The office is closed today, but all that means for lawyers is that we have to work from home. And I can't work in the study when the kids are in the house because they just barge in while I'm on a conference call and demand to watch Cartoon Network or scream that their brother touched them. Had a important call this am so I tried something new and admitted defeat - that I cannot work in my study - and retreated to the workshop (a.k.a. "the Bat Cave" because it's behind a hidden door in the study) for the call. Carried the laptop and phone w/headset and cleared a spot on my
insanely messy work bench and did the call in here. It actually worked out really well. It's just a little distracting to be staring at model parts and paints jars during a conference call. But it is quiet, which is what counts, and the old counter stool my father in law gave me is pretty comfortable...
First day in the pool
The boys have been in quite a bit the last month, but today was the first day it was warm enough for me to actually get in the pool. Parker and I swam around and played fetch with Belle for about an hour, then I got out and took a few pictures.
Left is Parker practicing his cannonball, then right are
a couple of shots of the pool from the house side.
Here is the pad for what will eventually be the grill/bar/outdoor kitchen (the title and use are still in the negotiation stages). We have the various utilities sticking up where needed, but it may be a few weeks or months before we decide what to do here. This picture shows the view from the back yard.
This picture shows a neat little addition I came up with at the last minute. We had intended to just berm up behind the waterfall, but they did such a nice job with the stonework on the back of the waterfall and the retaining wall a few feet behind it that I hates to cover it up, so I asked the landscaper to just put down flagstone behind it so the boys have a sort of secret room behind the waterfall. It seemed kind of Tom Sawyer-ish to me, and I thought they'd like it. They don't have any chairs or table here, but then neither do the grownups yet.
Jamie's cabinet and floors
The spring overhaul of the music and dining rooms continues with installation of new floor (white carpet turning out to not have been such a great idea, especially with small kids) and Jamie's display cabinet finally going in. I took these pictures before they finished installing the glass in the doors, and I spent most of Saturday putting in the glass shelves and quarter-round molding on the baseboards.
Office chairs
Last year I decided it was time to replace the green leather office chair I'd been using for the past thirteen years with something more comfortable. I was having to sit on the edge to keep the arm rests out of the way, and it just wasn't remotely comfortable unless I was leaning back with my feet on the desk, which obviously I don't do very often. I had had a very comfortable small leather office chair when we moved into the new offices in 1995, but it got replaced with my fancy new chair and the comfortable chair was relegated to Carl's back office, where he's enjoyed it ever since. Plus, notwithstanding that I've spent almost my entire career in a bad one, office chairs are really, really important I now realize. A good one lets you work as efficiently as possible, and doesn't consume your energy by inducing fatigue or by being a distraction as you work. I can easily see a good chair as letting me work a few more hours a week by delaying or eliminating that wall that we sometimes hit late in the day when we become exhausted by the combination of work plus (I now realize) fighting that damn chair all day long. When you look at it this way, a good chair can pay for itself in a matter of days (both for you and for your staff, I would note), and it's a pleasure that lasts for many years.
Evaluating office chairs when you're in a small town just isn't very easy, so when I couldn't find anything that looked like a good compromise on the online "fancy office chair" front (the armrests all looked like they'd be a problem for constant computer use) I decided to give Levenger a try. They didn't have anything in the tufted leather department (which at the time I thought I just had to have), but on the ergonomic front I thought this "Freedom Chair" by Humanscale in the Bomber Jacket leather might work, even though it didn't look very traditional. (I splurged for the neck rest). (Style note: I realized the other night that these are the chairs in the conference room in CSI: Miami, although they're in green fabric w/o neck rests. I was horrified).
I was satisfied way beyond my expectations. Having never really had an ergonomic office chair I didn't realize what a benefit adjustable armrests would be, and the chair is far easier to scoot around in than my old one. Plus while I wish the seat was a bit larger (meaning that it came forward more), the whole thing adjusts, so I can get some lumbar support rather than sitting perched on the front edge all the time. Plus although the design is modern, not traditional, it does not seem out of place in my rather traditional office, and I eventually came to realize that since all you actually see is the top half, you just don't notice the style that much. It's just a big rectangle of leather. And leather is sort of the decorating equivalent of pork fat. It's just hard to screw up by using it.
The office chair situation in my study at home was far worse, with an old cherry (probably) swivel desk chair (similar to that shown here)
that I picked up at an antique store in Forney years ago, when I was going through I phase where I'd buy any old wood office chair with vertical slat back I could find. As much as I like the look and the history of the design, it was uncomfortable, and made working on my home computer difficult, and at my desk at home impossible. When Levenger had a really good sale on plain leather Freedom Chairs (with no headrest) I got one for home as well. I have been amazed at how much more productive I am in it. I can swivel easily back and forth from credenza to desk, and focus on working, and not on how uncomfortable I am. Again, the style isn't traditional, but this is an instance where I'm willing to look the other way because of how much of an improvement it is in my work environment. Its instant adjustment of arms and heights lets me finesse problems with the height of my credenza at home. and thus reduces fatigue because I can constantly change my position slightly to accommodate whether I'm working on the credenza or at the desk. And on style, I have to point out again that unless you spend your day on your hands and knees, you never see the chairs from the angles these photos show - you always see them from a standing position, where they are simply dark leather rectangles of various shapes. They have no pattern, or wooden armrests or other characteristics that trigger an association with a particular style, as for example the swivel chair above does. Thus they don't seem in actual use to clash with the sea of cherry or mahogany paneling, furniture, or flooring that they are surrounded by.
The only problem I have pretty consistently with these chairs is that when you do get them into a good position to work, they want to slide out from under you on a smooth wood floor - you can't get good back pressure when you're typing, but instead have to use you legs to hold yourself stationary against the pressure of typing and leaning back against the chair. I keep finding myself wishing there was a button under the armrest that let me lock the casters in place. But I don't like chair pads, and that's a small complaint for something that's made me so much more productive working both at the office and at home.
Change of briefcase (again)
As I have posted previously, the search for the perfect briefcase is, for me at least, an ongoing one. Back in January of 2007 I first tried switching from a "Guy Stuff" Territory Ahead briefcase to a Levenger "Bomber Jacket" one, and sent the latter back due primarily to problems with its design, explaining why in a detailed post. (Apparently I'm a sucker for branding - can't deny that).
Later in 2007 I added a stablemate to the "Laptop Brief" that beat out the Levenger bag - another "Guy Stuff" product, their "Men's Travel Bag". As I noted in another post, its much smaller size (10 x 7) was to allow me to have a smaller carry-on when I was using a rollaboard (as I almost always do) since my laptop rides in that luggage because it's easier to get out for airport screening. This gives me a smaller bag that's the right size for books, camera, phone, and eventually a netbook. I now use it for most trips where I don't plan to be working in the airport, as well as as a camera bag on vacations. And no, it cannot be a "man purse", or obviously it wouldn't be in the "guy stuff" line, would it?
Then last year I essentially replaced the "Laptop Brief" with yet another "Guy Stuff" product, this time the "Cabin Bag". This bag is similar in style and design, but slightly smaller, the zippers actually work, and it has two (instead of one) outside access pockets which allow me to separate my phone from things like keys, wallets, etc, as well as a better handle. The latter is made possible by replacing the Gladstone-bag type top entry of the old bag with a flapped top opening. The down side (and it's a significant one) is that the bag has basically no structure. It won't stand up, and it takes two hands to coax a laptop into and out of it - you can't open it and insert or remove anything with one hand, so in this characteristic it's definitely a "bag" and not a "case". After several months I realized that this shortcoming was partially overcome by the fact that since it has a sleeve on the back so it can ride on top of my rollaboard, the sleeve give it the needed structure to act as a portable chairside office at an airport restaurant table, so when I really need it to, it can accommodate one-handed retrieval. But it's a good, small, briefbag that's well suited for travel.
But it was still not the bag I wanted for office use. It's very informal, for one thing, and doesn't lend itself well to retrieval of items with one hand in court, or when sitting on a desk. You really need openings on the top and a some structure. So when I saw Levenger had redesigned their "Bomber Jacket" line of briefcases (and their stuff is essentially always 20% off these days) I decided to give their Laptop Briefcase a try. (There's a "slim" version, but I really didn't think that would be a good choice - a laptop and peripherals alone would have crowded the smaller bag).
First of all, it stands up straight on a desk for floor, so you have one-handed access to anything in it. It has one outside zippered pocket, but more importantly, the front unzips to fold out partway and provide very good storage for pens, handhelds, etc. There are lots of padded compartments so that phones, handheld dictation, wallet, money clip, etc. all have their own place. I can unzip this pocket and leave it hanging open for secure access to everything inside, and the bag won't topple over, or fold over the front, like the cabin bag does (when not tethered to the rollaboard). It then has two zippered compartments in the main bag, both of which have a divider, so you essentially have four compartments - one for the laptop, one for wires and cords (compartment #3 has three pockets for peripherals) and two others for papers or notebooks. The bag is not overlarge, but it always has plenty of room for everything I've needed to cram in (although I've getting more and more annoyed with the rat's nest of chargers and cables I have to carry - but that's an argument for a new laptop, so I'll leave that for another day). Finally, the bag has a strap in back for sliding over a rollaboard handle, so it's as convenient as my old Levenger bag was (and not that I'm counting style points but it looks better on top of my Orvis rollaboard and suit luggae than the cabin bag).
I suspect I'll still use the Cabin Bag for traveling, since I don't have to worry about it getting abraded by showing under an airline seat, but for everyday and courtroom use I really like the Levenger bag. The over the shoulder strap is comfortable, and the bag is padded well enough that I don't mind lugging it around when I need to, even with a laptop inside.
Harmony 890 remote
Last Monday Jamie and the boys got me a new universal remote, a Harmony 890. I had been using the Harmony 670 since January of last year, and a year and a half of tweaking the programming was enough to get it working more or less perfectly controlling the study DVD, TV, CD, the home theater, and most recently the master bedroom TV/satellite receiver. The study has worked flawlessly for months - I press different buttons for TV (DirecTV/TiVo), DVD or SACD, and never have a problem.
The only problem with the 670 is that it's a IR remote, meaning it can only control what it's pointed at. I had gotten a IR to RF unit a year or so ago for the home theater (all the electronics are behind the seating) and it didn't work very well, and I've been wanting to get the study A/V and TV receivers into the wiring closet (they're too large for the study shelves) so I've been looking forward to getting a remote that was RF, specifically the Harmony 890, so the home theater.
I installed the remote itself Tuesday morning - it was simply a matter of upgrading the remote on my account. Unfortunately that means I can't update the programming on my old remote now - I'll have to just re-enter all the device information as soon as I need to change something. But as it's being used to control the master bedroom, it should be good for a while.
The remote itself has a color screen, which is nice, and one of my favorite features is that the backlight comes on as soon as you pick it up, so there's no groping for the "glow" button. I initially really didn't like the buttons, which aren't buttons at all, but just little nubs. But after a little practice you realize they're actually pretty easy to navigate to by touch, and the play/forward/reverse/pause/stop button are backlit and big.
Yesterday I installed the home theater IR blaster, which sends the signals to the theater A/V equipment. The main unit (which you program on the computer, using a USB cable connection) was set up to reach the projector, and I put an emitter in the component cabinet to control the receiver and DVD player. Working out the right geometry to get widely separated units took a while, but it eventually worked, and now everything works perfectly in the home theater. I'll be adding a Z-Wave unit to control the lighting, and then the theater will be done - at least as far as automation. I was really impressed with how well the IR extender work - the only problems I had were because of the room's odd layout, and the unit accommodated that well.
Today I disconnected the A/V receiver and the TiVo receiver in the study, labelled all the wires, and moved them to the wiring closet immediately behind the study, where they sit on a metal laundry cart with the home server. It took most of the day to rewire them (although only a few minutes to install the IR extender in there), and when I was done, I had gained a shelf and half in the study, and the only exposed equipment (other than the TV) were the DVD and SACD players, which fit comfortably on the 12" deep shelves. And by attaching emitter to them, I can now control my TV (audio), CD and DVD without line of sight, meaning I can play music from my desk. Only the TV is still controlled by the remote's IR signal, as opposed to RF and that was just to avoid attaching a IR emitter to the front of the screen. I spent a lot of the day in the wiring closet getting the wires grouped and the speaker wiring cleaned up (better connections and longer runs where needed). I also tacked the dozens of existing Cat5 and coax cables in the room up so, for the first time since we moved in, the wiring is organized and off the floor. I can now get in front and behind all the stereo and computer equipment to check and change connections. It's still not exactly neat, but it is organized, and the excess cabling is out of the way.
The old problem - that I can't tell what the receiver is really doing because I now can't see it - is still there, but the remote's programming has been reliable enough lately that I'm not really worried about it any more - it's doing precisely what I want for the common activities, and I'm not needing to change settings any longer. And I can still go sit in the (tiny) wiring closet and study it to see what's going on if needed.
So it's been a really good experience so far.
New plants outside the study
Just got in three new small shrubs for the study patio area. I've been looking for some acanthus ever seeing it in Athens on our trips there in 1998 and 1999 - it's a dramatic plant due to its height (the flowers are at eye level), and the use of the plant's leaves in classical architecture is something else I liked about it. (Drawing is by John Ruskin, by the way). 
I had three very small ones at the old house, and they made it after the move for a short while, but not for long - the heat (and lack of water) got to them. A few months back I finally found a couple of hot-climate varieties of acanthus mollis online at Plant Delights Nursery and ordered them. 
This is 'Rue Ledan' - it's a smaller SW Europe/N. Africa variety that should do better in hot summers. The second, "Summer Beauty" is a hybrid (probably A. mollis x A. spinosus) which also does better in hot summers, and is larger. It's theoretically going to become the popular version since although it is much more cutleaf than the normal acanthus, it tolerates heat a lot better.
Also picked up a sort of dwarf elephant ear, Alocasia wentii 
when I remembered how much I liked the elephant ear at the old house. This variety is from the mountains of New Guinea, and is winter hardy. It's fairly small (about 3') and what I liked was the bronze-green leaves with contrasting metallic-purple leaf backs. It sits near one of our dwarf magnolias, which has a sort of terra cotta leaf back that I like, so I look forward to seeing it as well.
HD TV at last
Today at long last we finally got HD in the Smith household. Just over a year after getting HD-capable TVs in the study and den, I finally broke down and upgraded my DirecTV DVR to a HD-capable model so we could watch the Cowboys in the playoffs. Last night the unit taped the Patriots against the Giants (on NFL Network - which will become important later) and the picture quality was amazing. I also discovered numerous HD companion channels to channels we enjoy watching, like HGTV and Food Network.
Even better, the old DVR - a Samsung with our beloved TiVo - was moved into the study so at long last I have TiVo in the study, not just a satellite box. And with upgraded satellite dish meant that we could move the former study receiver (a simple RCA unit) upstairs to our bedroom, where it's paired with my old study TV, a 17" Samsung that's been unused for the past year. I also understand the connections in the wiring closet well enough that I could switch which room in the house uses that receiver, i.e. move it to the twins' room. So life is better in all three rooms.
This morning I spent an hour or so updating my Logitech Harmony remote to properly run the systems in all three rooms. 
The more I use this thing the better a job it does (and it's the low-end model) at controlling the equipment in the den, the movie room, and now the master bedroom. In each now I just punch what I want to do - watch TV (which typically means listening to Audiovisions as a starting point), listen to a CD, watch a movie, etc., and the press of one button turns everything on to the correct settings. And the more I use it the better I get at programming all the right features into it - this morning I got everything I needed off the big TiVo remote from the den so I already don't even miss it.
Now for the bad news. While we get local stations, we don't get them in HD, and the signal our local Fox station sends out is atrocious, so network TV in general, and Fox (on which the Cowboys most often play) is still poor 480i quality - at best. While we have terrific DVR functionality, the picture for most programs we record and watch is still poor.
The fix for areas like us that don't have HD signals from our local stations available via satellite is supposedly to install a simple TV antenna, and pick the HD signals via off-the-air transmissions from the stations, most of which are now transmitting in analog and digital (which may or may not be in HDTV). After confirming this morning from DirecTV that there is no way I can purchase Cowboy games in HD (or any other way) when the local station carries them I started shopping for an indoor receiver to see if getting the UHF/VHF signals was a possibility. I ran across the above indoor antenna at Radio Shack, and ran down the street at about 2pm to pick up one (catalog # 15-1892). I plugged it in, let the TV scan for antenna signals, and almost immediately was looking at over a dozen digital channels, with most local stations having HD signals - some in 720p and some in 1080i). The Cowboy game came on immediately crystal clear in 720p, second only to the startling picture the local CBS station was putting out in 1080i. The antenna stations have to exist as a second source of signals, which can't be recorded on the DVR, and which I really don't have a means for recording (yet) but it's well worth watching in real time, the picture is so good.
I still haven't figured out the details of how to fine-tune the unit, but it sits on my stereo shelf behind a potted plant (luckily the shelves are very deep and have lot of room) and works like a charm. I am kicking myself for not buying it a year ago - I had just assumed I needed a rooftop unit to get a signal this good. But here it is - I'm getting HD signals from the half-dozen local stations I care about.
So a very good weekend on the entertainment media front.
Just wish the Cowboys had done as well!
Circa notebooks
I have been a Levenger junkie for going on fifteen years now, and my latest addiction is their Circa line of notebooks. About a year ago when working on some appeals I really got to liking working on briefs that were spiral-bound and would lay flat, and started having draft briefs spiral bound to redline. I could lay them down and edit and fel like I was reading a book. But that's a pain to punch and bind, and you can't take out or insert things very easily.
Cira, on the other hand, essentially works like a spiral-bound notebook, but you can punch and insert and take out things very easily. (The punching is actually not very easy, as only a few sheets at a time can be punched, and it's not unusual to misalign the pages). The travel puncher is ingenious, but it requires even more work, and you look like a complete idiot at meetings stamping every couple of sheets four times to get them into your weird little notebook.
The really nice thing is that the notebooks themselves are small - no thicker than needed, which beats lugging around half-empty notebooks on trips - and because the covers fold around flat, they take the place of a note pad. That saves a lot of space in my briefcase on trips.
Now I started using Circa for my local patent rules notebook about two years ago - the format is well-suited for a notebook that you refer to frequently and need to put things in and take things out often. Then a few weeks ago I started binding pending motions and seminar papers I was working on in clear covers - I'll stick a cover sheet and a set of tabs and I can keep all the materials I need for a particular motion (motion, response, reply, cases) or seminar paper (draft paper, cases, research materials) in one place where it can be laid flat to work on.
I also started printing everything double-sided because I very much prefer reading that way - a double-sided sheet bound in a notebook. The tables of contents lay on top under the clear covere and I scribble down what I'm adding.
Then a month or so ago I got a brown leather set of covers 
and started putting what I needed to read or work on in it, scribbling titles onto a table of contents as I took things out and put new things in.
This has been a hugely good idea. I stick double-sided copies of cases, draft motions, memos, articles - anything I want - into it, and read them as I have time. When I go to court I transfer the contents of the applicable plastic sleeve (which is how I track pending things - sort of my equivalent to GTD "working" files) or clear notebook into a tab of the working notebook (which is what I call my brown leather one) and go. Two weeks ago I took my patent rules and working notebooks to a hearing and the lawyer attending said I was the best organized person he'd ever seen. I used one notebook to refer to, and took notes on some punched note paper in the other, switching out pages as needed. The notebook organizes my reading for me, and - probably most important of all - it makes reading and editing much easier because the papers are bound in a notebook that I can read just like a book.
Theoretically, all of this could be files on my laptop and I could read it there, but laptops take way too long to boot up, and I can't annotate files on them nearly as easily - or move the files into different notebooks and folders as needed. Plus, I just like reading and highlighting on paper.
The system is not perfect my any means - the clear notebooks are insanely expensive, and the circles that act as rings nearly as much so, so much that you can't even think about storing materials in them. Fortunately you can take the pages and retire them into manila folders, or two-hole punch (as I do) and retire them into notebooks. You have to deal with Circa turds and ragged edges, it's true, but in notebooks, that's really not been a problem.
The other problem is that there's no way to label a Circa notebook on its spine, so when it's standing on a shelf or lying in a hanging folder you cannot tell what it is. The cover can look great, but the system doesn't have a way of labeling the spine, which limits how many you can use at one time - which is one reason I try to work out of a working notebook - because I can recognize it easily. They do have different colored rings, but given that you often need different sizes, I chose to get all mine in black and just live with the spine problem for now.
So, this is one of my favorite toys at the moment.
