Work and Blogging...

Ok, I know I haven't been blogging as much as usual. Several causes to that, the biggest one being my freaking work load. In the month of September I had 23 separate Court appearances, and most of those involved multiple cases. Naturally, there were many days when I did not have Court, but I had to spend much of that time doing orders and preparing the onslaught of Bankruptcies I have received.

Look, I became a lawyer so I could work to live, not live to work. Of course, part of what makes me a good (Dedicated?) lawyer, is that I am a hard worker. I kind of, sort of, ummm shall we say, pretty much constantly think about most of my cases all the time.

MadDog has tried to help me compartmentalize my life-- and I do try to turn it off when I get home. But still, I had a doozie today and I have had it on my mind pretty much umm, all weekend, all day yesterday and this AM at 7- bright and early. The thing is, sometimes, turning things over and over in your head is important-- you see something new, you link the facts up properly so they can be pulled out at a minute's notice; you know your case front and back. Which is important because your trial plan will last precisely 1.5 nanoseconds before something derails it. This is the life of a trial lawyer. It takes a certain personality to be anal enough to have it all prepared and laid out, and yet, flexible enough to go with the new information you are getting at trial.

I am happy to say that the other two lawyers in the case I had today begged me to stay in the case, I made my client happy, and I think that this situation may make the parents team together and work against the intervener, which is really the best for the child. A good result all the way around. Plus, I got one of the other lawyers to draft the order...hehehe... Let the wannabe intervening wench pay for that. My client was all, "Why aren't you drafting the order? I always feel better when you draft the order." and I looked at her and said, " We read it into the record, so he's not going to be able to slip anything in. Do you really want to pay $150.00 for me to write it when I can just read over it or do you want the intervener to pay that money to her lawyer who will probably claim it took at least 2 hours?" She bowed to my superior skills at sticking it to people.

I am looking forward to relaxing tonight and NOT thinking about work.

But, before I do one more funny story. This is a non law related story:

I am a pretty handy sort of chick. For example, weekend before last I took down the old ceiling fan (and my ceilings are sloped up to 14 feet and are at least 10 feet where the fan was installed. ) purchased a new fan and installed it myself. Yes, while perched at the top of a ladder I installed and wired the fan and it works perfectly. Look ma, no wobble! And no, no men were involved in any way, shape, form, or fashion- except in admiring the result after he got home from work.

At any rate, after I finished that, I noticed that my refrigerator was not up to temp. I was prompted to notice this when the milk resembled cottage cheese more than milk after a mere four days. Emboldened by my success with the ceiling fan, I pulled the thermometer out and put it in the fridge to determine exactly where we were.

The Fridge was at a not so great 55 degrees.

I tried turning the thermostat off and then down... Nothing new. Frozen stuff is still frozen, but the ice maker is not producing.

I pulled it out from the wall and noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

I decided there was only one thing left to do: find the manual.

The manual had a nice little section entitled, "Caring for your new refrigerator." Look, I am woman enough to have kept the manual, and to be able to locate it within 5 min of beginning to look for it, but no, I have never actually read it.

These lines caught my eye, "You should remove the front grill and clean the condenser coils regularly. This may need to be done as often as once a month. Failing to do this may result in the refrigerator not being able to stay at the optimal temperature."

You know I have dogs, right? Big white hairy dogs.

I have had this machine for 5 and 1/2 years.

I have never even thought about cleaning the condenser coils.

So, I sit on the floor and pull open the filter.

I could have made a new dog with all the gunky dust up under there! An ugly grayish dog, but dog nonetheless. I vacuumed and wiped down the coils.

Yep. Fridge is now down to 40 degrees and the ice maker has returned to making ice.

I am going to go and tackle the threshold into my bathroom this weekend...