Law school education: $35,000
Florida Bar Review Course: $2,000
Seeing the look on your opponent's face when you agree with him: Priceless
Today I had shelter duty, which means that if any of our child protective investigators had to remove a child from their parents within the past 24 hours, I was the attorney who would be covering the shelter hearing in front of the weekend duty judge. I already knew I had three shelters, so I was on the road to the Juvenile Justice Center in Orlando by 6:30 am, an hour at which I do not normally breathe. Black coffee, it's what's for breakfast.
Everything went quite well, thanks in part to the weekend duty clerk of the court, who used to work for me when I was in private practice, and who remains a whirling dervish of efficiency. The defense attorney who showed up on behalf of one of the parents was pleasantly inoffensive, and on the bench was the Honorable Stan Strickland, a Very Nice Judge. During my private practice days I did take an occasional adult criminal case, and one of those cases caused me to appear before Judge Strickland. It was a positive experience.
Which brings me to the Casey Anthony trial. In the "be careful what you wish for" category, the award for dumbest move by a criminal defense attorney goes to Jose Baez, who sometime last year filed a motion demanding that Judge Strickland recuse himself from the case. Good move, Jose. Now you've got Chief Judge Belvin Perry, who has already shown he has no patience for your unprofessional antics.
Yesterday, I treated myself to an Attitude Adjustment. I have been down in the dumps, but let's face it, I can't stay there. Looking at the balance sheet that is my life, I have a lot more in the positive column than the negative. I noodled over a lot of stuff, some big issues, some not-so-big, including my last couple of blog posts, and decided to approach those issues in a different way.
1. One lump or two? Or none - why I got it stuck in my head that I had to use jumbo lump crab meat in the Louisiana crab and corn bisque is beyond me. I have always been willing to swap out ingredients to create a more cost efficient dish. Even my crab cake recipe has been downsized from jumbo lump to "special" crab meat, at a considerable savings, and I do make some awesome crab cakes. But that's another post. Anyway, for the bisque, I have decided to use surimi, euphemistically known as "krab." More about krab later.
2. The Zen of Scarfing: Jumbo lump crab meat may be a luxury, but taking a half hour out of my workday to scarf - any way that word is used - is not. We are encouraged to leave our offices during lunch, and if I have fallen into a bad habit of sitting at my desk, that's my own fault. Even if it means going no further than the parking lot and sitting in my car, I am going to make the effort to grab my knitting and a bottle of A&W diet root beer and get out of the office for a little while.
So now I'm feeling positively chipper, and decided to celebrate by doing my weekly food shopping. The only list I had was the ingredient list from the Louisiana bisque. As usual, I let the supermarket "speak" to me as I walked up and down the aisles, looking for bargains and inspiration . . .
. . . then I went home, unpacked, and passed out on the couch for darn near 7 hours since I started the above post. Good thing there were still plenty of leftovers in the fridge, or my family would not be eating. Not only did I not knit one stitch, I did not peel a single onion.
So now my plans for Sunday include an overly-ambitious cooking menu. I promise to take pictures.
Cook like there's nobody watching, and eat like it's heaven on earth.
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