Ding, dong, the witch is dead!

Not a literal witch. Just the life-sucking, schedule-hogging witch of a case that I was handling that's kept me so silent of late. For those who don't know me well enough to engage me in friendly chit-chat, I've been tied up for the last couple of weeks doing major prep work on a big trial.

Big in the sense that it was a pretty serious case, and big in the sense that it was about two steps above anything I'd handled before. Or maybe three.

This case had been eating my free time. As you may have noticed, I posted the other day during a break in my work on a Saturday. Anyone who follows my Metblogs (link to the right) would see that, as I've been posting various pictures of Portland, several are near the downtown courthouse or (in the case of the 92nd/Holgate mural picture) on the way out to my office in Gresham. Out and about, lately, has meant, out, on my way in.

Anyway, as is typical in trial work, tons of time, sweat, preparation, late night pre-sleep plotting, early morning musing over how best to approach certain things, after work tapping away at my laptop preparing various arguments and questions, calling in witnesses to discuss what they can say, and all that sort of stuff was rewarded by defendants who decided to plea the case out at the last minute.

Which isn't to say I'm upset. I'm not. We got a good result in a not-so-straightforward case.

But, as I was telling my friends last night as they tried to get me out to the office softball game, God knows who has prepared and who hasn't, and He knows when you're just pretending to prepare, and if you goof off, He punishes you.

So, I stayed home to work on my trial.

The office softball team split their double-header, so all was not lost.

And my preparation was rewarded by a nice victory (though not the form I'd prepared for), as opposed to a grueling disembowling from the vindictive trial gods trying to teach me the importance of having my act together.

So, now, my evenings are freer. I can pop in more. I finally washed my dog today, and took her for a long-awaited walk. I'm going to do dishes and laundry tomorrow. Apparently, I've been scheduled to drive up to Ikea on Saturday.

Fun, fun, fun!

Anyway, I'm glad to be back. As I never take requests for blog discussion items, how 'bout this:

What, if anything, do you want to hear The Pieman's perspective on?

If I refuse to answer, I'll give you a rational basis for my decision.

Oh, and for Denise:

UPDATE ON PIE-BABY
I can't recall the last time I advised of the current state of pregnant affairs. So, here goes.

The Missus is now about 6 months in. She's got a delightful little tummy that, if I can ever sneak a picture of, will make it's way here for your enjoyment. Inside, our soon-to-be Pie-girl (her name will be "Stella") has started moving and kicking, but nothing that I can feel yet. I've started the habit of talking to the baby when I get up in the morning and/or when I go to bed at night. I'm getting very excited, as is my wife. Doctors expect her to pop out right around November 1st, so it's possible she could be a Halloween baby and share her birthday with our puppy. Everything's going swimmingly, and we're all quite happy.

Now that that business is done, I'm off to a softball game with the other team I play with. I'm happy to be able to go out there without having to consider whether I'm interfering with trial-prep time tomorrow for. Sweet relief.

Anyway, catch ya later.