He won't settle . . .

I'm betting on it.

E and I met with my lawyer on Friday. It was a meeting to discuss 1. settlement and 2. strategy.

I'm betting my ex won't settle this . . . which means I'll have to prepare to go to a case conference in late October where . . . nothing will be settled. My ex, I'm sure, thinks he'll get what he wants at a case conference, and so he will push for that and bet on 'winning.' But there is no winning in this ligitation process. Everyone loses, as far as I'm concerned.

So I sit here on this gorgeous day, without A, and I ponder all of this as I prepare to once again attack my lawn.

Tonight E and I will begin our Stieg Laarson extravanganza movie night watching both Sweedish versions back to back.

Last night we went out to dinner with my brother and his family who had driven to Ottawa to service their Lexus and who were looking for another one. Meanwhile, E's decided against a beamer and instead will buy a bright red Audi as soon as his GIC come. due in October. I am still happy driving Bluebell.

Wait - did I mention the mircaluous story of the lost hubcap yet?

A few months ago my hubcap disappeared. At first I thought it might be the towering trouble-maker on the corner, the big guy with the rottweiler who always blares his booming bass music at top volume when he cleans his car. I had asked him politely one day to lower the volume and he's had it in for me ever since. Anyway, I really did think he might have taken it, just to piss me off, and I was quite put out by it for a while, until I got used to the idea that I'd live without a hub cap for awhile and get one . . . . some time way in the future when it was a priority. Well, then, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to take A down to the the park where we spent most of our previous summers in Centretown. We went down our usual, but recently impassable route, because of contruction. As we hobbled through the last of it, I looked over and . . . there was our missing hubcap! I was sure of it. We must have lost it the last time we drove to the park through construction, several months previously. But, there was our hubcap!

"A," I said, "I think that's our hubcap!"

A was wildly enthusiastic, seeing as she suffered through me complaining about our missing hubcap all summer.

"Let's get it Mommy. Let's get it!" she enthused.

So, we parked and walked quickly back to where the hubcap had been set up to the side of the construction area. Sure enough, though badly worn around the edges and scratch, it was our match, our dearly beloved lost hubcap.

A insisted on carrying it back to the car, where we ceremoniously dumped it, before heading off to the park, perkier about our Bluebell then we'd been in many weeks.