The rugrats are coming..! The rugrats are coming..!

The Web Guy and the rugrats.

After a lovely spring break vacation (the university allots a three day weekend for staff - no I am not complaining...).  I am now in the midst of preparing for the impending invasion of teenagers.  One fifteen year old Prince and a twelve year old Princess shall grace the halls of the manor.  This also means that there shall be new rules/realities within the manor.

1. The day shall not begin before 10 am AT THE EARLIEST!
2. The carefully laid out plans of the Lord (Me) have a great chance of being tossed aside by said teenagers.
3. The Lord of the manor (Me) shall lose all control of the viewing habits within the manor.
4. The Lord of the manor (Me) shall have to deal with an overly pampered and hyped up Cat of the manor once the Prince and Princess return to the corn of Indiana (He gets this wide-eyed, manic look on his face that screams "Play with Me!' for about a week after they leave).

Now...having understood what is about to happen, I am thrilled beyond belief and the impending outbreak of pandemonium.  Thank goodness that I live in this area because there is no shortage of things to do.

The Bayou City Art Fair is this upcoming weekend.  If you have not been to one of these, I cannot recommend it enough.  I am finally going to visit NASA's Johnson Space Center.  Then there is the mandatory visits to the Houston Zoo and the Museum of Natural Science.

My son has already decreed that he MUST schedule a visit with his Houston friends which I have no idea what that may entail.  Maybe a visit to the Galleria Mall (... that IS what these teenage types do isn't it?).

So, I have cleaned the apartment and made the beds.  I have stocked up with snacks.  Life is going to be grand!

Making the lineup...

The rugrats are heading back to town!  The rugrats are heading back to town!

The excitement is palpable and I am starting to run around like a chicken with it's head cut off.  You see, I have to create a schedule.  Now it is certainly not hard to come up with things to do in the greater Houston area.  That is the easy part.  The hard part is to not to cram too many things in...

On top of all of that, my lovely young lady sent me a gift over the weekend that will be sure to be a hit when the rugrats arrive.  I received a milkshake maker and a book with recipes for making syrups and sundae toppings.  She really is the best...

In my mis-spent youth, I worked at a restaurant with an old fashioned soda/ice cream station so I got good at making milkshakes, ice cream floats, egg creams, sundaes, and the like.  The book has recipes for making homemade cola syrup, New Orleans Mead (root beer), and all of the fruit syrups.  I know that the young 'uns and I will have fun.

So... we have a trip to Galveston on tap (of course), and I still have not gotten out to the NASA Space center (Johnson Space Center for those of us "in the know"), and I just found out that there is a place that has trampolines all over the place.  And then, there are all of the restaurants...

Going to be a good visit.  Guess I should clean the place up a bit...

Simply awash with goodies

The Web Guy and Shasta

First off, I would like to let everyone know that I found a great breakfast place.  Well... if truth be told, I should probably amend that to say that my young lady friend found it.  I just drove.  Anyway, it is the Fountain View Cafe.  My young lady friend always has a hankering for biscuits and our search turned up this place.  The food was great, the coffee was good and plentiful, and the biscuits were delicious.  A place to keep on the list.

Last Friday we had a birthday party for the University of Houston.  The University is 88 years young and we pulled out the stops.  We had the pep band, cheerleaders, dance squad and the mascot Shasta.  We also had cake (enough to feed about 400 college students), t-shirts, temporary tattoos, and a photo booth.  It was genuinely a lot of fun and we had the students turn out on a Friday.  Of course it should be noted that it is extremely easy to create a crowd of college students, just give away t-shirts and cake.

It is also hysterical to witness a group of 18-22 year olds trying so hard to look cool.  There is a band playing, cheerleaders cheering, dance squad dancing and the mascot is bouncing around, and here are about 400 students forcing themselves to look bored.  Being the rather exuberant man myself, I am of course chastising this group of dour individuals.  They in turn look at me as if I am a fifty year old man with mental issues, but that is okay... I am having fun.