We said it would be a month

Thirty days. 3.0. A month before we'd see our little Boilermaker.

It's advice gifted me by my friend Chris Austin in the form of "The Naked Roommate: For Parents Only." It's designed to ensure your child goes off to college and forms relationships and routine such that he/she will be more inclined to survive, if not thrive, their freshman college year.

But I forgot about Labor Day and its 3-day weekend.

"Let's go get her," I said to the Captain.

"We can't," he said. "She needs a month. You said so."

I huffed a bit but decided he was right. She made plans to visit a friend in Chicago and arranged for a bus ride to get herself there.

Back in Indy, we had an awesome time with Eric and Tracy at the Indians' game (Tracy's first baseball game, somehow), dinner with them, Jeff & Susan and Jack & Karen on Saturday; then a jaunt on the Red Line's debut day and dinner with Tracy & Eric and Karin & Dale on Sunday.

I checked on Ali -- she had a great time other than having to step around a pile of steaming vomit on a Chicago bus. Her friend Allie, shrugged and said, "You get used to it."

Sometime during the weekend, I lamented the 30-day thing to Jeff, who coughed and hesitated. "Yeah, about that," he said.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Remember that I go to the Purdue/Vanderbilt football game every year with Andy and Bryan?" he said.

I nodded.

"It's next weekend," he said. "We have an extra ticket. For Ali."

I wanted to complain. OK. I complained.

But I did want one of us to get eyes on the girl. Did I want it to be him without me? Nope. But such is life. Plus, I'd asked for a lot of additional work to keep me from being helicopter-y and the universe delivered. So I needed a day to catch up.

They had a great time. She showed up with proper spirit and appetite, hung out with them a while and ditched them to watch the game with some new buddies. 

As for the Indy weekend, here are a few shots. Should have taken more but we were more in the moment than I thought. It was a great weekend.