Another busy week at work, but, as luck would have it, there are only four days to cram all the work into this week. I put in a 10-hour day that seemed more like six hours. And I only say it lasted that long because I ate lunch and two snacks while I was there. If not for that, it would've seemed like a really productive two-hour day.

When a national holiday is big enough that I get a day off, I do my best not to waste it.

Naturally, I went to IKEA, with about 80 percent of the rest of the immediate world who had the day off, too.

Luckily, I found a parking spot easily, and made my way into the store and over to the elevator.

As I made my way along the winding path of the second-floor showroom, the thing that struck me as most interesting was that there were plenty of books on the shelves. In fact, there were several copies of the same book on any given shelf -- as there were several copies of the same shirt in any given closet -- and they were all in Swedish. The familiar authors were Michael Frayn (Noises Off), James McBride (The Color of Water), Anita Shreve (The Pilot's Wife) and Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting). I couldn't tell what books were on the shelves -- I don't speak Swedish -- but I felt good about knowing who the authors were.

When I finished with the upper level -- I knew I was done because I ended up at the cafe -- I took the elevator back down, and ended up in the marketplace, where there are all sorts of smaller items for the home. Once you're through there, you end up in the warehouse, where there are rows of shelves of flat boxes of unassembled furniture. I took a pass on those, and headed straight for the food market. There wasn't much there, but it was next to a snack bar. Feeling a bit hungry -- it was time for my afternoon snack, which I forgot to bring with me -- I headed for the exit, and back to my car.

It took less than two hours, and didn't cost me anything but time and little bit of gas. Maybe next time I go to IKEA -- I think I'm good until 2009 -- I will actually buy something.

Tonight was family game night. We played Caneopoly, a takeoff on Monopoly that uses properties specific to the University of Miami and the surrounding community.

I lost first, then it went quickly downhill from there.

At least we were all together, and my sister got to do a victory dance to the sounds of the UM fight song played on a musical bottle opener.

Good times!

Today was my last workday in August, and I now have three days off.

First up. a "cousin reunion" tomorrow. Sunday will be the usual trip to the mall with dad, followed by laundry. And, on Monday, I just might take IKEA up on its offer of free breakfast.

Tonight, in a stadium in Denver, Barack Obama will accept the Democratic Party's nomination for president of the United States.

Is this a great country, or what?

I'm sure I've said this before, but I feel I can never say it enough: Why does it always seem that, the closer we are to being done at the end of the day Tuesday, the longer it takes to finish everything up on Wednesday?

Invariably, it seems, stuff just comes up, delaying the steady flow of our work. Maybe one of these days I'll finally get used to it.

But, I probably won't.

Another long day today, but I feel I accomplished a lot -- including my grocery shopping.

And, as a surprise bonus, a huge box of swag with my name on it arrived, too. But, I didn't keep it all. I quickly put aside a couple of things for myself, plus a few more things for people I know -- and gave away the rest. Especially the pineapple-scented day-to-night cologne with Daisy Fuentes' picture on it. (By the time I finally left the office, that had not yet been snatched up.)

So now, it's time to relax and unwind -- before it's time to go to bed, get up and do it all again.

Today was the first day of what I believe will be five days of intense work. In fact, today was so jam-packed that I didn't even realize it was time to home until it was five minutes later!

I actually prefer full days to those those during which I have nothing to do.

So, if today was any indication of how the next four are going to be, I say: Bring it on!

The Olympics are over.

Well, technically, they were over 12 hours ago, but thanks to the joys of tape delay, they're not over in the U.S. until NBC says so.

And so, the countdown to the 2012 Olympics in London has officially begun. I know this because Michael Phelps was being interviewed in front of a crowd of 40,000 gathered at Buckingham Palace. The Red Arrow did a fly-over, leaving streaks of red, white and blue in the sky, exemplifying the "faster, higher, stronger" of the Olympic motto.

See you in London!

It's the last Saturday of the Olympics, so I decided to make the most of it.

The highlight of the day would have to be watching the women's basketball team win its fourth consecutive gold medal. Lisa Leslie led each of these teams, and this is likely her last Olympic appearance. She even brought her previous medals to Beijing, so her newest one was in good company.

Also on today's agenda: boxing, flat canoeing, women's volleyball (we won the silver medal against top-ranked Brazil), individual rhythmic gymnastics and the men's marathon.

The one thing I don't love is the fact that the men's basketball final is at the East Coast equivalent of 2:30 a.m. But, since it is such a high-profile game, it will be shown live. The same can't be said about the men's water polo final or the Closing Ceremony.

But, it'll all be over by the time I have to go to bed tomorrow night, so I'll quit the complaining for now and just enjoy it while I still can.

I read this week that Jerry Seinfeld has been tapped by Microsoft to be its pitchman for its upcoming ad campaign, "Windows, Not Walls." The campaign aims to go up against Apple's "PC vs. Mac" spots with John Hodgman and Justin Long.

Seinfeld will be getting $10 million for his work. This seems like a lot at first, but he is Jerry Seinfeld, and I did read that the budget for the entire campaign is something like $300 million. So, 30 percent of the whole campaign budget goes to him. Good for Jerry!

Of course, the biggest question on my mind is: How in the world is anyone going to believe that Jerry believes in PCs? After all, he subtly told the world for nine years that he was a Mac guy. I'm all for stars shilling for products. And I think Seinfeld's American Express spots were excellent. But this is just slopping. Of course, maybe I should've seen it coming, after his recent Hewlett-Packard campaign. I've heard of people leaving PCs for Macs, but vice versa? Never. Of course, stranger things have happened, so nothing should surprise me anymore.

I thought I'd seen the worst in driving habits earlier this week. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

This morning, I was stuck in traffic for about 20 minutes. In that time, I went about 3 miles, all the while remaining in the right lane.

At one point while I was at a standstill, I looked in my rear-view mirror and noticed a car coming up behind me -- in the shoulder to my right. Soon after, two more cars did the same.

I chalked those up to stupidity, but I was not prepared for what would come next: a school bus speeding by, using the shoulder as an express lane.

You see, it's one thing to be stupid when you're the only person in a car. But when you're driving a bus full of kids? Uh-uh. Not good. At all.

I can only hope that the driver had already dropped off his passengers, although I fear he was trying to get them to school as quickly as he could, laws of driving be damned. I didn't notice that the bus got into any accident or was pulled over by a state trooper (who snagged some of the later shoulder users).

Would it have killed the kids to be late? Probably not. But it definitely could have killed them to be on time. I'm sure they made it to school today. Tomorrow, they might not be so lucky.

My goal for today is to stay up until my bedtime. That may sound unusual -- especially considering all those years I stayed up way past my bedtime. I've been so tired lately -- must be the weather -- that I've pooped out on the early side of 9 p.m. a couple of times this week.

And so, tonight, I hereby vow to force myself to stay awake -- eyes open and all -- until 10 p.m. Since I'm done with the Olympics, I guess this means I'll be reading a book.

Tropical Storm Fay made landfall on Florida's West Coast at about 5 a.m. this morning.

Despite the continuing rain and howling wind, I set off for work this morning, only to find the roads were basically empty because the schools and government offices were closed. Of course, this apparently gave those on the road a false sense of security.

Even though it was pouring, about half the drivers insisted on driving without the aid of headlights, and several more decided that directionals were unnecessary.

Needless to say, I got to work just fine, and was quite thankful for the fact that I've got an underground parking garage to keep me dry.

Since I just got home after a long day at work and Tropical Storm Fay is scheduled to hit the mainland in the wee hours of the morning, I'd like to take this opportunity to rant a little about something that really gets on my nerves: hazard lights.

During my afternoon commute, it was raining. It wasn't a drizzle, but I wouldn't consider it a monsoon, either. And, yet, there was a car in a lane to my left that insisted on driving with its hazard lights on. Never mind that it was actually going faster than I was -- and I was going at a nice brisk pace -- but it also seemed to be giving off a vibe that said "follow me!" As another car approached it, it also turned on its hazard lights, and the two disappeared together.

On second thought, maybe they were just dating, and the blinking hazard lights helped them find one another.

Nah, I doubt it.

There's also the case of the car that was following close enough behind me that all I saw was its bright headlights. (I know they were the brights because after awhile, they became regular headlights.) I can't believe I'm going to admit this, but in this instance, I would have preferred a tailgater so close I wouldn't have been able to see the lights at all.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'm in desperate need of dinner. And maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll find something on television that has nothing to do with the weather forecast or the gymnastics events that were decided this morning, but are just now being broadcast. (Thanks, NBC!)

A combination of Olympic Fever and extra-long work hours last week made me decide to take the last 48 hours off ... from blogging. (I did all my other usual weekend chores: food shopping, laundry, cleaning, random errands.)

Yes, I watched Michael Phelps make history last night -- or this morning, in China -- but I also have been keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Fay, which is projected to hit Florida's West Coast early Tuesday as a Category 1 hurricane. The southeastern coast is no longer forecast as part of the "cone of influence," which means we could feel tropical storm-force winds here. And, high-speed winds mean things will fly and -- possibly -- knock down power lines. That's the worst part of the storm, I think, because it will mean that I won't be able to fall asleep in front of the television as NBC airs three days of individual gymnastics medal rounds past my bedtime.

So, here's hoping for a quick and painless upcoming 48 hours. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, I'm hoping to be back as soon as possible.

Two days ago, I purchased a plane ticket to Atlanta for a weekend getaway. I got a decent price, but if I hadn't known what I was doing, I could've paid $100 more for the same flights.

As I researched before my purchase, I noticed that the same flights were available, but the price changed throughout the day. And it didn't change at the same times each day, either. It didn't seem as if there was any rhyme or reason for the fluctuations.

So, on the day I wanted to lock in my reservation, I woke early, hoping to get the lowest fare. But, the tickets were a little higher than that. So, I waited. And I checked the Web site every hour (at least). And then, finally at about 3:30 in the afternoon, I found what I was looking for. Within minutes, I had secured a roundtrip ticket on the flights I wanted at the price I wanted.

But, I couldn't leave it there. Just for fun, I checked to see what tickets are going for now. And, wouldn't you know, they're $100 more than I paid.

Today was one of those days that should have just zipped by, but instead dragged on. And I'm not talking figuratively. I mean, I did not think that I would be spending nearly 12 hours in the office today. And yet, here I am, finally at home again, 13 hours after I left.

I think this calls for some quality time in front of the television.

I am still loving the Olympics. Even though I told myself I wouldn't, I turned on the TV last night just in time to watch Michael Phelps get his third gold of these games, and see Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers finish 1-2 in another race. (I could look it up, but I'm feeling lazy.)

Tonight, when I was all ready to watch at least two hours of Olympics, things started off well, with a recap of last night's bronze-winning performance by the men's gymnastics team.

And then, things took a turn to synchronized diving.

What, pray tell, is the point of that?

I get diving, but this is just asking for it. (Why risk just one head hitting the platform, when you can have the possibility of two heads hitting the platform at the same time?)

Regardless, I must say that I did glimpse the Aussies and as they dove, I only saw one diver. So, that apparently makes them good. The Americans were not quite as good, which is fine. It also means there's one less sport I will feel compelled to watch.

Anyway, I'm going to wrap things up now because Michael Phelps in on the schedule again tonight, and I wouldn't want to miss out on a potentially record-breaking swim.

Today, instead of going home to my usual routine of syndicated sitcom reruns, game shows and (for a limited time only) the Olympics, I stopped for a screening of Tropic Thunder.

Since it's nearly my bedtime and I haven't been able to fully digest it all, I'm going to leave it at that. I will say, however, that Robert Downey Jr. is as amazing as Tom Cruise is surprising.