Laverne and Shirley - A Brief Tribute

A co-worker sent me a youtube link that, although totally unrelated, reminded me of the incredible dynamic duo of Laverne and Shirley, and their friends, Lenny and Squiggy. As a result, I've been listening to Lenny and the Squigtones, and a variety of scenes from Laverne and Shirley. There was some seriously good entertainment!

Now, for fun - here are the lyrics to the their classic theme song. (Have we forgotten the importance of a great theme song?) I think it is appropriately inspirational for those of us going through the bumpy ride that is bar prep:


Spoken: One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Schlemeel, schlemazel, hasenfeffer incorporated.

We’re gonna do it!
Give us any chance, we’ll take it.
Give us any rule, we’ll break it.
We’re gonna make our dreams come true.
Doin’ it our way.

Nothin’s gonna turn us back now,
Straight ahead and on the track now.
We’re gonna make our dreams come true,
Doin’ it our way.

There is nothing we won’t try,
Never heard the word impossible.
This time there’s no stopping us.
We’re gonna do it.

On your mark, get set, and go now,
Got a dream and we just know now,
We’re gonna make our dream come true.
And we’ll do it our way, yes our way.
Make all our dreams come true,
And do it our way, yes our way,
Make all our dreams come true
For me and you.

Today's Lecture - Hazard to My Health

Today's Barbri lecture, and tomorrow's, was an unexpected video. I have heard that in many parts of the country, videos are all the students get. I cannot imagine having to pay what I paid for video-only lectures. Today's was the worst. This woman, speaking on wills and trusts, did not even attempt jokes. Most try to keep us amused. They know we are bored, getting tired, and are under a lot of stress. Today's lecturer was no-nonsense, and no fun. Most of us were looking at each other with looks of WTF painted across our pained faces.

During one of our ten-minute breaks, a short trip to the restroom had me eyeing the cool, hard tile on the wall, entertaining thoughts of banging my head against it repeatedly until I fell to the floor, unconscious. That seemed preferable to going back to the lecture.

Perhaps, not surprisingly, I did not choose the head-banging option. I listened. I underlined. I somehow stayed awake. I think I'll opt to just read the lecture notes for tomorrow and NOT put myself through the torture again.

Three Weeks and Counting

Three weeks to go. Not that I am counting. Oh, heck, of course I am. This is the last week of bar review classes. We have just three substantive lectures, plus some practice test/review days. I know that all the information I need has pretty much been laid out for me. It's all in a book and learning to apply it in order to answer the questions is just a matter of practice and repetition. The big deal is making sure I have enough time, and use it very wisely over the next three weeks. Just the fact I've made it this far without needing drug rehab, is a good thing. It bodes well for the future.

I am really glad formal review ends and leaves us with two weeks on our own to do with as we each will. I think the stress level will be through the roof by the time test days roll around, and I doubt it would be good to keep so many freaked out people together. Too much crazy in one place. I think I will be able to stick to my schedule as it has been, studying in the morning, working a bit in the afternoon, spending a bit of time searching the government job site , and then studying more into the evening and night. This gives my brain a rest in the middle of the day - plus gives us an income. I don't think a person can effectively study 12 hour in a row anyway. This is what I say now. In one more week, who knows how I will feel? Certainly more freaked out than I do right now. Right now, it is Sunday night, it's been a good weekend, the kids are sleeping peacefully, and all is good.

4th of July Weekend

Ah, Blessed Sun! We finally had a gorgeous week here and I no longer feel that
long distance moving will soon be necessary. Although, Wife just called into the house that it is kind of cold outside(she's playing FarmTown on her laptop outside and I am on the computer that lives in our kitchen. Quite a difference from last night when we were outside, watching fireworks at 10-11 and were hot in the long sleeve shirts we were wearing to keep the mosquitoes at bay. It was in the 90's over the weekend, but supposed to only be 68 degrees tomorrow. Really? C'mon - let's at least stay consistently over 72, OK?

We have had a really nice 4th of July weekend. Studying, reading for pleasure, playing with the kids in our blow-up pool, a BBQ with my mom and step-dad, neighborhood fireworks that were fun to watch (but we are still astounded at the money people invest in such things) and even a movie enjoyed at home with the kids. Good weather, good food, family fun. Life is good.

An Evening Report

Thoughts for the evening:

Here it is almost 7:00pm. I've listened to a three-hour lecture on property law, worked for a few hours, outlined the notes from said lecture, and now must choose between answering questions on contracts or listening to more of the lecture, which is available online. I'm tempted to do the latter just to get it almost over with and then tomorrow can just work, work, work - or rather - study, study, study without attending the lecture.

It's been a weird summer so far. The nice weather has only just started and I am SO GRATEFUL for the sun. I was so tired of the clouds that I was about to log on to Westgate and make reservations for anywhere sunny! Some of my classmates find it hard to study with the nice weather, because they want to be out in it, which I would love, too, but I get so much energy from the sun, I'm happy to have it coming in my window, driving in it, taking short walks....any bit I can get! I cannot even imagine how depressing studying for the winter bar would be. Ugh. Pretty sure it would depress me into a coma.

Anyway, it is a beautiful night. The sky is still bright blue outside my window, and now, it is time to go listen to part three of property law. I know - many of you are jealous beyond words. Try to handle it and I will not gloat too much. :)

New Name and Bar Thoughts

I see that some of you have noticed my recent name change from Adventures of Law School Mama to Adventures of Out Law Mama. Wife and I both liked the play on words - being an "out" lesbian and also being "out" of law school. I'll keep it for awhile and test drive it. Let me know if you like it or not!

I see I touched a sensitive spot asking who was wigging out over the bar. I can't imagine why! Today I was reading my information about sitting for the exam, the prohibitions, check in times, etc. and noticed the date that results will be available: September 11. Really? The Board of Bar Examiners couldn't have adjusted that just a bit for the sake of the bar-takers' sanity?

I think all of us preparing for the bar, and those who love us, all will need a really good vacation when this is all over. Somewhere without law books, with an abundance of sunshine and fun to be had. I am all over the idea of Orlando vacations for us all, but know many of us will have to settle for something a little closer to home. Not sure what that will be for our family - maybe just a few days of family time in August, and something better once that BIG JOB is finally landed!

Anyone Wigging Out Over the Bar?

It would be really easy to eat and drink my way through bar review. There is almost no time that doesn't seem like a good time for chocolate and alcohol. Still, in an effort to be somewhat healthy and avoid the need for diet pills, I'm trying to turn to more fruit and nuts, and only occassional chocolate and margaritas.

One of my mentors asked me yesterday if any of my classmates were acting really weird. She says during her bar review days, she had a few classmates that totally wigged out. Two moved in together to eat, drink and sleep bar subjects. They started taking the super supplement of the day. She said by the the time the bar exam came around their pupils were like pinpoints and they had totally weirded out - but they passed!

I think we all have had our days of wigging out a bit and wondering how the heck we are going to keep all of this information in our heads and not totally lose our minds from the pressure. I've been feeling oddly calm lately. I think it is going to be good. I'm going to hang onto that....now where did I put my supplements?

No News is....Good!

You know what? It really is OK to just shut off the news for a while. In fact, it is healthy. All the gurus of conscious creation and positive thinking are on this band-wagon, and I am a true believer. Sometimes, especially during otherwise stressful times, there is no point in adding to your anxiety level by hearing about the bombings, the murders, the diseases, the Mesothelioma cancer, the child abductions....need I go on? We stopped getting the newspaper a while back - partly because there was no time for it, partly because it was a waste of paper that just ended up in the recycle bin, and partly because we'd had enough bad news.

I'm not saying to stay ignorant for the rest of your life, but a break from the news can be a really good thing. If not that, even limiting the input - maybe hit the headlines on a few news sites once per day - just enough to stay informed. Try it for awhile and see if it improves your mood. It has worked for us on the occassions that we've tried it!

Man-Eating /Woman-Eating Bugs

Have people in other parts of the country noticed an unusually large number of mosquitoes, or similarly unpleasant pests this spring/summer? The mosquitoes have been terrible this year! They are huge, blood-hungry and merciless. Last Friday at my sister's wine night, in full swing and down one-fifth of tequila by the time I joined around 9:20, after my studies, the whole family had nearly been eaten alive and had been forced inside despite the pleasant temperature outside. The next night something got me so badly that I actually had a goose-egg on my forehead from it. I looked like I'd walked into a wall.

I have heard that certain skin care products are good for keeping away the biting bugs. We hate to use nasty chemicals and did mix up a batch of eucalyptus oil spray in hopes that will work for outdoor times in the future. Seemed to work on Sunday...oh, wait, we weren't home on Sunday! (Ha-ha!) If anyone has any natural suggestions, let me know!

Mid-summer Wedding

Have I mentioned that Wife's brother is getting married the weekend after the bar? He is. His fiance has been planning this big "garden party" wedding for months now. The guests are expected to wear garden attire - but I take it that does not mean grubby shorts and gloves - I think I need to get some linen slacks and maybe I already have a shirt that will work, but I doubt it. I think just being upright at that point will be quite an accomplishment for me! I believe the bride and groom are wearing traditional garb - a tuxedo and formal wedding dress. There will be garden party games, lemonade and gardens for strolling. I'm sure it will be nice, plus a nice getaway for our family after the stress of the bar. We may take an extra day or two for ourselves before coming home from the festivities.

As for our kids, this is the big reference point for the summer - as in "After Uncles James' wedding, Mama will not have to go to school anymore!" Just one more month to go, and this will all be over!

Ramblings After Tax Law

Today I survived four hours of Income Tax law.


I just don't know what else to say about that.

Once all this law school/bar prep stuff is over and "normal life" begins, I am kind of worried about the stuff I am going to find out needs attention/repair/replacement at home. After about the first year or two of law school, Wife realized she could not really count on me to come home and take care of home repair stuff because there simply was not time, so she took care of most things by either doing them herself or calling a repair person. I noticed the other day how loose the faucets are in the kids' bathroom. I think I was notified of this problem over a year ago. I suspect new ones will be in our future. They don't need to be Danze faucets, though they could be....so long as they are new! Let's just hope we can wait and do this on our own time schedule and not that of the household gremlins! I think the humans of our household could use the attention first!

Simulated Exam Day

Today in BarBri review we did one performance exam and six essay questions. I was dreading it and not sure it would be a good use of my time since I've not studied some of the early subjects for weeks now. I imagined I might look at the questions and remember nothing. I did not dread it so much that it caused me to study on family day, or wake up early to study, or anything like that. I didn't even dread it enough to bail out. I suppose "dread" was not the correct word. Maybe it was simply causing me apprehension. (..of immiment, harmful offensive contact? Was I assaulted?) Nonetheless, I went, stuck out the whole day, and am glad I did.

I think overall, I did fairly well. I know I forgot a few buzzwords and an element here and there, but mostly, I actually remembered quite a lot. It was really good to see that I've actually learned a lot of the past four years - and clarified it over the past four weeks. Today was about trying, sitting for nearly the length of time of one of our "real days" will be, and seeing where we are right now. I don't know when we will get the feedback, but am hoping I have achieved or am close to achieving "minimal competence" in at least most of the subjects covered today.

After the simulated exam, I was fairly tired, and an hour or so later came down with a non-simulated headache. Eye-strain, I think mostly. Anyway, I am putting in my hours at work, minus this little posting diversion, and will actually get home relatively early to see Wife tonight. No homework tonight since we already put in a grueling, but well spent day.

Random Thoughts from the Roller Coaster

"Oh my gosh this is insane! There is too much to learn. Too much pressure. Not enough time. Can't breath...."

"Calm the #%$?# down."

"OK, better. Bar schedule day is not so bad. I get to sleep in an hour later than work/law school life - way back before May. I see Wife and kids every morning. I take the dogs for a walk every morning and sometimes one or both kids comes with us."

"Dogs - I know you want to go for a walk. I told you we were going. We've done this routine for nearly 5 weeks now and every time we do not go until I have eaten my breakfast, brushed my teeth and gone to the bathroom. It does not help to whine, nor does it speed up the process for you to come into the bathroom with me and put your paw on my hand (boxer trait). I am perfectly capable of going to the bathroom by myself."

"BarBri lecturers - I do appreciate your attempts at humor, whether successful, or not. I appreciate the funny sayings, the songs, the mnemonic devices, and anything you can do to keep the information coming at a good pace while not boring me into a coma."

"Wife, I am teetering on the edge right now, and am sorry that I sometimes lose it over stupid things like letting the neighbor boy join us for dinner. Any little thing can throw the whole tower off balance, you know? Fixing one more plate and dealing with another human being seemed like a lot at the time. It was not, it ended up nice, and the kids all had fun."

"Coconut margaritas from Applebee's are really good and I may have to make my own."

On that happy note....I will soon be off to study....

Hanging on the Bar

I decided I should do a quick post tonight in the event that I am actually bored to death during tomorrow's contract lecture. I am suffering through a series of three lectures (the longest set we have) and they are all 3 1/2-4 hours long. Contracts is just not that entertaining, nor is the lecturer, who I am sure is perfectly competent, but won't win an Entertainer of the Year award. Today was day two of this series. This has been our first set on video only. I know now that I STRONGLY prefer a live person, even when they are somewhat annoying.

Today the sun was out. This is good as the cloud cover has had me seriously contemplating the California Bar - though my classmates are encouraging that I make the switch to Hawaii. Somewhere where the weather will not cause me to commit any of the various criminal acts that we are studying.

OK - back to Torts essays.....

Oddly Calm

Over the past couple of days I have been feeling oddly calm. I had a day or two that I was a little manic, and people at work were beginning to worry about my sanity, but then it was over.

I have taken in the advice from one of our lecturers about having a positive attitude, and thinking of bar prep and taking the bar as something I *GET* to do, not something I *HAVE* to do. If I really stop and think about it, there are a lot of people who want to go to law school that never get in. I think our school admits about 10% of all applicants. I was fortunate to get to go to law school, and really, I frequently took note of that. Now, I *GET* to take the bar exam. (Convinced, yet? I almost am.)

Also, reading another blogger's post about calming down made me laugh and was right on the mark. I don't have the link right here, but go look under comments to my posting entitled: Pep Talk from the Bar Review Folks.

Anyway, I am feeling pretty good right now, and right now is all we really have. Good enough.

So, now that Boy Wonder has had his last day of First Grade and it is officially summer, the rain has started, and it is supposed to stick around for a while. Great. The good part is it means we don't have to water the lawn and gardens.

Wife and I both hate messing around with the hose and sprinklers. Such a pain! Maybe someday we will have in-ground sprinklers, or some kind of cool recycled water watering system. For now, we have a hose with a sprinkler, we move it around the yard as needed, and wind up at the end of the day. BUT WAIT!! Look at this really cool thing I just found:



It is a No Crank Water-Powered Hose Reel. How cool does that sound? It uses stored up water power to reel the hose back in when you are ready. I am thinking this sounds like a huge amount of fun - and not just because it would be funny to watch the dogs chase the hose as it is winding itself up. I hate hassling with winding up the hose. I usually end up wet, or dirty, or the wound-up hose looks like a complete mess because I somehow have managed to wind against the natural curves of the hose...UGH!

For the last couple years we had a flat fabric-like hose that wound up inside a case....or rather, *I* wound them up inside the case. I often had to do it more than once, because if the hose doesn't quite wind right, or too much water is still in the hose, you have to start over or it won't all fit on the reel. It decomposed right off of its fittings this year, so we had to go buy a new hose and a rack to store it on at the side of the house. We'd considered a reel, but wasn't sure what would work well, or how it would fit by our house. Now that I see this No-Crank device, I think this would be the one to buy. I can just see myself at the end of the day, flipping the switch and happily watching the hose wind itself up as I sip the last of a cool, refreshing adult beverage. It's even on sale at Buy.com - a $10 rebate is available. If anyone knows anything about these fun-looking reels, let me know. Who doesn't love a fun yard gadget?

Summer's Here for Boy Wonder

Boy Wonder is officially a Second Grader!

As you can see if you check Wife's blog, he has had a very exciting day and is thrilled to be a big Second Grader. His grades were excellent and he has been placed in the accelerated class for next year. He is so proud, and of course, so are his moms. It doesn't seem very long ago that we were bouncing him around in a Baby Bjorn and singing him to sleep. (OK, truth be told, we sometimes still do that last one.)

Now it is on to summer fun for Wife and the kids. Days of blow-up pool fun, ice cream cones, day camp, reading on the patio, patio furniture covers, and when I am home, we'll light up the barbecue, and probably have some great nights spent in the tent set up in the backyard. (Some of those mornings I'll be rushing off to bar review for the day, but hey- get your fun where you can.)

Happy Summer!

Pep Talk from the Bar Review Folks

Yesterday during our bar review class, we got a "pep letter." It is sort of a "we know you are going crazy and want to kill yourself, but don't" message. It was kind of nice to know this is the point that we will all start feeling crazy, and losing our glasses, or our minds, or something equally valuable.

I am feeling somewhat stressed, and I know that it will get crazy, but will all be OK in the end. I'm mostly OK, but have started hearing my co-workers say - "You need to get some sleep," and "You are fun when you are stressed." Sad part is, I AM getting sleep. My mind just doesn't really have a lot of room to focus well on anything but bar subjects, and even those are still very out of focus. At least everyone knows, in theory, what I am going through and I don't think the expectations are particularly high right now for my daily functions.

In only 7 short weeks, I will be returning to my normal life, or rather, I will be discovering what the heck normal even looks like. "Normal" may be a constantly changing thing for a while....normal for during law school, normal for bar review, normal before I have a new job, normal for after I find a new job. Who said "The only thing constant is change."? True enough.

Who knows? A few short months from now, I could be starting a new job with new responsibilities, new routines to figure out, new co-workers, new health insurance and a return of premium life insurance, along with a host of other benefits. I will NOT be going to school at night - or in the morning. I will be coming home at night to see my family.....or maybe working late because it is a new job paying the big bucks that will help repay those darn student loans...I repeat, who knows?

Help! I Have Bar Brain!*

Today I lost my glasses.

Last night at 9:00 when I left work, where I study at nights, I had them. I know because I use them to read, and was reading as part of my study plan. (Osmosis seems unlikely to work.) This morning, when I went to get my glasses out of my bag to read in the parking lot prior to class, they were not there.

Now, normally, when I am done studying, I put my glasses in their case, which sits on my desk, then they go into my book bag. Therefore, they should have been there this morning. They were not. I used my old pair, which I still had with me because I just recently transitioned to new ones, figuring my new ones must be on my desk at work. When I arrived at work, there they were not.

I searched all over my work area, in my drawers, the workroom, the bathroom, called wife and had her check all over the house, I searched the car three times, and my book bag countless times. I asked my co-workers. I almost asked our maintenanc man who was chatting in our lobby. I even checked the ground near yesterday's parking spot, halfway expecting to find a sad, squashed blue case with what remained of my glasses, but no.

I finally decided I would have to give up the search, start work, and hope they found their way to a Lost and Found over the next few days. That is when I checked an overhead storage bin in my file cabinet. It is a space I do not even open once per week. There sat my glasses, in their case, safely tucked away.

WHAT?

It was good that I had put them away. Why at 9:00 last night that had seemed like the appropriate place to put them, I have no idea.

Wife says it is like I have pregnancy brain - but it is really bar brain. Yes, I guess that is it. Wow - it is awfully early in bar review to have already lost the part of my mind that is able to function in the real world - the world outside of bar preparation.

I wish Wife and I could just get away alone somewhere for a few days together - just to rest and reconnect and give my bar brain a break. I know she could use it, too. No kids. No dogs. No cats. No responsibilities. Certainly no bar review materials. A resort? A hotel? Motel? There are nice rv parks. I wouldn't be picky.

OK, OK, maybe in 7 more weeks.....

*Credit for the term "bar brain" is properly attributable to Wife.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire Has-Been?

I told Wife two nights ago that I would clarify my remark about mindless TV. She is not the only one who gets sucked into it. I, too, have had my share of guilty pleasure moments, sucked into something that later made me want to take a shower. For instance - My Fair Brady, and Scott Baio is 45...and Single. We don't watch the big shows that seemingly everyone is watching, like Idol and Dancing with the Stars, but give us the dirt on some obscure star from the 70's...or the 90's...and apparently we're all over it.

Bar Review is going fine. We listen to lectures, fill out blank spaces in the workbooks as we listen, put the info into our own outlines later in the day, then do practice questions or practice essays until late into the night. I am doing OK without a laptop computer as I just use my work computer after work. I do see people at school though, with their sleek Macs with all the extra Mac memory, and I do have a little Mac-envy. One of these days, I will get a new laptop, but probably not until I really need it for work or something. Technology changes so fast, I may as well wait to see what I need and then get the latest and greatest at that point.

Now, let's see what's on the trashy cable channels....(just kidding - back to work!)

A Little Mindless Entertainment

Sometimes mindless television is a really good thing.

Sometimes your brain is just too full to digest anything of substance.

Wife recently found some reality show about Tori and Dean, as in Tori spelling and her husband. It is kind of interesting in a voyeuristic sort of way.

On the whole though, I don't really like the reality tv shows, and you can only watch repeats of Frasier so many times. Our current standby entertainment is The West Wing.

Now, to call this "mindless entertainment" is not really accurate. It's politics - often heavy stuff - but still - it is passive - and that is nice. We hadn't gotten involved with The West Wing when it was actually on the air, but Wife's brother got the entire 7 season set for Christmas and encouraged us to take it home and watch it. We are now almost done with Season 3 and it is really good!



It took a few shows to start caring about the characters and getting to know their personalities and relationships, but now we are totally hooked. Martin Sheen is an awesome President with a heart, and wicked intelligence. (Quite the contrast with the real President of the US at the time - early 2000's.) Rob Lowe is a handsome, smart attorney-turned-speech-writer. Stockard Channing occassionally appears as the First Lady, and she plays the part with grace and humor. So many of the cast I do not know, but have come to love.

The show is well-written, funny, and still so relevant - in fact, some of the problems they were worried about or were dealing with are things we now see the results of and wish the past administration would have had the forethought of the television writers. I hear in later seasons there is a character that was based on Obama who goes on to run for President. (Forgive me if I have some of the details incorrect here - we haven't gotten that far, yet!) I'm looking forward to seeing those episodes.

Anyway, I highly recommend the series and if you see the very nicely packaged box set on sale, it is sure to give you at least 112 hours of good, thought-provoking entertainment.

10:00pm and I am ready for bed

...so what am I doing posting?

Wife pointed out to me that there was something amiss in my last posting, so I had to go in and correct it. OCD much?

Hey - if I didn't do it tonight, it might not get done, you know?

Well, all is quiet here. Wife is already in bed, kids have been asleep for hours, even the dogs and cats are already out. I guess I best go join them. If I am really living right, I will not have to move a cat, or a dog, to get into my side of the bed!

Bar Review

Wow. Bar Review is Fun.

Wait....let me redo that.....imagine the voice of the monotone teacher in The Wonder Years, or on Ferris Beuller's Day off....now let me try it:

Wow. Bar Review is Fun. (Note the capital letters for emphasis.)

No, seriously, the classes/lectures are actually quite good. Everything you should have learned in law school and spent weeks and weeks on, condensed into a few short pages. Crazy. The lectures are packed and filled with all relevant information.("Evidence that is relevant has a tendency to make the existence of any fact of consequence more or less probable." See how much I've learned?) No fluff. No chit chat. All essential stuff. So far, most of the lecturers have been very good, some are downright entertaining, and clear. BarBri knows what they are doing.

The down side - too much information in a very short period of time. I think many of us, me included, are already starting to feel overwhelmed. Saturday was bad for many of us, from what I hear. Today we have recovered and are back for more, ready to face the challenges of this odd reality we have signed up for.

I've come up with one unique idea for study strategy, but first I have to go back in time a bit.....For my birthday I got a very cool MP3 player that I love. It is blue, and very cute. See:



Wife found it on sale locally, and got if for me because I had complained that my last one did not have any words, so there was no way to search for or group songs. Sometimes you don't want to listen to Def Leppard followed by Cher and then songs from High School Musical 2. Just saying....anyway, this one plugs into a little auxiliary plug in my car, and presto, access to all of my MP3 songs.

Now, on to my study strategy - I noticed the other day that my MP3 player also has a voice recording feature. I was thinking this might be a 15-30 second memo feature, but the manual says you can record lectures, or whatever. We cannot record our BarBri lectures, but I am thinking of recording myself reading my own outline or sample answers from one of our books, and then listening to that when I am in the car. So much of the bar is remembering key phrases that I think this would be useful. Seems like a very handy feature that I will have to test out soon. Just one more thing to love about my MP3 player. That, and it's blue. Wife has the same one in pink. It's good to be made happy by something as simple as a color choice. :)

No testing the voice recording feature tonight though. Tonight, as every night, I will take about 2 hours to outline what we learned in lecture today, then work on a couple essay questions, then do some multiple choice questions. Then I will go home...be home by 9:30 hopefully....see Wife for a short time, then sleep. I have a full night ahead!

Wii are having fun now!

The kids and I have had great fun playing with Wife's brother's Wii game system wheneven we visit, but Wife and I have told the kids it was far too expensive for us to get our own. Well, I received a good bit of money as graduation gifts, and decided the whole family should reap in the rewards of our long, hard struggle, and so we used the money to buy a Nintendo Wii and some games. The game system seems to be about the same price everywhere. It is on sale most places for $249. If you click on the previous link, it will lead you to a place where that price includes free shipping!



The Wii is great fun! For anyone living in a cave, or in law school, for the past few years (several of my classmates have not heard of it), Wii is an interactive game system that connects to your tv and responds to your movements via a remote, or other devices such as game mats or balance boards. The game package that comes with most systems I have seen is Sports - which includes things like bowling, one of Wife's personal favorites, golf and baseball. We also got Carnival - which provides a TON of the kinds of games you'd play at a carnival - ring toss, dunk tank, skee ball, throwing a ball at a stack of clown-shaped pins to knock them over....all of those fun games that cost way too much to play on the midway. Well, this is a chance to get good at them! Boy Wonder loves to earn points to win virtual prizes, including crazy hats and such for your character to wear. (You get to personalize your own character for game play across all games.)

We've also had big fun playing Mario Cart, which is a racing game. Boy Wonder and I love racing each other - choose your character, your vehicle, and it is off to the races on all sorts of crazy courses! The last game we bought was Outdoor Challenge. This one hooks to a mat and you can do individual or team challenges, or do head to head competition. These games involve things like running and jumping over hurdles, racing through a mine on a runaway cart, rafting through a pipe, and climbing a rope up a waterfall. Boy Wonder and I had Wife in stitches as she watched us racing and jumping this past Sunday morning. It was fun, and I broke a sweat before I'd even had a cup of coffee! This was some serious exercise! Our Princess is still a bit young for most games, but she still enjoys helping where she can, and watching the action.

This has been a great gift for us all and is sure to provide hundreds of hours of fun for our family. Next purchase will be Wii Fit. Just about everyone we run into who already has Wii tell us we HAVE TO get it!

Post Graduation Report

As you will see, I took off a week from blogging following graduation. Let me say, graduation weekend was wonderful! Graduation was all it should be. Well, OK, the speakers could have been more inspirational, the ceremony could have been shorter, but overall - fun, meaningful, and all the ritual should be.

Wife, kids, Mom and Step-Dad were all there....and our kids did great! They were in the stands for 4 hours, including wait time before the ceremony, and they were so well-behaved. Wife did a great job of packing food and activities for them(OK, son's DS especially!), and they certainly did us both proud! I am very happy since this way, Wife could experience and enjoy my graduation, too.

I won't recap everything since Wife already did such a great job on her blog! I will say that I was wrong about me not having a big drunken bash. Well, OK, so it was not exactly that - but I will say Wife and I had quite the good time enhanced by a considerable amount of alcohol. :) Between a great party hosted by my mom and one of my sisters, the attendance of lots of family and friends, and a nice barbecue with Wife's family in our backyard afterwards, the Sunday after graduation was most excellent!

I am now one week into formal bar review through BarBri. It is going to be a very intense several weeks, but after four years of law school, another couple of months is not all that daunting. The bar exam itself....well....I can do it! That is my mantra...I can do it and I will pass!

Now that I am officially a graduate, looks like I'll be needing a new name for this blog. Any suggestions?

Graduation Weekend!

It's finally here. The Big Day. Graduation.

I sense that my graduation weekend will look much different than that of many of the daytime students, but maybe similar to many of my FORMER evening classmates. No drunken bashes for me - but good, happy times with my family. Tomorrow is graduation. Yippee!! It is followed by a short children's graduation that acknowledges the sacrifices of our families and what an accomplishment this is for us all. Nice, right?

Sunday my mom has put together a celebration with all of my family and a few friends, and some of Wife's family is even coming, which is surprising, and really nice. After the late afternoon event, we'll probably end up in our backyard, hanging out with the family from out of town, maybe barbecuing or ordering a pizza. The weather is supposed to be nice and I think it will be a wonderful weekend!

Congrats to all of my FORMER (yes, I am getting a kick out of that) classmates and their families!

Really, Truly Graduating

Yesterday I received my final grades and it is official - I am really, truly graduating. Wow. Four years. I'm actually about to graduate from law school. Technically, I guess I already have. The degree has been earned....all that's left is "walking." (Isn't that a funny term for graduation - walking? Used as in, "Are you walking?" meaning will you be participating in the graduation ceremony?) I now can put the initials, J.D. after my name.

Someone where I worked asked when they could start calling me "doctor." I work at a school of nursing, and getting your doctoral degree is a big deal, and then you get to be called "doctor." I told her whenever she would like! :) After four years, why is "counselor" the title we get? It is somehow unsatisfying. Yes, yes, technically I suppose "counselor" is accurate....but couldn't the same be said of any doctor degree - MD, PhD - don't we all counsel others based on our knowledge and opinions?

So not the point of this post. The point is - I am actually graduating! Bar review starts next Tuesday, but for now, I am celebrating one victory at a time!

The Stolen Days at the Beach

Last week we started to head home from the beach on Tuesday, one day early. Baby Girl had woken up in the middle of the night, throwing up. Ugh. We had no idea what she had and if we all might get it. She threw up again in the morning, the kids started fighting over ridiculous things, and we figured the moodiness was a bad sign. Better head home. We told the kids they could play at the beach one more time on the way out. We had to head up the coast for about an hour before turning inland, so this was a good way to break up the trip home anyway.

It was a beautiful day. The kids were having a great time in the sand, Baby Girl felt fine, Wife and I were enjoying the view and we thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to stay here, with this beautiful view?" Two phone calls later, I'd found a great mid-week rate at a top resort with a gorgeous view of the beach and the ocean. The hotel was fabulous, and we were enjoying the luxury so much, we stole an extra night! For the second night, we had to change rooms, but got bumped up to the top floor with an even more spectacular view for the same fabulous rate we'd been given for the first night.

This room had a view of a local landmark called Haystack Rock. It is mololith that sticks up out of the water, very close to shore and is a National Wildlife Refuge - home to many bird species. We were maybe 200 yards from the rock (she says, imagining about 2 football fields...but maybe it was farther than that). I wish I'd seen a good pair of binoculars on sale, or had ours with us. It would have been fun to see the birds up closer, and maybe even their nests. Haystack Rock is a major nesting site for puffins, which I love and have ever since first seeing them up in Alaska when I was in college.

This pair of Nikon binoculars that I've linked to above looks like it would do a great job of bringing the details of birds and their nests into view. Nikon does a great job with cameras, so I would think their binoculars would be outstanding. It's all about the lenses, right? They certainly have that down. After that, you want a pair of binoculars that feel good in your hand - again, why wouldn't the top camera manufacturer make a great feeling pair of binoculars? Add in their ergonomic design, arsenic free Eco-Glass, one-year warranty, and free shipping, if I'd been staying a bit longer, I could have ordered this pair of binoculars online and had them shipped to me at my hotel. Now that would have been fun!

As it was, there were no binoculars, but we did have two cameras with zoom with us, and took a ton of photos. They should be up on Wife's blog soon!

Souvenirs from the Beach

Candy is very accessible at the beach.

Why is it that at the beach is the only time a person ever buys fudge? (One MAKES it at Christmas, of course.)
There are always several candy shops featuring fudge, salt-water taffy, and various kinds of the candy you remember as a child. Well, let's just say we had no trouble spending and eating our share of candy in support of the local economy. We'll now need to do some research on the best diet pills, I'm afraid!

We do tend to only eat two meals a day while on vacation. That does mean CANDY can be the third meal, right?

We also managed to stock up on souvenirs from about every other shop we walked in to. The kids now have new stuffed buddies, plastic toys, glass trinkets and squishy balls to remind them of their adventures. I have a T-shirt from the Tillamook Cheese Factory, a lighthouse Christmas ornament, a travel journal, and a beautiful soft robe from the resort we stayed in that was a gift from my sweet wife. (I was so in love with the robes in the room!) Wife has two new coffee mugs, some "ocean" room spray, charms for her charm bracelet, and a funny T-shirt that she will probably blog about so I will not.

We also took a TON of photos!

We'll not soon forget this trip. When I get done resolving my work crisis that cropped up in my absence, I will blog more about the vacation. Probably next week. Happy Weekend everyone!

We're Back!

Our vacation was awesome! Naturally, we still wish we were at the beach. We played tourist and saw fun things every day. We almost came home early because our little girl threw up in the middle of the night on Monday. We packed up, ready to head home, fearing a proverbial colon cleanse, or worse, was in store for all of us, but then we all felt great playing at the beach near the turn off to go home. It was such a beautiful day, we called around and got a great deal at what is probably the nicest resort in the area. Our room was practically on the beach we were so close - and the view was amazing! All still feeling relatively healthy, we ended up staying there for two nights, meaning we stole an extra one that hadn't been planned on. So fun! More details to follow. Be sure to check Wife's blog, too, as I suspect there will eventually be photos!

Packed and Almost Ready to Go

Last night I packed a bunch of family-friendly DVDs, my clothes, and added a few things to our "do not forget" list - like Boy Wonder's DS game and games for our Little Princess. Wife will get the kids and herself packed while I am at work today. The kids will probably help a bit, but at this point, they can't really be trusted to do it themselves. We'd end up with swimming suits, pajamas, equestrian apparel (the Princess is adorable in her brother's old cowboy boots), ballet outfits, and perhaps a Halloween costume or two.

Packing us up for a trip is always an adventure, and I have to admit, one I rarely contribute much to. Wife is usually left with most of the packing and all the hard work. (Wife - YOU ROCK!) I usually deal with my own clothes, snacks for the car, and sometimes miscellaneous stuff. She is also way better at spacial stuff than I am, so she packs us into the car in order to maximize space usage. This is especially important when we take the Scion, as it has a very small back area in which to pack. This weekend, we'll take the SUV - we'll need the extra room, and added security of driving a heavier vehicle on winding mountain and coastal roads.

Can you tell I am ready to go? Too bad it is only 8:20am and we can't leave until about 5:00pm. It may be a long day......but you know what?

I AM DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dilemmas of Eating at the Beach

Yes, going to the beach to celebrate should be big fun. Our whole family loves the beach. Boy Wonder and I agreed last night that he should continue his quest, started last summer, to find the best clam chowder. I am very proud of him for trying new things. Last time we checked, he thought that clam chowder had pieces of chicken in it. I'm not going to dispell that myth quite yet, unless he actually asks outright. Not really sure that chicken is any better....but it is more familiar.

We are entering the stage that Boy Wonder kind of gets where meat comes from. Our sweet Princess doesn't quite get it, and we are trying to convince her brother not to tell her. She has recently made the connection that there are "eating fish" and fish that people have as pets. The crabs in the seafood section, the whole cooked crabs are particularly disturbing to her because she gets that they used to be alive.

The whole topic is rather disturbing and seems wrong once you have to explain it to your kids. *sigh* We find our ways of justifying our eating habits, but still, it's hard to sit and watch a Disney movie with singing fish and lobsters, then put those types of things on your plate at dinner. We aren't even big meat or fish eaters, but aren't entirely vegetarians either. Let's just say that after one of these conversations, our appetites are such that I doubt there will be any immediate need for weight loss pills.

Just Starting to Sink In

Wow. I am really done with law school.

Pause.

Really?

It's strange and exhilarating. Tonight we leave for the beach for 5 nights. Nothing quite as exciting as going across the country to North Carolina's Outer Banks rentals, or even closer, Disneyland, but for now, 5 days at our local beaches, just a couple hours away, sounds really good.

As I was packing last night, I realized I do not have a book to read. I usually like to take a book on vacation for reading on those rare moments with the kids are otherwise occupied, or asleep. The one I was reading over Christmas was The Nine - about the Supreme Court. I spent all semester in a class dealing with the Supreme Court justices and writing a 30 page paper about a related topic. I don't so much want to continue reading The Nine right now. :) I'll have to find a fiction best-seller at the grocery store and indulge in some good, old-fashioned escapism! That sounds really good. :)

I AM DONE!!!!!!!

What more is there to say today?

Oh, I know:

WAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buzzing with Anticipation

Tomorrow is my LAST FINAL EVER! (Last Final - seems like redundancy, doesn't it?)

I have some studying ahead - soon, but think I will be ready when I have to be. I'm almost jittery with the rush of being almost done! To cope, I studied a bit, worked a bit, got my hair cut, indulged in a fast Mexican food lunch, worked a bit more, and am now blogging.

Today someone left candy in the workroom. Yesterday there was cake. Really? Is a stressed out person, concerned about taking a Secured Transactions final, supposed to just pass this stuff by as it if was not there? Good thing I don't work in a bigger office. I'd probably need to research the top 10 rated diet pills if I had many more grazing options!

Well, the sun is starting to shine in my window. It is just about time to start what is likely to be my final round of studying, and tomorrow by either 12:30 or 9:30, depending on which exam time I feel most appropriate, I will be DONE!

One to Go!

I survived the Immigration Law final! It was one of the ones I was a bit concerned about, but I think it went OK. Now, on to Secured Transactions, and then I will be done!

It would certainly be easy to handle the stress of finals by eating and drinking a lot, but I've found that right before the exam, appetite suppressants are not needed. When it gets right down to the hour or so before the final, I don't really want to eat or drink, I just want to get right to the test. That last hour or so is the worst because all I can really do is wait. I personally find if I look at my notes it just freaks me out, so I really can't do that. I don't want to read non-related material and strain my eyes that will soon be doing nothing but staring at an exam, my notes and my computer. Not many people around campus to talk to. So, I wait, call my family. Wait some more. I will only have to do that one more time!!! Wahoo!!! (No Bar Exam talk! Stop that!)

Last School Study Weekend

That's right - the last weekend of "school studying" has been completed. (Sure - there's bar studying, but that is different.) I studied. I learned. I think I am ready for my second to last law school final EVER!!

Saturday I studied while Wife cleaned house in anticipation of the babysitter, or her mom who is a friend, being at our house that evening. My Mom and her husband took us out for my birthday and pre-graduation dinner. We had a very nice dinner at a waterfront table at one of our hometown's nicest restaurants. After dinner we went to my Mom's apartment to see their new TV with the LCD mount. It is positioned right over their new treadmill - perfect for walking and viewing at the same time.

Later we caught part of my brother-in-law's band playing at a local Irish pub. No, he's not a rocker...it is more of a Kingston Trio kind of band - guitars, banjos and folk music. Well, maybe folk music. Not sure what to call it. Anyway, it was fun, and it was a full night out without the kids! Even that part went well, as Boy Wonder was just finishing doing the dishes when we arrived home. He was very excited to have us notice that he'd washed their popcorn bowls. So cute!

So, now it is time to leave for my final. This is a big one. I am a bit nervous and very anxious to be SUCCESSFULLY done with it!

One Down - Two to Go

I wish I felt more relieved than I do, but my two biggest, possibly worst finals ever are looming. We've been warned they are complex and time-pressured. Wonderful. I feel so much better now.

Still, it is a beautiful Friday, my Local Government Law final exam is behind me, I think I did respectably, and family night is ahead. Tomorrow will be a big study day, followed by my Mom taking Wife and I out for a nice birthday dinner and paying the babysitter! Sunday will be shopping and some sort of family fun, and then the race to the finish begins!

Studying Is Icky

Yes, I said "icky." It is a technical term.

Right now I am NOT a big fan of Immigration Law nor of Secured Transactions. I had classes in both of these areas and am now responsible for knowing and relating huge amounts of information in these very technical areas. I know, I know, law school is not supposed to be easy, but do I REALLY need to know so much about areas that I plan on never practicing?

It would be more fun to shop for a present for Wife. I think we can all agree she deserves a WONDERFUL gift, but I am clueless as to what it might be. We've about decided not to give each other graduation gifts and wait until we can agree on something together.

I know for sure that sports gifts would not be high on her list, but our Little Princess would enjoy almost anything sports-related. She loves her dresses, high heels and tiarras, but is almost as happy kicking around a soccer ball or hitting a baseball in the backyard. Oh, and the two loves are not mutually exclusive.....she'll happily play soccer in a party dress if her Moms will let her.

That does not help with an idea for Wife however...she'd not be happy in a party dress or playing soccer. Guess I know what NOT to buy!

Blue Screen Blues

Did I mentioned getting the blue screen of death about a week or two ago? Right, with only about a week and a half left of classes, plus finals, my laptop computer died. Well, it is possible it can be revived, but I will never trust it again, certainly not for finals. Maybe for note taking that I can back-up everyday during bar review.

I have been using Wife's laptop (Thank you, honey!) that we bought as a back-up in my second year...or was it my third?...when I was having power cord issues with mine. It's been good to have, and Wife enjoys it for portable digital scrap booking and surfing in the backyard on warm summer days. Hence the reason she wants her laptop back soon - summer is nearly here!

Just in case I need to get a new one, we've looked around a bit. A person can get a decent laptop these days for $500-600. Those I've been are bulkier that I would like though. I did some research and found what is undoubtedly the best of the netbooks. Netbook - yes - that is what I wrote. They are those adorably cute little computers meant mainly for surfing and checking email. I found a version though that can handle the MS Office apps, and the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. I even found someone using it for college note taking. Perfect, right?

The winner is the Samsung NC-10. It can be found on sale for about $400, has a 93% normal size keyboard (some specs I've seen say 95%), with all the keys in the right place. Key placement is apparently a big problem with many netbooks. It is fast, apparently reliable, and the resolution is said to be excellent.

Due to size, there is no CD drive - so an external is necessary, or one can rely on a flash drive to transfer to and from a main computer. I'm told that is how I could load Word and PowerPoint, though I've not tried such a stunt.

At this point, we'll hope once finals are over I can try an XP repair or maybe just zap the hard drive and start over, so I can keep my old laptop. Still, the cute little Samsung is calling my name. It comes in blue. :) On the other hand, maybe if I wait a year or so, I could buy a lightweight but very powerful real laptop and that might be a better purchase in the long run. Ultimately, it depends on what I would want to use it for. For what I've done on my laptop for the last four years, other than burning CDs during finals, the NC-10 would be just fine.

Who knows? Maybe there will be graduation money in my future for just such a purchase!

Symptoms of the Rush

The rush of my last class has just about worn off, and I was hit with the reality of studying for my finals. I am woefully unprepared. At least I still have time. First final - Friday.

I think the excitement and lack of sleep are catching up with me. Last night I had a weird dream about giving engagement rings to two different women, but one was a mistake and I didn't really even know her. I had to try to find her and fix it so the second wouldn't be upset. I'm not sure I actually wanted to marry either one. (I don't know where Wife was during all this - clearly she did not exist, yet.) The weirdness must be from lack of sleep coupled with the episode of Brothers and Sisters we watched last night where Kitty is starting an affair.

I am happy to report I got a fairly good night's sleep and am ready to tackle work and study!

Reporting Live from My Last Class

This is Law School Mama, soon to be Law School Graduate Mama, reporting live at 8:26pm, Monday, April 27, 2009. I am currently sitting in my last formal law school class ever! My professor is standing at the front of the clasroom discussing undocumented workers in the context of immigration law as if we are all still paying attention. I am copying the notes she is writing on the board, drinking champagne and writing this post. (Hey, I might as well get in all of the "bad" behavior I've missed out on while I still can. If that is the case, I should be shopping online. Yes, I've actually witnessed that behavior.)

I best pay attention now. This is it, folks!
Thanks to all of you for sticking with me over the years.

More to come as I enter finals in the next few days...

Last Local Government Law Class!!

I am currently in my very last local government law class ever! This has been one of my very least favorite classes and I will not be sad to say goodbye to it forever!

Sadly, the final is a closed-book, no note final. We had only cases as class materials, so most content was by lecture. He was not the best, nor the worst lecturer..but I am quite uneasy about the material I need to memorize. Great...he just mentioned something that sounds totally unfamiliar that is not in my notes anywhere. Even as he is reviewing material, he keeps saying, "Remember when we talked about...? Wasn't that the case....?" Ugh. Just thinking about this stuff is bringing me down from my last class high.

I have to be sure and not overindulge in food (or alcohol) during the upcoming time of celebration. Yesterday at work there was an immense chocolate cake and there was lots left today. I had two pieces yesterday, but today was good about only having about three bites. Still, chocolate and Cokes are great ways to celebrate, to keep awake while studying, and to cope with stress, and if I am not careful, I will end up needing the best rated diet pills. I am sure walks in the sun will be much healthier than all the possible goodies within my reach. As long as the sun stays out, I'm happy to indulge in that kind of treat!

Summer is Calling

Spring has arrived! We had a beautiful weekend, with tulips in full bloom, and the sun shining down upon us. It was the perfect weekend to start dreaming about beach vacation rentals - any beach, anytime, is a really good thing!

We may escape for a few days following my last final...wait, let me say that again, my LAST FINAL...*grin*...and before bar review starts. Bar review, for me, will be formal 5-6 day per week 3 1/2 hour classes for 6 weeks, then 2 weeks of studying on my own right before the exam. Those that run the class say to expect about 6 hours of homework per day. How fun does that sound? Great summer, right? Well, after July 29th, it will all be over.

In the mean time, I will dream about being done with finals and soaking up a little sun and ocean air to get in the proper frame of mind to learn everything I need to know to pass the bar. (...and the sound of semi-hysterical laugher fades into the distance....end scene.)

Three Class Days Left!

What a fun and weird place to be. I have three class days left of law school - two next week and one the following week. It is very exciting and in some ways, things are going too fast to take time to consider. First, I study like crazy to figure out what it is I am supposed to know for the three classes for which I have finals, then I get finals out of the way, have about a week off, go through graduation, then start bar review. Bar review will be long and hard and tedious and frustrating because it has so little to do with anything I want to do with my life (other than passing the bar!)- yet - it is a ritual, and a requirement - and part of the whole law school experience. At the end of July, it will all be over. Weird to finally be here.

Despite not having a new job to go to yet, I feel strangely positive that all will work out well. In my current job, I can go down to half time during bar review, which means I can still work, and not be stressed about trying to learn a new job. It is comfortable and that will be good during the stress of the next few months. In that time, I'll keep up my networking, watching for things in my field of interest, and remain positive that I will end up in a good place that will move my career along on the path that I want to be traveling.

Best of luck to all of you who find yourselves similarly situated! We've almost done it!

Happy 7th Birthday, Boy Wonder!

Boy Wonder was born 7 years ago today. What an amazing 7 years it has been! I remember when he was born, C-section after 38 hours of labor (Wife was a total trooper!), how amazing it was to finally hold him, and how wonderful to give him his first bath when he was less than one-hour old. (Picture of that on Wife's blog today.) I had no clue what I was doing or how to get him into the onesie I was handed by the nurse, but I managed. Wife was still hooked up to an IV and such during our first night together, so he was my boy to watch after, to freak out about when he was coughing up disgusting tar-looking stuff, and to notice the next day that he was turning yellow and then orange. Those first few days were scary. Time spent in the NICU with nurses without much more to do than pay way too much attention to our baby and notice every thing that could possibly be wrong (but wasn't, thank God!) was nerve-wracking.

Now....7 years later, Boy Wonder is a beautiful, smart, funny boy. No longer a baby, or a toddler, or a preschooler. To look at him now, he is a kid, a real boy, and all boy he is. Sometimes, Wife and I look at each other and have no idea where he gets the things he does. It's not like we are teaching him typical male behaviors, but there they are, just the same.

Maybe his predisposition to love video games is a "boy behavior," but maybe not, as our Little Princess is following in her brother's footsteps. He told me last week he was going to help her become a computer whiz, too. What a sweet big brother, right?

For his Birthday, celebrated on Sunday (and today) we surprised him with a Ninetendo DS , which we'd told him would be a long time before we could get for him. We found one on a good sale, and he has been beside himself happy about it. He's been very happy with his Gameboy Advance, but all the new games are only being release in the DS version now, and the new device has many more capabilities, plus can play his current Gameboy games, so we figured we'd go ahead and get it for him. From other family members, he received a couple of new games and gift cards, so he could go choose another couple games for himself. He chose Monsters v. Aliens, based on the new movie, and a version of Pokemon he didn't have, yet. We found out the DS even has voice capabilities. So far, Boy Wonder has been able to make a monster spit as a weapon when he tells him to. Cool, right?

Yup - he's gone from a teeny, tiny helpless baby to a big First Grader, skilled in reading, math and video games and so much more. His moms could not be more proud.

Happy Birthday, Son!

Milestone

My FINAL paper of law school has been turned in.

What more is there to say?

Oh, right - WAHOOOOOOO!!!!

Random Thoughts During Painfully Dull Class

Random thoughts during the last 50 minutes of class, or whenever I hit "post."

- Happy Anniversary, Wife! Happy 14 years of marriage - may we celebrate many, many, many, many more wonderful years together!

- Hey - there is only ONE CLASS left of new material for this class! Thank God. This guy is killing me. If I hear any more hesitancy and uncertainly of facts, I may scream.

- I am so happy that I am getting close to being done with my FINAL PAPER OF LAW SCHOOL. I still need to add in the figures, polish and check the whole thing, but I am so close that I am thrilled!

- It was so fun to take the kids to Monsters v Aliens last week. See Wife's Blog about our April Fool's Day. After discovering our surprise was taking them to the movies, Boy Wonder declared, "This is the Best Day Ever!" I love that he has a lot of these. He is a happy boy. (Note: Both kids LOVED the movie and near the end both let me know that we had to buy it because it was "the best movie ever." As far as animated features, I still prefer Monsters, Inc., but this one was pretty fun.)

Fancy Nancy and the Four-Year-Old

Life with kids is never dull. :)

Just as Boy Wonder is mostly getting his behavioral act together, Our Little Princess has turned four. We are not so very amused about four. The kids have cousins who turned four within just a few weeks of the Princess's Birthday. Their parents are not amused by four either. The complete stranger that I met at The Learning Palace with twins is not so much amused by four. Four is not that much fun. We would like to go back to three or skip to five now, thankyouverymuch.

Four is filled with sass and attitude and even more independence than three. Fortunately, for us, four is also filled with cuteness, cuddliness, and a thought-process that never ceases to amaze. Our four-year-old can solve most problems for you - just ask and a creative, if not practical, solution will be offered. Our Princess also has a great vocabulary - tossing around words like "flabergasted," "apprehensive," and "hideous." We've found that she is learning some of these words from her tv shows. Nice that they are educational, right? She also learns them from her Fancy Nancy books. She only has one or two right now, but we've read a couple in stores. We were hoping she might get one for her birthday that we talked her out of buying "just in case," but I suspect we will eventualy have to get it. The book she fell in love with was "Bonjour, Butterfly." Now that I look at other titles though, I think the perfect one for her might be Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words. It seems to be on a pretty good Sale at Buy.com, and we do love getting presents in the mail.

I suspect Little Miss Four would love learning all of the fancy words and inserting them into her vocabulary. Fancy Nancy not only uses big, fancy words, but she explains what they mean so the readers (or listeners) will know. In some ways, the books are a little irritating, but I think it is just that they are SOOOOOOO girly-girl, which is exactly what our girly-girl loves about them.

I have to admit, books are one thing that are really hard to say "no" to when the kids ask. Now that Boy Wonder sometimes reads bedtime stories to his little sister, I do not regret any of our book purchases or time spent reading together. I can see it paying off, and it is amazing.

Framed! (Just the memories.)

"So, this is Spring Break," she said, staring out the window of her office into the gloomy, rain-soaked cement courtyard. Around her was spread out law review articles, snippets of Supreme Court cases, an Immigration Law syllabus, various pens, paper, and highlighters, and of course, the trusty laptop.

Spring Break has become more like Spring Catch-Up, and neither me nor my family is enjoying it much. Fortunately tomorrow we are going to get out of town for a few days to visit Wife's family and celebrate kids' birthdays, so maybe that will provide a little much needed escape.

I'm almost done with my half workday so I can switch to homework. I'm in the midst of a HUGE research paper that I never should have gotten myself into, but did. I'm staring at my digital picture frame, which tells the story of a couple of snowy days back in December. At the time, we thought it was a decent amount of snow, but compared to what followed, it was nothing. Still, I love the way the pictures move from one to the next, showing the first bits of snowfall, the kids playing in it, the small snowman that was later built, and the creation of snow angels. I see now how a person could carefully load the pictures in a particular order to really tell the story in an artful way, like we do for the "movie" slideshows Wife and I have made for each other for computer playback. Of course, those have music, so are much more powerful, but these silent shows have their own beauty.


I remember when the digital frames first came out. They were so expensive! I had one coworker with one that I just loved. Now you can get a good digital picture frame on Sale for under $50. The one I linked to above is only $33 with free shipping. Can't beat that. Truthfully, I know nothing about the brand, but even the low end ones these days seem pretty decent, especially if it is just to have at work as a nice distraction and reminder of what is important.

Perhaps in the next couple of weeks I will switch my silent show from snowtime to springtime. Bring on the sunny days!

Drives and Backing up...

Yesterday at work I was without access to all of my drives. Yes. All. Even my C://drive. How does that happen? Actually about half of us were without drives. (Not to be confused with lacking drive...) Without even our c://drive no applications would open, there was no desktop access, there was very little productivity.

I did have my laptop and switched back and forth between work work (phone calls and email) and school work. Thank goodness for my lovely little pen drive. How much do we love these handy, dandy lifesavers? The cost of these fabulous creatures had been reduced drastically - like the one you'll see if you click on the link above is under $9 for 4GB (Sale price). You can store a ton of stuff in your pocket to transfer between one computer and another for that price. In fact, they have come down in price enough
that they make great back-up storage.

When our friends from California visited us last week, we discussed backing up our law school notes and papers....on Webdisk, on pen drives, as a different name on the same computer....etc. We've all heard horror stories of someone's computer crashing just before finals, and there went all their notes....

Why was I writing about this? Oh, right....because today my drives are back and now I am a very appreciative worker bee. I LOVE having access to all my drives, my applications, being able to send attachments with my emails...fun, fun, fun! We all need a day like that to show us how much we are at the mercy of our computers, and the ITG folks. They never should have laid off so many people that do tech support....

The L Word - Longing for More

For those who have been following my blog for the past 3+ years (bless you!), you may have noticed that I have been suspiciously quiet about The L Word this season. Yes. As always, I have enjoyed it and I am sad to say, the series finale has come and gone. This season was certainly not as good as the others, in most respects. The entire premise of the season was just a set up for a spin-off that producer Ilene Chaiken hopes to sell to Showtime and develop another series.

The season focused on "Who killed Jenny Schecter," one of the main characters. Each new episode featured another of the main characters developing motive to kill Jenny, and vocalizing the threat. Many of the actions are out of character, and the situations overly contrived. Jenny's behavior went completely over-the-top.

OK - maybe that does happen to people. I want to give Ilene the benefit of the doubt. After all, she put lesbians into prime time, and made us sexy, successful and multifaceted. She created a family of characters that tons of people have blogged about, many Internet communities thrived on, and people are still talking about, even if it is in a negative, I-can't-believe-you-ended-the-show-this-way way.

What way would that be? She did not tell us who the murderer was, and claims to not even know herself. Fancying myself somewhat of a writer - I kind of understand this. Sometimes the story itself takes over, and presents its own answers, and maybe that just didn't happen. Maybe it will happen after an innocent woman goes to jail. Maybe we will get to find out how it all unravels because Showtime is now providing via the Internet the murder interrogation tapes, post-series finale, for us to all absorb. This involves loyal fans watching favorite friends say things totally out-of-character, thus ruining a bit of the integrity of the show...but still....we hang on...and we watch....and we wait for the movie...because, by God, there might eventually be another series with lesbians on TV.

This really has been ground-breaking television. It is the first series to focus around lesbians - their lives, their friends, their careers - just life, same as most shows, but without the heterosexual couples. It was done in a big, glamorous way, removed a bit from reality so as to entertain and filled with lots of eye candy, sure to make viewers, gay and straight, happy. So far, a 5-season boxed set of The L Word is on sale at various places. Presumably, in the fall, the 6th and final season will be added.

We own the first four seasons, so eventually will have to get the other two. For me, this is really a must-have for my DVD collection. It will be interesting to look back in 10 years and see what has changed, beyond hair styles and fashions. Hopefully, by then, there will have been many more lesbian-focused series, and we'll be saying, "Remember when this was the first?"

Ilene has been a role model for me, and though many people are quite upset by what she did to her show, the genius is that she had a show for 6 seasons that she could manipulate as she so desired. The ratings were so good that Showtime kept the show on for 6 seasons, and has agreed to a movie piloting the next possible show. She developed characters that we loved, and hated, and lusted after, and cried for - we were all along for the ride. What writer doesn't want to create a reality so powerful that people get angry when the characters do not act in accord with their personality, or who protest when someone dies, or is outraged when a couple breaks up? This is success. Ilene deserves huge credit for the world she created and for her part in advancing lesbian visability.

I Won't Need Sunscreen

Spring Break. It conjures up images of the beach, volley ball, sunscreen and too much alcohol. Wait...maybe that is just MTV. When you are a law student "spring break" tends to conjure up images of outlining, researching and paper writing. Cr*p - who signed up for this deal?

Somehow we got this far in the semester and I've not outlined anything. I have kept up on my reading and for at least one class, that is a HUGE requirement because it all builds on each other and won't make any sense unless you keep up. Still....I need to spend a couple days playing Review What I've Learned and a couple days doing some serious paper writing. It will be so great to have my paper DONE!

So, though there may be cheap travel insurance available, I don't think I will need it this spring break. A quick driving trip up to see Wife's family and celebrate birthdays is about as far as we'll be adventuring. At least we will save money on sunscreen.

Thinking About Vacations

Did anyone see Private Practice this past week? I will admit that it is one of shows that we record and watch later, and really, it is mostly fluff and eye-candy. It has gotten substantively better this season as compared with last, but still....it is mostly pretty doctors deciding with whom they should have sex, and somewhere along the way saving, or losing, patients.

Anyway, in last week's episode, one of the main characters is making vacation plans for her ex-husband and his new girlfriend. She's surfing the web and a co-worker sees the beautiful tropical pictures on her screen and declares it "vacation porn." How accurate is that?! Haven't we all spent at least some time drooling over the destinations we lust after?

I saw a great shot for Machu Picchu travel just last week. I once interviewed a woman who had just gotten back from Machu Picchu for an article I was writing and I've been in love with the idea of going there ever since. Natural beauty combined with history and timeless mystery. Sounds good, doesn't it? Of course, right now, a few days ANYWHERE away from the work and stress of real life sounds good.

Friends from the Blogosphere

On Friday we had some Blogger friends (Hi Audra and Dylan)that we'd never met in real life before stop by our house. It was fun meeting them in person, and we all had an easy, casual time, which is what you hope for in these situations, but it doesn't always happen.

The kids showed off as they always do when we have visitors - playing fashion show and various other things while we watched on and tried to have adult conversations. Eventually the kids found a nice balance betweent their own games and letting us talk...I think it happened shortly after I put pizza in front of the kids. :)

Dylan is also in law school, so eventually conversation rolled around to that topic. Just before we bored our partners into comas, Wife and Audra left the room to have their own conversation that centered around NOT law school. We were all entertained and engrossed in good conversation, so a good time was had by all.

Our friends were on a vacation, which we both agree is a great idea. Where is the toll free number where we can get one of those? I suspect a good vacation is some months away for us....but maybe we'll enjoy a mini-vacation or two here and there to keep us sane.

No time for rest

Things sure have gotten busy. Have I mentioned that I was stupid enough to get myself into a paper class my last semester? Yes, it's true and it is sucking up SO MUCH TIME, as paper classes tend to do. Granted, paper classes tend to be where I learn a lot and it is some of the most interesting time spent...but the time is inversely proportional to the amount of credit earned. That means there are other classes to be fretting over and studied for. Where has the time gone?

OK, this is no time to stress out. Maybe a nice little nap on the just-right mattress I'd like to buy from the discount furniture store or some such place, would be good. Nap, study, nap, study...oh, right, work. There is that...and there are these little kids running around my house making napping nearly impossible. Well, it is a nice fantasy.

Back to my regularly scheduled life.....

Of Carpets and Dr. Seuss

There are advantages to rarely being at home during daylight hours. The first, and perhaps most important, is that you don't notice how dirty the dogs and cats have gotten the carpet. I went home part-way through the day yesterday so I could study, hang out with the dogs that have been left alone much of the week because Wife has been busy with the Book Fair at Boy Wonder's school, and be ready to enjoy Dr. Seuss Night (also at the school) that evening.

I cleaned the carpets only a few weeks ago, but already they don't look so great, and the spots of cat throw up donot helped. (Thanks anyway, girls!) YUCK. Maybe we need one of the powerful steam cleaners, rather than a fairly simple and inexpensive carpet cleaner. I certainly know why Wife wants us to get the carpets professionally done, but I just can't see doing it right now, with the spring rains about to start and our backyard already looking like a giant mud puddle. Perhaps we should wait until warmer, drier weather sets in.

As a follow up - Dr. Seuss night was fun for all, the kids both came home with their faces painted and carrying more spoils from the Book Fair, which has been a huge success this week. Be sure to check out Wife's blog.

(Nearly) Have Degree - Will Travel (Not)

A couple days ago I heard two day students talking (I make the distinction because they are generally younger, have less responsibilities, have the luxury of participating in whatever activities and clerkships they are fortunate enough to qualify for, and often have somwhat different priorities than the majority of evening students) about where they want to work.

"I'll go wherever the jobs are."

"I hear there are still firms hiring in Texas."

As the discussion went on, they were pretty sure the jobs were not in a cool part of Texas, but were probably in some barren wasteland devoid of all culture and real opportunity. I guess they could have hopped on the Internet and checked out some job sites. Maybe there are good opportunities in San Antonio or Dallas. I imagine Dallas resumes would look pretty much the same as those you'd send to New York, Seattle, or LA. It must be nice to have the flexibility to be able to move wherever will be best for your career. One of the guys was talking about going to another country to practice International Law.

I have to say, as exciting as moving might be to provide opportunity, Wife and I are at a point in our lives we'd like to stay close to family. It's important to us, and good for the kids. Besides, we already live in what is arguably the best part of the country now - mild weather, very few natural disasters, very few dangerous (poisonous) insects or reptiles, it is a beautiful environment, lots of "green" people into recycling and doing good things for the earth, largely Democrats, fairly supportive of gay rights and progressive legislation. Finding a good job here will be just right for our family.

Spinning Positive

OK, folks, I think it is time for some positivity. Everywhere we turn these days there is depressing news, people are worried, scared, and spreading their fears and depression like wildfire. I heard on a talk radio show the other day where a top economist was asked when we'd see a turn-around in the economy. He said not to ask him, but to instead ask a psychologist. He believed that much of what will get us out of this bad economy are our own attitudes, beliefs and behaviors.

Is will certainly take more than just one person being positive - it requires our entire culture, or at least, a fair portion of it. We have to believe that good things will happen, spread encouragement and enthusiasm, and then be brave enough to try new things rather than hoping the same old ways of doing things are going to produce different results.

For myself, I am going to be conscious of focusing on all of the positive things in my life and how grateful I am for them. I have a wonderful Wife, amazing children, a nice home, a good job, family health insurance, food in the refrigerator, loving furry members of our family, the opportunity to go to law school, all of us are relatively healthy, and so much more.

When negativity is ruling, all of those things may seem to have a down side, or something that is difficult to deal with sometimes, but looked at in a positive light - they are amazing things that so many people do not have and I am grateful for everything good that is in my life.

Everything but the kitchen sink?

I need to clean out my wallet. Let me be clear, the money is already gone, but still it is so stuffed with business cards, membership cards, coupons, loose change, notes and I-don't-know-what-all that it is literally falling apart. What is really sad is the fact that I don't even carry the majority of the "stuff" that goes in a wallet. Wife carries WAY MORE than I do. Her wallet is at least 2x bigger than mine. Several years back I got rid of almost everything in my wallet. I was only going to carry my license, cash card, insurance cards and that was about it. Somehow, much of it has crept back in, but when I think about it, how often do I actually reference any of the non-essential material? Not much, and yet, there it is. I can't help but think that I am not the only one afflicted by this problem. There is probably money to be made helping people clean out and organize their wallets, similar to the people that help you organize your home. Hey! That's what I can do if this law thing doesn't work out. Wait...let me find my card....

Sunny Day Dreamin'

It is a gorgeous day with clear blue skies and the promise of the weekend just ahead. It is still chilly, but the sun is starting to warm things, and the hint of spring is heavy in the air. I know this is just a tease. Heck...we had a bit of snow just two days ago...but I can tell spring is on its way!

First this tease, then it will get rainy and yucky....generally about April I hit the stores looking for sale on garden supplies and plants. A sunny weekend spent getting the garden in shape is just the thing to shake the winter blues. I have already been browsing on line and found a very cool natural gas campfire. How cool would this be? It is beautiful and would provide a clean fire at the touch of a switch any time you wanted. No need to look for firewood, kindling, newspapers and matches. It would be common enough to have a fire that the kids would not be so excited every time we have one that they can barely listen to fire safety rules (somewhat of a challenge for us last summer). Yes, the yard would have to be rearranged so it could be the center of a beautifully landscaped garden area -

What? The dogs? The kids? The cabin-sized tent we put up every year over numerous weekends? Oh, right...OK, I'm back to reality. Still, it's fun to dream and this is a beautiful day for it.

On Being a Semi-Job-Seeker

Here I am, on the cusp of graduation, wanting very much to move on in my career, and yet practical enough to know where I am now is a great place to be during these last months of school and through bar prep. The job is low stress, those I work with supportive, and I should be able to drop to half-time during Bar-Bri study time.

Still, I surf frequently, just in case that perfect "in" to a desired company, or even better, the perfect position, opens up. I've met with various leaders in my field of interest and have a list of probably 20-30 contacts that I have met with and try to keep in touch with at least many of them. There are certainly not many positions open, nor much stir about future openings, other than the knowledge that energy, my chosen field, will eventually boom. I'm not waiting for the explosion, and am looking carefully for the tiny click of a door potentially opening.

The other day, as I was searching the "career" section of a variety of companies who manufacture renewable energy sources, such as windmills and solar panels, I came across something that sounded promising. It was something about being a part of the energy solution, a member of a growing team committed to the environment...etc....it turned out to be jobs in sales. Not exactly what I had in mind. The search continues...

A Long, Pleasant Drive

Today we drove 2 hours to get to my great-niece's 4th birthday party. We've only been to their town once before, prior to Boy Wonder being born. Since it seems kind of far away for a couple hour birthday party, we've not been looking forward to the drive, but we have been looking forward to seeing my niece's new house. As it ended up the drive went fairly quickly, the kids were good, and we were really glad we went.

Thanks to a sale before Christmas, I am now the proud and happy owner of a handheld navigational device which we took as a backup to the written instructions emailed to us by my niece. Because the instructions contain such tips as, "You will pass a llama ranch and later a buffalo ranch" we knew we were going out in the middle of nowhere and there was no cell phone service if we got lost. The Christmas gift proved an excellent assurance that we were on the right track! We arrived before the party-start time, and we all had a great time visiting with family while we were there.

Long car trips can be a challenge and I have to say I don't know what we did before our portable DVD player, Leapster, and GameBoy. Boy Wonder has loved his Leapster since his 4th Birthday when he received it and was so absorbed that he did not even notice the guests left until 10 minutes after everyone was gone. Now Our Little Princess is the main Leapster player, using her brother's for a long time until she got her own pink version for Christmas. She was thrilled! The Leapster games are great - the kids feel like they are just playing a game, but educational components are built into game play so we can feel good about the hours they spend staring at the screen! I can't say that Boy Wonder's GameBoy is nearly as educational, but it too does build certain skills, such as logic, planning, and of course, hand-eye coordination. The Leapster though is something we always feel good about. I'd highly recommend one for passing the time on long car trips!

Appreciating the Good Stuff

Why is it that after Christmas, just when you're kind of back to semi-healthy eating habits, Girl Scout cookies and Camp Fire candy come out? I mean really - who can resist those scrumptious goodies? It is almost anti-American to pass by kids, selling chocolaty deliciousness, earning money for camp. Perhaps another group should come along in April selling an assortment of diet pills as their fundraiser!

Let's just say, we have done our parts this year, and probably not shared with the children nearly as much as might be expected. Hey - it is expensive stuff, and they don't appreciate the rarity of the treats nearly as much as we do. Is anyone buying this excuse for indulgence? I certainly hope so!

Slowly Creeping Out of Denial

Do you know if you misspell "denial" you get "denali" which is a town in Alaska? I am thinking "Slowly Creeping Out of Denali" might be a good name for a book which could later be adapted into a screenplay for a major feature film. That's what I'll be doing rather than being a lawyer.

A lawyer? Really? Seriously? So, was it the fantastic hours, the great reputation or the enormous student loans that first attracted me to the profession? Maybe it was the killer 2-day exam at the end of a HUGELY expensive 4-year education that if you don't pass you don't get to play the game?

All kidding aside, just for a moment, yesterday I went to a presentation/ Q&A session with a sampling of our state's Bar Examiners, ordered my cap and gown, and sent away for the bar application kit. Apparently, ready or not, graduation and the bar exam are rapidly approaching. Wow.

If any of my classmates are reading this, the most valuable tip I got was that the March 31st deadline for the bar application is really just the deadline for the application itself. You can send in supplemental materials, such as DMV records, later.

OK, so, I get through this last batch of classes, somehow piece together a freaking major research paper that I never should have gotten myself into (but that will probably prove to be the most interesting thing I am working on) and before you know it - BAM - I will have pretty initials after my name.

Crazy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Boy Wonder was so cute this morning, excitedly reading every one of his Valentine cards to me. His class had a party yesterday and they all exchanged cards...some with candy...you can imagine how exciting that was!

This weekend we will celebrate a "Family" Valentine's Day, with candy and little stuffed animals for the kids (hey - they were on sale), and maybe a little something for us grown-ups, too. If we are lucky, maybe tomorrow night we'll get the kids to bed early, pop open a bottle of wine, and NOT watch Sponge Bob!

Admission - I love TV

I admit it, I am a TV junkie. I love good, mindless entertainment. I want scripted, acted stories - none of this reality TV crap that is passing as entertainment these day. Put writers and actors and producers to work - and create something to entertain me.

If you have been following my blog for long, you may know that I enjoy The L Word quite a lot. Who doesn't enjoy watching beautiful women involved in high drama? There are usually entertaining story lines, though not always the ones the fans want to see, but it provides a nice combination of romance and comedy. That is entertainment!

We still have not moved up into a big screen TV. The new 26" (?) we purchased last summer is a monster compared to the old 19". Hey, it was on sale when the old one died, so we got the biggest one that we could both afford and that would fit into our cabinet. It is important to us to be able to just shut the TV away sometimes. (Mostly to make the house look good for company!)My point here was really that I don't have to watch TV on a movie screen, with stereo sound presented in HD....my needs are simple. Entertain me.

Gray's Anatomy is entertaining, even when it is not that good. As many of you may know, it got mingled in double episodes with Private Practice for the last two weeks. Gray's Anatomy has been popular for a while now, in fact, so long that it's losing some of the "it" that made it such a success. Sad, really. Private Practice, a spin off, is actually getting to where it is almost as good as the original. During the first season, the show was total eye candy fluff, and yet, rather enjoyable. I would totally buy the first season, partly just to get the whole series at some point, but also just because it was such blatant "pretty people" playing doctor on the sunny shores of California. Pure escapism. Couldn't we all use a bit of that right now?