* Now that I've quit most of the forensic work, I hope to have more time for my practice and for developing other and newer specialty areas. The time spent in courtrooms was a real inconvenience to my practice clients 'tho I must say it paid well. Choices. And I do realize that I will still have to testify in a number of those cases as they come up in the courts over the next year or two. The judges have been sending an increased number of parenting coordination cases my way. I really like pc work although it which seems a tad strange to say that one likes dealing with high-conflict divorcing / post-divorce couples ordered by the court to learn (sometimes with gritted teeth) how to cooperate in parenting their children. It would be more accurate to say I do it for those children who are being emotionally torn to shreds. And pc work is legally protected (confidential) from litigation so no out-of-the-office court time.

* Bill spent the day in Austin today, testifying at a congressional hearing on a bill he is helping write that concerns the effects of military deployment on parenting and parent rights.

* Went to Ash Wednesday services this evening. Stepdaughter drove from SHSU to my office for lunch yesterday and mentioned that she was going with a friend there in Huntsville to services tonight because last year was a bad year and she's convinced it's because she didn't get 'ashed.' Smile.

* Enjoyed the Oscars Sunday evening and was happy with every award winner.It was a wonderful year for some excellent acting, especially in character development (Reader, Gran Torino, Frost/Nixon, etc.) Don't know what else can be said about Slumdog Millionaire...it was just an excellent piece of writing, directing, producing, visual effects, cinematography and the musical score, esp. Jai Ho, was definitely deserving of the award. Was the first movie in forever during which the music actually grabbed my attention - well, actually that was also true with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

* Very pleased with the Presidential speech. I think we have a real winner! Friends at ML and MS agree that we have not bottomed out yet so made the decision today to go ahead and move what is left of my stock portfolio (which is almost entirely gone now) over to the safety net. Expecting to work at least another 10 years now. But I know we will pull out of this and recovery will happen - it's just gonna take a few years.