1. Is it better to take a few days off from work every month or two or to take long periods off once or twice a year?  This is a conversation I have (with myself) all of the time.  The job I have now allows me to roll over my vacation time from year to year, up to 350 hours.  When I first started this job, I didn’t take any time off and hoarded my vacation time for 2 or 3 years.  That was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made.  And I usually burn a week or three at a time.  That’s worked out pretty well, but the time between vacations can seem very long.  Once again, I was thinking about “the best” way to use my vacation time, and I realized that in 2016, I will take a total of eight weeks off from work and that doesn’t include holidays or my three day weekends every weekend (I work four 10s, Tuesday through Friday).  Whoa.  This obviously won’t happen every year, but I think my vacation planning is working out pretty well.

2. I’m 37.  Feels pretty much the same as 30-36.  I just have a different hair color and maybe 1 or 5,000 more wrinkles.

(From 2014 when I turned 35.)

3. Biff is going through a chewing phase.  Like a chewing furniture phase.  He is a monster.  We put some bitter spray stuff on the table he likes to gnaw on, but I’m pretty sure that spray is going to f*ck up the table just as much as his chewing.  Oh well.  The good news?  All that chewing really wears him out…

That mark over Biff’s right eye?  That’s where his brother, Bing, scratched him.  They are best enemies friends.

4. More good news?  Biff really loves his cousins.

He insists on sitting on top of next to them whenever they are over.  It’s pretty cute and the kids really like it.  Also, he’s way nicer to them than he is to us.

5. I rarely sleep in anymore.  G works at 5:00 am every Saturday and Sunday and yesterday, he also worked at 5:00 am.  Five isn’t that early…until you factor in the two hours it takes G to get ready.  Yes, even when he works at 5:00 am, he gets up at 3:00 am.  WTF?!  Some days I sleep through his routine, other days, I’m up at 3:00 am.  You’d think I would do something productive with that time, but I mostly just stay in bed wondering why I married such an idiot.