Husband Drops All Plans to Spend Weekend Beating Eldest Child's Pac-Man Score

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Local husband Patrick Mclaughlin was all set for a relaxing weekend when he realized he had an opportunity to reclaim his title by beating his eldest child's high score in Pac-Man.

"Yeah, my guys and I had tons of plans, like tackling our garage and doing some home repairs, but when Charlie told me this morning he'd beaten my score of 23,745,834, well, everything changed," Mclaughlin exclaimed. "It's on!"

Sources confirmed that Mclaughlin opened a second can of Coke and immediately powered up the Arcade1Up Pac-Man cabinet he purchased last Christmas.

With fierce determination, Mclaughlin set his hands on the controls and began chomping pellets and dodging ghosts in a frenzy. "Eat 'em up, Pac-Man! It's your chance to score big!" he shouted in his classic teenage voice, firing on all eight cylinders. "I'm gonna beat this high score, and then I'm gonna find that golden jalapeño!"

Mclaughlin's wife, Anne, shared that in addition to Pac-Man, the couple dreams of transforming a corner of their garage into a shrine for a real arcade cabinet replica from the days they would frequent The Missile Command Emporium in the Derry Fair Mall in Maine. "Patrick had a stellar record on Asteroids, and I would just stand around, waiting for him to ask me to swing by Rax for some beef 'n cheese on the way home," she reminisced while cleaning out the pickup, which still held the remnants of her big grocery stock-up. "Ah, fond memories."

At publishing time, Mclaughlin was just shy of a monumental 23,745,674 points.