Saturday, January 27, 2024

Six New-to-Me Vegetarian Recipes

I recently finished cooking my way through six new-to-me vegetarian recipes. They were all tasty and worth repeating, so I'm compiling the list of links below for future reference.

  1. Bean and Vegetable Burritos by Smitten Kitchen
  2. Honey Sriracha Tofu by Budget Bytes
  3. Black Bean Spinach Enchiladas by The Garden Grazer (thanks to a link from Lag Liv)
  4. Creamy Cauliflower Soup by Gimme Some Oven
  5. Chickpea Curry by Chelsea's Messy Apron
  6. Roasted Sweet Potato & Chickpea Bowls by Gimme Some Oven
Often, because of busy days at work, I resort to convenience foods. Historically, this hasn't been much of a problem, but I've recently noticed that a meal with too much sugar or fat seems to slow me down. After tracking how I feel after different meals, I noticed that I feel great after eating vegetarian entrees. So, more vegetarian entrees it is!

Monday, January 15, 2024

Return to the Firm - The First Year

Two years ago, while I was working at a great (but somewhat boring) in-house job, I heard from a friend that the star senior associate in her practice group was in dire need of a dedicated, reliable lieutenant. Said star associate was running a sizable client relationship on behalf of an equity partner that had disengaged from the day-to-day as he neared retirement. It was working out well for her except that other associates staffed on her deals were frequently prioritizing other work that they received directly from partners and missing deadlines on her deals as a result. The idea was that I would join as her dedicated associate, free up some of her time to work on client development and, frankly, give her time to sleep a bit or maybe even take a vacation.

I thought about it, met with the senior associate in question to confirm that she lived up to the hype and decided that this was my chance to be the change I wanted to see in this little corner of private practice.

So I resigned, took a severe class year cut and started at this law firm working for star senior associate. We got off to a great start, finishing deals quickly and efficiently, working around the clock, keeping the client happy and collecting at each closing. I saw a grand total of about ten emails from the equity partner during that time--he just wasn't involved. 

Then, at the end of the first year, star senior associate hears from the equity partner that the book will not be passed to her when he retires after all. Instead, the book was going to a male junior partner, but could she and I please continue working as if nothing had changed? (As you can imagine, there are many painful, frustrating details around this that cannot be shared publicly.)

Did star senior associate make partner as planned? No.

Did I blow my billable target out of the water? Yes.
Did I get great reviews and an above-market bonus at the end of that first year? Yes.
Did I achieve what I had set out to accomplish? No.

It was the worst great year I've ever had at a law firm.

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

One Year in the New House

It's been a little more than a year since I closed on the house. This was a custom-ish new build through a national, publicly traded homebuilder and a very different experience than my first home purchase (which was a new build with a boutique builder). I could write a novel on the experience, but want to start by jotting down some summary notes.
  • Why move when I loved my first house? 
    • My first house was centrally located in a desirable neighborhood, but small enough that it had only one garage space. Fiancé wanted a four (!) car garage so we could each have a parking space and he could have room for projects. To achieve that in the neighborhood where my first house was located, we would have been looking at a price tag >$2MM, likely $3MM (which was not doable).
  • What do I miss about my old house? 
    • The central location and smaller size of the house. Keeping up with chores and errands was a relative breeze when everything I needed (outside the house) was nearby and the spaces I needed to keep clean and organized were small and manageable. 
    • The excellent build quality. When I sold my old house, the buyer's inspector wasn't able to identify a single required repair. I get some credit for being a good steward of the house, but the lion's share of the credit goes to my builder. I didn't know just how good my experience with him had been until I started working with the national builder on construction of the new build.
  • What do I like about the new house?
    • Quiet neighborhood.
    • I have an office! (I spent most of COVID working at the kitchen table in the old house.)
    • Locked in pricing just before construction prices soared.
    • Locked in a sweet mortgage rate of 2.1%.
    • Friendly neighbors.
  • What do I dislike about the new house?
    • Poor process management and customer service provided by national builder. There is an extraordinary amount to say on this topic, but in short, building this house has been the worst customer experience of my lifetime. At every stage--from the sales process to the warranty process--I have been shocked by poor performance of the builder. Of course, COVID delays made the build challenging, but COVID isn't an excuse for massive communication failures as between the builder and its prospective homeowners. More than a year post-closing we have approximately 50 open warranty items.
    • Remote location. We traded location for a larger house, which seemed like a good idea because I was pregnant at the time that I signed the purchase contract. But then I miscarried and being in a big/mostly empty house in a very suburban neighborhood surrounded by families with children and retirees (when we are neither of those things) has been a bit tough on the psyche.
As I wrap up the warranty process with the builder, I hope my memories of the build process and first few months in the house (when we had neither a refrigerator nor couch) fade and I enjoy living here more and more. This house is beautiful, but I've often wished I had just stayed put in the old house.