Starting Sunday, I'm gone on vacation until Dec. 1, to burn off my use-it-or-lose-it days.

Of course, me being me, this probably means I'll be online twice as much, at least the first week, since that's when I'll be staying at the folks' place. It's the second week that might see me offline for a while, since I don't know what level of Internet access my cousin has.

I seriously need to take this time off.

The economy has been hitting everyone, my company included. We've been working twice as much with half the staff for a for weeks now, and that's clearly not going to change anytime soon.

And we're the lucky ones, because we still have jobs, which is no guarantee in my industry, or any other, for that matter.

I am so tired.