The last shall be first

Well, maybe not first, but I hope higher than last, which is where I am currently. I busted out first in the first Blogger Skill tournament of the year. I used to know how to play 7-card stud, but not any more. Well, maybe I never knew how. Anyway, if I retire now, I'm guaranteed to finish in last place for the year, so I have to play every week, at least until I draw, er ..., claw my way out of the cellar. Next week, the game is Pot-limit Omaha, about which I will make this prediction: watch this! When playing HORSE-like events and giving demo, never make a substantive prediction. I think there is supposed to be a leader board of some sort, but it wasn't working when I checked yesterday.

I returned from a sleep-, gift-, and relative-filled week of delicious time off to an 8:30 am dentist appointment. Apparently, I haven't been brushing or flossing well enough, because it hurt like it used to, and the dentist was scolding me more vigorously than his norm. Then it was in to work, where I made it through another "strategic planning" season without being riffed. I think I will make it through the next one as well, but the 2009 strategic plan may well call for my head (as did the 2005 one, by the way, but somehow I scrabbled around, and managed to cling like a burr to another project, buying myself a year and a half, until another project jammed its sweater onto me, ripping me from my carrier/savior.)

I checked my "PTO" balance and usage. I have 154 hours of PTO built up, and will receive another 200+ hours this year. In each of the last two years, I only used 120 hours. I also cashed out 120 hours' worth last year, to help out with our cash flow during moving, renovations, and (gulp) selling. Let's see, I've got the kids' school vacation weeks blocked out; that's 80 hours. I've got a couple of days in April for a Vegas Baby trip; that makes 96 hours. A few days next Christmas, which makes 120 hours. That leaves 254+ hours. That means I can leave 5 hours early every Friday all year! I'm making it my only resolution to end the year having used my 5 weeks worth of time off, and without taking the money this time. If I accomplish that, I will go into 2009 with about 4 weeks built up, and saving for a winter 2009-2010 sabbatical. Maybe I will take the last week of December 2009, all of January 2010, and the first three weeks of February off. We'll see if that works out. That could be some nice skiing, maybe some time in Vegas, maybe a trip to a warm place. All financed by my poker winnings, of course (hah!)