Work has been incredibly busy lately. As my company approaches fiscal year end, the work has begun coming in faster than it is going out. Selling my boss on a 2 week vacation during a busy time would have been difficult if the trip was not family related.

My wife is Japanese, and an only child. She has been living in Canada for about 7 years now. As her parents get older, this is becoming a bit of a challenge. We try to go back to visit about every second year. Our original plan was to go right after Christmas in order to be in Japan for New Years, which is the big family holiday in Japan. This also works out better with the weather and my work schedule. However, this year The Mother in Law really needed some time with her daughter, so we decided to do our visit in the summer.

The Wife does not work on Fridays, so first thing in the morning I dropped her off at the airport, one day earlier than my departure. My plans for the day included working, dropping off keys with my sister, buying souvenirs for 2 people, buying new sandals, packing everything and taking out the garbage to avoid it marinating in the heat of an empty house for 2 weeks.

I work for the Canadian branch of a giant multinational company. Our office does not have an abundance of employees, so I do several different jobs and don’t have a specific person that covers my desk when I am away. Getting ready for a long vacation requires doing twice as much work before I can leave the office, and about twice as much on the week I return. For this reason I ended up working overtime.

After work I went home, with grand plans of a quick dinner and en immediately leaving to get my shopping done. Afterwards I would pack quickly and get to bed by 11.

Then the Internet happened.

It was one of those “let me just check one site” Internet experiences that turned into a level 5 procrastination session.

I pried myself away from the computer just  before 9. First stop was the liquor mart to get some Fort Garry beer and Ice Wine as souvenirs. After that I stopped at Walmart for sandals and some Mrs Vickie’s chips, and ended up picking up a few more bottles of maple syrup. When traveling to Japan you can never bring enough maple syrup. No trip to Walmart can be done quickly, so I ended up back at home around 10:30 to start packing. I ended up getting to sleep around 12:30 with the alarm set for 5:00am.

Stupid entertaining Internet.