Vacation Vices

What vacation would be complete without indulging in a few things?

 

1. Food

 

I think this is probably a major area of indulgence for most on vacation.  While as a whole there's no dining out (save the heading-out-of-town breakfast), it doesn't stop us from eating.  And eating lots of things that don't normally appear in our pantry.

 

 

Every morning the kids went straight to those miniature boxes of sugar-laden cereal.  Until it ran out.  Then they started in on my brother-in-law's personal stash.  In addition, there was a large quantity and variety of chips.  And I will neither confirm nor deny that 3 gallons of ice cream was consumed in 7 days.

 

2.  Television

 

We couldn't afford to take along on a babysitter (my mom actually had the audacity to suggest that no one would want the job!) so the TV was second choice for those early morning/post-lunch/dinner-prep times when a few moments of peace were needed.


Armed with a long-running copy of the old cartoon, we were set.  And as far as cartoons go, it is pretty tame.  Yeah, he smokes and the boys suddenly started puffing on their Pixie Sticks, but at least there is no dialogue - just funky music.

The menfolk relaxed with a couple of hours of COPS.  There's nothing more riveting than watching someone Tased in the head or seeing a punk on a motorcycle crash while exceeding 100 mph.  That's entertainment.

3.  Reading Material

One of my criteria for judging the merit of a particular house, is it's selection of reading material.  Biographies, non-fiction, and mysteries are all great, but what I really like are the trashy magazines.  All those supermarket tabloids that I can't flip through with the boys present.  The glossy covers that declare, "Kate Middlenton's Baby Bump" which I could only dream of on a good day.  I was a little disappointed in this year's offerings; they mainly focused on fashions that I would never be tempted to purchase.

On the other hand, there was a bookshelf with something for everyone:  Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis; Monica's Story by Andrew Morton; The Maker's Diet by Jordan S. Rubin; Sage-ing While Age-ing by Shirley MacLaine; Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith.  In my few minutes of downtime I curled up on the porch with Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson.

I guess now we're back to clean living.