:D
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch, Redefining 'Vacation'
snip>
Mr. Bush, of course, was in the less exotic blast furnace of his Texas ranch, settling in for a five-week stay on the prairie that will be his longest time away from Washington as president. His return to his full August idyll - Mr. Bush cut short his time at the ranch last summer because of his re-election campaign - is not only the length of a classic French vacation, but grist for some Democrats, who have accused the president of fleeing Washington to escape the federal investigation into who leaked the name of a Central Intelligence Agency officer to reporters, a potential crime.
....
Then as now, White House officials take turns doing Crawford duty, which nobody fights for. This past week, Joe Hagin, a deputy White House chief of staff, was settled into his double-wide trailer across the road from the entrance to the ranch, where his job includes chainsaw time with the president.
....
The walnut and oak floor of the Oval Office, installed during the Reagan administration and now thin from constant refinishing, was to be ripped up and replaced. The irrigation system on the White House grounds was to be replaced, too. The masonry and stucco in the West and East Colonnades was under restoration, and the windows along the East Colonnade were being repaired.
But for the staff members left behind, it was not entirely quiet. "It's always something," said one administration official who asked not to be named because he did not want to be seen as complaining about the job. "Somebody's dying or something blows up or somebody issues a tape. We never really cool off that much."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/08/politics/08letter.html?Rove's gonna take a turn in the double-wide part way through this French-long vacation. :rofl: