Ok, lot's of people are surprised that it is 2009.  I am one of them.  Just last week, back in 2008, I was thinking that this year was going a bit faster then other years.  Sure enough, I was right.  Checked with the International Keepers of Time, and they happily told me that this year we would be adding an extra second to the year 2008.   

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, based at the Paris Observatory, tells the world every six months whether to add or subtract a second from atomic clocks, the standard for everyday timekeeping.

A leap second is added to Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC) to keep it in step with solar time - based on the Earth's rotation on itself - to within a second.  Tidal friction causes the Earth's rotation to slow down, which means that solar time tends to drift out of sync with atomic clocks.

If this disparity was not corrected, the "error" could increase to several seconds within a few decades; and, claim astronomers, eventually make some of their software and possibly hardware obsolete.

There have been 22 leap seconds added - and no subtractions - since the first one on 30 June, 1972.

That led me to ponder what I would do with the extra second that I was given.  Wanting not to waste this new found minute, I decided that I would take that moment and open up to the entire world and share my complete love for all things.  The second came and went.  I loved everything, and now we are back to normal.  Imagine if the "powers that be" gave us a full extra day?

(Marnie just informed me that there is such a thing as Leap Year, and that I need to work harder on that day.)