Daylight Saving Time

I use my iPod™ as my alarm clock.

Guess which was the only clock I forgot to "spring forward" Saturday night?

I'm your Handyman

I just spent the evening putting up curtains and a valance. We had bought other curtains from the JCPenney catalog, but they weren't what we thought they would be. Jody loaded up the girls Wednesday and met me at the JCPenney store at Town East Mall, and we shopped for new curtains. We finally found some that both of us liked, so we bought the curtain panels, but not the valance panels. We wanted to make sure we liked them before spending the rest of the money.

We hung the curtains on the rod I had hung for the previous set, and Jody said she wanted the valances. I went back to JCPenney Thursday to pick them up. Today, I dropped by Lowe's and got a rod for the curtains because we needed to use the one I hung before for the valance After wrangling with the level, the ladder, and the drill, I finally got it all up. We're gonna paint the wall to match the yellow in the curtains. Most folks probably would have painted before hanging curtains, but that would have been too easy.

Put Another Log on the Fire

One of the things I like about our new house (we moved in April) is the fireplace. A family friend doesn't use her fireplace any more, so she offered us some firewood. Yesterday, I borrowed my dad's truck and loaded a little more than a third of a cord, hauled it home, unloaded it, and stacked it neatly. I have to remember to open the flue each time before I light the fire, but it has been nice having a fire in the fireplace. I also appreciate that it has a gas ignitor, which eliminates the struggle of getting the fire blazing.

Lost and Found

I previously wrote about losing my good nail clippers during our move to our new house. Today, I found them. They were in the cup holder of my car under a pile of business cards and pens. In 6 months I hadn't cleared out that stack.

I guess they had made it to the new house, but they never made it in the new house.

I'm just glad they're back. I've attached them to my keyring, so I'll always have them with me.

Nature Abhors a Vacuum

It seems that I always tend to find ways to fill up my "free time." Last night, I did not have rehearsal, but I had a meeting to go to. Tonight, I don't have rehearsal until 9pm, but I have a meeting before that.

Things should lighten up once Kiss Me, Kate closes, but I know that there will still be lots to claim my time and attention. I'm not the kind of person who always needs to be doing "something," but I'm also not the kind who can sit at home every night.

The Sweat of My Brow

For those of us for whom our primary vocation is more intellectually oriented than physical, there is something inherently pleasing about doing things with our hands when we get the chance. I think that's why so many white collar workers would like to have some sort of workshop in their backyards. Quite simply, a guy can derive much more satisfaction by being able to point at something, say a bookshelf, or a built in desk, or even a clean garage, and exclaim, "I made/did that!" than he gets when he finishes even the most brilliantly crafted memo or legal brief.

I spent four hours today cleaning our garage. I can't even say "cleaning out" our garage because when it came right down to it, I didn't throw very much away. Mainly, I rearranged what was in there. There's still stuff in there that does need to be tossed, but today was not the day to take care of that.

The Reason Why

I would never have spent my day off doing that chore, but yesterday my wife said she smelled something emanating from the garage. I investigated and discovered that a plastic jug of turpentine had developed a leak and spilled out onto the floor. Compounding the problem was that the jug had been under a large pile of stuff. So, as is not uncommon, a problem that probably should have been resolved long ago sat untended until a crisis arose.

Whatever the impetus, I now have a clean garage, but I still can't park in it.

One Tired Puppy

Sorry I haven't put anything on here in the past couple of days. Between my two jobs and the new baby, I've just been swamped.

COMING SOON: My review of Stephen King's The Dark Tower (Volume VII): The Dark Tower

UPDATE (12-10-06): Sorry that review never materialized.

Things that make you go Awwwwwww

A couple of weeks before Lindsey was born, I was sitting at our home computer (not an uncommon event), and my wife was sitting on the couch, watching television. Our two year old, Sarah, went up to my wife and crawled up in her lap. Jody turned off the TV and held Sarah.

That alone makes a beautiful scene, but what happened next almost made me cry. Sarah hugged her mommy's belly. Jody asked her if she wanted to sing to Baby Lindsey. Sarah answered, "Yeah." (we're working on breaking her of the "yeah" habit). Jody helped her get started, but then dropped out as Sarah sang "You Are My Sunshine" to her pre-born baby sister.

My attention had been captured already, but when that happened, I completely ignored the computer and just sat there watching and listening.

The aftermath

Okay, so it's the next day. When I got home last night from the hospital (after having stopped to eat a late dinner at the Cici's buffet—I think I'm still full), I couldn't get to sleep. Finally, I went to bed at 3:30a.m. Although I know my wife is the one who did all the hard work yesterday, I'm very tired. Not quite exhausted, but definitely suffering from lack of adequate sleep.

Here's a pic of me from shortly after the delivery:



The hospital gave me the scrub shirt. It has Lindsey's footprints (shouldn't that be feetprints?) on the pocket.

Anyway, as I was getting that pic uploaded, I discovered I had an old pic of myself online. This one was taken during the Fall of my first year of Law School. It was 11 years and 65 pounds ago.

It's been a long day

I had a Court Docket today. 105 cases set in the morning. 40 this afternoon. For some inexplicible reason, the afternoon docket took almost as long as the morning one. I got done with Court at 3:45, and I had to head downtown to get some stuff done (my mileage report and my time entry). Normally I wouldn't have had to do that today—the mileage report isn't due until Thursday, and the time doesn't close out until Friday—however, I'm taking the next three days off from work.

Why? you ask.

Tomorrow morning, I have to get up at 4:30ish (there's a 4:30am?) to accompany my wife to the hospital. The Doctor, a great guy named Dr. Lee, will be inducing labor for our fourth daughter, Lindsey in the morning. Well, it'll be our fourth daughter unless the ultrasound was wrong. In that case, Dr. Lee will be inducing labor for our first son, Jarod.

So, tomorrow's gonna be another long day, and the odds are that I won't get a chance to post. I know, I know, all 3 of my readers are heartbroken.

Now, for the seven and a half of you who are wondering why I had 145 cases set on my dockets for today—I am a Prosecutor in the Hot Check Division of the Dallas District Attorney's office. One of our duties is to cover the dockets in the Justice Courts. Primarily, that means prosecuting traffic tickets, but there are other types of cases as well. In the twenty months I've had this job, I've tried approximately 2000 cases (yes, you read that right—I try about 100 cases a month). I have a 97.5% conviction rate, and I haven't lost a Jury Trial in over a year. Of course, now that I've bragged about that, I'll probably go on a terrible losing streak.

Anyway, back to the long day. After I left the office, I had to go to my part-time teaching gig at Eastfield College. That was another three hours. So, now I'm worn out, but not sleepy, and I have to get up in six hours.

Finally tonight, my best friend threatened me to within an inch of my life if I didn't link to his site, so here goes:

The Vanguard

I'll most likely be posting more about Rod in the future.