Bryan & College Station, Texas

I’m a pretty safe driver. I don’t attempt to run red lights, and for the most part either slow down or stop at yellow lights. OK, so I’ve been known to stop at green lights and put my turn signal on when the road is just curving, but aside from that, oh, and the occasional speeding ticket, I’m a pretty good driver.

Well, needless to say, I was sure surprised to get a letter in the mail with pictures of my car running a red light.

So, my wife and I try to figure out what day it was, what we were doing in town, etc. We’re pretty sure it was me driving (not my wife), which actually makes more sense. My wife rarely gets speeding tickets because she can somehow always pay attention to speed limits and traffic signals

Anyway, that’s my story. So, just so you know, there are several red light cameras around town.

Harvey Road and Munson Avenue, Harvey Road and George Bush Drive East, Texas Avenue and Walton Drive and Wellborn Road and George Bush Drive. Another one is proposed to go up at Texas and Hwy 6.

The City of College Station site explains a little more why they put them up…here’s an exerpt:

Program revenue will be used first to pay the vendor, American Traffic Solutions, which will install and maintain the cameras at no cost to the city.

The company charges $4,750 per camera. If the full amount is not recouped during the company’s five-year contract, the city will not have to make up the difference.

Once the $19,000 has been paid to American Traffic Solutions, College Station will subtract the cost of running the program and divide the remainder equally between the city and state. Funds that go to the city will be used to pay for traffic safety improvements.

The initial four intersections were chosen based on a December 2006 study by American Traffic Solutions. According to the study, the most violations occurred at Texas Avenue and Walton Drive, where 43 people ran red lights in a 12-hour period.

Mine was at Harvey and Munson.

The company sends you a citation with a couple of pictures of your car in the intersection, one close-up of your license plate, and a link to their website where you can even watch a video of the violation. Funny.

So, there you have it. Now I’m totally nervous when I’m driving through intersection…not just the ones with the cameras on them.

Mid July, 2008 is when the new Target is going to open. Now, I thought for sure it was going to be a Super Target, but it’s not. Apparently, it’s going to be an “Extended” Target. I don’t wuite know what that means, but I was told by the Info Person at the Target on Texas Avenue that the new Target would have more dry goods that a regular store, but not as much as a Super Target.

I’m wondering if that means no produce, meats and bakery. Well, I know my wife was hoping for a Super Target so she could have another store to use her coupons in, but no. She’ll be OK.

I guess with the Kroger right down the street and the “Plethora” of grocery stores in town (Albertson’s (2), Kroger’s (3), Super Wal-Mart, HEB (2), Apple Tree(2), plus the Asian Market and the Mexican Michoacana), maybe Target thought they couldn’t make the money back.

They’ve put up a Traffic light on Briarcrest, and it looks like it’s going to be quite a big shopping center. Here’s a quote from the Eagle in June of 2007:

The retail center will be anchored by the 127,000-square-foot Target store, and will feature five junior anchor spaces, eight free-standing shops and 100,000-square-foot of shop space.

This means more restaurants and the potential for maybe…just maybe, another Freebirds.

—

Well, no Freebirds is planned. Here is a list of planned stores to occupy the retail spaces (the list is from Chris Tesch’s Real Estate blog):

Shipley’s Doughnuts
Baskin Robbins
Eyemart Express
Citifinancial
E-Nail Topia
Dollar Tree
rue21
Rack Room Shoes
Maurices
Logan ’s Steakhouse
Anytime Fitness
Salt Grass Steakhouse
IHOP
Burlington Coat Factory

They just keep going up don’t they, gas prices. Well, today, a bunch of pumps have reached the $4.00 mark. That’s just crazy, and although I agree that there are some good things that could come out of this price hike, it’s not fun right now.

My brother is coming into town this weekend from Austin, I hope the gas prices don’t deter him.

—

Well, I looked around and found this site:

Gas prices in College Station

Gas prices in Bryan

Looks like the Kroger’s in town have the lowest gas prices…at least for now.

Hope this helps…

We have a prayer meeting at our house on Monday nights where around 5 families get together, each bringing some dish or side or dessert. We eat, then hang out, then pray and sing songs. It’s a perfect way to start the week. We all look forward to getting together.

Well, this last week, we were blessed to have our desert supplied by Delicious Moments, and Husband and Wife team who caters small parties in the College Station and Bryan area.

They brought us a whole bunch of really yummy mini cheesecakes. They were so good. Everyone commented on them and wanted to know where they came from. I was happy to tell them that Zack and Lauren from Delicious Moments brought them over.

Being the first time we used a catering service, I was not sure what to expect, but let me assure you, Delicious Moments has set the bar pretty high, at least in our eyes.

They emailed me in the morning asking me what time would be good for them to drop off the food, then in the afternoon (way before people started to arrive), I got a call from them telling me they were on their way.

They brought the cheesecakes in cute little pink boxes, and they looked just perfect. They brought us original and peanut butter cheesecakes. Wow, they were good. In fact, there were way more than we needed, and were looking forward to having some the next day, but at the end of the night, while my wife and I were cleaning up after everyone left, we looked in the boxes and they were all gone. Bummer. They were obviously very good, maybe even the best in town!

We were all very impressed with these guys, and will definitely be the first company we call.

They also offer a personal chef service and in home cooking classes.

They even offer to go to the grocery store for you. Here a quote from the Delicious Moments website:

How many people hate grocery shopping? Either it takes too long, you have little kids who seem to always throw a tantrum once you get to the store or who just want to load the cart up on candy and cookies, you’re too busy to find time to grocery shop, you hate waiting in long lines, crowded aisles, finding a close parking spot, etc. Well, if you just want someone to do your grocery shopping for you, call us up and let us know! We would be happy to be of assistance! Just send us your list and we’ll do the grocery shopping for you! Simple as that.

Call these guys soon, even if your event is later this year. Visit their website for more catering, personal chef and cooking class information.

jorge

Are you wanting to go out to eat or call in a to go order, but you can’t find the restaurant’s website, and you don’t know what to order? Well, College Station and Bryan restaurant menus can be viewed at a website called “Aggieland Menus”.

Aggieland menus is a cool website that lists many (if not all) of the restaurants in town, and links to a pdf of the restaurant’s menu. So even if the restaurant doesn’t have a website, chances are, the menu is posted at AggielandMenus.info.

It’s a free service, so if you are a restaurant owner, contact them. And if you are a restaurant owner and need a website, contact me…it’s what I do.

Here’s what they have to say about their service:

Aggieland Menus is a guide serving the restaurants and consumers of Bryan-College Station, Texas. We are a free service that provides the most information about your restaurant to the most important person… your customers!

They have a rating system on the site, a place to write a review on the restaurant’s own page. It’s very well organized, and a great resource.

We just recently downloaded Spice Bowl’s menu for my wife’s parents. They wanted to try something different, and have another look at the prices.

I also downloaded the Pho John’s menu to see if they served Bubble Smoothies…they do.

It’s just a great idea to serve the restaurants in town.

You can even subscribe to the site with a syndication reader and get Aggieland Menus news as soon as it’s posted on the site. Nice. (click on the little orange RSS button in the corner).

And by the way, don’t you think the best menus are the ones with beautiful pictures of food items on them? I love those.

You should call in an order and eat in! Or order from Freebirds and go eat at Central Park.

jorge