My kids are having issues making calls on Verizon today. One is in NC Iowa, and one in California. Text is ok, no calls.

Anyone use the Upside App when buying gas? I heard a commercial about it and decided to try it. Haven't used it for gas yet but curious what everyone's feedback on it is.

Got my 2025 assessment from Polk county, up 9%.

Obviously, we are all excited about this team and what they can do in 2025 but I can't help but look at the roster and see how YOUNG we are. Transfers will happen that's a given, but if we look at our current roster here is who will be back come 2026:

Addy Brown - senior
Audi Crooks - senior
Arianna Jackson - senior
Jada Williams - senior
Kenzie Hare - senior
Kelsey Joens - senior
Alisa Williams - senior
Lilly Taulelei - senior
Aili Tanke - junior
Reagan Wilson - junior
Reece Beaty - sophomore
Freya Jenson - sophomore

As the roster sits now we only lose Sydney Harris.

We will be OLD. Now its a given we will have a few that transfer and we will also load up on some transfer plus recruits. Its still fun to look at what Fennelly is building and be excited for the future.

Who do you think will be a surprise/breakout player for the offense and defense?

My prediction:
Offense: Trevor Buhr
Defense: Marcus Neal

Did a dive into the Sisters' newest addition. Here's what I found.

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Welcome back to Why Your Town Sucks, the series where we remind you that no matter how much civic pride you pretend to have, deep down, you know living there represents a personal failure. Today’s focus? The most requested town in 4 years: Marshalltown—a place so devoid of ambition that even the tornado that hit in 2018 looked around and said, “Eh, halfway done is good enough.” Frankly, the tornado did more for urban renewal than any city plan in the last 50 years.

Your Town: Marshalltown. Population 27,591 (+.01% from 2010 +39 people). That’s damn-near 4 people per year!

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Marshalltown was founded in 1853 by Henry Anson, who looked at the vast Iowa landscape and thought, “Let’s build something profoundly disappointing here” Originally just “Marshall,” the community added “-town” because Marshall sounded too much like a discount-brand name.

Marshalltown had potential when railroads mattered but now it’s a town defined by abandoned big box stores, the lingering scent of pig carcasses, and an economy based on painkillers and Medicaid checks. Half the downtown is still pretending it’ll be rebuilt after the tornado, but at this point, it’s obvious that “reconstruction” is just another way of saying “we gave up” or "I hope the insurance check clears".

City Hall is an old Carnegie Library, which is no doubt a beautiful building. Unfortunately, like most “practical Iowans”, the town decided to add the cheapest, ugliest addition they could find, which is nothing more than a off-white box. Millennial gray three generations too soon. It’s like seeing Sydney Sweeney Brooke Burke at the beach and telling her she looks better in a parka.

Local say Marshalltown would be successful if it just had two things: an Olive Garden and a Target. Unfortunately, Olive Garden picked nearby Ames for its next location and the only Target in Marshalltown will be the next suspect in an ICE raid.

Marshalltown went for Trump in the 2024 election. Apparently, they felt having new (non-white) residents was a bad thing. Nothing says “I believe in our future” more than cutting the social programs on which you rely and deporting a third of the workforce.

Below: the northern and southern entrances into Marshalltown.

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Your County: Marshall County. Population 39,369 (-3.6% since 2020)

Home to one of the state's most beautiful courthouses, Marshall County’s claim to fame are soybeans, Walmart, and the optimism of people who think things might improve. Spoiler: they won’t. Complaining about “the big city of Marshalltown” is a pasttime in the rest of Marshall County. Thankfully they are just a quick jaunt over to Ames or Cedar Rapids on Highway 30. Residents get to the Des Moines metro area using a highway they call “the Diagonal”, which is special because most county residents rarely acknowledge anything that isn’t straight.

Your High School: Marshalltown High School

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Nearly 20% of Marshalltown does not have a high school degree. That’s not a reflection of the high school, because a school can’t be blamed for people who refuse to attend.

Marshalltown High School is best known for its swimming team, which sets up its players for a life in Marshalltown: they’ll go back-and-forth and back-and-forth and yet not get anywhere. The state swimming championships recently decided to leave Marshalltown after many decades. This will no doubt impact local stalwarts such as Kmart, Younkers, JCPenney, Staples, and KFC.

Recently the district celebrated its graduation rate topping 90% for the first time in a decade. Surprisingly this beats the state average of 88.3%. It seems students understand they need a high school degree to find jobs that will take them out of Marshalltown.

A football team exists, but mostly as a weekly confidence booster for the suburban teams that can afford equipment from this century. But there's a new track. Like swimming, athletes go around and around yet get nowhere. A new piece of artwork was installed outside of the “roundhouse” gym. If your foundation is crumbling, you can still repaint your walls.

The school mascot is the Bobcat and its colors are red white and blue. These colors do not run (except from the cops).

Your college:
Marshalltown Community College. Enrollment is increasing. There are now 704 full time students. I think my dorm at Iowa State had more than that. There is nothing else to say about MCC because it's not polite to kick people when they're down.

Your mayor:
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Joel Greer has been a “one-term mayor” since 2017. He has had to deal with a tornado, a derecho, a pandemic, and the never-ending struggle of pretending Marshalltown matters after the year 1963. Not much else is known about Joel other than his wife is a judge and he is both a Cyclone and Hawkeye fan. We’ll give him credit for one of those two.

Your Industries: HVAC Systems, meat cutting, and welding.

Marshalltown’s economy is built on three pillars of:

• Lennox, where they make HVAC systems that break three weeks after the warranty ends.
• JBS, a meatpacking plant that ensures the whole town smells like regret on a warm summer day. The locals who don’t work there call it “the smell of money.”
• Emerson, known locally as Fisher Controls because the Fisher name controls everything in town. A school, an art museum, a charity, all bear the name Fisher. Their motto is “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Give a man a job at Fishers and he’ll be constantly scrolling Indeed for job postings in other cities.”

Famous People from Marshalltown

• Toby Huss – The voice of Boomhauer from King of the Hill.
• Cap Anson - An MLB player so racist even the University of Iowa kicked him out.
• Jean Seberg – A Hollywood actress who escaped Marshalltown, which is probably why she was successful until her suicide at age 40. Honestly, we can’t believe it took that long.
• Jeremy Garten – A resident who chopped up a body in his house, dumped some of it in the trash, and called the garbage company to come haul it away. Was he part of the 90% graduation rate?

What’s New That Sucks

There is rarely anything new except what you're addicted to. Locals will say a new Fareway, Arby's, Menards, etc. count as growth. Sure, they're new buildings but the jobs still pay the bare minimum they can get away with. Youth in Marshalltown can often be heard saying, "I'd go to college but the new Fareway looks so nice I think I'll work there instead."

What Has Always Sucked

The roads, which double as an endurance test for your suspension.

What Doesn’t Totally Suck

If this were 2015 we would say Taco Johns, but even that has gone downhill since new ownership. It's bad business to take the best Taco John's in the nation and change everything about it when you buy the franchise. Sub City on Main Street is one of the best sub shops you will ever eat at. Support small business. The proximity to Ames.

There are 10 hours left in the annual Forever True Day fundraiser. Lots of opportunities to make a difference for ISU including many matching contribution challenges.

If you do decide to give this year, if you use the link below, it will give "credit" back to Cyclone Fanatic. Thank you!

Forever True Day 2025​

24 Hours of Cyclone Power!

Looking for things to keep me occupied during ~50 minute low intensity steady state cardio. Something kind of engaging but not super involved or requires a ton of attention. Either TV series or podcast. Just finished up Season 2 of The Punisher for reference, which was great for that. Just push play and work out for the duration of the episode.

Prefer something where a whole season is available at once or has a big back catalog as I try to do cardio 4X/week. Waiting a week for new episodes won't really cut it. Already watched Reacher S1/S2, and will hit S3 when it's all out. All genres are on the table.

Chris Williams and Brent Blum discuss the latest from the transfer portal and why everyone should calm down about the additions. Jada Williams picks the Cyclones and more. Presented by Mechdyne.

Easter candy is on the shelves at stores and one of my favorite is Reese's eggs. I would argue that they are better than the original peanut butter cups.

If selecting Other, please specify which one you prefer.

This is all I’ve got for the moment. I gather that he was a ‘24 soph at Highland JC, so would be a junior this fall.

6’3” 315, from Sumter SC.

Still sorting out the rest.

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High school profile:

...and I put "National Duals" in quotes because this is a totally different event from what we've historically known as National Duals.



Nov. 15-16, 2025 - Tulsa, Okla.

Automatic Entries (up to 12):
Top 12 teams from 2025 NCAA (Penn State, Nebraska, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State, Cornell, NC State, Northern Iowa, Illinois, Virginia Tech and Michigan)
NOTE: Teams must confirm participation by April 15

Lottery Entries (to complete the 16-team field):
Random drawing from teams that finished 13th-24th at 2025 NCAA (Purdue, Missouri, Lehigh, Pennsylvania, Little Rock, Arizona State, Stanford, West Virginia, Navy, Wyoming, South Dakota State, Indiana, Maryland and Oregon State)
NOTE: Drawing will take place April 24

Updated: I forgot to add the bill would also remove city council approval for new developments *IF* the comprehensive plan and zoning districts permit the development. The rational is the city already agreed to housing in certain areas through the public review process, so adding additional council review increases time and drives up cost. The bill would mandate an administrative review process.

The Minnesota Legislature is advancing a bipartisan bill (SF1750) that bans cities from requiring commonly-owned lots in new developments in order to force the creation of an HOA for that development.

The rational is that HOAs limit the construction of new home and raise prices and monthly costs for buyers.

In Iowa, most cities require an HOA for ALL new developments. You cannot build a new subdivision without an HOA in all parts of the DSM metro. The HOA is then required to maintain storm water ponds, drainage, etc. HOA boards are not filled with engineering professionals, so it's a terrible position to put homeowners in.

What are your thoughts?

It might sound crazy, but we're seriously weighing the pros/cons of selling our home, buying a 5th wheel toy hauler and living in it FT for a few years. We'd become SD residents (no state taxes), but live somewhere warm in the winter. (I'm open to suggestions for good winter RV spots.)

Husband works remotely. We already planned to sell/move by/before the time he retires (4 years), purchase some land closer to our son and build a place. And we also plan to substantially downsize when we build. In the past we've had 3+ guest rooms and it's been extremely rare if they're used, so not going down that road again. LOL.

We've been in the same house 20 years, and we're thinking about selling and upgrading. Since it's been so long,I have a few questions:

1. I currently have a mortgage, but we only owe $25k on the mortgage. I didn't pay it off early because it's 2.75%.

2. I'll have enough saved that once we sell our house, we won't need a mortgage for the new house. The new house will be a new model.

What does this process look like? Do we make a contingent offer on the house based on the potential sale of our current property? How long do these go for? Do builders usually go along with these contingent offers? Do i need to put any money down?

Since I won't be getting a mortgage, do I need an assessment? Anything else I can skip out on?

What are people paying to move these days? From one DSM suburb to another, 2,500 sqft house, etc.. Movers you would recommend?

Anything else I should be aware of.

Not a question, but my god the Des Moines metro has high property taxes.

Dylan Coon and Nigel Dyson react to Iowa State’s additions via the transfer portal before looking back at the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, previewing the Final Four, and more!