Twitty Bird and Sylvester the Cat

So I spent the day in Atlanta yesterday. Client business in the morning, work from our office during the afternoon. Dinner with a friend. Great day.

Then I get in the car around 9 p.m. for the 90 minute ride home and the wifey calls. It appears a bird has flow into the house as the roommate's fiance exited. So, Wifey and Roommate try and catch the bird and get it to leave. After I suggested wifey use the broom to shoo it out, she said "I don't want to get that close". After hearing that, I just suggeseted they take the animals to the back of the house and leave the avian creature be.

After I arrived home, there was no sign of the bird. I swatted around under the furniture with the broom, they said they left a window open and it must have gotten out. Works for me. Let's have a drink and then go to bed.

I slept like a log only to wake up to MEEEOOWWW and SQUAAAKKK. And there's the cat on the dresser peering intently around the pool bag. (you should get yourself a pool bag and keep coozies in there). I walk over there and say, I don't see anything, the cat's being crazy and the squak must have come from outisde and proceed to head toward the shower. Wifey, not being satisfied started looking and I hear her squeel and then sure enough, there is the bird, hiding behing the picture frame.

I figured it had to be injured but just in case, I got a t-shirt and grabbed hold. Good thing for the t-shirt, it was very much playing dead so I released it outside and sure enough, NO BIRDS OR CATS WERE HARMED DURING THE FILMING OF THIS EPISODE.

Shrimp are Important to Me

I just at some leftover creole and I thought I might share my thoughts on the mighty shrimp. Well, let's preface this by saying the smell of cooking shrimp made me nausious for the first 10 year of my life. It took some time, but I have grown my appreciation for this small creature.

I grew up about 100 miles from the coast and most of the shrimp we ate came from the back of someone's truck where the purveyor of the prawn had driven down to the docks in Glynn County and would return with what were probably Jumbo shrimp for about 6 bucks a pound. Mom would by 20 pounds or so and freeze them. Of course, we'd always have a big shrimp boil and eat the fresh ones. So I developed a bit of a snobery for shrimp after I got over that weird childhood reaction. Now I find it rather easy to distinguish from Atlantic shrimp, Gulf shrimp, and imports. I remember the shrimp in norway were like little pieces of lobster. Weird.

We were at the Your Dekalb Farmer's Market last sunday and I picked up a very fortoutious set of ingreedients for what I call shrim creole. Here's my recipe

1 lb of 15-20 count jumbo shrimp
1 16+ oz can of fire roasted tomatoes
1 cubanelle pepper
1 onion
several shallots
white pepper
salt
red pepper flakes
bay leaf
Beer - I used natural light.

In a sauce pan, I combined the tomatoes (you need to be sure to go through with your hands and pick out the skins/tough pieces) and the pepper flakes and bay leaf with some beer.(bout 1/2 can). I put it on medium heat and let it start to combine and reduce. If it got too reduced, I'd add more beer along the way.

I diced the pepper, shallots, and onion and sauted them until soft in a frying pan. While all that was going on I cleaned the shrimp, leaving the tails on but nothing else, be sure to get both veins.

After it all cooked and the tomatoes tasted spicy, but not too bad, I combined everything in the frying pan. I then brought it up to simmer and added the shrimp and a little more beer, and some green onion tops for garnish. Got that hot, put a lid on it and turned down the heat so the shrimp could cook and the onion would wilt.


Serve over rice. Be sure you salt your rice. I hate it when I forget to salt the rice.

Now I'm going to pay some bills and head to the pool.

Anyways, i turned out to be the best creaole dish I've ever cooked. Give it a try.

This Is Good

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Misty Watercolor Memories

Overheard: "my god, aren't you glad we aren't taking the bar exam".

I bet I have heard or said that phrase at least 100 times this summer. It was such a miserable summer last year. This year is not too bad.

So if you are taking the Bar Exam - good luck to you!

In other news, I'm pretty proud of myself. I came up a little short on hours when I finally figured out how we are reviewed here at my place of work but I formulated a plot an stuck to it and I think I'll hit the target number. Its always better to exceed the tartget number but let's not get too crazy here. Expecially since I only had six weeks to make things up.

I hope you have a good weekend. I think I'll be on the golf course or at the swimming pool. Good times in the Summer!

Whats going on?

Hope ya'll are doing well. We had a good 4th of July - just going to the pool and grilling hamburgers and watching some fireworks. Good times. Sory it has been so quiet around here. I'm working my butt off this month to make up my hours for the good times we had back in June. Hopefully this push will put me on the positive side for the better part of the year.

We had a great sushi dinner last night with some new friends we started hanging out with at the Bar meeting. I always like new friends.

I hope yous guys are doing well.

Happy Independence Day!

When its going goood, its hard not to think maybe you're missing something....

I recently sent the following email to a great friend. Life is good. Working, enjoying friends, just went on vacation. I don't have much to complain about and hence, you haven't really heard form me lately...

I think I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum as you are actually... just about to celebrate the 6th wedding anniversary and well, I guess Wifey probably (speculating here) never thought I could get this fat. But we seem to be getting along really well and having a good bit of fun together.

Working out in the mornings three days a week and haven't gained any weight since we took the bar. That's a start. I need to start swimming regularly to burn some calories. I've taken up the tennis because it doesn't cost extra to play tennis like it does golf and the pool has opened. Life is good when you can drink beer and get made to order chicken fingers at the pool and have them delivered to your chaise lounge. (As the pool has gotten more crowded they have taken to calling you on a bullhorn...yeah, not so much)

We were at the beach for the bar convention and had a great time. Total booze cruse. I did manage to get myself elected as a rep for YLD though. We were down there for three days and really had a fabulous time. Always nice to have some subsidized time at the beach. We even went to a great CLE where judges and lawyers told "war stories". My sides hurt the next day I laughed so hard.

I've been out of my office and working from home for the past week and a half. Boss has been on vacation for that long too. I think we all just took some time off to rest up. I "worked" from home for part of last week we weren't out of town. Today is the first day back in my office since the beginning of the month. My billables will suck but it was a much needed rest. (PS - I'm doing 10 hour days to catch those billables up and the month is actually looking good.)

Life is good. I also got my CPA application in rough draft form and am trying to get it submitted. I don't know if it will qualify but I figure I owe it to myself to try. Life is pretty good. We started scheduling 2 weekends a month to work on the house. If I can get this house fiasco and CPA shenanigans behind me I'll feel like I'm really on top of things again.

So life is good. The CPA thing has turned into another post. I'll share later

Movie Night

Went and played some tennis last night; had leftovers; (PS - quick and easy enchilladas with that old el paso enchilada sauce, some leftover chicken, onions and green pepper can't be beat. I think i'll give it a shot with some of those burgers I cooked next week.)

Wifey wanted to watch a movie and I said that was fine but I wanted to finish my book. While the Lincoln Lawyer was a great read, I was glad I finished in time to watch the move. We watched Juno and I must say it was one of the wittiest, most uplifting movies I've seen in a long time. Yeah, its about a girl who is 16 and gets pregnant, but it really is an awesome movie. You should check it out.

In other news, wifey and I are going to the country club to have dinner tonight. Hmm - had I mentioned that we joined the local country club here?? Don't think so. Anyways, its not the nicest (read - most expensive) club in town but we really like it. They have a great pool, excellent tennis and golf. Also the food is pretty good. We both got free dinners for our birthdays so we're headed out to get a steak dinner and have some beverages.

This week will be a lake party for the roommate who closed on her house last weekend. Exciting times here at cadleized.

Have a great weekend!

It's been awhile

I've been so busy having fun I haven't made time for the chronicles. My sincere apologies. I assure you there have been plenty of barn parties, backhoes, and golfing, and maybe even a little bit of the LAW to go around here.

Finally getting the hang of operating the backhoe. It's a good time. I've been working quite a bit lately, but not too crazy. We had tornadoes here in our town. Power was out for a couple days. that was not fun at all. Fortunately we didn't lose a refridgerator full of groceries like many around us.

I'm working on my annual law updated for a group of convenience store owners. good times.

Weekend Update

Well, as expected it was a good weekend. I did get to go play golf on Friday afternoon. The speaker at the Bar Luncheon was good. He disproved the notion that judges who site on appellate courts must be stuffy.

Golf was great for 9 holes. Golf then proceeded to fall apart for the subsequent 9 holes. It was a beautiful day though and I have only my lack of skill to blame.

The weekend was fun. I don't really remember what we did Friday night.... really don't remember drinking... weird. Oh yeah, I didn't get back from golf till late, ate some leftovers and hung with the neighbors. That's right. Wifey's former co-workers came over on Saturday night for a grilling. After the day of organizing the tool shed.

Sunday was devoted to continued organization of the tool shed and putting casters on a table. Also, THE POOL OPENED THIS WEEKEND!!! I CAN'T TELL YOU HOW EXCITING THAT IS! (they even got new furniture. score!)

So there were also some pool-side chicken fingers involved in the quality of the weekend.

Hope all is well for my three readers!

I'm Proud of my Boss Today

Dangerous as it is, yup, there, I said it. I've been working on a complicated motion for the past few days, researching it, making it to. I've been invited to play some golf later this afternoon. I emailed the boss and he said I could go.

And what does he do. Well he calls late yesterday and says we must file this motion today. The one i've barely started drafting.

So I work late, get it done and am proofreading it, knowing this is one of those situations where you send if for review at 9:00am and get no work until you've just missed your commitment.

NOT SO young grasshopper. He called at 8:15, recognized that I have a golf outing this afternoon and said he wanted to be sure we got this taken care of so I could go.

Good thing can happen. It should be a great weekend.

RICE ROCKETT!

MY NEW CAR!! I got it last week. My father-in-law was nice enough to make a donation to my favorite charity, me, and provide me with this handsome ride.

The bottom line: it costS $40 bucks a month to insure and costs $35 per fill up versus $75 per fill up for my explorer. Saving money after just one week.

SWEET!!!

Hi Ho Hi Ho - It's off to Sun N Fun We Go

Updates..possibly with pictures...coming soon.

VACAY!

http://www.sun-n-fun.org/content/

I B IZ OLD

Well folks, I turned 30 on Monday. Get EXCITED! I must say I feel a new maturirty now that when people ask how old I am, I can say, "30" - I've left those pesky 20's associated with new drinkers, newlyweds, and professional students behind for a new era of irresponsiblity.

I don't know what its going to bring, but I bet you one thing, its gonna be a good time!

Call the LAWWW!!

My god some red-neck trash has moved in behind us.

Not wanting my fence to get all grown up, I did some trespassing and cleaned up the property line. An, unfortunately until the summer growth hits the chinese privit, we can see these folks.

Last night I came out to tend the grill and there are these two dudes, hands up in the air, and they appear to be engaged in combat of some kind. I think, Damn, these are those people who practice martial arts down in the park and they have moved in right here...I always wondered where those people lived... WRONG!

So, Larry the Cable guy, or whatever his name was back there yells, "CALL THE LAW" which is quickly followed by "AINT NO NEED FOR NO LAW" to whit I got the cell phone of the wifey and call 911.

I don't give a shit who you are, if you got people in your back yard fighting with you, I'ma call the law.


Epilogue - the law came and I told them to hit up my "neighbors" house. I didn't hear anything else but you better beleive I set the damn house alarm.

Let the Games Begin

You could call it the Summer of the Outdoors. I prefer to call it the summer I plan to paint my house. I finally went and bought some high quality paint. Don't use anything but the Benjamin Moore paint. Yes, its more expensive, but I think I've tried them all over the years and beleive me, the Benjamin Moore is by far the easiest to paint with. Try it, you'll like it.

On the expense side, its amazing how expensive this painting is. I've already spent over $100 bucks on paint and some sanding pads. Oh well, you can't have a home that looks like this assessed....

Back in the Saddle Again

Well folks, after traveling about 600 or so miles in three days, I'm finally back home. Yesterday was spent paying bills. I hate bills. I think everyone does. Since we got out of the law school and developed this phenomenon know as pay checks, I've purchased a copy of quick books and have begun to be very dilligent about paying bills on time. This has also caused me to rearrange our study area to be most conducive to family financial responsiblity.

So, you can imagine my horror when I discovered several bills that were covered in some trash and they were late. Gawd that makes for a long evening. But, I do think I got everything paid and well, the good news is that Friday is payday.

Just trying to make it through another week folks.

i dont know about the geek squad, but this guy's cool

So folks, I'm in Birmingham on business tonight. As I post this, I'm sitting at a bar at an outback with some random ass folk. But I digress. . .


I have this gps that gets me everywhere I go but today the mount broke. I go to best buy to get a replacement and lo and behold, I'm thinkful the place is open after nine pm.


So, I start looking for my little part and after driving over 300 miles today I'm not with it. I walk roght by I get guy 1 to help and we can't find this stupid little part. They have everything else, but no part I need.


Did I mentio I had the gps on the little shelf in front of the speedometer eith the cigarette lighter behind it and it sliding all over and talking to me?

So yeah, this guy comes over and says, how long have you had it? Since christmas. Ok. And he proceeds to open a new box, had me the part and say, "don't you ever tell anybody I did that."

Sweet. Random acts of kindness are really amazing.

All over da world

Sorry for the absence, I've been driving all over the place this week. More later.....

A damn fine weekend

Well folks, I actually had a real weekend. Yesterday I did absolutely nothing but sit and watch TV and though I can't say I could do it for more than one day in a row, it was glorious. We did make a big breakfast to share with the roommate and her finace, but other than a little cooking and cleaning, I was on the couch, with the dog.

Today has been a different story. The household finances were . . . well give yourself three years with no income and law school bills . . . now double it, and there you have us. So, I've been working to get my head around this and I've been struggling with whether to buy or not to buy the new version of quickbooks but I started with this project today and the new version of quickbooks was a worthwhile investment.

It will interface with your bank records and it makes reconciling statements a cinch. I even found some errant charges and saves some $$. I don't know that I can whole heartedly recommend the quickbooks for someone who doesn't have a sigifnicant amount of understanding of the double sided accounting system, but if you can work with it, its a damn powerful tool. Hopefully I'll have a much better understanding of our cash flows and whether or not we are actually making more than we spend here in the next couple months. I think we're doing pretty good but if you as anal as I am, you want to know where good is to the penny.