A Needed Vacation

I confess: I’m a bit of a workaholic. Anyone who knows me knows I’m constantly working on something. Usually it’s either writing or redesigning my blog. Or learning about business. Or reading (for education). Or cleaning (shock!). Or… you get the drift. That’s why the fact that I’ll be on vacation from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day has come as such a surprise to many, including myself.

See, this is one of those times when the spirit of compromise in marriage rears its ugly head. Me? I’m fine without a vacation. I love what I do and usually a three day weekend will do for me quite fine. The Wife, on the other hand, has decreed that more than two years without a vacation is way too long. (For the record, we haven’t really vacationed anywhere since our honeymoon.) Seeing as I’d rather not have an angry Wife, I decided to compromise on this one and simply take the vacation. See, that’s compromise: we go on the vacation and she doesn’t put thumbtacks in my bed. Happy people.

Compromise aside, I wouldn’t mind pulling myself away from the Internet for a few days. (Besides, I can always get a fix via my cell phone.) Also, taking some time off of work will be nice. The hard part will be pulling myself away from blogging, since it’s one of the things I love doing most. Even then, however, it has become fairly obvious that it’s time for me to clear my head a bit, enjoy some light reading, and travel out to see a bit more of the beauty to be found in the U S of A.

With this in mind, I have arranged to have frequent commenter, Junior, make his blogging debut here for that week, by guest blogging for me while I’m on vacation. I’ve known Junior (in real life) for a few years now and know he’ll be fantastic, probably even better than me. (Let’s not think this one all he way thro–Hey, look! There’s a roach on the wall!) He’ll be guest blogging starting the 26th and continuing on until January 2, keeping with the same 4 to 5 times a week publishing schedule. In exchange for his services, I have agreed to enter him as a contestant in the Gnorb.NET Year End CD Giveaway. (You can still enter, by the way. The fact that he’s guest blogging gives him no advantage over you, so go ahead and get started with your entires.)

As for the vacation: The Wife and I were originally planning to take three weeks off during the summer and drive all the way from Key West, FL to Prudhoe Bay, AK. Seeing as that would cost us more than we’re willing to spend, we decided instead to go to beautiful Asheville, North Carolina, to go see the Biltmore Estate. Clearly, this won’t be as exciting as driving 7,500 miles to the top of the world, braving bears and caribou, and dangerously polite Canadians, but it’ll be relaxing, which is just as good.

All joking aside, both of us absolutely love North Carolina. In fact, we’ve considered moving there various times, so finding things do or see up there isn’t all that hard for us (even if it means traveling to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, which is almost North Carolina).

After visiting the Biltmore, we’ll be visiting with a few friends who just recently moved up there, and who have graciously allowed us to crash at their place for a night, thereby saving us tens of dollars in hotel costs. We’ll then be traveling back to Tampa to celebrate New Year’s.

When I come back to Fort Lauderdale I should have pictures to show, as well as stories to tell about sights seen and lessons learned. I’ll also have a day off of work on the 2nd, so I’ll have a chance to catch up with everything that’s gone on during my harrowing time away from my sweet darling Internet.

I still have a few more items to share with you before I leave, but I wanted to make sure you knew what will be happening the next few days, when you’ll likely notice the writing style totally change.

Edit: Why oh why do I let myself hit the “Publish” button so late at night?