Taking this fecking eejit down!

Thanks Rudy for my new favourite phrase.
Two things sent me through the roof today.

The mortgage is up for renewal. As usual, SU left the docs sitting on the kitchen table which was my usual sign to pick things up and take action. Well by now the separation was to have been done and the house settled... with me. Things don't always happen the way we want. Of course the bank won't grant an extension... not for any reason. God forbid that the bank, the TD Canada Trust in this case, have a compassionate bone in their corporate greedy entities. Not going to happen. So if SU doesn't sign off on the renewal, the mortgage goes into arrears and both our credit ratings go to hell. Great! This should be fun. AS IF we'll be able to settle this before the end of the month.

And it gets better. We've been negotiating on getting a mediator. My choice is someone who is not a lawyer but who is well versed in mediation practices, who has years of experience in all forms of family martial separation agreements. The SU's lawyer has said that we *must* use a lawyer skilled in mediation, because our separation isn't about custody, something better handled by non lawyer mediators but someone skilled in legal financial questions and separation. This is an argument so full of holes I didn't know where to begin. Last I checked custody issues are also defined by legal overview under the Child Protection Act, the Family Law Act and at least one or two Acts within my jurisdiction. I told my She Barracuda that I couldn't speak at the moment because I was so seriously, absolutely pissed off with himself.

My theory is that SU thinks we are going to get into counselling rather than mediating a deal. I believe he is scared. He'd rather pay two lawyers a combined hourly rate of over %500 than get things mediated for under $100 per hour and then have his suit review an agreement. I think his suit is just lazy and doesn't want to do any of the final work that a real counsellor is supposed to do.

I wasted this afternoon doing research on mediation, and lawyers vs non lawyers, difference in costs etc as well as defining what is meant by mediation. I will be sending this to my Shebarracuda on Monday morning.

At the same time, I will have to confront the SU about this and the mortgage question. Interestingly, I have an army of people to back me. I have friends and support . He can't even get his own family to back him up.

So.... I believe I will have to start using some of the leverage I have built up and take this fecking eejit down.