Legal Quandary

Long Time, No Post

So, it's been awhile. And when I say awhile, I mean almost 3 months!!! I was shocked when I saw that!

For the couple of folks still reading, here's what I've been up to. (Just for Mr. Q's benefit, no, I'm not whining - I fully deserve for my readership to drop into the negative numbers!)

- I was attending a long and somewhat boring class when I wrote my last post about tickets to the B-52's concert. The pre-concert reception thing featured weird food (some good, some not so much) and some weird drinks - but what did I expect? It was a B-52's concert! The only downside to the concert was that it was an outdoor concert, so the torrential downpour that started 5 minutes before the concert was supposed to start delayed things. The opening act was a Motown Tribute band. Nothing like a very white crowd singing along with a very white lead singer in a 'fro wig to "Play That Funky Music White Boy." The B-52's part was fun too, though the girls have both gotten a little chunky and Cindy's skirt was so short she was about to flash the crowd! EC was mortified that people (her mother included) actually got up, sang along, and danced during the concert.

- I have a new boss at work. She's who I want to be when I grow up.

- We had a big inspection/visit. In JAGdom, there's a thing called an Article 6 visit - it gets its name, strangely enough, from Article 6 of the Uniform Code. Basically it says that every service's Judge Advocate General "shall" make frequent inspections of the legal offices. Anyway, we had our visit and it went extremely well and was very educational, but it was a lot of work.

- I went back to TVPNU city for a class. It was a short trip, but I managed to sneak in a visit with E.Spat and "the boy." The boy cooked paella. I completely approve - of both the boy and the paella!

- I've descended into FOIA hell. I was surprised to find that not only did most of my colleagues not take Admin law, but of those who did, NONE of their profs covered the Freedom of Information Act. At any rate, our office reviews eleventy billion (give or take) FOIA requests a year, and I think I've done at least a quarter of those in the last week, being as I'm an "expert." OK, maybe it was only 4 or 5, but it FEELS like eleventy billion!

- I started swimming again a couple of weeks ago. EC made the swim team this year and her coach suggested she could benefit from the additional practices offered three days a week - at 5 am! I've been tagging along and sitting through the practices, then jumping in for a solid 45 minutes while EC gets ready for school. I swam in high school and was pretty decent, but never great. By contrast, I am now old, fat, and slow.

- Mr. Q and I have been watching a lot of Alias. We've checked out Seasons 2 and 3 on disk from the library and have been slowly working our way through them. We've also managed to go to the movies TWICE without the kids in the last month. Once for Superbad, which was, in fact Super Bad, and once for the Kingdom.

- Mr. Q and I went to see David Sedaris. Mr. Q gave some money to the local public radio station to get the tickets, so we also got to go to another fancypants reception. The food was substantially less weird than the B-52's concert. I used to be a big NPR listener, but have sort of drifted away from it. My commute is only about 10 minutes, and lately I've found myself listening to the intellectual musings of the Bob & Tom show. (Highbrow, I know.) At the reception, one of the public radio staff members came over and introduced herself, and then started introducing us as "BIG supporters of the station." I felt like such a fraud since before that moment I couldn't have told you a single one of their names.

- Lil Q was selected as the "Star of the Week" for her school. This means that she gets to bring in all kinds of stuff about her this week. On Monday, she had to bring in a poster with drawings of herself, her family, pictures of stuff she likes and hates, and a drawing of what she wants to be when she grows up. Today, she had to bring in a photo collage. Tomorrow, it's something for show & tell. I forget what Thursday is, but on Friday, she gets to bring in treats for the whole class. Though it's nice for each one of the kids to feel "special," I somehow resent that Lil Q's school is giving ME homework, because let's face it - those cupcakes or cookies are not going to bake themselves Thursday night.


- On the plus side, decorating baked goods gives me a chance to use my new "skillz." I went to a cake decorating class a couple of weeks ago and this could be my new love!! I made some beautiful cupcakes, included one with a mauve rose and little green leaves. I would have posted photos, but EC smushed it the following morning when she dropped a sieve on it.

posted by Legal Quandary at 19:45