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Happy Leap Day, February 29th. We have an extra day that didn’t exist last year. And it won’t exist next year. Someone told me that it doesn’t automatically happen every Leap Year. It’s something to do with being divisible by four, or maybe the fear of Web 2.0 (an inside joke for blogophiles). So whatcha gonna do with your extra day?

Here’s my plan:

--I’m going to write my obituary. Not the one you might first think. Ann Oliveri recently had a marvelous posting about 6-word obituaries. See http://annoliveri.typepad.com/annoliveri/2008/02/not-quite-what.html In my case, as many of you know, I am retiring July 2, to reinvent myself for a fifth time. It will be an exciting opportunity. My last year’s president, who leads my evaluation committee, asked me to write a summary of the changes and achievements for ASME during my 6-year tenure, i.e., my obituary. How many of you have kept annual lists, or a consolidated summary, of the achievements of your association? I find it a very interesting and challenging task.

--I’m going to lunch today at Mindy’s, a great kosher deli on 34th street, with a colleague to discuss the progress on our Innovation Initiative, and the strategic priority for an early stand-up of a platform team focusing on early career engineers—the folks who are the future of engineering and our association.

--I’m going to welcome Caroline back to New York. She’s our younger daughter who will be returning to Paris, via 4 days in New York, from a very challenging photo-shoot in Los Angeles for the new product line she manages for Coty. We haven’t seen her in several months, and it will be a great reunion.

My Leap Day is going to be a great “extra”. What will you do with your extra day?