Triple the Fun!!

Friday was a good day.

I don't mean: chili and beer, watchin' the game in peace kinda good either . . .

I'm talking about: sky box seats at the Super Bowl, with two exotic dancers giving you a hot-oil rubdown while a third feeds you peeled grapes dipped in Dom Perignon, kinda good!!!!!

Well, maybe not THAT good but it was still pretty damn cool. Had me a smile on my mug the entire day! See, there's a legal statute on the books here that says if the judge feels a contractor has acted with "intent to defraud" a client, the court may award damages up to triple the figure named in the suit.

Guess what the judge did after reviewing everything?

BOO YAAA!!!!!

TRIPLE damages for all the nightmares the contractor put us through! We were thrilled. Hell, even my attorney was surprised by the judge's decision. He said it's not commonly done, but The Wife had done such a great job of detailing the Who/What/When/Where of everything that happend, the judge didn't even hesitate. Now of course, there comes the actual issues of getting the money back but that's what the attorneys are there for. I'm not worrying over it, I'm just glad to know that justice has been properly served. So, that should be the last you'll hear me whining about the contractor (and I'm sure you're relieved!) The next you'll hear about it is if/when we receive the money he stole from us.

The rest of the weekend went really well too. We took The Boy and a friend of his who's also interested in the "private" high school to the open house and we were all really impressed. It's a remarkable program: totally focused on advanced math and science (which The Boy loves!) and it also has a remarkable campus and learning opportunities I don't think he'll get anywhere else. He's very excited about it and we're moving forward in the application process. The Wife was a little bit freaked to be walking about a school campus with my son. I think she was visited by the "Ghost of College Yet to Come" and didn't like the idea at all!

Sunday was a family party at my sister-in-law's house. It went really well and everybody had a good time. We brought The Puppy with us and I discovered the universal theorem of contentment quite by accident. It reads like this:

( six children + one puppy / One Large Yard) x five hours = happiness

The kids had a blast playing with her and she was about the happiest puppy on the planet. She didn't stop for one minute all day and then when we got her back into the car, she (literally!) got up on the seat, lay down, and passed out for the entire ride home. She didn't even move until we were back in the driveway! We lucked out with The Puppy - she's great with people and with other dogs. Funny thing: The Wife is totally shocked by the fact that I really like The Puppy. We've had cats ever since we married and I've never warmed up to the things. Been telling her for 17 years I'm just not a cat person, that I like dogs, but she never bought it. She's been operating under the assumption that I'm just an evil, cold-hearted, bastard. (Which I am, but I'm an evil, cold-hearted, bastard that likes dogs!)

Notice my new NaNo icon at the top of the page? This is so you can all keep track of my progress as I work through November (and laugh when I fall behind!) Who else is hitting NaNo this year? Hopefully all of you! If anyone's interested, my handle for NaNo is: JaCop . . . so you can add me to your "Writing Buddy" lists, or whatever. Throw your name in comments and I'll add you to my list. (I've already got Nienke!) Been doing some rough plotting for the NaNo book already (i.e. day-dreaming, much to The Wife's annoyance!) I'm just about ready to start the outline though. I think I've got the bulk of the story arc worked out now. I want a printed guide this time so I can get the bulk of this novel done in the 30-day time frame. Who knows? If things go well, maybe I can get the whole thing done in one month! (Yea, and I may learn to fly too!) Ah well, writers dream . . . it's what we do!

Later!