Coffee Break: Maureen Flat Pumps

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1. A sort of LSAT logic game, for anyone not as rusty at those as I am. I’m organizing a warm up/ice beaker activity for our team of six. I have three stations everyone needs to visit once, for about 15m to complete an activity, and at each one, people will need to partner with a different person for the activity. We do not need everyone to be partnered with every other person (realize that math doesn’t work!). I’ve been able to fairly easily sketch out how this would work, but in practice, is this something we can figure out on the fly or is it better to assign everyone to each station and each “round” in advance?

   1. I did something like this for a work training and planned it out in advance. I did it in an Excel sheet with colored cells so I could visually see where folks had or hadn’t been. Planning out in advance means you know for sure that people will mix like you need them to and it also means you don’t need to waste time with folks figuring out who they have or haven’t been with already.

   2. Think of the three stations as a circle.

      Designate three people as A, B and C who are visiting the stations clockwise.
      Designate three people as 1, 2 and 3 who are visiting the stations counter-clockwise.

      Done. Everybody gets three partners from their opposite group, and no partners from their own.

      1. This is exactly how to do it.

   3. Assign in advance!

      1. Yes do this so no one feels “unpopular” when they get picked last.

      2. Or, do A/B/C and 1/2/3 on paper slips and have people draw for their designation.

   4. Have three of your people rotate through the stations forward, and three of your people rotate through the stations in reverse. That will give everyone a new partner for each station.

   5. Assign each person a direction and a starting point. I.e, you’re starting at station 1 and going clockwise/up/left You’re starting at station 3 and going down/counterclockwise/right.

      First round is 1right& 1left, 2right& 2left, 3 right &3 left
      2nd round: 3right& 2left, 1 right &3 left, 2right and 1left
      3rd round: 2right& 3left, 3right& 1left, 1right & 2left

   6. The social anxiety in me would want to crumble and die before doing this. I hate icebreakers.

      1. I am an outgoing extrovert and I hate them too.

2. I LOVE these shoes. Great pick.

   1. I want to know how they look on!

      1. Me too! They are cute.

3. Question for anybody who is “of counsel” to a firm or is familiar with how these things work: My husband is going to be wrapping up his practice at the end of the year (when his office lease is up) and is talking to a firm in town about an of counsel position whereby he would continue working on his own cases and also do some work on the firm’s cases. Neither he nor the firm has any experience with this kid of arrangement and are a bit at sea about what the compensation arrangemetss should be. I presume the firm would provide office space and admin support? And beyond that… a percentage of collections that varies depending on who originated the client? Help me out here, ladies.

   1. Most of our non-equity partners’ comp (including “of counsel” and “counsel” and “partner”) is based on a formula – working receipts and/or originations and a certain percentage of each, with more comp at each level – so working receipts of $350K, comp is X, if $400K comp is X + 10%, etc.

   2. I have done every permutation of this, on both sides, and there are a lot of ways to work it out. What has been most successful is sub-leasing office space that includes shared services–copier, modest admin support, internet, etc., and then handling referrals back and forth entirely separately. For instance, I currently sub-lease space from a larger firm, and I pay them rent that includes copiers, common areas, office supplies, and all office equipment other than my computers and server. They refer a lot of work to me, and that is handled separately from the lease. I give them a bill like a regular client, with each of their clients as a separate matter, and they include my entries on their bills. They mark my time up some, but not a lot. One downside to this particular arrangement is that they pay me quarterly based on what they collect. If their billing attorney is slow about collecting, and a couple are, it takes me FOREVER to get paid. Other small firms who refer me to their clients either have the clients engage me separately or pay me first and THEN collect. I inherited this arrangement and don’t know why it works this way. I refer work to my landlord also but try very hard to have my clients engage them separately. When one of their lawyers overbills my client, I am put in an awkward position. If I refer to them a very juicy piece of work, occasionally my landlord’s managing partner just doesn’t cash my rent check. He never says anything about it; I just get a notice from the bank that the check was not cashed after 3 months, and they put it back in my account.

   3. I have seen an agreed base salary, with bonuses for originating new work.

   4. My firm adopted an arrangement where semi-retired attorneys share an assistant(s) (the firm pays for the assistant) and all of counsel attorneys receive approximately half of what they bill and collect. The percentage is set after the firms profitability is set but is capped at 55% and has historically never been below 50%. (It could go as low as 40% if it was a bad year) Of counsel attorneys may opt in to our benefit plans but pay 100% of the cost instead of a shared dollar amount. We pay an estimated draw over the course of the year – we have the right to adjust it six months into the fiscal year if it looks like collections are way off expected, however, we talk to the of counsel first before then.

      Paid 1099, no set hours or Billings required. We have a professor who bills $7000 per year, we have a recently retired partner who bills 70k per year. Of counsels are invited to our firm events but not partner meetings, they don’t vote and don’t have any input on hiring or firing associates. If an of counsel wants to become a partner again, it’s the same voting process as any other partner.

   5. Thanks for the input! I will pass it along!

4. Vicarious shopping? I want jeans and black pants in the same fit/style for fall/winter.
   – high waist (natural or just below)
   – pockets (minimum of 2 working pockets)
   – full length, not ankle or cropped length
   – not skinny, not flare, not wide leg: preferably a straight pant but not 80s/90s taper

   See Ann Taylor “The High Waist Straight Pant In Double Knit” for as close as I can figure so far; I don’t love the look of the flat front closure on Ann Taylor’s pants in that fabric but will do it if needed. I don’t particularly care about fabric for the black pants, but I’m curvy and have a pronounced backside so am not comfortable in yoga-type fabric (I feel like it looks explicit, even if it isn’t!). I would prefer to keep it to $100/pair or less but willing to haunt some sales. I live in the middle of nowhere so can’t try on and may need to order 2 sizes and return one, so appreciate stores with decent policies and not crazy expensive return shipping.

   1. I just bought some jeans at Old Navy, they definitely have high waist / straight / working pockets / full.

      Betabrand might have them for the black pants.

   2. Banana Lido? Would have said Avery, but probably too low waist.

      High rise cheeky Gap jeans, in tall.

   3. I’d check out Gap for the jeans.

   4. Try the abercrombie “Curve Love Ultra High Rise 90s Straight Jean”. I have them in black and I love them. Not sure what the “90s” is supposed to refer to but they don’t taper.

   5. NYDJ ponte knit pants.

   6. Levis 724 check all these boxes and come in all the blue and black denims.

      I’m a curvy size 14, 34” waist with 44” hips and the size 31 fits me perfectly. Just be sure to check the length, because they make cropped versions, too. I can wear the 30” inseam but prefer longs because the 32” length gives me enough to wear down to my shoes or cuff if I want ankle pants that day.

5. Has anyone bought a first home and used a broker that is a bit more hands on? I had initially been in touch with a broker that a few of my coworkers have used, often to buy a second home or investment property. He seems fine. He has done is set up the MLS portal that sends me listings and I’ve never heard from him again. When I had an initial call with him he pretty much said that he’s not the type that’s going to send you listings and say I think this one is a good one for you to go see. I figured that was fine because after all it’s my decision what I see and buy. He’s been in this market for probably 20 years, highly rated in local magazines here.

   Recently though I ran into a broker that just seems way more involved. She is more a buyer’s broker whereas he’s more seller but does both. Also younger so IDK if she’s just more involved with clients right now because she’s just starting out. Not to the point of being pushy but sending listings and saying this house is likely similar to x which you had said you liked but was out of your budget etc. Being a first time buyer I feel like I could use this type of hand holding. It saves me time if someone can say to me, I went to see this house, I think you’ll like it better than those other two but you’re free to go see anything you want. Yet it seems “wrong” to go within someone with just 5 years experience when there are people with 20+ years experience. My friends are also acting like it’s crazy to want to broker who is involved in any way – their view is like, who cares all they do is write an offer and show up at the closing. Any opinions here?

   1. You get to prefer what you prefer.

      I’m with you — I don’t have the time or energy to seek out the perfect house, and I rely on my agent to know the market and show me the houses that fit my needs. So no — you’re not crazy and I’d prefer the more hands on agent.

      1. +1.

   2. I live in a perpetually hot market and there’s a lot of value to a buyer in a real estate agent who will keep an eye on listings/pocket listings (not on MLS) and show the buyer what they’d like. There’s also value in keenly knowing the community and market and advising on the right offer to make ($ and contingencies, etc) to get the house you want.

      The best possible agent may show/send you very few listings, but have them be exactly what you want. “You figure it out yourself and I’ll do the paperwork” wouldn’t be of much help in my market.

   3. When I was a buyer’s agent, I specialized in first-time home buyer’s and I always made sure to be pretty involved (unless they made it clear they didn’t want me to be). In addition to what SA said, I would strongly recommend you go with a more hands on agent as a FTB. 5 years is plenty of experience to be a good agent. You can be a good agent with far less experience than that too!

   4. I did basically all the scoping out houses by myself with some coordination for tours and so I focused on getting an agent who was a great negotiator & good at closing quickly (uber competitive market, and so we closed in 23 days).

      I would recommend going to a bunch of open houses to set expectations, figure out what neighborhoods are like etc, but you do you.

      That said, you want someone who’ll do the search for you, you go get someone who’ll do the search for you.

   5. I’ve never bought before – is a broker the same thing as a real estate agent? If not, what’s the difference, and do you need both?

      1. Not exactly but people use the two interchangeably so you don’t need both. In NY, being a broker requires a separate exam but an agent can get you everything you need so it’s not like it matters for most buyers.

         1. Yeah, in California an agent has to be affiliated with a broker but basically they are interchangeable.

6. I posted a while back that my finances are just out of whack. I knew I made enough to pay bills during the pandemic, but I completely forgot I have a small ($750? that’s dollars not thousands) RIA from when I was 18, plus I left a company when I was 26 with maybe another $2,000, plus I have one now, plus I have maybe 10-12 savings and checkings accounts with maybe $50k total combined. I don’t have a lot of money or investments but I want to just “figure it all out.” I’d be willing to spend a little money to sit down with someone who could just give me a checklist and be my accountability person before year end – I know I could do it myself but I have said that I’ll do it for 3 months and just haven’t. Maybe just like personal training, I need to pay someone to just get me to do it.

   That said – any recommendations for who could do this? I don’t have a real financial advisor or planner, but also don’t look at this as their forte…I’m thinking a flat fee instead of a percent or commission. Get my house in order then figure out what to do investment wise. I’m in the midwest but willing to work remote with someone too.

   1. Isn’t the first step here just to consolidate all your accounts? 10-12 saving and checking accounts seems just….outrageous to me. I think consolidating all of your accounts and then opening something like a mint account to keep track of your spending is the best way to go here. Are you looking for someone to help you do that?

   2. I’d sit down on a weekend afternoon with Mint and just add all the accounts you can think of or remember, including searching through your email archives for whatever random updates you get from accounts/vendors you haven’t touched in years. Then you can see everything at once and decide which ones to keep and which to roll into others.

   3. I feel like this is something that you can do the first steps yourself, and that you don’t really need to pay someone to help. Maybe set up a reward system for yourself ….

      Consolidate and combine all of your accounts, if you have 10 – 12 accounts, see if you can consolidate them down to 6, and then 3 and then 1/2. Break it down in to tiny steps, just say in September I’m going to merge these 2 accounts and close account A. Then do it (and post here, we’ll cheer you on for doing the thing!) Start reading financial books or blogs or listen to some podcasts to get familiar with various investing strategies and the language used.
      You also might find some help on a forum or message board, the people who post on bogleheads.org love to give advise to new investors and to go on and on about the best way to do things. (Seriously, they are really helpful and for the most part pretty friendly.)

   4. I like Betterment for investing. Really easy to use platform with some basic financial planning tools, but you can pay extra to have a CFP advise you. You can open up one taxable account and one retirement account and consolidate your accounts into those.

   5. Hi. I get and see you. I hate doing this type of thing and so left to my own devices, it never gets done. I truly want a personal assistant for this crap and would absolutely pay for this too.

      I am fortunate that a close friend’s husband LOVES this stuff and so jumps at the opportunity to fix my money stuff. He won’t accept payment, so I barter for dog sitting or whatever. It works for us. I would ask around for financial planners (or friends/friends spouses) and them reach out to those people and see if they can moonlight on the side and help you with this. It will be crazy easy for them if they are open to it.

   6. I’d ask a friend if they have similar important but not urgent life crap looming over them (like insurance submissions or printing photos or whatever) and schedule a few long afternoon sessions to sit next to each other on your laptops and just get it done.

   7. The Financial Gym would be great for this. Check them out. I used them for about 2 years and then “graduated”. It’s a monthly fee and they really help you get everything together.

7. Anybody want to talk houses with me? We are doing a big renovation of our 1920s Tudor house and I’m trying to come up with a good paint scheme for our home. We have decorative red brick which is staying, but are choosing a new roof, basic paint color, trim, and half-timbering color. My current preference is dark blue house, white half-timbering and trim, and a gray roof. Share ideas!

   1. What colors do you love and what region of country? Lighting matters a lot twice as much outdoors.

      1. I live in the Bay Area, California. It’s not a “real Tudor” like you see in places like New Jersey – it’s a 1920s storybook Tudor, so it’s a little smaller and has a turret. It does have a lot of half-timbering. The brick is all on the paths and fence walls, not on the house itself. I prefer cool colors over warm, and blues are my favorite. Can’t stand yellows, terra cottas, etc – in part because we are in a neighborhood that mixes tudors with mediterraneans and I don’t want to go to mediterranean in color.

   2. I believe Sherwin Williams offers a service for this for a low cost/maybe even free? Just an idea if you want a professional opinion.

   3. I think white half-timbering looks like gingerbread houses, but you might like that bit the most!

      I would do a dark brown, or reddish brown for roof and beams and trim and a lighter basic color, but realize that is probably the opposite of what you want. I think warm white or soft warm colors like yellows, apricot, mint green or sky blue are nice as basic all over colors.

   4. Congratulations! I love Tudor revivals.

      Hard to say without looking at it. I think the half timbering needs to contrast with whatever is behind it. Generally I’d say it should be darker than whatever is behind it, but I’ve seen white half timbering and trim on a darker color to great effect, although in most of those cases they also painted the brick. In my area doing a lighter tonal gray on the entire house with a soft white on the timbering and darker grey on the trim is popular and I think very pretty on these style homes. Unless your home is really large (and in that, case congratulations again) it’s going to be a choppy contrast with the warm red brick.

      Since my husband would never ever, ever let me paint the brick (booo) I’d probably do a traditional dark wood half timbering with a light color on the stucco behind it and a fun door color. Please tell me there’s an arched door. I’m
      So jealous.

      1. There’s an arched door! And a turret!

   5. Honestly I’d do a warm neutral on the house (like a warm beige or a terra cotta) and do dark brown on the timbers. That, to me, is Tudor style.

      1. I just googled and Maria Killam talked about roof colors for Tudors.

         https://mariakillam.com/blackroofdilemma/

         Please don’t try to make your nice Tudor not a Tudor!

   6. I just googled and Maria Killam talked about roof colors for Tudors.

      https://mariakillam.com/blackroofdilemma/

      Please don’t try to make your nice Tudor not a Tudor!

      1. Thank you for the recommendation – I think this is just what I need to shake me loose from my color choosing paralysis!

8. OK hive, something is up with our inherited oven. It’s a Jenn-Air double wall oven. The fan is broken in the upper oven and the control panel is faulty (the only effect of which is that the lower oven light is always on). Appliance guy says it’s darn near impossible to fix and just to wait until it dies and replace the whole thing. (I’d love to get a 2nd opinion, but it took us months to find someone near us even willing to work on JA appliances.)

   Home warranty does not cover it beyond a measly dollar amount that would make a Jenn-Air salesperson laugh. I’d be fine replacing it with a different brand, but I do want to know if you’d be weirded out by the fancy oven brand not matching the fancy range brand as a buyer.

   I feel like we’ve talked about JA appliances here before – any shortcuts or knowledge I’m missing?

   1. He’s correct. Both are/were common problems with these older Jenn-Air double ovens. It was easy to install the vent improperly, which decreased the life-span of the control panel (because it was exposed to more heat than it should have). Check that it’s vented properly and remedy that if it’s not. I personally wouldn’t replace because of either of the two issues you noted, but you’re the one who has to live with it.

      1. That explains SO much! The control panel works fine for now. Appliance guy said (I think; recapping from convo with my husband) that replacing the fan is what would be difficult/near impossible and advised not to use that oven (which is the part that irritates me slightly – I want to use both!). I’m not well-versed in appliance repair – when you say to check the vent, would that be the same as fixing the fan, or would it just reduce control panel’s heat exposure?

         1. No, it’s not the fan. All ovens have a vent. In a stove/oven range, it’s usually on the left side just behind the rear burner. A wall oven fits into the wall and the vent vents out at the top. It’s not an exhaust fan, just a place for excess heat to vent. In these double wall ovens, it’s easy for that vent to be covered up by cabinetry, mashed or otherwise messed up if the oven or surrounding cabinetry was improperly installed.

   2. I wouldn’t even notice the oven and range brands not matching.

      1. +1

         And as you are finding out, the fancy brands are VERY EXPENSIVE to maintain and I feel like the buyers who do notice will know that. I have been happy with GE Profile brand ovens in previous houses.

         1. Ugh, for real! They were nice and shiny when we were touring the house, and now…sigh. Thank you for the brand rec!

9. Boring question, but talk to me about cuticle removal – best products, drugstore or fancy? Best tips or videos or whatever? Thx

   1. Boring question, but talk to me about cuticle removal – best products, drugstore or fancy? Best tips or videos or whatever? Thx

   2. This has been my weekly-ish routine for many years:
      After a shower or washing my hands, apply Sally Hansen cuticle remover (this is supposed to sit for 10-15 seconds)
      Push cuticles back –I used to use a rosewood stick but recently upgraded to a crystal/glass version which I think is more effective. Be gentle!!
      Trim lightly as needed with a cuticle trimmer, but obvi this is controversial.
      For nails themselves, I use a glass file (so much better than metal!).
      I’ve tried various creams/oils to finish–Hard as Hooves is great but I don’t care for the scent, currently using CND Solar Oil
      I love to polish my nails, but I don’t always have the time, so this is my weekly routine and polish is a bonus if it happens.

   3. I liberally apply some CND Solar Oil and then push my cuticles back and buff them with an Olive & June buffer. As long as I do that about once a week and moisturize about once/day with that same oil or the Dior apricot cuticle cream they look pretty good. I’m very bad at trimming and never do it.

10. Now that my tickets are booked, I’m planning my pack list for Miami in December. Does anyone want to do some vicarious shopping for me?

    I won’t be partying but I have heard Miami is a glam city, and I’d like to pick up a few new pieces for dinners & rooftop bars. I’m thirtyish with a very classic style, tall with little in the way of bust or make-up skills. I’m thinking of picking up a slip dress and a sexy pair of sandals. I live in the Northeast, so welcome any thoughts on outfit planning for Miami Beach (vs. Newport!)–what are those of us post-college wearing “out” these days??

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