Belated weekend
The weekend was a good one. Saturday was good Mexican food with friends and local bar-owners Ross and Margie, followed by a play. It's been a while since I've seen any live theatre and Rabbit Hole (New York Times review of the Broadway production) was a wonderful, if heart-wrenchingly and sob-inducingly sad, few hours.
Sunday was more practical, with lots of work getting accomplished, including finally putting a real gate latch on the gate to the back yard. It works pretty well, but jeez, it took a fair amount of head scratching and engineering to figure out how to install it in a functional way. I am amused that the final result of my work, although it operates exactly as a gate latch should, looks nothing like the drawing of the latch in the instructions. I had to contribute a couple of wood screws from my own basement, too, while failing to use three of the screws provided. Sheesh.
I don't recommend hanging around the county courthouse for five and a half hours. It's mind-numbingly boring and you're not allowed to bring any electronic or communications device in with you. And if you try to do a crossword puzzle in the courtroom you get yelled at by a deputy for violating courtroom decorum. I'm still feeling kind of empty-headed after that much doing absolutely nothing.