A Mad 6 Pack!

1-Everyone fills out a bracket, who’s your pick in the Final Four, and your Champion?

Matt – I think this bracket will be a lot of chalk, the top 16 teams will advance.  So with that there will probably be a lot of upsets.  My final four Kentucky, Ohio State, Michigan State, Kansas.  Championship for Sparty.

Painter – Why would I disclose that this early in the week?  I'm not giving other people a chance to see my picks until our ESPN bracket opens to everyone (let's just say a Big 10 team is favored).

Wendt – Missouri, Duke, Syracuse, Kansas. Syracuse wins it all

Blake – I've changed it a dozen times, especially with Fab Melo now being out.  Give me Kentucky, Michigan State, Florida State, and in the Midwest, I have no idea.  I have Creighton in one of my brackets

Majors – Well since I have a 1/68 shot, I guess it is an easy guess, right? I am thinking Kentucky will take it. They are solid, but I worry a little about them breaking down mentally. I would love to see Mizzou win it all. They will have a tough time beating Mich St since it is March, and, well, Izzo doesn't lose in March. I have FL St & UNC as my other two. FL St is on a roll, and are not afraid of anyone. I think Syracuse loses to Vandy too.

2-Iowa State gets the #8 seed and will play defending champion UConn.  If they get past the Huskies, #1 Kentucky is waiting.  To be the Man, wooo, you got to beat the man.  Crystal Ball the Clones?

Matt – The Huskies aren’t the Huskies from last year and I think they get ISU.  It’s going to be close I think.  If ISU can get past UConn I think for 20 mins then they can put a scare into the Wildcats, but that’s about it.  Good year for the Clones, keep Royce nose clean and they are sitting ok for next year.

Painter – 1st round exit.  Sorry, can't see them beating UConn. 

Wendt – UConn 78 Iowa State 67

Blake – I said all along they could be a Sweet 16 if they get hot.  I did not see them getting such a tough path though.  Doubt they get to the round of 16 anymore

Majors – They will lose to UConn. I think they could win, no doubt, they are a good team. But again, it's March, & UConn doesn't lose easily in March

3-Matt Gatens senior season lives on!  Iowa will host Dayton in the NIT.  How good is this for the program?

Matt – Really good for the program.  Any Iowa fan who says it’s not, is smoking.  Yes its not the big dance but its post season and more practice and Fran could build off this!

Painter – This is excellent for the program.  It gets some of the more casual fans interested again, it gives the players more practice time, and it's not as high-pressure as the NCAA tournament.  Iowa should beat Dayton in Carver-Hawkeye but who knows what happens next

Wendt – More practice time and a postseason tournament experience? Not a bad thing for this young team one bit

Blake – Uh, awesome.  Awesome for the fans who got a road home game.  Awesome for the team to get more practices and post season experience.  Awesome for Gatens, and awesome for White, and Basabe who had stellar round 1 games

Majors – I was really worried, but it seems they are playing pretty well. I think they will be ok

4-The Selection Committee gives a potential second round matchup of Doug McDermott vs Harrison Barnes.  Do you see Creighton giving the Heels any problems?

Matt – I’m really hoping the Bluejays win so we get this matchup.  I think McDermott would out play Barnes, but he’d have to for the Jays to have a chance.  Barnes is on a team of NBA players.  UNC will win though. 

Painter – Nope, Creighton has been very inconsistent in that last part of the season.  Creighton may be lucky to even get to the 2nd round.

Wendt – Nope. I actually laugh at the Missouri Valley Conference whiners who think Creighton got hosed

Blake – Absolutely.  I'm not sold on North Carolina

Majors – I don't think Creighton will have a huge chance against UNC. It is one game, though, so any team can win. I love March Madness!!! 

5-Peyton Manning is no longer a Colt, who benefited more from the 14 year campaign, Peyton, the Colts or the City of Indianapolis?  Where will Peyton land too?

Matt – How could they not all be winners?  Peyton has one of the greatest QB careers so far.  The Colts got a brand new Stadium.  They both got a Super Bowl Title.  Indianapolis got a new stadium that hosts more than just Colts games, they get the Super Bowls, Big Ten Championship games and Final Fours.  Everybody won.  I think Manning will be a Cardinal.  Maybe getting Wayne and Clark to follow him to join Fitzgerald.

Painter – The city of Indianapolis came out best in that relationship.  It hosted a Super Bowl because of the new stadium which was helped by the Colts' success.  That alone was huge.  I also think the new stadium played a part in hosting the Big Ten football championship this year.  Indy will forever be known for the Brickyard but the 2000's Colts will be right there with it.

Wendt – Manning built the stadium and helped win a Super Bowl. Manning will be a Denver Bronco this season

Blake – Peyton would have been Peyton in a lot of places.  Indy won for having him there.  They have a multi purpose facility/dome, and a Super Bowl

Majors – I think everyone was a winner w/ Peyton in Indy. It seems like the donkeys, (Raider Nation & I hate the donkeys), are the favorites right now. Kinda surprised he would go there, cold weather, outdoors, etc. They do have some solid young WRs, and John Fox has no clue about the offense, so he will just hand over the keys to Peyton. As a Raiders fan, I do think it would be fun to play him twice a year. I know, sounds crazy, but I like the idea of it. Besides, he only has 2-3 years left. And the donkey faithful wanted Tebow, well, they got him. Now they want Peyton. What about your beloved Tebow? Hmmm?

6-St Paddy’s day is Saturday, do you go green for the day, including blood-alcohol content level?

Matt – I will not be digesting green beer.  I tend to stay in on St Paddys day.  To many unskilled drinkers seem to come out of the cracks. 

Painter – I don't go out of my way to do anything special.  I may have a beer or 2 but not much more than that.  I just don't get wrapped up into it

Wendt – I've never done a massive drinkfest for St Paddy's Day......doubt it changes this year (although I am attending my first ever Iowa Barnstormers game)

Blake – I have drill.  2 more left after this month

Majors – I'm Irish heritage, of course I go green!!! 

Wicked, Puss in Boots, Crazy Life and a Blur of the last 20 days

So I haven’t blogged about things in a while other than football so here we go with other ramblings.

The past 2 weeks have been a blur with kid stuff going on.  It’s so messed up and crazy I’m time lining it.

·         Monday before Thanksgiving – took in Ryleigh & Bray to doctor for cough they’ve had for a bit (since mid Oct) Brayden had ear infection fever over 100 and Ryleigh got RSV swabbed, and x-rayed.  Dr (not our reg one) said Ryleigh had walking pneumonia.  Both giving clarithromycin (I didn’t spell that right) and Bray 2 nebulizer treatments a day and Ryleigh 4.  Ryleigh had double ear infection too.

·         Thursday after that appt – Reg Dr called Shawnna/Ryleigh in and said the Pediatric Radiologist saw something she didn’t like in the x-ray and was concerned.  Said not to Google it (We did – stuff that came up from our Google of stuff they told us was Leukemia Lymphoma, Cancer, and other bad stuff) said to come back after antibiotics.  Brayden then was on day 4 of fever over 100, called after being there 2 hours and got him augmenten.  He since is good.

·         Black Friday – Ryleigh showed first fever in this ordeal at 102. 

·         Sunday – took her in to see dr since Shawnna freaking she wasn’t getting better.  Dr said wheezing gone which was good, but still ear infections.  Taker her off nebulizer since coming back on Tuesday for X-rays, want to see how she is normally breathing.  Got Augmenten for her.

·         Tuesday – went and got her x-rayed again.  Sat in office while radiologist checked it out.  Said lungs look clearer but the Thymus was still showing enlarged on right side (this is what they kind of told but didn’t tell us on first x-ray) asked if we goggled it, said yes – said leukemia is very low on their thoughts of risk but they have no idea and we need more tests.  Will probably need either CT scan or Ultrasound. 

·         Wednesday – Got call our DR requested CT scan.  And needed it Wed.  Shawnna got Ryleigh, and called me said they were doing it, I asked about sedating her, and they said no they weren’t.  15 mins later said they need to go to hospital to do it BC they want to sedate her and what they are using could cause her to go into shock.  This is when I got up and left to go there.  I get there, she hadn’t slept all morning.  Ate at 10 so they couldn’t sedate her (needs 6 hours of no food) so they were now going to try to do it with her awake.  They IV’d her.  Laid her down on the table.  Shot up glowy stuff in her, and she laid still as a bug.  Got scanned like 1000 pics of her, (64 pics a second).   We went into waiting room.  Radiologist came in and said that all looks good.  HUGE RELIEF.  Thymus problem larger on her BC she is petite most likely.

Safe to say probably spent around 16 hours in the doctor’s office in that time with Ryleigh and Brayden.  Fun stuff, any more time I’d a got my own coffee mug and admittance to the employee lounge.  A lot of stress going on and my managers at work worked with me on my pto and getting out of here and I’m thankful for that. 

So when all that stuff with Ryleigh was going on the big kids got the shaft a bit.  Thanksgiving weekend instead of going to see cousins and playing, they got stuck at home, to make the best of it tried to make it as fun as possible.  Addyson went on her annual trip to Wells Fargo Arena for Disney on Ice.

Then that Sunday I took the 2 older kids to go see Puss in Boots, a spin off from the Shrek franchise.  It explored Puss’s past and where he came from and introduced us to Jack & Jill, Humpty Dumpty and the magic beans and the beanstalk.  It was really a decent movie and had some funny lines for the adults too that the younger kids didn’t get.  I will say that it was in no way near as good as the first Shrek, but it was on par with the rest of the sequels.  I’m going to say it was 2.5/5 Stars.

A week prior to that I took Brayden to Wells Fargo Arena for the Iowa vs. Creighton basketball game.  It was Iowa’s first time playing in the Well and first time matching up vs. former Iowa State coach Greg McDermott and former Ames star Doug McDermott.  I was hoping the Hawks could pull this one off but it got out of hand early and how did (Doug) McDermott not get more looks at bigger schools?  Granted he’ll be a stud at the MVC but he could be playing in the Big Ten, and just think how good UNI would be if they had him.  Well Creighton got up early and never looked back.  Iowa left them open on 3’s and got killed for it and it was just a runaway.  Brayden was ready to leave after the first 8 minutes, and frankly I was too since he was being antsy and the game was out of hand then but we stayed until the last 4 minutes. 

The following Tuesday we took in Wicked at the Des Moines Civic Center.  The show about the behind story of the witches of Oz.  Going in I was thinking it was all Pre Dorothy and most of it was, but then the little farm girl was there.  How everything was tied together in OZ and munchinland and the characters was pretty cool too.  A lot better than some prequels I’ve seen (looking at you George Lucas – Darth Vader really built C3P0?)  The interaction between the two witches was really good too.  Glenda the good witch was made into kind of a ditzy pompous spoiled Valley girl and Elfie the Wicked Witch was made to look bad by the Wizard and Teacher when she was out to do good.  It reminded me of like the media trying to turn and spin stories on people to make them look bad.  Overall I thought it was a good show.  The actress who played the wicked witch was GREAT.  It’s definitely worth a ticket to go see!  Going to rank it right behind Cabaret in the shows that I’ve seen (seen 3, Cabaret, Wicked and Lion King).  Before the show got some AMAZING food at Dos Rios, could eat that guacamole every day!  Then drinks at the Royal Mile.

Other stuff going on, Brayden has been just funny in things he says.  He’ll tap me on the shoulder and say “Dad, let’s have conversation” After looking at him like “what’d you just say” I’ll ask him what he wants to talk about.  Also been playing more with his race track kind of getting him ready for future Christmas gifts (its going to be AWESOME).  Addy is continuing on with Cheernastics and has a show later this month.  It’s fun watching her dance and stuff then ask her about it later than she replies with a sigh – “Dad, that’s not how it goes” the ignores my asking and sings along to the radio on the way home.  And then Ryleigh, through all this ordeal mentioned above, she just keeps on smiling and laughing and pulling herself up on all the furniture and when seeing her, how can anyone not smile! 

The tree is up now, a few presents under it, and most Christmas presents are purchased.  Still need a trip to see Santa, and I think that will come at Bass Pro Shops this weekend…or maybe Valley West. I got 2 truckloads of leaves done and could have done one more and got it all cleared out of the lawn but was wiped out and now it’s snowed on them.  Bummer.

A few other things.  Iowa finished its regular season 7-5 with a loss to Nebraska.  I’m not shocked they lost I thought they would that game, but the reaction to the loss is amazing, people are calling for Ferentz’s head.  Iowa is a 7-9 win program.  We have 7 10+ win season in the past 33 years.  Fans need to realize what Iowa is and how lucky we are to have Ferentz as our coach.  Could he have done things differently...yes the losses to Iowa State and Minnesota shouldn’t happen, and if they don’t, Iowa is 9-3 and all are happy.  And then Iowa fans attacking a player for transferring to go home, that is nuts too.  Sit back and look at what you are.

The Bears were on a roll then Cutler’s thumb got in the way and the Bears lost to Oakland.  I don’t think the Bears could have got the division but with Cutler I think we could have done close to what Green Bay did last year and make a nice run in the playoffs.  It sucks. 

So that’s been the last few weeks, I know this is long but haven’t posted in a while. 

Also now I’m going to start again working out and watching what I’m eating better (great time around Christmas cookies huh) but this is where I was “Bad” with little Debbie last year, so hopefully I’ll kick that in the butt this year and be ready for softball next spring more so than I was.  Renting Smurfs and Friends with Benefits tonight.