Vacation Time--Again

Today was my last day at work until July 5th.  I'm burning off the last of four (count 'em, four!) weeks of accumulated vacation time that I have to use before the end of June or lose.  And at that, I'm still gonna be about 32 hours over the limit--but I've arranged with the Powers That Be at work to keep those extra hours until August, when I'll use them on the vacation to WorldCon and Universal Studios and Disneyland that snippy and I have scheduled.  That's what happens when you've been employed at the same place for twelve years...and they change the rules on how much vacation time you can carry over from one fiscal year to the next.

And also (as my lovely and talented wife has told me more than once) when you keep resisting the suggestion to take time off because you're too busy or "can't spare the time off"...

ANYWAY...I have a week and a half off, including the weekends and the 3rd and 4th of July, which are both holidays at work.  And a big living room to paint.  Which still needs be emptied of (or in some cases, moved away from the walls and simply draped with drop cloths):

• 3 bookcases (full of books--full to overflowing, double or triple-stacked in many cases)
• 1 large round coffee table covered with stuff
  
• 2 matching round end tables with lamps and assorted bric-a-brac
  
• 1 large red sofa
• 2 matching red recliner chairs
• 1 buffet (full of china and other things) still sitting where we left it when we moved it out of the dining room so I could paint that room.
• 1 big black desk unit (also full of DVDs and tapes), topped by a VCR, DVD player, Tivo unit and television set.
• 1 big wooden desk (full) with a lamp on it.
• the curtains and curtain-rods on the huge front window
• the curtains and curtain rod on the side window
• assorted other items:  coatrack, wall clock, a couple of pieces of art.

Then we'll need to clean the walls and ceiling, which (fortunately) mostly involves just a good dusting.  Then I'll need to tape the edges of the ceiling, mummify the ceiling fan in plastic bags and painter's tape, tape the edges of all the windows, doors and baseboards, and drape the floor in dropcloths.

All sometime this weekend, I hope.  I can do the painting on my own while my lovely and talented wife works during the day, but all that prep work--especially emptying the room is a two-person job.  Oh, did I mention that it's supposed to 100 degrees this weekend?  Wheeeee!

I foresee a lot frozen or pre-packaged meals in our future this week.  When it's really hot neither of us wants to cook, and I'm certainly not going to want to when I'm painting.