Office Jargon

I know that most people have a weird relationship with their boss; usually consisting of a unique combination of fear, idolization and pity. However, I am somewhat puzzled with the relationship I have with my boss. I almost always correspond with him over e-mail and honestly, I prefer it this way. (Actually, I prefer e-mail over phone or in person conversations with anyone who has authority over me, or really, anyone who is smarter than me. )

Anyway, while he has no problem critiquing my work over e-mail, he can't seem to say anything bad about my work when he is actually looking at me.

Case in point:

Last week, I approached him (in person) to inquire about the urgency of a project that I am working on (which has more relevance to his work, than mine....-read: has no relevance to my work at all). Anyway, he said, and I quote 'Oh, no rush. Whenever you can get to it is fine.'

Less than 6 days later, I get an urgent e-mail from him asking the following questions:
- What is the time line on the project we discussed last week?
- What analysis have you already done, and what analysis is left?
- Have you set up a time with the lab to get them run? What is the turnaround time?
- When can I expect the analysis to be complete?

WHAT THE HELL?

Maybe I am just not understanding what he is saying, and 'No Rush' really means 'Next week'. If this is the case, then I can only assume that 'right away' means 'whenever you have time' or 'immediately' means 'go for coffee'.