Mini-Break, Take #2

It's day #1 of Mini-Break #2. I'm looking forward to 4 glorious days to do just what I want to do...no meetings, no nasty emails to respond to, no phone calls, no one stopping by my office to complain, whine, or stomp their feet. Ah-h-h! Is work all bad? No, of course not, but I do relish these days without it. I picked this photo to post simply because I like it; it doesn't have any particular meaning. I snapped it last summer when Edith and I explored Adel, Iowa. Unfortunately, the shop was closed. I was curious about what kind of fine art they sold. What's on today's mini-break schedule? Lunch with Elizabeth at La Mie among other things. I'll also get my passport photos made for my International Driving License that I'll take on my France trip in September. Maybe I'll take a few photos. I love the luxury of not having a schedule and being able to go with the flow!

A Sign of the Times

It's a sign of the times. All managers from my lowly level and up have been 'asked' to take 10 days off without pay between now and September 29th. We had a choice of how to do this, and I chose to do a day a pay period. Because I have a lot of paid time off that I need to use or lose, I've decided to stack paid and unpaid days together and take little mini-breaks. This week is my first. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off; backed up to the weekend, this gives me a 4-day break from work....yippee!! So, this evening I celebrated. First, a masssage after work, followed by a drive home accompanied by the most beautiful double rainbow, then a lovely dinner of stinky roquefort cheese, baguette, huge green olives rolled in olive oil and herbes d'Provence, and a big glass of a chewy, lush Cahors wine. Ah! this is the good life...and I might as well celebrate this unexpected time off instead of bitching about it. I'll plant marigolds and tomatoes tomorrow.