Legally Blonde's Proceedings

I cannot believe that I just remember to decorate for the 4th, and then I did a half hearted job of it at that! I didn't get up into the attic to get out my favorite 4th decoration (Uncle Sam) for a variety of reasons, but I did buy a couple of new things for the mantle, so hopefully they will balance each other out of the effort scale... Here is the mantle... A close-up of the details... The "liberty and justice for all" was aquired on super sale last year for a mere couple of dollars.  It "lives" on one of the shelves in my office, since you know, the justice for all is kind of part of my daily life, but I busted it out it's everyday spot for this holiday.  The little uncle sam in the parade car was purchased this week at Michaels on sale.  I thought he was too cute to pass up for $6! I also got this cute little bucket this week at World Market... I went into World Market because I wanted to see these placemats and napkins that I saw in their advert...

(1) Have you looked at Southern Living for July? The recipes in this one edition are to die for...Grilled Shrimp Gumbo Salad, Okra-and-Corn Maque Choux, several kinds of Margaritas, several versions of Chicken Salad and several kinds of ice cream including Peach and Toasted Pecan! Lord help me! (2) I. AM. IN. PAIN. Now that the splint is off and I'm using my hand, it HURTS. I was warned it might ache, but this is seriously the worst pain I've been in yet! (3) Yesterday I was talking to my friend Suz on the phone. Her little guy, Bennett, who just turned 4, wanted to talk to me on the phone. He's my bud. Anyway, he asked how my "thumb" was and I told him it was better (no need to scare the kid with the litany of adjectives I could have used to describe it), and then he said "Next time you use a knife to cut something, you should be very, very careful". I thanked him and told him that was very good advise. Seriously, how cute is that? (4) I sold my old fa...

While home this past weekend I was a little bored. I decided to look through my old high school year books. That ended up being quite a shock to my system, and somehow made me feel a hundred years old! I mean, I don't feel like high school was THAT many years ago. I know that whenever I sit down and put numbers to events I feel old (like high school was over half my life ago, I started law school 12 years ago this August!, etc.), but seeing it there in words and pictures, all bound together was somehow worse than just doing the math! I found several things funny/odd. Like how in only a class of 50 (+ or - a few people), there are people I have no recognition of. None. Zilch. I know that I knew them back in 1994. I knew everyone in my class in 1994, but somehow they've been erased from my brain. One guy for example, was voted friendliest guy. Seriously, how damn friendly could he have been that I have no recollection of him! And what does it mean that I cannot remember him? Do ...

The splint is officially gone! I am what is considered "clinically healed". Apparently "clinically healed" and normal are NOT the same thing! I'm still in therapy and am trying to get my fingers and hand back to normal. Some of my joints are bending normally. The middle joint is the lone holdout and then of course there is that little task of having a straight finger that alludes me right now. My hand is currently weak as a newborn kitten, but hopefully they will let me start doing some strengthening exercises sometime soon. I'm super excited that tonight I get to sleep without something on my hand for the first time since May 8th!

I went home for about 24 hours this weekend. My parents were going out of town for the night and I needed to dogsit little Millie. Since I can take my splint off around the house, I was now able to use their pool all afternoon, so it was a win-win situation. I floated around the pool, soaking up the sun, and reading the Pray portion of "Eat, Pray, Love" (needless to say, I enjoyed the Eat portion of the book that took place in Italy more than the Pray portion that took place in an Ashram in India). Anyway, thankfully I was only there for 24 hours because any longer, and I would have popped! Saturday for lunch, we went across the river (to Oklahoma) to one of my favorite little dingy-dives where I had yummy steak fingers & fries. This place has the most awesome tarter sauce. I'm not a huge fan of their fish, so I eat it on my steak fingers. You would too. Everyone I take over there that says "I don't like tarter sauce" is eating spoonfuls before we...

This could be bad... I mean really bad for me. Warning, if you are a house decorating freak, nut, aficionado, then this could be bad news for you to. The other day at Sam's, I found this... It's awesome! It's broken down into several categories of colors... See... and there is this too... This is one of the room specific pages... One of the nature pages... colors for moods... I'm in love with this book/magazine! I'm afraid it's going to mean lots of work though...

What a day! First of all, I started out the day super excited because last night I had sent a Direct Tweet to Cory Booker commenting on a speech he had given. In case you aren't Twitter savvy, a Direct Tweet is a private tweet that goes to a person's e-mail instead of out to the twitterverse for all to see. You can only send Direct Tweets to people who follow you, which is the joy of having someone as a follower. Anyway, he Direct Tweeted me back, which makes me super happy. It's like we are friends. At least in my mind. Then about 10:00 I was drying my hair and heard Lola causing such a commotion. I knew that either my new fairy godmother was here or there was a squirrel in the back yard. I rushed into the living room and found Lola at the front door (a good sign!) and sure enough, there was a package on my porch. I couldn't get Lola to move over she was so excited. It was like she thought the darn phone was for her! Here is the box that was within the box......

Here's my Hump-day list: (1) I have seen the oddest tattoos today. Both were on my clients. One younger "lady" has tattoos on the side of her neck. One says "Miss Thang". Seriously, this is what you want on your neck for life? When relaying this story to Jennifer she says, "Is that what you want on your neck when you are at your grandson's medical school graduation someday?". To which I reply , Are you smoking crack? The appropriate question seems to be, Is that what you want on your neck when you are sitting at your grandson's parole hearing someday ! Another client, age 16, had a tattoo on his arm. I couldn't make out most of it, but it had one of our local area codes in it.. "(972)". Again, really? (2) It appears my new fairy godmother is on her way to me. I never received the "your phone has shipped e-mail", though I did receive a "how do you like your new phone e-mail" several days ago. I finally called an...

Lola got to go to the groomer on Friday. I thought she was looking exceptionally cute, so I decided to snap a few photos*. I was talking to Lola during our little photo shoot. How do you know when your dog thinks you have said something crazy? Just look at these photos taken in order and see if you can tell... * these photos aren't great because: (1) photography goes better with two hands (2) my laptop is in kansas, meaning my photoshop is in kansas** **jennifer is in kansas and took the laptop for some work.   yes, i need my own laptop that isn't shared with the firm.

since it is hot... and i have no pool... and i'm wearing a splint, which i promise you increases the feel of the temperature by 20 degrees... i'm having myself a movie saturday under the A/C! i have three netflix movies that i've been wanting to see:  "valentine's day", "it's complicated", & "crazy heart". hopefully, i'll get them all watched, but right now i've found myself sucked into "three men and a little lady" circa 1990, on encore, which reminds me... have you heard that they are likely going to make "three men and a bride" complete with Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenburg, & Ted Danson?  i hope so and i can't wait!  but it does make me feel old!

I'm grouchy... it could be because... * my insurance sucks and is basically not going to pay a dime of anything related to ER, surgery, etc., yet still collects a premium from me every month *it's hot outside * i still NEED that vacation, but none is in sight since school starts back next month and well, see complaint #1 * my house is dirty and i cannot clean very easily, or well, one handed

Today is the day.  The day that this was available for pre-order so i placed a pre-order for a new and improved fairy godmother.  i'm a little sad.  i mean afterall, my old FGM has been really good to me, but i didn't upgrade her when the 3GS came out and the new features on the new FGM are just too good to pass up! i can't wait until new FGM is delivered to my door! 

So part of my therapy is that i need to pet my hand. Yep, you read that right. I guess it is kind of like a massage to do that. It's not working out so well. Anytime I try to "pet" my hand that means that there is no hand available to pet Lola. I've tried to convince Lola to learn to pet me for a change, but we are at a stalemate. In other dog related news, our neighbor got a pup a while ago. He's become a little more vocal lately and it drives Lola nuts. When she is inside and hears him bark, she goes nutso. Then yesterday I go outside and see that new pup is trying to get into our yard to play and Lola is giving him the cold shoulder. I mean she is completely ignoring him. Pup trying to come under the fence Lola was sitting down ignoring him much further away, but stood up and came closer to me when I came out to take photos Queen Lola cannot be bothered by the common dogs! Speaking of being a spoiled dog, Lola got a new toy. A sock monkey... yes, she ne...

is it just me, or has this been the longest week EVER? I have no idea why but it has seemed a month long. Here are some random things on my mind... (1) I've eaten a million tomatoes this week! My friend Abby, her mom & sis came over on Wednesday night and abby brought me two baggies of cherry tomatoes fresh off her mother-in-law's south texas vines. I just have them in a bowl and eat them like candy each time i go through the kitchen. so good!!!! abby also brought me a LARGE zucchini. I think she meant to take the ginormous freak-of-nature vegetable to the freak show , but instead it got left at my house :) (2) I got my stockpot today! I'll have to cook something now. (3) I craving shrimp salad. anyone want to make me some? pretty please with sugar on top? (4) I swear my hand is getting worse. i seriously think that each hour i do my exercises it gets worse. the measurements of my movements don't show that to be the case, but it is frustrating nonetheles...

Today I was at Super Target. This hot weather means that I was in the mood for cereal. You know, sometimes it's just good to eat a cold bowl of cereal for supper when it's hot outside. The only kind of cereal I really buy is Frosted Flakes. I know it's not really healthy, but in case you haven't heard, they're ggggreat! Anyway, I am in the cereal aisle and there is a mother and her two kids there too. One is probably about 4-5ish and the one in the cart is 2ish. Just to set the scene a little better, mom had a British accent. Little boy is wanting some kind of cereal he's seen advertise on tv. He keeps trying and trying to convince his mother who's having none of it. She's telling him he can have any kind from the "healthy end" of the cereal aisle. She's describing every variety of Kashi cereal on the shelf, but as you'd expect, kid isn't buying it. All of this is taking place in front of the frosted flakes, so I can't get my ...

so today i saw my doc. he's a man of few words (and apparently the softest hands on earth, at least according to my mom. i wouldn't know because he's never attempted to shake my hand, but it is all my mom could talk about for two days after my surgery!). anyway, it seems that all is well. i also saw the therapist that got me started on the new exercises. these take longer to go through...like 5 minutes. i know that doesn't seem like much, but doing it every hour ads up! she also removed more skin and in the process, she discovered another stitch...oops (& ouch)! it looks A LOT better, so while i had my splint off doing my 5 o'clock exercises, i took a photo for you. i don't really think that i have to warn you off of this one, but i'm putting a day of accident, and week after surgery photos immediately after in case you want to compare {today- 3 weeks post surgery} {2 weeks ago- a week post surgery}   {May 9th, at the ER}  

today is 3 weeks since my surgery...aka: half-way to getting my splint off! {here's the status of my hand} * it is still fairly swollen, but it's better than it was 2 weeks ago when the cast came off * i do my passive exercises every (waking) hour and can get my finger bent pretty well and can now keep it bent (well for a few of seconds anyway!) * since we have started the (gross sounding) process of dead skin removal, it's looking far better than it did 2 weeks ago, if for no other reason than it is getting rid of the surgeon's purple markings * as of saturday at 10ish p.m., the nerves are firing! how do i know? well when nerves start trying to reconnect, the send out a signal. if the other side answers, it feels like you are sticking your finger in the light socket! it isn't constant. it only lasts for a few seconds or a few minutes at the most, but it is good news! {what's coming up the next three weeks} * my splint is getting revamped tomorrow so that m...

let's face it, i'm not summer's biggest fan. if i lived somewhere with a better summer climate, you know any place that doesn't make you feel like you have died and gone where bad people go, then i might be a bigger fan of summer. but as it stands now, with now being that it is still the first week of june and we've already seen that century mark in REAL temps (don't even get me started on the heat index!) i have to look really hard for things to like about summer. one thing i certainly like is fresh fruits & veggies. i have always been of the mind-set that at least here in the south, dish sets ought to come with a normal plate and a summer plate. you know, the summer plate would really more closely resemble a platter. 'cause lets face it, by the time you load your plate up with squash, corn on the cob, okra, fresh tomatoes, cantaloupe, maybe some black-eyed peas, and some cornbread, it just won't fit on a normal size plate! it's not just veggie...

I totally feel like frankenstein. Today in therapy, my therapist removed skin. It is kind of as gross as it sounds. It didn't hurt because it's just dead skin with new skin underneath, but really just unexpected. They are the kings of unexpected at that place!

nothing too exciting to report in the life and times of kara & lola today. i think i did manage to run into every village idiot in this little town of mine... {idiot #1} i was talking to this salty older attorney today and he was asking about my hand. he said that he's been shot and stabbed and suffered cuts with a knife (i'm hoping he's served in a war!) and that a cut is the worst of those. about that time, a female attorney whom i've never seen in my almost 9 years of being at the courthouse almost daily, walks up and chimes in that a paper cut is the worst. the other attorney says, well, i think kara is far worse off than a paper cut, but she wouldn't give it up and couldn't be convinced that there was worse. i'll grant you they suck. what sucks worse is a file folder cut, but trust me when i say that almost taking a finger off with your santuko knife IS IN FACT WORSE THAN A PAPER CUT! {idiot #2} i was in the clerk's office and the clerk says ...

today has been a big day. first, i had a hair appointment with my new hair gal, cathy. i really liked her AND she was on board with straightening my crazy curly hair... ...and for once i actually had somewhere to go afterwards. yep, another book signing! i know y'all are starting to think that signings must be my favorite pass time! i drove into the city and met lisa to see emily giffin. we had seen her a few years ago. she is so fun! totally worth attending a repeat signing! she released a new book (her 5th) last month and it was great. they are currently making a movie out of her first book, " something borrowed " (and then her second book " something blue "). she gave us all the scoop on the movie. besides her books, another thing that i love about her is that she was a lawyer in nyc, but after 9-11, she quit her law job, and moved to london to write. you may not know that london is my favorite city in the world... my home the summer of 1996. movin...