i'm an expert
Or at least I'm being asked to play one at work. I found out Friday that I have one week to prepare a piece of written expert testimony in a wetlands loss case. One of my bosses here actually is an expert but he’s busy with his part so I’ve been asked to help out. I even got a chance to talk to a real live lawyer on the phone and discuss “intellectual honesty” and “not sending e-mails” and “shredding my written notes”. It’s all very Spy vs. Spy. It basically amounts to the lawyer having an angle that he wants to argue and me reading a bunch of journal papers and government reports and culling out the technical pieces that would support his case. I’m told that I won’t be deposed or asked to testify (that’s why the boss man gets the big bucks) so that’s nice.

I played volleyball last night and my thumb was functional, which is good. And Mac didn’t ask me about online shopping. Also good.

I know that you’re dying to hear about the Revs game last weekend, which is great. Pretty soon you all will be surprising me the way Dad did on Sunday when he casually remarked that “I thought Ralston returning to the lineup was supposed to help?” See the trick is that if I keep spouting off about soccer then each of you will unwittingly learn more about the subject than you would really care to. And that’s really just a fact of life: we often end up knowing (and sometimes caring) about things that people around us care about. It's a sort of topical osmosis, the natural result of repeated exposure. This is exactly why I know what Mr. Big’s actual name is from Sex and the City and also why Chris knew about and wanted to see an episode of Oprah. Our worlds necessarily overlap with the worlds of those around us. So yes Dad, Ralston’s return was supposed to help and if you’d seen how well Josh Gros has been playing for DC this season, you might agree that Ralston’s shutting him down on Saturday DID help. The game itself was a battle of attrition in midfield and the Revs won 1-0 thanks to a great individual effort by Pat Noonan. And even though some of the DC fans are in denial, I definitely see trouble brewing between Moreno and Adu. Watching them try to run the DC offense together is like watching Aretha Franklin and Beyonce trying to share a single spotlight. It just is not working out.