My daughters rarely read my blogs. At least not voluntarily. I say - you need to read my blog it's a good one. And they moan - mommmmmm we don't need to read your blog. We live your blog. I can't really argue with that. Go back three summers ago. We are in Paris and do our own website so family and friends can follow along on our travels. Each day I blog, they sigh, and we upload the most recent pictures. The night before we leave, Cristina is sick and waiting for us in the apartment (we're staying in a darling walk up in the 7th). The other girls and I have been shopping. We split up about two blocks before we reach home. I go to get them jambon sandwiches, they go to get crepes one last time.
Read MorePersonally I don't read the New York Times. It is reputed to be one of the largest and best newspapers in the country. I suppose if I was a Very Important Person, I could aspire to have an obituary placed there when I died. A slightly morbid thought for sure. But the Harvard Business Review blog today headlined this article: "The NYT is Dead Wrong." http://j.mp/bX5nWX. And we all know Harvard has a better reputation for smartness than any newspaper.
Read MoreI hit the wrong key and think - did I just hit the wrong key?
Flashback about ten years ago. We are just getting into the whole email thing. Cautiously because we are lawyers and about five years behind everyone else. There are about 500 of us trial lawyers on a listserve. It is changing the way we know and can help each other. Very cool indeed!
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I am so enthralled with the first book that I immediately read the second. Then forget to blog about it. What sticks out in my mind months later...
This book is the revelation of the genesis of Salander. She is such an odd, intriguing character. I don't totally love her. Her awkwardness and strangeness borders on the overly contrived. I'm not sure if the author totally "gets" her. I mean, what is the point of getting breast implants given her background of trauma and attitude of utter societal defiance. But I want to believe in her so I applaud her feistiness and fortitude.
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I was five months along before I told the law firm of my pregnancy. I had never been a "traditional" employee. Coming out of lawschool my then husband was a professional basketball player. So I only worked when we were in town. By 1989, he was about done and I was working more regularly.
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Hempfest - Seattle's Ode to All things Marijuana - clogs up the park I want to run through Sunday afternoon. So I decide to try Discovery Park. I would actually like to run to it, but there is no trail leading into it. By now you will have noticed my running pattern involves avoiding streets. What's wrong with streets? Hmmmm. Being hit by a car is the number one reason. But also, I don't like having to turn up my ipod all the way to drown out the car noise. Plus inhaling the exhaust fumes mentally (if not physically) defeats the goal of enhancing health. Plus I don't want to get hit by a car. Nala either.
Read MoreAfter the weather made a fairly poor weekend showing, I wake up to fabulous blue skies. This means that I arrive at the office in a sleeveless lace t-shirt top and cropped jeans that end at the knees. As I look over my calendar I realize - darn. Double darn. We still don't have confirmation on a deposit of a verdict in a minor's blocked account. I need to go to court at 1:30. Fortunately, Ed is coming to the office so he grabs a skirt and I'm good to go. Or at least I think I am.
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For decades, homeowners along the shores of E. Lake Sammamish enjoyed the benefits of adopting for use, the unused railway bed. For some, it ran behind their multi million dollar houses (even a shack is worth a million on the lake). For some it ran in front. In 1996, the land reverted back to the county under the Rails for Trails program. This would create a precious link to an already extensive trail system of about 40 miles. What a wonderful opportunity for the public to get out, exercise, and enjoy the outdoors. But No. For more than a decade, the homeowners fought the county until in 2005 finally, the county was given the go ahead.
Read MoreI learned about subliminal advertising when I was a kid. The concept of being subconsciously manipulated (often in a fun way), really bothered me. Actually it still does. Usually it is so obvious or poorly executed that I know what's going on and shrug it off. But there are plenty of other times when I'm definitely being had.
Read MoreYawwwwwwwwn. As I'm getting ready to fly out the door I notice a not-too-terrible scratch on the front of my right leg surrounded by the beginnings of a puffy bruise. Thinking back I realize it's from when I hit the corner of the DJ platform last night when Gerhard and I were jumping up and down (to the beat) during a Black Eyed Peas song.
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It is high noon and I squeeze in a run before hanging out with Cristina at the pool. With AAJ convention having occurred last month, here is what I notice. When my kids don't come with me, I socialize much more in between all the events. When they attend, I am conscious about needing to spend as much time as possible with them. I never achieve a perfect balance with work and family. I'm constantly saying to my kids - what do you want to do today. This is code for - how am I going to fit in everything that needs to be fit in today.
Read MoreI sleep in, look at my phone and there's an emergency message from Tasha (WSAJ staff). Today's speaker, Lisa Blue, is leaving at 10:30 instead of 1:00. Get up, eat oatmeal, have Cristina drop me off at The Homestead. Clare (WSAJ CLE) fills me in. Bob Dawson and Greg Price are pulling together a speaker lineup of WA and OR lawyers who will do 10 minute smorgasbord style presentations. So the emergency is handled.
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I have so many credits stored up I don't ever Need to attend a CLE. Where did this bad attitude of mine come from. I've never really liked lectures. I can remember correcting the grammar of my high school English teacher one too many times and being sent out for alternative "advanced" tutoring for the rest of the school year.
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I fly with my eldest daughter, Cristina, into Redmond OR. I do this not only because I have been dreading the seven hour drive, but because I was scheduled to start a trial in Idaho on Tuesday. Trial settled a few days ago but lucky us, the airplane company doesn't believe in refunds.
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In my mind I've pictured Twin Falls as a quaint small town with cute storefronts and obviously a waterfall or two somewhere. In reality, we drive for a few miles through cattle/farm country from the airport to the city center which consists of government buildings and storefronts which look relatively abandoned.
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I've heard that Twin Falls is in one of the most conservative counties in the United States. That's one reason I would like to try a case here. To see. To understand. To connect.
The courthouse is right off the main road in town. I start to walk in the door but Joe my co-counsel tells me we are going that away (off to the left). To the annex. The courthouse is now used as offices (like for the prosecutor).
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I'm a big whiner about each precious summer day that I am yanked out of Seattle. It's a Sunday, spectacular, the middle of the afternoon and I'm at the airport headed to Twin Falls. Except there's no direct flight so I'm headed to Salt Lake City. The layover is too long. I'm still hungry from my late lunch that is an early dinner. Find some bad mushy frozen yogurt and look for a seat in the holding pit they herd us into for our "regional" (i.e. tiny plane) flights. I find an empty spot next to an innocuous (hopefully quiet) couple and pick up the old Danielle Steel novel I'm reading because that's the way I roll sometimes.
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My kids will tell you that they love that I am so passionate about what I do for a living, and they hope one day they can find a career that they care about as much as I do. But they also say they don't want to be lawyers because I work too much. It doesn't help when I remind them that I didn't start working full time until Noelle the youngest started Kindergarten. Their memories of me when they were little children don't appear to count. Today they are dispersed - at camp, at a summer camp out, and at the pizzeria.
Read MoreActually, my best friend in the whole wide world is an insurance defense lawyer and I love her to pieces. So it isn't because I am simply biased and only like other plaintiff lawyers. I have had the nice experience of developing friendships with a good number of defense lawyers. You don't have to hate the other lawyer to do a good job for your client. On the other hand, you don't have to like the other lawyer either.
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