A hard week . . .

This was a hard week for me. My boss has finally realized what the rest of us have known for several months: that she'll never be able to practice again. She signed the sublease on Wednesday and asked that I pack up her office. On Thursday, she made plans for movers to pack up her belongings and for renting her properties. Then on Friday, she came into the office to sign letters of recommendation for the staff, and she and I went through her desk. We packed up a box of things for her to take home: her children's pictures, a few mementos that were special, the envelope of "atta girls" she kept in her desk, her Mont Blanc pens. The last thing into the box was a tapestry pillow on her couch that I had given her for Christmas a few years ago. It said perfectly how she and I practiced family law, "A hundred years from now, it will not matter how much money I had, or the house I lived in, or the car I drove, because I made a difference in the life of a child." By that time, she and I were both too teary eyed to do any more packing. She thanked me for cleaning out her office, and I told her that I'd do anything for her, ever. Then with hugs and tears, she was gone again.

I heard one of the associate attorneys on the phone after my boss left. I think it was an opposing counsel, asking how things were going in the office. The associates said everyone was doing ok and hanging on, then, "Poor Bobbie, it's been really hard on her. She's been tending a grave here." In a lot of ways, that's true: my boss's practice is over, the firm is essentially dead, my employment has an ending date. In other ways, I wish it were true; because if it was, then this daily grief would be over. The hardest part of this has been physically seeing my boss and not knowing whether she's with us or not. And knowing that even when she is, it's only temporary and may not last more than a few minutes.

After I left the office on Friday, I did have a call with the headhunter. She has two more firms with openings for paralegals. Both VERY hush-hush; can't even say the name of the firm. I'm familiar with both firms, and either one would be a plum. Hopefully, she'll be able to set up interviews for next week.

Tool Man had a busy week, too. He got the painting finished in the master bath and bedroom. And he's got the baseboards and door trim back up. And he moved the armoir from the garage to the master bedroom, carried in the bigger tv, and hooked it op to the cable box.

This is the 100th year of the Rose Festival, and Portland is buzzing with things to do. We had planned on going to the Starlight Parade on Saturday night, but by that afternoon, we were too pooped to ride the train downtown. We will go downtown next weekend, probably on Sunday, to see the dragon boat races, the tall ships, see the floats and the centennial history of the Rose Festival. Too bad we'll miss floral parade; I like the One More Time Around Band.

Tool Man tackled the backyard today. We had drizzle early in the week, and the backyard doesn't get a lot of sun (it's on the west side) so it takes a long time to dry out enough to mow. But, with the warm weather, the mountain laurel we planted three years ago finally bloomed. A lot! Would you just look at this:



It's called "Mountain Fire"; the little flower buds start out almost hot pink and then turn white just before they open. And they have these fantastic red markings inside the white flowers. Wait, you can't see the blooms up close. Here, how's this?



The flowers are only about the size of a quarter, but it looks like someone used a dark red Sharpie inside each one. No fragrance, but with blooms like this, who care?

I've been knitting warshrags this week. After a long project like Argosy, I like to do something fast, something for immediate gratification. I had decided to knit from the stash until I have a new job and I had a bunch of Sugar and Cream that I bought on 1/2 price sale last winter. So here they are:



This really doesn't show the colors accurately, and I can't figure out how to make it right. I need to have Tool Man give me a lesson on Photoshop to fix that. The dark blue is really purple, red is really hot pink (with some neon orange), the pale green is really lime, and the light blue is really a hot turqoise. And the carpet is about 2 shades lighter and has far less "tweed" than the picture. Go figure.