So imagine how crestfallen I was last week when I checked into my favorite Hampton Inn, and learned my lofty Hilton Honors status had taken a hit. The front desk clerk, who knows me by sight and name, looked up from her computer screen, and the gleam in her eye that usually shines extra bright for elite Honors members was dimmer than usual.

“You’re only Gold now?” she asked. “What happened?”

“Wait… what?!”

“It says you’re only Gold.” she said. “I thought you were Diamond.”

“I have no idea,” I said. “I certainly haven’t been traveling less.”

This week I called the Honors customer service hotline, and demanded to know the meaning of this.

“To keep your Diamond status, you needed to complete 28 trips with us last year,” the customer service representative said. “You only had 26.”

Busted! I knew immediately of two trips where I had strayed from the Hilton family. I had stayed at The Mansfield Hotel in New York City last spring and Fairmont Chicago in the fall, both while attending conferences. Two dalliances, and no more diamond: Quite a metaphor for life!

More sobering, though, might be that I was on the road more often than not over the last 52 weeks, because there were also a couple of vacation trips not included in those 28 hotel stays.

If I am going to be on the road more than half of the year, every one of those stays will count toward my reward status from now on. Hilton, ahoy, so long as I don’t become this guy: http://www.theupintheairmovie.com/#/video/4

Perhaps Benjamin was conjuring Blofeld as he pondered my personal brand... (photos courtesy of IMDB.com).

I’ve written before about the need to work on my branding, starting in my home. Well, yesterday, that exercise began in earnest, as Type B Graphic Designstarted the first phase of recasting the Commuter Daddy logo and color scheme.

After all, if I’m going to be writing about tasting events and elevating my blogging profile, I need some business cards to spread the word. Simply saying, “Daddy… Commuter Daddy,” in my best James Bond voice won’t suffice.

Brandy and I were in the middle of deliberating some adjectives that describe my personality, writing and motivations when Benjamin walked into the room. To temporarily avoid inward reflection, I put the question to him. What did he think of when he thought of me?

Benjamin pondered the question seriously. He stared into space, scrunched his nose, cocked his head, and finally said, “I think you are an adventure mind master.”

I nearly fell out of my chair in my rush to hug him. What made him think of that?

“Well, you have a big mind, and you take us lots of places,” he answered.

He later figured out the words he had been searching for were “adventurous mastermind,” but I like “adventure mind master” so much better.

I got to know the Muffin Man ;a little bit today. Turns out he is a she.

Kimberly Shelton of Crestone Group Baking Companies led 14 bloggers through a tasting of McDonald’s new bakery offerings this morning at the Seaport Hotel in Boston. She was joined by Sylvia Becker, marketing manager for McDonald’s, the purveyor of five of Shelton’s creations: Banana bread, cheese croissant, blueberry muffin, multi-grain berry muffin and miniature vanilla scones.

In typical Commuter Daddy fashion, the day started before the sun was up this morning as I departed Middletown, NY, at 5 a.m. My goal was to blow through Hartford before that city’s rush hour and hopefully catch a break as I neared Boston during the peak morning traffic, all in an effort to make it to the tasting by 10.

I must have made the correct ;sacrifices ;to the commuting gods this week. Even with some traffic on the Mass Pike at the Newton and Allston tolls, I made the trip in under four hours, gaining me an hour to do some day-job work. Score one for productivity!

Most of the 14 bloggers in attendance were women, but it didn’t feel like a mom-specific event and therefore I didn’t feel out of place. We’ve all got to eat, right? We’re all looking for variety in ours and our kids’ diets. If we can sneak some fruit into a baked good, that smells like victory to me.

When I first arrived, I set myself up at a table near the rear of the suite. I wanted some room to spread out, take some photos, do some writing, sip some coffee, etc. Soon, I was joined by two moms and their children. I had established the kids table! It turned out to be fortuitous. One measure of culinary success can be accomplished via the mouths of toddlers. Would the kids like the baked goods?

A 19-month-old daughter of one blogger tried playing peek-a-boo with me, but her hands were occupied by the banana bread, so she simply turned her head side to side in a modified version of the game. Her mouth was occupied too, seeming to savor every bite of the banana bread. I had to agree with her. It was pretty tasty, with just the right amount of crunch on the crust surrounding an otherwise moist bread. Shelton said they used as little flour as possible among the 12 ingredients, which at times meant the bread would barely hold together during testing. The banana taste was faint, but it still was my favorite among the five offerings.

It didn’t taste nearly as sinful as the cheese croissant. ;”It’s butter,” Shelton said about the croissant. “It’s a lot of butter.” It was fabulous, but it couldn’t possibly be in my regular breakfast rotation, in much the same way the beloved sausage biscuit is not on my personal menu regularly. My daily fight against cholesterol would surely be lost if the cheese croissant was in my commuting breakfast repetoire. It has 14 grams of saturated fat, which is 70 percent of the recommended daily allowance, according to the nutritional labels that were shared with us. Be still, my clogging heart. The way Shelton described the ingredients — a “big block” of croissant dough, a “big block” of butter and sweetened cream cheese — made my LDL dance with joy. Don’t get me wrong. Each bite was a dreamy mouthful. Even before Shelton described the care that went into making the croissant light and airy, I could tell this was no ordinary fast-food croissant. It will be interesting to see how airy they are at the restaurants when I do get around to indulging in such breakfast decadence once in a long while.

The aforementioned 19-month-old also appeared to like the miniature vanilla scones. They were a shade too sweet for my taste. Nevertheless, I know our small army of boys will love the scones when they have a chance to try them. I will describe them to the boys as iced Munchkins — two words that go very well with their palettes. One bite, and they will be hooked and learn to connote the word scone with other breakfast treats they like. The 3-scone serving size packs a caloric whallop, though. They make the cheese croissant seem light by comparison: 420 calories for the scones serving, 380 for the croissant. I am already feeling as if I can increase my croissant allowance.

The lightest item among the offerings is the 280-calorie multi-grain berry muffin. It also has only 6 grams of fat total, with 1 gram being saturated — a much better fit for my diet. It would be impossible to eat cleanly while driving, though. As it was, I got a small berry stain on my pants while sampling in a much more controlled setting than my driver’s seat. No wonder I was at the kids’ table! That said, this muffin ran a close second to my banana bread favorite. Anytime you can mix crunchy grains with a moist breakfast food, I am all in. One bite and I was immediately ;nostalgic ;as my culinary imagination whisked me to Fog Island Cafe on Nantucket for my favorite “Trail Cakes.”

I have to bet the McDonald’s multi-grain muffin and its simpler blueberry sibling are much better for me than the Fog Island breakfast, and more cost effective too. Becker said McDonald’s restaurant operators have been advised to price the bakery items between $1.59 and $1.89. Bundle it with a small coffee (Newman’s Own Organic, of course, already a regular staple in the Commuter Daddy road diet), and you’ve got breakfast for under $3.

The better news? The bakery items are available all day, unlike most of the rest of the McDonald’s breakfast menu, which is unavailable after 10 or 11 a.m., depending on where you are and whether it is a weekday or weekend.

One blogger pointed out that the items being showcased were akin to offerings at Panera, with the added bonus of the McDonald’s drive-thru. No longer is a sports parent required to shepherd some or all of the family from vehicle to restaurant and back again to get some something other than Pop Tarts and sugary cereals into the kids’ gullets. Drive up, place order, get served, distribute food, and voila! Multi-tasking zen achieved with at least twenty minutes gained. Becker said 60 percent of McDonald’s business is conducted via its drive-through window. We parents and commuters can vouch for that.

One of the bloggers in attendance asked the McDonald’s representative whether the company has added the baked goods as part of a strategy to compete more directly against Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. Becker deftly side-stepped the question twice, bringing focus back to the McDonald’s variety, affordability and all-natural ingredients, without explicitly stating against whom those value propositions should be applied.

But make no mistake. The breakfast and freshness race is on. Certainly Starbucks perceives McDonald’s as infringing on its market share. If I were a betting man, I’d wager that similar feelings are held by McDonald’s executives.

Bad news for those outside of New England, though. These baked goods are strictly a Northeast offering for the moment. Becker said breakfast tastes vary greatly by region, and while McDonald’s would like to test something in Chicago based on their New England success to-date, they are proceeding slowly and cautiously. It’s not often that McDonald’s offers regional products (plus or minus a ;McLobster), so there seems to be an extra dose of caution being applied.

From the commuter perspective, these offerings are not ideal drive-and-eat fodder. They won’t score well on the Commuter Snack Index that is in the works (more to come), but not many baked goods will score highly, no matter the origin. So that’s not a knock on McDonald’s. These latest offerings are, however, ideal grab-and-go food for everyone else in the car. There’s sure to be something that finnecky kids will like and can pair with a smoothie for a pretty well balanced meal when contrasted against other McDonald’s breakfast options.

Sure, they look and are delicious, but for my long-term health give me the multi-gran berry muffin any day.

Also in attendance today:
As Cape Cod Turns
Being Loopy
Capability : Mom
Charlene Chronicles
Don’t Mind the Mess
MommyCosM
Natick Patch: Weekly Bites
Pragmatic Mom
Providence Journal Food Blog
Stowed Stuff
The Coupon Goddess
The Frugalette

Disclosures: I was not paid to attend today. Our hosts, SHIFT Communications, did pay for parking, and ;food and coffee were supplied for free. Each of us was also presented with a thank-you basket, containing a McCafe apron, small spiral-bound notebook and coupons. I would like to give away the coupons to the first 9 new people to like our Commuter Daddy Facebook page. Please send an email to commuterdaddy@comcast.net to let me know you’ve added yourself among the Facebook fandom, and whether you’d like a free smoothie (2 available) or a free bakery item coupon (7 available).

You’ve likely noticed there’s an explosion of infographics in social media circles — especially on Pinterest — and beyond. Have you also noticed how obscenely lengthy some of them are?

We must be in a time warp. The collective thought process is completely old school: Let’s compose a graphic that would barely fit and be readable in a magazine or tabloid newspaper, throw it on the Web, and pimp it like there’s no tomorrow.

I was recently pointed in the direction of this infographic: The Decline of Traditional Media. Never mind the content. The infographic’s format itself is evocative of why traditional media is in on its deathbed. I have to hit the page-down button seven times on my desktop monitor to see the whole thing. On my iPhone? It’s the Eternal Scroll. Is this really leveraging the strengths of a medium? Witness the URLs at the bottom acting as a bibliography. Dear author… glad you sourced your information… but it’s an image! None of the links are clickable.

Aren’t infographics supposed to convey bite-sized pieces of information, a la the original USA Today Snapshots? Who decided that themes should be exploded into a blur of combined visuals and factoids, some of which are barely a tangent? Is this because the Internet has unlimited space, and we now expand infographics because we can?

You know the saying: Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.

I understand we’re all inundated with media, most of it by choice, and anything that conveys information visually helps us digest it more quickly and move on to our next media-centric pursuit. But things have gone too far. There are too many infographics that are far too lengthy on entirely too many topics.

All of you who are posting infographics on Pinterest? I’ve unsubscribed. For the sake of others, please stop. I’m not yet sure what the best use of the platform is, but it certainly is not as an infographic bulletin board.

As an aside, I came across these commuter-themed infographic posters the other day that I thought were really cool, but they are near impossible to navigate online. I’d much rather peruse the posters to completely digest all of the information. Some things are better achieved offline:

• Geneology of Automobile Companies
• Geneology of US Airlines

Benjamin was firing up the Wii this morning, and “The Imperial March” was at a pretty high volume when “Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga” was ready for play.

“Where’s the remote?” he shouted.

“Next to the TV,” I replied from the kitchen.

“It’s too loud.” he said.

“…then you’re too old.” I added instinctively.

“I’m not old!” he shouted indignantly. “You’re old!”

Pause.

“No offense…” he added.

That addendum is commonplace in our house these days, though it’s usually said as a preface.

“No offense, Dad, but….” Even better is “I don’t mean to be rude, but….” There’s always a but.

The good news is they are trying to be polite and truthful — two behaviors we are working hard to promote. We are realizing, however, that those two altruisms may not always peacefully co-exist.

File under “Be careful what you wish for.”

Brandy and I were largely oblivious of the project, until we found the following on the floor at the bottom of the stairs.

Guess those shirts will be headed to the hand-me-down pile. Hopefully the recipient will like them better. The good news is they were lightly worn, if at all.

http://embed.animoto.com/play.html?w=swf/vp1&e=1325556188&f=opjjtP1pkQTCGZsrpUiZ5g&d=398&m=a&r=360p+720p&volume=100&start_res=360p&i=m&options=

It was a jam-packed year, which is likely something a family of 5 could say about every year, but we really did have an active year in 2011. Highlights included a surprise 40th birthday trip to San Juan; a new role in my day job; first trip to SXSW; completion of a long overdue bachelor’s degree; coaching stints for basketball, soccer and baseball, the latter of which included an extended season with Mason’s all-star team; a couple of band concerts and parades for Sam; Ben’s first seasons of baseball, basketball and hockey, plus learning to ride a bike and losing his first two teeth in one day (not related to riding the bike); a guys’ weekend for me at Pinehurst and a girls’ weekend for Brandy in Kittery; excursions to see the Harlem Globetroters, Bourne Braves, Boston Red Sox, Providence Bruins and the Museum of Science, plus a couple of family golf outings; driveway was paved and basketball hoop was installed (twice); escaped most of the wrath of Tropical Storm Irene; and we hosted Thanksgiving dinner, while later attending Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve gatherings with friends.

Putting this slideshow together is another one of my favorite activities this time of year. It takes a while to pull it off, but I have equal amounts of geeky fun mixing the music and picking just the right amount of photos to fit the soundtrack. I hope you enjoy the results.

Previous editions:

• Best of 2010
• Best of 2009
• Best of 2008

Not sure why "the change" was in quotes, though….

As the calendar annually renews I have a couple of favorite activities, and each will lead to blog posts this week. The first is perusing what music has been collected through the year, and exchanging lists of favorites with friends. It not only affords a chance to create a playlist for myself that recaps the year (and doubles as a good party shuffle when we entertain), but also a chance to add some new music, culled from friends’ lists.

This tradition (2010′s list is here; and more commuter music musings are abundant here), was started by my friend Geoff, and I have wholeheartedly embraced it. The double bonus is the exercise provides content for this blog. Bloggers love it when an email to friends can double as a blog post. For the benefit of those friends who received the email and also read this blog (bless you!), I added some new content at the end. Stay tuned!

So, on with the show. Here are my favorite (commuter) tunes of 2011:

About three dozen songs comprise my favorites for this year. I will start with my hands-down favorite album of the year: Mine Is Yours by Cold War Kids. I loved every song. Louder Than Ever, Out of the Wilderness, and Skip the Charades were in heaviest rotation. Cold Toes on the Cold Floor is seasonally appropriate and worth a listen.

I’ll also add that I loved everything I heard by The Civil Wars, though I do keep coming back to Barton Hollow, Birds of a Feather and Oh, Henry as keepers.

The Best of the rest (in no particular order):

• Lost in My Mind by The Head And The Heart 
• No Silver by Chris Bathgate
• Fixin’ to Die by G. Love
• Crocodile Tears by little hurricane
• Alone in This Together by Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs
• Some Day Soon by Alexi Murdoch
• Don’t Gotta Work It Out by Fritz & The Tantrums
• Dance Without You by Skylar Grey
• Arms by Christina Perri
• City of Refuge by Abigail Washburn
• Daphne by Lia Ices
• The Kind You Can’t Afford by Madeleine Peyroux
• Strawberry Amazing by Miguel
• Sophia by Laura Marling
• WHALE by Yellow Ostrich
• Gray or Blue by Lee Coulter with Kate Vincent

Honorable Mention (songs from other years discovered in 2011):

• Used to Did by J Roddy Walston and the Business
• Revel in Contempt by Buke and Gass
• Greenback Boogie by Ima Robot
• Heart of Steel by Galactic
• You Are Not Alone by Mavis Staples
• Around the Bend by The Asteroids Galaxy Tour (thanks, Keith!)

As for the kids, Maroon 5, Pitbull and LMFAO seem to be among Ben’s and Mason’s favorites, while Sam mixes it up with Rob Thomas, The Black Eyed Peas, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Motley Crue and Lenny Kravitz.

Speaking of playlists, MapMyRide published my cycling mix earlier this year. Recent additions to that list include Moves Like Jager by Maroon 5, Dirt by WU LYF, Wonderland by Natalia Kills, Punching In A Dream by The Naked And Famous, and Die Trying by Art Of Dying.

If you have made it this far, I have wrapped up all of the above in a zipped 216MB bow. Help yourself to what you like, but please also support musicians with your wallet. Explore other offerings by these artists and let them lead you to musical discoveries. Please share your favorites in the comments, too.

Other 2011 paths to discovery:

• Bill O Writes: The Best CDs of 2011
• Bouv’s Blog: The 2011 Holiday Mix
• Famous Blue Blog: Best of Uncharted Waters Part I, Part II and Part III
• GeekDad: The Nerdy Dozen: 12 Must-Hear Songs of 2011 (includes It Is Splendid! by Supercommuter)