Carrollegal-Virtual Legal Assistant

Alaska Turbo Cake Cooling Rack

Here is my cake cooling rack.  The kids were looking for a goodie this evening, so I made a cake.  I wasn't sure it would be cooled off in time for them to have any.  No worries--it was pretty much cooled off after about 15-20 minutes in the window. 

If you look carefully outside in the background, the little snow-covered mound sticking up on the snow-covered grill is the thermometer.   I don't know what the temperature was, other than "cold enough to cool a cake really fast".  I imagine later in the season, we'll get down to a five minute cooling period!

On the Move Again

We're on the move again--to Alaska.  The packers are here and you can follow the move on my blog:  http://carrollegal.typepad.com/north_to_alaska_/  If you need to contact me regarding Carrollegal business, the best bet is via cell phone, as I'm guessing my internet connection will be intermittent.  Enjoy!

Play Ball!

Baseball season 2008 is almost upon us.  Practice starts on Monday for our son and toward the beginning of April for our daughter.  They will both be playing on a Little League team again this year.  We're looking forward to attending the kids' games as well as some major league games.

We're hoping to attend the Opening Day at the Nationals' new stadium.   Our current location will let us catch Red Sox, Orioles and Yankees (maybe tour the old stadium before it is gone).  A baseball road trip is in the planning stages.

(Again) Why I Work From Home

If you have read previous posts, you will recall that my family and I recently moved to the D.C. area.  Tonight, the "mixing bowl" area--the place where every highway in a given radius intersects (I think they actually intersect multiple times) was closed down due to ice for the first time since we moved here.  I believe if you want to get out of D.C. to anywhere in the surrounding area, you must use these roads.  Just before rush hour everything iced over and then the  slip 'n' slide ride home began for commuters.   Does anyone really want to drive in an area called "Mixing Bowl" even on a good day?  I  don't think so.   

A traffic camera site, www.TrafficLand.com, is good  viewing if you who are working from home offices want to get a dose of daily commute for old times' sake.  You can look at traffic cameras all over the world.

Home Office Warrior-Paperless Office Series

Grant Griffiths, of Home Office Warrior, continues his series on the paperless office with hardware recommendations.  Home Office Warrior is full of information about working from home--I subscribe to the RSS feed and recommend that other Home Office Warriors do so as well!

Lawyers Working With VAs

One project that I'm currrently working on with a client is distribution of her newsletter.  She sends me her updates to her client list during the month along with other contacts she has made and I add them to the account I set up for her in iContact. 

As concerns content, once a month she sends her newsletter article and other information to include and I see that the newsletter goes out to her lists.

The template used is an html template created by a designer.  iContact does provide templates, but the template created by the designer matches my clients other branded items, including her website, brochure and business cards.

Merry Christmas!

I've chosen to take lots of days off here and there during the past several weeks, but  I'm looking forward to jumping in to work with both feet come January 2.  Some things to look forward to include more blog postings containing information for attorneys working from home.  I plan to post a series on ways attorneys can work with Virtual Legal Assistants which will include examples of work I'm currently doing for my clients.

Why I Work From Home...

While sitting in my corner office with fresh air coming in through an open window and listening to the  sounds of a squirrel rustling around in the leaves outside, I came across these "winners" of the Saddest Cubicle Contest on Wired.com.  Take a look and remember all the reasons you work for yourself!

If still photos aren't enough to convince you, here is a link to a clip of Conan O'Brien's visit to Intel and his thoughts on the cube environment.

A Parasecressistant?

Today, a client asked me if I mind doing tasks that are not paralegal in nature.  I told her "No!"  I enjoy and have years of experience providing both administrative and paralegal support.

I was reminded of a post I made to a VA networking group when asked how I would classify my services.  I said I was a parasecressistant.  (Para-secre-ssistant=someone who can do whatever a solo attorney might need to help run his/her practice more efficiently.)

So, whether you decide to work with a virtual assistant or an on-site assistant, make sure the person with whom you are working is able to provide you with a broad range of services.  There are lots of us who don't mind some word processing, bookkeeping, marketing support and clerical work along with our document drafting and legal research! 

Listen to the Experts!

I drove several places in my new area today.  I wanted to find the Springfield Mall,  Home Depot and the Fort Belvoir Comissary.  I took the van because I wanted to get a cabinet at Home Depot.  I had my GPS with me--definitely an expert in finding places.  The trip to the mall was without incident.  I used the GPS, followed her directions, everything was great!  After I finished at the mall, I saw the Home Depot building across the highway and started on my way out of the parking lot.  GPS said to go right, but I saw a way that looked quicker and easier, so I ignored her.

I drove across the highway into a shopping center adjacent to The Home Depot and proceeded to drive through the parking lot.  I reached a location and

Note:  If you are my husband reading this, please read Optional Paragraph B only.  Do not read Optional Paragraph A.  If you are anyone else,  please read Optional Paragraph A only.)

Optional Paragraph A:  turned down what looked like an entrance.  Two car lengths ahead, I saw the "Do Not Enter" sign.  So I backed up to turn around... right up and over a curb.  Heard a thump.  Heard some scraping.  Pulled into the semi-truck loading and unloading area of Home Depot.  I got out of the van and saw that the trim along the bottom of the van between the two wheels was dragging on the ground held on by one screw.

Optional Paragraph B (for my husband): was driving along to Home Depot heading in the right direction, on a flat surface and doing the speed limit when, all of a sudden, the trim panel on the passenger side of the van fell off!  I couldn't believe it!

So, I pulled (ever so slowly)  into the area of Home Depot where a couple of trailers are backed up to the loading docks and surveyed the problem.  Held on by one screw?  "I can take care of this", I said, and looked in the van for a tool kit that might contain a screwdriver.  I even knew that I needed a phillips screwdriver.  I knew we didn't have a tool kit in the van--I just was hoping that there was a spare screwdriver rollling around  somewhere.  There wasn't.

I did find a nail clipper, though, and used that to turn the screw.  Do you recall that I was parked in the middle of an shipping area?  Along came a driver who wanted to get to a dock.  He pointed to the loading dock and I held up the loose end of the dragging piece of trim and shrugged my shoulders.  He parked next to the curb that had caused all of the trouble and came over to see what he could do.  He tried to get the screw out with the nail clipper.  It wasn't working.  He decided to see if he had a screwdriver in his truck--I continued using the nail clipper.  Right about the time he came back with a screwdriver, I gave the nail clipper one last turn and the trailing trim came free.   I put the trim in the back of the van and went into Home Depot.  I added "tool kit for the van" to my list.  I purchased a good kit with everything I could possibly need:

The moral of the story:  Listen to the experts.  I am navagationally impaired--I admit it.  I need to listen to the GPS and go where she tells me.  If I had, I probably wouldn't be carting a piece of my van in the van.  Carrollegal is an administrative expert and can help you get where you want to be in your solo law practice--unless I have to drive you there.