t-minus 2 minutes*

Though the passing of Christmas and New Year's Eve is depressing, and can signal to some an end to the winter rituals that shake out the bleariness of the season, I do not drown in the cold until one last landmark has passed: the annual picking of vacation days. There is nothing better than looking at a brand new calendar and circling off those days that will from now on be known as "the day I took vacation." (Yes, I really mean nothing better, though as any fellow nerd will agree, picking one's courses for the coming semester comes a close, close second.)

This year, as you know, I am on one long "vacation." (I know, I know: raising a baby isn't a vacation. It's one of the toughest jobs you'll ever have. Blah, blah, blah. But any day I don't have to brush my teeth or put on clean underwear I think of as somewhat vacation-like. Not that that's what I like to do on my vacation, quit brushing my teeth and wear dirty underwear. I just said I don't necessarily have to.) Thus, this year's circling was not for my vacation time, but for Adoring and Wonderful Husband's. (It's funny how this job becomes part of a married woman's vows to her husband: "I promise to love, honour and cherish you, and pick your vacation every year for the rest of your working life.") Since we had a Babe on the way, I had to be smart about the use of his legally mandated down time. Not only did he need to be there for the birth of the Babe, he needed to have one week for the annual house/yard refresher and update, one week for travel back to the Old Country (a.k.a. Regina), and one week for "whatever" time. The only way to do this was to schedule around long weekends, and so here we are...May Long Weekend, and the first week of vacation, coming up. Though we originally planned this week to be Home Depot week, finances look like they might delay that until the next long weekend. And so it looks like "whatever" week it is.

I smell a breast pump and case of beer in my future. And it smells decidedly unpoopy-like.

* Adoring and Wonderful Husband just called to say he was going to stop for a quick beer with the fellas after work. Make that t-minus 60 minutes. (Hear that sweetie? I said 60 minutes.)

PS: Please still come visit me. I promise to wear clean underwear and brush my teeth. I am not disgusting.