I’ve been having difficulty concentrating at work lately. It might be the season, or it might be the lack of vacation this year.

The funny thing – and I don’t mean funny “ha ha” – is that we didn’t have a planned vacation this year, thanks to Katie’s job hopping, but I ended up using every minute of my sick and vacation time on actual sick time. It’s been a rough year. So if we had taken a vacation, my paycheck would be in jeopardy. So I guess I should be grateful that I didn’t take an actual vacation. Why is it that I don’t feel grateful?

And don’t tell Katie this part, because it wouldn’t make her too pleased – I doubt we’ll get a vacation this year, either. Why? Because with Katie in a motherly way, I’m sure we will be using every bit of our combined vacation times with Mr. Darcy and the accompanying doctor/hospital visits, plus time at home afterward.

As I said on twitter (my 200th tweet!), my mind is already on vacation. Unfortunately, I don’t get a vacation. I’m wondering just how long it will be before I can catch up with myself.

Today I find myself sitting at home studying, or trying to make myself study. Studying is always made more difficult for me by competing druthers. I sit here, trying to focus on my notes, or trying to solve problems, and I think “music … book … fireplace … Waffle House … anything!”

I was briefly in the history graduate program at UT, an ill-fated venture, and I remember being so miserable that I was intensely jealous of my father digging potatoes out back. Digging potatoes, for those not in the know, is just about the most miserable thing you can do in a garden. And I don’t even care for fresh potatoes (they make lousy french fries). It was truly a sign that I was in the wrong place – that and the fact that I’m horribly allergic to dust, and therefore allergic to studying history.

Anyway, I’m trying to make myself focus when I’d rather be doing anything else, but I very much don’t want to dig potatoes, so at least there’s that.

I don’t know if this kind of quality appeals to potential clients or not, but it does make the employees happier.

Here at our office, which is a small family firm dating back to the ’40s, we have a playroom and a full-time nanny (my mom) for C and her four-year-old cousin, A. My grandfather would roll over in his grave. The kids often make noise, they run, they play, they get messy and get the office messy.

And this morning, they spent more than an hour in the bathtub, just getting out a moment ago.

Talk about job perks.

That was the third time this week I have picked up the phone to call someone right at the very second someone was calling me. In a business, that happens sometimes. You pick up the phone, hear no dial tone, and hope you think to answer so they won’t think you have an IQ of sixty.

So yeah, it happens sometimes, but three times in one week is a lot. And I’ve been here for 2 1/2 hours, and that was the very first phone call of the day.

Tonight, I am going out to the Grill with some friends. I’m going to have some wings and some IPA and some good times.

I might even shoot a few games of pool.

Katie decided that I’d done so much lately for her while she’s been sick that she arranged the whole thing and told me about it in a “this is what you’re going to do” kind of way. And I love that. She told me that it’s hard to know how to thank me, but I told her “wait, you’re getting me wings and beer … which part is the hard part?” I’m very much looking forward to it, despite this rain.

It’s been a hard month for us. I’ve barely been able to do anything for the house, and I missed several days of work. And I haven’t been sleeping well. I talked to my dad/boss about my sleepiness, and said “I can’t imagine why I’m so tired!” My dad basically said “are you serious?” I guess you don’t get the best sleep at times like this.

It has been getting better, though. It has been very good the last few days to see Katie up and about, even if she is back down again way sooner than she’d like. I think it’s hard for her not being in control of her own body. When she told me she was going to do something for me for being so good to her, I wanted to say “I just want you to be well,” but I guess that’s understood.

But things are going to get better.

I’ve got another few days of childcare-free work, and I’m less than thrilled about it.

I tried to convince my boss/dad that I needed to work from home this week. At home, I can at least get some stuff done, because there is more there for C to be entertained by and the front yard is fenced in, so I can bring her out without having to follow her around. But he rather quickly turned my idea down, saying that I needed to be in the office this week.

And that’s why I wandered around the office grounds for an hour earlier, swatting mosquitos and generally feeling miserable in the September heat. Yes, I have a low tolerance for heat.

C is mostly being good to me, although I wish we were at home with our favorite books and C’s “cook cook.” Plus I really had wanted to “work” from the zoo on Monday, and that plan was hard to give up on.

Anyway, that’s what’s going on right now. My parents are at the beach, and they’d better not bring me back a t-shirt.

I just finished some work for a client, and I went downstairs to turn it in. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I stepped over the baby gate and set my work on the newel post in time for a big hug from C, who was shouting “daddy!” at the top of her lungs.

After the hug, I put my work in the boss’s office and then chased after C, yelling “I’m going to get you” while she shrieked with glee. I lifted upside down in the air above me while tickling her. When she got down, she begged for more, so I swooped her up and plopped on the visitor’s couch by the front door, where she laughed and laughed and begged for more tickles.

A few minutes later, I helped my mom take her out the door. Today is grocery day, and C gets to drive the “car” at the grocery store while my mom does her weekly shopping. As she was going out the door, she looked up at me and said “daddy go with us?” I said I wish I could, but I have to work. She blew me a kiss as my mom walked out of sight.

I have it pretty good.

I think our company is going to start accepting credit cards. It’s not something we’ve ever really discussed. As a small company, it’s just never made sense to pay the extra fees, etc, associated with taking plastic. Also, we tend to mail out a lot of work or mail out monthly bills.

But it’s 2009, and I don’t even know where my checkbook is. At some point, I have to ask myself how much of a hassle would it be for me to use our services. Would I go out to an ATM? Would I mail a check or have the bank mail one? I don’t know, it just seems like a good idea.

The funny thing is that we only got internet access a couple of years ago. I can’t envision a facebook page anytime soon. But maybe we could tweak the website a bit.

I feel like I’m incredibly behind at work; I have stacks and stack of work on my desk, and I am evaluating new professional software and feeling guilty for not studying for the CPA exam.

And on top of that, I was off work all day yesterday because I was at the doctor’s office. I love working here in smalltownville (Sevierville), but I hate having to take a full day off of work because of one doctor’s appointment. On the upside, I’ve had stomach problems for years, and it looks like the doctor might have found a reason. I’m trying not to get too excited yet.

I love what Katie posted today. And she’s had a way busier week than I’ve had.

This weekend, I’m going to get back to drywalling. I’ve got at least four big holes to drywall. Two are ready for their last sanding and paint. One is squared off but barely begun. The last I haven’t yet looked at. I’ve never done drywall until this week, and I’m actually pretty excited about it. Every time I can fix something at the house, I don’t have to get someone else to fix it. I also intend to get some painting done this weekend.

And I get to watch some football.

It’s a pretty good life.

We got into a bit of an argument at our office today about observed holidays. My coworkers and I all wanted to follow written office policy, which says that Saturday holidays mean Fridays off (w00t). But my boss/father said that if a holiday fell on the weekend, then you shouldn’t have any time off (Christmas and New Year’s excepted).

Obviously, I tried as hard as I could to craft brilliant arguments in my favor. But I really couldn’t come up with anything good. Sure, almost everyone has a holiday tomorrow. And yes, it’s nice to have a certain number of expected days off – especially for me, since I have no vacation this year. But those aren’t particularly strong arguments.

The fact is that it doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me, from a purely logical standpoint, to have tomorrow off as an “observed” holiday – after all, I won’t be celebrating July 4 until July 4, and I imagine that most of us who aren’t ten year old boys feel the same.

I hate to admit it when my dad is right – and you can bet I didn’t admit it to his face today – but I think I agree with him. Can anybody tell me how he’s wrong?

Luckily for me, we did have that written office policy. Now if I can just get C to let me sleep in tomorrow.