Strange Things Are Afoot At The Circle K

OK, it's not exactly a time traveling phone booth, but I think corrosive oatmeal is pretty damn strange. After warming up a delicious bowl of instant oatmeal (no longer than usual), I reached into the microwave to pull out the bowl. The outside of the bowl came clean off while the inside stayed put. Can someone smarter than us wannabe lawyers explain this one to us.

Scarlett O'Hare may be disappointed in me but...

Yankees are down right fun to party with!

His and I had a little get together last night with some of our law school friends. I don't know why i specified law school friends, we don't have any other friends out here. Here are all the benefits of throwing a party:

1. It gives us a chance to make one last Rum Cake for the season.
2. Our floors are cleaner now then before the party started. You might think this defies the laws of physics but thanks to many Roomba demonstrations our floors were being vacuumed while we partied.
3. We have great friends out here who visits sites like kiss the cook and make the delicious almond bacon crostini. They are delicious.
4. People love to bring us bottles of wine to test out with the decanter.... and we are more than happy to oblige.
5. Because you have to pay bottle deposits out here every beer bottle we return gets us $.05 and every wine bottle gets us $.10. It is much more motivating to clean up after a party when there is small change involved.
6. And finally people bring great beer.... and they leave the extras. His and I now have a fridge full of Newport, Blue Moon, Heineken, Corona, Killians, and an entire case of Becks. His and I are set for the semester!

"You, In The Red Sweatshirt!"

My Crim Law professor has, perhaps, the harshest Socratic Method of any professor I've had so far. As a result, few students actually volunteer to answer questions in class (you have to understand that this somewhat of an anomaly in law school; it's rare that someone in class doesn't want to show off their superior intellect in an effort to dazzle the professor and make their fellow students envious). Case in point, he asked one poor student:

"And what do we know about the Supreme Court in 1977?"

How do you begin to answer that? I'm sure there's a lot to know about the court in 1977, but who knows what the professor is actually looking for? Worse yet is the professor's assertion that we most definitely know the answer he's looking for. It turns out that he wanted the student to mention that Burger was the Chief Justice in 1977 and the Burger court was more conservative (more friendly to prosecutors) than the previous Warren Court (something that I, at least, most definitely did not know).

So near the end of class on Thursday, we're talking about the difference between a defense and an affirmative defenses (the difference being that a defense involves a specific element of a crime and thus must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt by the prosecution unlike an affirmative defense where the defense has at least some burden of proof).

"Is self-defense a defense, or an affirmative defense?" The professor asked. Silence,

"Come on goddamn it. Is self-defense a defense or is it an affirmative defense?" He asked again waiting for someone to volunteer.

"Come on, this isn't that hard! Is self-defense a defense or an affirmative defense? Someone raise their goddamn hand! You in the red sweatshirt, answer the goddman question!"

I found myself wishing I hadn't worn my Nebraska sweatshirt that day. We often suspect that law professors' vision is based on movement and/or bright colors. Worse yet, the command to speak surprised me while as I was swallowing. My stammered, struggling reply was a meek "defense."

"Alright, it's a defense. Why?"

Getting a small portion of my composure back, I replied "Self-defense is a lawful killing."

"So what?"

"Murder is an unlawful killing, so the prosecution has to prove the killing was not lawful and not self-defense."

"Good. Any doubt in your mind, any doubt in your mind once-so-ever that self-defense is not an affirmative defense?"

By this time, the professor had sensed enough fear coming from me, any waffling or uncertainity on my part would only compounded the situation. "No, no doubt."

Well, as it turned out, the professor considered my answer right, but the Supreme Court considered it wrong. The courts have allowed the states to make self-defense an affirmative defense. That means if someone is threatening to kill you, your family, or even another person and you kill the threatening individual, the burden is on you to prove that the killing was lawful and not on the defense to prove it was unlawful. At least he didn't ask me to tell him what I know about the Supreme Court in 1928.

Thanks loyal blog reader!

There is no better way to start a semester than becoming hooked on a new TV series. At the suggestion of one of frequent blog visitors we have gotten hooked on House. What a great show. House is my idol; I hope one day I can be as witty and arrogant as him. So now, when we should be studying we are watching past episodes of this show. The funny thing is he reminds us of a few of our professors, only not quite as intimidating.

Anyway, great tip on the show!

Wow, I’ve been delinquent with my posting!

Our first week of classes is now behind us and I’ve found a little time in which to post. This semester is crazy! I have arguably the hardest, most demanding professors for four of my classes and the most abstract touchy-feely professor for my remaining class. Its a tough mix.

His and I are actually pretty excited about this semester (so far). Getting our first semester under our belt and receiving our grades has given us an extra shot of much needed motivation. I’m really enjoy the classes even though I’ve already been cold called in all of them (well, except Contracts, but that class is always the exception) and most of the cases are incredibly interesting. In Crim Law we are reading about when the life of a fetus begins, this should make for some incredibly lively debate. In Con Law we just read a case about a guy who sought an injunction against his law school for failing to admit him and we will soon be embarking on the wonderment that is our first amendment.

Oh, and in lawyering we got to act out an accident. I played the role of a pumpkin falling out of a truck. It was a taxing role, but I’m a firm believer in method acting and I believe my commitment to the part really paid off. In other lawyering news my law firm just made an awesome acquisition. (Our class is divided into law firms, three to a firm.) One person didn’t come back this semester so there was a two person firm. After wining and dining one of the members of the firm (aka the smartest guy in the class) he decided to join our firm. And just in time for our first big project! Maybe I should go into mergers and acquisitions.

We’ve been thinking a lot about what we were going to do this summer. Logic and reasoning says “get a job; make some money”. But we’ve done that before and its really not all that fun. We are both enjoying school too much to rush back into the workplace so we’re 98% sure we are heading to Kenya to study for the summer. We’re really excited about this and will be posting more about it as the semester progresses.

We will be taking two classes there. We’ll both be taking Comparative Constitutional Law and I’ll be taking a Family law class which focuses mostly on Women’s rights in Sub-Saharan Africa. I’m not sure what His’ other class is. The program also includes a couple of safaris and a trip to the beach. I can’t wait to go!

We get about 10 days off in the middle of the summer session so you have any great suggestions as to what we could do feel free to post your ideas. Some of the things we’ve thrown around:

• Heading to Egypt to see the pyramids and cruise the Nile (this would be our dream, but its quite pricey to get from Nairobi to Cairo)
• Climbing Mt. Kilaminjaro (this would be great fun too, but it would require some serious training, and I probably wouldn’t be able to walk for a week afterwards…kind of like a rugby game)
• Going to an island resort off the Indian ocean (yeah, that’s probably what we will end up doing. You just can’t beat snorkeling)

Waiting For [Professor] Guffman

The first day of this semester started off just like last semester with Property and Contracts back to back. After an hour break, I was off to my first new class of the semester, Criminal Law. Incidentally, the professor's son is also in our class.

Normally, professors arrive a few minutes early to get organized before class starts. At 12:01,an expectant hush came over the room as we expected our professor to walk through the door at any moment. Finally, the entire class hears:

"Hey, what's up?"

We all look back to see the professor's son talking casually on his cell phone.

"Not much, just waiting for you pop. . . Nope, I'm with your class. . . Nope, it's today. . . Yea, the 16th . . . Yea, I'm pretty sure. . . So, you still in Arizonia? . . . Yea, I'll take care of it. . . Nah, I know this stuff, I'll teach it . . ."

It's at about this point that I flash back to Hers' experience on the first day of Torts. I half expect to see the professor walk into the room on his cell phone dashing our hopes of a canceled class at the last minute. As it turns out, however, the professor was still in Arizona and, so, our first day of Criminal Law was canceled because the professor didn't realize he needed to be back in town for classes.

Just In Time For School: Winter

Over our break, we had a light dusting of snow and plenty of rain, but temperatures were pretty mild. So, of course, we get our first real winter storm the weekend before classes start. Rain started falling Saturday night and it froze the moment it hit the ground. By Sunday morning, there was a sheet of clear ice on our car 1/8 of an inch thick. We had planned to go into school this morning, but after clearing another sheet of pure ice off the car this morning, we decided it might be better to just stay home. The ice eventually melted, but it's just going to freeze again tonight. What a great way to start the new semester.

Not So Bored Anymore

With the second semester just days away, it's time to start hitting the books again. Luckily, our Property Contracts books don't change for the second semester, so we spent a little less on books this semester. Hers doesn't have a Con Law book per se, just a "supplement" of some 1200 pages. At least it was only $31 (my Con Law book, which isn't quite as unwieldy as Hers', set us back $106). Secure in the knowledge that we were coming back for the second semester, we also invested in some Albany Law School apparel.

Grades turned out to be a welcome moral boost for us. Believe me, no one is more surprised than we are. Our positions open up some great possibilities for us, but our performance makes this semester even more important. Coming into law school, I wasn't expecting much and was content with being in the middle of the class. Suddenly, there's a lot more at stake and I think we're both feeling the pressure to do equally well this semester. At least we've survived our first semester. Only five more to go.

[insert catchy title here]

Can anything beat relaxing with a bottle of vino and a good novel? You bet! Sitting in a straight back chair with a glass of caffeine reading the Constitution and wondering exactly what the Professor meant by “study the constitution”. Am I suppose to memorize it? Should I be making flash cards for the amendments? Should I be tabbing the sections? Ahhh…. The insanity has started.

His and I start back on Tuesday and we already have some of our reading assignments for the first day. I have 50 pages of Criminal Law to read and about the same for Constitutional Law (Con law). I know His has over 50 pages to read for contracts. And this is just for one day. We have these classes three times a week. I’m not sure my eyes can hang. For my Con Law class we have 1200 pages to read this semester, 1000 of which are based on the first amendment alone. I’m going to be a freaking expert on that!

I’m slightly irritated that we have to start on a Tuesday. Tuesdays will be my worst day. I have all 5 of my classes on that day; my 3 hardest are back to back.

Other then that all is well. Thanks to Roomba our apartment is clean. Our freezer is now fully stocked (including delicious chicken tortilla soup). And since we’ve done exactly NO thought provoking activities over the past month our brains are ready to be stimulated or they’re out of shape. I can’t really tell yet.

It is official: His is smarter than Hers!

In the words of our late president: "our long national nightmare is over." The wait is over. We have received our grades. We will both be asked back next semester, His is a genius and I love property. If you want any more information than that you have to contact us personally.

Do My Bidding Robot Minion

Growing up, I loved the idea of robots. I had visions of programmable automatons fetching me glasses of Kool Aide and picking up my room while I sat back playing Nintendo. I even had a "robot" of my very own at one point, but it feel far short of my expectations being more of a toy than a mechanical servant.

For my birthday this year, my Mother In-Law gave the gift that keeps on giving. OK, Roomba won't fetch me a beer from the fridge, but it will vacuum the apartment for me while I sit back and watch football.

OK, I know what you're thinking. Isn't a vacuum cleaner a bit domestic for a birthday present? Well, a vacuum cleaner would be, but I Roomba's more of a robot minion than a vacuum cleaner. I can set it in the middle of the floor, push the clean button, and let Roomba go about its business while I watch the football game. Of course, I also spend a lot of time watching Roomba go about its chore. It's surprising how well Roomba navigates obstacles and it's fun watching Roomba work its way into and out of tight confines (such as the underneath the piano bench in our bedroom).


Now we just need a robot that will do our dishes for us and we'll be set for finals this year.

It's Christmas Time In the City

The Saturday before Christmas, Hers and I got a reprieve from our boredom and hoped a train into the city. It was raining steadily when we left Albany at six in the morning. When we arrived in New York several hours later, the rain had ceased and it was getting warmer.

We headed for Rockefeller Center to see the symbol of the holiday season. It was actually a little disappointing. The tree seemed kind of thin this year.


After the tree, we headed for H&H to enjoy a bagel. I alway forget that when they ask you what you want, the correct response is "Whatever's fresh." Luckily, yhe sourdough bagel I ordered was fresh and yes, it was the best bagel I ever had. From there, we hit the Fifth Avenue and the Apple Store and from there, to FAO Schwartz where we were greeted by the largest stuffed animals I've ever seen.


That wasn't quite as impressive as life-size Lego figures that included Chewbocca, Batman, and yes, the Lord Vader himself.

After the toy store, it was more shopping and snacking. Eventually, we worked our way back toward Times Square and the theater district. They have cheap day-of tickets for sale in the city, but they weren't as cheap as we thought they'd be. We happened to walk by the Jacob's Theater where Martin Short's Fame Becomes Me was playing. We stepped inside to check out prices and not only did they have the least expensive tickets we had seen, but they also had student prices.

The show was great. Martin managed to work in most of the characters he's known for. The best was the little bit of improve in the middle of the show where celebrity interviewer Jiminy Glick interviews a member of audience. When celebrities are in attendance, they're usually brought up on stage for the interview. Rumor has it that one night Mel Brooks was in the audience and was brought up on stage. Glick asked him what he had against the Nazis. We hear Brooks replied "They were rude." We got Matt, a personal trainer who from the city. He was no Mel Brooks, but the whole thing was still hilarious.

We spent the rest of the day walking around in the city. We saw some of the Christmas displays outside Macy's and Bloomingdales. The sidewalks were incredibly crowded and we couldn't have gotten a picture if we wanted to, but they were impressive.

Our train was supposed to leave at 11:45, but we ended up at Penn Station around 7:30 or so. We were both exhausted and we traded our tickets for a 9:45 train. Our bed never felt so good.