Is there any tactful way to remind a coworker that she should wash her hands after using the restroom? If so, could you please provide it to me? I am thoroughly squicked out.

Ugh. Sick. Want to go outside in the sunshine, but am dizzy and ill. Bleah. Headed for the couch. Ugh.

Did you know that Bob Geldof owns the rights to 'Survivor?'

I sure didn't.

The MOVE saga continues, as the father of the child in the custody dispute mentioned previously in this space was killed by gunfire yesterday. MOVE is alleging that the government killed Gilbride to flush his ex-wife, a MOVE member, out of hiding with their child.

Well, this week was certainly a whirlwind. We packed so much activity into two and a half days that it felt like a week. The boss has promised that next year's trip will be longer and less heavily scheduled, mostly because by Thursday night, when we did dinner and a show, we could barely form full sentences because of our level of exhaustion.

We did have a blast, though. Dinners at Red Sage and the Brasserie at the Watergate, lunch at the Mayflower, Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center, and a whole lot of laughing and bonding on the train and at the hotel. We also got to see a whole bunch of the World Bank/IMF protesters yesterday as well, as they tried to shut traffic down in the circle outside of our hotel.

I came home last night and crashed for a couple of hours, and then slept another nine hours last night. Whew.

It's a beautiful day outside, and I think we're going furniture shopping. I also received my "Once More, With Feeling" CD yesterday, finally, so that's on repeat along with Up. Dave(who's not dead, despite his lack of updates) is getting ready to do his first internet radio show tonight at 11, so I'm excited for that as well. I also need to run out and get a gift for my future sister-in-law's bridal shower. I should probably, you know, get dressed and all.

Still in DC. So tired. Stayed up drinking with the boss til 2 am, then off to the Senate at 8. Sightings in the halls: Patrick Leahy, Patty Murray, Speaker of the House Denny Hastert, and Gary Condit. Yes, Gary Condit.

While we were in the Senate gallery, we were treated to a Phil Gramm tirade, with guest appearances by Joe Lieberman, Fred Thompson, Arlen Specter, John Warner, and a senator from Utah whose name is currently escaping me.

Bed now.

All hail my wonderful husband, who got us Peter Gabriel tickets this morning. Also, hail the Peter Gabriel website, for allowing fans a private internet sale five days before the tickets go on sale to the general public. I've never actually made it to see him in concert before, so I am unduly enthusiastic.

Made it to DC, just chilling out in the hotel before we go to lunch. Later!

Blogging will be scarce until Friday, as I'll be in DC with my department. Enjoy the rest of your week!

P.S. The new Peter Gabriel CD kicks *ass*.

It appears that fugitive hippie murderer Ira Einhorn will attempt to call Peter Gabriel and Ellen Burstyn as character witnesses in his defense at his long-awaited trial for the 1977 death of Holly Maddux. The fun just never stops with this guy.

The office has been weirdly quiet yesterday and today. I also totally forgot that my boss wasn't coming in today, because he's waiting around for some kind of local inspector type person. Or something. I think he's been building some sort of land speeder in his basement.

Anyway, I'm leaving early. In an hour, in fact. I may even hit Target on the way home, simply because I'm feeling sassy.

Then, the packing. Ugh. But there's new Buffy tonight. With bonus Giles!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the New Jersey Jackals clinched the 2002 Northern League Championship Saturday night! Friday night's game was a nailbiter, as I mentioned previously, but Saturday night the Jackals took the lead early and really never faltered. It was amazing to stand in the bleachers, watching these guys jump up and down, hug each other and their families, and drench their teammates with champagne. Well done, gentlemen, especially series MVP Dave Callahan!

My department is going to Washington, DC on Wednesday for a three-day planning meeting, and each member of the department is being asked to do a presentation on a specific topic. Luckily, mine has to do with one of the products I handle, and I'm simply modifying a training presentation that I give to all of the incoming sales representatives. I am currently bringing PowerPoint to its very knees.

Things that are different about being married, Part 46: Referring to Dave's brother and his fiancee as my "brother-in-law and future sister-in-law." I'm an only child. Saying "my brother" and "my sister" don't slip easily off the tongue.

I'm going to make a surprising confession here.

I never really liked baseball much.

Readers of my writing know full well that ice hockey is my sport of choice, but they've also seen me write an awful lot about baseball. Part of that is because I am now married to a rabid baseball fan, but part of it is also that over the past ten years or so, I've fallen more and more in love with the game. What started it?

What started it is what inspired me to write this entry today.

People will come, Ray.

They'll come to Iowa for reasons that they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door, as innocent as children, longing for the past. Of course, we won't mind if you look around, you'll say, it's only $20 per person. They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it, for it is money they have, and peace they lack.

They'll walk out to the bleachers, sit in their shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game, and it will be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

People will come, Ray.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray.

People will most definitely come.

In 1989, I was heading into my junior year of college, and I saw advertisements everywhere for Field of Dreams. Not being a Kevin Costner lover, and not being a huge baseball fan, I passed it up when it was in the theaters, and never gave the film the time of day when it was on cable.

One day, after my father suffered his stroke in 1994, I was sitting at home in Pennsylvania, wondering what the hell I was going to do with my future, when the movie came onto the channel that I was watching. And I watched.

Now, don't get me wrong. This movie is not really about baseball. And it's not the reason that I love the game as much as I do today. It is, however, the film that got me thinking about why people love baseball as much as they do. This movie makes me cry every time I watch it. I know that's not really saying much, because I am a big giant mushy sap, but God, when James Earl Jones gives that speech, and when Ray Kinsella finally gets to have that long-postponed catch with his father, I completely lose it. This movie is about much, much more than baseball. It's about living your dreams, living the moment, and never taking the next one for granted. It's about parents and kids and men and women and a game that has survived for a hundred years in a country that's unsure of its own destiny. It's about a boy and his father, and speaking words that have remained unspoken, and mending hearts that have remained wounded.

And it is, finally, about baseball.

What's the appeal, I hear you asking, when players are overpaid and underdisciplined, with overstuffed egos and pocketbooks and are seemingly the worst role models a kid could choose?

Well, I can tell you this: last night, Dave and I attended Game 3 of the Northern League championships, where our beloved New Jersey Jackals are defending their 2001 title. The series was split after the first two games in Winnipeg, and the players were exhausted after traveling yesterday from Winnipeg to New Jersey. The Goldeyes took an early lead, and the situation was looking pretty dire in the bottom of the ninth. The Jackals managed to tie the game 3-3, forcing extra innings, and clutch hitter Dave Callahan hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the eleventh to give the Jackals the win.

I have rarely seen such joy at a major league game -- the Jackals piled onto the field, and bounced up and down as a giant throng for about two minutes. The crowd was screaming, confetti was flying, and it was a moment of pure joy.

That's why I love baseball. That's why I love having a minor league team two miles away. These guys make $700 a month, travel the country by bus, and they Love. This. Game.

Game 4 is tonight, and we'll be there. We'll be sporting our Jackals caps and singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in the stands. We'll eat hot dogs and drink beer, and find the peace that we lack.

Can I just get one of those Aeron chairs?

I found this article about the broadening of the Japanese legal market of interest, since the legal department of my company's headquarters in Japan has not a single Japanese lawyer. The only lawyers there are two American expatriates. Just as a matter of comparison: the largest law firm in Japan has only 144 lawyers.

Just a note to the other sports fans out there: NHL preseason starts tonight! Unfortunately, no Devils game tonight, but that's OK.

And relating back to the story I referenced about the potential sale of Hershey Foods, here's some good news. The trust that holds the controlling interest in the company has opted not to sell, after all.

So, because my life lately is the carousel of fun that never stops, I had the end of my root canal this morning. Or, as I've been referring to it with novocaine enhancement, WOOT canal.

I am not joking when I tell you that practically the ENTIRE LEFT SIDE OF MY HEAD is numb. Now, this is good, because I certainly didn't feel a thing while he was working, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to want to claw my eyes out once the novocaine wears off. Luckily, I have but a short meeting around 11:30, and then I'm most likely going to go home.

Lots of work, lots of sadness. A close friend of the family died Sunday night. I'll miss you, Ed.

Articles like this one really make me wonder if there's any truth to the supposition that the government might have had the military shoot down Flight 93 after all. I'm sure we'll never know the true answer.

It's good to be the king. I especially love the part about how GE pays for his groceries and his personal/toiletry items. Christ.

In news from my hometown, radical organization MOVE is fortifying its home in West Philadelphia, apparently in response to a court order over visitation rights.

Philadelphia residents (and anyone else who was anywhere near the city) might remember what happened the last time MOVE barricaded its house -- on May 13, 1985, members of MOVE clashed with police after a gun battle, and the melee ended in 11 deaths, including five children, and the destruction by fire of 62 homes after then-Mayor Wilson Goode ill-advisedly approved the dropping of a bomb onto the MOVE rowhouse's roof.

It's inevitable that on a day when there are big doings at work, such as a product going live, that there will be a kerfuffle. Or multiple kerfuffles. This morning's kerfuffle involves infighting about press releases, and I already have a headache. Ugh.

A Yemeni man who felt that his wife was too loud and argumentative divorced her and married a deaf and mute woman instead, according to ABC News. I suppose that's one solution.

How psyched was I that David Chase used one of my most favorite and least heard 80s songs as the focal musical piece in the Sopranos premiere last night? Let's just say I was dancing around the living room.

This is a World Destruction
Your life ain't nothing'
The human race is becoming a disgrace

If we don't start to look for a better life
The world will be destroyed in a Time Zone.

In other news, my beloved New Jersey Jackals scored on the last strike of their last out to win the decisive Game 5 of the Northern League East Championship last night, and thus will be moving on to defend their Northern League Championship title against the Winnipeg Goldeyes. We listened to the game on the car radio last night as we were returning from dinner, and were sure that the Adirondack Lumberjacks had it in the bag, until Dave Callahan scored three runners in the top of the ninth. This means that we'll most likely be attending the championship games when the series returns to Montclair later this week. Go Jackals!

Law.com has an interesting article on women who became dissatisfied with the typical law firm scene and instead started their own firms.

The female attorneys quoted in the article cite flexible scheduling, a warm and friendly working environment, and an ability to place family on an equal par with work as benefits not to be found in the stereotypical law firm.

I also got a new desk chair today. The previous chair had been liberated from my father's office in approximately 1992, and was in...well, very sad shape. It's amazing how much difference a good chair can make.

A woman who stumbled over the remnant of a no-parking sign on a New York City sidewalk has been awarded a $21 million verdict against the city for negligence.

Am I crazy to think that Odd Todd is behind the law firm site cited in this article?

I took a three hour nap last night when I got home from work, and then slept another ten hours overnight. Today, I've made the executive decision that regardless of the fact that it would probably be smarter for me to go into the office to catch up on my backlog of work, I am Not. Doing. Any. Work. Today.

Instead, we're going furniture shopping, and continuing to clean up the house. It's a beautiful day outside, and I just cannot waste it locked inside working.

I've had what could kindly be referred to as a Very Bad Week. I've cried at work twice, once on Wednesday and once today, simply because I am so completely and totally overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do. My boss is understanding, and wants me to take some vacation, but at the same time wants me to schedule it around the work I have to do, which effectively means that I couldn't take two days off in a row until November.

When his wife is due to give birth.

While it's wonderful that my boss trusts me and thinks so highly of my work that he is loath to have both of us out of the office at the same time, he also tends to take a lot of days and half-days off, which leads to the situation we're in now -- I have 23 days of vacation for this year, and I haven't taken a single one.

That's right. Not one.

The three days I took off for the wedding were left over from last year's vacation.

Part of the problem is that I'm a perfectionist and a control freak about my projects, and I have a big problem delegating or simply handing over my projects to other people, especially when I have issues with the work habits of the person to whom I'm being asked to give them. I can't help it. I take care of two of our products, and they're my babies. I don't want other people screwing them up.

On the other hand, I'm about to drop from exhaustion. I'm tired, but I can't sleep because I'm worrying, and then I'm worrying because I can't sleep. I get to work at 7:30 and I work like a madwoman for 12 hours and then come home. Lather, rinse, repeat. I work on the weekends, I check my voicemail at least once a night and at least three times on the weekend, and I dream about the work I need to do.

I think I really, really need a vacation.

It's currently 4:26 am, and I'm showered and getting ready to get in the limo at 5:15 to go off to the airport. I've got a meeting at 9 in Bethesda, and no one wanted to fly last night, so we're all blearily boarding the 7 am shuttle for DC. I hope I don't fall asleep during the meeting.

Yesterday was crappy, and not really all that much because of the anniversary. I haven't had a proper day off since the wedding, and I've been averaging about 13-hour workdays all summer. Something's got to give.

More later.