Vacation Day 4 – Cotton Candy

I was set on going back to the Cyclone State on Tuesday night after visiting Faust on his day off, but Bethany and Becca requested that I stay one more night. I had no plans for Wednesday (Sara’s attempt to convince me to go to Iowa City failed since she couldn’t produce a single credible theory on why it would be fun for me to sit around while she put stitches in a pig’s foot), so I agreed to come back to Eagan after my visit to Mankato.

Nate, Becca and Bethany live a couple blocks from a donut store by the name of Puffy Cream Donuts. After I woke up and showered, I hit the open road to Mankato after picking up some cream filled goodness at Puffy Cream.

When I got to Mankato I stopped at Target so I could buy some extra clothes for the extra day in Minnesota.

I arrived at the Faust home and we discussed potential new coaches for the Cyclones.

My dream has always been that Iowa State rights the wrong it made several years ago and brings back Eustachy. I know this was a pipedream, but there are several great options out there. It was exciting to think about what guy Pollard would bring to Ames to return the Cyclones to glory.

We went to Mr. Goodcents for lunch. I hadn’t eaten at Mr. Goodcents since the one in Ames closed down while I was still in college. The sandwiches are no longer as epic in scope as they were all those years ago, but it was definitely still very tasty and I wasn’t disappointed. Not like how disappointed I am with the horrible joke that is masquerading as Panchero’s across the street from the Computer Mine.

At 2:30 we walked over to Jackson’s school to pick him up. I got to admire some of his artwork and look around his school.

As we returned to the Faust abode, I checked my email on my phone. I wasn’t expecting any messages of great consequence, I was just trying to hammer out lunch plans for Thursday with Shannon, but then I got an email message from The Swell Season updating their Summer tour schedule. They are coming to 1st Ave in July! Hallelujah!

After further discussion about who Iowa State could get as a coach, Nicole came and picked us up to get cotton candy!

The residence hall where she works was trying to get the students to leave their dorm rooms by serving cotton candy, popcorn and playing approved music. I don’t know how well it worked on the students, but it worked on Jackson, Faust and I.

On the way over to Minnesota State’s campus, Jackson flexed the golden pipes and wowed me by singing along word for word with the Justin Bieber CD playing on the stereo.


Vacation Day 4 - Cotton Candy
A portion of the day was following Jackson while he ran through the hallways of the dormitory.

Vacation Day 4 - Cotton Candy
Jackson has yet to develop his dad’s patented “Leaning Weiner” shot.

Vacation Day 4 - Cotton Candy
Now I’ve been able to school two generations of Fausts on the court. Plus Faust and I did relive some old Saturday Morning Basketball memories. Including how he felt that he owned The Salmon on the court. Hmmm… two friends that think they own The Salmon.

Vacation Day 4 - Cotton Candy
Jackson nailed somewhere between 3-5 shots depending on how he retells the story.

Vacation Day 4 - Cotton Candy
Faust manning the popcorn machine.

Vacation Day 4 - Cotton Candy
Jackson and his Mr. Freeze

Vacation Day 4 - Cotton Candy
Fronting for the Cyclones in Maverick Country

Vacation Day 4 - Cotton Candy
Faust Knocking Down Cotton Candy Goodness


Shortly after we got back to the Faust Estate my phone rang. It was Jesse.

“We just hired a new coach. Fred Hoiberg.”

I was instantly pissed. Are you kidding me? We just hired some guy because he is super popular with the fan base even though he has NO coaching experience on any level. Was this the cheapest publicity stunt ever?

Full disclosure: I’m not and never was a ravenous Fred Hoiberg fan. He was a solid player and a nice story. His teams were okay and they went to the tournament, but they were not my teams and I could not stand their style of play. They were soft. I was and always will be a Dedric Willoughby fan. He actually won a championship. I’m sure if Pollard would have announced that Willoughby was the new coach and he was filling out his staff with Jacy Holloway, Kenny Pratt and Shawn Bankhead I would have jumped for joy. Hoiberg doesn’t do it for me like he does it for the grand majority of Cyclone nation.

Jesse and I vented our anger. Then Faust and I vented our anger.

I sent text messages to Baier, Bill, Russell, Andree, Derrick and Schmidt.

Bill wrote back:

“Fred? As head coach?”

“Yep.”

“Does he have any coaching experience?”

“None. Not at all.”

“Not good at all”

Andree wrote back:

“I guess he didn’t even entertain the idea of hiring Larry back. Well, here’s hoping Hoiberg’s NBA connections can help with recruiting. Was Pollard expecting another Paul Rhoads or something? He’ll be fired next year. This is a cheap move by hiring Ames favorite son to get fans off his back. Idiot!”

“It might be a popular move. I guess we can hope this works out.”

“Popular or not Hoiberg has some cache in Ames. Maybe he can sell to future recruits: “I got all the GMs phone numbers. If you got the chops, they’ll take my call.”

Then I got a call from Baier. We vented. Then I got a call from Russell. We vented.

Then I got a text from Schmidt.

“They are reporting The Mayor as our next coach.”

“I feel that we are worse off now than we were on Sunday with McDermott as our coach.”

“Typical Chris response that I expected!”

“Maybe he is a quick study.”

“We won’t know for three years. Its the Hall of Fame coaching staff!”

Then Derrick called. Of everybody I talked to he seemed the most optimistic that this might work. Although he had just got off the phone with Shawn and Shawn was extremely negative about this hire. But we didn’t get a full conversation because some customer came into the store and he had to “work”.

Faust and I discussed this move for quite a bit longer. Then I headed backup to Eagan.

Nate and I went to Houlihan’s for supper and then we came back to the house. I watched Weeds with Becca until about 2 in the morning and then I went to bed.

Much of my anger over the Hoiberg hiring had subsided and I was able to go to sleep rather quickly

Day 4 of vacation was still pretty great, despite the surprise Hoiberg hiring!

Vacation Day 3 – Guinea Pig Denial

I woke up early on Monday morning. I’m not sure if it was the excitement of the forthcoming trip or if the rumors of Greg McDermott’s departure were so exciting to me that I was like a little kid on Christmas anxiously awaiting the chance to rip the wrapping paper off of his new Omega Supreme!

As I prepared for the trip (as much as I always wish that I was a night before packer – I am definitely a 15 minutes before leaving packer) I listened to the local sports talking heads Deace and Miller discuss McDermott’s departure to Creighton. Only they weren’t using words like “potential” or “possible”.  They were talking about his departure as being a done deal.

I always liked McDermott.  I hoped that he was going to get it done. While almost all of my other Cyclone friends had left the McDermott sinking ship, I was certain that this past year was going to be his season. He had two future NBA players on his roster. A capable veteran point guard. A pair of sharpshooters. A serviceable center. A bench full of athletic underclassmen.

However, it all went downhill very fast. I remember the moment that I knew that McDermott wasn’t going to get it done. 

Jill and I had went over to Derrick and Jen’s to watch a movie.  Derrick had called me earlier in the day to make sure that we were a “unified front” on being able to watch the Cyclones demolish Northwestern before we watched a movie. Of course we were a unified front!

The only problem was that Iowa State didn’t demolish Northwestern.  In fact, they lost to a Northwestern team that was missing one of its best players.

This was a bad sign.

True many Floyd and Eustachy teams were terrible in the early part of the season, only to cohese and become a dominant force down the stretch.  After all, the Elite Eight team lost to a bad Drake team.

Only one of the warning signs that McDermott was in over his head at ISU was the disturbing fact that his teams did not become better as the season went along. In fact, they seemed to get worse.

Even though my head knew that this highly touted team was going nowhere fast, I think my heart forced my mouth to utter the phrase “wake-up call”.  Only this wasn’t a “wake-up call” for them. It was a wake-up call for me. 

The season went downhill fast. A loss at home to UNI. Barely beating Iowa’s intramural team. Barely beating Houston. Lucca leaving in the middle of the season. 4 conference wins.

Then moments after the season was over, Brackins goes pro. Buckley and Hamilton transfer. The NCAA punish Iowa State for being Iowa State and doesn’t grant Gilstrap another year of eligibility.

It seemed like there was blood in the water. The only question was how would Pollard come up with 2.5 million dollars to payoff McDermott?

Only instead of dropping the axe on McDermott like he did on Wayne Morgan (despite Wayne Morgan having 3 straight winning seasons) Pollard gave McDermott a vote of confidence.

Then a month went by and it got weird. Two assistant coaches left. Colvin left. Pollard sent out two enigmatic letters. One to a kid telling him that he understood his concerns about the direction of the ISU basketball team, but his records indicated that the kid didn’t donate money to the athletic department, so bugger off.  Then another letter where he blamed McDermott’s inability to keep players (including a finalist for Player of the Year honors that played for Syracuse this year – yeah that hurt to watch) not on McDermott, but on this generation of worthless kids. He started the letter by throwing Fennelly under the bus and ended it with some very fuzzy math.  He tried to make the argument that kids transferring is an epidemic, but if you actually do the math with the numbers he provides, the average Division 1 school lost .5 kids to transfer in the last two years. Iowa State has lost 6. Now 7 with the transfer of Boozer.

Then Christmas came. Oregon hired Dana Altman. Creighton wanted Greg McDermott to replace him!

Not only was Iowa State not going to continue its long descent into irrelevance, it wasn’t going to cost us 2.5 million to go in a new direction. In fact, Creighton is going to have to pay us $800,000 for the right to take our problem off of our hands.

The only problem was that I wasn’t going to be in the state to hear the news. I was going to be in Minnesota.

However, I’m a problem solver. After I gassed up the car and picked up some needed supplies for the trip (two bottles of water, a bag of beef jerky and two Whatchamacallits) I texted Baier, Jesse and Schmidt and asked them to let me know when it had become official that McDermott was heading to Nebraska! Then I hit the open road.

I arrived in Eagan at about 11:30. Nate was the only one home and awake.

I had assigned Nate the task of finding us interesting places to eat at during my two day stay in Minnesota.  He handed me a magazine with reviews of numerous Twin City restaurants. However, he noted that Bethany strongly favored eating at Chino Latino.

I found the review of Chino Latino. The review stated that Chino Latino served guinea pig!  I was in.

After deciding on the dining option for that evening we piled into the car and head to Five Guys for lunch.  We had a little bit of difficulty finding it, but when we did finally locate it, it was worth it.

Five Guys is a burger joint.  The menu is simple and the food is tasty. I will definitely be going back.


Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
They serve fresh cut potato fries. They put them in a cup, but they also fill the bottom of your bag with more fries.

Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
A “hot mess” but in a good way, not in the Edie Sedgwick way.

Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
It is usually busy enough that they serve you free peanuts while you wait in line.

Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
They also let you know where your potatoes came from.

Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
Simple menu and you get to add whatever toppings that you want!

Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
Bags of Potatoes


Even though we were stuffed, Nate suggested that we visit a White Castle. I’ve always heard that their food is nasty, but I’ve never eaten at a White Castle and I’ve always wanted to try it.

To give our stomach time to process the goodness of Five Guys we headed from Edina to Apple Valley so that Nate could pickup and deposit his paycheck.

Nate banks where Bethany works, so I got to speak with her briefly. When her co-worker wasn’t butting in to tell me about his brother-in-law that used to play football for Iowa State. Only he can’t remember his name, but he rushed for 438 yards in one game. Some people you just have to let speak.

Next stop White Castle!


Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
White Castle

Our sojourn to White Castle wasn’t adventurous and nobody would make a movie about it. We each ordered two sliders.

The hype about White Castle was dead-on! The food is absolutely dreadful. I can’t believe this place stays in business.

We took the rest of the day to rest before Chino Latino.

Jesse called and gave me the fantastic news that it was official. Creighton had given our basketball program the gift of a fresh, new beginning!

Nate called Chino Latino and made a reservation, but found out the sad news that in order to get the guinea pig, Cuy, you had to order it 48 hours in advance.

DENIED!

Luckily Jill was sort of able to provide some recommendations to me. Sort of.

Later in the night Bethany came home and we went over to her significant other’s house to meet up before going to Uptown.

While we were waiting for some people to get ready, Bill called to ask if Creighton had really hired McDermott.

“Yes.”

“Do they know that he had 4 straight losing seasons at Iowa State despite having the greatest homecourt advantage in the nation?”

“They don’t make them very smart in Nebraska.”

“True that.”

7 of us met up at Chino Latino. Beth, John, Becca, Nate, John’s friend Ben and Bethany’s co-worker “V”.

Chino Latino serves equatorial food. That means that the food comes from countries that are on the equator.




Nate really wants to order Fidel’s Capitalist Pig Roast at some point. Which is a teenage pig, if you are the type of person that needs labels.

The food was excellent. Once I saw the $45 price tag, I didn’t feel so bad about the guinea pig denial.

I rode back to Eagan with Becca so that I could see her new car and the cowboy joint where she currently works.


Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
Near Chino Latino

Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
Becca’s Favorite Store

Vacation Day 3 - Guinea Pig
This is kind of how it feels to be riding around with Becca.


Day 3 of vacation was an excellent day by almost all tangible measurement.

RWPE #17 – Feet

Here are the submissions for last week’s theme, feet. Included is a new first time contributor – Alexis. That is good, because there seemed to be fewer contributors this week. Perhaps the subject matter scared some people away. I know not everybody likes feet. After all, most feet are kind of gross, but some feet are funny. Hopefully most people find these feet to be to their liking. (At least the pictures of the feet.)


WEEK 17 - FEET - ALEXIS STENSLAND
Alexis Stensland

WEEK 17 - FEET - MIKE VEST
Michael Vest

WEEK 17 - FOOT - CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT
Christopher D. Bennett

IMAGE LOST
Becky Perkovich


The random theme generator has spit out the following theme for this week:

Wild

As always, I will be interested to see what people do with this theme.

A couple of late submissions:


IMAGE LOST
Dawn Krause

IMAGE LOST
Justin Whitaker

A Couple of Religious Notes

Phil showed this video during his sermon last week and I liked enough that I would like to share it. (Of course, if you subscribe to this journal via RSS Feed or email, you will have to go to the website to watch the video.)




Also, Mark’s latest newsletter is ready for your perusal. 

The Taiwan Times 

By Mark Wolfram 

Reporting on God’s Mission in Taiwan 

April 2010 

Good Friday and Easter 

 
Good Friday and Easter were two wonderful opportunities to share the Gospel during the month of April. On Good Friday, Salvation Lutheran Church had special service, which featured a dramatic reading of the trail and death of Jesus. I read the part of Pontius Pilate. The great thing about this service is that we were able to incorporate many friends from Friday Night Bible Study, some of whom are not Christians yet, but keep coming back to learn more about Jesus. It was great that they were able to come to the Chinese service and hear about how Jesus loved them so much he died on a cross for their sins. I pray that God will use that service to continue working in the lives of students and friends from Friday Night Bible Study.

Of course, the most important part of the story is Easter, when Jesus showed his mastery over death, sin, and the devil. For Easter, we had a church full, including many children, who came with a parent. The church incorporated a special Easter celebration with the Saturday kids camp, so several children attended for special activities, including an Easter egg hunt after church. Of course the best news is that they and their family were able to hear about Jesus’ resurrection, and the new life that is given through Christ.

Changes
Next year, I am blessed to be having a change in my position here in Taiwan. While I will still be a teacher here at CMS, my teaching duties will be dropping down to half-time. The other part of my job will be to serve as a liaison, communicating between and helping to meet the needs of the American teachers, Concordia Middle School, and LCMS World Mission. In addition, I will help to organize and facilitate the use of short term missionaries that come to Taiwan. I will be taking this job to help compensate for the fact that our coordinator, Matt Wasmund, will be moving from this field. I will not take over supervisor responsibilities that he has, but rather will be working on coordination and communication. 

I know that this job will be a big transition and will bring many new challenges and a lot of hard work. I am excited about serving in this capacity, and look forward to the growth for both me personally and for the ministry here in Taiwan. I would really appreciate your prayers for the Wasmunds, Concordia Middle School, the American teachers, and me as we all make this transition together. I pray that God will be glorified through it and it would be used to further his kingdom, even at the expense of personal desires and wants.
  

Fundraising 

 
I also want to continue the dialogue about fundraising for next year. As I wrote in my March Newsletter, I am needing to raise $9,500 for the coming year. This year there is a new policy concerning extension of missionaries. In order to enter the extension phase, a current missionary must raise 25% of his or her fundraising goal. At this point, the missionary is officially recognized as extending.
After being extended, the missionary cannot return to his or her field until 70% of the fundraising goal has been met. Thus in my situation, I need to raise $2,375 to enter the extension phase, and then $6,650 to be able to return to Taiwan.
God has always been faithful with fundraising, and through your help both through prayers and finances, I am confident these goals will be met. As always, I appreciate your prayerful consideration of helping to support the ministry here in Taiwan.
My summer dates are not set yet, but I would love to come and meet you to share about the ministry here in Taiwan. If you are interested, please email me and we can be in contact over the next month.
Even if a visit is not possible, I would be love to send you a movie and some information the mission work here in Taiwan. Include a mailing address in an email, and I can definitely send that to any individuals, churches, or fellowship groups.
If you feel called to support in this regard, please send a check to: 

Missionary Support
LCMS World Mission
1333 S. Kirkwood Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63122

On the memo line for the check please write “Mark Wolfram account #50152”.
Finally, we are still looking for new teachers for next year. If you know of someone who would be interested in teaching overseas and serving as a missionary, please contact me or LCMS World Mission. It is such a blessing to work out here in Taiwan, and I would be happy to explain the situation more and answer any questions that someone might have.
Please continue to pray that God will prepare people to new teachers for next year. 

It’s Prayer Time 

  1. Pray for the Wasmunds, Concordia Middle School, the American teachers and me as transitions take place for next year. Pray specifically that God would give me the wisdom, guidance, strength and patience need for the coming year.
  2. Pray for my continued Chinese learning. This will be a big component of my new position and pray that God will help me to continue to improve and work hard to study Chinese.
  3. Pray for new teachers to come serve next year in Taiwan.
  4. Pray for the teachers who will be leaving Taiwan and are currently seeking employment in the U.S.
  5. Pray for my 8th grade student Jack, who is preparing to be baptized sometime in the next couple of months. Praise God for his faith, and have him bless Jack.

And we know that in all things, God works for th egood of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

Romans 8:28 

God’s peace, hope and love be with you all! 

Mark 

  

JF Day

I am told today is a monumental day for me. Although I already celebrated the event of today, a couple weeks back with good conversation and a bowl of popcorn, I feel that I should at least pass on a small bit of advice today.

“Some things are just better left unclaimed along the roadside of our lives.”
– Jen Gorshe