Today was slightly better than yesterday; at least I brought in a good amount of money for the company.

I was on my way to Bear Rock so I could get some work done before a meeting I had with a client.  I haven’t mentioned this yet, but a client of ours is being sued and we were all given subpeonas last month.  The time was nearing for our depositions, but I forgot when mine was and, in the move, lost my papers.  I sent Scott an e-mail asking if he knew when mine was and he happened to call me as I was going down College and told me I should stop by the attorney’s office to find out.  Since the office is on Racine, it was almost like I was purposefully heading that way anyway, at which point I was thankful for some  of this morning’s delays.  It was about 10:30 and I’d planned on getting to Bear Rock by 10.  (The meeting was at noon, but like I said, I wanted to get some stuff done.)

Turns out my deposition is tomorrow at 11.  Only PITA is that the Jetta is being taken in for an oil change tonight and it’s getting picked up tomorrow, so I have to take Amanda to work in order to have the car.  Oh well.

The deposition, in my case anyway, is a very minor thing.  The case is about our client’s site using another company’s name to promote itself.  That’s over-simplifying the matter, but the gist of it is that, in my opinion, the other company could have said to our client, “Hey, would you mind not using the name of our company on your site anymore,” to which our client would have said, “Okay” and everything would be done and dandy.  Oh well.  I really have no useful information whatsoever, so I should be in and out.  Scott told me he was there for four and a half hours today with one ten minute bathroom break.  Than again, I was new to the company when the matter at hand took place, and he was not.

I went on to Bear Rock and got some work done before I met with the client.  It obviously went very well because he went ahead and paid a deposit right then and there.  I look forward to having a good working relationship with this guy.  He wants to make his site competitive and he knows it takes money to do so.  On top of that, he seems very straightforward and down to earth.  I hope to turn him into one of our regulars.

While at Bear Rock, a small crumb had fallen under the right arrow button of my laptop (and it wasn’t from me) so I reached into my pocket to pull out my Leatherman to get it out.  I discovered that my Leatherman was not there, which in and of itself is not a big deal.  But when you take into consideration that my house keys are attached to it, but becomes a little more of a deal.  I remembered while fishing around in my pockets that I had given it to Amanda last night to open a freezie pop and she left it on the counter.  In her defense, I vaguely remember her telling me that she had left it there.

So on my way out from the mall I decided to head down Oleander to the office of my lovely wife.  I tried calling her on the way, but I guess she was on the phone and did not answer.  I took care of a couple voice messages that were left on my phone during the meeting then called her again as I was about to pull into the parking lot.  I said something to the effect of “Do you remember when I gave you my Leatherman to open a freezie pop?”

“Yes,” she answered, “it’s on the counter in the kitchen.”

“Yes,” I replied.  “But unfortuantely I’m not there.”  So I went in and got her house key.  Actually, she came outside, but I went inside.  By the time I got back to where her office is, she was coming back from an alternative route, which way I was lead out upon my exit.  She asked me to go get copies and to get her a pretty one, so I headed over to Office Depot to do just that.

On the way there I talked to my buddy Jason Revill, who informed me that there is talk about proclaiming English as the national language via a Constitutional amendment.  I thought it might not be a bad idea, as I think it would ultimately help immigrants and make things more proficient.  He agreed in theory, I believe, but didn’t like that the motion is being fueled by the fact that immigration is such a hot topic.  I see where he’s coming from, and if it’s going to happen it probably should have happened before it appeared to be something to shove down the throats of the illegal aliens, but still, if it’s going to happen, I think it should be over and done with.  Go ahead and get it done.

Office Depot, by the way, did not make key copies, so I headed on over to Wally World and got a pretty tie dye patterned key for Amanda and an American flag one for me.  I wanted to get a Duke one, but they only had a Panthers one and, of course, a Carolina one.  I complained of this to the nice young lady who copied my keys for me.  She told me I should take it up with the store manager, who is himself a Duke fan and would likely be as affronted as I was.

I got on home after that and managed to do some small bit of work.  Amanda got home around 5:30 but was going right back out to eat dinner with a bunch of people at work to see Elisha off.  (Yeah, before I said I wouldn’t say who it was, but how many people reading this have any clue at all?)  I was left at home to paint the kitchen.  It’ll definitely need a second coat, but the red looks nice I think.

I finished the painting around 7:30, messed around on the computer a bit then watched American Idol.  The crowd seemed to be really be behind Taylor Hicks, and he’s been a favorite for quite a while so I’ve got my money on him, as unlikely an American Idol winner as he is, if you look at him.

I started to watch House after that but Amanda’s grandma called then I decided it would probably be good to eat something.  Amanda got home just as I was about to put the sandwich in my mouth and unpause the TV.  Another girl (Allysa, Allison, something like that) had met her at the VW place when she dropped off the Jetta and then brought her back home, which was very nice.  Amanda showed her around, and she really liked the colors in the place.

Amanda, of course, had to watch Idol.  Amazing how fast the show goes when you can fa-fo through the commercials and fluff.  She did a bunch of voting then (for Taylor) and I joined in to help out after a while.  Oddly, on one number she was able to get through with the house phone nearly every time, but on the cell phone I was using (Amanda’s) it only got through twice.

Apparently there was some sort of technical difficulty and a bunch of people in the area didn’t get to watch American Idol so they were replaying it after the news.  I’d hate to be the person who caused that goof.  God forbid that someone should take the final showdown episode away from a bunch of people.  I’m surprised there were’t riots.

Throughout the newscast they had a crawler on the screen with the phone numbers to call for Katharine and Taylor.  Then again, they said voting was open until 11:00 and they reshowed it at about twenty ’til, so the people who wanted to actually choose who to vote for based on tonight’s performances were screwed I guess.  Then again again, the voting lines were actually open for longer than the news said.  Amanda was dialing towards the end of the rerun and still getting through, and that was well after 11:30.  Of course, if Taylor loses, that can be the excuse.  When Chris Daughtry got voted off a lot of people complained that the message they heard while voting was Katharine’s.

The last song sang by both contestants was an original one, the one that will be their first release.  These tend to be very insipid ballads (like Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This”), but Taylor pulled his off without being too schmaltzy, and since that’s what ended the show, that’s (one reason) I think he’ll win.  I wish they’d write better songs for these people though.

At the end of the show they played a montage of the season, which was kind of fun to watch.  A lot of the memorable contestants got some pretty big cheers when they were shown, particularly Chris and Elliott.