It's been a little relaxed around here. Took three days off in the office; sitting around waiting for responses to requests for information or answers to business-driven questions.

It happens quite often that projects stall. The reasons vary, but invariably the reasons result in one of two outcomes; everyone hounds me until I get finished (i.e., I'm the cause of the stall), or I sit around waiting (i.e., I get to some milestone too quickly and wait). I actually prefer the former, except when it comes as the result of the latter.

This project, I've spent a bit of time waiting for a couple of documents. I took a day off away from the office, and spent three days sitting in the office waiting--any moment now, the answer will come... I would have rather been out riding my motorcycle or tending to my lawn or home network.

Now that the answers have come, and the pages of marked-up changes have been provided, I'm supposed to be done. Not so bad, I've shown that while on the calendar I'm more than a week ahead of schedule, it's the case that on the bottom line I'm 2/3's short of their estimates. Nice of me to come in late and leave early on days when nothing was happening, and to take that day off.

Everyone's happy, except me (in anticipation of the paycheck, and reflection of the time wasted). The project manager is happy because she's under budget. The business manager is happy because the changes are happening much more quickly than he'd anticipated. As a bonus, I'm open to making more changes than originally desired, so with the extra time and money, they get more than they bargained for!

Of course, with the exception of a few small questions and documents I need, I'm now the wrench in the works--now everyone's looking to me to get done.