As you are probably aware, my employer is engaged in a mandatory shutdown for the period of 2 July through 6 July. During this time, we are using up some of our accrued vacation time so that the company's financials look a little more favorable to Wall Street. So, for the purposes of matters pertaining to my employer, I am On Vacation next week, and as a result will not be at my desk, will not be checking email or voice-mail, will have passed the duty pager to someone else, and will have left my BlackBerry locked up in my desk at work. In short, I will be unavailable.

If you find something of earth shattering importance to tell me, I'll likely be sitting on my ass somewhere, trying hard to not think about work issues on my own time.

Actually, I didn't send this literally -- but that's about what my notice boiled down to.