Staycation: The Report Card

As you know if you read this blog, my husband is a lawyer whose non-essential status has entitled him to a nearly 3 week break from the daily grind of our U.S. government bureaucracy (a job he loves, by the way, and is very good at).

Because I know him well after nearly 15 years of marriage, I prepared a short list of “suggestions” for making the most of his time out of the office in an effort to alleviate any feelings of boredom.  To review, I proposed that he…

1.       Powerwash our house

2.       Clear out the gutters

3.       Clean out the shed*    

4.       Declutter the guest room

5.       Declutter the other guest room, AKA David’s study*

6.       Paint the guest room 

7.       Paint the study

8.       Deforest our backyard

9.       Expand his kitchen repertoire from jar spaghetti sauce to jar meat sauce

10.   Take a nap* 

My wonderful husband had his own list:

1.       Fix the hot tub  (which has not worked for 5 years)*

2.       Ride his bicycle

3.       Take naps*

4.       Clear out the shed*

5.       Take old clothing and other household items to Goodwill*

6.       Visit with his family as part of 39^th birthday/40^th HS reunion celebrations in Indiana*

7.       Watch cable news programs*

8.       Stay up late for Daily Show and Letterman*

9.       Have lunch with office friends*

10.   Take more naps*

Life conspired to add to both our lists:

1.       Kill snakes in house*

2.       Hire snakebusters and plug up the house so that other snakes would not invade our happy home*

3.       Forage for food at a variety of Fast Food establishments for family dinners due to late running office meetings for working wife*

 I must say, my husband made a serious effort to accomplish all the tasks on his list while managing ably the surprises that life chucked in his/our direction.  That said, I’m just a little disappointed he didn’t get to more items on my list, especially items 6 and 7, but, oh well.  We’ll get to them when we go through this again in January, right??

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STAYCATION REPORT CARD

Grade for Staycation Tasks:  B+

Extra credit for snake killing:  1 full grade

Overall grade:  A+

Please note:  Accomplished tasks are noted with an asterisk (*) and the vast majority came from his list, not mine.