Paternity leave is probably not happening when new baby arrives, although I'll probably take a week's family-care leave two weeks after birth (Shelley's mom will be here for the first week).

It's not clear whether paternity leave is available to me or not at the moment.

The policy says that it's available after working at Cornell for at least a year and putting in 1,000 hours over the past 12 months. I have worked for Cornell for at least a year (1991-1997), and have put in the required number of hours since February, so I believe technically I qualify.

The HR department may not agree, though, and I'm awaiting word on their opinion.

The policy also says that leave can be taken up to a year after birth, so if the technicality was invalid for some reason I can still take the leave after Feb. 11, 2009.

The leave itself is half-pay for one month, to be taken in one chunk. If the technicality is valid, it would be possible to take it this fall or early winter.

Still aside from waiting for a determination on the technicality, there's still the final word on house closing and Shelley's job hunt to determine when to take it.



PS. Earl just brought up a mouse from the basement. It's dead. He's playing with it. Maybe he's the one who left two mouse tails and hindquarters down in the basement not long ago.