November 20, 2006 - 08:43 PM
My wife and I had something along the lines of the following conversation tonight while I was making dinner. We were comparing our to-do lists, and noticing how short mine was in comparison to hers.
Maren: "My list is so long because I break everything out, like my morning routine of exercise, study, and other things... [lists other things]. I'm going to get some kind of white board so I can keep them separate and not write them down on each day's list. I'll reserve that for my other varied to-do's."
Me:
[Stirring, cutting, cooking, fetching plates] "Good idea!"
(Aside: "what'd she say?)
Five minutes later...
"Mmmm, Jeff, this looks good! Thanks for the great dinner hon."
(You just
know what's coming, don't you?)
"Thanks. Hey, you know what you should do? List all of your routine stuff separately on a permanent sheet, so you don't have to write them down every day." (Long pause)
"Um... you just said that, didn't you?"
Us: "Tee hee! Silly us!"
Much later, putting our son down to bed...
Maren:
[Laughing] "It's great how you
listen to me... at least I know you heard what I said, especially since I spent twenty minutes explaining it all."
"Yeah, and it only took me ten secon..."
WHACK "OW!"
Brat points: two to zip. (This is where I do the rare husband victory dance.)
p.s. On a completely separate topic: Dang! I had
really wanted one of
these.
November 2, 2006 - 08:45 AM
Via
Overlawyered, the sort of story you don't hear very often these days. I thought it deserved repeating, in that case.
Riverside County Superior Court judge James T. Warren recently
had to decide the fate of gambler Paul Del Vacchio. He was convicted of stealing $500,000 from his employer to feed his betting addiction (and supply himself with a $20,000 inground pool). Del Vacchio requested leniency in the scentencing because the addiction was out of his control.
Says Judge Warren:
"There are a lot of people addicted to gambling who don't steal anything. They get themselves in debt, sure. They may lose everything. They may lose their family. They may lose their house. They may lose their cars, but they don't steal?.
"We can't let everybody who comes in here and wants to use an addiction, whether it be compulsive gambling, whether it be compulsive drinking, whether it be drug addiction, we can't as a society let them utilize that as a method of getting out of their wrong acts. You know, it's like my saying I'm addicted to beautiful women and fast cars, so I get to steal from the court's trust account?.
"He's here because he's a thief. He's a thief. That's the bottom line. He's a thief. And he needs to acknowledge that, not use the gambling as a crutch. He let down his family. He let down his friends. He let down his employer. He let himself down. But the bottom line is he's a thief, and he needs to be punished for being a thief."
Del Vacchio received four years imprisonment. I wonder if that's too much, or too little? Even more, I wonder if it will make a difference for him - he may get help for his gambling addiction, but will the time help him to find self control when it comes to the temptation to steal? Or if he has his addiction under control, will that no longer be an issue?
Should we all wonder, if our circumstances were "just so", what laws would we willingly break?
I wish the best for Paul.
He has a blog, if you're curious:
Compulsive Gambler in Recovery.
SO glad I'm not a lawyer.