It's been an especially stressful week, and I rewarded myself for surviving it (if not exactly conquering it) by sleeping in late this morning. That's something that really needed to happen if I'm going to face whatever comes up over the next week, which is at least somewhat likely to be just as stressful.

One thing that won't be as bad is the stress at work, because today's mail brought the check that will pay the bills for the rest of the month. In fact, that's what I spent most of my Saturday doing, paying company bills. I wrote checks today for more money than I make in a year. Each envelope that piled up in my out basket added a little to the relief I started to feel as soon as I saw the check in the mailbox.

Just when I thought I had done everything that I needed to do today, I got the meter readings from the Kennel (which, if you're reading between the lines, isn't a kennel at all, kennels not having meters to read as far as I know). That meant I was suddenly responsible for producing billing statements for the 48 clients whose meters were read. That took me until after 7:00 pm (or the fourth inning, if you prefer that sort of time measurement). Type the bills, check them for accuracy, and fax them back to the Kennel.

As soon as that was done, I got the time cards for the Kennel. Our employees get paid on the fifteenth and last days of the month. Since there's no mail pickup tomorrow, at least I have an extra day to write the payroll checks and add them to the outbox for mailing on Monday. Monday is going to be a big day, because I have to deposit that big check in the bank, get those payments to the post office, and run about six other errands.

So that's how I spent my Saturday, and you'll have to forgive me if I sleep late again on Sunday.