Set OOO

Quick on the uptake, I am not. For a couple of years, I would periodically notice an appointment on my boss's calendar that said "set OOO." Couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Was she scheduling a specific time in which to gush over her kids? Or something else so awesome it required a full caps "OOOOOO"?

Until I got an email from her (no joke, two years after I started) with "OOO" in the subject line and then the dates for her upcoming vacation.

OOO = Out of Office.

(Am I the only one who didn't know this?)

I present to you this explanation as public service so that you aren't trying to figure out what is up with all the OOOing around here. Or why I'm updating my blog in the middle of the day.

Because it's VACATION TIME!

Hooo boy! I am off for the entire week. It's Thanksgiving week down here in Americaland and my kids' school rolls conferences/admin days together so that they actually get the whole week off (genius!). I hoarded some holidays so we didn't have to send them to all-day care for Monday to Wednesday, and now instead of blearily trying to make it through my Monday morning catching up on release notes, I'm drinking coffee and catching up on computer time while the kids are zoned out in front of the TV.

As usual, I have a bazillion things planned for my week off, and I'm sure I'll accomplish maybe half of them. We've got teacher conferences, doctor's, orthodontist, piano, hair, playdate already on the list, and a ton of errands to run. Plus I want to set up a little craft studio for The Girl downstairs. And finish another book. And do some long runs. You know - all those things that you somehow never get to on the weekend.

Checking item #1 off my list: swap out my free-wheeling-bicycling Blog PM for coffee-drinking-toque-wearing-sticking-out-her-belly-like-you-do-when-you're 10-weeks-pregnant-and-you're-sure-you're-already-showing Blog PM. She looks so contemplative, doesn't she?

This is what she is contemplating - our first snow:

Bah! These long autumns are fantastic, but they lull me into thinking maybe we might just escape the white stuff this year. We got three inches on Saturday and we went from grass to this in only a few hours. We've already got a snow fort on the front lawn, but I expect it will be short-lived as the forecast high for Turkey Day is 12 degrees. I'm not quite ready for full-on winter yet, so I'm glad that we're easing into it.