning on my bad ankle, probably due to not having kept it elevated while I slept, but fortunately one of Amy's coworkers was kind enough to let us borrow some crutches she had on hand. These were very useful today to help keep the weight off that ankle, and I also found that after spending the morning and afternoon icing and elevating my foot, that I had a much easier time getting around, even without crutches. I will keep using them on and off though so I don't stress things too much. They sure beat having to crawl to the kitchen for breakfast!

Project 365 Day 363: More Ice Please

We continued our workout plan tonight with another trip to the rec, during which I was planning to shoot some hoops and maybe do a little sprinting between baskets for layups to get some cardio in. Instead, I was asked to play 3-on-3 pickup basketball, which of course I could not turn down!

The highlight of my performance was probably when I swished my first free throw attempt to choose teams. That's always a high pressure situation, and I was first up, so I felt like I really set the tone for the shooting-for-teams portion of the pickup games. Then about halfway through the first game I found myself winded, throwing up off-balance shots that were lucky to find the rim, and getting a few layups at opportune moments.

I probably should have quit after the first game, but I couldn't sit out the second and look like a wuss! Unfortunately it was during the second game that I jammed my ring finger against the ball while catching a pass (luckily on my off-hand!) and then rolled my ankle while trying to cut back too fast. All this resulted in my hobbling to the big comfy chair in the living room where Amy took this photo of me icing down my sore finger and ankle.

Really, though, I have no one to blame this on other than the Iowa State Football team. If they had managed to get one win in their last three tries, they would have had six wins and been invited to a late December bowl game, which we would have likely attended, causing me to not be at the rec tonight when the five gentlemen needed a sixth for their game.

Thanks a lot, Cyclones!

Project 365 Day 362: Winter Workouts

With rumors floating around that we might do RAGBRAI again this coming year, we have been preparing ourselves for such an event by going to the Lied Rec Center on campus for some workout time. We've been trying to go at least 3 times a week, and compared to when we started training for the bike ride across Iowa last year, we definitely have a head start this time.

Of course, if the Des Moines Register announces that the coming year's route is the hardest, hilliest ever, then maybe we'll just do AAAAGBRTDMAB instead.

Oh, you haven't heard of that common acronym? Well, it stands for Amy And Adam's Annual Great Bike Ride To Des Moines And Back.

Project 365 Day 361: Olde Leftovers

We had a nice meal out tonight with my parents, sister, and her boyfriend, as they had made a trip to Des Moines to do some furniture store browsing, and it worked out to grab a bite to eat in Ames before they headed back home. We went to Olde Main, ate some delicious food, and best of all, brought home some leftovers!

Project 365 Day 360: Presents Day Three

Today we "wrapped" up the holiday season (oh ho ho that was a great pun) with a gathering at my grandparent's house on my mom's side, and it was quite literally a full house! There were many young children running around, playing with their new toys and spreading the holiday cheer. Pictured here are a couple of toys taking a breather from the action, though I'm sure it wasn't long before they rejoined the fray.

All I can say is they sure make Transformers more complicated now then they did back in my youth! I was trying for the life of me to turn a Bumblebee Transformer robot back into its car form, but about all I accomplished was getting the rear wheels aligned. The front wheels, doors, windshields, and pretty much everything else had no hope of being transformed correctly in my hands. I'll just assume my 30 year old fingers are too big for the 8-14 year old specifications and I was doomed from the get-go.

Where's Mr. Potato Head when you need him?

Project 365 Day 359: Presents Day Two

For Christmas Day we moved the festivities to Independence for gatherings with my Dad's side of the family at his mom's house, followed a return to my parents house for evening gift opening with my parents, sister, and her boyfriend. Following the opening of gifts we had a fun time giving Mom and Dad a run down on how their new Netflix subscription works; hopefully the process of updating their movie queue does not introduce any marital strife! As we finished getting their Nintendo Wii set up for online Netflix streaming, Mom requested that we play some Christmas music piano duets, which Amy captured in this photo. My playing was a little rusty, so next year I'll have to get the music early and get some practice in ahead of time, but practiced or not it's always fun to make some music!

Project 365 Day 358: Presents Day One

Christmas Eve means it's the first day of our traditional rounds of gift openings with family. Today we are at Amy's parent's house, and in this photo I am holding the biggest gift I have received. As we all know, the bigger the gift, the better it is! Fortunately I am of an age and maturity level that I was genuinely excited to receive the cooking implements contained within. It was only 20 some short years ago when I hoped for and was very excited to open the latest video gaming system of the year... now the most exciting part of gift opening around Christmas is watching the little nephews and nieces open their gifts.

The coolest gift I got so far would have to be the Hallmark Tron Legacy Light Cycle. I can't wait until next Christmas so I can get that thing on a tree for all of December!

Project 365 Day 357: Apple Invasion

Mmm, there's nothing sweeter than the smell of a freshly unboxed computer! Today I had the pleasure of helping Amy's parents get their new Apple iMac with 27" display set up. Here it is in its happy new home in their computer room.

Long ago I was firmly entrenched in the Windows camp and thought Apple products were just for the schoolteacher families that could get discounts on those inferior systems. I mean, all the cool games were on Windows, so why bother with anything else?

As it turns out, we now have a couple of Apple computers in our own household, not to mention a variety of iPods, and it seems I was as firmly entrenched in the Windows camp as former Iowa State football coach Gene Chizik was in Ames. I continue to be impressed with the Apple approach to computing, and don't mind migrating between the Apple and Microsoft arenas on any given day.

The most important thing these days is whether you can get to Google and Facebook, and how you get there is a matter personal taste.

I still think Windows has more cool games though.

Project 365 Day 356: Wrapping Scraps

The presents are wrapped and biding their time under the tree until tomorrow, when they will be transported to Eastern Iowa via us for Christmas distribution. Pictured here are the scraps of wrapping paper left over from my packaging efforts. There are always a few odd scraps left, too narrow to be of use for most gifts, but if one just plans ahead a little...

Looks like a lot of people will be getting tubes of Pillsbury dough next year! That and Pez dispensers.

Project 365 Day 355: Mascot Moves

The fun thing about basketball season, if you're a basketball fan, is the number of games to watch and go to. We have been very happy with our season ticket purchase for ISU Men's Basketball this year, and even though we are up in the nose bleed section of one of the corners, during the early pre-Big 12 conference games it's pretty easy to move around to better seats. I'm hoping that once we get into more competitive games that will be more difficult because of larger crowds. I love being at Hilton with a packed house going nuts.

Tonight we saw the good guys mop the floor with Chicago State and improve to 11-2 on the season. Iowa State won by over 40 points, which might get old after a while, but knowing that the Big 12 schedule will be much tougher I certainly don't mind watching these types of games now. Building the confidence of a young team and first year coach who are all figuring things out can't be a bad thing at this point either.

One of the highlights of tonights game was the halftime antics of our mascot Cy (a giant red cardinal-like bird). Here's a picture of Cy for reference:

The halftime entertainment consisted of a couple of dance numbers by the Southeast Polk high school dance squad, but the most entertaining aspect for us was watching Cy off to the side imitating some of their dance moves as well as coming up with some of his own. Then at one point while he was watching the dance team, they performed a sort of spinning flying leap in his direction, at which point he jumped back and struck a defensive karate pose with arms outstretched, ready to fight.

Thanks Cy, for everything you do!

Project 365 Day 354: Soup's On

Well I'll be; beans in a can and tomatoes in a can. And not just any tomatoes, mind you, but diced tomatoes! What will they think of next?

We had planned to make a big batch of turkey kielbasa soup last week using a slow-cooker recipe Amy found a few years back that we had used once while living in DC, but then I got sick and we resorted to plan b, soup in a can prepared by Mr. Progresso. We cashed our raincheck on the homemade soup today and cooked up some chicken-brothy-turkey-sausagey goodness.

Hopefully our healthy eating and recent trips to the rec center will prepare us for the holiday meal deluge that is about to strike!

Project 365 Day 353: Free Beast

Today will go down in history as the day I finally got one of those free t-shirts they occasionally toss out at college sporting events. My parents were in town for a visit and we all went to the ISU vs. Dartmouth men's basketball game. At one point some cheerleader-types came up to the upper deck where we were sitting while the PA announcer said it was time to see who can cheer the loudest. After realizing that this might finally be my chance, I stood up and waved my arms while yelling crazily like the other fans in our section. To my surprise I saw a cheerleader with a wadded-up shirt rear back and toss it in our direction, though I was sure the gentleman a few rows ahead would catch it.

Instead, the shirt somehow sailed through his outstretched hands, continuing towards me, at which point it also sailed past my uncoordinated hands, landing a glancing blow off my cheek and falling into my dad's seat. I snatched it up and held it in the air, victorious! Dad was kind enough to let me keep the shirt, though I would have argued that it was rightfully mine anyway on the basis of my cheek-deflection recovery; kind of like getting a fumble back in football.

After unraveling the shirt we found that it had the current I-State logo with the word "BEAST" printed below in large letters. Some might be confused by this, but we had been to enough basketball games to know it was a reference to the Beauty and the Beast gymnastics/wrestling combination meet coming up in the spring, which has been heavily advertised during basketball games.

Looks like I can check one more item off my bucket list!

Project 365 Day 352: Complimentary Socks

Amy informed me today that I was wearing one brown sock and one green sock. I'm pretty sure I was aware of this possibility, but didn't given it much thought when I was digging through the pile-o-laundry this morning for clean socks. I would like to say that they are simply complimentary socks, the dark brown and green hues representing the, uh, umm, colors of a Christmas Tree! Yes, that will do nicely.

The good news is that with a slow Saturday at home we were able to catch up on some household chores like dishes, bathroom cleaning, and laundry folding. That last one should improve my odds of getting matched socks tomorrow.

Project 365 Day 351: Wrapper's Delight

My cold and/or flu symptoms are on their way down, and what a better way to celebrate than wrapping some Christmas gifts? Here's our first batch, a stack to be shipped out to the West Coast for the families of some of Amy's siblings.

In our household I have been designated the official gift wrapper, probably due to my propensity for precisely folding paper. It is a responsibility I do not take lightly.

Project 365 Day 350: Buckyballs

My recent mild illness of some sort of cold or flu variety seems to be improving today, thank goodness, and I attribute it to two things:

1. Amy taking care of me
2. Magnets

Now when I say magnets, I don't mean those medical bracelets that help with sea sickness or anything. I'm talking about Buckyballs! They come in sets of 216 little magnetic balls which can be connected and sculpted into various shapes. Pictured here are a few of Amy's creations. I ordered a couple of sets so we would each have our own to play with, and the timing could not have been better.

Next time someone you know is feeling ill, perhaps some Buckyball magnetic therapy is what the doctor ordered.

Project 365 Day 349: Reinforcements

Time to call in some reinforcements. Here's hoping that Walmart's generic version of NyQuil will help me get some sound sleep and good dreams tonight.

Project 365 Day 348: Flu Season

It's that special time of year; time for my annual winter flu. Thanks to Amy for getting and making some tasty soup for us this evening!

Project 365 Day 347: Avocado, Planted

Yesterday we finally decided to move our Avocado-plant-in-a-glass-of-water to a real pot, and removed the glass from the equation. We re-purposed this pot that we had some flowers in during the summer months, and now we'll see how it all fares in the basement. I considered removing the toothpicks from the Avocado pit, but after my first attempt I was afraid it would just pull the pit into two or more pieces, so I left them in. Maybe we'll end up with an Avocado tree that grows toothpicks!

Project 365 Day 346: Frosty Flocking

Thanks to some strong overnight winds blowing the small amount of snow we got all over the place, we will not need to purchase any flocking supplies this winter for our wreath. Even though our door has a covered porch in front of it, the snow still managed to find its way onto our wreath, as well as inside our garage and between the screen and glass of our kitchen window!

Pretty impressive, Mother Nature...

Project 365 Day 345: Winter Wonderland

Finally, snow! Last year we experienced our first winter weather in October while on a weekend trip to Omaha. This year we got all the way through the first week of December. Of course the lack of snow made getting our lights up a few weeks back easier than it would have been otherwise, but it finally feels like the holiday season (to me) now that we have a dusting of snow and a real winter weather advisory in effect. This picture from our porch doesn't quite do justice to the howling wind and limited visibility, but the slow shutter speed does highlight the glint of the streetlight on the thin layer of packed snow on the street.

Project 365 Day 344: Corporate Holiday Party

I heard that the company I work for was holding their corporate holiday party in DC this evening, so I figured I should plan the Midwest division party. Amy attended this very successful event with me (total attendance: 2).

Here I am with a full pint of Sodbuster Stout, one of Olde Main's local brews. We had a nice meal there and then decided to take the party across the street to Culver's for dessert. Finally, we moved the party back home where we enjoyed watching Fred Hoiberg get a win in his first game against Iowa as the ISU men's basketball coach. Never a better way to cap off a holiday party than screaming at the TV and jumping up and down to celebrate a road win in the big in-state rivalry game.

Project 365 Day 343: Southern Comfort

We finalized our plans tonight to head somewhere a bit more tropical than Iowa later this winter: New Orleans (with a stop in St. Louis on the way)! It's been many years since I was last there, on a church trip in high school, and Amy has never been, so we decided that was a good enough reason as any.

Another reason: the long drive will give us a chance to catch up on podcasts of the excellent NPR WNYC show Radiolab!

Project 365 Day 342: Games Ahoy

With a little extra free time finding its way into our lives between the holiday events, I have taken it upon myself to explore my computer game collection. For a number of years in high school I subscribed to PC Gamer magazine, which came each month with a CD-ROM (remember those?) of game demos that would include a single level or some other limited preview of the potential fun. I probably have a couple of hundred demos that I never got around to back in the late 90's, and perhaps I'll try some them out if I can find a computer old enough to run them (that is not a typo).

Today, I decided to re-load a more recent game, Madden NFL 2005. At five years of age it is showing some gray hairs with its quaint blocky 3D graphics with simple shading and texturing, but the game play was still a lot of fun. Now I just need to practice getting Peyton Manning to hit that hot route when the defense blitzes!

Project 365 Day 341: Code of Olde

Some people seem to figure out their career plans while in the K-12 education program, and others get into college and even go through college without having a definite idea. Neither is wrong, but I was reminded while looking through some old high school memorabilia that I fit into the former group.

Here is a picture of a page from my high school planner from the 1996-97 school year when I was a Junior. While leafing through the booklet I found this doodle, and by doodle, I mean a short C++ computer program called 50 to a bus, written by hand, which theoretically takes as input a number, and as output tells you how many buses it will take to load of that many people, assuming 50 people fit on a bus, and also noting how many leftover people will need to travel in vans. I guess I had something against using less-than-full buses. How environmentally conscious of me!

Now I don't remember whether this was actually a homework assignment for the one programming class I had in high school, or if this was just me passing some downtime time during a study hall. Let's just say that I also remember sitting in my dad's office in my middle school days, studying the MS-DOS 5.0 operating system manual with great interest.

For some reason Amy couldn't help laughing uncontrollably when she saw this page in my planner.

Project 365 Day 340: Waffle World

Ah waffles. One of mankind's greatest inventions, right there between sliced bread and pre-packaged cheese singles. A waffle is like a little village with a neat little grid of houses, where every household has an in-ground pool out back, but instead of water that pool is filled with a combination of melted butter and maple syrup from Wisconsin.

Delicious.

Project 365 Day 339: Hoiberg on a Stick

While we did not attend an ISU men's basketball game today, we did run into men's coach Fred Hoiberg again at today's women's game against Michigan. Saturday, there was a promotion at the men's game in which all members of the Cyclone Alley student section received #32 jersey's (the number Fred wore as a player), and HyVee sponsored a giveaway of the pictured Fred Head-on-a-stick. Today leftover Fred Heads were still available on the way out of the women's game, so we picked up a few extras.

Of course December in Iowa means it's not warm enough to need to fan ourselves very often, but they do make a good addition to our Cyclone Corner in the basement!

Project 365 Day 338: Holiday Browsing

After the ISU Men's Basketball game today (another close loss, 76-73, to California) we drove down to Des Moines to do some more holiday shopping and browsing. We completed our shopping expedition at the Half-Price Bookstore and then proceeded to Jordan Creek Town Center to walk around the mall and gaze at decorations, sales, and people.

The Jordan Creek mall has one of the rowdiest kid play areas of any mall I have seen. It's as if you took the huge (for a mall) amusement park in the middle of the Mall of America in Minneapolis and put all the children occupying that space into an area of roughly 1000 square feet. Throw in a few slides, climbing things, and crawling spaces, and look out! If you ever need to know which direction you're heading in Jordan Creek, just listen for the shrieking voices of children; that's East.

Project 365 Day 337: Hoop Workout

With basketball fever in the air due to the Iowa State teams getting into their seasons on the hardwood, I finally got back to some hoop action myself tonight at the rec center. I'm not quite at the point of having enough stamina to get in some pickup games with guys 2/3 of my age, but I am working on my jump shot and free throws (ever so important when shooting for pickup game teams to determine whether you get to keep your shirt on or not).

Biggest accomplishment of the night: going 8/10 in my own free throw challenge I like to call How Many Free Throws Out Of Ten Can I Make?

Project 365 Day 336: Battery Recharged

Tonight I gave my work laptop's new battery a work out. The original battery was two or three years old, and as happens with all rechargeable batteries eventually, it died a slow and hot death. Recently it served no purpose other than keeping my desk and my legs warm through the cold of winter. If my power cord came unattached, the laptop would go off instantly.

So I was very happy to receive a replacement recently, and very pleased to see that when my screen was dimmed (using less power) while sitting at a table in Borders, Windows told me that I had about 3 hours of battery life left. It's good to see that my battery is once again capable of being recharged, just like I can do to myself with a cup of Seattle's Best!

Project 365 Day 335: Soda Fountains

Among Amy's many likes, soda fountain beverages have to rank near the top, in particular Diet Coke. I quickly learned early on in our relationship that there is a difference between cans or bottles of soda and the kind you get straight from the tap at your local gas station or restaurant.

Fortunately Ames has an abundance of gas stations, and the number only seems to be increasing. Just recently the local HyVee grocery store opened a couple of their own gas stations near their main stores, and they have some deluxe soda fountain action going on. Every mainstream soda, plus a few others, crushed and cubed ice, flavor shots, and mix-and-match recipes with names (like "One Love" which consists of Mountain Dew, one shot lemon, two shots lime).

So we may as well add easy access to gas station fountain soda as another reason we're happy to be back in Ames. I personally get more excited about the roller dogs, though. Mmmmm, cheddar franks!

Project 365 Day 334: Tree Number Two

We have been enjoying our Christmas tree and other decorations around the main floor of our house since this past weekend, but I realized that the basement was nowhere near festive enough. Luckily, we have a few smaller artificial trees from our days of apartment living, and tonight I set this one up right next to my office desk. It features a string of multicolored lights, as well as an abundance of traditional and Star Trek/Star Wars themed ornaments.

Oline Christmas Ornament Trivia

Question: What ornament on this tree features the likeness of a character from a Star Trek television series who was played by an actor whom we saw perform live in a Shakespeare play during our first year in Washington, DC, back in 2005?

Answer: The character is Benjamin Sisko, from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, played by Avery Brooks. We saw him perform as the title character in Othello at the Shakespeare Theatre Company's Lansburgh Theatre in Washington, DC during the fall of 2005.

His ornament is a bit difficult to find in this picture as it blends into the tree. It is on the lower left portion, directly below the Yoda ornament, and to the left of the guitar ornament.

Here he is as the Benjamin Sisko character:

Project 365 Day 333: Basement Rearrangement

After working in my home office in our unfinished basement for the past year in locations that were about as far from natural light as possible, I decided to take advantage of the cleaning and space clearing we did for Thanksgiving to rearrange things and move my desk to a corner next to a window. While I initiated this effort yesterday, it continued today with cleaning of shelves and moving our music stuff (guitars, keyboard, music laptop) to the space formerly occupied by my office.

I think I've finally got the ideal set up figured out! This arrangement should satisfy my hunger for moving furniture around for a few months...

Project 365 Day 332: Hanging of Stockings

As we do not have a fireplace or mantle in our house, we have had to find alternatives for hanging these Christmas stockings that Amy's mom made for us. Last year we hung them on the wall in the living room, and this year we decided to put them on what I like to call The Ledge. It is a small shelf just above the stairs going down to the basement, about 10 feet up, which would be nearly impossible to reach without aid of a ladder, unless you happen to be a cat or a fearless gymnastics-inclined 3 year old (just guessing on both, please do not call Child/Cat Protective Services!).

Despite our lack of a chimney and fireplace, we do have an abundance of vents for various purposes on the roof and side of our house, and I am confident that Santa will find a way to get some presents into the designated locations.

Project 365 Day 331: Tree Rescue Squad

We felt pretty good about ourselves last night, having gotten the tree in the house, strung with lights, and decorated, all on the day after Thanksgiving, with the help of Amy's parents. This morning we discovered a slight issue, in that the water bucket had cracked about halfway down the side. Yesterday the bucket was only somewhat deformed due to a couple of lower branches that I figured didn't need to be removed, but this morning realized they probably should have been... luckily Amy's parents were still here, and with their help (again) we were able to raise the tree, now fully unfurled and decorated, out of the busted bucket so I could saw off the troublesome branches, and then lower it into a different bucket that we found from last year.

The tree and bucket are still in good shape this evening, and hopefully they will remain so until we take the tree down after Christmas!

And finally, happy birthday Mom!

Project 365 Day 330: Christmas Tree Harvest

For the second straight year we made a visit to the Strautman Tree Farm just outside of Ames to get a real Christmas Tree. Last year was interesting when we had to figure out how to get the tree to fit in our Ford Fusion (thank goodness for fold down seats in the back), but this year we had the assistance of Amy's parents and their truck, which made tree transportation much easier!

Project 365 Day 329: Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came and went for the second time in our new home with family over for the festivities. Here is a picture of our basement after the many tables, chairs, and participants left, their stomachs full of turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, and PIE! Once again it was a great day to visit with everyone, and we're looking forward to consuming leftovers and enjoying our neat and tidy basement in the weeks ahead.

Project 365 Day 328: I-State Crew

With our Thanksgiving preparations mostly finished we took a break for dinner and then went to the Iowa State men's basketball game against Kennesaw State from Georgia. After Iowa State's nail biter of a win over Creighton (and former ISU coach Greg McDermott) on Sunday, this game had the potential to be a bit of letdown for the team, but they came out strong and finished strong, winning 91-51. I noted an interesting statistic while reading my tweets after the game from Randy Peterson of the Des Moines Register. Freshman Melvin Ejim has scored 10 or more points in the first five games of his collegiate career at Iowa State. Another former player who did the same: current coach Fred Hoiberg.

Janice snapped this photo of three Iowa State alumni who happened to be in attendance after we got back home from the game. We're looking forward to a crowded house for Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Project 365 Day 327: Ready to Roast

Amy's parents arrived tonight with their roaster in tow, and tomorrow we'll get ready for hosting the big meal on Thursday. Of course, after having a tasty (as usual) meal at Hickory Park, maybe we should think about just relocating everyone there for Thanksgiving...

Nah! Hickory Park is good, but nothing can compete with a Thanksgiving feast consisting of everyone's home-cooked goodies.

Project 365 Day 326: Recycling at Home

Here's a new way to recycle beer bottles before they've ever been opened. Amy knitted this lovely hat, and she put four unopened bottles of Olde Main's Off Kilter Scottish Ale (brewed locally!) together to "block" it, which I understand is fancy-knitter-speak for stretching something out. Those knitters and their words...

I've got a fancy word and I bet it's never been used before.

Pre-cycling.

Pure gold. I bet that makes Oxford Dictionary's next list of new words, let's get an Internet campaign going for it.

Project 365 Day 325: Chiefs Vs. Cardinals

We left Ames early this morning to drive down to Kansas City and meet Amy's aunt for our first NFL game, featuring the Chiefs at home against the Arizona Cardinals. It was fun to be at the game with a big crowd and fast-paced action on the field. I wish we could steal a couple of the receivers out there today for Iowa State to use next season! We had seats in the fifth row behind one of the end zones, which was great when the teams were near, but left us watching the far side video board for other parts of the game. We also had a good view of KC Wolf, the mascot who looks like he could stand to lose a few pounds around his mid-section. He had a humorous prank that involved setting a box of donuts on the field next to the security workers and police staff, and then yanking on an attached string a little to see if they would bite. Stereotypes can be funny!

Project 365 Day 324: Cyclone Gear

Today was Iowa State's final football game of the regular season against Missouri, and it was the first real chilly game of the football season. We decided to go and see the seniors in their last game, as well as cheer the Cyclones on for their last chance at six wins and a chance to go to a bowl game.

Given the winter temperatures, we decided to stock up on a few extra pieces of Cyclone gear today, pictured here. The blanket and hats (and thermal underwear, not pictured) were helpful in raising our body temperature a few degrees, but unfortunately the football team was not able to warm our blood a little more with any scoring. While the defense played reasonably well against a tough Missouri team and the offense was able to move the ball, we couldn't put it in the end zone or through the uprights. Missouri won 14-0.

It was still a fun season, and great to see Iowa State in so many games. Paul Rhoads has things on the right track in Ames, and hopefully future seasons will be just as gripping, with a few more games going our way.

Project 365 Day 323: Fall Cleaning

With our second attempt at hosting Thanksgiving coming up next week, we are in our annual Fall cleaning mode. Among other things, we have collected this plastic tub of clothes, books, and movies to take to Goodwill tomorrow. I will probably do our semi-annual vacuuming of the house this weekend. Maybe we'll even dust!

Project 365 Day 322: L.I.A.R.S.

While hanging out at Cafe Diem tonight for some studying (Amy) and working (Adam), I spied this piece of artwork hanging on the wall, and upon seeing the slogan "All Men Are Liars" I thought, "Hmph. That is quite a generalization, and ironically, a lie itself!"

Unless you count things like when I lie to myself that I'm going to get out of bed immediately in the morning when the alarm goes off. Then perhaps it is true. Somehow I'm guessing that's not what the artist was getting at.

Then I thought changing the meaning of the word liar in this context might be a solution. So let us tweak the phrase to "All Men Are L.I.A.R.S." and then check this out:

Lovely In Argyle Red Sweaters

(Thanks for the random sweater picture, Google!)

Project 365 Day 321: Hoiberg Still Undefeated

Fred Hoiberg still has the magic touch. After three contests his ISU Men's Basketball team is 3-0. Now maybe it's still a little early to judge, after all the team isn't exactly playing the likes of Duke or Kansas, (or Baylor even), but tonight was his first in-state rivalry game against the Drake Bulldogs, a team that has had success against the Cyclones in recent years. We blew them out completely, 91-43, thanks to our high scoring run-and-gun offense and some salty defense throughout the game. While Drake may be having a down year anyway, these games are still showing us some good stuff with regard to style of play, hustle, and the potential of this team. Things are looking bright! Once we get into the tougher part of our non-conference schedule, including a game with California and an away game at Virginia, we'll learn a little bit more.

The player of the night was Scott Christopherson. He literally brought his A+ game, as the following statistics show:

	Attempted	Made
Field Goals	11	11
Three Pointers	5	5
Free Throws	2	2
Total Points	29

When Scotty left the game, he had one more point than the entire Drake team had scored!

Win or lose, we're looking forward to more entertaining basketball games this year.

Up next: Creighton at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines this Sunday, led by none other than the previous ISU coach, Greg McDermott. We won't be able to make this one, but I'm hoping for a similar outcome as tonight's game.

Project 365 Day 320: Dahlia In Bloom

Our dahlia flower that spent the summer out on the deck in a small pot fooled us into thinking we had killed it sometime around August. We never got around to disposing of the dead (so we thought) plant matter, and after another month had passed we were surprised and pleased to see that some new green growth had started sprouting. We continued watering it weekly, and eventually brought it inside to our living room window-side table to put it next to our other indoor plants. The growth continued, and in the last few days the first flower from the reborn plant has blossomed, as shown here. Will wonders never cease!

Project 365 Day 319: DirecTV Downsizing

Now that there will be no more Iowa State football games on the Fox College Sports network of obscure DirecTV channels in the 600 range that I will need to watch this season (we are planning to go to this Saturday's final game in Ames against Missouri), I decided tonight would be a good time to call up my friendly DirecTV customer service robot and try to remove the sports package we're paying extra for. In fact, we've been paying extra for it for over a year since last fall, when I realized we would need to order it the day of the ISU - Iowa game so we could watch from home with my parents who were over for a visit. I've watched all of two away games on it since then.

And while I was at it, the time also seemed right to cancel the Showtime promotional package that we never use and which is now also costing us a little extra on each month's bill. Of course DirecTV makes it impossible (or at least, too hard for me) to cancel any service from their web site. After calling customer service and convincing the automated system that I wanted to reduce service (not "Add HBO" as it proposed in its sample voice command), I was not surprised to be transferred to a human Salesperson Customer Representative.

Fortunately, my days as a telefundraiser during my first summer break from college taught me the trick of surviving most simple phone-based sales interactions, which I shall refer to as The Three Strikes Rule. It basically amounts to holding your ground while the teenager on the other end of the line goes through his or her scripted questions to ensure that their supervisor does not yell at them later on for skipping any steps during their quality assurance reviews of the phone call recordings (yes, this happened to me).

Our conversation tonight went something like this:

Me: I would like to request a change to my service plan which will save me money and also hurt your company's bottom line.

Customer Representative: Oh, I am sorry to hear that, any particular reason why?

Me: I would like to stop paying extra for something I am not using. Strrrrrrrike One!

Customer Representative: Well, we can offer you a reduced premium deal for six months to keep your current package, in hopes that you'll be too lazy to call and cancel again for a few more months after the cost reverts to the normal pricing scheme.

Me: No thanks. Strrrrrrrike Two!

Customer Representative: Very good. We can also offer you a special deal on some other services that you didn't even ask for. Two for one special, a very good deal!

Me: No thanks. Strrrrrrrike Three!

Customer Representative: Ok then, one moment and I will make the changes you requested.

Me: Thank you. Yerrrrrr Outta Here!

And now I am saving $24 a month and the employee on the other end can clock out and go home to play X-Box 360. We both live happily ever after.