I am so sorry about Mickey, ChiKat.

I almost bought Paczki yesterday- I saw them at the grocery store and thought of Steph! I have never seen them in Rochester, and this is an inner city store, so I thought it was weird.

We may do pancakes for dinner tonight! We freeze left over pancakes to pop into the toaster for a quick breakfast for the kids, so some nights I cook up a triple batch. It's a lot of pancake flipping, but it makes a bunch of meals.

Jacqueline [My Last Name]. I really thought it was all Jimmie!

Is there a cutesy J thing in your family, Jesse?

I just saw a teaser for "a search is on for the mother of a newborn baby abandoned at a gas station..." Am I right in understanding that if the same person (in California, at least) had abandoned the same baby at an appropriate hospital or fire station, there would be no search, and they could go on as normal? Well, as normal as possible?

Yes, I believe that in many states (like IL, I think) if you left the baby at a hospital or police station or fire station there wouldn't be a search.

there are some states where you could leave an infant anywhere safe and there would be no search. I thought CT or NY was one of those states.

I think the child has to be under 9 months?

Yeah, I think it's the Safe Haven law or something like that. But you have to leave the baby at a hospital, or police or fire station.

I live in NY, and I am not sure about "anywhere", but I also don't pay much attendtion to that law, as it is not applicable to me.

I perusing the Talbots sale-- and they have three different fits- the Kate, the Grace and the Jackie. I can't really differentiate the different body types from those- aren't they all slender women ranging from not curvy at all to not particularly curvy?

Thanks for all the ~ma. I am worn out and utterly soul sick. I spent the night with friends. They're at work now, but their dog is taking care of me today. I knew it would hurt to lose Mickey, but I didn't know it would be this horrible.

I'm so sorry, ChiKat. Hope the dog is extra cuddly for you today.

I don't know if anyone here can help with this question, but here goes. I have a friend from uni, just starting out in her career, who's been offered a job in the Hong Kong office of a US law firm, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe (based in SF). I was wondering if any legalistas knew anything about this firm, especially as an employer. Does it look after its staff? How is it on work/life balance? Any help would be much appreciated.

That's my old firm, billytea. The first firm I worked for back in the late nineties and early oughts.

It's a well-run firm, very tech friendly. They have a strong background in finance, so even though they've branched out over the years they've done so at a measured, secure pace. Salary and benefits will be industry standard. They never go out and set that standard but they follow along with what the market dictates.

Their firmwide functions are run out of a 24 call center in Wheeling, W.Va so even though they'll be in a small, satellite office they'll be able to have somebody talk to them about benefits or paycheck whenever.

Since it's a small, local office a lot of its culture will come from the people in that office rather than the home office. So, it really will depend on what Partner in Charge in HK is like.

They do have fairly high billables - but again, industry standard. They've always included pro bono work in meeting minimum hourly benchmarks. Depending on the year they might also include business development and firm admin hours in the totals. They tweaked their bonus structure almost annually depending on the market.

Good benefits, and culturally pretty accepting of people taking time off for kids or childbirth.

I haven't worked there in a while but I expect the culture is still pretty much the same.