I always try to take an extra vacation day or two this time of year, so today and tomorrow are at-home days. I need the time to do some extra housework, yard work, errands, set up financial folders for next year, doctor's appointment for annual physical--all the stuff that there just doesn't seem time to do when I work all day. Sure, I get weekends off, but they are dedicated to laundry, groceries, cooking for the week ahead, maintenance housework, watering plants, grooming my four-footed sidekick.

Speaking of the dog, this is the time of year Jasmine grows that magnificent undercoat which keeps us knee-deep in dog hair all year round.

It's really a nice time of year for days off. Thanksgiving and the day after, two days in the middle of December, then this year from December 22 through January 2. They are mandatory vacation days. I'm still not entirely sure that it's legal for the organization I work for to require us to take vacation when they dictate, but no one else seems to mind and it's a fight not worth wasting my energy on. Then we slide past Martin Luther King Day and on into the days of late winter, waiting for spring break.

By the way, the politically correct designations are winter break and spring break (don't even breathe the words Christmas or Easter). I usually work through spring break, since that's the time we prepare for summer school and the next academic year. So many schools are open during the summer, what with year round schools and academic improvement classes (for failing students), that the concept of summer vacation is fast becoming just a memory of hot lazy days and iced tea.

So I'm off to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the finances, fired up by my first cup of coffee of the day. Ave atque vale!