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June 09 is here

A quick update for the week.  Cousin Dan Ellis Jonas passed away on the 30th of May.  His service in Denver was on the 5th.  His funeral and burial took place on Saturday in Smithfield, Utah.  He was the son of Ellis and Geri Jonas of Smithfield.  He had liver problems that required a transplant and when the liver didn’t come, he knew it was a matter of time.  He was only 50 years old so I took quite a few of the family by surprise really.  I hope all are doing well.

The attorney I work for decided to take Thursday and Friday off.  Meaning, I ran the office myself on those days.  It was an education to muddle through without him after only a week of really doing any of the work.  I think I did okay though.  Good thing we didn’t have anything serious!

This coming weekend I fly out to Idaho for the Andra Reunion in Lava Hot Springs.  I fly in to SLC on Friday and drive to Richmond that night for a graduation party for some high schoolers.  A good portion of Saturday will be at the Andra Reunion.  Afterward I run to Kaysville to go to the Bountiful Temple with Amanda’s brother, Derek.  I am looking forward to a busy weekend.  Then I fly out Sunday morning back for the craze here in OKC.  It will be a quickly weekend.  Sadly, my skipping the reunion last year means a number have died I didn’t get to see for quite a while.  Hopefully we have a good while before any more go.

Amanda’s birthday was yesterday.  The big 23.  I spoiled her with a 8 gig iPod.  I thought I was buying her a present that I could also reap some gain from.  However, as she uploaded her music and I looked at mine, I found out I have over 10 gig of music on my computer alone.  I guess I will have to get my own since Amanda has over 4 gig of her own.  It is all hers now.  Perhaps she will let me listen on a road trip.  I threw a little party for her on Saturday night with my law buddies.  Holt and Lindy made home made ice cream.  How is that for a party?  We played a number of games, chatted, ate Amanda’s birthday cake, and relaxed away some perfectly good hours.  Today we had dinner with the Curtis family, who also came to the birthday party.  They spoiled us with dinner including lasagna, minestrone soup, and more.  We played a game called Ticket to Ride.  It was actually quite a bit of fun and we enjoyed ourselves.  I recommend it to others.  Ticket to Ride and Axis and Allies are both two games that we will have to purchase at some point in the future.

Time to turn off and go to bed.  On the safari hunts each night killing cockroaches, I have to boast an all time high of 137 in one night.  I may have boasted of this fact in the past.  I am also happy to report the numbers have been quite a bit lesser since.  Tonight was a whopping 38.  Tonight also included a camel cricket, 4 slugs, 1 regular cricket, and 2 spiders.  The number of cockroaches seem to be falling each night.  I hope it continues.  There are less getting into the garage and getting stuck on the sticky bug traps.  May it continue.

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May Gone

Here we are wrapping up the month of May and so much has happened.  On the other side, so little is happening and I am okay with that!

Finals are completed.  There isn’t really anything more to say about that.  Now we wait for grades, they are still a few more weeks out.  I feel like I did very well in Legal Writing and Property.  Contacts I felt good about.  Criminal Law I don’t feel all that great about and Civil Procedure was 105 multiple choice and while I feel okay, you just never really know.  Well, I guess I will know soon enough.  Multiple choice seem so contrived and never fully envelope the whole picture.  Sadly, Prof. Creel’s wife was in the hospital during the final so we did not get to see him.  I hope she has recovered.

I found a summer clerkship with Absolute Legal Services here in Oklahoma City.  Jeff actually graduated in 2008.  My Elder’s Quorum President introduced us, gave me a great recommendation, and here we are.  In fact, Jeff told me that with President Haddock’s recommendation, he was willing to have me before he even met me.  I am very fortunate to have friends who are so good.  Hopefully neither stretched the truth too far!

So far it has been very interesting.  Who would have thought!  Duces Tecum’s, going to Pottawatamie Court for a docket disposition, meeting with potential clients, and even some good learning time with other attorney’s in the office.  I have my own little desk in the corner.  It is all good.  Perhaps some day I will feel like I have a grasp on everything that is happening.

I received my Constitutional Law Textbook for next year in the mail.  Ouch!  1400 pages of what looks to be some very, very heavy reading.  I guess it is better than a 1400 page product manual, oh wait, that is pretty much what it is.  The product manual for the Constitution except it includes some history of why the product was written, how to properly use it, or how to properly ignore it.

Amanda and I purchased tickets to spend June 27 – July 5 in Utah/Idaho.  Derek, Amanda’s brother has an opportunity to speak for the mission in church on the 28th.  He reports to the MTC on the 1st.  Dad’s birthday is on the 4th.  So we will spend the first half of the week in Utah and then the last half of the week it looks like I will be headed to Idaho.  I am looking forward to the trip.  I am also flying out for the Andra Reunion the weekend of the 12th of June.  I hope there is a good turn out.  I need to schedule the tickets for the Jonas Reunion the weekend of the 18th of July.  I have a cousin who has cancer and will not live to see another reunion.  Plus Ellis and Geri are not doing wonderfully, and I would like to see them again just in case.  Plus there are some of the old timers like Mary Jonas who approaches 90 but never appears to be close to stopping.  Things can change quickly at that age.

I pulled out my replica BOM and am hoping to finish it this summer.  Additionally, I would like to finish the biography of Madison and autobiography of Jefferson before starting school in the fall.  I probably should read the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers before school starts to have a good feel for the Constitution before fall starts.  I am looking forward to fall.  Hopefully my memory of undergrad is good!

Last night we found a cricket in the back yard almost 3 inches long!  I don’t know if it was really a cricket, sure looked like one.  I think I may have screamed like a little girl if it had jumped and landed on me.  Amanda was about to do so just at the sight of it.  I have taken a nightly stroll around the property at night (sounds like we live on an estate, well, legally we do!) and squash as many large bugs as possible.  My neighbor assures me that the large bugs we think are cockroaches are simply waterbugs.  They sure look a lot alike but ‘waterbugs’ are much, much larger he assures me.  Either way, any large bugs meet a timely death at the end of my 2X4 each night.  Hopefully this will keep down some of the population and they will not find their way into my home through some hole we have yet to discover.

We are still awaiting news that our burglars have been captured.  Legally, it seems they should be robbers, but I guess I misunderstand the legal meanings of the words, or Oklahoma likes to be different.

Well, I have missionary coordination within an hour so I better go and get ready.  It is so nice to get caught up on a few things and have some time to just relax and sleep in once and a while!

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Burglary and Finals

Since it is early, I cannot sleep, and only contract lists are in my head, I need a diversion.  A quick update is probably in order in light of the events of the week; burglary and finals!  I will rely on Amanda to place photos on the joint blog, if she hasn’t done so already.

Thursday, the last day of April, while studying parol evidence for contracts I received a phone call from our bank in Idaho, Zions Bank.  They asked me about some suspicious activity on a bank account.  I told them I could go online and take a quick look and call them back.  When I went online I noticed that Amanda’s account had been overdrawn by several hundred dollars.  We only use this account to keep some money hidden away just in case of an emergency.  Meaning, we never use it.  She confirmed her card was at home and I knew my card was at home.  Okay, maybe a little identity theft.  There was one nagging problem, these charges were not off in far away Venezuela like the previous problems.  These charges were right here in Oklahoma City!  Something really bothered me about that.  I called some friends, the Elders, and found they were only a few blocks from the house.  They called me back to confirm the back door had been kicked in.  They called 911 and I borrowed a friends car to go home.

After taking a policeman through our mostly untouched home, he began fingerprinting (after determining this was a burglary II.  I thought burglary was during the night!).  These petty thieves knew they were only going for money, credit cards, and some jewelry.  Since our neighborhood has a good number of people who walk around at all hours, anything more probably would have looked very suspicious.  No laptops, computers, books, DVDs, or anything really of value.  Pretty much just what you could fit in your pocket.  The best part is that they took our British Pound Notes and tossed them on top of the dresser.  They didn’t want foreign money they could easily convert!  Just the cards you can easily trace!  They took some of Amanda’s necklaces and rings.  They didn’t take the jewelry that had some modest value but the jewelry that wouldn’t fetch anything at a pawn shop!  These guys were real idiots.  They did leave the lights on throughout the house even out to the garage.

The story gets even better.  Within hours, two of our other banks had called us about suspicious charges and had put holds on our cards.  These thieves were out high living on the hog…at Walmart, Taco Bueno, and 7-11!  Before the cards put on holds or I canceled them, they were able to get almost $3,000 in charges on 7 different cards I had in my desk drawer.  (Mentioning they didn’t take my Omega Watch which is easily worth over $1,000 and was sitting on top of most of the long unused cards.)  These ignoramuses spent most of the money at Walmart!!!!  The store that invests so heavily in surveillance!  They visited over 4 Walmarts before the day was done, enjoyed some lunch, and filled up the car.  I don’t know what they were purchasing but it was rarely over $70 dollars a transaction.  So they must have been making repeat purchases of something because so many of the charges were identical.  I don’t know.

Luckily, Amanda and I both had our cards to one of the accounts so they could not access it.  I never got a card to our account here in OKC, so it is safe as well.  So we have access to funds as I can transfer to the accounts that we still have access to.  But I have to get new cards for all the other accounts and get the money back in them (meaning the accounts are useless until the fraud and investigations are done).  This is not to mention the needed replacement of our back door.  We have a full storage dresser keeping the door closed for the moment.

Anyhow, I should be wrapping up so I can get ready for PEC.  On another note, I discovered this week that about 8 shingles have blown off the one side of the house.  I also appear to have some warping of a board on the back roof of the house making a sort of rippling look on the roof.  Andrew assures me it has to do with moisture and no vents in the back roof.  Plus as I cut some of the branches off that were too close to the roof, I could feel how much the roof gave way under my feet bringing back the HVACer’s comments about the plywood on the roof being too thin.  This probably would explain why the rafters on the very end of the roof are sagging.  I hope to get the shingles fixed, but the DIY roof may be in need of some other serious repairs.  The sticker price I fear will be greater than what we thought would be our greatest expense, namely the plumbing.  I have a professional coming by to give us a bid on fixing the shingles, his opinion on the rest, and the back door.

Time to close.  I awoke this morning thinking of the acronymn we put together to remember interpretation of contracts.  You may find it humerous.  We found it highly usable in remembering interpretation.  LQSS2PPHVWGRR  Those are the generally available interpretation canons for a contract.  To remember the acronynm, “My LQSS 2 the Pied Piper Hitler, in his Volks Wagen, in the Great Rally Race.  We lost in the race.  To who?  Hitler, who was a pied piper, in his mass produced vehicle, the Volkswagen.  What do the letters mean.  Without explanation the list is as follows: Lists, Qualifying terms, Specification, Series, 2 Meanings in favor of non-drafter, Public Policy, Public Interest, Handwritten over printed and printed over form, Validity over invalidity, Whole document, Grammar, Redundancy, and Reasonable interpretation.  Guess I am somewhat prepared for my contracts final tomorrow.  Off to dress for a PEC where I report and nobody does anything on the information!

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A week or two before finals and all through the school…

I just have to take a break from my reading.  Well, I have struggled even starting.  Since I haven’t written for a long time, I thought I would send out an update!

Yesterday, I skipped all my classes!  I stayed home and decided to review, study, read, and take a nap for lunch.  It was one of the best days ever.  I did spend about 4 hours studying contracts, about 1 hour on criminal law, and about 1 hour on property.  I am feeling better about a few things.  I am amazed at how much I did learn and disappointed how many things I have forgotten.  (Forgot or forgotten?  Seraphs or Seraphim?  Broke or Broken?  I don’t know the grammatical law governing this situation!)  I also worked in the yard a little.  Cleaned up some branches, watered the front and side, and even cleaned out the heat pump.  However, the highlight of the day was the visit by the plumber and HVAC dude (is he a HVACer?  His name was Paul, I knew he was cool!)  Ultimately, I skipped school to be there for them to install our new/old bathtub and get a quote on fixing our ventilation.

The story of the HVAC turned out to be true of the rest of the home.  Whoever fixed up this house, the ultimate DIYers, didn’t do think in the proper way.  Like the bathroom, the yard, and even the sheetrock, we now have a few new items to add to the list.  Walking on top of the house, Paul mentioned that the roof moves an awful lot while walking on it wondering if there was only a single layer of plywood.  If so, we would have insulation problems.  Upon inspection inside, he confirmed we only have one layer meaning heat and cold easily travel through.  He said it wasn’t a huge concern, but just not the best way to do things.  But he openly laughed when first viewing the duct work of the home.  He first made a question like, “Is that room is the hottest when heating and the coldest when cooling?”  I assumed him it was.  He then asked about other rooms and was correct on all accounts.  He then explained to me the theories behind air movement which anyone who had taken physics would already know.  It was interesting to hear the application to duct work.  So let me do a quick explanation, but with plumbing.  If when plumbing a house we brought the water main in and then put a plug on the line.  Then we put in a line and took it to the kitchen sink.  Then one for the refrigerator feed.  Then one for the bathroom sink.  Then one for the toilet.  Then one for the bathtub and on through the house.  But we took every pipe from the same location.  It is a terrible waste of pipe to run every pipe clear back to the starting point.  Plus, we would have an issue with water pressure and possible line freezing.  Additionally, with all those pipes running to every individual thing we have that many more potential leak problems.  Well, that is what was done with the duct work for our ventilation system.  Every single hole in our ceiling for heating and air condition has its own hose that runs all the way to the fan/blower.  By the time we get to the plenum (a new vocabulary word for me, the part where the fan blows in to) we have 11 separate ducts going into the plenum!  Plumbing though, we have a pretty good idea when there is a leak.  Ductwork, people are less inclined to care if there is a lead.  Well, the kind showing of my HVACer showed the signs of leaks in every single duct both at the plenum and the exit location!  We are doing more heating and air conditioning of our attic than we are the actual house!  Oh wait, it gets better!  Every single room has the same size of ductwork!  So the big rooms are getting the same amount of air as the little rooms.  Add some physics to that, the farther rooms, regardless of size, are getting less than the closer rooms.  Hence, our bedroom and the main bath are always the best heated and cooled, and the back room is the worst (That hose actually leaves the attic, goes under the home, and then reemerges in the floor of the back room.  Anyhow, Paul suggested a complete replacement of the duct system and plenum for $1700!  Then due to the lack of plywood and tar paper on the roof, he suggests no less than a foot of insulation (which is now about 1 inch).

So, another job to be done before we insulate the attic.  Electrical work is next.  Oh, Paul the HVACer, also told me there is not enough power running to the Heat Pump and that is why when it kicks on every light in the house goes dim for a second or two.  Yea for DIYers who don’t do their homework first!

Anyhow, on to the real topic of issue.  Our bathtub is now in place and plumbed.  Amanda can now shave her legs in complete luxury!  Well, kinda.  While the faucet, spout, and shower head are all plumbed, they are still just pipes sticking out of the wall.  While she could technically get water at the tub, the pipes are just screwed in and may leak inside the wall.  We are waiting for the tile to be installed before we will put on the goodies.  So technically, all of Amanda’s luxury will be getting a bucket from the sink to shave her legs.  But at least she can drain her filty, hairy, leg water down the new drain and if she uses enough water, the new overflow!  This is a deep tub though, so she would have to do a lot of leg shavin’ to get to that point!  Our friend, Andrew Curtis, told his wife he was jealous of our new bathtub.  His wife insisted that was one of the strangest things she had heard from him (at least that week).  Next is tiling, then finish the cosmetic plumbing, then the shower-rod, then the new door & frame, and the new baseboards, and our little bathroom will be completely finished!  How is that for excitement?  Hopefully we can have the tile done by June.

School continues to go well.  I don’t want to mention much of it since I have enough of it in my life already.  Next semester I have signed up for Income Tax Law as an elective.  I have all the required classes like Constitutional Law, Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Legal Ethics.  So many people are migrating towards Corporations.  I need a four credit class to get my licensed legal intern so Income Tax sounded interesting.  Not really, but I need it for family law and property law.  Might as well wipe it out now.  Plus, Corporations I will have to take, so might as well delay the inevitable!

This semester has been going well.  I have slacked off a little bit.  But I have learned much.  I just slacked off on the outline side of the business.  I joined with somebody else to do it and he has been pulling more of the weight than he probably should.  In fact, most of the weight.  It will bite me in the end, I am sure.  He did better than me last semester and he will surely do much better this semester.  Just if I can ride on his coat-tails to a C+ or B- I will be happy.  I just got to be average!!!  I actually think I did well enough in Legal Writing to pull a B+ or A- so here is for hoping!  That will help my GPA as long as I don’t totally flub a class.  Property is such a comprehensive class.  Some of the finals will be over like 500 pages of material.  Property is well over 1000 pages so I have a formidable task before me.

Well, I need to get back to reading about Summary Judgment and Motions for Judgment as a Matter of Law.

Oh, it looks like I have two potential internships for the summer.  I will probably do 5 weeks in Burley, Idaho for one internship and another 5 weeks in Salt Lake City, Utah for the other 5 weeks.  I don’t want to share details until they are firm.  Time to sign off, sneeze (allergies now going on 4 months!), and get back to sleep-reading.

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Screwed up Family!

I know I need to give some type of an update.  But, I will have to do that later.  Until then, how about this messed up family!!

On 23 March 1994, the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound of the head.  The decedent had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide (he left a note indicating his despondency).  As he fell past the ninth floor, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, which killed him instantly.  Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the eighth floor level to protect some window washers and that Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide anyway because of this.

The room on the ninth floor whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife.  They were arguing and he was threatening her with the shotgun.  He was so upset that, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Opus.

When confronted with this charge, the old man was adamant that he did not know that the shotgun was loaded.  The old man said it was his long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun.  He had no intention to kill her.  That is, the gun had been accidentally loaded.

The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple’s son loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal incident.  It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son’s financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.

There was an exquisite twist.  Further investigation revealed that the son had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother’s death.  This led him to jump off the ten-story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun through the ninth-story window.

The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

Story told at the 1994 annual awards dinner of the American Association for Forensic Science, Don Harper Mills, President of the Association.

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Spring Break? HA!

This week is our Spring Break.  Really?  What kind of sick joke is this?  Call it by its proper name: Appellate Brief Week.

We don’t have classes this week.  Which is really nice.  Some time to wind down.  Some time to relax.  Sleep in a little.  Go to school, read and research all day.  Feel exhausted.  Come home and work on the yard a few hours.  Then to sleep.  Sounds pretty much like my normal week, except no classes.

Yesterday I spent about 6 hours reading cases and trying to piece some sense into what all the U.S. Court of Appeals make of a ‘True Threat’.  In a nutshell, the Supreme Court let loose a case from Virginia a few years back that not only failed to clarify or correct the split in the circuits, it made it worse.  Each circuit literally has a slightly different twist on the doctrine of ‘True Threat’.

Anyhow, if the reading wasn’t intense enough, I have been feeling the pangs of age.  As I approach 30, my poor left eye just can’t keep up anymore.  After reading another 6 hours straight today, I called in on an optometrist.  He confirmed my fears, I have eye fatigue.  He gave me a nice prescription for a pair of reading glasses.  He suggested I wear them while I am reading to help ease the strain on my eyes.  He said the eyes were in great shape and healthy, just tired.  I now have a pair of glasses!  Well, actually, I am going to take Amanda with me probably tomorrow to pick out a pair.  I had a pair of glasses in 1997 from all the reading then.  But last time I put them on, Amanda laughed so hard she nearly wet her pants.  So I didn’t bring them to Oklahoma with me and I doubt she would let me take them to school anyway.  I will take her with me so she can make sure I can wear the glasses and still be presentable in public, or at least to stay married to her.

This week I have been attempting to get caught up on some of the spring work in the yard.  I have about 3/4 of the yard raked and dethatched.  The lawn will be aerated tomorrow.  Then I will start planting some grass seed in sections so I can keep up with it and watering.  Always more to do.

Monday was Mom’s birthday.  I wrote her a letter in response to her last one.  I must admit, I am growing a bit weary of the letters.  I made sure a few points were clear.  One, that people have names and they are to be referred to by their names in the future.  I will not allow nicknames, especially derogatory ones.  Next, she will have to treat me, our family, and my religion with respect.  I clearly manifested to her that I would no longer respond to letters that were not uplifting and building.  We will have to see how that one comes down.  For 10 years now, I have held the hope of some decency in her letters.  I believe I have been more than charitable and willing to look over the abuse that comes in an envelope.  I just don’t have the time for it anymore.

My favorite part of the letters is that I am distancing myself from her?  What?  Trying to reach out and overlooking offense after offense directed at me is distancing myself?  I feel like I have been stretching much farther than I should have for a long time.  Many individuals have attempted to persuade me to stop writing her.  Well, my attempts to bridge a very wide divide are completely unappreciated and apparently unwelcome.  From now on, letter writing will be on my terms, or there will be no more letter writing.

This is hard because it is my mother.  I grow closer and closer to all the people around me, and others in my family, and yet cannot make up any ground with her.  Honestly, I feel like I am walking the road alone.  I will expend my efforts somewhere else rather than on a selfish, bitter, arrogant, conceited, unappreciative woman who happens to be my mother.  I am reminded of D&C 64, “And ye ought to say in your hearts – let God judge between me and thee, and reward thee according to thy deeds.  We all have to cut off the offending hand at one time or another.  I gave the hand a final warning.

Am I wrong?  I don’t feel like it.  But I am interested in what you think.

Time to go off and read the Joseph Smith lesson for Sunday!

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Great Uncle and Aunts

Who would believe the 25th of February is almost here?  I cannot believe how fast the months fly when you have your head in books.  The odd part is that I don’t feel like I am doing a very good job of keeping up with the reading.  I cannot tell you how excited I am for the next semester where they add one more substantive class and remove the writing class.  What will I do with life then?  I need to start working on being more diligent and proactive.

In visiting with a couple of the 2L’s I feel somewhat comforted with the notion of what is called mental fatigue.  I think my eyes finally just accepted the fact they are going to be tired and quit twitching.  Who knows. the twitch probably just moved to my neck or shoulder with a slight noise from the mouth when I do it.  At any rate, this is not a new phenomenon.  I thought perhaps I was going prematurely old or something wrong with the synapses in my brain where I would think one thing and completely say another.  Just today in visiting, rather than saying doctor, I said dentist.  To correct myself, I went to say doctor but somehow defendant come out.  After a short pause, doctor finally came out.  I laughed, Andrew laughed, and the conversation went on.

This weekend was a delightsome weekend.  My Great Uncle Donald and Aunt Lolane Andra came to visit.  They arrived on Friday and left this morning.  They finished their mission around the 6th of February and have been working their way through the country back home.  They stopped for a week in Nauvoo, then a week in Branson, and a weekend in Oklahoma City.  They are next headed to Tucson.  They will spend a few days there and up to St. George for a month or so before up to Chubbuck/Pocatello.  Don and Lolane are sure a lot of fun.  We went to the Western Heritage Museum here in Oklahoma City.  I enjoyed it.  Like most museums though, my feet and knees grew tired of the walking around endless hours on hard floors.  I will need to go back to truly appreciate much of what was there.  We went out to Pops Soda Shop in Arcadia and enjoyed a meal.  Don and Lolane particularly enjoyed it.  We all did.

Sunday we ventured to church.  They thought the ward was very open and friendly.  I am pleased the ward was so open and friendly to them.  It wasn’t quite so much when we got here.  But it certainly has improved.  Afterward we ran out to the Oklahoma City Temple and walked around the grounds and took some pictures.  After serving in the Washington DC Temple for the past 18 months they were quick to notice how tiny the temple is here.  That most certainly is true!  I assured them it was well used and loved.

We wandered off to the Oklahoma City Memorial.  The weather turned out to be beautiful.  It could have been a little warmer, but it was sure a nice day.  They really enjoyed that as well.  It really is a well-done memorial.  We returned to our little home to enjoy a full meal and many hours of games.  We filled much of our time on Saturday with games as well.  We sang some old songs together, chatted about old times, visited about family, and genuinely had fun.

On a sad note, I also received news that my Great Aunt Lillian Jonas Talbot passed away on Friday.  She was born in 1930 and lived in Layton, Utah.  She was the sister of my Grandpa I knew the least growing up.  She was the one who let me borrow my Great Grandma’s journals to type them up which are available here on the blog.  She was also the one who had my Great Grandma’s photo albums and let me borrow them to pick out the photos and scan them.  So I came to know her considerably more in the past 10 years.  Apparently she had been to the temple on Friday and she came home and sat down in the chair in the living room and was playing with the dog a little.  When my cousin came back from a run to Walmart, she thought she was taking a nap.  But when she came in, she was gone.  How is that for peaceful and quick?  I hope I am as fortunate.  The funeral will be on Wednesday.  I wish I could go but the cost and time from school are too much for the moment.  I wish the family all the best.

Amanda will surely post some photos from the weekend on our joint blog.  It was an eventful and productive weekend.  Now time to start making up what studying I did not get done!

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Uproaching Ides of February

Okay, okay, okay.  I know, I have not been as diligent at the blog writing.  You will have to forgive me.  There are a couple of other things in my life going on besides me sitting around pondering what to share on the blog.

We have a new missionary in the ward.  When he said he was from Minnesota, the thought crossed my mind, “Hmmm, I wonder if he is related to Anna?”  I did not ask the question as we all know the “Do you know” game in Mormonism usually comes up empty.  When it does come up with a jackpot we then communicate it, we are best friends due to others, and life moves on.  Elder Lewis come to find out is related to Ms. Anna Badger.  It was fun to talk for a little bit and chat about those people we knew in common.  Alas, he had to go back to work, I went back to my life, and hopefully somebody else knows we were talking about them!  I will say I do miss those friends who I spent so much time with.  Amanda is a great replacement, but it would be nice to catch up from time to time.

Law school continues to humble me.  I realize every day how really useless my brain and eyes are.  I have to get a full 8 hours of sleep or my eyes start to fatigue and my brain retains less.  Add to that a few interactions with friends, some class time, and the constant confusion and bedtime cannot come too soon.  In visiting with friends who have gone before, they were all in the same situation, so I don’t feel worn down in solitude.  Others have passed this way before.

This weekend Amanda and I went out with some friends to a little restaurant in Bethany.  A town a little further down Old Route 66.  We ate at the Elephant Cafe which is supposed to be known for its ‘authentic’ Thai food.  I don’t know that I have eaten authentic ‘Thai’ food, I haven’t been to Thailand or Taiwan so I have no real experience to judge.  One thing is pretty sure, if this was a cheap Chinese knockoff, I still probably wouldn’t go back.  But they have sushi.  I thought the sushi was good enough, and cheap enough, so I might venture again.  Although not likely with Ms. Anti-Sushi Wife.

I understand today there was some tornadoes here in Oklahoma City.  Apparently Chuck-e-Cheese or whatever place took a direct hit.  Hopefully nobody was hurt.  Amanda has sent a picture of what appears to be a funnel cloud from Yukon.  I forgot we lived in the Great Plains where such things happen.  I am not too worried about it, if Dorothy can live through it, why can’t I?  I lived through one in Missouri, although it never touched down, and only barely turned the sky green.  But I lived through it.  I guess this makes one for Amanda.  My wife experienced her first tornado today.  I better be careful, I may have to deal with larger ones in the progression…

Lastly, I thought I would comment on this whole ‘help the economy’, ‘bail out’, ‘save the world’ business going on in DC.  What has the world come to?  My family and I will be fitting this bill for years to come.  But I live in America, land of the free; except you have to pay taxes to help those who made poor business decisions, oh and were greedy, and pay for infrastructure (also known as health care, business, and automobiles), failed to prepare for the future, want to live on a dole, and who really don’t care or give a darn.  My favorite part about living in this country is that the easy route is the path most preferred.  So if we continue to allow these types of behavior to be rewarded, it means only more and more will jump on the bandwagon, leading us to become like the French (bitter, rude, selfish, and want everything for nothing – oh wait, perhaps this the Americans, or we hate the French because they are so much like us, and they hate us because we are becoming so much like them!).  Nevertheless, government continues to expand and grow and somebody has to pay for the most inefficient of all creatures upon the earth.