"I don't see what this has to do with...uh, do you have any kahlua?"

Lately, the solution to all of life's little problems is a bottle of kahlua and a container of half-and-half.

And life's little problems these days include missed deadlines, uncooperative managers, support staff with no initiative, temps with attitude, and people who aren't my boss wanting to act like they are. I've been staring at numbers for hours on end since last week, with no end in sight. I am part of a group scheduled to go to the main branch on Friday, so that work day is completely shot. (The mananger who planned this will be taking us all to lunch, though, so that might be nice) I had a review scheduled this week, but my supervisor didn't have the paperwork ready, so that's been pushed back to next week. I haven't been sleeping well, so I'm pretty much exhausted and suffering from a slight case of burn out.

BUT -

Generally speaking, life is good. I have plans for my birthday. And for the weekend after. The end of the budget year, although fast approaching and vaguely terrifying, means that there is an end in sight to my currently high stress levels. It will be a giant sigh of relief, come summertime - just in time for my little vacation. Yesterday I helped my husband dismantle the aluminum awning that has covered part of our pool deck since I've lived in my house. When it was all finished, and the sunlight was shining on the back porch and a breeze was actually blowing through a space that used to get hot and stuffy, we looked at each other and said "Why didn't we do this years ago?". It's really open now, and lets a lot more light into the kitchen. Plus, the upside is that we'll be scrapping a decent amount of aluminum for recycling. It's strange how one simple project can give you such a feeling of accomplishment and motivate you to get even more done. Too bad almost all of my "economic stimulus" money went to paying off my credit card, or we'd be planning some more projects. Of course, we have a bunch of almost-completed projects still in process, so I guess we should wrap those up first.

As promised, to M: