Well, I'm back. Had a fairly busy week.

Monday - picked up Spin State by Chris Moriarty. The author was scheduled to speak at a local book store on Saturday, and I thought it might be nice if both my daughter and I read this and then went to see the talk. The book looked cyberpunky and was written by a lawyer who trained horses for at one point. Even if my daughter didn't like the book, I thought she might be able to get the author to talk about horses.

Tuesday - Had the day off and spent it reading the book so I could get it to my daughter and give her enough time to finish it for Saturday. I'm not real impressed. It's sort of a detective, alien contact story set in a future where we have colonized a few other stars. The main character is sent to investigate the death of a prominent scientist who died in a mine. Compared to 'The Golden Age', the science is pretty light, with just a strange substance used for an FTL drive. The cyberspace stuff is also pretty weak, with AIs acting exactly like humans, including having love interests. I thought my daughter might like it better.

Wednesday - I dropped off the book at my daughter's house. She wasn't home. Then I visited with my friend the Chemistry Professor. He has gotten a lot of grant money, but can't seem to find any competent grad students. He has found some qualified foreign students, but none of them can get through the new security maze set up by John Ashcroft and company.

Thursday - First decent snowfall this year. I avoided the highway and drove very slowly home. I passed a car which had done a 270 degree spin and ended up in a ditch. I pulled over to see anyone needed help, but the driver had already used his cell phone to call for a tow. Had a couple of very heartwrenching cases to deal with, but I can't describe them.

Friday - Fact finding hearing. The attorney on the other side suckered me into thinking he was going to settle and then showed up for court shooting for bear. Rule #2: always assume that your opponent is planning on trying a case. I think I might have won anyway. This guy had his trial technique down, but I don't think the facts were quite there. It was very stressful though, and I decide to take the second half of the day off. God, five years of this and I still do not feel like a competent trial attorney.

Saturday - Went to the book signing by Chris Moriarty, who turns out to be a woman. Don't know why that should have suprised me that much. There was only one other person there and she hadn't read the book, so I monopolized the author's time and we talked about the writing and editing process and on other authors who influenced her. My daughter forgot about the book signing completely and was not home when I went to pick her up. Moriarty is married to a professor who is visiting the local university, and she will give another talk at the local library (where my brother 6 of 12 works)in a week. I think my daughter would really enjoy talking with this person, so I'm going to try to get her to go. Moriarty said she would be happy to talk horses with her.

In the evening I watched the movie Ararat about the genocide of one million Armenians by the Turks in WWI. The movie itself was set in the present and was about son and wife of an Armenian terrorist. It was pretty decent. By coincidence, a week ago I ran into Madge McGrady, the mother of a guy I went to high school with. Madge is an Armenian American who married an Irish school teacher and had eleven children. They all look much more Armenian than Irish, and even her grandchildren have that look as well. We beat her kid total by one, but she has us almost 2 to 1 on grandchildren, with a total of fifteen. I remember taking religious education courses at her house.

Sunday - Went to see Janet Reno speak at a local college. Even though I was not really fond of the Clinton administration, I've always had a great deal of respect for Ms. Reno. Attorney General is the most thankless job in any Presidential cabinet, and I thought she brought a great deal of dignity to the office. After her talk I went up and shook her hand. Even though I knew that Ms. Reno and I were the same height, I somehow expected her to be larger than life, and when I found my eyes on the same level as hers as I shook her hand it felt seemed strange.

Other stuff - Finished Charles Stross' Singularity Sky. Pretty decent. I usually like Robert Charles Wilson but I couldn't get into Blind Lake. I finished playing Etherlords II and picked up Railroad Tycoon 3.

Haven't done much on the women front this week. This dating stuff is tough, and even though I don't like being lonely, I think I need to back off a bit before it starts spilling over into other parts of my life.

When I was talking with Chris Moriarty it turned out that we did not like a lot of the same books, but my tastes were similar to her editor's. Which got me thinking: I wonder what a career a writer's agent would be like. I know I'm not a writer, but I do like to read, and my negotiation skills might come in handy. According to Moriarity, there are only like four agents who arrange for science fiction sales. It might be interesting to find out what it takes. Maybe hang out at a con or two and see how these people work. It was a long week and at work and sometimes I wonder what the heck I'm doing working as a lawyer.