Well, it's here...the second game of the National Lacrosse League season and my first half-day's vacation.

It's something that drives my supervisor nuts, and I had promised I wouldn't do it, but I can't countenance taking a whole day off for a lacrosse game that starts at 7:30PM. See, in the past coupld of years, I've been "stretching out" my vacation days by taking 1/2 days only, effectively turning 10 and 15 days vacation into 20-30. But that's inherently unfair to the rest of my co-workers because it means that on a day I take a half day, no one else can take a vacation and it impacts service levels for the last half of the day. Not good. Whereas if I take a full day, the rest of my co-workers won't have to adjust for the sudden increase in workload halfway through the day...it's all about being fair to them.

So now that I have 20 days of vacation (the benefits of five years of service...aaaahhh) I plan on taking one week off per quarter. Unless it's during lacrosse season, in which case the vacation days will be spaced out a ltitle bit. F'rinstance: The first days that I have booked are all Toronto Rock lacrosse games and my birthday. Yes, this year I can turn my birthday into a long weekend, and not feel guilty about it. See, my birthday this year falls on the NLL All-Star Game weekend...meaning that on Friday, Feb 24, my birthday, the Rock play against Philly and then on Saturday, Feb 25, there's the All-Star Game...can't say that I am going to be conscious that weekend at all, or coherent.

But today marks the day that I have to go into The Overdraught Pub and collect my stuff after a particularly disastrous weekend last weekend. It was the season opening game for the Rock at home at the ACC vs the Arizona Sting and I started early. Those that know me know what that means. Yes, that's right, I started pounding drinks back at about 3 in the afternoon for a 7:00 start. Well, needless to say, by the time the post-game party rolled around, I was three sheets to the wind and fading fast, and I went to pay my bill. I don't know how it happened, but apparently I gave the waiterss my DEBIT card instead of a CREDIT card to pay and the next thing I know, she's walking away. In an alcohol indiced stupor, I staggered around the bar after her, tyelling at her to come back with whatever it is that she had, and she stops, skates my credit card across the bar at me and says "We're done here." I say "What?" She says "You're done!" So I figure I'm being thrown out and I leave without paying my tab. Ooops. Apparently, this is what I did. I don't really remember because I had downed 7 pints before I got back to the bar. So now I have to trek back to TO and apologize and appear meek and explain the situation and remember to cash and carry.

I also have to run a few errnads today, and doing all of that by public transit is going to be a pain in the ass. I can only hope that it stay dry so I can take the Miata out for a small spin to get everything done in time (I hope my dad doesn't read this, or he'll KILL me!) for my 4:30 rdv with my brother downtown.

I'll have more to post after the game...if the Rock win.