Feast or famine. That’s how Ryan and I describe the popularity of the cardio equipment at our gym. There are either a ton of people running on the treadmills or peddling away on the ellipticals or absolutely no one is using the machines.
Today the gym was d-e-a-d.
I figured it must be some kind of a holiday weekend or something, so when I got home and looked at my calendar and saw that Monday is Columbus Day it all made sense again.
I’m assuming those who are lucky enough to have Monday off work are capitalizing on the situation and taking a four-day vacation. Or people were just sleepy today!
Speaking of holidays, I remember receiving my college’s academic calendar when I was a freshman at UCF. I went through my planner, marking off which days we had off from school. When I stumbled upon Casimir Pulaski Day, I was surprised to see that we didn’t have it off!
When I asked one of my professors about it, she looked at me like I was a total nut job. (I totally felt like Dupree from You, Me and Dupree asking about Columbus Day.)
Apparently the special day honoring this Polish commander is only recognized as a holiday in Illinois where I grew up! (Sadly, I’m not sure most Illinois students have Pulaski Day off from school any more, either.)
Speaking of holidays, this will be the first year that Ryan doesn’t have the best holiday vacation policy ever. At his previous job, his company gave the employees the week before Christmas through New Year’s Day off from work (two weeks!), and that was on top of their previously allotted vacation time. Unreal, right?
And that was officially the longest tangent ever.
Breakfast
What a yummy creation!
I made a delicious batch of Greek yogurt pancakes by blending the following ingredients with an immersion blender:
- 1 cup old fashioned oats
- One 6-ounce cup strawberry banana Chobani Greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1 egg white
The texture wasn’t fluffy like typical pancakes, but more doughy and thick.
As I was blending the ingredients, the batter was super thick, so I was unsure how the pancakes would turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised. I’m sure the texture of the pancakes isn’t for everyone since they’re not super fluffy, but both Ryan and I liked them a lot!
For those of you who have avoided making my pumpkin protein pancakes or banana bread protein pancakes because they include cottage cheese (which I promise you cannot taste), I’ve heard back from readers who have substituted Greek yogurt for the cottage cheese and said that it worked perfectly.
Time to be productive!
Question of the Afternoon
- What is the vacation policy like at your work? Good? Bad?
At my previous three jobs, it seemed standard to have around 12 days off every year. My last job gave employees 12 days off a year, but then you also had four sick days. You could not use sick days for “personal” reasons which I thought was silly. I felt like it encouraged employees to be dishonest about being sick since, if you never actually got sick during the year and didn’t use your four sick days, you would just lose four free days off from work at the end of the year.
![\"Quantcast\"/](\"//pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-1e3-7hOJ_U8Bg.gif\")
I’ve never even heard of that Pulaski dude…..but that’s cool that you got school off because of him in Illinios! ( I grew up in St Louis)
Your pancakes look cakey and dense and wonderful—gotta try those!
I work from home (health coach) and as a fitness instructor, so I usually have most holidays off–it’s great!
that’s awesome that he gets all of that! i work at dell and we have about 11 days of vaca, 11 days of floating holiday (which you can use as vaca) and also 14 days of PBA (personal business allowence) … so added up we get about a month and a week off! now i got promoted during the ending of the year so on TOP of that i will have corporate holidays startin’ with a week off for christmas/new years! love my job 🙂
he USED to. 🙁 how he’s on the 13-days-off-a-year plan.
oh nooooooooo! 🙁 wish i could give some of my vaca days to yall since im so bad at using them. ahah
Lockheed? I used to work for them and holidays were like that. Now I work for a medical device company and once I work there for 6 months, I’ll get 4 weeks a year..but I was shocked when I heard it was that much!
Too funny- I also have never heard of Casimir Pulaski Day! But- I grew up in Western New York.
I also totally agree that the treadmills & ellipticals are either totally packed or completely empty. It’s the weirdest thing.
Hahahha feast or famine is SO true. The gym where I go is either packed or deserted, ha. As in yesterday, it was absolutely packed and I ran into three of my professors..awkward and hilarious. But of course, when I go this morning it will probably be vacant, ha.
Those pancakes look super fluffy and delicious! I would never think to use coconut oil, great idea! I bet a bit of whipped cream and a few strawberries on top would be great as well..hmmm I know what I’m going to make for breakfast now 🙂
We get 18 days off, but that is both personal and sick days, so you can use any combination of the two, and it just comes out of your 18 days. But we get birthday holidays! So you get your birthday off (or whatever weekday it is near), which is a fun bonus. I actually didn’t take any time off until the end of summer, so now I’m rushing to use them all, so I’m taking two weeks off for Christmas like with Ryan’s former job! Except it’s coming out of my paid time off bank.
i used to do the same thing. i would try to save them ALL up for the end of the year and then have a blast around the holidays.
Your breakfast looks so good! I love making greek yogurt pancakes! <3
I’m still a student so I’m basking in the glory of Fall break, Christmas break, winter break, spring break, summer break… 🙂 In undergrad we had a 6 week Christmas break, which was amazing!
soak it up, sister! 😀
I love my vacation policy at work! We get like 3 weeks, plus personal days, plus sick time, plus ALL the federal holidays! It’s so amazing!
I work for a bank and so our holiday policy is pretty good. We have about every holiday you could think of EXCEPT the day after thanksgiving.
Now, I grew up in Massachusetts, where we got Patriots Day off. No one else I know gets that one. But it is also when they run the Boston Marathon and the Red Sox play early.
The Kidless Kronicles
Mmm…. pancakes…..they look delicious!
I get 15 days of paid holiday each year and can carry over up to 10 days to the following fiscal year. I also get unlimited sick days and we get about one stat holiday each month. I live and work in Ottawa and work for a private company rather than the federal public service but we still get all the holidays they get plus Family Day, which they don’t have as it is a provincial holiday – woohoo!
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Canadians out there!
Yay Canada! I can’t wait until Thanksgiving dinner!
I just checked out your blog and we need to connect! It seems like we have very similar interests!
awesome! send me an email and let’s connect.
um, you guys are adorable. i feel like this is match.com PBF edition. 🙂
Yay Thanksgiving!! I live in Victoria B.C and we just got the “Family Day” stat too! Now we have 10 stat holidays a year!
My internship is pretty chill about me taking days off. Granted, I’ve only taken one (which I now realize is Colombus Day).
I have the same work/vacation schedule as Ryan’s old job (I’m assuming he worked for a defense contractor?) and I don’t think I could ever go to a different company LOL!! Working EVERY Friday.. the horror!! 😉
yes!!! i have a feeling you work for the same company he did! 🙂 the perks of that job were seriously awesome. he’s missing having every other friday off for sure.
I still work for Ryan’s old company, but in TX, and even with my bad days I can’t fathom giving up my off-Fridays and long Christmas break. They sucker you in! 😉
I was going to say – his vacation and 9/80 policy reminded me of my company…a defense contractor as well. Gotta love those 9/80s!!!
i think more companies should do the 9/80 thing! the research supporting it (less sick days, higher morale) is really convincing!
You get a standard 21 days holidays in Ireland…and people still complain! I never use mine up. I’m not sure what legal entitlements are to sick days, but your employer isn’t oblidged to pay you. I’ve been off sick two days in a year and luckily enough my employer paid me for both.
I can’t wait for pancakes this weekend, only chance I get to make them!
the quiet gym might be because today is yom kippur! the train was empty this morning.
oooh i bet you’re right!
I always notice how my gym is so much busier on Mondays, and it slowly gets emptier throughout the week. I totally get it- people have much more motivation when a new week begins!
I get ten days of personal leave and ten days of sick leave a year, but I’ll start to get personal leave next year once I’ve hit the three-year mark with my organization. You can technically get fired for using sick leave for personal reasons, but I’ve never heard of that happening. What I think is dumb is that if I quit, I will get paid for whatever personal leave I have left, but I won’t get paid for the sick leave. Since I don’t actually get sick very often, I rarely schedule doctors appointments for my day off, and often take off the whole day instead of just part of the day so I can use my sick time!
Mine is really good, I get 15 days holidays plus I get time off in lieu of overtime, which adds up to another 5 days or so, in the end I get about 4 weeks off!
Sick days aren’t really allotted and we just take them as needed.
We are also closed from Christmas to New Year BUT have to use our holiday or overtime for it.
My work’s vacation policy is awesome! 2 weeks, plus 2 weeks at Christmas (like Ryan), plus spring break, so 5 weeks in total. Nooo complaints here. We usually have lieu days to use up too, so I like to tack those onto my vacation in the summa. We’re an educational organization, so that is why we kind go with the school time! It’s pretty sweet 🙂
we also do not have sick days, because we have such a small office. If you’re sick, you can stay home and get better, without needing to take a sick day for it. I’m pretty sure if someone abused that this privilege would be revoked…but I am a huge fan of the leniency, I gotta say.
Right now, as a reasonably new employee (I’ve been working 1 year), I get 2 weeks, plus 2 floating holidays that you lose if you don’t use (sorry for the rhyme!) But I believe that after 2 or 3 years, that gets bumped up to 3. Right now I’m just happy that it’s a long weekend and Thanksgiving for us in Canada on Monday! 🙂
My job doesnt HAVE a vacation policy. We are a smaller company, so my boss let’s us take off whenever we need to. You would think this is a good thing, but I would actually like a set number of days. I tend NOT to take vaca days now since it feels like I am taking advantage of not having a set number of days. I think I have only taken off like 4 days and they were for things like moving and a funeral!
oh i would HATE that. you’re right – it sounds good *in theory* but i would feel so awkward requesting days off.
It really does! Especially since the guys in my office RARELY take them. I am getting over that awkwardness though because I am planning a trip to NY and a ski trip this winter, so I will be sure to use some of my vacation days!
I grew up in RI, where they still observe VJ (Victory over Japan) Day. Yes, that’s a state holiday.
I’m a teacher, so my vacations are standard when it comes to the average school calendar. I also get an allotted amount of personal and sick days, too! I end up using most of my personal days to go to doctor’s appts, since most of my doctors won’t let you schedule appointments after 3pm!
The one thing I miss about working at my old place IS the Christmas shutdown. However, I won’t miss NOT having holidays between January and May. That’s a REALLY long time. I still get the same # of holidays at my new place (we actually get Columbus Day off and Veteran’s Day) , but they are spread out…so I guess I have nothing to complain about – ha ha.
I’m pretty lucky at my job as far as days off go! We get 9 holidays, 15 vacation days, 15 sick days (unused can be carried over to the following year), 3 “personal” days, 15 family sick days, and up to 10 bereavement days….all paid! You can carry over vacation days, but cannot have more than 30 at a time in your “account”. If you exceed 30, the extra ones become sick days.
Maybe everyone who goes to your gym decided to come up here to Canada for Thanksgiving?? 😉 i am so excited for turkey tomorrow and sunday!!! 🙂
My work’s vacation policy is only so-so… I get 15 days of holidays (i only got that after 5 years with the company).. it gets increased to 20 days after i work 10 years with the company. I’m also always working at christmas time. If boxing day and new years eve fall on a week day, we work half that day.. and we get a day off for boxing day and that’s about it. Sick day wise, it doesn’t really matter how many sick days you have, BUT the more you take, the lower your bonus. fun!
My vaca policy is ooook. We get 10 holidays, 4 weeks of vaca… but sick time is built into vacation. Also, we do not get columbus day off 🙁
Ryan’s old job sounds like when I worked at Ernst & Young it was basically a two week shut down…. followed by 3 months of working weekends… so I think I’d prefer working a bit through the holidays to have my weekends 🙂 sorry, tangent!!
I get 7 or 8 holidays off (paid) and 20 days a year for any other time off. We don’t have sick days but that never really matters to me because I’ve never had to miss school or work for being sick. (knock on wood) Thank you immune system!
Bought cottage cheese last week but have yet to try your banana pancakes. Hopefully will have time this weekend!
I’m a brit so I find the American holiday system so weird! Seem’s like you all get barely any time off.
At my company we get 28 days holiday, the week between Xmas and New Year, 5/6 bank holiday days (which are holiday the whole of the UK gets) and 10 sick days… And sometimes all this doesn’t even feel enough! : )
Hmm.. I’ll take some dense pancakes- they look good to me! And nicely packed with protein!
As for my job- I’m a teacher, so I get 2 months off during the summer. It’s great and all, but we only get 2 personal days each year, so I can’t plan a vacation in the fall or winter. That being said, we get a spring and winter break. People would probably slap me if I complained about it.
I read somewhere once that the average person is motivated to go to the gym Mondays through Wednesdays and that motivation drops off by the end of the week, which is why the gym is more empty on Fridays. Not sure if there’s any truth to that…but I know that if exercise is a daily routine for someone, like you (and meeee), then they wouldn’t lose motivation by the end of the week.
I get 10 holidays + 10 sick days + 10 personal days, which is pretty good! I actually just found out we have 10 sick days on top of this but I think most people don’t use more than a few sick days in a year–I have only used 1. And I have a half day every other Friday which is nice–I would prefer the whole day off though since coming into work for like 4 hours is kind of annoying…still better than nothing 🙂
I’m planning on making the pumpkin protein pancakes this weekend…will be my first pumpkin of the season!
Since I’m still in school I don’t have a job. But let me tell you, one thing I’m really going to miss is all of the vacation time I get! I mean c’mon…how does the working world expect people to go from getting a spring break, winter break, and summer break to having MAYBE two weeks vacation? They should ease us in :).
I love how rich Greek yogurt makes things – I use it all the time as a butter cutter in my baked goods and they come out so dense and wonderful.
My vacation policy at work is GREAT! It’s one thing I will be forever grateful for!
My company does the same thing with sick days- I don’t get sick often so I always feel like I have to lie if I want to use one! Then it is that awkward conversation where I add in way too many details about what is wrong bc I am a terrible liar!!
you only got 12 days of vacation? I’m still a student, but here in Italy you get at least 20 days of vacation, plus national holidays and sick days which I don’t even think have a limit…maybe a few months…but they can send a doctor to check if you are really sick.
This weekend is Thanksgiving here in Canada. It’s one of my favourite holidays – the focus is on food and family rather than on consumerism. I’ve worked in the non-profit sector (2 weeks holidays) and as a teacher (lots more than 2 weeks holidays). My husband’s in the military and we just moved, which means that I’m not working and I have all weeks off. He gets four weeks per year, which will shortly be bumped up to five weeks.
I love how you experiment in the kitchen! You have inspired me to do so…Sometimes i find my self thinking “what would Julie do?” when i am throwing things together! haha!
I just started my first post-college job a month or so ago, and it’s seriously been awesome. It’s a small not-for-profit health research company, so we don’t get paid as much as I probably could , but the experience is awesome & we get 3 weeks of vacation a year, not including sick/personal days. Not bad!
*as we probably could
Those pancakes look yummy- I have a major craving now!
As my office is so small (6 people) we are closed between Christmas and New Year but we have to use 2 days from our annual leave during that. The rest are freebies 🙂
I actually luck out…a lot with sick and personal and vacation days. But..it also attributes to the salary of teachers I suppose. I get 15 sick and 3 personal days. I can split up the hours of those as well. This is on top of all school vacations and holidays…and the summer. People always talk about the amount of time that teachers get off, but my job does not stop when I go home and I am often doing work right til ingonto bed. If I didn’t have that vacation time, I Would burn out in a year.
Have you heard the song Casimir Pulaski Day by Sufjan Stevens? SO GOOD! one of my favorites!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGEMx3TKxNc
wow ryan had it made with that vacay policy at his old job…my dad is an architect and has that same kind of vacation policy, i’ve always been jealous.
My jobs vacation policy is decent…now that i’ve been working here for 5 years, i get 21 vacation days off, and we get normal holidays plus “floater” holidays as well (choice between day after thanksgiving or christmas eve off and then choice between MLK day and presidents day off) our “personal” days and “sick” days are meshed together into that 21, so you can take them off for whatever. but we’re only really allowed to “call out” 2 times max a year otherwise they frown upon it. i’m not complaining, im sure some people have it much worse then me lol
When I started my job in 2004, I was the 8th employee and the company was only a couple years old so we’d get that week between xmas and new years in addition to 3 weeks off. Now, it’s bigger and more formal so no more week between the holidays although they did put in place extra time for people who have been there longer (me!) which is nice. No sick days though so vacation days have to be used when you’re sick. I work from home though and can easily skirt around this 😉
I work for a University so I think our schedule is pretty good. We “float” holidays like Columbus Day and President’s Day so we can have an extra day off at Thanksgiving and Christmas. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fall on the weekend this year so we get the 23rd and 26th off. I’m loving the 4 day weekend!
The university closed for 2 days in a row last Winter. This was probably the only time as a post-grad that I was excited about an Ohio snow storm! Snow days are still fabulous at 28 years old!
Wow having so long off during the holidays is pretty sweet! My holiday allowance at my job is pretty decent: 25 days! My boss is very fair in that if she can see we are generally working hard, I’m sure we could swing an extra day or 2 off! Her motto is: do your work how you like, just get it done!
We’ll be celebrating Pulaski Days here in Michigan. It’s actually a week long event with a kielbasa eating contest, parade, and some pretty heavy drinking this weekend. I’ll be headed out to celebrate and honor Casimir Pulaski as soon as I get out of work!
http://www.pulaskidays.org/
This is hilarious! Have fun celebrating!!! =)
My vacation policy is very similar to Ryan’s. We get the week off between Christmas and New Years, it’s awesome! 🙂 I’m pretty sure if I had your job I would use those “sick days” as personal days if I had to…..do they really expect people to just give away free paid days because they don’t get sick?!!! no way Jose!
When I used to work at the gym, I always noticed it was dead over holiday weekends. I also noticed that it got progressively slower and more dead as the week went on. I think people are all amped up to get in the gym on Monday mornings, but as the week goes on, their motivation decreases.
We get it pretty nice at my job – we have 9 holidays, plus 12 vacation days, 12 sick days (both carry over from year to year), and 3 personal days (use it or lose it). Can’t complain! 🙂
Pulaski Day was my jam! I grew up in Northbrook, not too far away from you! We still had it off in high school but they made it ‘teacher’s institute day’.
I’m lucky enough to work around the school calendar so I usually get things like Christmas break off, but unlucky enough to not have the teacher in a school benefit of getting paid for that time, so it usually gets filled up with projects to avoid pain in my bank account! But at least I’m lucky enough to always have things like Christmas and Thanksgiving off. 🙂