Goodbye Spinach!

Lamb and Peas

2008-10-16T21:56:00.002-05:00

Tough day at the office. Not busy enough to keep myself from obsessing over the world's problems and the challenges of A. and G. Spinach. Found myself at a networking lunch with a kid 6 months out of college and about as green an insurance agent as they come. At least he paid.

Three other bright spots today. Clients called in with good news in each case. Only down side there is that I have less work...a mixed blessing.

At home, la moglia has the blues. I'm crawling to November, counting on a post-election bounce. But I started a good novel: A Dwelling Place by Elizabeth Musser. 105 pages before I could put it down and wander into the office and blog.

Steak and Potato Salad

2008-09-28T21:32:00.002-05:00

G. Spinach and la moglia shared a pretty decent weekend. Given the gasoline shortage that has thwarted random travel in this part of the country, we stayed pretty close to home.

Friday night was consumed with the presidential debate....I decided early on that it couldn't be watched completely sober. Trust me, it got funnier with rum and cranberry.

Sunday night, after a home-cooked meal of red meat and potato salad (mustard, mayo & sweet relish), we caught the 60 Minutes segment on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. That guy scares me, thinking he can single-handedly resolve years of poor bank decisions with a $700 billion dollar government check. Much as I'd like to see it happen, you can't always buy your way out of trouble. So color me 'still suspicious' about this whole financial bailout plan.

Cheap Wine and Pizza

2008-09-16T21:33:00.003-05:00

Tonight was the planning session for our Kiwanis club's activities in the upcoming 12 months. We did the usual sniffling and snorting over committee assignments, roster placements, and project scheduling, but we also had a few laughs and really got a lot done in 90 minutes...so I'm happy. The treasurer brought beer, we pulled a bottle of Shiraz from the A. & G. Spinach wine cellar (i.e., the collection of client gift bottles tucked away in a break room cabinet), and we dined on Papa John's.

The workdays, however, have been a little bit of a drag this week. Partner A has jumped on the South Beach Diet, and our paralegal, the "Boss," has started a new gig with a personal trainer, so we're on our own for lunches. Oh, the horrors.

Truthfully, my superego has been a little neglected. I should be concentrating better and billing harder. I had two good spells of 45 minutes each today, but the rest of the day filled up with 12 minute phone calls, emails and administrivia. Fourteen different client contacts, and very little progress, because 14 x .2 is still less than three billable hours. Add that to the two 45 (ok, call it 48) minute spurts, and it's still not a day to brag to the banker about (so it helps that the banker came over for the Shiraz, right?).

mmm, buffalo zingers....

2008-09-08T22:06:00.003-05:00

Not long ago, a spiffy-clean new Zaxby's opened up right by A. & G. Spinach's building.

That's all good, because in addition to the firm's tradition of chinese Fridays, we're developing a habit of chicken Mondays. Most of us go for the house Zalad, but today I needed chicken strips dunked in hot sauce....they call 'em Zingers.

The extra capsaicin cut off the frequently irresistable urge to order pizza during Monday Night Football. Bummer that the alarm blares in a little less than six hours, and the Broncos and Raiders haven't even hit halftime. I'll have to let Jay Cutler finish the job without my muffled roar.

The Juggle

2008-09-06T21:57:00.004-05:00

The life of G. Spinach, ca. 2008, looks something like this:

1) The Firm - Two partners: A & G. Spinach. We started the firm right about the time I stopped blogging. We've got two associates now: the Therapist and the Brain. Both are loved; neither are overworked. We're not as busy as we were when we started; a frighteningly slow summer has ended, and we're picking up steam again.

2) The Family - It's me, la moglia, and one angelic little girl: the kidlet. She'll be 17 months old soon; again, a good reason to have let the blog slide.

3) The Club - I'll be stepping in as Pres. of the local Kiwanis Club starting Oct 1. A dubious honor, I assure you.

4) The Estate - Grandpa died five years ago with some acreage out West. My aunt and I have been trying to sell it ever since, and it hasn't worked out quite like we expected. Thanks to the squiggly economy.

5) The Contacts -- In the years since I left law school, I've met a bunch of folks, and there are splintered groups here and there. I try to go to some of the meetings, but it's been a scattershot thing.

6) The Friends - I neglect them terribly.

So what's missing? Well, my religious life has been pretty non-existent the past couple of years. I'd like to see a resurgence there. And my exercise routine...I once ran 10ks; the last was in 2005. I still belong to a gym, but I haven't been there since the kidlet showed up in our lives. Time to cancel the membership, dontcha think?

Back from RL

2008-08-20T12:56:00.002-05:00

G. Spinach has neglected this space for too long. Time to get back into shape.

List of things to do:

1) Write more, spectate less
2) Lead by example

Holiday Spinach

2006-12-23T21:48:00.000-05:00

Life has been much too busy lately (building the new firm and doting on la moglia), to keep this blog interesting , and I suppose the prospect of posting wedding photos was just a little over the top. Perhaps soon.

At any rate, we're heading off to Denver for a few days to see my fam. Then la moglia's mama is coming in for a few days to enjoy the new flooring we put into the dining room (d-i-y, no less).

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday break, and looking forward to a more stable return to Blogger in '07.

Dollars and Sense

2006-10-18T05:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, so the firm's been in new space for two weeks and we've got it pretty much put together, right on down to the credit card terminal so we can bestow our clients with hundreds upon hundreds of SkyMiles or TravelRewards, or whatever else rings their chimes.

It's been busy and fun, with a few hurdles to jump now and again....there's also a cafe opening up right next door in the office building, which should be a great "amenity", but we discovered on Monday that we share an HVAC delivery shaft, which means that our office has smelled like scorched olive oil for 2 days (and counting). The landlord and the contractor are working on the problem, but I'm quickly developing a distaste (pardon the pun) for the woman who's supposed to take care of us and our space...ah well, small-fry worries, yah?

More stories to come,

Moving Day(s)!

2006-09-29T05:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the first day of moving stuff into the new office space. A HUGE thanks are owed to those friends of mine and friends of friends that I cajoled, charmed, and flat-owed bribed into helping me haul office furniture around instead of eating dinner...

Sure, there are commercial movers, and yeah, we probably shoulda hired 'em, because the landlord isn't at all familiar with the D-i-Y move. My U-Haul guy didn't even know what masonite was, and I was supposed to cover the lobby with it...cardboard worked instead.

So today is day two of the Great Move, and we've got wall art and a break-room table to take in. All moves are supposed to be after hours, but the hell with it. The truck is due back at 2pm today, and I'm already pretty freakin' sore.

Pictures soon, I promise.

Two lawyers; one desk

2006-09-25T21:54:00.000-05:00

The move to A. & G. Spinach's permanent home starts Thursday for sure...we've got our walk-through scheduled at 9am, and we'll be carting bookshelves in after 6pm to keep our paper-making neighbors happy. The new furniture for the lobby should arrive sometime Friday, with a copier and phone system coming on-line on Monday.

A and I have each scheduled a client appointment next Tuesday, but there's one tiny little project left unaccomplished: me picking out and buying a desk. All the vendors we've dealt with so far have been too pricey, and I simply haven't made the time to go shopping. Partner A has a desk from the old firm, so she's all set...Perhaps I'll get mine picked out on Wednesday, or I'll bring in a card table and a folding chair for the first few days...I can always blame it on backordering, right?

The rest of G. Spinach's world is rolling along nicely. Hope the same is true for all of you.

Form-a-Firm 101

2006-09-20T21:06:00.000-05:00

A sampling of the people I've been on the phone with today:
1) Coffee service vendor #1 operator
2) Coffee service vendor #2 automated phone attendant
3) Coffee service vendor #1 sales rep
4) Low voltage wiring installer
5) General contractor project manager
6) Space planner project manager
(to choose alternate carpet because our first choice is now unavailable)
7) Stationery/printing/logo guy
8) Copier salesman #3
9) Copier saleswoman #4
10) Phone handset vendor
11) Admin workstations vendor #1 (who gave me an oh-crap price quote)
12) Admin workstations vendor #2

The hope is that our new space will be ready next Thursday so we can move in over the weekend, but it's looking dicey. We might be practicing out of the back of a U-Haul van for a few days. C'est la vie.

But it's exciting...I can't wait to have an office of my own again, and this time, I got to pick the paint colors...

An Aptly Named Alias

2006-09-15T21:25:00.000-05:00

Hmmm...several net searches related to bacterially-infected spinach have led visitors here to this tiny square of net-space....alas, a corner with no helpful information about the current public health frenzy. For newsworthier fare, try the FDA, or ABC News.

But the extra attention provides a great opportunity for an update on life in Spinachland. The permanent office space into which my partner and I will be moving our fledgling law practice is about 85% complete. The walls are up and the floors are bare (au revoir, dirty orange carpet). We've got lobby furniture on order, and we're trying to pick out a copier. Tough choice.

I also taught a seminar this week that went pretty well, though it was a challenge to keep up with the needs of the firm, its clients, the move, and the homestead. I'd been hoping to get some cleaning in the homestead done over the weekend, but I'm road-trippin' to Kansas City this weekend to collect some stuff from my sister's basement....three years of free storage is probably more than she'd bargained for, and she's a good do-be for meeting me 1/2-way.

So long for now.

Life as a Partner

2006-09-06T22:04:00.000-05:00

Okay, so A & G. Spinach, PC has survived its first eight weeks, and on this 6th day of September, we managed to get our August bills prepared and mailed.

We're also pushing as hard as we can to get our permanent office space built out before the end of this month...it's a long shot right now, but so are most Derby winners. In the meantime, we share a little room in a rented office suite and do all we can to get our clients' phone calls returned and keep up with the supplies and the stationery.

We're going furniture shopping tomorrow, and for the first time ever, I'm worried about the price of cables in the wall...some things you just don't think about in law school...it has been cool, though, to interview for admin help, set up vendor accounts all over the place, and see a vision and a prayer turn into a functional enterprise. All will be okay....

And la mia moglie is settling into a new job teaching at a new school in a new county...it's a bit strange to come home and listen to each other's days. Each is filled with discovery and challenges, and golly-gee, it feels good!

So long for now,

A & Spinach, PC

2006-08-10T05:58:00.000-05:00

To steal a phrase from Dustin Diamond from "Saved by the Bell"....Zoits!

The new law firm is kickin' fast with almost 200 clients transferring their files, giving G. Spinach plenty of billable projects to work on, or more realistically, squeeze in between the gazillion vendor phone calls he's supposed to make.

Partner A and I have been renting an executive suite since our hasty startup over the 4th of July weekend, and just this week inked a 3-year lease for a swanky home just off the freeway. Lots of room to grow, and great accessibility for our elderly clients. We also pulled together our phone service, and we're down to picking paint colors and a logo for the stationery. Makes it fun to get up in the morning.

Quick side note: If you thought malpractice insurance was expensive, try booking a listing in Martindale-Hubbell. Now there's a redefinition of the term "sticker shock!"

And some of you want to know about the wedding, G. Spinach has been married 39 whole days now, and STILL hasn't gotten his wedding pictures on disc from the photo guy as promised...we've seen proofs, but nothing to share with all y'all. You'll have to believe me when I say that I'm glad we did the big NJ wedding thing, but I'm also glad we're settling in to a routine.

Bye for now.

A wedding and a career move

2006-07-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

Hey! G. Spinach took a three-week hiatus from blogging to a) get married, b) quit his job, c) open a new law firm, and d) move his new bride across town into the house. Very exciting times, but rather demanding, so there really hasn't been too much blog-time til now.

First, the job stuff:
You've heard about Partner C controlling an ever-increasing quantity of Spinach-time. Well,
along about mid-June, G. Spinach confronted Partner A with his decision to leave the firm, and Partner A decided to defect with him, causing a little bit of a stir. Not understanding the whole story, but having heard something was afoot, Partners B, C, & D kicked Partner A out the door, and then offered G. Spinach a bonus to go along with his job, possibly supplanting Partner A after the big, bad Partner C had squeezed him dry.

G. Spinach declined, pledged his allegiance to Partner A, and sauntered out the door of the firm where he'd been enslaved since being a 2L, seven long years ago. So now we have A & Spinach, PC, a fledgling little enterprise doing everything it can to notify clients and contacts of its newfound existence. Kinda crazy, but it works. We've got an office, a phone line, a set of email boxes, and a healthy dose of chutzpah!

Then, the marriage stuff:
In the middle of all the career moves, G. Spinach tied the knot. The bride was stunning, the ceremony short and to the point, and the food plentiful and delicious. A good time for all, though the ringbearer, age 3, stole the show with his dance moves. I'd post a picture, but the photographer is being a little slow about getting the shots onto a disc and into the mail. Maybe soon.

Okay, those are the highlights...I'll try to get more up soon when the whirlwind around me settles down to a nice relaxing breeze.

Not your typical Tuesday

2006-06-21T06:07:00.000-05:00

G. Spinach had two workdays on Tuesday...

yep, on top of 1.6 hours revising an insurance brokerage agreement and begging to get off the phone to spend time on more exciting things, there were 6.1 hours preparing for and attending a three-ring circus hearing where opposing counsel tried to claim he represented the pro se parties in the case, kept trying to claim the role of Petitioner (though that was my client), and had a very odd line of questioning about how my client came to be referred to me (by a non-T&E type lawyer). I can't wait to get the transcript of this one, and annotate it with the judge's body language, which varied from "talk to the hand" to "face-in-hands pucker-up."

The end result was the right one, which is that neither of us lawyers was successful in getting our client appointed as administrator of the dead guy's estate. I'd told Client on the day Client gave me a retainer that this was the likliest outcome, and it will turn out best for the estate...and Client...in the end.

Then after 2 hours of traffic, I made it back to the office about 8pm at the frantic mandate of Partner C to spend 6.2 hours filing a big ugly bankruptcy petition and a set of first-day motions...seems that Partner C can no longer carry the interest of the board of directors of his client, and decided to pull the trigger before the schedules were ready. Time of petition filing: 1:10am. Time I got home: 2:38am.

Very tired.....but there's hope. Exciting news awaits release; it's just too soon.

Blog Neglect

2006-06-19T21:57:00.000-05:00

Thank you to the anonymous commentator who reminded me that people do occasionally drop by the site to see what's going on in Spinachland.

More than leaves me time to blog about, I'm afraid.

My fiancee and I are tidying up the last loose ends before our wedding just twelve short days away. All the things that we bought for the ceremony and reception are packed in nice, neat, labelled boxes, and are sitting in a corner of the living room, carefully distinct from the piles and piles of wedding gifts that have been building up in the past few weeks. Had we known that so many packing peanuts would be serving their short lives in transit to our house, we probably wouldn't have registered anywhere.

And the honeymoon is all planned out, and I'm pretty excited about that, but la mia fidanzata doesn't know where we're going, which makes it all the better. I hope we have some extra exposures on the table cameras to use up...there will be lots to see.

So priority one is breathing, priority two is the wedding, and the rest is work...Partner C is gathering steam for another large case, and he'll have quite a problem on his hands when I depart for a week and a half. Sucks to be him, but I won't be carrying my cell phone.

Anyhow, I may not have the chance to check in again until after July 10th, so be patient, and send happy vibes.

189 hours of May

2006-06-01T22:02:00.000-05:00

Ah, the start of a new month.
Somehow refreshing, but not at all relaxing.

I stayed a bit late (9:46pm) to tally my May hours, get them entered, and prepare a game plan for the coming weeks. 189 hours...189 x 12 = 2268. Now I've heard tell of associates billing 2200 hours a year, but I'm pretty sure they're making six figures...I am not. So much for the small-firm lifestyle...

So, here's a little self-pep-post...

I'm hanging in there. The wedding is rapidly approaching (31 days away), and those plans are falling into place. Sure, there are always little things that are left to do, like pick out our song list from the band's repertoire, and hammer out the amount of desired swag with the florist, but we've got things pretty well under control.

I keep hearing (from those who know) that change is in the wind...I'll come home one day to find that the shelves in the refrigerator have been adjusted so that the tortilla shelf holds yogurt.

So I'm gonna learn to like yogurt...pre-mixed if necessary. It'll be okay.
Many people in the world have worries a lot bigger than mine.
I have a home, a career, and a family. I've just got to keep my head above water.

So that's what's new. Thanks to all (especially Baby Lawyer) for checking in, despite my sporadic postings.

More to come soon.

Yowza!

2006-05-19T05:26:00.000-05:00

The party never stops...40 hours of billable and 12 client dev tags in 4 straight days makes for a doggone fatigued G. Spinach...and one who can't sleep.

Partner C thinks he's gonna get me to file a Chapter 11 commercial bankruptcy petition. Partner D has me locked into about four multi-million real estate deals. I'm supposed to work for Partner A, who's given up trying to ask how I am. And Partner B?? Oblivious.

The up-side...I'm headed West to visit Pop Spinach and push Granddad's estate ball up the hill just a little further. 'Til then, I'm gettin' by on peanut-buttered english muffins and applesauce. Comfort food.

Sisyphus Spinach.

Ugh!

2006-05-11T21:54:00.000-05:00

Being leaned on as a commercial real estate associate and a bankruptcy associate, while at the same time supporting the litigation department and being ignored by my own supervising partner in the T&E corner....well, it's simply not my cup of tea.

I'm tossing around the idea of giving my notice tomorrow. I could take the remaining several weeks before the wedding, help plan it, and search for a job that I could start after the honeymoon.

Yes, it's better to search while employed, but I'm not going to have the time to do this right if I'm trying to meet the office's expectations.
Who am I kidding?

Post-free exam weeks

2006-05-09T04:12:00.000-05:00

I'd like to say that the last two weeks of blog silence has been a gift to my law student readers who ought to have been crafting memnonic devices related to the application of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Truthfully, it's because I've been stretched a little thin.
The associate in our firm's real estate department announced his departure, and so I'm playing associate to two partners until his replacement is found. That's never a good place to be....if I pick up too much slack, there's no incentive to replace the guy; if I let too much slide, I'll get yelled at by partner and client both.

And Grandpa Spinach's estate has taken some extra attention now that there are interested buyers for his land. It's been almost three years since he died, and it seems to take more time each week now than it did in any of the first couple of years.

Don't even mention the 144 wedding invitations that my fiancee and I stuffed, sealed, and stamped over the weekend....thanks to my beloved betrothed for doing most of the work on those.

And I'm selling the G. Spinach law-school-mobile. Yep, it's been used mostly for courthouse runs, errand marathons and airport stays since I bought another car last year, but to free up space in the driveway, it's time to let her go. *Sniffle*.

Loose Ends

2006-05-01T21:25:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, it's the little things that come to get you.

Despite my quest to tie up loose ends, I let one slide just a little too far, and now it returns.

I've gotta make amends, though fortunately, the client is a dissolved, bankrupt entity. There's no angry client, but all the same, I knew this was coming.

*sigh*

Adventures in Good Sunburning (with G. Spinach)

2006-04-24T22:46:00.000-05:00

G. Spinach got himself some color this weekend...

On Saturday, the local Kiwanians worked to paint an apartment for a new subsidized housing project being created not too far away. I regret not having taken before-and-after shots of the rooms I slathered with a color called "Biscuit."

On Sunday, I went to the local arts fair and picked up some goody-gifts for wedding helpers (they just haven't been asked yet), and then walked over to see the gran finale of the 2006 Tour de Georgia.

Congrats to Floyd Landis, who took the Tour gold despite a late-race flat tire, and all the volunteers who turned out to see a great race (my boss among them, truth be told).

All of which left me with a bright red visage with which to start the work week. Goodbye Spinach--hello Aloe Vera....(okay, I've been waiting a while to use that line.

-------

Quick war tale:

I get a call today from a general practitioner who's referred us some stuff in the past, and he starts in on how I'd done such a great job on the project and this and that, and then pops me with a question straight out of a T&E practice exam:

Suppose a client dies after having signed and sealed a settlement agreement agreeing to a divorce, but without having gotten a decree from the judge approving it...is the divorce contract enforceable by the estate against the not-quite-ex-wife? Does the not-quite-ex-wife count as an heir-at-law? Turns out that the guy had no kids, no living parents, no siblings, and no aunts or uncles or cousins. What then, ki-mo-sa-be?

My hunch is that Judi Dench's line from "Shakespeare In Love" applies: The bonds of marriage are such that no mere queen can put them asunder, and without the Judge's ink on a divorce decree, the "matrimonii vincula" still apply. So now you've got a nearly-divorced wife with a windfall...unless the guy has a Will that cuts her out, right? because she's the sole heir-at-law...and so she gets the house, the Jeep, AND the bass boat. Man, it sucks to be the dead guy in that one.

----

Faithful readers may have noticed a moderate drought of political rhetoric here.

Not due to a lack of interest, but perhaps a lack of enthusiasm for any particular issue. I'm weary of throwing tirades against the foolishness I see in Washington these days, and frustrated with the lack of cohesiveness among Democrats to present a party platform...so if Jodie Foster is right in "Contact" that "The World is what you Make of It." here is G. Spinach's first draft of a new 'contract with America.'

1) Our environment is the only one we've got. We've got to prevent exploitation of natural resources to satisfy self-perpetuated demands for energy.

2) Demand resources for education that matters...not just the reading, writing, and arithmetic, but the curricula that develop passions and cravings to learn...science fairs, and art shows, and musical performances.

3) Reinvigorate the Bill of Rights. All Ten Amendments, and not just the Second. Freedom of press, assembly, and religion would be good places to start. From there, let's talk about protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. BTW, why have we stopped screaming about unauthorized domestic wiretapping?

[to be continued]

Does the "G" stand for Geraldo?

2006-04-18T22:07:00.000-05:00

What's on my mind?

1) The soon-to-be in-laws are coming to town at the end of the month, so a cleaning frenzy has ensued. Unfortunately, I've been procrastinating some home repairs and they all won't get done, especially because I'm out of town this weekend dealing with my own family snafus. C'est la vie.

2) We've had two cases at the office in which I've been calling long lost heirs to let them know I've got a family. The reactions I'm getting vary from total elation to unbridled anger. What is it that creates such feelings?

Must be tax week

2006-04-10T22:53:00.000-05:00

Let's count the free advice (read non-billable) moments du jour, shall we?
1) The firm's homeless associate stopped in with a question about 1099-MISC income.

2) A CPA called to ask about whether Social security death benefits count as taxable income.

3) A partner dropped in with a question about AMT.

...and when I got home to the message-machine...

4) an aunt wanted to know if Turbo Tax had any bias toward the IRS or toward the taxpayer; and
5) a cousin couldn't figure out if she could itemize her doctor's bills.

I'm not complaining, I'm just sayin'...what makes people think I know ding-dong squat about income taxes?

Toss me a wealth transfer tax softball, will ya?