It’s been nearly a month since Christmas and my body sugar levels have dropped substantially and are now halfway between “Jittery” and “Calm.”  I firmly believe that corporate America pushes chocolate during Christmas because it combines two great productivity boosting ingredients: sugar and caffeine.  The Christmas season was really special this year.  I was off for 18 consecutive days and managed to go to sleep by midnight only 4 times.  Additionally, I AMAZINGLY receive only one article of clothing this year…a coat from my mom.  I didn’t get socks, shirts, pants, underwear, hat, shoes, or a belt.  However, Adelle did receive some pink pajamas that have a VERY noticeable resemblance of the Ralphy’s bunny-suit in the Christmas Story.

Adelle turned 2 on December 29 and that means she was actually able to appreciate and enjoy Christmas…and enjoy it she did.  She had her first, second, and 18th sugar high during the vacation..one for every day I was at home.  Karen relented on curbing Adelle’s sugar intake and I proceeded to fuel the fire.  By December 27, Adelle was saying, “I need a cookie to feel good.”

On another note, I’ve been looking for ways to boost my productivity now that the effects of chocolate are starting to wear off.  I’ve found the book Upgrade Your Life to be an excellent productivity boost.  The book is a major award I won for submitting a suggestion to www.lifehacker.com .  If you don’t feel like spending $25 for the book, there is a companion website to the book at www.lifehackerbook.com and is a condensed version of the book.

As I stumbled into the shower this morning, I realized I had eked the last drop of soap from its bottle the previous morning.  I REALLY dislike having to turn off the shower, grab a towel and dry off (I decided to skip that part and just drip all over the mats), get the magnet on the other side of the bathroom to open our child protective locked cabinets, and then hunt around for a new bottle of body wash.  After fumbling amongst the NUMEROUS products obtained through Karen’s couponing work, I pulled it out only to be frustrated again by the shrink wrapping that had to be removed before use.  Grabbing the only sharp item available at the time, I learned Gillette razors work equally well for cutting into shrink wrapping as they do my face and scalp.

Anyway…it was at that time a statement Karen made in passing several months before rattled through my brain.  She said, “I really like the smell of this body wash,” while holding up a name brand bottle, the very bottle I had just extracted from the depths of my sink cabinet.  When I opened it and sniffed at the bottle top, a very distinct odor touched my nostrils…Off brand mosquito repellent.  This caught me off guard and I sniffed again only to be greeted by that same familiar scent I remember so well from fishing the lakes and streams of Montana.

While I thought upon the phenomenon that my wife actually likes the scent of mosquito repellent, I realized that I am the envy of all fishermen.  My wife actually likes the smell of mosquito repellent!  I can’t believe it!  I am soooo very lucky.  Two benefits come immediately to mind: (1) I know she isn’t a mosquito that will be sucking my blood (since she isn’t repelled by the body wash) and (2) this is going to cut WAY down on my cologne bill ‘cause Off is only $5.99 at Target or $9.99 for the jumbo size at Costco!

Similar to many people, I have made several New Year resolutions and one of them is to blog weekly.  That means I should have 52 posts this year.

Anyway, it’s been a very busy, yet relaxing vacation.  I ate WAY too much.  We had a turkey dinner at our place on Christmas Day and a ham dinner at the Grish’s (my in-laws) on the 27th.  Ugh…way too much food.

Yesterday, I decided to become a vegetarian for one day to see if that type of diet would clean the junk out my system and help me feel better.  I resisted the temptation to eat half of a leftover subway sandwich and instead ate a LOT of veggies.  I had green and red bell peppers, cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, apples, bananas, and broccoli.  My diet also included chocolate, soda, cookies, milk, popcorn, cheese, more cookies, and a few more pieces of chocolate.  After one day, I can honestly say that I don’t feel much better…if anything I may even feel worse.  I’m going back to my omnivorian lifestyle.