Legally Bound!

Per Se!!!

2010-10-17T12:11:00.008-04:00

(and anniversary number 5)

For our 5th (that's right FIVE, can you believe it) anniversary we wanted to have the ultimate dinning experience. I have been dreaming about chef Thomas Keller and his amazing food for years now and this anniversary was the perfect chance to splurge (and boy, it was a splurge).

We went to New York's famed Per Se. We arrived at the iconic blue door, but thanks to my diligent internet research, we knew that you have to go in the glass doors to the side.
So we entered our Mecca. We were a bit early (surprise, surprise) and were seated in the salon for a glass of wine until our table was ready. We were one of the last reservations for the evening and towards the end of our meal we were the only people there. Here is the picture we took from our table, it's blurry because i didn't want to turn the flash on but the view behind the fire place is of Columbus Circle.
We sat down and opened our menu and this is what we saw:
Cheesy? Yes, but so cool. They let us take the menu home with us. The Sommelier even prepared a list of the wine pairings that we had with each course as well. We're both thankful for this otherwise we wouldn't be able to remember half of what we ate. The service there is unparalleled.
The first thing we had was the salmon cornet and gougere. Think of a deliciously cured salmon in a cone with a pop of cheese.
Now that our appetizer was whet we moved on to the first course: Oysters and Pearls. It's a sabayon of pearl tapioca with oysters and white sturgeon caviar. It's the iconic dish of Per Se. And it was unbelievable. However, we forgot to take a picture so I borrowed one from the internets, hence the much better quality of the picture.
The next course was caramelized big island hearts of palm. Heirloom cauliflower, scarlett grapes, toasted almonds, mizuna leaves and brown butter gastrique. The brown butter was too die for.
Next came the seasame crusted stripped bass, which we promptly forgot to take a picture of. but the next course was a butter poached nova scotia lobster with applewood bacon, caramelized salsify root, watercress and sherry vinnagrette. I remembered the camera on this one!

After this absolutely amazing course we feasted on pork belly, foie gras, and lamb saddle. We were so engrossed in our meal that I forgot to get the camera out to take pictures. We just finished the pineapple sorbet course when I remembered the camera...just in time for dessert.

I had the "tropical tea" which consisted of passionfruit-chocolate cremeux, Earl Grey Genoise, Passionfruit Mousee and Earl Grey Ice Cream.
Chad had the "toffee apple" Apple "creme Patissiere", Caramel jelly, Poached Snow Apples, Root Beer Soda and Caramel Ice Cream.

For some reason they thought we needed more dessert so, in honor of our anniversary they gave us a chocolate torte with vanilla bean ice cream.
And for MORE dessert goodness they brought out a container full of truffels, macaroons, and butterscotch, all made in house and all terrific. They also sent us home with some homemade shortbread and a couple of boxes of chocolates.
To top off the evening we got a tour of the kitchen (which by this time had closed down but still super cool to see) plus I got to meet the pastry chefs. =)

I like to kick, stretch, and kick....I'm Thirty....thirty years old.

2010-04-27T06:51:00.006-04:00

Well, eventually it had to happen. I had to leave my 20's behind. For the previous three years my birthday had always coincided with the beginning of finals. This year, without that hanging over our heads, we decided that a tropical local was the only appropriate place to mark this milestone.

So off to Provo we flew.

We booked an oceanfront room with a balcony.
The view was unreal.
The beach was amazing.
But the water was choppy the first couple of days.
But that didn't stop us from putting on our ever-stylish snorkel gear.
And we hit the reef that was 20 yards from our room...and took our first of many underwater pictures.
The reef off the beach was amazing. Yup this is just steps away from our hotel room:
And then there was my birthday. We celebrated with a Delicious Amaretto Cake....did I mention it was delicious?

The next day the wind died down.
And we hopped aboard on all day snorkel tour. I'm on a boat:
We went to a great reef first, where we saw....A REEF SHARK! (photo not found; the shark was too quick for us). Next we to the Salt Cays to do some diving for Conch. The Salt Cays are a really shallow area (1-8ft) that encompasses about 20 sq. miles of the Turks and Caicos.
The Conch shells we (well, not us, we kind of struck out) found. These made up a portion of our delicious beach side lunch.
Next, we went to a deserted island and our Captain made us a fabulous lunch of roast fish, grilled chicken and conch salad, which we ate here:
Next on the trip, we went combing for sea shells here:
Then, after a quick stop at an island to look at some iguanas we went to one more reef for our last snorkel of the day. And guess who showed up? JoJo, the local dolphin.
This wasn't an enclosed "swim with dolphins" kind of encounter. This was Jo Jo, right next to our boat. See, JoJo next to our boat. JoJo swam with us for about 15 minutes until he got bored and swam away.
The next day was Scuba Diving. This is the boat that took us out.
But no pictures were taking of the actual Scuba Diving. We were going too deep for our camera, we went about 40-50 feet. We saw the wall drop off to 7,000 feet and swam over the drop off. (Well, Chad did, I just peered over it). We also saw sea turtles, octupus, eels, and baracuda. It was incredible and Chad and I are hooked. We are now looking for Scuba certification courses.

After Scuba we went back to our beach and spent the rest of the day in the water. The water was clearing up nicely by the end of our trip and we were able to get some really great photos.

Eagle Ray:
Turtle:
If you want to see the rest of our pictures (they are mostly underwater pics). Go Here:
http://turkscaico.shutterfly.com/

Snow Day 2

2010-02-24T20:25:00.003-05:00

This has been a strange winter for us, marked by brutal cold and very little snow. That is...until yesterday. One of the few big snows we've had this winter.... Plessy loved it. Watch with the sound on....in my next life I'm going to compose soundtracks. =)

From Eastern Europe To Esquire: Our 2009 Holiday Card.

2009-12-07T14:56:00.001-05:00

Chances are if you found this blog you are in receipt of our magical holiday card and interested in learning about the pictures on it.... or your bored, whatever, we don't discriminate. Our 2009 was an eventful year and we didn't think that one picture on a holiday card would do it justice. We may have overdone the pictures but, hey, that's just who we are. Without further ado, here is our year in pictures (let's call this a quick review):

Our Trip to Cabo
My brother and sister-in-law tied the knot in Cabo San Lucas last March and, as it fell over our spring break, Chad and I decided to turn their wedding into a great vacation.

This picture was taken in Cabo Pulmo, a great, if not waaaaay out of the way village and marine sanctuary. We spent the better part of a couple of days in those chairs drinking the best margaritas I've ever had. (And we've spent the better part of the rest of this year trying to duplicate them).

This was the view from the palapa (a thatched-roofed umbrella) that we spent 2 days under in La Paz, Mexico. Chad managed to walk across to the other side (which is really, really far and, as it turns out, home to a number of stingrays). I managed to get through two books.

Aaaahhh, El Cascada. Somehow Chad and I managed to find this gorgeous waterfall in the middle of the Baja desert despite a limited map and an even more limited grasp of the Spanish language. While we were enjoying the serenity of the area we met a young lady named Wolf, who was a fire eating hippy touring Cabo. Yeah, that was interesting.

This was the quaint town of Todos Santos. The town is famous for its Hotel California but has kind of been overrun with yuppies from SoCal. We did however find the best fish tacos of the trip at a little dive on the main street. (Main street shown above).

And the whole reason for our Baja vacation: Forrest and Misty's GORGEOUS wedding.

Plessy, the Wonder Pup.
Chad and I were determined to get a puppy as soon as law school was over (including the bar exam). We found Plessy who was slated to be sent home in mid August which was perfect for us. She keeps us smiling, yelling, and busy picking up after her.
This is a picture of Chad and Plessy on her first hike in the Wetland Preserves behind our apartment. Pretty sure that's a smile on her face.

Central Europe for the 2008-2009 Holidays
Chad and I spent Christmas Eve in the quaint Czech town of Cesky Krumlov. We spent the day drinking hot chocolate (which was literally melted chocolate), feeding the bears, and enjoying the ridiculously cheap beer in the Czech Republic (including the local favorite Budweiser, which is so much better than the Bud we all know and love, and cheaper to boot).

When we first got to this town it was in the evening and we had a long hike from the train station to our hotel. We ended up walking through the town square and catching the town's Christmas pageant. We watched for a few minutes but had to get to our hotel. The only problem was the only way to get to our hotel was a back alley off the square that was being used as the staging area for the pageant. We had to pick our way through donkeys, horses, angels and a lot of things lit on fire while walking on icy cobblestone streets with heavy backpacks. Chad was just hoping not to pull a Clark Griswald and knock a fire twirler into the nativity scene with his giant backpack.

After figuring out Christmas Day transportation in a foreign language with more accents than actual letters, we traveled to Prague where we feasted on the traditional Christmas fare of boiled carbs and meats....and washed it down with delicious cheap beer. When we first got to Prague it was late and the first thing we saw was a huge, beautifully lit Christmas Tree in the Old Town Square in the middle of a HUGE Christmas market. It was a great place to be on Christmas. The picture above was taken the day after Christmas on the banks of the Vltava river at the base of the Charles Bridge.

New Years Eve was celebrated in Krakow, Poland. Our hostel was right on the square so how could we not join in the festivities. I was shot twice by two distinct champagne corks and hugged numerous times by people who were presumably saying "Happy New Year" in Polish. But, seeing as I know NO Polish it is very likely they were telling the crazy American to get out of there way.
Chad's birthday fell in Budapest...so here he is on his birthday, on the banks of the Danube River smoking a Cohiba. I think he owes me a good birthday this year!

Graduation, Parties, and Bar (exams), Oh My.
2009 was an exciting year in many ways but for us, the most defining part of the year came in May, when we graduated from Albany Law School.
This was Chad and I at our Law Review Formal. Chad and I have been on law review for 2 years and the best part of the experience, hands down, was this formal. Nothing like open bars, generous pours, and stressed out law students.
The next party was the Well Party. The Party is one of the few real traditions at Albany Law. The night before graduation the school puts on a fancy soiree for the graduating class and their families. Here I am with my mom.
The next day we graduated!!!!!!! And in such fashionable attire!
Me with my parents.
Chad with his parents, sister, and nephew.

Us with our good friends and fellow graduates, Sarah and Dan (who were smart enough to take the jedi-garb off AND who, coincidentally will be getting married in San Antonio in May, thus necessitating a long over-due trip for us to the lonestar state).

After graduation we headed north to Montreal and Quebec City with my parents. The picture above is of Quebec City which is a little slice of Europe in North America. The trip was fabulous, if not freezing, and the food was amazing.

The remainder of the summer was spent studying for, crying over, and ultimately taking the New York State Bar Exam. (Photo not found).

Either We Passed or We Failed...
but regardless we were heading to Key West for some fun in the sun relaxation with our good friends and absolutely, positively no legal talk.
One of the five pools at our amazing condo in Key West, Parrot Key Resort.
Our good friends, Tom and Heather Kramer who flew all the way out from Nebraska to help us forget about the bar exam. As you can see, hats played a very big role in our vacation.
Our first of many beautiful sunsets in Key West.

The New York Board of Bar Examiners Would Like to Congratulate You...
That sentence, buried in the midst of a paragraph, was all we needed to read; we both passed the New York Bar Exam. The celebration began about an hour later, and continued for several weeks. Actually, we're still celebrating. Here we are hours after the good news:

Chami, Esq.

Snow Day!

2009-12-05T18:23:00.004-05:00

Upstate New York saw its first snow of the season today. It just happened to hit while we were at the dog park and we just so happened to have a video camera on us.

After an hour and a half of that, we ended up with this . . .

Plessy Pics

2009-10-06T12:31:00.001-04:00

http://plessy.shutterfly.com/

Back to Reality

2009-08-12T16:57:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks in Florida and Hers and I almost feel human again. The Crim Pro heavy CSI repeat we caught this morning barely caused any nausea at all. We had a great time spending a little more than a week in Key West and then a few days east of Marathon. It's been hot and humid, but the ocean is beautiful and we've enjoyed it. The highlight of our trip had to be our one-day trip to the Dry Tortugas and old Fort Jefferson. The Tortugas are a small group of islands west of Key West. It's about a 2 and a half hour boat ride. The centerpiece is Fort Jefferson, an old civil war brick fort. Some of the best snorkeling we've ever seen is just off the fort. Coral grows right off the fort wall that drops straight into the ocean. Schools of bait fish and larger fish hang out there as well including a couple of barracuda. Some land-based pictures follow.

Blue Skies, Nothing But Blue Skies

2009-07-30T18:05:00.009-04:00

Hers and I finished the bar exam yesterday. It was an exhausting end to an exhausting three months. Today, however, was a much better day. We got to spend some time with our dog, Plessy. We accompanied her to the vet again and even got to play with her at the park for a bit. She's getting big in hurry. Less than a month before we get to take her home. We have some more videos posted below.

We picked Plessy up and brought her to the vet for her first vaccinations. Still healthy.

Then we dogged-napped her and took her to the park across from our apartment for some fun. She's getting big and getting a lot more lively. She was much more interested in us this time around.

Our day with Plessy was exactly what we needed to help us forget about this hellish summer.

Now what to do with all our free time.

2009-07-26T18:19:00.002-04:00

His and I have officially finished studying for the bar exam. The exam is the day after tomorrow but we are calling it quits. We'll glance over some general outlines tomorrow but we're taking the day off to give our brains a break. If we haven't learned it in the past 2 months of studying we won't learn it now.

It's a little nerve racking thinking that I have to take the bar with the knowledge I have in my head right now. But alas, it's time to just put our faith in IRAC.

We can't wait to be done on Wednesday, play with Plessy on Thursday, massage on Friday (THANKS MOM!), and Florida on saturday!

4 Weeks And Counting

2009-07-17T22:07:00.004-04:00

If we're still sane at the end of this thing, it'll be because of our Plessy breaks. More videos! Check out Plessy running toward us at the end of this clip.

A couple of Plessy's siblings playing.

What $300,000 looks like

2009-07-14T13:46:00.002-04:00

It's official, we FINALLY received our diplomas. Mine is on the top left, His' is on the bottom right.
The other two certificates are for our two years of indentured servitude "membership" of the Albany Law review.

Plessy goes to the vet...

2009-07-11T20:59:00.005-04:00

And gets a clean bill of health!

Here is some video of our girl at 3.5 weeks:

His is already spoiling her.

Introducing....Plessy Veronica Ferguson.

2009-07-09T14:44:00.004-04:00

We picked out our Plessy today. It was hard to choose but this one just cuddled up right next to us and we fell in love. Here are some pics of her at just under 4 weeks.

Our New Best Friend

2009-06-26T21:30:00.004-04:00

We finally have a puppy. Or, well, we will eventually have a puppy. These are still a little too young to leave mama, but one of them will be our very own. Hers found an ad online today, so we called the breeder who still had two left. We went for a little visit and left her a check.

They're Soft-Coated Wheaton Terriers. Only about a few weeks old. In fact, they're just starting to open their eyes right now.

We'll be back to pick out our dog in a few weeks when they have a bit more personality. I think we're both glad we were able to find a breed we want from a breeder that we both really like. You can tell she really loves her dogs and the parents are both cute and well behaved.

Soeaking of Mom . . .

Our very succesful (non-bar related) week.

2009-06-14T12:25:00.005-04:00

His and I haven't had much of a life this summer (or ever really). Our day consists of about 4 hours of lecture, then a lunch/gym break and then at about 6-8 hours of studying. And that's it. So really not much to blog about.

However this past week was rather productive.

We received the official "your grades are in, you've graduated" email. Now, we are just waiting on the diploma.

We've found a new apartment that we will be moving into in September.

Because we are moving to a place where we can have a puppy (or more accurately we are moving to this place because they will let us have a puppy) we've been looking at dogs. The current front runner is a soft-coated wheaten terrier. How cute is this dog?!

We've also booked our post-bar trip. We're going to the Florida Keys for 2 weeks! We're staying in Key West for a week with some friends from Nebraska who have promised that they will not say a single legal related thing.

Okay, procrastination time over....back to studying.

Looks like we made it!

2009-05-22T08:27:00.003-04:00

Well, 3 years ago His and I set off for New York in hopes of getting our Juris Doctorate. On Friday, May 15th we received them. From now on you can address us as His and Her, J.D.

Congrats to the Happy Couple!

2009-03-18T17:17:00.004-04:00

Hers and I are back from Cabo a bit more tan than your normal up-state New Yorker. We're in the process of uploading our pictures to Shutterfly. Our pictures of the wedding are already up and we're in the process of adding more. At no point were we taking pictures at the same time, so the number of pics are a bit more manageable than Europe.

Pictures At Last

2009-01-15T11:44:00.002-05:00

So, as it turns out, once we decided to dump Kodak Gallery for Shutterfly, uploading our pictures became a lot easier and faster. And sharing is easier too. You can view our pictures here. Enjoy.

Some Pictures

2009-01-11T20:28:00.002-05:00

Between the two of us, we managed to take about 2,800 pictures, so the uploads are going pretty slowly, but we have a few albums up and more are coming up. We have pictures from Munich, Linz, and Chesky Krumlov up.

Pictures

2009-01-06T04:10:00.002-05:00

For those who would like to see the pics we uploaded so far, click here.

We'll upload more when we get home.

New Years In Eastern Europe

2009-01-06T03:22:00.003-05:00

Hers and I are still kickin around Eastern Europe. We celebrated the New Year with a huge crowd in Krakow, then headed South to a small town in Hungary where we sat in a thermal sulfur bath and unwound. We're now in Budapest and loving this city, especially the huge city thermal bath. We'll start posting pictures again when we get back. In the meantime, we hope everyone had a Happy New Year.

a post as promised....

2008-12-27T04:25:00.002-05:00

but no pictures yet. His is working on getting those posted. We are both typing blog posts at the same time so some of this information is probably going to overlap. Also the Z and Y are reversed on this keyboard so there might be a few typos.

We are having an amazing time. We landed in Munich and hit the christmas market first thing. Well, actuallz we had a braut and beir first and THEN hit the christmas market. The town squares all seem to have massively huge decorated xmas trees. It is kind of like Rockefeller Center but EVERYWHERE.

The next day we went to Linz, Austria, where we stayed on the Danube and enjoyed yet another xmas market.

Then it was on to Cesky Krumlov. I wish I could post pics of this right now but do yourself a favor and google it. It was the perfect place to spend Christmas.

We are now in Prague which is even more gorgeous than I could have imagined. We are about to head of to communism museum and then eat a big mac at the McDonalds located right below the museum. Solidarity.

Merry Christmas From Prague

2008-12-27T04:24:00.003-05:00

Here are a few photos from out trip. We are having a great time over here.

The entrance to the Christmas Market in Munich. It is filled with small shops with food and ornaments.
From Munich we hit Linz and then to the small town of Chesky Krumlov. We heard a live action version of Pinachio was filmed here and it is easz to see why.
One of the traditions in Chesky Krumlov is involves the bears kept in a moat outside the castle. On the morning before Christmas, the keepers remove the bears from the moat and let and let the people of the town in to leave treats for the bears. Then the people leave and the bears are let back in to enjoy their own Christmas treats.

For those that know how to get on on Kodak Gallery site, we have a few more pictures there, but it is still only a small portion of what we have taken so far.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.

And We're off!

2008-12-20T14:21:00.004-05:00

It's been way too long since we posted but for some reason this semester saw us busier than we anticipated.

A few of the highlights:

We passed our Ethics bar so we have now been deemed ethical enough to be lawyers. Go on, make you your jokes.

My rugby team earned the coveted Vermont cup by dominating the tournament this year. I didn't have much to do with the win as I was playing injured and not much good. I blew out my ankle the week before, but thankfully I had an awesome trainer to tape me up so I could play (with the help of some pain killers).

Okay, well, nothing else interesting really happened so on to the new stuff.

We are leaving this today:

To go to this:

Perhaps not much warmer but certainly more scenic. And all we are taking for three weeks is this:

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL!

And check back as we fully expect to be posting pictures throughout our trip.

2008-09-04T20:39:00.000-04:00

Minneapolis airport mens room. Don't make me go in there.

Another Labor Day in Law School

2008-09-02T08:55:00.003-04:00

Swimming . . . Check

Laying out by the pool . . . Check

Brawts . . . Check

Potato Salad . . . Check

Baked Beans . . . Check

Reading the UCC's Statute of Frauds . . . Check

Damn, sometimes I hate law school. Almost a perfect a Labor Day.

Unwired And Hating It

2008-08-19T14:18:00.002-04:00

In some ways it feels like we've come full circle. I remember coming to Panera's when we first moved out here to get a few minutes of Internet time while we waited for Verizon to get our DSL connection going. Now we're in our final year of school and back at Panera's for its Internet connection. We suspended cable and Internet while we were in the city this summer in order to save some money. The downside is that we had to do it for at least three months. That means we won't get Internet back until at least the 28th. School starts the 25th though, so we won't miss our home Internet connection too much after this week.

So Long NYC

2008-08-14T21:27:00.002-04:00

Hers and I are on our way back to Albany tomorrow afternoon. While we hate to say good-bye to the City, we're definitely looking forward to getting back to more spacious accommodations (and a kitchen we can actually cook in). On the other hand, we're going to miss all the great places to eat and we're going to miss Seamless Web (oh how we're going to miss Seamless Web).

You Never Know What You'll See in NYC

2008-08-02T14:23:00.003-04:00

This was the scene right outside of our apartment complex on 14th St. and 7th Ave. last Sunday. So far, we haven't found an explanation and pictures don't really do it justice. Mind, this went on for hours. Everyone would dance around in a circle while some never-ending song played in the background. And then everyone would stop, break out the bull whips, and do this:

And the Storm is Here

2008-08-02T11:55:00.001-04:00

Storm Blowing in Over Union Sq.

2008-08-02T11:47:00.002-04:00

Hers' commentary:

This is one of our favorite views in the city from one of the chairs at Fieline's Basement, one of my favorite shopping locations. His chilled here watching the storm come in while I was shopping for Cabo wedding attire.

What is the Spanish verb for "to whip"

2008-07-27T14:25:00.002-04:00

I'm not really sure how to describe the scene that unfolded outside of our window last night. That is our lovely fire escape in the foreground and behind that is some sort of Mexican Festival that we couldn't really figure out.

There were men, dancing in masks and large hats with osterich feathers. The outfit was completed by loud sequined capes. These men danced around in a counter-clockwise circle for the entire day...to the same song. The only time the dancing stopped was when the men would line up facing each other and take their bull whip and hit the other guy on his backside. I'm not making this up.

We should have more pictures to post later.

Law Firm Night at Yankee Stadium

2008-07-22T20:15:00.003-04:00

Just for the record, the Yankees won 8-2.

Where has a decade gone?

2008-07-18T13:17:00.003-04:00

My 10 year high school reunion is tomorrow. This has led me to realize that I AM OLD and really need to get my act together. I am, for all intents and purposes, an adult now.

PS

GO SPARTANS!!!!! Class of 98 RULES!

Clearing the Backlog of Pics - 4th of July Coney Style

2008-07-16T14:47:00.003-04:00

So I'm a little behind in getting some 4th of July pics up, but better late than never. Hers and I headed out to celebrate the 4th on Coney Island. The highlight, of course, was the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating World Championship. As the carnival-style barker made clear to all, it was here, in front of the original Nathan's Hot Dogs, where God and Satan would meet in the ultimate battle between Good and Evil. But until the competition began, we had an Uncle Sam on stilts to keep us amused.

And watching over Unlce Sam are some of New York City's finest perched atop Nathan's Hot Dogs.

Before we knew it, the competition had begun. We all knew it was going to come down to two competitors, Kobayashi and last year's Champ, Joey Chestnut.

Being an American on the 4th of July met we pretty much had to cheer for Chestnut against Kobayashi, who hails from Japan. Chestnut jumped out to an early lead only to see Kobayashi come back and take a slim lead heading into the final minute. Chestnut somehow made an incredible come back in the last minute, however, and the two ended in a tie. 59 hot dogs and buns each.

They decided on an eat-off to crown this year's champion. Whoever could down 5 hot dogs first would win. Somehow, Chestnut was able to pull through. His perserverance in the face of overwhelming odds made us all proud to be an American. Or so the barker said.

As the competition broke up, Hers and I went to grab some corndogs and headed off to ride the coasters. Ah, Independence Day in NYC.

Bon Jovi as Seen Through My Cell Phone

2008-07-16T11:53:00.001-04:00

Not the best cell phone pic every taken, but it should give you some idea how close to the stage we were. Yes, the dark blurr in the center is Jon, who, as Hers pointed out, is a bit of a spaz on stage. Oh well, it was still a great time in a great setting.

Bon Jovi

2008-07-14T13:44:00.002-04:00

Was awesome.

A more detailed report to come.

****More Detailed Report ****

His surprised me with two tickets the Bon Jovi concert in Central Park because he is a great guy, and, well, I love Bon Jovi! Crossroads is one of the all time great road trip CD's. Ah, hair bands. Their well-penned philosophy on life and love truly inspired a generation. Okay, maybe not but when a steel-horse riding cowboy tells you its "[His] Life", well, you listen. Unless you want to go "Down in a Blaze of Glory". Okay, I think that's it for the Bon Jovi song references.

Concerts in Central Park don't happen all that often, mostly because the Parks Department wants to keep the Great Lawn intact. Previous acts have included Diana Ross, Barbra Streisand, Simon and Garfunkle, and Garth Brooks. So it is kind of a big deal to get tickets to the concert. His did good.

It was reported on the news (okay, it was gothamist.com but that is as good as the news in NYC) that people were lining up the night before in order to get the good seats in the Park. Seating was on a first-come basis. We got in line at 11:30 am, the concert was to start at 8:00 pm.

The line wasn't bad. We were number 737 in line. We met a couple from Long Island in front of us, and a family from New Jersey behind us. Come to think of it everybody there was from New Jersey or Long Island --- I've never been surrounded by worse accents in my life. But we made friends with our line mates and before we knew it 2:00 came and they were starting to let people into the park. We made our way through miles of barricades and security only to stand behind another gate that wasn't open. And then that gate opened and the race was on. It was a mad-dash of big haired jersyites sprinting across what was once a beautiful lawn in Central Park. I took the heavy bag and sent His on his way with the towels to claim a spot. I bet this is how the land grabs in Oklahoma worked too.

We got a great spot and by the time the concert started we were about 15 yards from the stage. Bon Jovi was great. Although Jon is a bit of a spaz, he really is high energy. And they sang nothing but hits for two hours (the concert had to end at 10 sharp). The coolest part was to see the crowd behind us projected up onto the big screen, it was such a cool sight.

The concert ended and the crowd dispersed really quickly, leaving the remnants of Jersey behind them. His and I tried to stay out of the way and let the crowd thin out before we started heading out. It was a gorgeous evening and the moon was shinning of the Manhattan skyline. The PA system was playing "New York, New York". So we danced. in central park. under the moon.

Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia!

2008-07-12T08:22:00.002-04:00

That means Merry Christmas in Polish.

It is official, His and I have booked our flights for our Winter Break to Eastern Europe. There was just something fitting about visiting former Soviet Bloc countries during the winter. After we booked our tickets we went to a German Beer Garden in the West Village and had a great time chatting with the proprietor, who is from Germany, on what we can expect: Christmas Markets, waffle's with cream and fruit, hot wine, and holiday beers.

We will be there for 3 weeks. We are flying in and out of Munich, a town that I fell in love with on my previous trip to Europe. So far the itinerary looks like Munich, Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Salzburg with a sprinkling of smaller towns in the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary and perhaps a stop in Slovakia and Slovenia.

If anybody has any tips/ suggestion or a clue on how to pronounce the title of this post let us now.

We reminded ourselves of what we don't like about New York

2008-07-12T08:05:00.002-04:00

Last night I met His up by his office in midtown. His had spent the day up at a partner's summer place in Westchester (read: more expensive and exclusive than Beverley Hills) lounging around the pool and eating BBQ. I had spent the day in the monotony of a government office building. I figured this entitled me to a nice evening out.
We went first to Nintendo World where we checked out the latest wii games.
Then we had dinner at Bar American, Bobby Flay's least Southwestern restaurant. The food was great. His' tuna was fabulous.
It was a gorgeous evening so we decided to walk the 40 blocks back to our apartment. The problem was the walk led us right through Times Square, the place we vowed never to return to.
I just don't understand the draw of this place. Yes there is a lot of neon signs, but you have to have seen a Red Lobster, TGIF, Applebee's, McDonald's, etc. before. Do you really have to stop directly in front of me to take the picture? And if you do, take the picture quickly. It is called a SNAPshot for a reason; snap it and move on. And to the tourist that I almost plowed over last night, do not stop in the middle of a crosswalk. New York is a crowded city but it functions very efficiently when people use the sidewalks for walking not standing. Time's Square is decidedly our least favorite place in the city. For any of you out there that read our blog and are planning on visiting us out in New York, please understand why we will not be taking you there. And if you insist on eating there, we will make fun of you mercilessly.
/Rant.
12 hours to I rock out on my steel horse!

Let the madness begin

2008-07-11T17:42:00.002-04:00

We're going to the Bon Jovi concert tomorrow in Central Park.
I'm concerned though, because people started lining up for the concert yesterday: http://gothamist.com/2008/07/11/bon_jovi_mania.php

Tourist Saturday

2008-05-31T16:46:00.006-04:00

Last weekend, we went back to Albany. This weekend, we left Manhattan again, but only briefly and this time we only went as far as Liberty and Ellis Islands.

A view of the Statue of Liberty through the trees on Liberty Island as we approached the massived security line.

A closeup of Lady Liberty from Liberty Island. Some say it resembles the sculptor's mother.

Once we made it through the lengthy security lines, we were in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. It's been converted into a museum and the original torch (replaced in 1986) greets visitors as the enter the pedestal.

The torch of the Statue was closed in the early 20th century and the crown was closed off after September 11. However, once you make it up the 150-plus stairs you can get a small glimpse of the inside of the Statue. The above picture is looking up through the top of the pedestal at the Statues support.

The view from the obersvation deck at the top of the pedestal was amazing, but I'm not sure it was worth the security hassles. This is a view of the Manhattan skyline from the observation deck. You can see the Empire State building in the background.

Another view of the Ellis Island from the observation deck.

Our next stop was Ellis Island. After entering the massive (and recently restored) building, we saw the ground floor where emigrants were asked to leave their bags. We then walked upstairs to the registration room pictured above. The view is from the stairs leading up from the baggage room. At the far end of the registration room are the desks where names were matched to the ship's manifest. During the entire time in line, doctors on the balcony above watched for signs of lameness or illness. If you were ill, you were detained on the island until you recovered or you were sent back. Only about 2% of emigrants were actually sent back due to illness. Most made it ashore eventually, although in some cases it took months.

From the windows on one side of the registration room you could see the Statue of Liberty.

And from the other window, you could see the Manhattan skyline.

A shot of the Registration Room from above. You can almost imagine the crowd of people waiting to get to the registration tables.

This is a picture of the registration room during the early 20th century, about the time my Great Grandmother arrived at Ellis Island.

Back in Manhattan, we capped the day off with a late lunch on Stone Street. This is one of my favorite places. They drag tables out to the cobblestone streets. It's a great atmosphere and the beer and food aren't bad either.

What a weird coincidence

2008-05-28T21:32:00.002-04:00

As I'm walking down the sidewalk by a bar in front of my building I see a girl who looks really familiar and I tell His that it looks like a girl i went to college with. His and i continued on our walk and ended up back at the neighborhood bar where this girl comes out to smoke a cigarette and I'm thinking more and more that she was my RA from college but i didn't want to be the pshyco who said "are you Kim from Texas?" She looked over and saw me, recognized me and the rest is history.
3000 miles away and I run into my freshmen dorm RA...in NYC. Wow.

The Summer Chronicles

2008-05-24T09:17:00.002-04:00

Well, we are both down in The City now and have had a lot of fun this past week. While, His has been working I've been off shopping, exploring the area, and enjoying the Met.

We're living on the border of the Village and Chelsea. The area is great, very residential, with tons of stores and restaurants to explore. We found the perfect margarita a mere 4 blocks away (and its not too expensive) We had perhaps the worst margarita of my life on our block and will not be going back there. We've had an excellent French meal and a pretty good Italian meal all within one block of our apartment.
Our apartment is small (pictures are coming) and its not our stuff. Subleasing is hard. I really want to redecorate but I can't. Oh well, we don't plan on staying in here too much. There is a horrible bird across the hall that squawks, loudly, at all hours of the night.
Yesterday was a beautiful day so I headed uptown for a walk through central park that ended up at the metropolitan Museum of Art. The Met is fabulous and there is always something new to discover. This time I found the rooftop gallery and if i can figure out how to get the pictures off my phone I will post them. The Met is at about halfway through central park making for an unobstructed view for about 20 blocks in all directions. The view of the Manhattan Skyline from up there is amazing!
I met His at his office after the Met and we meandered our way back home to change and head out for a Friday night on the town, Indian Jones Style. We went to see Indy on its opening weekend. Thankfully His had pre-bought the tickets because the show was sold out and the line for seating wrapped around the block. It was a really cool old theatre and the crowd was infectious. Everybody cheered, laughed, and applauded at all the references to the old Indiana Jones movies. Speaking of old, Harrison Ford should not make another Indiana Jones movie, that is not the way I want to remember Dr. Jones.
We're heading out of the city today for a friends wedding. Hopefully, we will be back down in time to catch the end of the fleet week festivities. The Sailors are everywhere!

Watkins '08

2008-04-13T17:25:00.003-04:00

Saturday marked yet another Watkins Rugby Tournament at Albany Law. The girls dominated in their first game and ended up wining second place in their tournament. For any of you wondering what it might be like to watch a Rugby game, we've attached a short clip from yesterday. (Keep an eye out for Hers (no. 1) wiping out an opposing player in a scramble for a ball.)

Supreme Court Arguments

2008-03-22T13:33:00.002-04:00

Well, we didn't make it in to see the full oral arguments in the DC handgun case. Arguments were this last Tuesday and people began lining up to get in around 5:30 Sunday night. We did, however, make it in to the "3 minute" line that got us into the building to see 3:00 minutes of oral arguments.

The 3-minute line is stuck behind a row of red curtains with gold trim. From my position, I had to lean into the aisle to see all the justices. It was quite a sight to see some of the figures we've been studying over the last year.

Below is a transcript from the portion of the arguments we did get to hear. We're looking forward to reading the decision when it comes out:

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: What is -- what is reasonable about a total ban on possession?

MR. DELLINGER: What is reasonable about a total ban on possession is that it's a ban only an the possession of one kind of weapon, of handguns, that's been considered especially -- especially dangerous. The

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: So if you have a law that prohibits the possession of books, it's all right if you allow the possession of newspapers?

MR. DELLINGER: No, it's not, and the difference is quite clear. If -- if you -- there is no limit to the public discourse. If there is an individual right to guns for personal use, it's to carry out a purpose, like protecting the home. You could not, for example, say that no one may have more than 50 books. But a law that said no one may possess more than 50 guns would -- would in fact be I think quite reasonable.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: The regulation -the regulation at issue here is not one that goes to the number of guns. It goes to the specific type. And I understood your argument to be in your brief that because rifles and shotguns are not banned to the staple extent as handguns, it's all right to ban handguns.

MR. DELLINGER: That is correct because there is no showing in this case that rifles and handguns are not fully satisfactory to carry out the purposes. And what -- and what the court below says about -- about the elimination of this -

JUSTICE KENNEDY: The purposes of what?

MR. DELLINGER: I'm sorry.

JUSTICE KENNEDY: You said there is no showing that rifles and handguns. I think you meant rifles and other guns.

MR. DELLINGER: Yes, I'm sorry. Rifles and handguns.

JUSTICE KENNEDY: Is necessary for the purpose of what? What is the purpose?

MR. DELLINGER: The purpose -- if the purpose -- if we are shifting and if we assume for a moment arguendo that you believe this is a right unconnected to the militia, then the purpose would be, say, defense of the home. And where the government here, where the -- where the correct standard has been applied, which is where a State or the district has carefully balanced the considerations of gun ownership and public safety, has eliminated one weapon, the court below has an absolutist standard that cannot be sustained. The court below says that once it is determined that handguns are, quote, "arms," unquote, referred to in the Second Amendment, it is not open to the District to ban them. And that doesn't promote the security of a free State.

JUSTICE GINSBURG: But wasn't there a leeway for some weapon prohibition? Let me ask you, in relation to the States that do have guarantees of the right to possess a weapon at home: Do some of those States say there are certain kinds of guns that you can't have, like machine guns?

MR. DELLINGER: Yes. And here what the opinion below would do instead -- would -- it's hard to see on the opinion below why machine guns or armor-piercing bullets or other dangerous weapons wouldn't be categorically protected -

JUSTICE BREYER: Could you go back to the -

MR. DELLINGER: -- in those States -

JUSTICE KENNEDY: If I could just have one follow-on on Justice Ginsburg real quick. Do those States -- Justice Ginsburg asked -- - that distinguish among weapons, State constitutional provisions do not do so?

MR. DELLINGER: No, it's not in the text of the State constitutional provision; it's in their -

JUSTICE GINSBURG: It's in interpretation.

MR. DELLINGER: --reasonable application. And here, the question is how has the balance been struck? The District allows law-abiding citizens to have functioning firearms in the home. From the time it was introduced in 1976, it has been the consistent position that you're entitled to have a functioning firearm. At issue is the one type of weapon -

JUSTICE SCALIA: Mr. Dellinger, let's come back to your description of the opinion below as allowing armor-piercing bullets and machine guns. I didn't read it that way. I thought the opinion below said it had to be the kind of weapon that was common for the people -

MR. DELLINGER: That is -

JUSTICE SCALIA: -- that is common for the people to have. And I don't know -- I don't know that a lot of people have machine guns or armor-piercing bullets. I think that's quite unusual. But having a pistol is not unusual.

MR. DELLINGER: The number of machine guns, I believe, is in excess of a hundred thousand that are out there now, that are -

JUSTICE SCALIA: How many people in the country?

MR. DELLINGER: Well, there are 300 million, but whether that's common or not, but the -

JUSTICE SCALIA: I don't think it's common.

MR. DELLINGER: But it's the -- the court protects weapons suitable for military use that are lineal descendants. I don't know why an improved bullet wouldn't be covered, unless you adopt the kind of reasonableness standard that we suggest, where you look to the fact that -- and I don't -- some people think machine guns are more dangerous than handguns -- they shoot a lot of people at once -- but a handgun is concealable and movable. It can be taken into schools, into buses, into government office buildings, and that is the particular danger it poses in a densely populated urban area.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Well, I'm not sure that it's accurate to say the opinion below allowed those. The law that the opinion, the court below, was confronted with was a total ban, so that was the only law they considered. If the District passes a ban on machine guns or whatever, then that law -- that law would be considered by the court and perhaps would be upheld as reasonable. But the only law they had before them was a total ban.

JUSTICE SCALIA: Or a law on the carrying of concealed weapons, which would include pistols, of course.

MR. DELLINGER: Let me fight back on the notion that it's a -- it's a total ban. It's not as if every kind of weapon is useful.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Are you allowed to carry the weapons that are allowed? I read the "carry clause" to apply without qualification. So while you say you might be able to have a shotgun in the home, you can't carry it to get there.

MR. DELLINGER: No. You can -- you can with a proper license. The District has made it clear that there is no doubt that it interprets its laws to allow a functioning gun. And to say that something is a total ban when you own only one particular kind of weapon would apply to a machine gun if it were or came into common use and -

DC Thoughts So Far

2008-03-19T08:09:00.002-04:00

The closer your proximity to DC, the greater the number of black sedans and SUV.

Lincoln looks like he will smack you silly if you misbehave in his monument.

You can't look at the reflecting pool on the mall without wanting to shout "JENNNNYYYY!"

Conversation you overhear around the Vietnam Memorial are MUCH different from the conversations you overhear at the other monuments.

Why can't the New York Subway be as a clean as the DC Metro?

High school kids should not be sent to DC in large, poorly supervised groups.

As bad as high school kids, teachers can be worse.

If your eyes don't well up when you hear "Taps" played at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, you're not human.

Spring Break!

2008-03-17T07:56:00.004-04:00

Senator Chad
Future President Chad (he's not quite old enough for this...yet)

-Hers

Congratulations Albany Law Women

2008-02-24T18:38:00.004-05:00

Over a months worth of practice and preparation paid off for the Albany Law Women's Basketball team today as they placed second at Western New England College's annual basketball tournament. The girls endured a grueling Saturday schedule that saw them play four games with no more than an hour break between games (leaving no time to eat until after their last game ended at 6:00). Despite the tough schedule, they managed to grab the second seed and play their way into the finals today. Make room in the trophy case for some new hardware.

Spring Break Law School Edition

2008-02-14T11:55:00.003-05:00

Our Spring Break is March 17-21 this year. We were all set for a relaxing weekend in Newport, Rhode Island. That is until Hers was perusing the upcoming Supreme Court Docket (as is her habit) and noticed that on Tuesday, March 18, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear D.C. v. Heller. For those of you who have a life, the Heller case is a huge Second Amendment. The District of Columbia has some, in my opinion, draconian handgun laws that prohibit anyone from possessing a handgun, even in their own home. The city of D.C. appealed the decision of the D.C. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. If the Supreme Court upholds the decision, some say it could have a significant impact on handgun laws in places like New York City.

So, not only will we hopefully get to hear a Supreme Court case, but we'll get to hear one of the hottest cases to come before the court in some time. Even if we don't make it in for the Heller case (and that's quite possible due to the number of people who are going to want seats), the court is hearing arguments on Monday and Wednesday as well, so should be able to sit in on a session at some point. Plus, I am yet to visit D.C., so it'll be a great chance to see the sites (and Hers is an excellent D.C. tour guide).

Yep, Supreme Court oral arguments, that's how we law students roll.

Poltical Speech and Google News, Ugh.

2008-01-21T19:07:00.000-05:00

His and I have just finished our 25 page rough draft for our note and comment. Yup, the same one we were suppose to be working on all break. We started with 0 pages written on Friday and by Sunday at 7:00 we have 25 pages. Yea!
My paper is on political speech and its first amendment protections. I can't possible write any more about that topic right now so you are all spared. His is writing about the copyright implications of Google News. Wow, we are such dorks.
This weekend was quite eventful for us. As I mentioned before I am on a basketball team and we had our first practice this weekend. His practiced with us because we needed the extra body. He didn't play too bad. Anyway, while at practice I re-injured the toe that I had injured during Rugby last year. We ended up having to go to the Doctor to have the majority of my big toe nail removed. My toe is gnarly looking right now and hurts. Unfortunately that wasn't a good enough excuse to get an extension on our paper. So that's what we've been up to!

Here We Go Again

2008-01-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

The first day back is essentially social day. No one can stand one another by the end of finals, but all is forgotten the first day back. Everyone is grouped together in the foyer and the halls talking about their break and asking what classes everyone is taking this semester. At least Hers and I have some interesting stories to tell this time around as opposed to last year when we basically watched TV for about three weeks straight with no money to go out and do anything fun.

Hers has a killer schedule. She has eight hours of class today. Hers accepted a tutoring a position for Advanced Legal Reasoning this semester. Unfortunately, the offer came late Friday and she rearranged her whole schedule to accommodate it. The result is an eight hour Monday. But she just has some ALR related chores on Thursdays and no class on Friday.

Monday is my busiest day, but it's not nearly as bad. Hers and I are both in Advanced Constitutional Law (which deals with Freedom of Religion). Hers and I also have Matrimonial Law tonight from 5:00-7:30. At least we don't have class tomorrow until the afternoon.

Classes start tomorrow!

2008-01-13T19:59:00.000-05:00

We've done most of our reading but we're not nearly as prepared as we have been. Also, that paper is not going so well. However, the New York Football Giants just won and Albany will either be hungover tomorrow or still celebrating. The Giants training camp is in Albany and this is totally a Giants town! His and I are just excited to see Farve play another game on the frozen tundra.

His and I did our Con Law reading today. One of the assignments involved pretending that we were administrators of a trust that gave money to people for obeying the ten commandments. The only commandment at issue in the hypothetical problems was "thou shalt not commit adultery." So interestingly we spent our Sunday discussing the finer points of adultery and the legal arguments to get around those points. Law school does nothing, if not promote a healthy marriage.

New Years Resolution

2008-01-12T16:12:00.001-05:00

One of our (my) New Years Resolutions is to actually post things on this blog. We have almost half a dozen readers that I don't want to disappoint.
The drawbacks to the increased posting are:
1. We have pretty mundane lives, so the material just won't be that interesting.
2. It is hard to write about non-law related things, so again the material just won't be that interesting.
3. I'm not a good writer and probably won't be taking the time necessary to edit my ramblings. Sorry.
If you can make it through the boring and nonsensical material and the grammatical errors then our (hopefully) new found enthusiasm for posting should be a real treat.

School starts on Monday. His and I are probably more stressed about this semester than any other. My 14 hours of class include advanced constitutional law, public access to government information, administrative law, intro to tax (expect some calls, Mom) and Matrimonial Law (with His, of course).
I'm still working at the Board of Elections. We have a presidential primary coming up and have been federally mandated to install all new voting machines. We're expecting mucho litigation about that and I should have plenty to do there.
I've also excepted a position as a Teaching Fellow for our Applied Legal Reasoning class. The class is geared towards those first year students who are at the bottom of the class. It is suppose to help them understand what it takes to be a successful law student. Basically, its my chance to indoctrinate a new group of people with the mantra "Don't freak out, law school is way easier than the real world".
Oh, and on top of that I have my note and comment to write. That's right, the same note and comment that I didn't work on at all over break. It, unfortunately, refused to write itself, so it is on to plan B, actually writing it. (You were warned that my posts would not be well written).
Rugby hasn't started yet but I am playing on the Woman's basketball team here and we have a big tournament in Boston soon.
Other than that I'm just relaxing and playing some Wii.

And We're Off

2007-12-20T08:45:00.000-05:00

We leave from Albany today for Lincoln via Detroit and Minneapolis. Our flight leaves Albany today around 12:30 and we're supposed to get into Lincoln around 6:15. Here's a glimpse of the weather outside here in Albany.

Our Last Final *

2007-12-14T06:12:00.000-05:00

* of the year!

His and I are off to take our last final today, that is if we can make it. The snow started about 10 AM yesterday and didn't stop until around midnight. Nothing like having to dig your car out while thinking about NY intestacy statutes. My last final is Trust and Estates, His is Copyrights and after this we will be half way done with law school. But we don't really get to rest. On Monday we head down to New York City. I have on interview down there on Tuesday with the Attorney General, start your letter writing campaign now! Then Thursday we had back to Nebraska for the holidays (and bowl season Geaux Tigers!).

It's a Win for the Ladies

2007-10-28T17:55:00.000-04:00

We've neglected the blog pretty much the entire semester. A few weeks ago, however, we took the annual Halloween trip to Vermont for a rugby tournament. What a difference a year makes.

Last year in Vermont, the Albany Law Women needed to borrow several players from Vermont (as they did for every game). This year, they not only had enough players to field a whole team, they even loaned a few out.

Their first game of the day was against Green Mountain. The women returned the opening kickoff for the first Tri (think touchdown) of the year and the day. It was the team's second tri since Hers has been on the team.

The women dominated Green Mountain. By the end of the game, the women had made a habit of standing Green Mountain up, ripping the ball out of their hands, and running it the other direction. I managed to snap a few pictures from the sidelines.

When the ball goes out of bounds (or into touch as they say), the teams throw it in on a line out.

You can see an Albany player on the ground while the rest of the team fights to dig the ball out.

However, the highlight of the game occurred when Hers got the ball around the 15 yard-line. She put her head down, turned up field, knocked a few girls to the ground and dragged two more toward the trizone. She stretched out the ball and just managed to get it into the trizone for the score. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do the score justice:

Meet My New Nephew Brayden

2007-10-19T17:55:00.000-04:00

On October 8, my sister gave birth to Ronald Brayden Woods (or Brayden) making me an Uncle for the first time. He was born at 5:54PM, weighed 7lbs, 12.5oz, and was 19.5-inches long. As my Dad noted, the cute little guy is already getting cutter every day. That's a curse inherent in the Denton DNA. Mom and child are doing are just fine and Hers and I are hoping to meet the little guy over Christmas break. Here are some pictures of my new nephew. Also, you can sign her guest book on the hospital Website.

At Long Last Our Husker Nation Nightmare is Over

2007-10-17T08:50:00.002-04:00

I'll agree with Harvey Perlman that there's no joy in seeing Steve Pederson go. It would be far better had Steve done the kind of job everyone expected of him when he took the job. Unfortunately, after the last four years, I think it was something that had to be done.

I couldn't agree more with Steve Sipple's column yesterday (Pederson Brought About His Own Timely Demise). Pederson seemed like somebody who was determined to leave his own stamp on Nebraska football and that met making dramatic changes. I don't believe the firing of Solich was about a feared slide in mediocrity. It was Pederson wanting to make his mark regardless of whether it was the right thing to do at the right time. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have gotten rid of Solich, but it's hard to convince a new coach to come in and take the reins when you fire someone for going 9-3. Perhaps it was the right move, but it wasn't the right time.

So with Osborne back at the helm, the question becomes what will happen to Callahan. I agree with Hers that something needs to be done defensively and I assumed that this would be Cosgrove's last year. Reading some of the statements coming from Osborne and Callahan, however, I'm beginning to think we might have a whole new coaching staff next year.

First, when asked how he'd feel about Osborne returning as AD, Callahan made this statement before the Osborne was officially announced as interim AD:

I would welcome anyone who’s going to be in that leadership position and be my immediate supervisor. I’ve got tremendous respect for whoever’s at the helm.

Translation: They could give the job to Chimpy to the Retarded Chimp and I'd have to respect because he's my boss. Notably absent is anything about respecting Osborne for who he is and what he's done for the state and the Nebraska football program.

Then there's Osborne's remarks about his aspirations for the job:

I've spent the majority of my life working with the athletic department at the university and I want to do what I can at this point to continue in the pursuit of excellence that has been previously established.

Sounds a little like Tom saying the pursuit of excellence has been lacking of late.

And no one is being very kind to Pederson. Perlman had this to say when asked what Pederson's biggest flaw was as AD:

I don’t think I want to go there. My instinct tells me at this point Steve was not the best person to lead this program into the future and I think we ought to leave it at that.

And then Osborne had this to say prior to accepting the Interim AD position:

I feel bad about it. I thought Steve would do really well.

When the best thing TO can say about you is that he thought you'd do really well, you're having a bad go of things.

At any rate, Steve Pederson was clearly not the man for the job. It should be an interesting off-season.

Hers on her Husker soapbox

2007-10-16T16:04:00.000-04:00

His and I were so disappointed after this weekend's debacle neither of us thought there would be a bright spot in Husker football this year. We were wrong! Steve Pederson is gone and Tom Osborne is back (well, only as some sort of AD to be determined later).

I've never really been a huge fan of Steve Pederson and I'm not sure I can pin-point exactly why. The recent articles in the always credible Lincoln Journal Star have seemed to affirm my initial reaction. (Sorry, I'm too lazy to link to them) . Will there be more changes? Should there be? This are all exciting questions that are keeping me from my evidence text.

As His would testify I NEVER blame a coach, most likely because there are a whole lot of coaches in my family and, well, they are always right. And I'm not going to jump on the fire Callahan bandwagon (but don't get me started on Cosgrove). But with comments like these he is going lose even my support.

Callahan said his confidence in his own abilities haven't been shaken.

"I know in my heart of hearts I'm doing an excellent job, a good job," Callahan said.

Really!? You can honestly say that you are doing an excellent job? According to the American Heritage Dictionary, excellence means " Of the highest or finest quality...." I don't doubt your work ethic, coaching ability, or commitment to the program but I don't think it fits in the definition of "excellent." Man up and admit that you could be doing a lot better. How would you respond to one of your vaunted blackshirts saying "Coach, in my heart of hearts I am doing an excellent job" after trudging off the field where the just gave up 38 points in one half to the Pokies? I'm hoping you would say they could be doing better. And that is what I'm saying to you, Coach; I support you, but you could be doing better, much better.

-Hers, now stepping off her soap box.

UPDATE- Looks like I'm not the only one with the same thoughts.

New England Style Anniversary

2007-10-10T21:14:00.000-04:00

There’s only one way to celebrate a second wedding anniversary and that’s with generous portions of New England Clam chowder and plenty of lobster. Such things are easier to find in the New England, so we used our fall break to head up into the Northeast.

We left Saturday morning and spent the afternoon in Boston on our way to Portland, Maine, to meet up with a friend we met in Africa. We walked the Freedom Trail because, well, we’re just that geeky. Along the way, we stopped off for lunch at a small tavern called the Green Dragon. The owners claim the tavern is the “Headquarters of the Revolution.” From we could gather from the poorly written placemat history lesson, Paul Revere and a few others used to gather at the Green Dragon and it was at the Dragon that they learned of the British plot to kidnap Paul Revere.

A short distance down the redbrick trail was Paul Revere’s house itself. It’s one of the few remaining private homes on the street.

Next up was the USS Constitution (aka Old Ironsides). The Freedom Trail pamphlet says that the during the War of 1812 the Constitution’s sailor’s cried out from the deck “Hazzaa! Our sides of made of iron!” The ship is also the namesake of the aircraft carrier that my father served on.

Sunday morning, we left Portland (after an amazing breakfast of lobster and crab cake eggs benedict) and headed up to Searsport where our Bed & Breakfast was located. Monday we set off to explore more of coastal Maine and started with Fort Knox. As we learned from the audio version of the book 1776, General Knox retrieved the guns from Ticonderoga and was made commander of the artillery during the Revolutionary War and he served as Washington’s Secretary of War after. This Fort Knox was built to protect the coast of Maine from the British (who felt that northern Maine should be part of Canada). It obviously wasn’t much of a priority as it was never completed (the other Fort Knox in Kentucky is also named for General Knox). This is one of the few canons at the fort.

A view of Bucksport, Maine from the top of the fort.

From Fort Knox we continued northward taking our time and exploring the peninsulas along the coast. At the tip of one peninsula, we found Petit Manon National Wildlife Refuge and we took a short hour walk to the coast and back. Along the way, we found a little retirement spot.

Where Monday was overcast, Tuesday was clear and sunny. We set out from the B&B after some of the best pancakes I’ve ever had. We turned inland and took every scenic route we can find. The leaves were almost perfect.

And some of the scenic overviews, such as these two in Western Maine, was amazing.

Dixville Notch is a small town in Northern New Hampshire. At midnight on the morning of the New Hampshire Primaries, the handful of residents in the town cast their votes for President. Many candidates and prominent politicians have had their picture taken in front of this sign.

We ended up spending way too much time winding our way down Northern New Hampshire and couldn’t make it back home Tuesday, so we stayed the night in New Hampshire. This was just one of the many scenes on the drive this morning.

The rest of our pictures can be found here.

Here are to many more years and many more explorations.

FALL BREAK!!!!!!!

2007-10-05T17:52:00.000-04:00

So His and I are now officially on Fall Break. We are doing a little New England trip this weekend. We're heading to Boston tomorrow for a little freedom trail, clam chowder, and Sam Adams. From there we are heading up to Portland to visit a friend from our program in Africa. After that we will head farther North in Maine to stay on the coast for a few days where we will do nothing but eat lobster and read non-law books while the wave crash against the shore. (In the interest of full disclosure, my non-law books are about the Supreme Court and written by a former member of the Supreme Court. Man, I'm such a dork.

We're off and hopefully we will have time to post pictures upon our return!

Oyez, Oyez, Oyez

2007-09-15T23:31:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that most of Justice Thomas' opinions make me laugh. He's like Scalia only more fanatical. Whether he is discussing the "silliness" of sodomy laws or bashing aggregate effects he is usually in his own world. But, what do you know, he's a Husker fan. His and I now have a new found respect for the Justice even if his concurrences and dissents are completely pointless and only serve to force me to read a few extra pages per case.

Pretty Fly for a White Guy

2007-08-26T19:46:00.000-04:00

I'm going to risk uploading another picture because he seems to be okay with the previous one being posted.

His belly dancing on the Nile from another angle:

** These aren't really meant to embarrass him as he did really, really well up there. He should be proud.

Oh My God! Bees! They're Everywhere . . .

2007-08-24T15:19:00.001-04:00

I'm lucky enough not to have any class on Friday, but the Law Review subedit was out and so I headed into school anyway to get some work done in the library. After taking a break to meet Hers for lunch, we both walked back into the library and noticed a sign taped to the basement stairs. "Be Careful, Bees in Basement." We (wisely, I might add), headed up upstairs to a study room. We were working 20 minutes when a librarian came on over the loudspeaker. "Due to a bee infestation, the library will close at 12:00."

Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed in the morning.

For a limited time only

2007-08-23T09:17:00.001-04:00

This picture will most likely stay up only until His notices it.
His belly dancing on the Nile:

We are still here.... sort of

2007-08-19T12:13:00.000-04:00

We are sorry we have not been able to post more on our blog but our 2L year has come at us hard and fast.
His and I are in the middle of our second sub edit for law review and have been spending, on average, 10 hours a day at the library doing nothing but that. We are also trying to get our reading done for the first day of class (which is tomorrow) and somehow in there we had to go down to NYC for interviews.
We promise to fill you in on all the details once we have a break in our schedule but it might be a few weeks. Hope everyone is doing well.

All The Pics You Can Handle

2007-08-02T23:13:00.000-04:00

Ah, back in the states with a reliable Internet connection. Unfortunately, we took too many pictures for one album. You can find all of our Samburu pics as well as some pics from the elephant orphanage at the regular spot. Pictures of Maasai Mara and Lamu have all been posted here.

God Bless America!

2007-08-02T08:53:00.000-04:00

We are back! And I'm feeling awfully patriotic about it. Everything in the US is so much easier. The roads are smoother than I remembered, I no longer have to convert money in my head, I'm not getting charged muzungu prices, the internet is super fast, the toilet paper is soft, and the tap water is potable.
These are just some of the reasons why I love this country!

We had a great end to our trip. The Mara pictures are up over at Picasa and we will hopefully have our Lamu pictures up soon.

To all of you in Nebraska: we will see you in a few days!

School's Out (Again)

2007-07-25T00:11:00.000-04:00

Hers and I finished had both of our finals on Monday. The only thing worse than five hours of finals in one day is having to handwrite five hours worth of finals in one day. At least they were relatively easy.

A few people had one more final left yesterday and then we had the official close of the program. So the scholastic part of this trip is now officially behind us. In a little more than an hour, we leave on our last safari. This one will be to the Masai Mara for the annual Wildabeast Migration. It's supposed to incredible, but even if not, Hers and I will still be happy to sleep in a better bed than one we have here at our apartment.

We get back from safari on Friday and Saturday we head out to Lamu. We get back from Lamu on Tuesday and change terminals (domestic to international) and head for London. This time next week, we'll be on our way back to the states.

London Pics

2007-07-21T07:33:00.001-04:00

Yea, I know we're pretty slow with the pictures. We've got London Day 3, 4, 5, and 6 up now. Hopefully we'll get Day 7 up soon. As always, you can see the pictures here.

Egypt Day 2 Update

2007-07-21T04:50:00.000-04:00

When you can't take pictures someplace, it's easy to forget you were there, especially when you're seeing so much. I almost forgot that prior to going to the perfume store on Day 2, we made a little stop at the Egyptian Museum. Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed inside, so we don't have any pictures.

The last museum we saw was the British Museum. The Egyptian Museum has a lot of stuff, so much that it would take you something like a year to get through if you spent one minute looking at each artifact on display. For every item on display, there is another item in a crate in the basement.

The Egyptian Museum is organized chronologically so that if you go to the left after walking through the entrance, you'll start with the Old Kingdom and eventually make your way around to the New Kingdom. This is where the organization ends. Many of the displays have no explanation or simply aren't labeled at all. To add discomfort to confusion, the Museum has no air conditioning and relies on open windows for ventilation. Sweat ran down our backs every time we stopped to look at an item. It really made us appreciate the organization of the British Museum.

Hany pointed out a few items of particular interest. Many of them we'd see reproduced in the souvenir shops we'd visit. There was a wood carving in particularly good shape of a scrip that we'd see over and over again.

After showing us the highlights from the first floor, we were off to explore the second floor, which is entirely devoted to Tutankhamen. All the artifacts from his tomb that Howard Carter found are here. The highlight was a small, air conditioned room housing the greatest treasures from the tomb including the burial mask and the golden sarcophagi. The rest of the upper floor was filled with various beds and chairs along with other artifacts.

After finishing the second floor, we had a little free time to wander around the museum. Hers and I went into the mummy room where the bodies of 12 Egyptian Pharaohs were on display. The room was hot and crowded. Hers and I made it around the outside first and then made our way to the two bodies in the center. One of the mummies was that of Ramses II. As Egyptian Pharaohs go, he's kind of a big deal. He ruled for over 60 years and fathered over 100 children. He also did a lot of building in his time and is one of the greatest Pharaohs in Egyptian history. His gray hair indicates just how old he was.

After the mummy room, we walked around the lower floor for a bit. The mummy of Queen Hatshepsut was supposed to be on display at the museum, but our guide wasn't much help (he insisted that it wasn't on display at all). Hatshepsut was the only woman to rule as Pharaoh so the recent identification of her mummy was a huge deal. No one was really sure how she died (many thought her jealous step-son who wanted to be Pharaoh might have killed her off). It appears she died of old age. Unfortunately, we never found her mummy.

Our fun new game....

2007-07-18T00:46:00.000-04:00

When are our apartment starts shaking we now have to ask ourselves is it an earth tremor or is it the bus. Formerly it was the bus pulling up outside our apartment that would make the floor and walls shake but recently Nairobi has been experiencing "earth tremors" from an earthquake in Tanzania. This isn't all that new of a phenomenon for His, but it is for me.

We only have a few more days left. Finals are Monday, then Wed we leave for the Masaii Mara to watch the great migration. Then we will hit the Ocean for a few days before returning to the states.

UPDATE: Despite the coverage on CNN and other media outlets, the embassy has not ordered an evacuation. Also, the discussion of panic in Nairobi is unfounded, at least where we live. Life is continuing on as normal (or as close to normal as living in Nairobi can be) with the exception of some mild vibrations every now and then. We will keep you updated if anything changes.

Egypt Day 2

2007-07-15T08:16:00.000-04:00

We had an early wake up call on Tuesday morning so we could have some breakfast and get out to the Pyramids before it got too hot out. The pyramids are not far out of town at all, about a five or ten minute drive from our hotel. From the right angle, you can see all of Cairo spreading out behind them.

Our guidebooks indicated that at first sight the pyramids could be a bit disappointing. As you approach them, their size becomes a bit deceptive. It's almost as if your mind doesn't want to believe how large they are. We noticed this as our bus pulled up to Cheops' Pyramid. Cheops' Pyramid is the largest of the three (aka the Great Pyramid). It looked large, but not impressively so. And then we noticed bright colored specks scampering up the side of the Great Pyramid. The individual blocks were larger than the people climbing up the sides.

We had wanted to go inside Cheops' Pyramid, but there was apparently some miscommunication between our travel agent and our guide. Visitors inside Cheops' Pyramid are limited to 150 in the morning and 150 in the afternoon and unfortunately the morning tickets were sold out by the time we got there.

Cheops' Pyramid is the oldest of the three pyramids at Giza. It was built sometime around 2500 BC making it more than 4500 years old. It's 482-feet tall.

After Cheops' Pyramid, we got back onto the bus and headed to Chephren's Pyramid. Chephren was Cheops' son and his pyramid isn't quite as tall coming in at around 470-feet. However, Chephren's Pyramid is on a small hill making it look larger than Cheops'. Chephren's Pyramid also has a bit of the smooth sandstone finish remaining at its peak. Back in the day, all three pyramids had this smooth lime stone finish hiding the larger inner blocks that we see today. Hany, our guide, pointed out that at one time a silver and gold cap stone adorned the top of all three pyramids.

An unlimited number of visitors are allowed inside Chephren's Pyramid, so we all headed inside. We had to stoop over inside the narrow hallway to make it through. As we were moving into the King's burial chamber, others were making their way out making it an even tighter fit. We started off heading downhill. Despite her claustrophobia, Hers managed to make it through the hot and humid passageway. We were able to stand up once we reached the bottom. But the extra headroom was short lived as we had to duck down again as we made our way up. Eventually, we reached the King's Burial Chamber. There wasn't much left inside the pyramid itself. There were no inscriptions and the only artifact inside the burial chamber was a sarcophagus at the far end. Word is that it was found open when Belzoni discovered the chamber in 1818. Speaking of Belzoni, the guy painted his name on the side of the burial chamber along with the date. Interesting to see how far archeology has progressed in the last couple of hundred years. It's interesting that a painted sign almost a couple hundred years old would've been a big deal in the states, but it's kind of silly inside a 4500 year old pyramid.

Hers managed to reach the burial chamber and make it out relatively intact, although I don't think anyone was happier to be back in the increasingly hotter Egyptian sun. After finishing with Chephren's Pyramid, we set of to a plateau overlooking all three pyramids (the third and smallest being Mykerinus' Pyramid, which we didn't actually get a chance to visit). From the plateau, we took a camel ride back to the Pyramids. Unfortunately, camel rides in this area can be dodgey. A common scam is to offer you a cheap camel ride, take you away from the pyramids into the middle of nowhere, and then jack up the price. In our case, they just stopped Hers and I between the plateau and the pyramids and refused to get a move on until we gave them a tip.

After finishing with the camel ride, it was back into the bus and on to the Sphinx. From a distance, the Sphinx looked smaller than I had thought, but I thought the same of the Pyramids originally too. There's a small temple to one side of the Sphinx where mummification rituals were performed. After making our way through the temple, we came out on the right hand side of the Sphinx. It really was smaller than I thought.

The area of the Sphinx was a limestone query where some of the stone for the Pyramids came from. There was a small outcrop of weak limestone in the middle of the Query and Chephren decided he'd build a statue with the body of a lion and the head of a man (some claim it was Chephren's head while others claim it was the head of a God). The Sphinx was actually buried under sand for a time (which sounded impressive until I realized the Sphinx wasn't really that big). A later would-be Pharaoh had a dream that if he cleared the sand away from the Sphinx he would become Pharaoh. As it turns out, the dream was correct and a small granite tablet between the paws of the Sphinx commemorates the event. Common knowledge has it that Napoleon's army shot off the nose of the Sphinx. In fact, our guide book claims that the nose fell off much earlier when the Turks used the Sphinx for target practice. Apparently there are pictures predating Napoleon's visit to Egypt showing the Sphinx without a nose. Unfortunately, there was restoration going on, so we couldn't walk around the Sphinx at all.

We had lunch overlooking the Pyramids and the Sphinx. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped off at a perfume shop. Egyptian perfume is completely pure, no alcohol or oils and so it'll last forever. The stop, like so many others, was a complete kick-back to the guide (who receives a percentage of sales), but it was still interesting to learn a little about the perfume business and, if nothing else, get a break from the heat.

After the perfume shop, we headed back to the hotel where we were able to swim and relax for the rest of the day. We had an ungodly early wakeup call the next day for our flight to Aswan.

Egypt Pics Are Up

2007-07-15T06:36:00.000-04:00

We've finally managed to get all our Egypt pictures uploaded thanks to the local Internet cafe. You can find all the pictures here and we'll hopefully be able to get a few more posts about our time in Egypt up in the near future.

A salam alaikum

2007-07-13T11:56:00.001-04:00

In honor of it being Friday (which is the Muslim Holy Day) we're posting a picture of us in front of the Muhammad Ali Mosque.

Egypt Pics Day 2 & 3

2007-07-13T11:49:00.000-04:00

We've posted more pictures here.
Day 2 is the Pyramids and Sphinx, Day 3 is Aswan which included the High Dam, Philae Temple, Cruise Ship, Botanical Gardens, Nubian Village and LOTS of Nile shots.

Egypt Day 1

2007-07-13T09:02:00.000-04:00

We left Kenya early Monday morning. The flight to Egypt was about a five hour flight and we arrived in Cairo in the late afternoon. Hers and I breezed through the terminal before anyone was in place to do a preliminary check of our papers. A short distance later, we met our contact, Mohammad, in the hall. We paid him for our entry Visas (which look like postage stamps and are the coolest visas in my Passport to date). After that, we breezed through immigration to make our Visas official and met our guide, Hany, in the van. It sounds silly, but one of the first things I noticed was that the steering wheel in our van was on the American side of the vehicle. After a month or so, it was nice to ride on the right side of the road.

Hany briefed us on the itinerary for the day, which consisted of checking into our hotel and then catching a Nile dinner cruise (complete with belly dancer). In the morning, we would be off to the Pyramids and the Sphinx.

Cairo is a fairly metropolitan city and rather well developed. After almost a month in Kenya, we especially appreciated the smooth, well maintained roads. The airport is out in New Cairo, which looked very western (if you ignored all the Arabic) with bland office parks and hotels. The city began to age as we made our way across it. Cars shared the roads with donkey carts. Eventually, we came to the City of the Dead. In Islam, people are buried in crypts that contain a grieving room for visiting family members. Many of the city's homeless moved into some of these empty visiting rooms. As Hany pointed out, your neighbors there are generally quiet. The cemetery itself was huge.

Next, we came to the Citadel, built in the 12th century (a little newer than the Tower of London). Atop the Citadel is an alabaster mosque that we'd come back to visit on Sunday.

The Nile passed into view without comment from our guide. Hers asked if the body of water to our right was the Nile. "Oh, yes, that is the Nile." Hany responded in his Egyptian accent as if it were no big deal. We crossed the Nile and suddenly, ahead of us, we saw the outline of the Great Pyramid! That's when it really hit me that we were in Egypt (as if the Arabic wasn't a dead giveaway).

As we approached Giza (one of Cairo's many neighborhoods and the location of the Pyramids), we noticed more and more unfinished apartments. They made this portion of Cairo look poorer than others we had driven through. Hany pointed out that apartments were often left unfinished for two reasons. First, unfinished, unpainted apartments met less in taxes. Secondly, the custom was for a son to move into the same building with his parents after he married. Leaving part of the apartment building unfinished allowed the son and his bride to built their own apartment when the time was right.

We stayed at the Grand Pyramid Hotel. From every balcony you could see the outline of the Great Pyramid through the unfinished apartment buildings in the background. We didn't have time to shower, so we simply dropped off our bags and met everyone in the lobby.

The highlight of the dinner cruise was the Nile itself. The food wasn't that great and the belly dancing got old fast. Unfortunately, I got roped into dancing with the belly dancer, but I like to think I showed her a thing or two. Afterwards, Hers and I went out onto the top deck with a few of our friends and enjoyed night time on the Nile.

After the cruise, we headed back to the Hotel. We had an early morning coming up that would start off with a short trip to the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx.

A Few More Egypt Pictures

2007-07-11T12:34:00.000-04:00

Just posting a couple of quick pictures of the Sphinx:Awww, aren't we cute:I have no real explanation for this picture except that, well, we were probably suffering from heat stroke and we wanted to kiss the Sphinx. This is Jessica, by the way, and she is studying in Nairobi with us.

Egypt, The Cliff's Notes Version

2007-07-10T10:58:00.001-04:00

We're going to try and post pictures this weekend but wanted to post some of our favorite stories for you.

Not only did we see the pyramids but we got to go inside to the King's chamber. For those of you who don't know I am ridiculously claustrophobic. I had to psyche myself with a little Rocky movie and run/crawl through the pyramids looking only down. The only thing that got me through was my group's constant signing of the Indiana Jones theme music. There is just something uneasy about being in a 1x 1.5 meter tunnel under 40 million tons of rock.
Standing in the Nile on the 4th of July (also dancing the cotton eye joe on our cruise ship that night)
Spending the afternoon drinking mint tea in a Nubian village on the banks of the Nile.
Swimming in the pool on our cruise ship watching the banks of the Nile and seeing random ruins.
The Valley of the Kings. Despite being 120 + degrees those tombs were really impressive
Taking a horse drawn carriage through the market in Luxor. The spices and fabrics were amazing and sugar cane juice was delicious.
Eating at McDonalds (don't judge, it was great having ice in our coke) over looking Luxor temple.
Watching the sun rise and set over the Nile everyday.
Hearing the calls to prayer everyday and getting to go into an amazingly beautiful Mosque.

There is a ton more to tell and eventually we will get to posting the stories and pictures.

We're Back!!!!

2007-07-09T10:22:00.000-04:00

We are back in Nairobi after the worst flight in the history of flights and a brief stop over in the Sudan. Egypt was the most amazing place I have ever been and I don't care what an "online poll" says, the pyramids are the most amazing wonder of the world. Just look:

The Pyramids:

And His and Her on camels in front of the pyramids; that is a "wonder."

Egypt Day 1 Pictures

2007-07-07T11:48:00.000-04:00

So it's just another Saturday at an Internet cafe on the banks of the Nile in Luxor. We took advantage of the fast Internet connection to post pictures from Day 1 in Cairo. Nothing too exciting yet, but there's more to come.

So, I just wanted to say...

2007-07-07T10:46:00.000-04:00

That we are in freaking EGYPT and having a blast.
We've seen the pyramids, a ridiculous amount of temples, cruised the nile, and are currently sitting in an internet cafe on the banks of the Nile. I'll post more if I have time but for now I'm off to read the news.

Samburu Day 2: The Safari Continues

2007-06-30T05:30:00.000-04:00

The complete blackness ended around 5:00 when the power in the camp came back on. About 15-20 minutes later, we saw a flashlight outside our tent and someone outside whispered "Hello? Hello?" It was our Samburu wakeup call for the dawn drive.

After getting dressed and monkey proofing our tent (they have a tendency of breaking in and destroying your stuff if you don't tie down the zippers) we headed out for coffee, tea, and biscuits. As the sun rose about 6:30 our caravan of five safari vans ventured out into the reserve. Antelope where everywhere along with the occasional dik-dik (think of a dik-dik as a Antelope clone, perfect in every way, only one-fifth the size).

We managed to spot a vulture in a tree and later found a group of monkeys (not too cheeky). Along the river, we spotted a flock of maribu cranes. On the far end of the sandbar, just sunning himself in the sun, was a small crocodile. We eventually ran into another croc on the other side of the river.

On the way back to the camp, we saw a group of elephants on the move, single file, in the distance. We continued on and came across a baboon sitting by himself near a tree. We moved across to the far side and found a whole group of baboons. One mother was clutching and nursing a baby. When one of the others saw us taking pictures of the mother and little baby, he came over to stand between us and the nursing mother.

The dawn drive turned out to be kind of a bust. We didn't even get to see any elephants up close (a real disappointment after the scenes we saw just driving to the camp the night before). But this is what sets Samburu apart from Crescent Island. You never know what you'll find on any given trip.

We came back to a nice breakfast, enjoyed the pool, had lunch, and saddled up for our dusk safari around 4:00. The dusk safari turned out to be better than the dawn safari.

Again, we started off seeing plenty of antelope they're everywhere in Samburu. It wasn't too long before we found a herd of elephants along the side of the road. The family included a few babies flapping their ears to stay cool.

We eventually had to leave the elephants behind, but it wasn't long until we saw some giraffes in the distance. The giraffes in Samburu are called reticulated giraffes and they have slightly darker coloring than the giraffes we've seen elsewhere. The thing I love about giraffes is that they're almost as curious about us as we are of them. They'll stand there and just stare at you for the longest time.

We left this herd of giraffes behind and headed back to the river. Across the way we could see two male lions still sleeping off the heat of the afternoon. A little further up the river we saw a larger crocodile laying on the muddy bank in the setting sun.

Again, in the distance we could see a herd of giraffes. Getting to this herd wasn't easy. They were on the far side of a dry creek bed that you couldn't cross just anywhere. We eventually found a crossing point and made our way back to the giraffes only to find that the giraffe herd was joined by a herd of elephants. We parked along the road and turned off the engine and just let both herds overtake us. Everywhere we turned there were either giraffes or elephants. Several giraffes crossed the road about 30 yards in front of our van and then an elephant crossed the road about 10-20 yards behind our van.

We moved along the road into more giraffes and found two fighting. Giraffes fight by whipping their heads around on those long necks and slamming them into the sternum or side of the other. The two went at it the entire time we were there.

As the sun set, we headed back. The evening safari, obviously, was much more successful than the morning safari and we still had one more dawn drive to go.

Beach Trip Quick Report

2007-06-26T02:21:00.000-04:00

Don't have time to post a lot but we just returned from our beach vacation looking very tan.
We stayed at the Baobab Beach Resort. The resort was fabulous! The pool was great, the Indian Ocean was unbelievable (although the snorkeling was rough) the food was good and the drinks were plentiful.
We dined one night at Ali Barbour's Cave restaurant which is actually built in a cave that opens to the night sky. The food there was amazing.
Our schedule for the last four days went something like this:
Breakfast
Ocean/Pool
Lunch
Pool
Ocean
Dinner
Dancing.
Going back to class yesterday was hard. Hopefully we will get pictures up before we leave for Egypt next week. Life is hard.

Samburu Day 1

2007-06-25T01:49:00.000-04:00

We’re getting way behind on posting. This last weekend, we went to a beach resort on the Indian Ocean and just relaxed and had a great time. However, we still haven’t posted about our trip to Samburu.

We were supposed to leave our apartment complex here in Nairobi around 8:30 for the five hour drive to Samburu. Naturally, we didn’t leave until closer to 9:00. Two curio stops later, it was about 12:30 and time to stop for lunch. We were only about halfway to Samburu (you can’t imagine the logistics of trying to roundup more than 30 law students at each curio stop).

Lunch was actually a lot of fun. The restaurant resembled a tree house. Below the wooden platforms were tanks of cold water where the restaurant raised its own trout. Naturally, we both ordered the trout and it was excellent.

After leaving the restaurant, we stopped at two more curio stops. Our van had had enough by the last stop and we asked our driver, who went by Karaoke (perhaps in part due to the study stream of soft rock classics streaming from his radio), if we could leave before the others. He agreed and we were the first to make it to Isiolo. The others, however, caught up when we stopped for gas and air in the tires.

A police checkpoint was setup just outside Isiolo. Normally, security waves us through these checkpoints. This time, a large group of villagers surrounding the checkpoint started shouting and pointing at our van. Instead of driving through, Karaoke got out to speak with the officer. The crowd surrounded us trying to sell various trinkets that they “had made themselves just this morning.” This was nothing new. Any time our van stopped in any village of any size, locals would surround the bus trying to sell us something, but this crowd seemed particularly pushy. One Muslim woman kept trying to get change for a $10 bill. The bill was folded in fourths so you could only see a small part of it and we all assumed it was fake. When no one would give her change, she began yelling at us for being afraid of them and buying from the curio stops instead of them. We tried to explain that none of us bought anything from the curio shops either. I’m not sure if that made it better or worse. Eventually, Karaoke got back in the van and we left.

The next stretch of road was unlike anything we’ve experienced in the states. The road was unpaved and filled with large potholes and washboards. And we were doing about 50mph down this long stretch of dirt road. Samburu is north of Nairobi and further north you go, the more dangerous it gets. As it turns out, there have been reports of bandits on the road from Isiolo to Samburu. The checkpoint at Isiolo was one way the government was trying to control banditry. It was also the reason we were going 50mph over such a horrible road. Slow targets are easy targets.

We managed to reach the reserve without incident. After everyone arrived, our guides paid our entry fees and we started the trip to our resort. The vans were spaced out a bit and we couldn’t see the van ahead of us for a few minutes. Finally, as we came around a turn, we noticed one of our vans stopped next a jeep heading in the opposite direction. There was no room to pass the van, so Karaoke stopped the van and got out to see what was going on. We popped the top in our safari van so we could all see it. One of the guys who was in the van got out and told us their driver tried to turn away from the jeep at the last minute, but his tire hit some sand and the van glanced off the jeep on the front driver’s side.

The damage all looked superficial, although the jeep had a good sized dent. We waited while the drivers figured out to handle the situations and they eventually reached some sort of agreement and we were on our way.

By this time, it was getting close to 6:30. The sun was going down and everything was cooling off. That meant the animals were starting to come out (it also meant we had to get to our resort quickly because there is not supposed to be any movement in the park after 6:30). We stopped briefly when we came across a herd of elephants sitting and playing along the side of the road. Our driver pulled over so we could grab some pictures, but light was getting scarce and most of the pictures didn’t turn out well.

Shortly after leaving the elephants, Hers happened to glance behind us and noticed a male lion, mane and all, walking across the road directly behind the vehicle. Unfortunately, we were moving at a pretty good pace and the driver didn’t have time to stop for pictures, but it was an amazing sight we probably wouldn’t have seen had it not been for the accident.

We finally arrived at Intrepids Lodge a little after 6:30. The lodge was amazing. Like the restaurant, the lodge was built into the trees about three or four feet off the ground. A large, muddy river flowed next to the lodge. Our accommodations were actually tents, but they were not what I think of when I think of a tent. These were large, luxury tents. Each tent had a four poster bed, a large desk, and a smaller vanity in the main room. At the far end of the tent was the bathroom, which was separated from the rest of the tent by a wall with a door. The bathroom had plumbing and a nice shower along with a couple of sinks. It made me feel as if I was some wealthy Brit on safari during colonial days.

Dinner was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time and after dinner, we headed for our tent to get a good night’s sleep. Our five hour drive turned into about ten hours and everyone was ready to get some shuteye.

Unfortunately, for Hers, the lodge runs on a generator. To conserve power, they shut off the generator from midnight to 5:00AM and she is not a big fan of complete and utter darkness (we’re talking can’t see your hand in front of your face here). I, on the other hand, was out as soon as my head hit the pillow and I stayed that way until our 5:00 AM wakeup call.

Pictures for Day 1 are already up on Picasa. Day 2 should hopefully be up soon along with another post.

Back again

2007-06-19T01:13:00.000-04:00

We spent the weekend at Samburu National Park looking at Giraffes fighting, lions, elephants, and all sorts of other animals. We are in the process of uploading our 800+ pictures (and a few videos). The place we stayed was amazing, it was luxury a luxury tent hotel built into the trees. The food was amazing, the pool was warm and the game drives were unbelievable. The only down side was the 8 hour drive to and from. I will NEVER EVER complain about the condition of the roads in the US again.

Pictures

2007-06-14T03:29:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned before, it's not easy posting pictures on the blog. We'll still try to post some of our favorites here, but we've found it's easier just to upload pictures to an online photo album. Anyone interested in seeing more pictures than you'll know what to do with you should check out our online album.

Climbing Mt. Longonot

2007-06-14T02:56:00.000-04:00

After a restful night at the country club, we headed out for Mount Longonot, an extinct volcano that had been looming over us for the past day. Our driver, Jethro (who looked to be in his late thirties or early forties, dressed in a pressed white collard shirt, a pair of pants, and loafers), greeted us with an enthusiastic "GOOD MORNING!" He also shared his life philosophy as we left the Country Club "Life is hard, but you're living so BE HAPPY!"

We had hoped they vans would take us at least halfway up the mountain. We were disappointed when the van stopped permanently at the entrance located at the bottom of the mountain. After some administrative delays at the gate, we were introduced to our guide who indicated that the rim of the volcano was reachable in forty minutes, but you could reach it in 120 minutes going at a leisurely pace. Jethro, who initially indicated he would not make the climb, set out with us.

The foot of the mountain was easy going and we were all amazed at the view after just a short, relatively easy climb. The trial, however, eventually got much harder as it became steeper. Dirt and dust gave us poor footing on the trial as we tried to climb. The steeper climb, however, gave us more dramatic views.

We came to a small clearing after two steep climbs. As we rested, we saw the several others in our group climbing up a very steep trial to the rim (they were so far, you could just see the bright colors of their T-shirts) and a short time later we heard shouts as the first of our group made the rim. The rim, however, was not the end. On the far side of the massive crater was the mountain peak, which was about another hour or so from the rim.

We set out to the rim with Professor Gathii, who is heading the program this year. As the students grasped for air and contemplated turning back, Professor Gathii talked easily and barely seemed winded at all. This was his third climb of the mountain and it was evident he was only straggling to make sure the last group of students made it to the rim OK.

Before we knew it, we were on the steep climb to the rim. By this time, the only thing that was keeping me going was the fact that the rim was just a little way off and eventually the steep climb did gave way to a level strip of ground about 10-feet wide. On one side, you could see the Kenyan countryside including Crescent Island (which is actually more of a peninsula than an island). On the other side was a sheer drop into the green crater of the volcano.

At the rim, I learned Jethro had shot up the mountain with the first group leaving most of us poor, out-of-shape, American law students in his wake.

I walked around the rim for awhile taking pictures as I went. The peak of the mountain was covered by clouds and it was already about 1:30 in the afternoon (I took longer than the 120 minute leisurely pace to reach the rim). Rather than go for the peak, which would've required me to climb up and down at least a couple of smaller peaks), I decided to head down to the base with another group and get some lunch. While the climb up was harder on our lungs, the climb down was hard on our legs. We kicked up dust and dirt with each step and were covered in dirt by the time we reached the bottom. However, we did manage to see a giraffe on our way down. We all stood there for a time checking him out while he watched us with interest. In some ways, the sighting was even better than the one on Crescent Island because giraffes are known to be on the island and if you go there, you will see them. This giraffe was completely random and unexpected.

The picnic lunch that the Country Club had packed for us was one of the best meals I've had in Kenya (but that's probably just because I was so hungry by the time I got down). We waited for the others, who made it the peak, to return. Jethro, of course, made the peak easily and somehow managed to avoid the dust on the climb down. Jethro's white shirt was as white as when he had set out. And, yes, he had made the whole climb in loafers and without any water.

Sorry no pictures as of yet. The wireless is really slow at our apartment, so it's easier to get up text than pictures. I'll try to get a few of our favorites posted soon.

Nairobi Bomb

2007-06-11T09:23:00.000-04:00

For those who haven't heard, there was a suicide bombing this morning in Nairobi. It was relatively small. So far, local reports haven't mentioned any deaths. We were no where near the scene.

We are back from our first safari!

2007-06-10T12:38:00.000-04:00

Pictures will be posted sometime, but I wanted to fill you in on our first safari experience.

We loaded up in a bus and two vans and headed on down the road to Lake Naivasha. The roads in Kenya certainly make your appreciate what we have in the States. There are no set lanes, people and animals are everywhere and this is in the city. When you get outside the city you are not really sure sometimes where the road ends and where it begins. Plus there are more people, animals and things in the road.
Coming out of Nairobi we drove based some "settlements" which basically means tin slums. It really, really made me feel bad for complaining about our apartment; we really are living in luxury here. As we continued further out of the city there were villages that had children who would all wave at us. We felt kind of like circus freaks with everybody staring and waiving at us but the little kids were so cute and had the brightest smiles. We got to see more of them up close on the way back when our van had a flat tire and we had to stop by a village for a little bit.
Eventually we got to the Lake Naivasha Country Club which is where we were staying after a brief stop for souvenirs at an amazing overlook of the Great Rift Valley.
The accommodations were amazing. We felt like we were in the middle of Colonial Britain. The grounds were manicured immaculately and there were monkeys strolling around like squirrels. We took a good sized boat (this is becomes important later) across Lake Naivasha to Crescent island.
It is also important to note that Lake Naivasha is known for its hippo population and hippos are very very mean. His and I were sitting on the front of the boat while it was tied up to the dock when two hippos maybe 20 feet away (probably more) started growling (or whatever Hippos do). I have never gotten up so quickly in my life. After a really long boat ride we finally reached Crescent Island.
Crescent Island was where "Out of Africa" was filmed. It is, not surprisingly, a crescent shaped Island. For the movie all manner of non-predatory African wildlife was introduced to the island and left there. Since there were no predators (lions, cheetahs, etc) we were allowed to walk all around the island. Our guide, Moses, was quite the character. He told us about the time he had met Angelina Jolie (and how he turned down her proposition) and told us all about the wildlife on the island.
We got to walk right up to giraffes, zeebras, ganus, dik dik, gazelles, etc. We seriously walked right up to them. It was absolutely amazing.
When we finished our time on the island we were looking for the good sized boat to take us back across the lake. That was not to be. There were two small boats, not much bigger than the Sea King (a reference that few of you will get) to take us across Hippo infested water. We sat so far down that the water was almost coming over the sides. I was terrified and everybody laughed at me. We made it alive with no Hippo encounters. I had to explain over dinner why hippos were so dangerous, some of our group should have watched "When Hippos Attack". A few people went Hippo hunting in the morning and lived to tell the tail, but not me.
Today (Sunday) we went and hiked Mt. Longonaut but I will let His fill you in about that one because his stories are better.

We're off on Safari!

2007-06-09T01:14:00.001-04:00

We leave in an hour for our first safari! We are going to Lake Naivashia and then Mt. Longonaut and then we star our first day of class on Monday. We will get the pictures up as soon as possible but, shock of shocks, our internet connection is SLOW!

After Outrunning The Cheetah . . .

2007-06-08T12:56:00.000-04:00

Riding on a bus of 20 law students who all want to do something different is not exactly a whole lot of fun. But in between changing plans and bumpy roads, we had a great time. We started off at the Giraffe Center feeding and petting giraffes. Some of them can be quite affectionate, especially when you're holding a food pellet next to your cheek.

Across from the Giraffe Center is a nature hike where Jock, the big male Giraffe is housed. We spotted him next to the road.

Afterwards, we headed to Mamba Village. Mamba is Swahili for Croc. There were plenty huge crocodiles here including the ones behind me.

A cage full of cheetahs just looked like too much fun. We hopped in and outran the cheetahs for a while. After they tired out, they let us pet them (OK, the reality is that the guards let us and were kind enough to take our pictures with the cheetahs; it wasn't until afterwards that we learned how close it was to feeding time).

Good Morning from Africa!

2007-06-06T07:52:00.000-04:00

His and I have arrived to Nairobi in one piece. We are in the process of shopping for groceries, unpacking and saying "Um, we're in AFRICA!"

Our last few days in London were fun. We spent 5 hours in the British museum and were just completely overwhelmed. The museum itself was amazing and set up really well but there was just more stuff than you could imagine. Its good to be an empire.
The next day we watched the changing of the guard and at the Horse Guard. Its similar to the one at Buckingham Palace but on horses and not as crowded. Then we went to St. James Park and idled away the afternoon reading, people watching, and eating ice cream. We also watched military bands go up and down the mall, our cab drive told us he thought they were practicing for the Queens birthday. Then it was time to leave for Nairobi.

My final thoughts on London:

Atkins would never work here: bangers and mash, cornish pasties, pies, fish and chips, etc.
Cask drawn ales are wonderful (and we sampled enough of them to know that this is not a statistical anomaly)
Charles should change his name to Edward so that when he ascends to the thrown they don't have to change the billions of ER signs.
I overestimated my ability to figure out which way to look when driving is done on the left.

My first initial thoughts on Africa.

Crap, they drive on the left and they don't have the nice markings telling you which way to look. I should have figured this out in London but we spent too much time in the parks.
I'm glad I'm not here in the summer
And finally a conversion rate of 70 to 1 is going to tax what little math ability I possess.

Quicky

2007-06-04T15:40:00.000-04:00

Sorry, no fancy pictures like Hers. We didn't plan to post like did last time, so there's no pictures ready to go and I only have 10 minutes left at the Internet Cafe.

Hers and I are still having a great time. We've worn ourselves out a bit and have actually spent a lot of time just sitting in a park and reading (both reading books centered on London). We did go to part of the British Museum today, which was amazing. The British Empire extended so far that you can find artifcats from all over the world. I thought the Egyptian artificats would be amazing, but it turns out I was most taken with the collection in the Enlightment exhibit. The books they had on display there were incredible to say nothing of the artificats. Being in that room was one of the most amazing experiences I've had so far.

Yesterday's highlight was Windsor. There's just something about old castles that are impressive. And yes, the Queen was in residence (as is her habit on the weekends) while we were there (you can tell by the Royal Standard flying about the Round Tower). We walked through the State Apartments, which were absolutely incredible. Kings since Charles I (17th Centrury) had used the castle as a residence as does the current Queen. The State Apartments are where important visitors are received and state dinners are held.

The town itself was also fun. A little too touristy, but it was a fun walk. We ended the night by watching Othello at the Globe. It was incredible to see like Shaekspear at the Globe, even if we did get the cheap tickets that required us to stand for four hours. I was also disappointed that the only beer they had was Bud. After some of the fine English Ales we've been sampling, it was a real disappointment. Still, how can you not have a Beer standing at the floor of the Globe?

We have plenty of pictures and we'll probably post them once we're in Africa. We leave tomorrow evening and should be in Wednesday morning (late, late Tuesday night for those of you in the States).

London Days 1-3

2007-06-02T05:30:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the formatting but my internet time is running out and I needed to get this posted.

Day 1
Big Ben, Parliament

We must have took a hundred pictures of Big Ben and parliament but when you think of London this is what you think of. It really is an awesome building.

This is the tour bus we rode
We spent our first day, despite the rain, on top of one of these buses riding around the city fighting off jet lag.

The London Eye
This really is a HUGE Ferris wheel. It takes 30 minutes for a complete rotation. The views are suppose to be amazing, but it’s a little to pricey for us

One of 100 pictures we have of the Tower Bridge.
We rode under it and over it (twice), and we might even try climbing the stairs to the top of it.

Day 2
Our Yeoman Warder that took us on a tour of the tower of London.
The first thing we did when we got to the Tower of London was to go see the crown jewels, sorry mom no cameras allowed. Then we took a tour with our Yeoman warder, or Beefeater. This was highly informative and entertaining.

White Tower, where lots of monarchs lived and lots of guns were kept.

Iconic Double Decker Buses in front of St. Pauls.

Parliament, which was closed for the day =(

The Cloisters at Westminster Abbey
This was the only place we could take pictures of in Westminster.

A view of the Eye across the lake at St. James Park
St. James Park use to be the hunting ground of King Henry VIII, then it was turned into more of a garden. But they would not plant flowers here out of respect for the dead. That’s because the park use to be a mass burial site for plague and leprosy victims. Oh, and its haunted by a monk.

Buckingham Palace

The Texas Embassy!

A haunted alleyway with a pub.
This was part of our aspirations, alleyways and ales tour. The ale part was good, the alleyways were cool, but I wasn’t overly impressed with the ghost stories.

Day 3
The Imperial War Museum
There is more stuff here than can be explored in a lifetime. We gave it a quick (3 hour) walk through, but had to move on. The exhibits are really well done and we would both like to go back.

More from the imperial war museum

London at night.
Last night we watched a football match, England v. Brazil. It was looking good up until the 89th minute when Brazil scored to clinch a tie. Oh well, the beer was still good.
Then we walked down across the Thames and enjoyed some great views of the city.

'ello Governor!

2007-05-31T14:05:00.001-04:00

We've landed and have had two great days in London. Pictures and stories will be put up tomorrow...hopefully

Peace & Quiet

2007-05-24T15:16:00.000-04:00

All we thought about while (trying) to study for finals this last semester was how much we wanted to be out hiking and enjoying the nice weather. Monday we finally got a chance to do that. We packed up our tent, sleeping bags, and some food and headed out to the North-South Lake campground in the Catskills.

After getting out to the campground, we setup camp quickly and briefly admired the view.

You could see the lake a little between the trees. After setting up camp, we headed out on our first hike. The trails themselves were beautiful, but they didn't compare to the views we had along the way. Our first stop was Artist's Rock.

Yes, that's the Hudson in the background there and I'm pretty sure we drove through this area on the way to the campground. From Artist's Rock, we pressed on until we came to Sunset Rock on the other side of the ridge.

That's North-South Lake below us. We stopped here and just enjoyed the view for awhile. We would've stayed for sunset, but neither one of us trusted our footing after sundown. We did take a detour on the way back to admire the view from Newman's Ledge.

Not a bad view at all. After the ledge, we headed back to the campground for the night. Unfortunately, we didn't really think about sleeping (beyond the sleeping bags), so we had nothing between us and the cold hard ground but our sleeping bags and it got cold that night. The next morning, we grabbed a bite to eat and headed to Wal-Mart in Catskill (about 5-10 minutes from the campground) to pick up an air mattress. After a short catnap on the new mattress, we headed out to explore some more.

This time, the trail was much harder than the previous evening. In some places we had to scale large piles of rocks, but it was completely worth it. Our first stop was Ashley Falls.

After climbing up along the side of the falls, we followed the stream to Mary's Glen.

From Mary's Glen, we climbed up until we came across another set of waterfalls. Once again, we had to climb up along the side of the falls, but we managed to get a great picture on the way up.

The next day, we packed up camp and headed down the road just a little to Kaaterskills Falls. Kaaterskills Falls is the highest waterfall in the state of New York (taller than Niagara Falls). When we visited New York last summer before the big move, we saw the top of Kaaterskills Falls, but the road to the bottom was closed and we weren't sure how else to get to the bottom. This time, we had a chance to explore the bottoms of the falls.

This is just the very base of the falls at the very start of the trail. We still had a steep hike ahread of us to reach the big falls.

This is just one example of the some of the rock piles we had to climb. Eventually, we reached the falls themselves. They looked even more impressive from the bottom of the falls.

The upper portion of the falls is 175-feet high and the bottom portion is another 85-feet for a total of 260-feet.

Overall, it was a nice getaway and it was great to be able to pick up and go in the middle of the week. Next post will likely be from London!

And that, my friends, was our first year of law school.

2007-05-17T02:59:00.000-04:00

His and I took our last final of the year yesterday. I wish I could say it went well, but it was property and, um, yeah. Unlike last semester when we had nothing to do but sweat our grades, we have enough to keep us occupied because we leave for Africa in less than two weeks!

1 Down, 3 to go

2007-05-07T19:03:00.000-04:00

His and I had our first final of the semester today, Con Law. I spent days pouring over my 50 page outline, my 10 page mini outline, my flash cards, and looking back of 70 pages of notes. And what did I realize when I sat down to take the test... what a waste of time. Our test didn't touch on half of the stuff we learned over the semester. I spent so much time agonizing over the O'Brien test and the evolution of the Brandenburg test. Two HUGE developments in first amendment adjudication only to not even have a place on the final where I could mention them. I would say out of the 1000+ pages for that class the final covered about 250. My goal for the Con Law II is to figure out which 250 pages are going to be covered.

I'm pretty sure that I can infer that His' test went better. Why, you ask. Because he actually said he enjoyed the first question. He has most definitely drunk the Kool-Aid.

Our African Oasis

2007-05-05T10:30:00.000-04:00

To ease some worried minds here is the website of where we will be staying in Africa:
http://bidsgroup.com/
If you look through the pictures you will notice that they have a waterslide. I'm not sure why I'm so excited about that but I am.

We are paying the same thing per month for our apartment in Africa as we are for our "hotel" in London for a week.

Can finals be over already?!