freakin' scary

ok, not sure anyone knows that I'm type I insulin-dependent diabetic. The "real" diabetes, as I like to call it. Where it's not your own fault you have it, but rather a genetic thing. (Maybe with mom telling me not to eat a spoonful out of the sugar bowl as a kid, because I'd get diabetes, I should have listened.)

Anyway, I'm on an insulin pump, which works really well. It's hooked up via a skinny tube to an "infusion set" on my stomach, and I just have to rotate the site for the hookup every 4 or 5 days -- as long as the reservoir of insulin lasts. I get a steady-stream "basal" rate, and then I give myself a "bolus" whenever I eat food -- more food means more sugar in the blood which means I need more insulin to get that glucose to the cells in my body. The main thing is that there's a relatively consistent ratio between the amount of carbohydrates I eat and the amount of insulin needed to "cover" the increased blood glucose level.

So a couple of days ago, I'd had a blood sugar level of about 160 in the morning. Not as good as a normal level of 100, but not the worst thing in the world. Usually I'm between 80 and 130 over the course of the day. Well, the temperature was in the 90s a couple of days ago and I went down to Dairy Queen....got a large chocolate cone dipped in cherry. Now, I'm not sure exactly how many carbohydrates are in that, but I know enough about ice cream to figure out something close -- and hey, I use a machine to test my blood sugar level, and if it were too high, I just take more, and if it drops too low, I get all hypoglycemic feeling and I can eat something else to bring the glucose level back to normal. Plus, I figured another couple of units of insulin would incorporate bringing the 160 back down to 100, not including the extra for the ice cream.

Well, something screwy happened. My blood sugar level shot through the roof. Like, 450 (I think it's milligrams per deciliter of blood). I can also tell hyperglycemia because I get a faint ammonia-like smell from ordinary surroundings. So I panic, and take some more insulin....no help, it's now 520. I keep giving myself extra booster boluses (the pump just feeds more insulin through the tubing into my body subcutaneously at the infusion site, like a needle would). Still nothing all afternoon. I hit 582 on one reading, the highest I've ever had. And I can't figure out why it's not coming down. I tried gagging myself to puke up the rest of the ice cream, but of course, ice cream that's been in your stomach a couple of hours just is all gooey and doesn't puke up when you'd like it to.

Eventually I gave up, hysterical, around 3 pm, and drove home. By the time I was home I was back down to 429. I took out one of my old pre-pump needles and gave myself a shot in the butt of even more insulin, then went for a walk (okay, I mowed the lawn, but that's walking). By 5 it was down to 303, and I cooled off swimming in our little pool. A couple of hours after that it was down to 130.

So THEN, I figured I was okay to have dinner, which was just some vegetable soup -- not a lot of carbohydrates there. I did over-bolus myself just a small bit there, but that was because hey, no insulin had been working. I had taken out the infusion set, to move it to another spot, just in case the fatty tissue where I'd been hooked up wasn't absorbing the insulin right or something.

Well, that might have had something to do with it, because the rest of the night I was hypoglycemic. Readings of 47, 64, 51, 71, etc. All the while I had to eat a bunch of peanut M&M's (aw, poor me, right?) and drink almost three-quarters of a bottle of sugary root beer. Somehow I think the exercise of the late afternoon freed up all that insulin that was in my system all at once. I scarfed a bunch of cheez-its and went to bed, and woke up yesterday with a normal 88 reading. That shouldn't have been so hard.

The worst part was that when I was removing the old location's infusion set (the connection point for the insulin tube) it seemed that it wasn't secured in place right....and then I smelled my shirt the next morning and it smelled like insulin from the bottle (it smells like the latex of a freshly-opened band-aid)....which makes me think that part of the problem was the insulin at the point of connection. (The infusion set has a twist-off feature, that allows me to disconnect and re-connect the tube from the pump, so that I can take a shower or go swimming, with just a cover to the point of insertion. I think I wasn't twisted back on properly and insulin was going through the tube and leaking out instead of entering my body.)

The worst part is that next week I have to have my regular bloodwork for my 3-month checkup. They say that the blood test measures a three-month overall average of my blood sugar level based on hemoglobin. But there's no way having a 582 for a few hours won't skew my results even a bit higher than they would, had I not forgotten to go for the bloodwork last week like I should have.

And so now I have to explain this to the doctor in a couple of weeks. If my lab results are too high, he won't buy the excuse that one bad day skewed the whole three-month average!

What would happen if.... (6/27 edition)

....Elvis had a telephone instead of a TV nearby when he shot out the screen? I've thought about that at work. Unfortunately, shooting the phone doesn't convey the anger toward the person on the other line, if you haven't answered it yet and shoot it while it's ringing.

It's often suggested one wash his hands after peeing. I've always considered that it would be more beneficial to wash your hands BEFORE going....at least from a guy-at-a-urinal perspective. Where are there more likely to be germs? On my hands, touching everything on my desk over the course of the day and stuff? Or on my urine-removal-organ, which has remained in my clean undies over the course of the day, unfazed since showering? Now I grant you, if you tinkle on yourself a bit, that DEFINITELY needs to be washed off your hands. But I think the germ path is more likely going to be hand-to-penis rather than penis-to-hand. (Fine, slow thought week, shoot me.)

If margarine is such a recent invention, why did they decide to name it something so similar-sounding to marjoram, the herb?

When I was 17 I had a blind date for ice cream with a girl who was described as a junior in high school. Or so I thought.....she was in *junior high school*. Okay, everyone, have a good laugh. Nothing came close to happening in a Ben & Jerry's scoop shop anyway.

I mowed the lawn for the first time last night. My wife's old mower had one of those power-assist things to help it get moving. That broke last year, and so she whined that the yard was too hilly for her to push, and so she insisted on getting a riding mower. Of course, if you open a new Home Depot credit account, you can get 10% off. So I was "forced" to open an account and get a two thousand dollar lawn tractor. Which I refuse to learn how to use. I use her $20-floor-model-clearance-from-KMart mower. I don't care if it takes me an hour longer than it takes Erika. I'd prefer to have that extra two grand to pay for more important stuff. Plus, it's fun to use the pool to wash the sweat off afterwards.

I think a good trade-off, in the absence of an umpire, is "no called strikes" for "no walks or hit-by-pitches". Especially at wiffle ball.

Money experts claim that you shouldn't take a loan against your 401(k) account because you pay double taxes on the money. Technically, you only pay double taxes on the interest, because the principal of the loan is really tax-free income while you've got it.

What's the world's record for stretching mozzarella cheese off a pizza, anyway? Is this measured for the Guinness book?

There's a "cigarette discount store" across the street from here, and one time I saw the proprietor go outside for a smoke break. Now, I'm anti-smoking at least as much as the next guy, but of all the places that it probably should be allowed to smoke in public, a cigarette store would seem to be okay in my book.

Velvet Revolver

Anyone get the new album yet? I like these guys, they're the music of GnR with the singing from STP. I saw them at Jones Beach on Long Island a couple of years ago....made me think Axl was rolling over in his grave.

(A tip of the keyboard to Diff'rent Strokes on that one....Mr. Drummond's batty old sister saying if their ancestor had been alive today, he'd be rolling over in his grave. I LOVE that line.)

My softball team continues to suck. I think 5 hits last night. I promised in the 7th inning that we wouldn't get shut out. So I do that same, slap it to the shortstop since they can't throw me out crap...a cheap single...then the next guy hit one off the LC's glove, so we had 2nd and 3rd with one out, and another single scored us both. So we lost, what, 12-2? I'd rather have a team of non-hitters than non-fielders, though. (Of course, I've got both. This will be my last year on this team.)

I have a picture from my daughter's first communion that I went to put in a frame here at work, and it was a 5x7 frame for a 4x6 picture. Oops! I have used a clean fancy napkin as matting behind the picture -- that's better than using the old picture it's replacing! I need to update my other pictures, they're all from 2005. The best one, I think, is my younger daughter after we got a book on balloon animals and stuff. She looks like a soldier of fortune with headbands and straps formed by long skinny balloons all wrapped around each other. And of course, she was 4.

Let's see, what else....with the Sox on the left coast, I had to get my baseball from the Mets-Cardinals. I sorta liked the Mets as my "favorite NL team" as a kid...but then they turned into pricks in the mid-80s, and so only lately have I watched them without all that animosity. Shea's still a dump of a stadium....but I'll still take any free tickets my boss wants to give me.

The yellow weed flowers in the field outside my window are making a comeback. It's supposed to be 94 today. (34 for you in metric-land, which I suppose is....oh, everywhere else in the world.) I may swim tonight, we have a small outdoor pool that had gotten cloudy over the weekend, but some chemicals fixed that right up. The pool is near a lot of trees, though, so we get plenty of leaves in there. Vacuuming must come first, I suppose. At least the water should be warm enough not to scare off Erika from going in. I do have to find my bathing suit, though....I lost it over the weekend and had to settle for floating on a tube "sunny side down" Sunday afternoon.

Late at work on a Friday.

So Carlos Zambrano is pitching to AJ Pierzynski....
Think they're discussing their mutual hatred for Michael Barrett?

I missed a pitch in the all-star game last night. The left fielder was 100 feet off the line and I tried to aim my swing. After that debacle of an at bat (grounder back to the mound), I got 2 singles and a triple, so not too bad. Everything was just "off" a bit for me, though. I slipped on a throw to the plate, and because of that it had to be cut off by the pitcher, whose relay was *just* late. Also had trouble on a deep ball over my head, it landed just off my glove because of the bad angle I took. But I made up for THAT mistake with a nice sliding catch. Our team won, 12-8.

Coors light and its friends are now referred to as "supermarket beer" in my lexicon. Always good to have even a cheap beer at work on a Friday, though :)

It's finally quiet around here. But one other person's here, so I can't blast the audio. So I'll keep a White Sox - Cubs game on instead of iTunes.

The boss is on vacation next week. Insert your own commentary here, I suppose.

My daughters are at their grandparents' house on Cape Cod for the week. So I'll be sleeping late the next couple of days.

the good, the bad, and the ugly

The good...

My co-ed team is 6-0, and my teammates voted me as the male representative for our all-star game tomorrow night.

The bad...

My men's team has lost like 5 or 6 in a row.

The ugly...

I got one hit tonight for that men's team. The other 8 guys in the lineup (yeah, 8....after having 13 in the lineup Friday, we only had 9 tonight) had ZERO.

I broke up the no-hitter in the 4th inning. They had a shift on for me, being a lefty pull hitter....so I Ichiro-slapped a single to where the shortstop shoulda been. Kinda like bunting late to break up a no-no. The next inning the pitcher hit a bomb over my head in left that kept rolling and rolling for a homer....yeah, I had it coming.

What would happen if.... (6/20 edition)

...the last person in the All-Star Home Run Derby, down by one, decides to "run out" his last fly ball, claiming an inside-the-park homer while the 10-year-old kids they let in the outfield struggle to return the ball to the infield?

My softball league is having a home run derby tomorrow night, and there's a $2 ante, with the winners splitting the pool. Now THERE'S a way to spice up the all-star shenanigans.

Is "shenanigans" an Irish word? I'd have a couple of pints at a pub named Shenanigans if there were one around!

After my trip to Ireland back in '03, I finally developed the taste for Guinness, which I hated in college. This does not mean I will eventually like coffee, though.

There's an office in the building here at work, and there's a quotation taped to the door. It talks about how excellence is the result of hard work, not luck. The quote is attributed to "Arthur Unknown". So apparently, excellence is irrelevant in the spelling department.

I think it's mundane for sportscasters to refer to Atlanta as "Hot-lanta". I prefer my own term, in honor of Ted Turner. Ted-lanta.

My wife and I are sixteen episodes into the DVDs for "How I Met Your Mother". What exactly is Barney's job? The guy played by Doogie Howser. If nothing else, he gives inspiration to dorky smart kids everywhere that their lives CAN turn out cool! :) (Just stay away from snorting coke off hookers, like in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.)

I read that you never see cashews in their shells because they contain the same chemical as poison ivy.

If you accidentally put a DHL package in a FedEx drop-off box....and they're side-by-side....will the FedEx guy be nice and put it in the right box, or will they steal the package, to end up lost forever?

Plinko was the most overrated game in the history of The Price Is Right. The Race Game was my favorite. And one time, I think a contestant should have expressed more disappointment to get stuck in a really crappy game like "double prices", where you just have to pick which of the two prices is the right one for the hot tub. Lame!

I was probably older than I should have been before I realized the edible part of the pumpkin is the shell.

I recommend that you steer children towards separate kindergarten teachers, so that you don't get re-runs when the younger kid makes all the same stuff an older one made! (I have nearly identical homemade paperweights now after Fathers' Day this weekend.)

Ever yank a golf shot onto the wrong green, from an adjacent hole? Because you're required to putt the ball off that green before you can chip it back onto the correct hole. Grrrr....

Birthday cake

My claim to fame with my younger daughter is that I always include the age number into her cake. Her first cake was blueberry, so I made a ring of blueberries around the top frosting, and make a big number 1 in the center with the blueberries, too. For 2, it was a chocolate cake with a peanut butter 2 on top. Three was a doll cake, so I had to put the 3 on the front of the dress. (Someone else made that cake -- you bake it in an oversized measuring cup, and then invert it so it looks like the bottom half of a dress. Then you put a new Barbie doll or something inside down to the waist.) I may have to dig for pictures of the 4 cake, I can't remember it off the top of my head. Last year, 5, was like the blueberry cake, except I used lemon drops to ring the circumference and make a 5. This year, Sarah wanted vanilla cake with peppermint frosting. Um, okay....Well, I also crumbled some white chocolate chunks on top, garnering a comment that it looked like feta cheese. Anyways, for the 6, I really cheated and just used a black licorice shoestring wound up into a 6. One of my cousin's kids ate that, I think.



(Not sure why my picture didn't upload from home....but I've since driven to work and don't have the picture available to enclose here.)

Back to the Rack...

Okay, where to start.

No matter how extensive a list you think you've made when you go camping, you always forget something. Or at least, think of something you'd wished you'd brought. For instance, a wine bottle opener. It certainly wasn't on our list, but after buying a couple of wines from North River Winery up in Vermont, you realize it's going to have to wait until you get home. We got one bottle of Vermont Harvest (apple with maple syrup and spices) and one bottle of Rhubarb.

Other fun places to go are Ben & Jerry's headquarters in Waterbury, and Cabot cheese headquarters in Cabot, VT. Obviously they're just tourist traps, but fun enough that they take you through their factories. Both places feature short 10-minute intro videos telling "their story". The B & J's one is funnier because they've been bought out by Unilever, so the founders are "off doing their own thing" at this point. My highlight was seeing the people on the floor watching the tour go buy upstairs, looking out windows at them. I made eye contact with a relatively pretty woman about 30 years old, and flashed her. She laughed down on the floor, and I could see her telling her co-worker...but no flashback, unfortunately (which my wife said would have been funny!). The Cabot factory tour is on the same floor. The guy closest to the window had lots of tattoos, including "KILL" on his knuckles. Erika *dared* me to flash him, but I'm not freakin' crazy. Their store had tons of good cheeses, and the pre-requisite maple syrup. It's a law that every business in Vermont must sell maple syrup, I believe. Actually, we found some there that were infused with other flavors....Erika got vanilla chai maple syrup, and I got habañero maple syrup. Can't wait to try those.

Let's see, what else. The alpine slide at Pico isn't open yet until June 29. That sucked, because alpine slides are awesome. The campsites were all good -- Emerald Lake, Silver Lake, New Discovery, and Thetford Hill. I actually did my student teaching at Thetford Academy fifteen years ago. That place was too small, though, because we couldn't get a campsite away from other people. At New Discovery, we might have been the ONLY ones there Monday night. We rented the first six episodes of The Office. The original British version. Holy bleep, that show is hysterical. And it's funny, because I really like the American version, so we were trying to compare/contrast the shows. Even if it IS 2 versions of the same thing, they're both worthy. Like, you kinda wish the two shows could somehow co-exist in a crossover "parallel universe" thing -- like what if Dwight and Gareth were switched, or something?

Thetford's so close to Dartmouth that we stopped by the campus to sorta point out some stuff to Erika about my school, and have dinner. Of course, her school just had a mass-killing a few weeks ago, so a trip with her to Va. Tech. might only be kinda depressing.

Anyways, we had an appointment at her accountant's yesterday in Arlington, MA. Left at 4:10 to get back for a softball 6:30 game in Oxford. Got there just in time, a testament to the lack of speed traps along routes MA-2, I-95, I-90, and I-84. Went 4-for-5. Just missed a spectacular Willie-Mays catch in the first inning, and then suffered through a 10-inning nailbiter. We blew a 9-3 lead in the 6th. It stayed 9-9 through the 7th, 8th, and 9th (even though they left the bases loaded with none out), into the 10th, before the outfielder next to me let a single go through his legs and the guy at first raced home with the winning run as I tried backing it up.

As for now....catching up at work. I should be able to comment on everyone else's blogs tomorrow, for anyone concerned about my absence.

Still on vay-cay

Sorry I hadn't gotten the chance to write more. I've been in Vermont where cell phone coverage is few and far between. Now I'm at my wife's accountant's ofice in Arlington, MA...not exactly on the way home, either! I'll write more when I get home tonight, Down Under David!

You take the good, you take the bad....

Sorry, not a "Facts of Life" homage...

Just a quick update on softball. I went 0 for 4 Wed. night. We lost, 10-7. First two times up, blinded by the sun. 3rd time up, the right-center fielder went all Jim Edmonds on me....a fantastic diving over his head catch. Grrrr.... Then a line out to end it. Apparently by making the last out, I owe the beer next time. Hopefully we'll be back from camping in time for the game next Wed. night. I already have to miss Friday and Monday. I fielded just fine....unlike, say, the right side of our defense. Oh well, I suppose.

Tonight, though...much better. 3 for 3, all infield singles though. It helps to run hard every time. Fielding was awesome....I keep feeling like I'm being reminded as to why I LOVE playing. First inning....guy hits a BOMB to left...the left fielder and I are sprinting....but neither of us can call it because it's right between us. Left fielder reaches....and it pops off his extended glove....and I snag it with my bare left hand! Sweet! :)

Live update...A-Rod grand slam...guess I HAVE to watch basketball at this point...

Oh, and I also started a double play on a running catch, the runner at second was too far off. Although the shortstop snagged the ball I threw to the second basewoman, we still doubled up the runner. The next batter grounded out, and so no outs, bases loaded led to 0 runs. Yay! (We won, 13-1.)

More interesting stuff tomorrow, I suppose. Perhaps a tribute to pistachios. (burp!)

What would happen if.... (6/6 edition)

....the makers of vending machines installed the "TILT" technology in pinball machines? Your candy gets stuck, so you at least *try* to rattle the machine....only for the TILT lights to go on and the machine goes dark with the exit-tray closed off or something.

Are we familiar with the term "smash-mouth football"? That's where a team never throws the ball, and simply runs up the middle, and is happy with the modest 3-4 yard gain. ("Three yards and a cloud of dust.") It's more physical to run the ball right at the other team rather than try to pass or run to the sideline, etc. Well anyways, one of my friends plays a sort of "smash-mouth golf." All his shots are about 90 yards, even off the tee. But they're straight, and he's on the green in 4, at least as well as I am, who'll spray balls much further, but in much more of a random direction. So he gets a 6 and I get an 8, despite being 125-150 yards further ahead after our tee shots.

When I was a teenager I thought it would be a genius idea to market instant coffee that already had dried cream crystals in it. I was mocked by my friend's dad. Later, this idea was explained to me as "General Foods International Coffees", which have other flavors built in with the coffee and (most likely) non-dairy creamer.

I hate that my phone has no caller ID, but that calls come directly to my desk. I have no idea who's calling, and so sometimes I'm reluctant to pick up out of fear of being "ambushed" by one of our clients' employees asking me stuff they should have posed directly to their HR people. And yet, sometimes I'll stare at the phone and eventually pick up on the 3rd or 4th ring...and I'm never lucky. If I pick up on the first ring, it'll be a legitimate client call. The longer I wait, the more likely I'm going to regret not letting it go directly to voice mail.

I'd like to see a league patent its sport. Imagine if I invented a sport and started a league. I could control labor costs, because it would be illegal for the disgruntled players to try to form their own league to play a game I invented!

I like to tell people I earn seven figures. Unfortunately, two of them are after the decimal point.

In college I was mocked for being a New Englander, where the states all use the same town names. Like Manchester, in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. I wonder how states as big as California can even FIND names for thousands of towns.

I took Spanish classes in high school and college, and I still read it pretty accurately. I enjoyed skimming Yahoo's TV listings for Spain, because I looked to find US programs being translated to Spanish, and sure enough, found "Me llamo Earl." The best part is the description of the episode, where everything is in Spanish except the character names, which remain English.

There's an open field outside my window. Last year they tried planting grass, without too much success -- just lots of weeds. This year, suddenly, the whole field last week was awash in bright yellow flowers. So it's lots of yellow spots amidst a green background. Kind of like a TV screen when you get "snow" for the reception. Except this would be.....yellow snow. (Which we're all taught to avoid)

I like the woman from the E-Surance auto insurance ads. The cartoon woman who's really athletic and seems pretty smart in escaping danger in the world. The pink hair's a bit odd. Usually women with bright pink hair are associated more with the performing arts, rather than athletic travails or the insurance industry, no?

I have no memorabilia

So the DanWagon is discussing sports memorabilia we've collected over the years. Being a rather prudent spender, I've got none. I did have some Marian Hossa bobbleheads I gave the girls after a trip to Ottawa back in 2001, but I'm sure my ex-wife has long since thrown them out. Heck, he plays for Atlanta now anyways.

The closest I ever got to something from a game was at a Pawtucket Red Sox game back when I was like 12. I was using the scorecard in the program to keep score, and asked my dad to fill in for me while I had to go to the bathroom. When I came back, he'd started doing the 3rd inning, but filled it in under the 2nd inning's column, right where the last batter had left off. So I was in the process of erasing and moving the scorekeeping into the right column, when a foul ball came back over our heads. It hit the old wooden overhang -- I know McCoy Stadium has been renovated, but this was back around '83 or '84 -- and dropped straight down onto the wooden seat next to me and bounced away. I only barely noticed it out of the corner of my eye as it flew away another 20 feet to be gobbled up by someone else. And that's as close as I've ever come. I will go to minor league games with no more than 1000 people in the stands, and I still can't get a ball. And now I'm getting to the age where if I do get one, I'll feel guilted into handing it over to a 5-year-old with a glove. I say, I gotta get myself one first, and then any subsequent ones can be turned over to snot-faced tykes!

A big heaping bowl of chemicals

I wish I could remember what that line is from. Like SNL, or WKRP....
Anyways, it's what our above-ground pool became this weekend. All sorts of stuff like shock, algaecide, and minerals to soften and alkalinize the pool. We were given clearance to swim in it Saturday, though, which was cool! Except for having to go buy a bathing suit for Lindsey. Sarah still has hers from her birthday last year. And it STILL doesn't fit her. We had to safety-pin the waist of the bottoms. She's pretty skinny, all right.

Went to City Steam brewery/restaurant for my friend Steve's 38th birthday Saturday night. They do a 90-minute comedy show after dinner. The guys were somewhat local, and none of them really were great, although certainly *some* good spots for a couple of them. Nothing memorable to share, though. The beer at City Steam is good. No, it's not as good as the Victory Brewing place in PA that I mentioned last week. But still a good place to try out new beers.

It's amazing how little network TV I watch any more. I think hockey's on tonight, though! That'll tide me over until Futurama at 10:30.

random variance

So, I follow up an 0-3 with a 3-3....each game featuring a sacrifice fly in the 1st inning. Yeah, that's a cheap way to not hurt your batting average and get an RBI. We won our men's game Wed. 11-5 and co-ed game last night 22-4. We also had 3 new women come to fill Erika's roster spot. There's nothing worse than not being in the field for a softball game, or having a 12-person batting lineup. At least I didn't have to sit -- maybe my inning off would have been one that was wiped out by our mercy rule win -- we didn't play the 6th and 7th innings. The random variance comes into play both with my batting lines, and the number of women apparently showing up for our game.

Men's league in Oxford: We're 2-1. I'm 7 for 12 with 5 runs scored and 1 RBI. (Yes, that's 7 hits out of the #3 spot in the lineup with no RBI other than the sac fly.)

Co-ed league in Trumbull: We're 3-0. I'm 7 for 10 with 7 runs scored and 5 RBI.

All singles so far, though. Eek, gotta cycle up for the summer! (That's steroid talk, so I hear.)


I've gotten smarter, and now I keep a list of good ideas at my desk here at work to save for my "what would happen if..." column on Wednesdays. I wonder if my cell phone has a voice recorder in it for notes-to-self. It should, it's got all sorts of stuff I haven't figured out yet.

Also, Erika and I have narrowed down our campsite destinations for 4 nights in Vermont in a couple of weeks. Cheap and easy, that's the way to take a vacation. Or, save money on lodging, only to spend it at small shops all over. We'll see.