A somewhat more productive day today. It’s been drizzly again, started out with mid 50Ferrets and topped out at 63F. I tried to make the most of it.
Try not to think about how old it is. Just enjoy it for what it is. 
Sounds like lots of important churchin’ got done today, swampy! I hope you enjoyed it all. Thanks for your kind commiserations about my Ducks. Let’s just call this a “team building” season for them. < sigh > Dante Moore may be kicking himself for not going into the draft.
Hope you sleep better tonight, FCM!
Sorry the bladder is toying with you again, metal mouse. I can imagine how frustrating that is. As scary as the Boots story was, the other one bothered me a lot more. I’ll recount it down the track. And well done to get the mowing out of the way.
taters, oh, yeah, I’d be all over your new restaurant! That looks fabulous! I hope you got in, and I hope you enjoyed every bite!
Your father was a wise man. 
Have a safe journey to Wales, BooFae!
Happy birthday Pilot!! Sounds like you’re celebrating in style! I would expect nothing less.
Oopsie, I hear you on what a time-eater computers are. I lose a lot of time to them, too, and have done for decades. Good luck with putting a fire under the property manager for deck repairs. Mayor Manor is really cute and it sounds like you had fun with the surprise elements.
shoe, your aster is gorgeous, is perfectly contrasted with the pumpkin, and Monkey is a born model as a Halloween Black Cat. What I’d give to get Ollie to pose like that… hope the split shift goes smoothly!
52, I’ve watched The Gilded Age and look forward to the new season. It’s worth a watch for all the excellent actors and the costuming. It’s over the top (as you might expect), but if you enjoyed Downton Abbey, I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy The Gilded Age, too. But it’s a high(ish) class soap opera, let’s be honest. 
Our security staff always took threats very seriously. I was always very glad they did.
cookie, happy to hear the B&G were up to scratch again today!
JtC, hurry back!
red, thank you for checking in. I was concerned. I hope you are soon done with the oral antibiotics and can feel better again soon.
doggio, I’m sorry your teams played not up to expectations! Believe me, I empathize!
Mollie, what a pisser! I guess it’ll be just as good… tomorrow? I do hope so!
So as I said, I made better use of my time today. I got out early and picked apples, then caught up on the berry-picking while I was at it. Came in, tidied the house, did some laundry, balanced the spa chemicals, had a long play session with Ollie and then did personal administrivia till that was caught up. Had a repeat breakfast of yesterday with plans for a repeat dinner, too. So I felt a bit more useful today, which was nice.
The second scary domestic court story, for those who were interested, blotted out for those who weren’t:
Summary of Another Day in Domestic Court
My judge at the time had a civil court assignment. We were free, so we had been assigned a contested hearing from the Domestic Court calendar to fill our time. We rarely did them.
Contested hearings are like court trials. This one had a time estimate of about 2 hours. The parties and their lawyers are the only folks in the courtroom, along with court staff and casual observers. In this case, both halves of the estranged couple were paralegals, so they were representing themselves. It was a quiet day in the courthouse, a Friday afternoon if I recall, and no one was in our courtroom except court staff and the 2 parties. My bailiff at the time was an older fellow who was permanently farmed out to Court Services as a way to keep him in a job he was still mostly capable of doing until he retired. A very nice man, but not someone you’d be eager to have out on patrol with you.
The case itself was extremely sad to me. There’s an inexpensive way for parties to conclude a quick dissolution of their marriage if they agree to how they want to handle issues of child custody, property division, payment of child and spousal support, etc., and more importantly, if they can completely trust each other. It’s called taking a default, and it’s how my ex and I handled our divorce. In brief, the process is this: One party files as the Petitioner. The other party must file as the Respondent, and they must do so within 30 days. If they fail to file a response in the allowed time, then the Petitioner can take the Respondent’s default. And what that means is, the Petitioner will get everything they ask for, no questions asked.
When you do this procedure as a cooperating couple, you simply file your Marital Settlement Agreement outlining your agreed-upon terms with the court and obtain a final judgment of dissolution. Bing, bang, boom, done. No lawyers, no huge expense except filing fees. That’s what my ex and I did.
But in this case, the Petitioner took her ex’s default – and then she fucked him. She awarded herself sole custody of their daughter, generous spousal and child support. Not what they had orally agreed to. What we were hearing that day was the Respondent’s motion to have that default set aside.
Unfortunately, the elements that allow a court to set aside a default are extremely narrow. Things like, did he have notice of the proceeding, was he properly served, etc. If those elements were met, the court had no discretion to do anything other than deny the motion. As we heard the case, it was obvious that those elements had all been met.
The judge I was working for never liked to rule from the bench, which I hated. It meant I was going to have to prepare and serve notices of his rulings – even though in this case, we both already knew all he had to do was utter one single word, “Denied,” in open court, and that would be the end of it. Lots of extra work for me. Tsk!
During the hearing, the Respondent was very agitated. He had a briefcase with him that he kept opening and closing, and it was clear he was distraught. Our old bailiff never took a stroll over to have a look in that briefcase, so we’ll never know for sure what was in there.
At the end of the hearing, the judge ordered the matter to stand submitted. Once we locked the courtroom doors, the judge poked his head back into the courtroom where I was working and said the magic word, “Denied.” I immediately prepared my notices and got them in the outgoing mail. I saw the parties’ addresses were out of our area. I guess they had moved after they filed for their dissolution.
The following Monday, there was a story in the local paper. It reported that immediately upon receiving the notice of the judge’s ruling, the Respondent had hopped in his car, gone to the home of his ex and shot both her and their daughter dead before turning the gun on himself.
I never argued with that judge again over ordering any domestic case to stand submitted to await his ruling. And no hearing or trial I ever participated in ever frightened me more than this one. Domestic Court is a dangerous place.
Have excellent evenings, all! Time to scare up some dinner here.