Baby, It's Cold Outside

"Hello, is this the General District Court?"



"Good. Yes, I saw that it was snowing out. Big chunks of snow."



"Oh, you saw it too? Great. So, I was just wondering, since its really coming down out there and all..."



"And since the roads are just covered with snow..."



"Ok, maybe not covered, per se, but its been a goodly while since I've seen a plow or salt truck in these here parts..."



"I was just wondering if court might possibly (hopefully) be cancelled for the day?"



"Why? Oh.... well, actually..."



"Because my doggie misses me."



***********

It snowed here today, as you can plainly see. Big, beefy flakes of snow. Chuck Norris snow, people. And no, court was not cancelled. But wait, there is a positive side to this story -- my tires on my little car are so bald that I was worried I might not make it to the courthouse. I mentioned this fact to my boss, who promptly fished around in her purse and handed me THE KEYS TO HER VERY NICE AND RATHER EXPENSIVE SUV. :) After a mild protest, I hopped in her fantastic car with its 4-wheel drive and zipped right on down to the courthouse, no problem.

Someday I will own a car like that.

But first, I will own three new tires. For my car.

I brought a lot of work home tonight -- it just kept piling up and I couldn't get a spare second to go through it all. Its easier to sit and think at home, without all the distractions. I feel much better about it all, now that I've had a chance to actually go through all the files. However, this does mean that I have not done any BarBri tonight. It's only 9:15ish.... maybe I will do an hour of multiple choice.

Or maybe I will go drink a tall glass of warm milk and sleep. For 12 hours or so.

Yes.

Realizations I Have Made

For all my many years in educational institutions, I am sort of slow about some things. One of those things is housework; specifically, cooking. I seem to think that I can work a 50 hour week, crash through the front door at 6:47 PM every night and whip up a culinary masterpiece in 12 minutes.

This is not possible. After 26ish years, I have finally discovered the truth. And the truth's name is Crock Pot. And Crock Pot shall set you free. :)

If I want to eat something (ANYTHING) for dinner that didn't arrive at my home in a greasy paper bag, I must invoke the magical powers of the Crock Pot.

Here is my recipe. I call it "Dear God, If We Have To Eat At Another Restaurant I Just Might Swallow The Plastic Silverware." (It is a recipe for drastic moments.)

First, you take some sauces. Whatever's in the fridge. (It is a solemn requirement of mine that my sauce bottles say "Easy!" somewhere on the label.)



Then, you check your cupboards for some sort of rice-ish, starchy substance. I apparently had purchased some healthy stuff on sale a while back, as I have two boxes of this stuff. (I considered barley. I have that too. Then I reconsidered. This was a good call. Barley and soy sauce might not be friends.)



Then you check your freezer. If it has two bags of frozen vegetables and a geriatric Dairy Queen Blizzard of indeterminate flavor, and absolutely nothing else, GOOD! (This means your freezer looks just like mine.)



(I also like my frozen veggies with a little psychiatric flair. So I can feel good about them.)

Defrost some chicken whilst you blow dry your hair. (Did I mention we are doing this at 7 AM?)

(No, I am not showing you pictures of raw chicken. That's gross.)

Sear your chicken a wee bit, if only to quell your fears of salmonella, and throw it in the Magical Crock Pot with your saucy stuff (as seen above). Remember to put your veggies back in the freezer after taking a picture of them. Leave the rice on the counter, so that when you come home, you remember that you are in the middle of cooking a meal. This will keep your pizza-delivery trigger-finger from dialing up Papa Johns.

Final step: Rush home and bust through the front door at precisely 6:47 PM, see the rice on the counter, throw your bags on the table, put a pot of water on the stove to boil, and throw those frozen veggies in a saucepan. Dinner's done in 15 minutes. Is it magic? No, ladies and gentlemen. Its Crock Pot.

* * * * *

In other news, one Endpaper Mitt is done.



I thought my kitchen was bright enough to take that picture. Clearly it is not. Here, with flash.



And, in yet other news, here are my latest Maryland Bar Ramblings:

Still Need Full Outlines:
MD Prof Resp
MD Family Law
MD Civil Procedure

Needs Only MD Distinctions Added:
Crim Law/Crim Proc
Corporations
Evidence
Torts
Contracts/Sales
Agency/Partnership

We are not going to talk about how many multiple choice I did today. (None.) We are also not going to discuss how many essay questions I completed. (Zero.) Nor are we going to discuss how much American Idol I watched. (A good, solid hour. Princess Leia and all.) I will double my efforts tomorrow. I maintain that I can still do this. Even without 50 multiple choice every single night. Maybe once a week is more do-able...

Onward!

Missing

They say the three things you need to take a great photograph are (1) sufficient light (preferably sunlight), (2) bright colors, and (3) something of interest.

I have now indubitably determined that my life, from 6 PM to 11 PM, officially lacks all three of these factors. You've already seen all there is. Barbri textbooks, some yarn, a couple bags of fast food. Want to see a picture of my car keys? Yeah, no. That's not interesting, people.

So, here's my list of required tasks for the next two months of BarBri:

Weekdays:
(1) 50 multiple choice questions per night (1 hr total)
(2) 2 essay questions per night (1 hr total)
(3) 1 hour of outlining notes
(4) 1 hour of flashcards
(4 hours total)

Weekends:
(1) 50 multiple choice questions per day (1 hr)
(2) 4 essay questions per day (2 hr)
(3) 2 hours of outlining notes
(4) 1 hour of flashcards
(6 hrs total)

Does anyone else think this is overly ambitious? Steven says I'm crazy. I like to call it "high expectations."

Seeing as how I've done NOTHING yet tonight, I'd better get started.

Ah, that's better

Today feels much better.

Took the dogs on a morning walk. (I say morning, but it was closer to noon when I actually woke up and went outside.) We saw the Urban Jungle.



Which is actually just this weird grouping of potted plants that some crazy neighbor of mine has outside on their little patio. Every day its different, and there are more or fewer plants outside. I suppose it has something to do with the weather, but wouldn't it be a chore to move your plants inside and outside every single day? Very odd.

Mr. Urban Jungle had only a few plants outside today (when its really warm, he has like 15 plants out there), which was surprising, because I thought it was warm enough to walk the dogs in shorts.



Shorts and a wool coat, that is.



I realized when I was outside that its rather rare for me to see the light of day at noon, since I'm usually hunched over a computer. I ate it up.



Someone striped this fire hydrant.



Someone else put up balloons.



The pups fought over who could sniff a certain spot. (Their little heads are so blonde that they blend together.)



After my little jaunt in the sunlight, Steven and I decided to go use a few of our Christmas gift cards. There may have been some fabulous shopping.



(A dog after my own heart.)



I came to a logical conclusion last week: if one has to go to court three times in a week and one only owns two suits, Friday is going to be a rather smelly day.

And I just happened to see three of my favorite words on a sign in Ann Taylor. ("Seventy. Percent. Off.")



Clearly I needed to own this.



Steven says I now own "more pantsuits than Janet Reno."



But I'm fairly certain Janet Reno owns more than three pantsuits. And I also hereby choose not to be offended by this comparison. I'm pretty sure SJP owns a few pantsuits as well (even though I was unable to actually find a single picture documenting such).



But I'm sure she owns some. She just chooses not to be photographed in them. Right?

Train Wreck

This is what it looked like in my car this morning, on the way to Fairfax.



This is what it looked like when I got home from work tonight.



This is what I look like at this very moment.



And this is the footwear of champions.



Today was a royal butt-kicking. Not necessarily me kicking other people's butts, but more of a getting-my-own-butt-kicked by one extremely busy day (and week, for that matter).

Pardon my brevity. I'm totally beat.

Today went as follows:

Court from 8ish to about 11:30ish.

Run to ChickFilA for lunch.

Eat waffle fries in car on way back to office.

Walk in door of office at noon and immediately receive 5729028942 tasks-that-must-be-finished-before-the-meeting-in-DC-at-2-PM.

Around 1:45 PM, realize that the ChickFilA sandwich is still in its little keep-me-warm bag. Realize that the bag, although intended to keep your sandwich warm, likely will not work for the hour-and-forty-five minutes during which it has sat on your desk, forgotten.

Eat it anyway. Quickly.

Around 1:47 PM, head to DC for meeting.

Meeting in DC from 2:30ish to about 5ish.

Mediation meeting in deeper DC from 5:30ish to about 9ish.

Dinner with client and boss after mediation from 9ish to about 10:30ish.

Drive back to office with boss to pick up car.

Drive home.

Take picture of wristwatch at about 11:20 PM to document that I truly lived this day and it wasn't just some crazy thing I dreamed up.

Granted, there was a little down time between meeting and mediation, during which Boss and I figured out how to use the speakerphone option on her cell phone. It was quite hilarious. I'm still not sure we could replicate whatever speakerphone function we finally happened across.

I wrote lots of thumb-emails to people (mostly to Steven, to update him on the ever-lengthening day as it progressed):



And maybe even worked on these for a few:



(No, I did not take off my high heels and model the half-finished sock during the meeting. Seriously. Who do you think I am?)

(Ok, maybe I did. But only once. And I put my shoe right back on afterwards.)



They're looking really cute, actually. I love this yarn. It's Colinette Jitterbug in the color Blue Parrot. A-dorable.



And I have determined that Boss is totally okay with the knitting idea. She told one of the clients, "oh yeah, knitting is so great -- professional football players even do it to lower their blood pressure." (I'm not completely certain this fact is true. But since its being used in my defense, I am not going to contest it.)



Unbeknownst to me, this week is DC Restaurant Week. I had no idea. As such, we decided that we'd go try one of the great restaurants in DC, a place called Bobby Vans' Grill.

I ordered a filet. It was as big as my head. I'm not kidding. That was some freak cow to produce that size of a filet. But it was fabulous. I brought half of it home to Steven.

Who, incidentally, I found at home looking kinda like this:



And maybe a little like this:



Now that I'm home and comfortable and its Friday... (ok, no, its Saturday now, but who the heck is counting anymore?)... I don't feel like this week was all that bad. Sure, it was a lot of work, but I like a good challenge, and I much prefer a full plate to being bored.

But then again, I know I was also supposed to have all of this done by today:



And, well, yeah. That didn't get done. So that's what will be happening for me this weekend. Should be a blast. Anyone up for some Multistate flashcards?

Update From Steven

"This makes my night," says Steven.


Yeah.

A picture of crazy...

This is what I looked like at work today:

Except maybe more crazy. And more papers. And none of the desk actually showing. And lots more coffee.

Tomorrow's docket for court is ridiculous. It's like 20 cases (usually there are 2, 4, maybe 6 on a big day...). Twenty-something cases, people.

And you know what the court does when you have twenty-something cases on the docket? That's right, you guessed it. You go last. The more cases you have, the further down you are on the list, because they want to get the people with one case out the door quickly.

And I have Twenty. Something. Cases.

Hooray! I am going to reward myself in advance by getting the World'sLargestCupOfCoffee beforehand. And then I am going to reward myself afterwards by working my rear end off and then going to a meeting in DC that starts (yes, starts) at 6 PM tomorrow night. Yay for me!

I'm too tired to go take pictures tonight. (I'm close to drooling on the computer. Be forewarned.) So you get some "found" pictures instead. Here are the happenings at Casa de Steele tonight:

Steven is researching old cars. He wants to buy one and fix it up. This will be difficult, given that: (a) we live in a 600 square foot apartment, (b) he has no power tools, (c) we have no driveway or garage, and (c) we are not exactly what you would call "experts" at automobile maintenance and/or refurbishing.

Meanwhile, he has decided that we need to get "something fabulous" for Jenny for her birthday (of which we will not mention the year, but let me tell you, its a fabulous birthday that deserves "something fabulous").

I have been perusing Coach to see if I can figure out which Bleeker (Bleecker? Bleaker? No, that can't be right...) wallet she wants.

I think its this one.

But it might be this one:

(Ha! Jenny, I'm kidding.)

And watching hilarious videos of Stephen Colbert interviewing Mike Huckabee. (Colbert: "I should be your Vice President, Huck. I can help you balance out your lack of foreign policy." Huckabee: "Oh yeah, how's that?" Colbert: "I've been overseas. I've been to Sandals. I've been to Epcot, buddy.")

Alright. I'm taking the rest of the night off. And tomorrow will look kinda like this:

But then Saturday will hopefully look like this:

(Wait. That is still a picture of someone at work...) Let's try this again...



Oh Lord. I dream of the day...