Even though I consider this a personal site, as opposed to the kinda-sorta-legal site I manage that also contains a blog (but no news aggregator feed yet), I know some of you consider this to be a blawg. So once again, mostly for you, it’s time to gloat over the advantages of a solo practice not emphasizing litigation. There was a three-day weekend last weekend, then I took Tuesday off for my Dad’s birthday, and then yesterday was flex-timed into casual Friday so I could play today. Why play today? Because a law school classmate and prestigious Seattle-based litigator is visiting town to cheer his wife on as she runs in Sunday’s Rock and Roll Marathon, and we have some catching up to do. The course passes one block from Casa, so we’ll be there on Sunday to cheer her on too.

Sure, solo practice has it’s drawbacks: lousy cash flow, the parapuppy doesn’t pull his weight (except when it’s time to shred docs), and there’s no such thing as paid sick days. But today, during our extended “meeting” (CLE credit pending), tentatively scheduled for a little beach-front brew pub in Pacific Beach, the only thing that matters is the ability to flex time for the things that are important.

RABAT, Morocco – Morocco said Wednesday it captured the alleged leader of suicide bombers who killed dozens of people in Casablanca this month but it said he had died in custody from chronic heart and liver disease.

Wow. I might have expected him to trip and hit his head on the phone book. Maybe fall on a sharp ball point pen 10-20 times. Even taking a wrong turn and steping out the thirteenth-story window could have been plausible. But chronic heart and liver disease…all I can say is wow.

No apologies, but an acknowledgment that some may feel my presence here has been lacking of late. I see that Pongo’s been trying to take up the slack, and hope his contributions were appreciated.

San Diego was made for long summer weekends. Unfortunately, that generally means that the locals can’t enjoy them. Things get crowded. People get rude. Growing up in southern California I learned my lesson about visiting popular places on holidays at a young age: don’t do it. Just say no.

So, no, I didn’t go to the beach this weekend. I worked a bit on a web project and hung out with some friends. I didn’t even swim this weekend, mostly because some (drunk?) (asshole?) visitors managed to trash the complex’s pool both Friday and Saturday nights. Normally I put up with a lot, but dodging a floating trashcan and its former contents while doing laps is not something I’m into.

But things started to return to normal (more or less) today. Got in some laps. Visited the parents for lunch and to celebrate my dad’s birthday. Did a bit of work. People tagged it in the local phone-tag league last week started to get back in the game today. Munched some good Rocky Road ice cream. Saw little Pongo the happiest he’s been in a long time as he hung his head out the truck window and pretended to fly. Flying is cool.

Pongo flies, Chuck swims. Life is good.

Woof. Woof. Yip!

Busy day planned, kinda sorta and taking into account that several alleged professionals who were going to get back to me this week have apparantly scattered out of town for the holiday weekend.

Currently: blogging, caffeinating, and procrastinating.

Later: Driving, meeting, copying, surfing, reading, serving, filing, and chilling.

See. All it takes is a grammatical choice to make it an action-packed Friday.

As I was discussing with a friend this morning, today is a marketing day. That’s a polite way of saying I need more billables. One can only churn out so much when everyone else is slowing down their answers and replies and getting ready to stop everything for the upcoming three-day weekend. It looks like this will be a slow week.

Spent some time reading poolside yesterday, eventually falling asleep and getting a little pink. That despite the recent advice of my new dermatologist to stay out of the sun. And despite the wound from last-week’s freckle biopsy still healing (results still pending). Oh well, oops, slapping on the aloe vera gel makes everying feel better. That and puppy licks.

Current reading: Intro to Coastal Zone Management by Beatley et al. Not exactly Top 20 material, but actually a pretty good read (so far) for a native-Californian Geography-undergrad attorney who wants to do more coastal zoning and development work. Nice beach pictures too.

Eagerly anticipated viewing: Buffy. How could I miss it? Perky blonde kills evil. The perfect distraction from real life, where bureaucrats cower and point to evil shouting things like orange alert.

Yep, working on a Saturday morning. Gawd, you’d think I was with a real firm or something. But after a trip to hell on earth Los Angeles on Wednesday, I was amazingly unmotivated to do billable stuff on Thursday and Friday.

Friday might have been recoverable at some point, but by mid-day the effect of being forcefed Barbara Walters and the View in the HMO waiting room had turned my brain to mush. The HMO visit went well, aside from the possible long-term effects of watching the View. A freckle has been skillfully removed from my right shoulder for detailed laboratory analysis and I have received the periodic lecture about sunscreen and the hazards of our friend the sun.

For what I pay in premiums I think they should provide someone to come to the pool with me and make certain the sunscreen gets properly applied, but that doesn’t seem to be included in the coverage. Too bad, because I noticed a couple of prospective candidates on the staff while sitting in that waiting room and trying to think about anything but Ms. Walters.

But today the day is overcast. Our friend the sun is probably feeling chagrined and off sulking that I had his little love mark removed from my body. And for better or worse, I need to be drafting some pleadings. Time to answer a complaint and affirmatively defend my client against a petty, greedy small-minded plaintiff. Also have some much needed maintenance pending on the other two sites. And an invitation to see the Matrix Reloaded (somehow that will become work related).

Back to the salt mines. Dig, dig, dig, there’s got to be a usable metaphor in here somewhere.

One of the many advantages to self-employment and solo practice is the flex time that allows me to avoid rush hour and thus tolerate San Diego. What I lose in stable income is more than made up for in not paying a therapist and the costs associated with road rage criminal defense.

Occassionally I have to get out early. Breakfast meetings, or even just early work to allow other things to be done during the day. Today I had to run around early to accomodate a last minute visit to L.A. this afternoon.

Couldn’t have picked as worse day. Drizzle was confusing the local commuters who couldn’t remember how to operate their windshield wipers. Two major north-south freeways (5 and 805) were closed due to a downed power line where the merge (between home and office). People who normally have trouble counting to ‘two cars per green’ to get on the freeway were now having to navigate detours and think about alternate routes. Many of these pre-caffeinated slugs merely stopped their cars in intersections to stare in amazement at their wiper blades going back and forth (at least those who got them running).

Sometimes I wonder when California is going to require drivers to actually demonstrate skills before licensing them to operate deadly weapons on the road. I freely admit that of the four states and two countries that have licensed me to drive since I turned 16, none has bothered to require me to show any driving skills whatsoever during those 23 years. Something’s just wrong with this picture.

This little blog entered its third year of existence yesterday. Check out the roadmap if you’re interested in where we’ve been and how we got here.

The focus has certainly drifted, interest has waxed and waned, and the mood swing pendulum has done everything from hang limply to fly around like a trailer park in a tornado, but overall I think we’re both glad we’re here. [Telepathic insert from Pongo: Yep *tail wag* woof!]

Thanks for being part of the journey.

I guess I always hoped the U.S. would be the one that was up to giving accused terrorists a fair and open trial. But, since the current mood swing here seems to be in favor of indefinite detentions by the military, I guess we’ll have to look to others to see respect for process of law in these types of cases. Nice New York Times article on the start of the trial of one of the accused terrorists allegedly responsible for the murder of more than 200 people in Bali nighclubs a mere seven months ago. There’s also a VOA version and a USA Today version.