Scheduling Time Off

Well, I did it yesterday.

I scheduled vacation time.

This will likely turn out to be my lightest travel year in a decade - in terms of flight segments, miles on my car, and miles on rental cars. That's what happens when gas prices go nuts, you spend many Benjamins on new kitchen cabinets, and being on the road is eliminated from your job responsibilities.

I suppose it fits my new green lifestyle. My carbon footprint is far less this year.

So without vacation planned, I didn't have time off planned either. Earlier in the year, I took a couple days here and there, but nothing longer than a long weekend...

...which is exactly what I'm planning now.

The amount of weekdays that I have driven home from work and seen tons of people on the beach in Southie made me wonder if they were there all day.

I became envious.

So, while the weather is still pleasant, I worked five days into four long weekends between now and mid-September, and have pledged to do something fun, something relatively local, and something for myself during each of those days.

Beach, movies, hiking, photos, museums - the options are endless. And it's strange, those are things that I would think I could find time doing on the weekends. But no - just doesn't seem to happen as often as I would like.

So long weekends a plenty are in my future.

A-Wreath-a Franklin

I'm totally immersed in the holidays after a bit of coaxing. Why not jump in head first? No toes in the water. Sing the songs. Drink the egg nog. Deck the halls. Dream of a White Christmas.

This is my first year in Boston with a tree, a 7 foot Home Depot special that makes my place smell great. Hopefully, later today, it will be fully trimmed.

And in a moment of sheer Martha Stewart-dom, I even made a wreath (named, of course, A-Wreath-a Franklin)! I think it turned out quite lovely.

At Home Depot, the tree was pre-bundled, but to shave a few inches off the bottom, they cut the trunk and lower branches and kept those cut lower branches within the bundle.

I'm not one to throw away discards, leftovers, or basically anything that can be re-used. Hence, my wreath.

How lovely are thy branches?

Wired Boston

I love surveys and stats.

Although, we don't make the Top 5 in terms of "Most Caffeinated Cities" (which takes into account cola, tea, and energy drinks) we're #2 in terms of most coffee consumption (behind, of course, Seattle), and #1 in "Cities Most Addicted To Caffeine."

Actually, I am already on my second cup of coffee today.

1 year of Platinum Elite

Wow, it just kind of dawned to me that today is the 1 year anniversary of Platinum Elite, and this is posting #276. Looking back, it's quite amazing to me that I kept up with posting here, but it's not a shocker that I had a lot to say (about nothing in particular I might add, come to think of it).

Nonetheless, I'm a bit busy with work today, so the anniversary posting will have to be short.

Bringing order to my memories

I just joined another photo community yesterday - Flickr. I probably should have been on there a while ago, but now have finally come around to it. The site is an excellent social network / photo community, much more than a photo depository such as Photobucket.

The challenge now is getting started - uploading the photos I would like to share, tagging them, naming them, and giving brief descriptions of each. Really, it just takes some time to do. Working late and falling asleep early makes that a difficult endeavor. But once that is all set up, I will share the link to my Flickr profile.

It's a personality trait of mine, but I enjoy things that are in order. Perhaps that's a twinge OCD. Nonetheless, my itunes is organized well, and now it's time do do the same with my photos. Right now, I have them categorized into photos (and a general "Unassigned" folder that I really need to go through soon - it's the "junk drawer" of photos that I just haven't taken the time to put in the right spots).

Back on the Sauce

I did something this weekend that I haven't done in quite some time.

I cooked a fresh pot of sauce.

It just felt right today - lazy Sunday, big sports day, a bit chilly outside. The perfect combo for a pot of sauce with meatballs and sausage.

Growing up, Sunday meals almost always included something with homemade tomato sauce (but, like many Italian households, we sometimes called it "gravy"). And every month or so, my parents cooked up a big pot of sauce to be used that evening, but primarily frozen for meals throughout the following few weeks.

During my senior year at college, I had an off-campus apartment with two friends, and we were off meal plan for both semesters. I remember having my mother write up the sauce recipe and fax it to the radio station where I worked (they didn't have email yet). I still have that same exact fax, and although I know the bulk of the recipe, I pulled it out today just to be sure I was all set.

I used to make sauce all the time when I lived in NJ, and when I had roommates in the South End before moving into Southie (where we resurrected big meal Sundays and my roommate Mike and I had an undeclared yet understood ongoing culinary competition).

I think I moved away from the sauce during my many attempts to restrict carbs. After my trip last week, however, I learned that you just can't truly take the macaroni out of the Italians.