GT's vacation: a confessional and challenging MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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As the casual observer may have gathered, I’m on vacation. I’m staying home without a particular goal for the first time in more years than I can remember.

In part, I’m running away from work, which has been extra-stressful lately. I also have a bunch of stuff that I’d like to do at home: finish painting my room, finish moving daylilies, make a bunch of appointments, get my money stuff better organized, declutter and collect things into the following categories: trash, recycling, White Elephant, Garage Sale, Other Re-Sale (Books/Clothes). I haven’t been getting to a lot of this because the work stress has made me tired, which means that when I get home the last thing I want to do is anything that looks like work.

But…this is a vacation. It should also be FUN! So, I’m scheduling some time to visit places in Columbus that I haven’t been to before or haven’t been to in a long time. There are lots of fun things to do around here. The Day Trip branch of my mind map has 9 branches on it and I only have 8 days, counting tomorrow.

So, here’s the part that belongs in the confessions thread: I’m afraid that I won’t get anything done from either list. Because I’m secretly a slug, I’ll spend the entire week loafing on the internet and go back to work even more stressed because my list of to-dos will still be extra long. This fear has led me to…

THE CHALLENGE: You, dear Mumpers, are hereby challenged to keep me on task. And to help me decide what to visit when I’m paring down my list. Or to make suggestions if there’s a Columbus attraction you think I should visit on your behalf. The caveat on suggestions is that admission needs to be $10 or less, because this is also a budget vacation. I’m allowed one tank of gas and a few meals out (I’ve already decided where, I think), but I’m favoring destinations with free admission (or where my membership gets me in free).

It’s past my bedtime, so I’ll post what I’m planning to do tomorrow…ermmm…today, after I’ve slept a bit.

Happy Monday, everyone! And wish me luck.

GT

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Am I first? Yay!

ETA: Okay, I’ll be happy to dig my memories of Columbus out of deep storage when you post your list and offer useless advice. What are invisible internet friends for, after all? :smiley:

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Hmm, can’t offer any suggestions on Columbus, but I’ll do my best to gently chide you when you need it. :wink:

I have a secret too: I didn’t get anything I wanted to get done on my vacation because 1) I was very, very busy, and 2) on the two free days I had, I loafed. So, I’m a secret slug too. We’ll start our own Super Secret Slug Club, gt. :smiley:

I should head off to bed now. Back to work tomorrow.

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Okay, here’s my motivational suggestion, since I know diddly/squat about the Columbus area. Sleep in at most two hours past your normal wake time, get up and have a leisurely version of your morning routine. Then spend two hours on one of your get-it-done projects before heading out to whatever the daily destination might be. If you get so involved in your get-it-done that you decide to call off your excursion, that’s fine, but you’re not allowed to do it the other way 'round–you can’t skip your chores in favor of more excursion. You can get up earlier or compress your leisurely morning instead, but you MUST spend at least two hours on a get-it-done project. In eight days you’ll spend a minimum of 16 hours on projects, which is pretty good for a vacation, all things considered.

Sound good?

Taters, dear, you’re a size queen! :dubious: At least get proper manufacturer’s drivers for whatever video card you end up using, because native Windows drivers suck sweaty donkey dick, I am serious! AND make sure they’re 64-bit drivers as well, because what Vista calls a 64-bit driver is usually a 32-bit driver that’s compatible with a 64-bit environment. NOT the same thing at ALL!

We took the doggies out to the Sandy River and for the very first time Callie dog actually got in and swam! Hooray! She swam all the way across the river, too, such a good puppy. Competition is a wonderful motivator. My daughter says she saw two pods of orcas in Friday Harbor, although not while kayaking. They’re on their way back south but probably won’t get into town until midnight so we’ll be doggy sitting for another day, shucks!

I got to be the good mom this weekend because my poor son is having a whole bunch of financial setbacks right as they’re getting married and he’s been stressing because they can’t really afford to buy rings. Luckily, old much married Mom still had her wedding band from marriage #2 and I asked if his fiance would like an “heirloom” ring (more like a hand me down!) and he said she’d be totally fine with it–turns out she loves the ring (it really is pretty, a small diamond flanked by two other diamonds, with sapphires on the outside, gold setting) and is thrilled that I want her to have it. They’ll need to get it sized up a little bit because I used to have very tiny fingers, but I’m so happy they like it. I can’t help out financially because I’m broke as a joke right now, but it tickles me pink that I can do something to help them out.

Oh yes, AND I managed to talk them out of the White Tux of Doom! I was VERY subtle–“so, your sister tells me you’re wearing a white tux, right? Hmmm, that’s so cute, you guys will look JUST like Ellen and Portia!” I pointed out the difficulty of matching shades of white, the mess factor and that the only time there should be two people in white up front they’d both better be lesbians–and they caved. Darned good thing, too, because it turns out the tux place had BLACK shoes ordered up to go with the white tux! Quelle horreur! So he changed it to a nice proper black tux and now all is well, phew!

Now if I can just figure out what to do with the Unfortunate Sash… :smiley:

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Good morning everyone!

Just sent the Terrible Twins to their first day of 7th grade orientation. First day at the new school!
I mean, they’ve been there before – when we picked up Special Teen from there and on a few occasions last year when they were invited to see the place – but never alone.
They grow up so fast!

I’m afraid I’ve never been to Colombus, so I can’t help there, GT. I suppose I could try and motivate you to go down your task list, but I think that’s a job best left to Swampy! :smiley:

As for the “Secret Slug” club… I’m afraid I can’t join it :frowning: You see, I make no secret of the fact I’m a slug at heart… :eek: :o :smiley:

Happy Monday, everybody!

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Aww - I think you should just relax and try to enjoy your time off, GT! I do understand having projects that you want to get done, though. Wish I knew of things to suggest for you but I do not–I’m not familiar enough with Ohio’s geography. laughs For instance, I might suggest a visit to Toledo and Tony Packo’s (wasn’t that the hot dog place that Klinger was always raving about on MAS*H?!), but I don’t know how far Columbus is from there. Hmmm… maybe you could give us a quick tour of the neighborhoods of Columbus or of the various museums there?

And thanks, both GT and Haze for answering my question about Yasmin! I’m a bit embarassed to admit that I had absolutely no idea it was a form of bc, but to be honest that’s not something I’ve had to worry about for a … well, a few years at least. :wink:

Happy Monday, folks. :slight_smile:

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I’ve never been to Columbus; never been to Ohio either, although several Ohio Dopers made sure to tell me about the Ohio judiciary system in my thread about the judiciaries of different countries.

Today I’m back at work, although we’re in Spain this week. I was off for the past two weeks.

I used the first weekend for a micro-road-trip: left work (midway between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and btw does anybody know why someone would write as Edinburgh what they pronounce as Edinbra?) after lunch on Friday, headed to Aberdeen, then went to Inverness, returned from Inverness to Glasgow following A82, which goes along Loch Ness, through the moors, and along Loch Lomond.

Monday through Friday, I loafed around and built my new computer. Since we’re going to be in Glasgow for at least two years, I figured I’d get me a desktop again; I haven’t had one since I started consulting. This way my laptop gets used only at work or when I’m traveling.

Saturday I called Mom just before leaving for the airport and she informed me that SiL’s Dad was expected to die that same day :eek: well, gee, am I glad I called! Of course, neither SiL nor Bro had dropped me an email or anything. When I got to Mom’s on Sunday, they were already back from the funeral (at which The Kidlet at one point announced that he was all out of kisses and needed to make more).

It was a pretty strange week. SiL’s Mom wants to go back to her own house; SiL (who three years ago didn’t want to hear of SiL’s Mom going to “help her” after the kid’s birth) now doesn’t want to lose her cook :stuck_out_tongue: The Nephew says that “they put Grampa in a box,” SiL’s Mom and SiL say that there is no way he could know that :rolleyes:

The Nephew, who was born with a “lazy urether,” had surgery about a year ago to fix that; he had some follow-up tests this past Friday. Yesterday we all had lunch together and Mom asked about the tests. SiL had already seen the results (she’s a doc, so she can access the results without waiting for the “doctor in charge”) and was very upset because the other urether is looking wider than it should :frowning: The Nephew doesn’t show any special symptoms (he’s been drinking a lot at times, these last two months, but you’d drink a lot too if the temperature was 38C in the shadow) but of course she’s worried.

Hopefully it will be a case of the lazy side still being lazy and the other side making up for it. Un-hopefully, UGH! I told Bro about our great-grandma who found out at 53 that her right kidney (same as in the Kidlet) had been athrophied since forever and who had no kidney problems at all; she died at 96.

The Niece’s ETA is September 28. One of the things that have SiL worried is what if she has both kids in the hospital at the same time. Mom has of course offered to help; she can’t breastfeed The Niece but she can stay for a while with The Nephew.

Good vibes will be very welcome.

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Ooh… awesome road trip. Haven’t been in Scotland since forever (well, about 5 years actually), but I still remember doing much the same route… beautiful country. Possibly my favorite place to visit in the whole world.
I miss it!

:vibrating well for Nava: Hopefully right now you’re close enough to feel the good vibes! If’n not, I’ll pack some and send them through the DVD tray :slight_smile:

**Tara **-- what does it say about me that I did know what Yasmin is…? :confused:

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Hey Nava, I always mean to tell you this… On the preferred route to TVMan’s house there is a company called “Nava.” I believe they make concrete cast products as I have seen lots of sets of stairs lying around. Of course I always think of you when I go by.

Good luck on your vacation to-do list, GT. I’m with Noonie, I’m always a slug so it’s absolutely no secret.

I did manage to get some sleep last night. I hope that today will be better, but I’m a bit concerned because I’m going to be working alone and I tend to go downhill quicker if there’s no one around to keep my mind occupied with other things. However my dad is available and said that I can call him if I need company or moral support.

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Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’ here. Work purtification to commence shortly. YAWN

gt take a couple of days to work on the projects you know you can get done in a couple of days then take the rest of the time to relax. You should do the relax time for a few days before returning to work. That way, you’ll feel like you’ve “been on vacation”, not just worked all week somewhere else. Make sense?

Ok, need anudder cuppa caffiene and then purtification.

Later Y’all!

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Morning, everyone. We’re up, we’ll eat breakfast in a bit, and it’s supposed to keep on being fall weather for the next week, so I’m happy.

Yawn. Need caffeine.

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Have fun on your vacation! I can’t offer much in terms of sight seeing advice, and sadly I am a self described slug, myself.

SO there you go.

No more sluggy for me- first day of classes start today! Woohoo!!

(and I currently have two guide books on Scotland and Wales for a much planned and dreamed about trip- now I know where to get advice when I need it!).

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zoom
hi
bye
zoom

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Blurf.

[zombie voice]
Need coffee…
[/zombie voice]

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Slugging around is the best way to spend a vacation. Doing nothing. Perfect.

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Good thoughts going out to the NavaFamily. Maybe niece’s arrival will distract SIL? Sometimes being a doctor isn’t an advantage.

I’m trying to find a balance between Smartie’s and swampy’s advice.

I already decided that I’d do a 100% tourist outing on Saturday because several of the destinations on my itinerary are downtown and I don’t want to run the risk of feeling like it’s a work day and certainly don’t want to see any work-related people.

I could do Toledo as a day trip, tarra but it’s a pretty long drive and I would violate my one-tank-of-gas rule (or end up only being able to walk or bus my way through the rest of my vacation; some of my scheduled items - that I’m doing with friends - aren’t within walking distance or on a bus route.

Thursday is probably going to be an all-tourist day, too, I think.

FTR, I pretty much never sleep in, but I slept till just after 7 today - not enough because I fell asleep at 1:00, but I’ll take a nap later. Naps are allowed because I’m on vacation. It’s a rule.

Right now I need to get the recycling together before they come by to pick it up. Also, I should have breakfast.

Off to start day 1.

GT

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Does a 4 day weekend long enough to properly slug?

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Morning, back to work.

gt, I agree with swampy. Chores first, then slug.

{{{}}}} to Nava and family

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Subscriptionating, will read after work.

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Re the Edinbrugh thing: why does Spanish insist on an “H” in “hola” when it’s not pronounced?.. :wink:
Vacation: I like Smartie’s idea re chore and fun mix, but I’d knock the chore down to an hour. The nice thing about chores is that (for the most part) they wait for you. The bad thing is that they’re also never truly “done”. I would do whatever chore in the morning–but jazz it up a bit. Put on funky music, dance while doing it–hell, do it naked! (ok, maybe not).

IMS, labeling the vaca days as Day 1 etc only makes the time go by faster. You need to get up and stretch and then lie back and think: “I’ve got the whole day to sit and watch the clouds go by…” (IOW, it’s a mindset), Whatever you do, DON’T rush around–too stressful.

I suggest going to see whatever museum of art Columbus has. With a meal in a sidewalk cafe for afters. Leave your shades on and scope out men!
Off to work, because SOME OF US aren’t on vacation. <grumble> I never work Mondays. Grrrr.

Smartie: I’d concede the Sash. You managed to nix the white tux (and thank you for that), but what’s a Sash in the grand scheme of things? I would love to be able to give one of my sons a ring like you did. I wear so little jewelry, though, that I don’t own two rings!