Need a Place to Stay During Aggie Football Home Game Weekends?

Football season is upon us, and I know many alumni come back for home games, so I made some calls to hotels in town and there aren’t any available during the  Aggie Home Game weekends. I was surprised. I thought there would be some left, but there’s not. Well, we have a student living at our house and he had a great idea…rent the house to a large family or a couple of families for the weekend.

We thought about it and liked the idea. It will take some planning, but we’re going through with it. This will be the first season we do this, but I think it’s a good idea.

So far we have some people interested for a couple of the weekends, but none are booked just yet. I thought I’d offer it up on my blog so you all could have a look at it.

Send this on to someone who you think might be interested.

http://aggiehomegame.wordpress.com/

Aggie First Practice

If you are a student or an alumni, or even faculty at A&M, you can show your student ID, your Faculty ID, or even your aggie ring, and get in to watch the first practice of the season tonight at 6:30pm at the Coolidge practice fields. If you are a high school coach, you can get in too by showing your coaching card.

Sounds like fun. Remember, no cameras.

Kabobs, Sumac and Incredible Service

So, you are looking for a place to eat tonight? Consider Shiraz Shish Kabob. I took my family the other day and it was incredible on many levels.

This is a family owned and run restaurant specializing in home-style Eastern Mediterranean and Eastern European cooking. Our family is a wonderful mixture of Persian and Turkish origins and the food we prepare with love and only the freshest of ingredients is a blend of those delightful culinary influences.

First, the food was amazing. Chicken Kabobs, lamb chops, beef, on beds of rice. Oh, and the Hummus and flat bread…wow. The Hummus and artisian flatbread by by themselves are reason enough to check this place out.

My wife had the Lamb on green rice, which was a dill rice. Really tasty. In fact, surprisingly, my 4 year old loved the green rice. This is not a normal thing. All my kids enjoyed the food here.

So we’re enjoying our food, and I notice that there’s a container of some sort of purplish marroon spice. I decide to try it. It was sort of a mix between pepper and paprika and maybe a little salty and a little tart. Real interesting. I had to know what it was.

Well, to my surprise, it is Sumac. Yeah, Sumac…like the poison Sumac (except not the poisonous kind). I had never had Sumac before. Well, Andrei (the owner) told me about the spice and how it’s derived, as well as many other interesting things about the food in the restaurant.

He told me that the meats were organic, the animals were grass fed and the vegetables were all organic as well. He told me thay had many dishes that were gluten free and he was very interested in serving healthy food. This is so cool.

Andrei is an A&M Agriculture graduate, and he loves this town, and loves the people of the town. I could tell. He and his wife are so nice and hospitable.

He even gave us some tea to go with our Baklava, which he told us was also organic and “healthy”. It was so good, and I’m not necessarily a Baklava fan.

Check out their menu and daily specials. Looks like they are updating their specials on the site every day, so check it out.

We will definitely go there often. It’s a wonderful addition to the restaurants here in Bryan and College Station. I am glad this restaurant is here…you will be too.

Oh, it’s across the street from Gumby’s Pizza on Dominik Drive.

Steak, Wine, Whiskey and Live Music at the Republic

Most of you probably know about The Republic. It’s that fine dining restaurant on Tarrow across the street from the Hilton on University. If you haven’t been, you should go check it out. There’s really great food, a great bar, and live music on Thursday Friday and Saturday.

The service is really top notch, and the atmosphere is just right for business meetings, schmoozin, or even proposing. You’ll see. Go in for a beer or wine or to watch a game on their flat screen and peek in to the dining rooms…really nice.

I’m a musician, so I am gonna focus this post on the live music. I met with Seth Templeton. He’s a student at A&M and plays on Thrusday night. I asked him a few questions and he graciously answered them.

What is your name? How old are you?
My name is Seth Templeton. I am 23 years old.

When do you perform at the Republic?
I play every Thursday night, usually between 9pm and midnight. We will be starting music at 8pm soon, though. We recently discovered another guy in town who will be opening for me. He will play from 8pm until 10pm and I’ll play until the bar closes. That might be midnight, or it might be one…I suppose it could even be two…but, don’t expect that long of a show haha.

What kind of music can people expect from you?
It’s hard for me to label myself with any one genre. When I was young, I drew a lot from Darius Rucker from Hootie and the Blowfish, and many country vocalists. Then, in later high school years, I started following guys like Gavin Degraw, Graham Colton, and Marc Broussard, pretty much totally abandoning country music. I’d say that as I’ve grown, I get a lot of comparisons to Gavin Degraw with my vocal style and my song selection.

What are some of your favorite songs to perform?
I love to do covers that people will not be familiar with or that people have only heard one way. I really like to change up great old songs and make them contemporary. For instance, I cover “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel and “Baby, Can I Hold You” by Tracy Chapman. Those are songs that most people my age will probably assume that I wrote, because they most likely have never heard them. Next thing you know- I’m a great song writer!

What songs get the best reaction?
Oh, well that’s easy…every week I get at least two requests to play “Let’s get it on” by Marvin Gaye. I think I do a pretty good version of it and it doesn’t take a PhD to figure out why the crowd likes it. It’s good for people who might be having a romantic drink together…it’ll lighten the mood up some too because, you probably didn’t see it coming.

How long have you been playing guitar?
I’ve been playing guitar just long enough to fake being a good guitar player…Haha No, seriously, I started learning by watching my older brother Derek play when I was about 13 or 14. I’ve never had a lesson or anything. In fact, I’ve never even owned a guitar book or any kind of teaching magazine. I have always just watched people and listened. I bet I’d be better had I learned more appropriately, though…

Aren’t you classically trained?
Vocally?  Umm…sort of. I was home schooled growing up and the majority of my young education revolved around playing instruments and singing. My parents are both fantastic vocalists and they didn’t waste any time instilling that in my siblings and I. When I was in High School, I placed first in the state in solo competition with an Italian aria. I mean, I know how to sing, but playing my style at shows like these, breathing exercises and vowel pronunciation kind of go out the window. You might pick up a few nuances in my style, though, that hint at my “training.”

You toured with a country music act, what was that like?
Haha, well I wouldn’t exactly call it “touring,” but yeah I played bass and sang back-up vocals in the Tres Womack Band for almost three years. We had a lot of fun. It’s actually kind of a cool story- Tres was my High School football coach. I was a linebacker, he was the linebacker coach. After my class graduated, he decided to pursue his dream of starting a band. It just so happened that he knew that I was a talented bass player, so I got to join. We played all around Texas for a couple of years while I was a freshman and sophomore at Texas A&M. We also had a pretty tight following. I left the band after that stint, but I think the guys are still playing around. Tres also had a song on the radio not too long ago.  They are doing well.

Who else performs at the Republic?
Well, Thursday, Brad Cooper plays from 8pm to 10pm. He plays the keyboard and acoustic guitar, and has a great following. He has a complimentary style to my own. Then, of course, I play my set at 10pm.

On Friday, Joshua Ray plays. He is a very talented guitarist, whose voice has been likened to Eddie Vedder and has an incredible amount of original songs and very unique covers as well.

On Saturday, Elizabeth Russell and Fransisco Farias play. They have a wonderful lounge act featuring artists  such as Etta James, Norah Jones and Billie Holiday. Fransisco is an unbelievable, classically trained guitarist that is one of the most talented guitarists I have seen in years.

Can you tell me something about your chef?
Wade Burkman is the chief owner of The Republic. He not only designed the restaurant, but also works closely with the kitchen, our wine list and our extensive liquor selection, which has a strong focus on whiskey from around the world.

Can you tell me something interesting to look for in the restaurant?
Everything in the restaurant is custom made for The Republic, so there are many things to look for, but I would have to say the artwork from Jason Scarapace and Wade’s brother Nathan is some of the coolest aspects of the restaurant. Oh, and the whiskey wall is also good to look at and quite functional.

You also serve at the Republic, what is your favorite menu item?
Hmm. I might have to leave that up to you. I know that’s kind of a cop-out, but I’ve had it all and it is REALLY hard to choose a favorite dish. My two cents- it’s a steakhouse. You have to eat steak. But, then I go right back and want to talk about how awesome the seafood dishes are. Yeah, decide for yourself-→ therepublic1836.com

It’s all fantastic. Just close your eyes and point anywhere on the menu.

Have you ever served anyone famous or notable?
We have quite a following from a ton of former students and current high ranking positions at TAMU. If they are anyone big with A&M, I have probably served them.

Thanks so much Seth. I’ll see you on Thursday night.

Jorge

How the Big Event Saved My Marriage

OK, well, maybe not “saved”, we’re doing pretty well, but here’s what I mean.

We signed up for the Big Event this year. It’s where a bunch of students come out to your house and do jobs like painting, raking leaves, gardening, etc. They do it every year, and they take 1300 applicants, and use 12,000 students.

My wife heard about this just in time, we only had a couple of days left to get our application in.

We did everything we could to get that application in, even paid a few bucks to park on campus to get the application to the right office.

So, then we decided what we wanted done. We’ve got some nasty wallpaper in the hallway that we want taken down, we want to paint two of the rooms in the house, we need the trim painted in the master bath, we have tons of leaves to be raked up and put in the burn pile, and I want to make a brick path from the front of the house to the garden area.

So, the “foremen” came out and took notes, figured out what tools I had and what they would need, etc. I got a call two days ago that there would be 20 students coming out. Wow. That’s a lot of students.

We bought some sandwich fixin’s, grapes, chips, cookies, made some tea, have water ready, cups plates, all that stuff. We are ready.

Oh, and we taped off the rooms with that blue tape.

So here’s where the “saving of the marriage” comes in.

We’ve been wanting to do this stuff…I’m sorry.  My wife has been wanting me to do this stuff for quite some time. She’s been very patient, and I’ve been very lazy.

I thought I could take this opportunity to make good on all this stuff, and all I have to do it prep the rooms.

Later this afternoon, we are going to have a bunch of stuff done to our house, and my wife is going to be a happy little camper.

There’s this cool thing called “The Five Love Languages“. It’s a book/concept by Gary Chapman and if you are reading this, you should get it. It’s good for your marriage, raising kids, understanding God a little better all sorts of stuff.

So, the love languages are Gifts, Acts of Service, Words of Affirmation, Physical Touch and Quality Time. (take a test here)

My wife’s is “Acts of Service”. Basically, when she hears the lawn mower driving around (with me on it), her “love tank” gets filled up, and everything is “OK”. She feels loved and supported and all sorts of good stuff.

So, I’m thinking her “love tank” is going to be filled to the brim.

OK, so there will be cleanup afterwards and some of the jobs may not get totally done, so I’m not off the hook by any means, but stuff that she’s been wanting done is gonna get done. That’s cool.

So, I’ll come back later and post some more about how it went.

Next year, I’ll keep my eye out and make sure I remind you when it’s coming.

Here’s the big event website.

Oh, I didn’t mention this, but it’s free. I don’t have to pay them anything. In fact, I don’t even need to feed them, but we’re going to. We like college students. They are giving us some of their day, and we thought we would bless them with some food. They will be here from about 10am to 2pm.

I’m gonna get my 7 year old to count how many “Whoops” she hears.

jorge