leaving nola

i like livejournal allright.  but i feel like i've outgrown it.  so i have moved in to a brand new space on blogger.  here it is.  it just seems to have more features and better options.  but i still can't figure out how to put my geoloc on there.  dammit.

while my girl was here, i drunkenly tried to create a shiny new blog. now i can't find it. stupid bourbon!

we're making smothered cabbage, among other (healthier) things for dinner tonight. simple recipe, we halfed it, but it's just:

-1c chopped ham (we used kielbasa)
-1c chopped onions
-a few cloves of garlic, minced
-a splash of olive oil
-1 large head of cabbage (we used red)
-1/2 c water
-1tsp sugar
salt, pepper and cayenne to taste

and then you just saute the ham, onion, garlic, and oil together for about five minutes. add the roughly chopped cabbage, water, sugar, and seasonings. cover and simmer about 30 minutes until the cabbage is tender.

i know it's crazy unhealthy, but we're also only having steamed veggies and whole wheat couscous with milled flax (now with 450g omega 3 fatty acids!), so get off my case.

i'm just going to go with that title for this post, despite the fact that i don;t recall having ever typed in that combination of words before (it autocompleted that in for me). i've had a few cocktails which should make this an interesting post indeedie. i want to mark for posterity the weird dream i had last night, in which keira knightly and beyonce were students at my law school. beyonce was in my study group, and we were all talking about whether or not keira would come back to school in the fall. we began smoking weed, and beyonce turned up her nose. i told her that her boyfriend was hot. then i woke up. the dog and cat are fighting like cats and dogs. bella (dogina, the monarch of hadogidda) has lost all her puppy teeth and is a whiny bitch as her big teeth come in. it's kinda funny, though, cause she lost her puppy teeth way before the adult ones came in to replace--so she looks gummy like w's grandpa. the cat is currently chasing the dog around the house, and w just informed me that he may kill one of the animals if they don't fuking stop. so they did. poor w. he has had some really frustrating poker finishes in the last few days--including a tenth place (one spot from the final table). tonight he was going strong until he flopped a set of jacks and went all in and someone called him--w had a queen kicker and the other dude had a king kicker. so fucking good and then out in 18th place. this week is the virginia prison tour as we visit the large number of people in my client's family who are incarcerated in various places around the state. then friday i am blowing off work to pick up my best biz-natch, alfina the muthafuckin vague. she likes it when i curse in front of the internets. incidentally, they have the internets on computer now. momar out.

so i am working on this fairly heartbreaking case right now. i obviously can't get into details. but last week another intern and i went on an investigative trip. part of what we do for post-con is review the trial record and look for big gaps in what trial counsel has done which, if closed, might have resulted in something less than a death sentence. intern and i were looking at the sentencing phase of the trial. the client had a really fucked up childhood and it seems that very little of that was actually brought out at sentencing. so we went to where he grew up and spoke to some of his teachers and school psychologists, as well as his family. i feel like i have a really good picture of what it was like for him growing up, but that it was not adequately covered during sentencing. basically, this kid never had a chance. his teachers and psychs, while heartbroken, were not particularly surprised.

dammit. see i'm kinda in the same position as vague, where this is the place where i often work stuff out, and i can't really elaborate too much for confidentiality reasons. i met his kids. they wanted to know how i knew their daddy and when he was coming home. my heart stopped right there and i thought i was going to lose it. they are pretty young and can't really know what is going on, though apparently some evil bitch told the older child (6, i think) "they are going to fry your daddy." the child has since had nightmares and has begun acting out in school. so the pattern begins all over again.

this is the main point of my post. killing this man will not bring back the victims. it will not ease the pain of their children. it will not fix the underlying problems, it will only create new ones. it will only break another family irreparably, destroy another child's family, and basically fuck their lives up forever. how will these people ever trust their government, as it murders their son/father/cousin/uncle? what does this teach them about how to react when someone hurts you or wrongs you? these are the arguments i have always made against the death penalty, but i have never really felt them so acutely before. my heart has smashed into a million pieces. i want to take his kids out of the situation they are in, adopt them and bring them out to the suburbs and get them the psychological care they need but can't afford, make sure they finish school and go to college, send them birthday presents...i'm just so frustrated! i feel so powerless.

there is an execution scheduled for this week. not in this case, but in another with less than perfect evidence, in the wake of some big issues with dna testing by the state lab. the governor will probably not grant clemency, even though they are in teh midst of an audit to ensure that the dna stuff was done properly which could take months. there is also eyewitness testimony, which is notoriously unreliable, especially in cross-race identifications. and the witness said he was only 80% sure it was him anyway. with less than certain eyewitnesses and questionable dna, how can they kill this man? this is what is so infuriating to me about my dad's views on capital punishment. he thinks that if there is "good dna evidence and eyewitness testimony" that capital punishment is okay. the porblem is that there is often no way to know until later whether the dna testing was done propely and there is really no such thing as reliable eyesitness testimony. don't believe me? ask larry youngblood. he spent 17 years in jail, believed to be the man who kidnapped and sexually assualted a small boy. the evidence was destryoed (but supposedly not in bad faith) by the police and he was convicted based on the eyewitness testimony of the little boy. it was a horrifying crime and who doesn't wnat to believe a child who has been hurt? but it really highlights the way these things can happen.

i don't really know where i am going with this post. i have been thinking about this for a while now. i wish people knew how thin some of the cases are against many of these death penalty inmates. or how fragile and human they really are facing down their own impending deaths.

i have received a series of these strange spam e-mails at my school address. when i'm not on my laptop or at school, it appears to be a "valium viagra cialis" type pharmacy spam thing, and the text is a small tiny block on the bottom that is too small to make out. but on my or the school's computer, all i see is the random text and no ads. they are all pretty funny; the earlier ones were about a bloodthirsty pirate.


he roundly expressed his disapproval. The Dutch were a friendlyMademoiselle stared at him in unbelief. M. d'Ogeron rose to his feet.Benjamin will see, monsieur, that you are more suitably providedof harm's way.that Pitt was hardly yet in case to undertake the navigation of theThe very man, said Blood. Bid him get out horses. Then awaythough I may be. So I'll not be telling you what I think of you forthe prisoners.hauled aboard.to one-tenth share in all prizes taken.adventurer he had been, rather than to the staid medicus he nowFor the moment....You're awaited, I tell you. Best lend him a horse, Kent, or theAt the table sat a man of whom nothing was visible but the top ofhe gave Mrs. Barlow instructions for the day, which included theI didn't say so, ma'am. There was a tartness in his tone evoked

i got up early (6am) this morning and walked my dog. i actually tried to sneakily shirk my dog walking duties (w and i have begun to split up the week, whereby i walk on days he has to work and he walks when he doesn't have to; i usually get the weekend as well), but bella was having none of that. my alarm went off at 5:50am, i snoozed once and then got up. usually the dog won't let me snooze cause the alarm freaks her out. but if i catch it fast enough my reward is 10 more minutes. i got up and went out to the living room and laid down on the couch. i was hoping that i would "accidentally" fall asleep and not have time to take her, but she curled up on the couch with me and made me feel so guilty that i couldn't stand the thought of her being a basket case all day in the kitchen while w was at work. we left the house at 6:15am.

i keep meaning to bring my camera with me, as i see the coolest stuff at that time of day. this morning it was really misty and i saw a rabbit munching down on someone's lawn. squirrels, my dog gets excited about as they are so hoppity, but this rabbit was smart. it sat stock still and looked at my dog with big eyes and attentive ears. my dog's hackle raised and she sped up walking a bit as though she was afraid of the rabbit. too funny. i also passed a bush with a huge snail in it, and the snail was all stretched out of his shell. i don't know where he was trying to go or even how he got where he was (at the top of a tall bush) but it looked really cool.

so i resolve that the next time i get paid when we are no longer quite so broke, i am going to buy a protective case for my camera so i can take it on walks with me.

kick ass turkey meatloaf

• 1 1/2c. finely chopped onion
• 1tbsp minced garlic
• 1tsp olive oil
• 1 medium carrot
• 3/4# mushrooms (originally cremini, but i used baby bellas with smashing results)
• 3/4 package frozen spinach (okay, i suppose you could use fresh, but this is what i had and used and it was good)
• 1tsp kosher salt and 1/2tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1 1/2tsp worcertershire sauce
• 1/3 c. chopped fresh parsley
• 3tbsp + 2tbsp ketchup
• 1c. fine bread crumbs (i did these homemade in the food processor with pepperidge farm whole wheat)
• 1/3c milk (i used slightly less and mine was still super duper moist)
• 1 egg + 1 egg white
• 1 1/3# ground turkey (we used the 7% lean kind, i think it came out better than the 99% fat free would have)

preheat the oven to 400, but you don't have to do this immediately.  i should give you the heads up that this assembles pretty fast, but there is some prep involved, especially if you don't have a food chopper/processor.  but if you don't, you should really get one.  the time you save is unbelievable and it chops very evenly.

so i ran the onions, garlic, carrots, mushrooms, and spinach throught the food processor.  if you use frozen spinach, like i did, thaw it out in the microwave and then squeeze it out really thoroughly.  the best way is to wrap it up in paper towels and imagine it is your lame ex-boyfriend's balls.  you can process the onion and garlic together, the carrot alone, and the mushroom and spinach together.  i got it all (except the onions) down to a really fine, almost ground consistency.  for the onions i did half of them that way and did half of them at a little bigger chop.

cook the onion and garlic in a 12" skillet over medium to medium/high heat about 2 minutes.  add the carrots and cook 3 minutes.  add the mushrooms and spinach and cook for about 15 minutes.  you have to keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn, but this is also where you can make your bread crumbs and maybe clean up a little as you go.  it's important to get some of the moisture out of the mix, as the mushies and frozen spinach are really wet and the loaf is moist enough as it is.  at some point after adding the last stuff, add the salt and pepper.  dump the mix into a big bowl that you will eventually have enough room to squish it up with the meat.  add the parsley, worcestershire, and 3tbsp ketchup.

in a different bowl, stir together bread crumbs and milk and let it stand five minutes.  stir in hte egg and extra egg white and mix it up good.  add that to the veggie mix and stir well.  now here's the fun part: add the ground turkey and squish the whole thing around with your hands until it's all mixed up.

the recipe originally said to form it into an oval and put it in brownie pan, but that's ridiculous.  just put it in a loaf pan, i used an approx. 9x5" one and it came out beautifully, just lightly grease the bottom.  brush the top with the last 2tbsp ketchup and cook 50-55 minutes.

we enjoyed ours with a bottle of ca de solo big house red and mashed potatoes.  bon apetit!

now that i'm working for a legal defense-oriented place this summer, i have to say that the opening lines to law & order kinda bother me. i mean, to say that the people are represented by "two separate, yet equally important groups; the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders" is a lot of hooey.

in the criminal justice system, the people are represented by members of the private criminal defense bar of varying degrees of competence (see eg. the very experienced (and ancient) attorney in texas who fell asleep during the murder trial of his client mcfarland, or see the guy in one of our cases who told the family of this kid that he had defended many capital murder cases and it turned out "many" meant that he had sat second chair on one case that had plead out many years before leaving him woefully unprepared for the rigors of a capital case that actually went to trial).

the people are also represented by public defenders, who are the very definition of overworked and underpaid.

the people are also represented by guardians ad litem who act as advocates for children and the mentally incompetent, making sure that those who are deciding their legal fate keep the clients' best interests at heart.

many of our people are represented by the office of the capital defender, the inception of which comes along with mitigation specialists, investigators, experts, and attorneys who have tried actual capital cases before and can stay awake for the proceedings. since we got these offices in my state, not one defendant who had access to one has gotten a death sentence.

these are the real heroes of the criminal justice system, the ones who keep it just by making sure that each defendant is zealously represented.

take that, jack mccoy, you smug and ethically questionable motherfucker!

i just want to apologize to the whole internet for promising some very ambitious new features and not really following through. i know, i'm lame. sorry. i just get so filled with zeal and energy when i have three weeks off, and now that i'm a working stiff, i just don't have the time or energy. including my commute, work consumes about 10.5 hours of my day. i've been trying to keep up with my cooking, but i'm tired when i get home and often don't feel like it. yesterday i made a yummy potato corn chowder with the four ears of corn i've been hoarding (they were 25 cents each at walmart!). w and i also made a supre yummy vegetable lasagna. very good, but a lot of prep work and messy. we used carrots, zuccini, yellow squash, shiitake mushrooms, shallot, green onion, and sun dried tomatoes. delish! and if any of my "regular readers" (both of them) want the recipe, just e-mail me.

so work. i think i may be cured of wanting to do criminal law. tough, emotionally draining, messy, and tragic on all sides. in a capital case, the process goes:
1. conviction w/ death sentence (must be death eligible crime due to future dangerousness or vileness. these are called aggravating factors. future dangerousness is sort of moot in my state, as capital murderers automatically get life without parole, unless you think people can be dangerous in a super maximum lockdown type facility. vileness is easier--torture, depravity of mind, or aggravated battery--that is, if one shot would have killed them and you shot five more times. almost all capital murders fall into the secong category.)
2. automatic direct appeal (this is known as the proportionality review--is the punishment porportional to both the crime and the criminal. my state has NEVER found disporportionality, so this is sort of a joke).
3. first chance for certiorari (though the supreme court has rarely, if ever taken a case at this stage, you always apply, as it tolls the statute of limitations for the habeas proceeding, and they could possibly take it. but they won't, so get working on that state habeas!)
4. state habeas (very complicated, this is the stage that i am working on with my client right now. you have to try to find errors by trial counsel, or mitigating factors that were overlooked.)

i'll give part two of the process next week. my state is a fast track state, so even if the procedural rules say we have 90 or 60 days to submit something, we are often working up against an execution date that is much earlier. sometimes you can get a stay, but usually, they tell you to just hurry up. my job is going to be especially tough. i am working on investigation which will involve me getting to know every detail of the client's life, and talking to him and his family. i will do all this work knowing how badly the state wants to kill him and how they will most likely get their way. i can't really talk about it too much here, but again, if my two or three regular readers want to know more, they may e-mail me.

we've been cooking fools lately! yesterday we made gazpacho, hummus, fruit salad, and porkchops with apples and sweet potatoes.

Walt's Special Gazpacho

• 3 big tomatoes, peeled and seeded (cut an x onto the butt of the tomato and drop it in boiling water for about 30 sec or so to make the peeling easier--and don't ever let em say that i didn't learn anything working in restaurants for the past five years!)
• 1.5 seedless english cucumbers, peeled
• 1 whole bell pepper (we used half a red that we had left from the pasta dish and half of a green one)
• 1 medium red onion, peeled
• 1 12oz. can tomato juice (preferably low sodium, the regular stuff has crazy amounts of sodium)
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• a bunch of minced garlic, preferably roasted or satueed--raw garlic gives you gas!
• a few tablespoons of lemon juice
• a dash or so of cayenne, to taste
• some fresh herbs-we used basil cause i bought a ton of it, but we have used cilantro in the past, or maybe thyme?
• a bit of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• a splash of balsamic vinegar--wait until serving though

Run all the veggies and herbs through the food processor--we usually do them one by one, but only cause it seems more convenient.  Stir it up to mix everything in, add the rest of the stuff (cayenne, s&p, lemon juice) and let it sit--preferably overnight, but for at least a few hours to let all teh flavors mingle.  The flavor will improve the longer you wait.  You can drizzle it with balsamic when you serve it, OR even better you can reduce some balsamic down by half and drizzle with a balsamic glaze (or reduction).

The fruit salad was nothing fancy--seedless grapes, blueberries, cantaloupe, orange, granny smith apple, pineapple.  The trick is to save a whole orange, cut it in half, and squeeze the juice in to the salad.  This prevents browning (thanks, internet!).  I also add in with the salad a handful of unsweetened shredded coconut.  When I serve it, I mix in a bit of plain nonfat yogurt and some torn up fresh mint and stir it up so the yogurt coats the fruit. 

The hummus is also quick and easy, if you have a blender or a food processor.  We got a blender with an interchangeable food processor attachment and it rules.  Take a can of garbanzo beans, rinse them, and dump them into the processor.  Add a few tablespoons of lemon juice, some garlic (preferably roasted--see above), a bit of cayenne or tabasco, any kind of fresh herb you might have laying about (lazy old herbs), and some tahini.  Try to blend it some, though it will be thick and perhaps unwieldy.  I usually add a bit of water, though you could also reserve some of the juice from the can of garbanzos.  Blend until smooth.  This one also tastes a little better the next day.

 

 

starting today there will be two new, fairly regular features added to leaving nola. i know what you're thinking: but bluemomar, you already give us so much! i know, i know, you ungrateful bitches. but i'm doing it anyway.

the two new features are:

1. a tour of lex-i walk my dog every day and there is lots of neat crap for me to photograph. so i will try to post at least one new photo every day of some of the weird shit that i see on my walks.

2. recipes and reviews-this summer, w and i are not eating out. we're cooking in. i have purchased two new cookbooks toward this end.  one of them is the joy of cooking, which anyone who likes to cook but has not gone to culinary school should have-it has lots of great recipes, but also tons about technique and such.  the other is a diety one, but it's a good diety one.  it at least seems like sound science and somehting thta i can actually do without killing myself or others.  the theory is that people will generally eat the same weight of food every day (and they did a few studies that substantiated this).  but a pound of french fries is different froma pound of apples.  they retool some recipes to add more veggies and less starches and stuff like that.  it's all about the volume and energy density of food.  we'll see if it works.  something has got to give, though.  i have been gaining and losing the same 30 pounds for the last eight or nine years.  this has got to stop.

so here's the recipe that i made last night.  i would rate it pretty good, for a couple reasons, which i will explain after the recipe.

Pasta Primavera

• 2 cups bow tie pasta, uncooked
• 1 cup small broccoli florets
• 1 medium to large carrot sliced thinly into pennies
• 1/3 cup diced red onion half of a medium bell pepper cut into 1 inch slices
• 1/2 cup fresh greenbeans also cut into 1 inch chunks
• 1 cup cherry or grape tomatoes cut in half
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup fresh basil minced
• 2 tbsp.extra virgin olive oil and a splash of balsamic
• kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to teh package instructions (probably about 12 minutes).  During the last four minutes of cooking, add the broccoli, carrots, onion, bell pepper and green beans to the pot.  Drain well in a colander and transfer immediately to a serving bowl.  Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and one tbsp of olive oil, and toss for just a sec.  Add tomatoes, cheese, basil, and the rest of the oil along with the splash of vinegar.  Toss thoroughly and serve immediately.  Makes four 1.5 cup servings

This was delicious!  It gets high marks from me as it doubles as a cold pasta salad the next day, and the flavors are nicely soaked in by then.  The original recipe called for celery instead of onion, but that's just crazy.  They also didn't call for the balsamic, which is also crazy.  I think the flavors might have been kind of lame without the vinegar.  I added more veggies than they called for as well, so don't feel like you have to be super exacting with your measurements.  I also added about a teaspoon of this really yummy kalamata olive tapenade stuff i found at the store, and it blends nicely flavor wise.  But if you are going to add something like that, you can decrease the olive oil a bit as there is olive oil in the tapenade. 

I also made strawberry shortcake--that's my recipe and it's easy.  just trim the tops off of a pound of strawberries and cut them into chunks.  in a separate dish (i used my measuring cup) dissolve two teaspoons of sugar (less of the berries are nice and ripe, use your judgment) into a small amount of water--just enough to dissolve it really, like 1/8 cup.  pour the water into the berries and mash the berries as you would potatoes, using your mighty grid masher.  At the end I add a small splash of balsamic vinegar and stir it up.  I freaking love this stuff!  Let it macerate for a while in the fridge, then spoon over angel food cake from the store.  I forgot whipped cream last night, but you can garnish with that if you want to.  I think it's just as good without it and fat free as well (are all angel food cakes fat free?  mine was).  Bon apetit!

 

 

grades are in. i kinda wish they had come in earlier or that law review was due later somehow, as i might have been more motivated to actually put forth some effort. because i am not as anonymous as i used to be, i won't post my grades here, but the big shocker of the semester for me was property. from what i heard, the professor i had was famous for giving all b's, to the extent that there was no point in even studying cause everyone was going to get a b. the exam was, in my estimation, a vocabulary memorizing contest. it was my last exam of the semester, and the only closed book one i had. i had the distinct feeling before the test that i was out of gas and had a hard time studying too much, at least to the insane level of detail that some of my colleagues went to. i knew the broad strokes and when push came to shove, i guess i knew how to apply one or two things. cause i got an a minus. not a b! take that!

here's the rub: i did a lot of things wrong this semester. i watched more tv. i sometimes didn't read like i was supposed to, especially the dreaded 30 pages of property a night (the prof basically just read it back to us in class anyway, so i didn't see the point--don't even get me started on that guy). i didn't use the examples and explanations books at all, in fact, the only study aid i really used was a nutshell. i didn't outline at all. and i didn't really start studying until reading days right before exams started.

there are two big differences between this semester and last semester: first, i took notes by hand this semester rather than on my laptop, and second, i was not afraid. last semester i used my computer in class, and i think it really hurt me. taking notes by hand on a good old fashioned legal pad really kept me engaged and paying attention. my notes, though messier in spots, were actually more helpful and complete this semester than last. i wasn't so sure about it until it got to be crunchtime for my admin law take home exam. i struggled and struggled until i looked at my notes. it was all there. he had even done some hypotheticals in class that were exactly like the exam problems!

so the moral of the story is that attending class religiously, paying attention, and taking good notes are the keys for me, not killing myself with a ton of extra work. i also continue to maintain that my learning is not enhanced or reinforced by outlining, which is fine, cause i don't really know how to do it anyway. i strive to be as a law student the same way that i would like to be as a lawyer. some people i know really kill themselves with work and act like this is the most important thing ever. i have come to realize, especially after all the time i spent as a waitress, that i am not my job. my job is how i afford the rest of my life, and if i can help people out in the process and enjoy myself or challenge myself or use skills that i wasn't using as much as a waitress to make a lot more money, great.

i purposely waited to write about my birthday until today so i could use that title! it was, like most of my days now, filled with shit.

just after midnight, w and i opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate. we each drank a glass, than went to bed not too much later. the dog sleeps on our bed, and she got up in gastrointestinal distress soon after we went to bed. i didn't have time to even get dressed before she shat on the floor. why, you ask? i though she was potty trained, you say! well, she was...then i foolishly fed her some low carb peanut butter. it's just like regular peanut butter, only it is apparently sweetened with HEAVY DUTY DOG LAXATIVES. my intentions were good, you see, she begs when we eat, and cries when we put her in her kennel during dinner. so the internet said to put peanut butter into this thing, and she would be too busy trying to lick it out to bother us during dinner.  all i had was this kind, but i thought it would be okay.

IT WAS NOT OKAY.

for 48 hours she has had the shits.  at least it was, in the terms of this article, pudding poo, and not the dangerous watery kind.   I followed their instructions and gave her some canned pumpkin and she seems to be okay now.  but on the eve of my birthday and all day yesterday we were on high alert. 

i bought myself a lawnmower, as i am too cheap to continue paying my landlord 30 bucks to come for ten minutes and ride over my yard with his.  i mean, it's ludicrous!  he doesn't even weed whack!  i got an old school weed whacker as well.  i despise the noise pollution of my neighbors obsessively maintaining their lawns all summer (and the god-forsaken leaf blowers in the fall), so i decided to try a lo-fi solution to the problem to see if it actually worked.  surprisingly, it kinda does.  it was a lot of work the first time through as we had waited until the grass had gotten pretty high to do anything about it.  but i think it came out pretty decent.

we went out for mexican food, where i had a huge margarita and a taco salad.  it was good.  then we came home and drank a bit more.  i fell asleep on the couch with the dog sleeping on my butt.  i woke up to w yelling about how she just snuck off and did it!  crapped, of course.  so he pulled out the chair that she had crapped behind so he could clean it up (your turn dude!  it's my birthday!) and in the process he smeared/ground into the carpet a secret, hidden pile that was under the chair. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

law school graduation is so cool!  the planners needed some people to help carry flags and banners, and i agreed to carry the flag of taiwan.
the ceremony is so freaking cool!  first, it's outdoors.  second, all the grads have walking sticks, the hats are floppy, and they get sashes.  apparently, the sashes are purple velvet on one side which stands for the law degree, and on the inside they are white and baby blue, the school colors.  some of the profs had really garish looking ones depending on where they went to school.  one was orange and green--U-G-L-Y!  but the coolest thing of all...

BAG PIPERS!!  IN KILTS!!  they have to march in the procession with everyone else and end up in front of the chapel.  the walk is brick and uneven, and i was secretly hoping that one of them would eat it and i could yell the line above from one of the best movies ever.

in hindsight that would have probably been a serious breach of decorum...and they were walking directly behind me and denmark, and would have most likely taken us out as well.  but sitll, bag pipers?  how cool is that.  (sidebar:  what is worn under bagpipers kilts?  shoes and socks!  really, my aunt annie asked one this very question during the st. patty's day parade in my hometown, and he showed her, saying "nothing, lass, everything down there works just fine!")

i can't wait...two more years, baby, two more years...

this is the best litter box ever.

especially if you have a cat who likes to kick the litter out of the box and a dog who thinks the litter box is a snack bar.  my only quibble is that it looks like it's just a simple storage tub with a hole in the lid.  so it was tough to blow $30 on it, but now i'm glad i did. 

we had a double duty vet appointment today.  we also had the dude vet (not the lady, my favorite), who insists on a FECAL EXAM every time we go in.  today he stuck both the cat and the dog.  happily, neither have any parasites.  in other news, i'm thinking about renaming this space, something more to do with shit, since that's all i bloody write about anymore.

w and i are going to see this movie tonight.  we are very excited.  i wanted to wait until it came to the drive in, but theya re jsut now showing million dollar baby so it could be a while.

i picked up the law review write on problem on monday, and it is due on the 16th.  it is a closed memo and i have to read through the materials tonight.  can't put it off any longer.  ditto with the laundry...i can't really use school or exams as an excuse anymore, and i am out of underwear.  time to get to work.

i am officially a 2L! yeah!
i choked pretty hard on my last exam (property)! boo!
this made me feel better cause it's funny...

several odd/disgusting dog items...

-she was digging around and aparently eating something from the driveway. my first thought was that the car was leaking anti-freeze. anti-freeze is deadly, even in small amounts, and is also very sweet and attractive for animals. well, she didn't die, so i did some further investigation. our driveway is not paved, and is really just an area where most of the grass has worn away from people parking there. i imagine that the last people who lived here got stuck when the driveway was wet and had heard that you could use kitty litter to get better traction...except they didn't scoop out the litter box first. so my dog was munching old ass cat turds. nice.

-we let her out the other night to go potty before bed. w said she was dragging her butt, and thought nothing else of it. so he tosses her in onto the bed with me, where she tries to drag her butt again. i scream for w when i notice a dingleberry of some variety hanging out of her arse. he comes in and grabs her and holds her so i can inspect...roughly an inch of shoelace (undigested) is hanging out of my dog's ass. i grab a baby wipe and pull the remaining unsees SEVEN INCHES OF SHOELACE OUT OF MY DOG'S ASS. very nice.

-today on our walk we were stopped by the dog police. i thought maybe they had somehow gotten wind of the shoelace incident and were coming to reposess my dog. turns out they just wanted to see her rabies tag. she doesn't have it yet, but she's too young so i wasn't cited. but he did take my name and address. is there a DCF for dogs? are they going to come inspect my home and observe my parenting skills?

this is how i feel right now! i am a puppy, stuck on the cord to the blinds and whirling like a dervish. wish me luck on my criminal procedure "race the clock" exam.

this was an amazing trip. remember?