How are you spending your extra day?

I woke up this morning and realized we have an extra day today. It's February 29 and it makes this year one day longer than usual. For all the things we had to do this year, we've got one extra day to do it. For all the things we had to pay for this year, we get one extra day for free. Don't waste it like our cat Henry here.

So, if you pay rent by the month, you get to stay in your apartment one day for free. If you have a project to do (as I do at work), this day gives you one extra day to get parts of it done before March rolls around. It's almost like my supervisor came up to me a said, "I'll give you one more day to add that feature to our product." This lets me take a little more care in doing it right. It gives me time to make sure I don't miss anything. It lets me take a breath and relax and not feel like I'm behind. This is going to be the best year ever!

Well, of course, it doesn't work that way in reality. As software engineers, we use a method called Agile Development which splits a project up into one to four week frames (we use two weeks). You're responsible for doing a certain amount in that time frame and leap days don't give you more time. I still have to be able to read data from an external file and use it to calibrate my data correctly by Friday. Leap day or not. But it's nice to think that you could have an extra day some time. Some day.