...actually, it's been even longer than that. Kind of like before, I am begging off a real blog entry by instead providing an update. It's kind of a useless endeavor, as I think about it, because the three or four of you who actually read this blog probably know all of this already. Oh well.
July 2007
Studying for the bar exam, in connection with moving out of our Waco apartment, left me studying on the floor, accompanied only by my dog, an air matress, my computer, and a terrible number of Bar/Bri books. Oh yeah, and my XBox (for sanity's sake). For those few of you who've seen The Paper Chase, it was kind of like studying for first year exams. Only longer, and lonelier (Chelsea was visiting her parents to stay out of my hair - or at least to avoid my unpleasant and unhealthy stress levels), and with more on the line. I then was rewarded with three days of testing. We left Waco immediately upon my exit from the third day of testing, already moved out of the apartment, and headed to San Angelo.
August 2007
August (and part of September) was one giant blur. Because of delays in the construction of their house, the friends of the family who we were going to rent from had not yet moved out. Rather than move in with them for six weeks or so before I even started work, we basically became nomads, traveling back and forth from San Angelo to Tyler to Cameron, visting family and friends. Although this is fun for a while, eventually living out of your suitcase grows old, and we were definitely ready to settle down, as it were. While in San Angelo, we helped out with the Central High School band's summer marching program. Although we were helping out with the entire band, I naturally tended towards watching over the trumpets, if only because of my very limited experience dealing with any other type of instrument (how do you tell all the woodwinds to "get in a big arc," for example?) Later that season, one of the first trumpets was playing so hard that she gave herself a hernia. A fine moment for trumpets everywhere - she was clearly well within uber fortissimo, and her body gave out rather than subject the world to the awesome power of El Forte. (I leave this explanation for a later date, but suffice it to say that the world has only witnessed El Forte once, and will only witness it once more.)
September 2007
Eventually we gave in and moved in with our soon to be landlords. This was a trying experience for everyone involved, and we are truly thankful that they didn't kill us before it was all said and done. We had all of our stuff (or at least a lot of our stuff - we did have some things in a storage unit), plus all of their stuff (remember, they had expected to move months earlier, so there were boxes EVERYWHERE), plus five and a half people and six dogs. We were one Steve Martin mailed-in performance short of a bad movie. Although everyone ultimately survived, times were not always pleasant. In other news, I started work at the end of the month.
October 2007
October saw more of the same, as our landlords continued to try to convince their builders to finish their house. This was the first full month I spent at work, although in retrospect it really wasn't much like what I would come to experience during the rest of my first year, as a lot of it was spent training, doing non-billable work, and generally just getting eased in to the section. By the end of the month Chelsea was getting into her third trimester, and she was definitely ready to have a few less bodies (and dogs!) in the house.
November 2007
In November we became the sole occupants of our rented home. We retrieved Lizzie from Chelsea's parents, although Luke's visit there was made permanent by reason of his firm attachment to Chelsea's mom. We spent Thanksgiving in our new place, and Chelsea's parents helped out immensely by staying an entire week and doing the lion's share of the work unpacking all of our stuff. My parents stopped by as well, on Thanksgiving weekend, and helped us finish up moving into the house and decorating the nursery. (By the way, having a nursery with no one in it is simultaneously exciting and scary - I don't know if that is when the whole parenthood thing "became real" to me, but let's just say that preparing a room for someone sure gets you thinking about what it will be like to spend the next eighteen years or so with them.)
December 2007
December went by quickly, especially because of the way the holidays fell. Essentially everyone at work took off almost two weeks, and because I didn't have any cases on which I was staffed "full time" I pretty much had nothing to do up at work other than working on some non-billable matters. Not that I'm complaining. We spent Christmas at my parents, which involves a lengthy process of tree-construction. (There are certain crazy things that every family has - some more than others - and this is a typical Middleton crazy thing. It has only been in existence for the past few years, but I think it has quickly become one of the most important parts of the Christmas experience with my family. You really have to witness it to understand it, but maybe I'll explain in more detail later. Of course, that assumes that I post again.)
Okay, this is going to have to be a two (or more) part update, because it is late and the screen is beginning to blur. (I also just stared at the phrase "beginning to blue" for quite a while, trying to figure out what was wrong with it.) I know you wait with bated breath (which is, I think, the only thing that anyone bates anymore - other than Bates labels, which are altogether different).
09 September 2008
05 September 2008
Empty Chairs at Empty Tables
Thanks to Greg's website, I remembered my own blog. I figured I at least should bump the thing so that Blogspot doesn't return it to the ether (like I warned in one of my first posts). So, bump. No promises.
18 June 2007
Hanging on in Quiet Desperation is the English Way
How does one criticize Tolkien? Really, it's hard enough to criticize anyone who has dedicated a significant portion of their life to creating a work of art - even Amanda McKittrick Ros or Harold P. Warren. Inevitably, failure results when man attempts to create something, and some fail to a greater degree than others. But the attempt, at least, must be respected, if not admired. But, again, how does one criticize Tolkien? Or, more accurately, how do I criticize Tolkien?
There have been many artistic influences on my life, but very few rise to the level of Tolkien's work. Every piece of fiction that I read is judged against his writings, and the familiar characters of LotR serve as indelible archetypes into which I cram almost every new fictional entity that I meet. To call me a fan of Tolkien would be a gross understatement, and for me to pretend that I had something to teach the master would be presumption on a level that only Kami Gainer could truly understand (sorry, Baylor readers - high school reference). After all, I use his monogram as the rating system for all other books.
Nevertheless (and really, I'm sure you saw this part coming), I had difficulty enjoying Tolkien's newly released, posthumous work, The Children of Hurin. Part of the problem, to be sure, is Tolkien's use of complicated, heavily adjectivized (is that a word) sentence structure, similar to the Silmarillion. This language, at times reminiscent of the KJV, can create a type of code that requires work not normally required of a reader of narrative fiction. Although I do not mind the exercise, the very act of comprehension can be distracting at times. However, can I really penalize Tolkien for this? Shakespeare requires even more work to perceive the underlying beauty, and it seems childish to complain that a book is "too hard". Fair or not, however, this phenomenon prevented me from enjoying the book to the same degree as the original trilogy.
This admission aside, the story of the eponymous children is a gem worth digging for. This is not a children's tale, and it does not, by any means, follow the Chick Flick Rule that I've mentioned in an earlier post. If you read Homer and grow frustrated with the hubris and ruinous rage of Achilles, Turin son of Hurin will serve you no better. There is little doubt that Tolkien and the other members of the Inklings were all too familiar with Greek tragedy, and this familiarity is readily apparent throughout this latest work. There are moments of triumph, the kind of heroic exploits which make you smile, slowly nod your head, and store the image away next to scenes of Wyatt and Doc, Easy Company, Master Chief, and even John McClane. But these scenes quickly fade into the darkness of early Middle-Earth, consumed by the doom of Hurin's clan.
Unfortunately, the book's plot seems to follow the mercurial nature of its protagonist, spending chapters in the wilderness before finally arriving to an all-too brief clump of pages in paradise. The result, in short, is a lot of panning for what is ultimately a frustrating amount of gold. I don't know if my criticism is dulled by my love for Tolkien, or if I am being too unfairly harsh in my expectations of one of my favorites, but I ultimately found The Children of Hurin to be a far different experience than what I expected - the underlying story has already taken its place in the pantheon of tales residing in the Olympus of my mind, but the work as a whole is more of a Hephaestus than a Zeus: lame, but undeniably a god.
Alright, if you're still with me after that last minefield of overstrained metaphors, you get my rating - 3.5 out of 5, with a big question mark for the confusion that I have about my true feelings for this book.
There have been many artistic influences on my life, but very few rise to the level of Tolkien's work. Every piece of fiction that I read is judged against his writings, and the familiar characters of LotR serve as indelible archetypes into which I cram almost every new fictional entity that I meet. To call me a fan of Tolkien would be a gross understatement, and for me to pretend that I had something to teach the master would be presumption on a level that only Kami Gainer could truly understand (sorry, Baylor readers - high school reference). After all, I use his monogram as the rating system for all other books.
Nevertheless (and really, I'm sure you saw this part coming), I had difficulty enjoying Tolkien's newly released, posthumous work, The Children of Hurin. Part of the problem, to be sure, is Tolkien's use of complicated, heavily adjectivized (is that a word) sentence structure, similar to the Silmarillion. This language, at times reminiscent of the KJV, can create a type of code that requires work not normally required of a reader of narrative fiction. Although I do not mind the exercise, the very act of comprehension can be distracting at times. However, can I really penalize Tolkien for this? Shakespeare requires even more work to perceive the underlying beauty, and it seems childish to complain that a book is "too hard". Fair or not, however, this phenomenon prevented me from enjoying the book to the same degree as the original trilogy.
This admission aside, the story of the eponymous children is a gem worth digging for. This is not a children's tale, and it does not, by any means, follow the Chick Flick Rule that I've mentioned in an earlier post. If you read Homer and grow frustrated with the hubris and ruinous rage of Achilles, Turin son of Hurin will serve you no better. There is little doubt that Tolkien and the other members of the Inklings were all too familiar with Greek tragedy, and this familiarity is readily apparent throughout this latest work. There are moments of triumph, the kind of heroic exploits which make you smile, slowly nod your head, and store the image away next to scenes of Wyatt and Doc, Easy Company, Master Chief, and even John McClane. But these scenes quickly fade into the darkness of early Middle-Earth, consumed by the doom of Hurin's clan.
Unfortunately, the book's plot seems to follow the mercurial nature of its protagonist, spending chapters in the wilderness before finally arriving to an all-too brief clump of pages in paradise. The result, in short, is a lot of panning for what is ultimately a frustrating amount of gold. I don't know if my criticism is dulled by my love for Tolkien, or if I am being too unfairly harsh in my expectations of one of my favorites, but I ultimately found The Children of Hurin to be a far different experience than what I expected - the underlying story has already taken its place in the pantheon of tales residing in the Olympus of my mind, but the work as a whole is more of a Hephaestus than a Zeus: lame, but undeniably a god.
Alright, if you're still with me after that last minefield of overstrained metaphors, you get my rating - 3.5 out of 5, with a big question mark for the confusion that I have about my true feelings for this book.
Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio? Our Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You
So, there may be one or two of you out there who are missing the point of having Wednesday night dinners if I only write up about one of them. Well, ever since that fateful day several weeks ago when I came up with that idea, God blessed us with wonderful news that sort of made it difficult for me to continue forcing Chelsea to keep eating potentially strange-tasting foods. Yet again, "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley." (Hey! Now you have two quotes to identify in this post!) So, I'm going to have to indefinitely postpone that feature of this tiny little blog until, oh, February or so.
23 May 2007
Dinner - No Quote Here
So I have this great plan (we'll see, as always, how long it lasts) to cook dinner every Wednesday. Before you laugh at me for only cooking once a week, I should probably explain further - this is "experimental cooking" night, on which I will make something out of a cookbook that I have never made before, and see how it goes. I'll tell you guys* the results, and give you the recipes (with proper reference to the source, of course).
*I'm using "guys" in its Midwestern, gender neutral sense. Props to Prof. Serr for this phrase.
This week I made Javanese Sate with Pineapple Rice. I am trying to cook with the ingredients that we already own, so I was looking for something that I could make using the roast that has been in our freezer for several months. I found the Sate recipe in a cookbook that we got for our wedding, called Pearls of the Concho (it's from the San Angelo Junior League). This recipe, from one Anne Garrer Scott, serves 6 and produces a dark, peanutty sauce for the beef. Basically, you make a marinade out of 1 tbsp crushed coriander seeds (which is cilantro - who knew?), 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper, 1 chopped med. onion, 2 cloves garlic (peeled), 1/2 c. soy sauce, 1/4 c. lemon or lime juice, 1/2 c. peanut butter, 1/4 c. brown sugar, and 1/2 c. peanut oil. Out of deference to my wife, who is the friendly guinea pig for this project, I omitted the dash of hot pepper sauce. After blending all of this stuff into a smooth liquid, you marinate 2 lbs. of beef or chicken, cut into 1" cubes, in the mixture for 1-2 hours (I actually did closer to 4 because of Bar/Bri). The beef or chicken then goes on skewers and is either grilled over coals or broiled in the oven (3-4 mins. per side). Lacking a grill, I broiled the meat, but I can definitely imagine the increased flavor that a proper grilling would give it. If I were to change anything about this recipe, I would probably tone down the soy sauce a little bit, but that is largely due to my dislike for the very dark flavor that it produces. I can also imagine that throwing some pineapple chunks or other fruit inbetween the meat on the skewers would be a welcome addition. I also had trouble picking up the flavor of the coriander, so a little bit more of that spice might produce an interesting effect.
The pineapple rice comes from the Better Homes and Gardens' New Grilling Book. This is very simple to make. Simply cook 3/4 c. jasmine or long grain rice in 1 c. chicken broth and 1/2 c. pineapple juice (15 mins simmering on low heat after bringing to a boil). Then add 1 c. frozen shelled edamame and 1/2 c. sliced green onions (I omitted the onions) and cook for 3 more mins. Then stir in 1 c. bite size pineapple pieces and serve. If I was to make this again, I would probably increase the pineapple pieces and decrease the edamame (but see below for Chelsea's opinion).
Chelsea really enjoyed the sate, and said that it worked well with the roast. She does enjoy the flavor of soy sauce much more than I do, however (I like it, just not in great quantities), so this is not too surprising. She was not as much of a fan of the rice - she did not like the difference in texture between the pineapple and the rice, and ended up picking out the pineapple and eating them apart from the rice. She also did not seem to really enjoy the very sweet flavor that the rice picks up from being cooked in the pineapple juice. In the end, she left most of the rice and edamame on her plate, ate the pineapple, and then went back into the kitchen and finished off the rest of the can of pineapple chunks.
I probably had the reverse opinion of the meal. I did enjoy the peanut flavor of the sate, but as I said above I would probably tone down the soy sauce in the future. I thought that a different cut of meat would have worked better with the meal, as the roast was characteristically gristly and rather stringy. I am curious as to how chicken would work with this recipe, but Chelsea feels that beef is definitely the better option (it is perhaps better suited to the dark flavor of the soy sauce). I really enjoyed the rice, especially with the sweet flavor derived from the pineapple juice. I thought that the edamame went well with the rice, but it seemed to be about 33% too much in proportion to the rice and the pineapple. Unlike Chelsea, I enjoyed having the pineapple with the rice and the edamame, but I would probably add more of the fruit. I should also note that I drank orange strawberry banana juice with this meal, which accented the sweetness of the rice rather well, in my opinion. Chelsea drank Manzanita Sol with the meal, which likely had a similar, but lessened effect (she tried my juice but felt that it was too much [and she doesn't really like that flavor anyway]).
Again, I'm currently lacking a clever ratings system (any suggestions?). In its absence, I'll give the Sate a 2.5 out of 5.0, and the rice a 3.0. I'll see if I can't get Chelsea to make a similar rating, and I'll edit this post to reflect the same.
Sate:
Rice:
P.S. Chelsea gives the Sate 5.0 (I told you she liked it) and the rice a 2.2.
Sate:
Rice:
P.P.S. I'm going to go with pictures for my ratings system. For food, Red Bull. For movies, the Rebel Alliance symbol. For books, Tolkien's monogram. For Chelsea's opinions, the logo of Chelsea F.C. I'll edit my previous posts to reflect this. And yes, some of the pictures need to be resized. I'll work on that later - it's late.
*I'm using "guys" in its Midwestern, gender neutral sense. Props to Prof. Serr for this phrase.
This week I made Javanese Sate with Pineapple Rice. I am trying to cook with the ingredients that we already own, so I was looking for something that I could make using the roast that has been in our freezer for several months. I found the Sate recipe in a cookbook that we got for our wedding, called Pearls of the Concho (it's from the San Angelo Junior League). This recipe, from one Anne Garrer Scott, serves 6 and produces a dark, peanutty sauce for the beef. Basically, you make a marinade out of 1 tbsp crushed coriander seeds (which is cilantro - who knew?), 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper, 1 chopped med. onion, 2 cloves garlic (peeled), 1/2 c. soy sauce, 1/4 c. lemon or lime juice, 1/2 c. peanut butter, 1/4 c. brown sugar, and 1/2 c. peanut oil. Out of deference to my wife, who is the friendly guinea pig for this project, I omitted the dash of hot pepper sauce. After blending all of this stuff into a smooth liquid, you marinate 2 lbs. of beef or chicken, cut into 1" cubes, in the mixture for 1-2 hours (I actually did closer to 4 because of Bar/Bri). The beef or chicken then goes on skewers and is either grilled over coals or broiled in the oven (3-4 mins. per side). Lacking a grill, I broiled the meat, but I can definitely imagine the increased flavor that a proper grilling would give it. If I were to change anything about this recipe, I would probably tone down the soy sauce a little bit, but that is largely due to my dislike for the very dark flavor that it produces. I can also imagine that throwing some pineapple chunks or other fruit inbetween the meat on the skewers would be a welcome addition. I also had trouble picking up the flavor of the coriander, so a little bit more of that spice might produce an interesting effect.
The pineapple rice comes from the Better Homes and Gardens' New Grilling Book. This is very simple to make. Simply cook 3/4 c. jasmine or long grain rice in 1 c. chicken broth and 1/2 c. pineapple juice (15 mins simmering on low heat after bringing to a boil). Then add 1 c. frozen shelled edamame and 1/2 c. sliced green onions (I omitted the onions) and cook for 3 more mins. Then stir in 1 c. bite size pineapple pieces and serve. If I was to make this again, I would probably increase the pineapple pieces and decrease the edamame (but see below for Chelsea's opinion).
Chelsea really enjoyed the sate, and said that it worked well with the roast. She does enjoy the flavor of soy sauce much more than I do, however (I like it, just not in great quantities), so this is not too surprising. She was not as much of a fan of the rice - she did not like the difference in texture between the pineapple and the rice, and ended up picking out the pineapple and eating them apart from the rice. She also did not seem to really enjoy the very sweet flavor that the rice picks up from being cooked in the pineapple juice. In the end, she left most of the rice and edamame on her plate, ate the pineapple, and then went back into the kitchen and finished off the rest of the can of pineapple chunks.
I probably had the reverse opinion of the meal. I did enjoy the peanut flavor of the sate, but as I said above I would probably tone down the soy sauce in the future. I thought that a different cut of meat would have worked better with the meal, as the roast was characteristically gristly and rather stringy. I am curious as to how chicken would work with this recipe, but Chelsea feels that beef is definitely the better option (it is perhaps better suited to the dark flavor of the soy sauce). I really enjoyed the rice, especially with the sweet flavor derived from the pineapple juice. I thought that the edamame went well with the rice, but it seemed to be about 33% too much in proportion to the rice and the pineapple. Unlike Chelsea, I enjoyed having the pineapple with the rice and the edamame, but I would probably add more of the fruit. I should also note that I drank orange strawberry banana juice with this meal, which accented the sweetness of the rice rather well, in my opinion. Chelsea drank Manzanita Sol with the meal, which likely had a similar, but lessened effect (she tried my juice but felt that it was too much [and she doesn't really like that flavor anyway]).
Again, I'm currently lacking a clever ratings system (any suggestions?). In its absence, I'll give the Sate a 2.5 out of 5.0, and the rice a 3.0. I'll see if I can't get Chelsea to make a similar rating, and I'll edit this post to reflect the same.
Sate:
Rice:
P.S. Chelsea gives the Sate 5.0 (I told you she liked it) and the rice a 2.2.
Sate:
Rice:
P.P.S. I'm going to go with pictures for my ratings system. For food, Red Bull. For movies, the Rebel Alliance symbol. For books, Tolkien's monogram. For Chelsea's opinions, the logo of Chelsea F.C. I'll edit my previous posts to reflect this. And yes, some of the pictures need to be resized. I'll work on that later - it's late.
It's Like a Death Row Pardon... Two Minutes Too Late
I'm back. Hopefully it won't take me a month next time. The above quote is the best I could do on short notice to describe my feelings about Georgia Rule, the Lindsay Lohan movie which Chelsea and I just saw. Going in to this movie, I thought it would be your standard chick flick, perhaps with a strong mother-daughter twist, and I was even slightly excited about the cast: Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman, Dermot Mulroney, and even Cary Elwes (yes, that's right - Westley). However, that is not at all what I got. This movie is much, much darker than the previews would have you believe, dealing with alcohol addiction, child molestation, pathological liars, and in general the loss of innocence. It may have its funny moments, but they are really few and far between compared to the heavier fare - and the language follows suit.
Lohan, who is allegedly the most attractive actress/entertainer in the world, is sleazy and more than slightly creepy, rather than attractive or likeable. Perhaps if the previews were a little more up front about the nature of this movie, I might have been able to enjoy it a little bit more. However, the completely jarring nature of this genre switch was so distracting that it prevented me from seeing the movie as it perhaps should be viewed. Chelsea, who was definitely expecting a chick flick, hated the movie utterly and completely - which is perhaps not a surprise given the film's less-than-sunshiney ending. (Note to movie producers: if my wife is typical of the chick flick target audience, which I believe that she is, take this advice - never, never end a romantic comedy without putting the couple together at the end. The people who enjoy that sort of twist are members of my demographic, not hers - and if it was up to my demographic, we would be watching Spiderman 3 or Shrek the Third, and would be nowhere near your movie in the first place.)
The movie finally begins to come together once Elwes, the stepfather, enters the scene, but it is far too little, too late (hence the title of this post). The writers purposefully withhold a very important truth (or lie) from the audience until the end, for dramatic effect, but by the time you find out the truth (or lie), you are so sick of Lohan and her mother (Huffman) that it is very difficult to care (even given the nature of the information). Despite a strong performance from the cast (even Lohan, who plays the sleazy daughter with an authenticity which is only fully understood by watching VH1), the movie leaves you feeling dirty, disappointed, and perhaps most importantly, disillusioned.
I have yet to figure out a catchy ratings system, and I have to go to Bar/Bri class now, so I'll just stick with plain numbers: 1.75 out of 5.0. Rated a very deserved R for language and sexual references - no nudity or violence (although the nudity comes very close in one scene).
Lohan, who is allegedly the most attractive actress/entertainer in the world, is sleazy and more than slightly creepy, rather than attractive or likeable. Perhaps if the previews were a little more up front about the nature of this movie, I might have been able to enjoy it a little bit more. However, the completely jarring nature of this genre switch was so distracting that it prevented me from seeing the movie as it perhaps should be viewed. Chelsea, who was definitely expecting a chick flick, hated the movie utterly and completely - which is perhaps not a surprise given the film's less-than-sunshiney ending. (Note to movie producers: if my wife is typical of the chick flick target audience, which I believe that she is, take this advice - never, never end a romantic comedy without putting the couple together at the end. The people who enjoy that sort of twist are members of my demographic, not hers - and if it was up to my demographic, we would be watching Spiderman 3 or Shrek the Third, and would be nowhere near your movie in the first place.)
The movie finally begins to come together once Elwes, the stepfather, enters the scene, but it is far too little, too late (hence the title of this post). The writers purposefully withhold a very important truth (or lie) from the audience until the end, for dramatic effect, but by the time you find out the truth (or lie), you are so sick of Lohan and her mother (Huffman) that it is very difficult to care (even given the nature of the information). Despite a strong performance from the cast (even Lohan, who plays the sleazy daughter with an authenticity which is only fully understood by watching VH1), the movie leaves you feeling dirty, disappointed, and perhaps most importantly, disillusioned.
I have yet to figure out a catchy ratings system, and I have to go to Bar/Bri class now, so I'll just stick with plain numbers: 1.75 out of 5.0. Rated a very deserved R for language and sexual references - no nudity or violence (although the nudity comes very close in one scene).
Georgia Rule:
P.S. Chelsea disliked the movie even more than I did, giving it a whopping 1.0.
24 April 2007
Plans That Either Come to Naught or Half a Page of Scribbled Lines
See, this is why I didn't have a blog for so long. I always end up doing something else. It's hard enough for me to keep up with the D&D sites, much less come up with something witty or clever to say on a semi-regular basis.
So, instead of something witty or clever, how about an update?
I have two more finals left in my law school career: Separation of Church and State on Wednesday, and a take-home White Collar Crime final due sometime before I graduate on Saturday. Time flies, and I am definitely ready to be done (although now I get to study for the bar.)
We recently got another dog (yes, we have a zoo), who has been very sick (probably with parvo), and she is at the vet trying to pull through by use of an IV and lots of medicine. For those of you who don't know, we have five animals - Hillary Elizabeth (Lizzie), a cat; Boromir Luke (Luke), a cat; Arwen Evenstar (Star), a sheltie; Peregrin Idgit (Idgit), a ferret; and now Eowyn Leia (Leia), our sick mutt puppy. As you can see, other than Lizzie (who was pre-marriage) I named all the animals, and then Chelsea renamed them so that they aren't quite so nerdy.
We will be moving to DeSoto in July-ish, where we are renting a house from friends of the family. This is very exciting, especially if Team Arequipa moves to Fort Worth for a while.
I have recently begun watching football (soccer). Understandably, I suppose, I am pulling for Chelsea, who is trying to win four different championships this season. On the odd chance that Justin Scott is reading this, we should meet to watch Liverpool v. Chelsea, and then we can fight in true hooligan fashion.
Chelsea is still teaching, and trying to figure out what to do during the summer. There is a possibility that she will be able to teach summer school, although we are still waiting on word from Waco ISD about that. She has really loved her first year, and will definitely miss all of the kids after we move.
So, instead of something witty or clever, how about an update?
I have two more finals left in my law school career: Separation of Church and State on Wednesday, and a take-home White Collar Crime final due sometime before I graduate on Saturday. Time flies, and I am definitely ready to be done (although now I get to study for the bar.)
We recently got another dog (yes, we have a zoo), who has been very sick (probably with parvo), and she is at the vet trying to pull through by use of an IV and lots of medicine. For those of you who don't know, we have five animals - Hillary Elizabeth (Lizzie), a cat; Boromir Luke (Luke), a cat; Arwen Evenstar (Star), a sheltie; Peregrin Idgit (Idgit), a ferret; and now Eowyn Leia (Leia), our sick mutt puppy. As you can see, other than Lizzie (who was pre-marriage) I named all the animals, and then Chelsea renamed them so that they aren't quite so nerdy.
We will be moving to DeSoto in July-ish, where we are renting a house from friends of the family. This is very exciting, especially if Team Arequipa moves to Fort Worth for a while.
I have recently begun watching football (soccer). Understandably, I suppose, I am pulling for Chelsea, who is trying to win four different championships this season. On the odd chance that Justin Scott is reading this, we should meet to watch Liverpool v. Chelsea, and then we can fight in true hooligan fashion.
Chelsea is still teaching, and trying to figure out what to do during the summer. There is a possibility that she will be able to teach summer school, although we are still waiting on word from Waco ISD about that. She has really loved her first year, and will definitely miss all of the kids after we move.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
