A Little Doggie Fun

Just thought it would be fun to show how Maddie is getting along. As you can see, she has become buddies with the other animals, and is convinced that the couch is hers. She shares well, though.

Truthfully, one cat still wants her to spontaneously disappear from the face of the earth, though even she has her moments when she will allow me to pet both her and Maddie while not growling. Even better, once this past weekend, she walked past the dog as if she did not exist! If she would take that on as a life philosophy, our household would be a much more peaceful place. Unfortunately, as it now stands, if the cat senses the dog might be anywhere near, she growls, this has the effect of calling the dog to her, so she growls again. Not recognizing this odd sound is coming from the cat he's known his whole life but who never made the sound prior to Maddie's arrive, Jordan (the dalmatian) barks. Well, if Jordan is barking, there must be something interesting happening, so Maddie must bark, too. It is quite the three-ring circus! Poor Wife.



Here's another. Yes, the dog is up in the play structure, a good 4.5 feet off of the ground, with Boy Wonder. He simply called her up, and BOOM, there she was. She is very athletic :) We told him not to do that anymore since she could hurt her legs jumping back down (or even jumping up). It had already happened twice before we knew of the excitement. Maybe she could use the slide? How happy does that boy look? There is something incredibly adorable about a boy and his dog.

OK - enough procrastination. I have to go study Ocean and Water Law. Final tonight!

Thoughts of Summer and Law School

It is fun, exciting and a bit unnerving going into my last summer before the end of law school. I cannot wait to see my family each night and spend full weekends together. No "Sorry, Mama has to go study, but maybe later," for more than three months! I had been contemplating an internship, and still have a possibility of one, but don't want to over-commit my time. So, I am left pondering options - could I work with this firm in the fall? Should I be seeking out other options for fall placements? Will there be an internship seminar such an experience would fit in, or could I do it as independent study? What jobs might open up over the next year and what are the pros and cons of leaving my current job now to get into a real legal job? So much to consider!

To distract myself from studying for finals, there is always the internet - ridiculous videos, interesting tidbits, fun blogs, reviews of products from MP3 players to Leptovox, to vacation destinations. (We have a two-day beach vacation already planned for mid-May! Yippee!) Then there is always posting on my own blog!

OK, OK, I am going....have to study for Final #1, which is tonight at 6:00pm.

A Wonderful Birthday!

Thanks for the postings and emails wishing me a Happy Birthday! Wife and kids made sure I was well taken care of - from breakfast in bed, and decorations all over the house, to lots of fun presents that I don't know how I ever would have managed to open without their expert assistance (*grin*), a day spent at our local museum of science/science center, and dinner at one of my favorite restaurants. The kids even managed to be pretty well-behaved for the day. Gotta love that!

If you want to see photos and read more details - check out Wife's blog.

Thank you Family for a fabulous day! Wish it would have lasted longer! Hey - school is almost out and we bought an annual family pass to the science center, so I guess the fun can keep happening all summer long!

Interesting?

I thought so. Another of those nature photos to share with the kids - and you!

Counting Down the Days!

We're coming into the home stretch. My last real class was last night. I have a late class on Monday, but it is more of a just-for-fun deal with movie clips relating to our subject, plus popcorn, snacks and drinks. I do not suspect any of the clips will involve bodystockings since our prof. said she still had to preview some of the clips recommended to her. Should be interesting to see what she comes up with. I might consider not going, except this prof. is really nice and it would be sort of like planning a party and having no one show up. Still, I bet half of the class won't be there. It will probably be fun, and very casual. Actually, as some of us have mentioned to each other, it does force us to be on campus studying that night, so is probably a good thing.

I have one short paper due Monday, then two finals, one Wednesday and the other a 24-hour take-home the following Tuesday. That means by the end of the day on Wednesday, May 7th I will be done!

Good luck to all my classmates, and my virtual classmates several states away!

Office Move - A Glimpse Into My Work Life

Since last week sometime, I have been moving into a new work space at my real job. (As opposed to my internship, which is now over. Great experience!) Yesterday was the official move day when my computer was moved, and this morning, I got my phone, but last Friday I moved all my files and personal belongings. Just thought I would share them for fun.




Yes, technically it is a cube, but it is a good size, I have a window, and lots of privacy. Best cube on the floor - maybe in the whole building. Not bad!

Summer! Summer! Summer!

I am so ready for the sun! We live in an area that has been unseasonably cold and dreary....OK, so it is dreary quite a bit, but by now it is usually getting warmer and I am so ready! As you may have seen on Wife's blog, we bought new patio furniture and it will be so nice to be out of school for the summer and able to enjoy it every evening with my family! If it is at all like last year, we will eat dinner outside quite a lot, and when the kids are done eating, we will let them go play in the yard while Wife and I finish our more leisurely dinner. The new cushioned seats will be very comfy for us to sit and watch their antics :) I can't wait! I think my head has mostly already been on summer vacation since the end of spring break!

In the Zone

It has been a really good week! (Well, for me....not so much for Wife who has been home with a somewhat sick girl all week. At least they are on the upswing now!) Maybe it is the fact we are getting more daylight, if not exactly sun. Maybe it is that there is only one full week of school left, then finals. Maybe it is that summer is coming (OK, so that is tied in with the last one.) I'm not sure what it is, but I have been getting work-work done, internship work done, web site creation done, blogging done, even my school work is mostly done...I feel like I've been eating right, exercising, taking my Orovo and getting lots of sleep. I haven't really been doing any of these things....I eat OK-ish, walk to my parking spot, take a prenatal vitamin and sleep about 5-6 hours a night. I'm not sure what it is - but I like it!

If I find out the secret - I will share it here!

Parking Ticket Victory

Anyone but me remember my parking ticket from last semester? (I know Jen does.) Well, today I finally got a notice that my citation has been dropped and my account credited. Yes! Sweet justice is mine!

Fungus and Blogging

This morning I saw something that I wanted to share with Boy Wonder. It is this really beautiful fungus growing on a branch by where I park every day. The picture did not turn out very good (camera phone), but I thought if I emailed it to myself, I could post it here if the details are better on a larger screen. Wife can show him. Then I thought, besides, I'd like to share it with all of you. This is one little thing I notice and appreciate almost every day. The wonders of nature! (Wish the photo came close to doing it justice.)



This picture of fungus gets me to my real point. Mieke, another law school mom friend recently posted about the purposes and ramifications of blogging. I won't try to reiterate what she said, or the many eloquent comments she has received, but I will say this topic has come up for me a couple times.

My style of blogging here is very random - sometimes school stuff, sometimes family, sometimes odd things that jump into my head - like posting a picture of fungus. I do it to share with friends who keep up on my life through my blog. I do it to connect with others in similar situations - moms or others in law school, lesbians, moms in general....whoever is reading and somehow connects with my writing. I sometimes write to process things . I sometimes write for money. I rarely write to be eloquent or provocative or funny. Why not? Maybe I should. Someday a future employer may read through this and judge me based on what is here. (My full name is not posted all over this particular blog, but it wouldn't be hard to make the connection.) I figure: so be it. I don't post anything I would be ashamed of here, and don't consider this a sample of my legal writing abilities. What you get here is me.

I don't have a lot of time to write well-constructed arguments or fancy pieces of prose. When I write, I am simply communicating as me - what you see is what you get. As Mieke and her readers point out though, it is not ALL of me. Are there things I don't share? Sure. Could I share some more deeply provocative thoughts? Sure. Frankly though, I want this to be easy. Those who are interested in intellectual discourse can find plenty of places for that. Those interested in checking in on my life - here I am!

Boy Wonder Turned 6 - Crazy!

Boy Wonder had a wonderful Birthday weekend, complete with family party, playing in the backyard, and about 40 holes of "glo golf" (dark mini-golf course with black lights, an underwater theme of brightly colored sea creatures, and balls that glow under the black lights) that we enjoyed on Sunday. We managed to get the house cleaned, carpets cleaned and lawn mowed before the family party, and Wife did last minute pick-ups and prep work while I studied Saturday morning. We did not exactly have out the Riedel wine glasses, but everything looked just right for a 6-year-old's birtday party. His theme was Crayola Art - so lots of bright colors and a cake decorated with a box of chalk and container with a little chalkboard on the outside. Very cute and so appropriate for our budding artist. He is always interested in art supplies and creating things. He's a bit of a non-representational artist - his things are more free-flowing, which may not win him points at school, but we don't like to stifle his creativity by insisting he draw identifiable objects in expected colors.

How did our boy get to be 6? He was three when I started law school. How time flies!

Wrong Blog, Origin of Phrases

HAHAHA! I see that I posted my Disneyland Family Vacation post on this blog (see below). How is that for cross-advertising? I have now posted it on the correct blog, but wanted to keep it here, too, since there were comments.

Hey folks - can you believe we are really getting down to the wire with this semester? I am working on what one professor called "the penultimate question set." Our last of three papers in one of my classes will be assigned sometime today and is due by the 28th. I will only have two finals, which is nice. The other two classes are a paper class and my internship/seminar class. Nice...

The phrase above, "down to the wire", reminds me of something. What is the origin of the phrase "knock on wood" and also, now, "down to the wire"? There are so many of this little cliche-like sayings that often have their roots in an interesting place. I learned in Con Law (I believe) that "the whole 9 yards" is a reference to WWII ammunition...something about a belt of ammo being 27 feet. Guess it would be easy enough to Google any of this. (Notice how Google has been adopted as the term for doing a search? IP person - quick - tell me what this is called when the brand name looses its distinction...like Kleenex and Band Aid?)

Here is an interesting site on this topic:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genepool/meanings.htm I'd say it is not definitive, but there are some great theories.

Have a fun weekend! I will be mowing and cleaning the carpet in preparation of Boy Wonder's 6th Birthday party! (I'm sure there will need to be some studying in there, too. See above regarding penultimate question set....)

Off-Resort Hotels - Where do you compromise?

I was researching off-resort hotels recently and was struck by how difficult it is to find everything that *I* want in a hotel if I am not going to stay at one of the Disneyland Resort Hotels. It may be a while before we can afford to stay on the resort - or even off the resort - but it is fun to dream! I actually really enjoy reading about hotels and what others think about each one. Strange? Nah, no more strange that people's fascination with Dancing with the Stars. Vicarious living, right?

Anyway, the things that are important to me are a refrigerator, microwave, comfy beds, good pool for the kids, relative quiet and either within easy walking distance of Disneyland or with its own dedicated shuttle that runs frequently and stays on schedule. Oh, and do I even need to say that it needs to be CLEAN? I would also enjoy a free breakfast and a visually pleasing setting. Wow....I am asking for a lot! By the time I pay for all of that....could I be at Paradise Pier? Maybe, depends on when I want to go, availability, and special deals that are happening.

What else to consider? Things that you might not think about - is there renovation happening? How frequently are the elevators out of order? Are there smoking rooms and how well are smoking areas isolated from the rest of the hotel? Is freeway noise a problem? Oh - and is it really a hotel or a motel? Does the bathroom/closet area act as a buffer between the sleeping area and the main corridor or will people be walking right by your bed, yelling to each other at all hours, separated only by a thin wall and the window, possibly with a loud air conditioner in it?

So much to consider. I am thinking about putting out a chart of the top 20 or so hotels/motels near Disneyland and whether or not they have the amenities most important to me. It will make future decisions easier for us to make, and maybe you, too!

Keep Your Wedding Photos Proudly Displayed

Family photos are really the only art on our walls. What could be more beautiful in our home than our kids, right? There are even a few of us as a couple, and ones of the whole family. We have a variety of sizes and quality of photos. A few have custom picture framing, such as one that displays the front and the back of our wedding invitation, with a wedding picture in the middle of the two pieces. It is really nice. We always keep in mind a study Wife read early in our marriage about couples who display their wedding photos having a better chance of staying together than those who do not. I believe the theory is that when you are going through the rough times, photos will remind you of how much you loved your spouse in the beginning and that the person you married still exists underneath whatever problems are currently on the surface. Seems to be working for us!

It was a Happy Anniversary!

Our anniversary was wonderful, for those of you who read Wife's blog, too. She made me a wonderful slide-show with music and photos from our 14 years together (13 year wedding anniversary). It was so super sweet and I know she put a ton of time and effort into it. It was a terrific present! Thank you, Baby!

On the dog front, Maddie has made holes in Jordan. Yes. Apparently she has been nipping too hard at his legs and stomach and now he has a few wounds. They are not bad, and we've been keeping antibiotic cream on them. She plays too rough, and he does not stop her. In fact, he is often the instigator of the rough play. Whatcha gonnna do?

We've also found out that occassionally she barks when the telephone rings. This is really nice when it is about dinner time, and Wife is getting bugged by calls for re-fi or auto insurance quotes, and the dog randomly decides it is time to bark at the telephone that she's heard several other times that day without incident. Strange.

We are beginning to see that Maddie may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, but she is super sweet. Hopefully, with me home a bit more this summer, I can assist with some of the training issues, and just be around to wear her out!

Boldly going where no dog has gone before

Wife: You are not going to believe what your son did with your dog.
(Note - two "yours" in one sentence. This probably is not going to be good.)

Me: Uh oh, what?

Wife: You know the platform where the slide connects with the play structure?

Me: Yes. (Picturing the play structure/swing set I build in the freezing rain about a year ago.)

Wife: Your son got the dog up there with him. She jumped up and down off of it - twice.

Me: Wow. (That is about 4 1/2 feet off the ground. Maddie is very athletic.)

Wife: I told him not to do it again so she doesn't hurt her legs.

Me: Good idea. (Mental note: find something athletic to show Boy Wonder to do with Maddie that is unlikely to result in a broken leg on anyone.)

A new advernture every day!