by Laurie Singer

Let's face it. It's been a hard year. 2008 will go down in my journal as a flop. Too much pain.

Leroy suffered and courageously stood up to cancer, until the beast was just too much for him.

To be honest, I can't wait for this year to be over. The ball in Times Square can't fall fast enough. And now I find out, it won't. I mean, it will, but it will take longer than usual this New Year's Eve.

Because this is the year of the Leap Second. On December 31st, a "leap second" will be added to the world's clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Greenwich Mean Time. For those of you wondering, that will be at 6:59:59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. This is the 24th time since 1972 that the world's clocks have added a leap second.

My luck it would happen this year.