Birthday Celebration by the 'Rents

It was quite surprising when my mother mentioned celebrating my birthday this past weekend. It's not like the day is quickly approaching! In fact, it's over a month from now. Who could argue and what would really be the point of doing such, were on the top of my thoughts that Friday when she told me the big news. Thus, Saturday morning Phil and I picked up our rental to avoid possible future problems with the murrmobile and headed down to the 'Ville. Our trip down is always pressed for time because my father insists on knowing exactly when we will arrive. If we arrive early, there is hell to pay. If we arrive late, my father would be zany enough to simply not be there. I can see it now. We'd arrive at 1230 after several cell phone calls to make sure we were still coming, but he would prolly not even be there with some excuse such as, "We waited as long as we could, but I wanted to have my cat fixed before it got dark." These words would come out of his mouth while we sat on the front porch and imagined his 1 month old cat being tortured to simply prove the importance of punctuality.
Anyway, we arrived at noon and enjoyed the instant company of their newest arrival to the family, Callie, a calico female cat of just a few months old. Rambuctious does not begin to describe her hyperactive behavior. Then we left for my big dinner of a homestyle restaurant called, "The Wild Onion". It was not what I had expected, but I was not disappointed either. The deepfried pickles and homemade corndog were not exactly great, but I did enjoy their take on the veggie burger: fried green tomatoes with green peppers, mushrooms, and onions on a hamburger bun.
Next, we went home to play some games as a family and enjoyed my mom's Angel Food Cake for dessert. They did give me a candle and lawn snowman as gifts. I can't wait until the holiday season to light it up.
That night we went to the Nightmare Motel in Lexington. It was awful. The girl that lead the tour does get mad props for having heart, but it was just very cheesy overall. I would not recommend it to anyone unless they only want to pay a few dollars (12 bucks) compared to the $20 and over that you'll find at most haunted houses.
Phil and I headed back to our hotel at the Quality Inn and Suites of Greensboro and had a very nice evening after stopping for dinner at McCalister's Deli. I have been there before as they have a location at ASU. He had never eaten at the Deli, but we did dine on some good food that evening. I recommend the bread bowl and tortilla chips to anyone. On the other side, the hotel was newly rennovated and was absolutely fantastic. We finally found a hotel that we do not have a problem staying at when we visit my parents.
The next morning we slept late and had a brunch at Panera Bread, another restaurant that I would die for. The artichoke souffle was a party in my mouth; the homemade blueberry muffins were DELICIOUS. It seems almost that all we did was eat this weekend because we did have lunch at Andy's Cheesesteaks and Cheeseburgers. Great as well.
All in all, busy weekend.