Rogue Slayer Law Student Lawyer with Snark Movie Fan

This blog, much as I have loved it, has run its course. It got me through law school and the bar exam, and provided a great outlet. But I need something new.

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Photos are up - click on the picture to see the whole set.  No commentary yet, just pics:


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Planted the broccoli and lettuce that my friend brought over as exchange for the rototilling I did in her yard. I don't have any kind of fence around the garden area, so hopefully when we get back from Maine tomorrow I'll still have something more than nubs sticking out of the ground!

Those are the broccoli in the foreground, with the lettuce in the back. The warmer weather veggies are coming next weekend. I also transplanted the strawberry seedlings into containers.

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Last evening when I pulled the cover off the grill I discovered a little toad nestled in next to the grill hood, enjoying the shelter under the cover.   Since the grill would soon be too hot for little toad toes, I moved him over to one of the jade plant pots.  He really didn't want to let go of the grill, but I was victorious.
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It took three attempts to capture the flashing exclamation icon. But the keyboard is still working. Not really in focus, but it's the one to the right of the Outlook yellow square.

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I’ve had it with batteries trying to tell me what to do and when to do it. My wireless keyboard has been flashing its warning icon for two weeks, and for almost as long has been sending forth its popup box that “keyboard battery levels are critical.” The last time this happened I promptly changed the batteries, but that was only a few months ago. So now, while I do have emergency transplant double-A’s standing by, I’m not going ahead with the procedure until the keyboard patient codes. These puppies aren’t getting relieved until they’ve given me 100% of their available power. The same thing happened with the Wii Fit balance board. I’d start it up and it would tell me to replace the batteries soon, but then it would work just fine. I pushed that baby until it finally refused to go past the warning and would simply reset after expending its last electrons giving me the warning. That’s dedication.
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The other day I read a few of my old posts from a few years ago – I was much more witty and entertaining then, I think. Or I managed my time better, you pick.

I’ve been feeling sort of adrift for the last nine months or so. I know – get over it, right? I had been transitioning into an in–house legal position at my company, and away from project management. Then a corporate giant acquired the small company, and a few months later they informed me that they only take on attorneys with five-years’ software licensing experience. They did recommend that I find a small company where I could grow into the position with the company. Yeah, thanks – that’s what I had until you bought the place out!

Unfortunately, this placed me smack dab in the middle of the economic downturn, and each week’s ABA newsletter featured headlines of how many attorneys had been laid off in the previous days. Law school friends were suddenly back in the market, and it just wasn’t the best time to attempt launching my law career, either at a firm or on my own. Plus that would mean leaving my current job, where I have several years’ seniority, a better salary than I would get as a new attorney (excluding big law, but they’re not hiring and I wouldn’t want that lifestyle), and where the company is doing well and I have career advancement opportunities.

So now where am I? Trying to climb out of the swirl of “what to do,” and I think I’m finally making some headway.

The Girl got me onto Facebook, and I’ve reconnected with a lot of friends. Last year someone got me to sign up for Twitter but I just didn’t get it. A couple of months ago I decided to throw myself into it to see if that made a difference, and of course now I’m a tweeting freak. I’m also finally making headway at getting rid of those forty law school pounds (down 12 so far), and have made exercising part of my daily (well, most days) routine. It helps that I have iPhone apps that I can use as part of the routine, and that make it easy to send workout updates to FB and Twitter.

My inner geek is making itself know again, and I’ve been listening to some great podcasts. My favorite now is The Anomaly Podcast, followed closely by Treks in Sci-Fi. The gadget obsession continues, and I was pleased with the test run of the handlebar mount for the flip mino a couple of days ago. The iMac is working out great, but I still have to dive in to some of the programs in greater depth.

But something’s missing. My extended rants and raves. The Guyfriend and I are at different companies now, so we don’t get our daily lunchtime dose of geek analysis, and I haven’t been blogging at all. Perhaps I can remedy that. I’ve actually been pondering the idea of talking The Guyfriend into doing a podcast of our own. Think he’ll go for it?

In the meantime, a big project at work finally got the green light, which may be a source of blog fodder. At the least, it means some trips, which is always good for a few stories. Keep your eyes open!
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Growing away! I lopped off the top of the first fast grower to even out the heights. Then I chopped up a leaf and mixed it with olive oil to coat a chicken breast for grilling. Yum!

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One lavender shoot has raced ahead of the rest and may force me to raise the lamp soon.

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I've been watching this one all day - please, please take a few minutes to watch it and bring a smile (if not outright laughing) to your day.
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The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that the state's ban on same sex marriage is unconstitutional.  Next up: the Iowa legislature.  I'm trying to get to the court's website to read (and link to) the ruling itself, but the servers are understandably busy.
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My lavender garden was well-tended by a cube neighbor during the Miami trip, and it is growing nicely. The home garden, meanwhile, grew exponentially.

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