catching up

I took last Friday off and drove to Corpus Christi for a pre-Easter weekend. Though it was unsanctioned by the Easter Bunny, the entire family went down, I colored eggs, and we had an almost-normal Easter dinner. It was slightly complicated by the fact that I haven't eaten beef or pork in close to a year now, but I'm here to tell you that parsleyed new potatoes with lemon butter can serve as a suitable main course.

That small taste of vacation has me yearning for more. I've been paid for the overtime I worked last month (although about half the money was taken out for taxes, and there was precious little left at the end), so any time off will have to be taken out of my vacation or floating holidays. That's not a particularly bad thing -- between the two, I have over 120 hours saved up -- but I want to save some vacation time (and money) to travel over the summer.

<digression>

I get the travel bug every now and then, where I want to grab a backpack and set out to see the world. Having a job gives me the financial backing I'd need to undertake a short travelling endeavour, but arranging the time necessary is a bit more complicated. If I can't even find an afternoon to take off, how am I supposed to come up with a couple of weeks?

Eh... details.

At any rate, Claudia will be home in Romania for the summer, and if I can come up with the money, aside from my brand new car payments and rent and so forth, I'd love to go visit her.

</digression>

There's more, when I get a moment...