Before falling asleep Thanksgiving evening, I remembered to turn off my weekday alarm on my cell phone. When Terry and I finally woke up, we discovered a house transformed (see photo to the left). Being gracious guests, we refrained from comment and chortles.
Rachelle cooked her dad an egg-white, ham and cheese omelet and I sampled her beer biscuits. Derek and Royna fell asleep on the couch so they woke up after we ate and came along with us for a short ‘painless’ shopping spree on ‘Black Friday.’
Our first store was Rachelle’s old employer, Ross, where I found a new purse and wallet, an electric razor for Terry and some reasonably priced extra virgin olive oil for Rachelle. I had a thirty percent off in store coupon for Barnes & Noble, so we trekked all the way across the Golden Triangle Mall. Unfortunately, I didn’t find the appropriate gift I wanted to use the coupon for, but I did spy a newer version of the Lightwedge that’s now rechargeable and thinner and lighter. Oh, well.
Next, we stopped at Hobby Lobby pricing small air compressors for Derek (a requested Chrismtas gift wish list item). The prices were mind boggling, so that item will be bought online. Rachelle prowled around for fabric paints and aprons for a Christmas gift idea. She was disappointed in the selection and variety of fabric paints so we eventually made it to Michaels near Bed, Bath and Beyond, where Terry and I found our next hopefully dog-proof stainless steel trash can (no, we didn’t buy it and haul it back here to Kansas from Texas; we’ll buy it at our own local BB&B).
By then, the morning had melted away so we stopped at Paulio’s Pizza Cafe for lunch. We ordered the King and Hawaiian Sunrise (my favorite pizza bar none!). After lunch, we returned to Kent’s ‘Redskins Christmas Extravaganza’ where he and his significant other spent the rest of the daylight putting up the exterior decorations. After Nic returned from work (and Derek and Royna returned to Plano), all four of us (Terry, Nic, Rachelle and I) spent the evening wasting time playing Peggle on the Xbox 360 in the spare bedroom. Rachelle and Nic left ‘early’ to create spring rolls for tailgating on Saturday but Terry and I toughed it out and made it to the credits by 1:00 a.m.
After a quick and meager breakfast of English muffins and almost oversleeping (one o’clock in the morning is way way way past my bedtime), we joined Kent and several others for tailgating on the University of North Texas campus in a parking lot near Fouts Field stadium. This football game was the last ever to be played in the old stadium since the new stadium on the other (south) side of I-35 will open next spring.
Can you guess who was invited to play against the UNT ‘Mean Green’ Eagles? Oh, the irony! The Kansas State Wildcats! Quite funny, if you think about it. Here’s our daughter, sporting her green UNT T-shirt (the girl on the left with short blond hair and white framed sunglasses) prior to the flood of purple pouring down from the north. You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day for an outdoor party and a final college football game for UNT, providing a great game but ultimately a victory for the Wildcats.
We returned to the house, Terry took a nap, and I read a book while everyone else watched several college football games (sometimes simultaneously) on Kent’s amazing LED HD 3D television.
Sunday morning, Terry and I quickly packed the Bonneville and headed north, pushed relentlessly home by another stiff wind. Our gas mileage on the routine trip was nothing short of miraculous. We stopped in Wichita for a couple of hours to visited some old friends but still made it home before seven o’clock.
Monday I relaxed and recovered from all the driving and almost finished the latest Wheel of Time novel published last month. I’m within one hundred pages of finishing The Towers of Midnight. Terry and I went to pickup the Rotts from the kennel around noon, but the groomer hadn’t given them a bath yet, so we went back at two o’clock for some squeaky clean excited Rottweilers.
What a great time we all had, including Roxy and Apollo. Just wish there had been more time to spend with everyone.
The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven
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