Things To Do

Middle nephew's birthday is next Wednesday.

Eldest is away at a friend's ranch this weekend, then to that same friend's b-day party next weekend, then we'll have the Littlest One with us the weekend after that. Eldest promised we could sit down this weekend and learn some more Japanese, but I think he forgot about his ranch plans when he promised me that. I'll try to hit him up Sunday when he comes back home.

Middle nephew wants to go to The Olive Garden for his birthday dinner. I also showed him colorful cake options we saw at the store while picking up the Angel Food batter I needed for last weekend, and he'd like to have one of those. I have the boys on my Barnes & Noble membership card enrolled in the Kids' Club thing they have, so I received his birthday free food gift coupon at the in-house Starbucks via my email. I'll probably look at taking him by there this weekend.

He loves riding the roller coasters with me, so I'm considering Six Flags with him this weekend. I think they should have their Fright Fest decorations up now, which also means there will be haunted houses.

The Texas State Fair opens this weekend, and that might always be an option.

There's an estate sale going on this weekend, and he tends to like to visit those with me.

Since his brother we be gone all weekend, I know he's likely to get bored on his own, but we have knitting we could do together (oooh, we could take the knitting with us to the Starbucks in the B&N - that would be cool), and I could get him to break out the game programming book again and we could play with that some more.

I got Mom and him watching the Battlestar Galactica reboot (this will be like my 6th time to watch through the entire series - this has all happened before...), and we haven't watched any of it in a while. (Eldest started watching the pilot with us, but then got bored and wanted to go play on his XBox with his friends instead, so he hasn't been watching with us.)

The best plan would be Saturday hit up the estate sale in the morning, then a nice lunch somewhere, then B&N with knitting for an afternoon snack, and then he could play with his knitting while I do some cross stitch the rest of the evening while we watch BSG. We could always do some game programming Sunday until say mid-afternoon, then head out to Six Flags until Eldest drags in and we can all try another Japanese lesson.

Texas State Fair Fare

Edible Cola Cups, et al

Although, really, the newest meat popcicle of the year is probably a must try:
"Lollipop Fried Bacon Wrapped Quail Breast on a Stick"

I still love the fried banana with chocolate and whipped cream that we had a few years back. Surely that can still be found.

If I come across the fried peppermint candies again, though, I'm going to have to have words with someone.

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The State Fair of Texas website has some wonderful tricks up its sleeve when you check out the different options listed under the Schedule drop-down. There is a tablet-friendly, interactive guide with a tutorial, printing, emailing, and even note-taking capabilities (hopefully that link works for you). The Daily Schedule has a browser-saved Itinerary (which can also be printed off and/or downloaded) that lets you mark items from the online schedule for easy reference. Lastly, there are recommended guided itineraries to makes things even easier if you don't want to spend time combing through the schedule of events.

Reminder: The TX-OU game is Oct 8. We made the mistake of going that same day a few years ago, and I swear I almost had a heart attack thinking I'd lost one of the much-younger-at-the-time nephews in the crowd of thousands packed in like sardines (NOT exaggerating). We were working our way through to a concessions tent only to stand in line for over an hour just to get a couple sodas. Roommate Tom went with us that year, and he really was a life saver that day.