A concert I have to miss and plans for spring

My brother called this week and asked what day I was leaving Montreal to go back home next month, he couldn't find my itinerary. This is my trip to see Duran Duran in April.

Turns out the night after I get home, Billy Idol is going to be in Montreal, but since I am out of vacation time, I can't stay an extra 2 days. That sucks. It would be so cool to see Billy Idol. D'oh!

Why does it always work out that you either barely take vacation, and it goes to waste, or you take all of it and still need more? I do have some flexibility in carrying forward or working OT, which is how I'm getting time off for April.

So far I have no plans for my vacation time this year. I'll have to take a day or two around the U2 concert, but other than that, no plans. I like to take the time off between xmas and New Year's, but I think this year it will be dependent on my co-worker and whether his fiance (or by then his wife) is working during xmas. If she isn't I'll feel guilty making him stay & work instead of going home to see his family. I've been lucky to have, I think, 8 years of having that time off.

I'll have to give that some thought, what am I going to do with my 3 weeks of vacation? Maybe I can get some time in Florida next winter. I've been wanting a Portland shopping trip for a while now. I'll also have my annual software conference to attend, not sure where it's being held yet but I can always stay an extra day or two there, at a reduced hotel rate. Lots of options, that also involve money.

I will have a couple of big projects for this spring/summer around the house. First off will be addressing the drainage issue. Then landscaping - am I going to have any money to do that? I'd love to have my driveway paved too, especially after seeing how much of my driveway is now curled up in a snowbank from the plow. I also want to paint the Blue Room. The more I look around in here, the more scrapes, dents, dirt, etc I see. Not an easy job seeing as how I have what seems to be a lot of furniture stuffed into one room. It's actually not as full as it looks, but enough to make it annoying to move everything out to paint. Carpet cleaning is another thing I'd like to tackle. They were fairly dirty when I moved in here, and moving, painting and general traffic hasn't been kind to them. I would love to rip the carpet up in the living room and get the rest of it finished with hardwood. I like not having to worry if I spill Coke on the floor, but that's just not up there on the priority list.

So it looks like I may have answered my own question, there's so much I want to do around here, I'll have to use my vacation to do all of that!! Well, I can't use a backhoe to fix the ditch. I could try, but I don't think I'd accomplish what needed to be done.

Retro 80s Saturday night just came on, woo-hoo! Richard Marx, Don't Mean Nothin'. Actually haven't been home on Saturday night for the full show in a while, so it's nice to be here. I have some more cleaning to do in the basement post-flood, I'd like to get it out of the way tonight so tomorrow I can relax, do laundry, and perhaps finish a book. Now Def Leppard Love Bites is on. I love this show!!

p.s. to future hot guy who goes to church, you'd better also like 80s music, or we have a big problem.