So sad

Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro was euthanized Monday after complications from his gruesome breakdown at last year's Preakness, ending an eight-month ordeal that prompted an outpouring of support across the country.

My two cents

I don't understand this whole rush to announce that you are going to announce your candidacy for the President of the United States. I mean, seriously. Rudy isn't just hanging out in New Hampshire doing tax-free shopping. He's obviously joined the fight, but he hasn't even announced that his hat is in the ring yet. I like Rudy a lot, but he needs to get off the fence already.

And Hillary. For the love of God. Hillary is possibly the most annoying woman in America. No doubt she's incredibly intelligent, but I don't think she's doing women any favors with her bitchy attitude. The past two months of Hillary soundbites - "I'm in it to win it!" - has been more than enough for me. And how about that uncomfortable innuendo this past weekend comparing her experience with "evil, bad men" to her husband, Bill? She stands by him when he gets some strange in the oval office, only to take distasteful jabs at him when it suits her political agenda? Yeah, that's classy.

Other than Hillary, I listen when the other candidates (or soon-to-be-candidates) speak. And although campaigning has begun early this time around (annoyingly so), it can't hurt to have the extra months to evaluate these people - and their respective agendas - that want to lead this country. We're in for some changes around here, and we all have a responsibility to be informed.

Weekend perspective

It occurred to me that if a bad haircut is my biggest worry of the week (which, in the big scheme of things, most certainly is not), then I am a lucky girl. Sometimes it just takes a dear friend to tell you that he likes the hair, that I'm beautiful regardless, and that there are more important things going on in my world to give me some perspective.

And this morning, I got in an extra-long workout with the new iPod. I've been out of the workout routine for a couple of weeks, and it was good to get back to it. And I loved having the iPod rather than relying on my treadmill neighbor's choice of TV channels. I've gotten most of my music downloaded and organized in playlists, and thanks to some helpful comments from my previous post, I've figured out how to use it at work. Good deal.

So it's Sunday now, and I haven't worked yet this weekend. I've got some medical records here at home to review, but I've decided not to go into the office. And you know, I feel a little guilty about that, but I refuse to let it bother me too much. As most of my lawyer friends that also work weekends know, it's a struggle sometimes to balance what you think you should be doing and what you think you can accomplish during the week. When I go into the office on Saturday or Sunday, I get a tremendous amount of work done. I don't work well at home (too tempted to play with the dog, watch E!, talk on the phone, mess around in the internet, clean the bathtub, anything but work), and I get "caught up" on the weekend. This weekend I'm feeling a bit rebellious about the job, although I know I'll have to pull some serious hours the next couple of weeks. But that is one of the great things about practicing law - for the most part, you know your workload. You know what needs to be done, and you can generally anticipate how much time it is going to take to stay on top of things. So I'm going to put my self-imposed guilt aside and enjoy the rest of my Sunday. I've got plenty of things to do here, and work will undoubtedly be waiting for me tomorrow.

Besides, Milo was sick last night and being the perpetual baby that he is, I was up with him a lot. I gave him a beef bone yesterday, and it was apparently a bit much for his little digestive system. Poor little guy had the worst upset stomach, and I had to deal with the results of a beef bone gone bad. So maybe we'll take a nap today (although he's not waiting around for me, as he's currently crashed out on top of the sofa). Or maybe I'll watch Bridget Jones for the thousandth time. Or maybe I'll actually clean the bathtub.

At any rate, happy Sunday!

The Breakup

I fired my hairdresser yesterday. It was like breaking up with my last boyfriend. The look on his face almost made me change my mind, but one quick look back in the mirror sealed my resolve.

Here's the deal: I like my hairdresser a lot. He's adorable, loves dogs, has great stories, invites me to parties, and his shop is within walking distance of my office. Also, he's patient with me and he gives a great head massage. And he's accomodating with appointments and he's not outrageously expensive, and he listens to good music.

But I don't trust him. When he cuts my hair, I sit with my hands clenched under the cape, scrutinizing his every move with the scissors. I've been letting my hair grow out since a moment of insanity three years ago when I cut my long hair very short on a whim. I understand the "in-between stage" and the "growing out phase" more than I care to. But I also want a consistently good haircut, and I'm not getting that. He doesn't cut with confidence, and he doesn't seem to be helping my hair get through its various stages of growth. Apparently, his idea of growing it out meant cutting it short again and starting over.

And maybe I'm overreacting, but yesterday was just more than I could take. My hair looks stupid. You know your hair is bad when people say, "Well, it'll grow." And I know it will, but right now, I hate it.

My secretary, bless her heart, told me this morning that the only difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is two weeks. Unfortunately, I think it's going to take longer than two weeks for this disaster to grow out. In the meantime, please don't look at my hair.

Good to know

In case you were not already aware, you can buy chicken in a can. You can find it on the shelf next to your standard "chicken of the sea" so be careful not to get your animals screwed up.

And I hear it makes an incredible cheesy chicken dip.

GO COLTS!!!!

I'm bringin' schlepping back

Contrary to popular belief (held, perhaps, by only me), I cannot have one iTunes library that plays my music and playlists from both home and work. Rather, I can download music from both computers but to separate libraries, and you cannot synch those two libraries. Even more frustrating - I cannot dowload two libraries to one iPod. WTF?

So here I am, with some music downloaded from iTunes at work and most of my cd's uploaded at home. Everything from home is downloaded on my new iPod, but I can't add in the music downloaded at work. And I don't think I can play my iPod through my computer at work, though I'm not completely sure about that. And as if this little tech experiment wasn't bad enough, I bought some little thing that supposedly would allow me to tune my car radio to an unused station and play my iPod through my car stereo, but after several attempts I have been unable to get anything but loud static overriding my music.

So much for technology. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm just not into listening to my music through ear buds. First of all, ear buds are creepy little things, and second, I don't like music going directly into my brain. It makes me feel clausterphobic. I thought this would be good for organizing my music, but if I can't even listen to my stuff in the car or at work, what's the point? I'm sure there are some iPod accessories that would be useful (i.e., a docking station), and maybe I'll consider that once I get over the initial disappointment. For now, I may have to go back to schlepping my cd's around again.

UPDATE: After further investigation online this afternoon (for some of us, billing what pretty much shot in the ass today), it appears that you can somehow synch to more than one computer. But I cannot figure out how to do it, and I haven't got the patience. Maybe tomorrow, I'll ask our resident IT guy. He's one of those people that always runs around with earbuds in and his iPod strapped to his arm with one of those weird arm things, like a banker used to have. Or like he's going jogging, but he wears a suit. Very strange, but hopefully he'll be of some help.

I'm bringing sexy back...

I am currently writing a demand letter (and by "letter" I mean I am on page 11 single-spaced and still counting, with attached relative documents standing at approximately an inch thick) to defense counsel telling them all about the nasty and permanent injuries, pain and suffering that their product caused my client, not to mention the economic damages. I'm sure defense counsel will not appreciate the length of my weekend masterpiece and will most likely make note of the case caption, speed-read the letter, note the demand amount, and take one deep breath before summarily dismissing my proposal. But my client deserves to have her case set forth in detail, and this is just the beginning of our case. Plenty of time for negotiations down the road. And quite frankly, if I were defense counsel, I'd likely do the exact same thing.

At any rate, I took a break earlier from this saucy project and finally stepped into the 21st century. I joined iTunes. Several downloads later (yes, including JT's catchy sex-o-licious tune), and I'm completely hooked. I can have my playlists accessible at both home and work, and I'm wondering what rock I've been under that prevented me from realizing this little gem before today. Of course, now I'm hardly going to be able to resist the temptation of buying myself an iPod so I can have the same bazillion songs available everywhere I go. Along with sexy, I'm bringing back the 80s, too.

I'm much more impressed with my technological advancement today than I am with this demand letter. That's all.

Cutest thing ever

Today is the little monster's birthday. He's five. I let him sleep under the covers this morning way longer than I normally do, and then we had a little dog party before I left for work.

When I first got Milo, he weighed less than 2 lbs and he looked like a little tiny ewok. I used to take him to my office with me, where he would curl up and sleep on top of my desk next to my computer when he wasn't tripping over his feet chasing a tennis ball back and forth. Back then, I worked for much cooler people than I do now.