ciroccoj | Aug. 29th, 2007

So, we're back from our vacation, and gearing up for the new school year. Justin and Daniel will both be home schooling again, Daniel for grade 5 and Justin for grade 2. We have Plans :) I will be starting my final year at law school, then looking at exams, post-law school courses, articling, all that fun stuff. And Chris is going back to his jobs. Somewhere in there we hope to sell my mom's house and settle the freaking law suit for once and for all. ::sigh::
Saddest moment of our trip for me: when Justin got really teary when we went to say goodbye to Todd and Susan, because he thought it would be another two years before we saw them again. No no no no no, we all assured him. They live closer now. We'll see each other a lot more often. Don't cry, little guy.
Funniest moment that I really couldn't share with anybody: realizing my godson looks exactly like the fanon descriptions Draco Malfoy as a very little boy. White-blond hair, big blue-grey eyes, sharp little features. Except that fanon Draco is often sulky and usually quite spoiled, and our godson is a wonderful, cheery little guy.

Would love to post pictures so the HP fans among us could see what I mean, but you know, other person's child and all that. So just trust me on this one :)
I keep thinking, re. law suit, if the lawyer for the other side had just settled this back when the whole "Chris may very well not be able to handle a full patient load, and may need to be compensated for that" was merely (fairly well-supported) theory from our medical experts, he would've probably saved his client a crapload of money, because we weren't totally sure what Chris would or wouldn't be able to handle once he was done residency.

Well, we know now. It ain't theoretical any more. And what we asked for compensation at the beginning? Is ludicrously lower than what we would need to cover the actual loss of income he's going to have to put up with. Like, by a lot.

Which, damn it. We wanted the other side's lawyer to be right, when he said Chris wouldn't suffer long-term losses. Would've been freaking ecstatic if he had been. As it is, we're all losing here.
Haven't mentioned, because it both bothers me too much and grimly amuses me too much, that Ottawa has been having Issues with our knucklehead mayor Larry O'Brien. The guy who came outta nowhere and beat Alex Munter, an experienced local politician who had promised to make Ottawa the "greenest city" around. O'Brien, being a savvy businessman with no political experience whatsoever and sound Conservative ideas about reducing taxes and reducing government, promised to "run Ottawa like a business," get rid of our light rail expansion plans, get homeless people and crack addicts off the streets with tough love - you know, the usual.

Yeah he's not doing so good. He made quite a first impression when he supported a plan to raise his own salary from $140,000 to $172,000 ("Fiscal responsibility? I didn't mean for me!") though he backed down on that one pretty fast. Yadda yadda, the usual corruption and incompetence hooey, made weird comments about the homeless being like seagulls, was accused of having bribed another guy to drop out of the mayoral race & then asking his niece to hush him up, said something about falling asleep on his boat and waking up mayor of Ottawa, blah blah bulletheadcakes, raised bus fares - because what this city needs the most is to make sure those damn freeloading working poor who ride the bus 'cause they can't afford a car & environmental freaks who ride the bus to save the planet frigging well pay for their suspicious anti-Canadian Dream pinko activities - and now the city is proposing to raise taxes far beyond what Munter had said he'd raise them to. I think 3x as much? Don't remember.

Are we feeling proud of ourselves? Because the inspiring sight of a conservative/"non-politician" politician getting elected by promising no new taxes & smaller government & government run like a business - and then raising taxes through the roof while government falls apart - is SOMETHING WE HAVE NEVER EVER EVER SEEN BEFORE EVER? And we're all feeling accomplished that we didn't elect the dude who actually, you know, knew what he was doing?

Yeah I'm not bitter.

And you know, we'll do it again in a heartbeat. Tell your average voter you won't raise his taxes and he'll vote for you faster than you can say Liar Liar Pants On Fire. 'Strue.
OK, off to bed. Daniel has ADHD testing early in the morning and we've got to get back to real life. ::sigh::