And A Points-Free Weekend Was Had By All

After logging another thousand mile trip on the trusty Suburban, we have returned safely home and promptly panicked once Adventure Guy and I realized all the coordination it's going to take to get our three children and ourselves to our evening commitments tomorrow night (that's commitments, not being committed, though it feels like I may need a little "rest" by the time the evening's over).

But I digress....back to the long-weekend which is much more fun to contemplate than is the beginning of the work week.

The weekend went very much according to plan. We were ready to hit the highway once we picked up Soccer Boy from school--his school starts and finishes an hour later than the girls' schools do, so we had already retrieved the other kids from the bus. Our trusty new route did indeed cut off a good amount of time, so we rolled into town in time to begin our eating tour of College Station.

My friend over at The Testosterone Zone often writes wonderful reviews of classy restaurants which serve gourmet food. Her posts make make my mouth water. There will be none of that here today. As I told Adventure Guy when the Suburban rolled into town Friday night, "This is an official points-free weekend." He suggested I use that as the title of my post. In total disregard to my Best Life and Weight Watchers efforts of late, I decided to eat whatever I wanted during the weekend. I had saved all my bonus points for the occasion, but, trust me, there's no way I stayed within the total. But I have lived to diet another day.

First stop on the greasy and/or fried food whirlwind was Double Dave's Pizzaworks. Double Dave's started in College Station and has since expanded to other cities, but it's a rare treat for us, having not made it yet to a location near Suburbia. We were happy to have a franchise open in my hometown, so it's not quite as rare an indulgence as it used to be. We had just enough time to down a dozen and a half pizza rolls, soft drinks for the kids, and not-so-soft drinks for Adventure Guy and me before heading out to midnight yell practice. It was fun to introduce the kids to an Aggie tradition that Adventure Guy and I enjoyed while we were students there, but it made for a late night. By the time we rolled into the house at around 1:00, everyone was more than ready for a good night's sleep.

There's a saying about the "spirit of Aggieland" and the traditions at A & M, "From the outside you can't understand it; from the inside you can't explain it." I'm finding that to be true in my accounts here. I ran across a new song during our visit, though, by an Aggie who's trying to make it in country music these days. Check it out at his myspace page. I wish I could share the video that they played at the game, but I'm not having any luck finding it yet.

And now, back to the eating! Saturday morning the girls and I slept in but were treated to round two of the food tour by Adventure Guy and Soccer Boy who were nice enough to go fetch us Shipley's donuts for breakfast. Forget Krispy Kreme. These are the perfect donut food, especially the plain glazed ones still warm from the oven. Then, sugar fix taken care of, we set out to buy an obscene amount of Aggie paraphernalia at the local bookstores. We bought Best Friend her requested A & M logo for her car, Mother-in-Law some t-shirts, and replenished the kids' stock of shirts, shorts, and jerseys. Oh, and I bought a cute belt that has no Aggie logo whatsoever.

After stopping by to visit Father-in-Law and his wife, we continued the food tour, going to Wings 'N More for lunch. While the rest of the family indulged in the signature chicken wings, I, in true no points barred fashion, had the steak fingers. And the onion rings, and, of course, the cream gravy as a dipping sauce. Fried-food heaven, I tell you. It's a good thing I only have the opportunity to eat this stuff once or twice a year!

The next stop was campus for a visit to the Memorial Student Center, where Adventure Guy and I were both involved in a number of student activities while we were at A & M and the Quad, where we watched the Corps of Cadets step off to march in to the game. Adventure Guy was a corps member as were my father and his father. We ran into several people we know and also met up at the end of the afternoon with our friends from Houston who were in for the game. I'm sure Adventure Guy would want me to note that one of the people we ran into was a yell leader during the time we were all at A & M. The term yell leader should automatically be translated into "big man on campus." After we finished visiting with him, Adventure Guy said, "Please tell me I've aged better than Yell Leader." I was able to assure him that he decidedly had!

Adventure Guy's ego appropriately stroked, we began the climb to our seats for the 6:00 p.m. kickoff. The kids were excited because we split them up so that the girls could sit together with their friend from Houston and Soccer Boy could sit with her brothers. This left Adventure Guy and me with the really good seats all to ourselves in the new endzone club area. I have to admit, I prefer being out with the general public, though the bathrooms in the club area are primo. The game itself went fairly well, and I'm happy to say that A & M did not go the way of Michigan this weekend.

After the game we visited with Father-in-Law a bit more and then turned in for the night. He left the next morning, and we decided to run on over to Houston to visit some more with our friends there, instead of spending more time in College Station as planned. The kids got to swim, and we got to conclude our feasting weekend with a trip to our absolute favorite Tex-Mex place, Lupe Tortilla. Their chicken enchiladas with green chili sauce are the best I've ever eaten, and the fajitas are fabulous too. I managed to indulge a bit in both and left absolutely stuffed. My two older kids were introduced to Mexican food at Lupe's and I can still remember Dancer Girl as a toddler powering down their barracho beans like she'd never have a chance to eat again.

This morning we drove the kids by our old neighborhood and showed them the two houses we lived in when we were there. Dancer Girl can remember a bit about the second house, but Gym Girl was too little when we moved to remember anything. Soccer Boy finds it strange that we lived anywhere else before he joined the family and emphatically states that HE never wants to live anywhere other than Suburbia unless he can take all his friends with him when he moves. That being unlikely, I think we'll stay put!

So, now we're home, and I'm the only slacker who's not unpacked. I've been wasting time catching up on blogs and having a nice glass of wine instead of getting to work. But I'm sure there will be plenty of time for that tomorrow.