Furloughs are meant to be spent outdoors. Not inside.

When I scheduled this furlough, I looked at the calendar and choose my week carefully. I had my choice, any week between April and the end of June.

I picked this week. Mostly because it's been a while since I had some time off of work and usually June is pretty nice here in Wisconsin in terms of weather.

Apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo I'd be off this week. Because the weather? Yuck. Temperatures in the mid-50s (if we're lucky), cloudy and rainy. Just the kind of weather that makes me want to stay inside, curled up under a blanket with a book.

Which is basically what I've been doing since Saturday.

I was lucky Friday. Had a gorgeous day before the crappy weather kicked in. Sunny and warm. Very summer-like. So I took advantage of it, took a nice bike ride and then sat out on my patio with a book until it was time to get ready to meet my parents in Appleton for "Grease."

The show was really good. I'm glad I made the last minute decision to splurge and get myself a ticket. My parents have season tickets to the Broadway series, so if I want to see a show and none of my friends want to, I just buy a single ticket to the night they go. I don't mind sitting alone, besides, it's not like you talk during the show anyway.

Like I said, it was "Grease." Danny. Sandy. Rizzo. Kenickie. The Teen Angel, who just happened to be played by Taylor Hicks. Yes, that Taylor Hicks. The one from American Idol. He was good. Although I think he should stick to singing, the guitar and the harmonica. Because when the big ice cream cone above the drive-in open and Hicks started dancing? It was almost painful to watch, not to mention his eyes looked really freaky. He was only on stage for the one scene, "Beauty School Drop Out," and it was an entertaining one. He came back on stage after the encore and belted out his newest single, "Seven Mile Breakdown." Not bad.

Good think it poured all day Saturday and continued raining most of Sunday. Because I didn't do much. It was still gloomy today, but I made myself get up and go to the YMCA, where I stepped on the treadmill for a 3-mile run before hitting the pool for 1,000 yards.

The weathermen tell me it's not supposed to rain tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers they're right. Because I'm not spending my entire furlough cooped up indoors due to the cruddy weather. You hear that Mother Nature?