Say you're lucky enough to take a long vacation -- a really long vacation, like 6 weeks or more. In your haste to get the heck out of Dodge, don't overlook the many important details that'll make your absence less painful and your return less disastrous.

Take care of the lawn.
The rest of your yard may be OK for a few weeks, but the grass? It just keeps growing -- or, if it doesn't rain, it dies. Find someone to mow and water the grass a few times. If you have a sprinkler system, you don't need to do anything other than make certain it's on and scheduled for a watering every other day (or less, depending on your city's watering codes).

Don't forget the houseplants! They need someone to come water them, talk to them, and play them classical music. A friend or family member is great, or you can pay a service to handle this. Alternatively, you could leave them in a water-filled tub for the duration of your vacation.

Take care of your work.
I don't know how your workplace can spare you for six weeks, but if they're able to, you need to have other people cover for you. Or, maybe you can take work with you (but then it's not really a vacation, is it?).

To manage the work-flow, try to schedule some tasks to be completed just before you leave, and plan for others to start up soon after your return. For everything else, make sure someone else can handle it. Brief them well and give them all the necessary paperwork, contacts, etc. Tell your customers who they should contact... and by "who" we mean "which of your co-workers." Remember, you're on vacation.

If you use an MP3 player, purchase new music expressly for your road trip!