Saturday, March 31, 2007

Found

A friend of mine from high school.......Actually, a really close friend of mine from school, was recently found. She was not really *missing* in the sense of a missing person or wanting to be found though. She was running away from the law and had disappeared for like over 4 years. Let me back up so you can understand.

Samantha** was the all around perfect person. She is gorgeous, got perfect grades in school, and has(d) an awesome personality. Everyone loved her. She dated all the hot guys in high school. She wrote poetry, she could dance. She was one of my closest friends in school, and our parents were really good friends as well. We spent many hours in her room gossiping about boys, being there for eachother, etc.

Anyway.

After high school, she did what everyone *expected* her to do. She went to Michigan Tech and started pursuing her degree in engineering, following in her Dad's footsteps. I don't know when things started going wrong, but she ended up dropping out of school, partying too much, working at dead end jobs. She met her now husband, who was involved in drugs and the like, and really started to go downhill. They were married. Slightly after that, her husband got in trouble with drug related charges and instead of doing time like others would do, he and she decided to run from the law. And run they did. Nobody has heard a peep from them in over 4 years.

I can't even imagine how her parents felt. To not know if your child is dead or alive, if they are safe, if they need anything. What she did to everyone who knows her is terrible and selfish, not to mention illegal. But at the same time, I always wondered how she was doing, if I could do anything to help her get out of the situation.........................

Two days ago, she was found working at a telemarketing business in San Diego, CA, along with her husband. They were supposedly involved in some kind of commune out there, and I hope she is not brainwashed and messed up from it. The Feds picked them up, and they are going to be sent back to Michigan soon. Supposedly, they think her husband will get 20 plus years, and what Sam will get is unknown. Maybe just probation.

I hope she can turn her life around now. I hope I can get in touch with her again, at least via letters. Everyone has missed out on a lot of her life.

I really thought she was out of the country and would never be found. It was kinda shocking when my Mom told me the news today. I guess I will see what the future holds with this one......

**Name changed.....

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Cancer Vaccine


Today, Kurt and I had an awesome day with our retirement account. When Kurt quit his IRS job, we rolled hiss 401K money over into another retirement account that we have control over. No investment advisor to tell us what to do or anything. With the spare time Kurt had not working at the IRS, he has had more time to study investments and the like.

Anyway.

Back when he first did this, he told me to pick a stock to buy from a list of 10 he liked. He liked all 10, but he said that I am *lucky*, so he had be pick one. I picked DNDN, also known as Dendreon. Dendreon created Provenge, which is a vaccine that stops the spread of prostate cancer. Don't quote me on this, science was never my strong subject, so I may not be saying this in a medically correct way, LOL. Provenge was on the table to be approved by the FDA, and today was the meeting and vote to see if it would be placed on the market or not. They had to vote on several things, one of them being if the drug was *safe* and the other being if it was *effective*. The vote was at 330 and I think Kurt watched the stupid message boards for most of the day because we had quite a few shares of this stock. It passed! So, tomorrow, the stock is most likely going to SKYROCKET and we are going to make a fortune. Not like millions or anything, but enough to possibly double what we have in our 401K account, if we had a really, really good day. It just depends. Anyway, I like the drug and stock because Kurt's Dad was just diagnosed with prostate cancer, and maybe the drug can help him, or others like him.

Click here to see a video and article on Dendreon.

So, after work, Kurt stopped at Kroger's and bought champagne and brought it home. Him, Kory and I went to Red Lobster for dinner to celebrate and they drank most of the champagne. And had drinks at dinner. I was the DD, so I did not drink at all. I am such a good girl, ;).

Fun in Family Law


More fun with Family Law! Just when you think you have seen *everything*, you see more! Yippee!

Click here to read the amusing article.

**The bird above is yelling at all lawyers in the world who file stupid lawsuits that have no chance of succeeding....***

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Court


So, I appeared in court today on a child support hearing. Everything went fine, yay. Something different for me, different courtroom, different referee. It's so odd because I am not mentally nervous about appearing in court anymore, but physically, my stomach hurts, etc. It's so odd. Like my stomach hurt all morning, but I was not *nervous* mentally at all. So freaking weird.

Had dinner tonight with my friend, Nancy, from law school. She is finishing up in May, hopefully, and I am excited for her! I know what it feels like to be done, finally, with that hell. I love having a life again, being able to concentrate on other things again, like spending time with friends, photography, WORKING OUT. You totally can't do a lot of that while in school and it truly sucks. Anyway, Nancy and I ate a place I have never been to, La Pita, and it was really yummy. I had my standard middle eastern dish, salmon ghallaba. It's so refreshing having fabulous liberal conversations and not having someone think I am crazy. Nancy is probably even MORE liberal than me, so she never even blinks at most stuff i say, LOL.

Rain, rain, go away. The drive home from dinner was horrible. I could barely see driving and was thankful to get home safe and sound. So many semis on the highway, not paying attention, going into my lane. AHHHHH.

So, I am addicted to the Search for the Next Pussycat Doll show. Don't ask me why, because besides the fact that it is reality TV, it's totally not my thing. But, I can't stop watching. I was glad to see Sisely booted tonight, she is unique, but she was starting to get on my nerves with her bitching.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Sleeeeeeepy

So. I am exhausted and SOO want to leave work right now. But, Kurt is meeting with our last appointment. Blah.

Anyway. I booked my flight to San Fran today. Finally. Nothing like putting things off to the last minute, but that is, my friends, my downfall. Procrastination. I am leaving the night of April 12 (Thursday) and coming back that Monday (night). I somehow found direct flights to San Fran, which I am psyched about because I detest layovers. Especially since I am flying Northwest and they are almost always delayed, which makes the layovers stressful.

I have never flown without Kurt, so this will be a first. I love flying, so that part of it does not make me nervous, but it's just weird in general that I am going someplace and he will not be there. I am hoping to meet up with my friend, Dawn (from high school) while I am there. I need to remember to take her cell phone number with me when I go..........

So, why San Fran? A school board conference. It's the National Conference. Most of our board is going, and it will be fun. We are going to a baseball game on Friday night, and they is totally the highlight of the trip for me, I can't wait.

Anyway, gotta go, Kurt is done with his appointment. Will write more later.....

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Converted

I converted.

OK, before you really wonder, a minor conversion. We switched our satellite service from DishNetwork to DirectTV. Why? My husband is slightly addicted to baseball. Dish previously had the rights to the baseball package on satellite and we had it. recently, DirectTV outbid Dish and so we HAD to swtich. At least according to Kurt. So today, the guy came out and switched all our TVS over. The most exciting part of it for me though, is the TV in my gym in the basement was hooked up properly. We had it hooked to an upstais TV previously, so I had to change the channel UPSTAIRS to watch in the basement. What a pain. Now, I can have my remote on the treadmill and channel surf all I want. Yay. In fact, I did that tonight, switching from American Idol to the Pussycat Doll Search to Boston Legal. Hooray again.

Work was productive today. I got a lot of paperwork done that I have been trying to get done. Got 4 new bankruptcies filed online, and a new divorce filed at the court. We have filed so many divorces lately, it's crazy. They seem to go in spurts.

So, the rest of my week is pretty busy. I will try to post when I can.....Night, y'all.

Monday, March 19, 2007

What Happened to the Days?


So. This cold? Has taken me away from blogging. Almost every night since Thursday, I have fallen asleep earlier than normal. Which, is most likely good for me anyway.

Friday night, I had dinner with Julia at Portofino's in Wyandotte. We were celebrating her finishing school, her taking the bar, everything. Plus, I have not seen her in a while. Dinner was yummy--I had a blackened tuna with rice and Jules had shrimp scampi pasta. It was really, really nice to see her. Came home and pretty much passed out because of this damn cold.

Saturday, woke up early feeling MISERABLE. Went and had a massage I had scheduled earlier in the week, which made me relax some. Stopped at the Gap Outlet after that and bought a new pair of jeans, a pair of black pants for work, and a blue sweater. Came home and worked out before Rebecca came over. Once she got here, we went to Target because i keep forgetting to buy a fruit basket/bowl and I wanted to buy one. Yay. Found a kewl black modern one. My apples, bananas and kiwi are now happily in said bowl. We also stopped at Kohl's where I bought Kurt a new Tigers sweatshirt andd Kory a hilarious Chuck Norris t-shirt. We all went to dinner at a Mexican place in Monroe, and then I passed out early again, thanks to the cold.

Sunday, I decided I had enough with the cold. Went to an urgent care doctor. Got a prescription to my fav, the z-pak, and am already feeling better today. Not totally, but I can function again and the congestion is almost none. I got on the treadmill today after three days of only biking. So, that felt good. I took it somewhat easy on myself, but still did the requisite two miles. Biked some too. While watching the first episode of Dancing with the Stars.

I have been so sick, the last few days are just slipping my mind....so, I will write more when I can think of what happened. I think the fever made me delirious.

Oh, one thing. Kurt and Kory finished sectioning out the basement. So, all the rooms are set, spots for doors, etc. AND, Kurt bought the stuff for the bocce ball course in the backyard and he and Kory may build it this weekend....Yay!

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Proud


I thought I was going to post saying Rebecca would be proud of me for taking a night off from working out, but alas, I can't say that since I worked out. I came home from work not feeling well (don't know if it's allergies or a cold) and proceeded to fall asleep on the couch after watching half an episode of Big Love. Stayed there until 915 p.m. But then got up and worked out while watching Intervention. I tried to take it easy on myself though, so I biked and ran some, did crunches and push-ups. Basically, I exchanged running for extra biking. When I tried running, I was having a hard time breathing because of being sick, so I did not want to push it.

So, through my sleeping, I missed Grey's Anatomy! I will have to try and watch tomorrow or online later.

Off to bed, try and nurse my cold/allergies or whatever it is.

Published--Yay

Got an email today that another one of my photos was published on this website. Yay! I was psyched. :).

OK, I don't think anyone will believe this (OK, others in Michigan will), but today, we have SNOW on the ground. I had to get snow off the Jeep today too, because I left it outside not realizing it would snow during the night. Seriously, this is Michigan for you, LOL. Two days ago, I was riding my bike with a short sleeve shirt on, and today, I am wearing a long wool jacket and shivering in my office.

Having dinner tonight with friends! I will post more about it later....

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Ugh



I think I am getting sick. Fingers crossed I am not, but I normally can feel crap coming on. I am hoping it's just allergies because of the huge change in the weather here in the past few days, but I don't think so. Arrgh. But. I am proud of myself for still working out. I totally am exhausted and did not want to, but I would hate to ruin my streak of days working out. :).




Picture above was taken in the yard yesterday, during our nicest day of the year.

You know, no matter how much I say I would love to live someplace that is nice all year round (And yes, I still would like to do that)........Nothing beats Michigan in the Spring and Fall. I love the beauty of everything starting to grow and turn green again, and the leaves and colors changing in the fall is simply incredible and so much fun to photograph.............

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Sunny Days Are Here Again--WOO HOO


Today's weather was fabulous. Beyond fabulous, really. AND, we left the office at like 230 p.m. and closed, just to celebrate the weather. I am so glad we did. I had an awesome day. We came home and took the dogs for a walk. I tried to take some pics in the yard, but it was super windy and the pics were not working out too well. So I just walked. I did snap a few shots of the dogs, which I will upload later hopefully, after working out.


After that, we decided to take a bike ride. I got bikes two summers ago while in law school (got them free with points I racked up doing online research in school), and we have literally never ridden them once. Crazy. So, we rode to a nearby neighborhood to figure out the gears and everything. They were great. My legs were BURNING when I got back, it's totally different than working on my recumbent bike in the basement, but great at the same time because I get to be outside. Came back and cleaned out the Saturn to take it in to get new brakes, which it desperately needed. Also, Kurt got out the Spyder, so we washed that and took it for a ride. It was a lot of fun. We had been talking about selling it for a while, but nixed that today. Kurt has way too much with it. So impractical for MI, but oh well. I can be impractical if I want to be, right? :). Went to Lowe's to pick up some tree stakes, and the grocery store. Driving with the top down on the car the entire way. I needed to get my fill of that since the weather is going downhill again tomorrow. BOOOO.

Lori--South Park Style

My friend, Hollie, gave me the link to this site where you can create your own South Park character.. Click here to create your own. Thanks Hol!

Saturday, March 10, 2007

So, I Finally Post

This week has been, in one word, INSANE. I only technically worked three of five normal work days, but those three were all long days. Ugh. And we worked a lot of the day today. Ugh again. And, we will most likely work most of the day tomrrow. It's sad that I got away on a short vacay and I totally have to *pay* for it when I return. Such is life, I suppose.....Weird, but I actually prefer working on the weekends, as the phone rings so much less and I can actually accomplish real work. Tomorrow, my goal is to make my bankruptcy filings disappear.

So. The continued story of my trip.

As everyone already knows, our plane there was delayed. But, the flight was good when we did get on the plane finally and the service in first class was incredible, as always. I love frequent flyer miles. Once we got there, we decided to just get a room immediately, as we were totally exhausted. We got one here, and our room was really, really nice. Jacuzzi tub, etc. Sad thing was, we could not use any of it because we both just passed out immediately, LOL. Got up in the morning and had continental breakfast at the hotel, then headed to Kurt's brother's house in Orlando. His house is really nice, on a lake. He has renovated it from the bottom up, and will most likely sell it soon and I hope, move to Michigan. He is the only family left in Florida and he is constantly up here on vacation. I know he likes Florida weather, but I am guessing he would rather be up here. Anyway. We went to this cute pet fair near his house, where people could take their pets to hang out for the day and they had food, little pet exhibits, etc., stores you could buy pet stuff at. After that, we headed to Lakeland to the Tigers game. I already posted about this game in an earlier blog, so I won't bore you with it again. But, I have all the pics from this game uploaded, so click here to see them.


Day two, Kurt and I headed to the Disney Parks. We hit all four parks in one day, which I totally DO NOT suggest if you have children. I think it was one of the most exhausting days of my life, and I am not kidding, I probably walked over 10 miles. But, it was really, really fun as well. My fav of the four parks was the Animal Kingdom. Click here to see all the pics from the Disney parks. We also did MGM (which was kinda lame in my opinion), Epcot (which was a lot of fun) and Magic Kingdom (which was really kewl). We went from about 10 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. at night. That night, we drove to Tampa (I know, we are nuts) and got a hotel near Busch Gardens.


Proceeded to Busch Gardens that morning. Here are all the pics from that. We were both kinda tired from the day before, and my stomach was bothering me, so we did not spend all day and night there. We ended up leaving (after seeing everything I wanted to see) at around 230 p.m. and headed to Port Richey to visit my grandparents (who live there in the winter months). We got there and had a blast. They live in a condo and showed us around thier clubhouse and the grounds. It is so nice there. We played Bocce Ball which I totally loved. I now want Kurt to build me an area to play in the yard. Then we went to dinner with them at Olive Garden, and headed back to Orlando. Spent the night in Orlando at a Wyndham on International Drive, which was nice.

Last day, we decided to not do another theme park, and went shopping instead. I had seen this outlet mall while we were driving around and really wanted to go there. Kurt rarely shops, so it was actually kinda fun to shop with him for once. He ended up getting a lot of stuff, including a new suit, several dress shirts, a t-shirt, and a couple of jackets at the Puma store. I got myself two t-shirts and a pair of pants from the Puma store. I love thier stuff for working out. Oh, we had lunch with his brother that day too.

Headed to the airport to leave. This time, I think Northwest was trying to prove us wrong, and they actually left on time. Had superb service on the plane again, and got home. Of course, just as I was forgiving Northwest, our luggage took FOREVER to come out of the carousel. Got our car, and headed home. I love sleeping in my own bed again. Nothing is quite the same.



Oh, almost forgot. Our rental car was so comfortable. We normally get convertibles, but the weather in Florida was only in the 60s and low 70s, and convertibles in Florida were a lot more $$ than in other areas I have rented them, so when I rented, I chose "luxury". Had no idea what that would be. It was a Lincoln. Kurt said he felt like an old person driving it, but I liked how it rode. I kept falling asleep everytime we went anywhere that was more than 10 minutes away. My Aunt would have loved the car--she was thinking about Lincolns the last time she bought a car, and I have to tell her, I highly suggest them.

While we were gone, Kory knocked out two walls upstairs that Kurt had told him he could. Basically, they are walls that are a kinda balcony overlooking the downstairs. I hate how it was a wall there, so we are going to put up railings instead, and a handrail. hard to explain. Anyway, this is a set I kinda like here. We have not bought anything yet because we don't have time this weekend to start any projects anyway. But, we went tonight after work and looked at Lowe's and Carter's.

So, I am exhausted, but am glad to be kinda caught up on here.

A Day in the Life

Read this article. It totally it representative of my life as a family law attorney.

I wish all clients would make their cases this simple.........

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Gosh

OK, so I have been dying to post about my trip and give picture links out, etc., but the office has been insane since we returned. So, I promise that I will write out a trip report tomorrow night after work.

Well, after I got out and have sushi with my adorable husband! ;).

Overall though, for inquiring minds, the trip was awesome. We had a great time forgetting we have a job and office and just had a blast, doing everything we felt like, nothing planned. I loved it.

Will write more tomorrow. It's hard to get back in the swing of things again......

My Supposed Personality




Your Personality is Somewhat Rare (ISFP)



Your personality type is caring, peaceful, artistic, and calm.



Only about 7% of all people have your personality, including 8% of all women and 6% of all men

You are Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Perceiving.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

The Game


I have not edited all pics yet, but here is one I really like from the game. Today, Kurt, Scott and I went to the Tigers Spring Training game in Lakeland, FL. It was such a blast. Spring Training is so laid back, the main players seem to truly be having fun. I got a lot of really close-up pics, and our seats were awesome. We were right behind home plate. I think we got seats normally reserved for the press, as we had seats right next to several Free Press and News writers, some scouts and Dave Dombrowski was literally two rows up from us. I was floored by this. How kewl. I wanted to go say hi, but he has a job to do and I did not want to interrupt. His kids were at the game for a while too. Robertson, my fav pitcher, started the game, so that was kewl. I love him! The Tigers lost, but these games don't matter, so whatever. I bought Kurt a Lakeland t-shirt and a program, and his brother bought him a kewl hat and pin. After the game, we went to dinner, then got a hotel room. We were both exhausted from our lack of good sleep last night since we got in so late.

Anyway. Will write more tomorrow. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Should be........

I should be flying to Orlando, towards warm weather and my vacation, but.....

I am still in Detroit, as my flight is delayed. Shocking! OK, not really, considering we are flying Northwest. I think literally the only airline, in all the times I have flown, that has delayed flights is Northwest. They are delayed almost every single time we use them. Nice. One positive thing though is we are flying first class (thank you upgrade miles), so once we are on the plane, I get a huge seat and awesome service.

I think I might just be crazy and get me a drink. With alcohol. And an umbrella. Anyone want to join me? Or have a drink suggestion? I am going to try and get Kurt buzzed as he hates flying and it may take the edge off for him.............

We ate dinner at a really good Mexican place in the airport--I had awesome salmon quesadillas. Yum. I highly suggest them.

Thanks Rebecca!

This was a really kewl personality evaluation, with pictures! If you try it, send me your results!


Thursday, March 01, 2007

Me

Ha. This pic is from me in high school, I believe freshman or sophomore year? No idea exactly when. My friend, Shannon, posted in on her Flickr account and I about died when I saw it. I am holding my varsity jacket that I practically lived in, have the required flannel shirt tied around my waste, and the bangs.........I can't even remember having bangs, it's been so long......