Let me start by linking you to www.southerncollegesports.com where my article "Go Blue! Go Bucks! The Game Finally Arrives" is up and running on the big game.
This is one of the best weeks. Got my candidate to be a lawyer application into the Ohio Supreme Court on Monday, appellate advocacy ended for me Monday as well when Oral Argument happened. I think I had a worse oral argument than our practice argument, but I only got one minor criticism (saying "you know" when answering a question from the court). The group of 14 people in my App Ad section are very good, but I think from the comments I have gotten on my brief and my oral argument that I have a legitimate shot at the top grad ein the section. This would qualify me to try to get on a traveling Moot Court team this year, and I'd like to give it a shot. Nevertheless, I will be doing the Herman competition for moot court next semester (to get on a traveling team for my 3L year)...this sounds much more exciting than Journal crap.
Also this week: the debut of a new James Bond movie and a new James! I like Sean Connery and all, but I grew up with Pierce Brosnan as Bond and I will have trouble adjusting to the new guy. The critics reviews are 95% positive though, and that's amazing...this movie should be great.
The latest battle of the Console Wars is officially on this weekend, as Playstation III is out today and Nintendo Wii is out Sunday to combat last year's Xbox 360. I'm a longtime Ninetndo fan, having the original NES and getting the SNES and N64 on their release dates. I waited to buy a Gamecube (why pay so much when prices go down) and finally branched out and bought an Xbox in the last wave of consoles. I like having it as a DVD player but not the $30 you have to pay for the remote for the Xbox to enable that feature. Money grubbing Microsoft. I cannot wait to buy a Wii, as I think the new remote and motion sensitive controls are the best innovation in video games in a long time (all due respects to 3D life-like graphics and wireless controllers). I might get one before next summer because they are so affordable.
I have been thinking of which second console I would buy, and I think without a doubt the PS3. I kind of hated Sony for combatting and winning market share from Nintendo back in the day, but I have to give them credit for bringing out good systems and the best set of games. I really have no interest in Xbox 360 other than Halo 3, and I can find friends to play with. I am switching second allegiance to Sony and Microsoft be damned. If the PS3 goes down in price (not likely thanks to Blue Ray players installed) before summertime, I may consider getting one next summer when I have a little fun money and a lot of time alone in a Cincinnati apartment. You can only play so much Magic Online and online poker lol.
And the best part of the week: OSU Michigan. The Game. Campus is crazy and has been since Thursday evening...and I am so happy this is a home game so I can see it on the cheap. This is the first time both teams have come in #1 and #2, first time in 30 years both team undefeated...and the national championship and a Big Ten outright title on the line. With the passing of Bo Schembechler today (here's hoping he and Woody are kicking back and watching the game tomorrow from heaven, they both deserve it after their great lives), Michigan has so much more to play for. I think the line is ridiculous at OSU -7, as the Wolverines are definitely the same team or slightly better overall than the Buckeyes. The only thing sweeter than this game is seeing this game when everything is on the line. I cannot wait for 22 hours to pass by and see this battle of titans.
Please please please let the Buckeyes win...please please please let there not be riots :-)
Friday, November 17, 2006
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
November
Ahh, the fall foliage has mostly blown away and now it will finally get cold. November also brings the best college football games, and at long last perhaps an Ohio State game worth watching (and considering I've seen every minute of the past 5 games in person...I'm expert enough to say that the last 5 weeks has been a bore-fest). It's been fun actually blowing out Big Ten rivals, but let's see how the buckeyes perform with a berth in the national title game and an outirght Big Ten title on the line against hated rival UM. Speaking of football, Ohio U is winning their division in the MAC now and I'm happy the Bobcats are finally worth cheering for.
I was all ready to write a blog article yesterday about how Halloween and October passes me by and I still have no job offers after 3 months (the Loyola Patent interview program was August 3-4). But then, a Halloween treat in my inbox. Wood Herron and Evans from Cincinnati gave me a job offer for next summer.
HALLELUJAH! (Happy dance and much rejoicing in the background)
If you had asked me before I went to the 8 firms which one I would cut first this would have been the one based solely on location...but a job is a job and this firm is the biggest IP boutique in Ohio so that makes me happy. Summer salary is higher than all non-Chicago and non-Dallas places too, so I'm more than likey accepting the job offer (plus being only 2 hours away this summer is convenient for its own reasons). I did notify the remaining three firms that they have one week to offer me a job, so Harness Dickey (Detroit), Leydig Voit and Mayer (Chicago), and Greenebaum Doll (Louisville)...you are on the clock. It is so satisfying knowing that I have a job next summer and I will be doing IP work and I will be officially done worrying about jobs in 6 days. Now I'll have even more time to focus on school, whatever that means.
Let's review quickly what I think of the firms left in the pool today:
1. Wood Herron and Evans in Cincinnati: The plus is I have a job offer (just kidding), but seriously they do pay better than the others and it's close enough for next summer and I get to see Reds games...the downside is still long-term location but that's not such a big deal anymore.
2. Harness Dickey in Detroit: I think these guys have the best overall summer experience to offer and really have a good IP firm going, but living a half hour north of Detroit sucks. The people were really nice though, and it seemed like I could fit. I do not know the pay for these guys.
3. Greenebaum in Lousiville: This was probably my best job interview after Fish in Dallas, but the one thing that scares me from this firm is that it is GP. I really favor IP boutiques now, and so this factor is crucial even though Louisville is one of the nicest cities I've been to.
4. Leydig Voit in Chicago: well let's see, they are in Chicago. That's about it (they are IP as well). The firm was not the greatest, their recruiting seems out of order, they did not confirm my interview until the day before, they did not get a hotel reservation until I was driving to Chicago the day of, and they were condescending on the phone when I told them they have a week to make a choice as of yesterday...hmmm, much as I love Chicago this has not gone well for this firm so far.
Bowling is going fantastic, and it has been a great season. Daniel and Brodie are crazy, and we do a nice job as a team of freaking out the competition or getting in their head with our antics. Everything from the Dr. Mario Virus dance for three strikes in a row to our mascot the creepy garden gnome to the weekly theme and outfits Brodie and Daniel (and sometimes I) wear...we wreck the competition. Everyone except for Brodie has a much higher average than last year, and we just keep on rolling. I finally made the bowling sheet for the first time last week for 2nd high average in the league at 153, so now we are taking over the sheet as well (Abbie's 187 is holding up nicely as a top game...187 = killed the other team = murder cop code = mens fucking rea). We started the season 1-6 but have ripped off 11 straight and stand at 12-6. I think we will be in first place tonight when the sheet is passed around the bowling alley, so all we have to do is hold serve this evening and we will be division champs. To hell with the playoffs...division champs would be sweet. Can you tell it's bowling night...?
I've successfully put off Appellate Advocacy now and I have 5 days to comeplete my brief. Thankfully all I have to do is minor repairs and mostly grammar, spell checks, and cite checks. One quick oral argument in 2-3 weeks and then that hassle is over. Just in time to start worrying about my 4 exams.
The Schottenstein Center here on campus has been jumping this week. Saturday night was a Daily Show cast and Jon Stewart event for the students at OSU, Sunday Barenaked Ladies played, and Monday Red Hot Chili Peppers played. That's the best three straight days ever at that crappy arena probably. Kelley and I went to see Jon Stewart, and it was a nice funny evening. They showed clips from previous shows, the highlight of which had to be when they followed around a Cleveland area reporter who is known for investigative reporting in a clip called "You Jackin It?" This reporter caught a college kid jacking off in a public library, and then proceeded to hound him and his family for weeks about it on the local news. Not to be trumped, the Daily Show hounded this real life reporter and libraries in the area seeing if they could find more people "Jackin It." Stewart and the gang are taping this week's shows on campus so they can be in the middle of the most important swing state during these midterm elections. Should be good times.
I'm playing a little online poker (down a little again since I talked to you last, but I'm sure the luck will turn around) and some Magic online now...it's nice to have time to play those games and not feel like I'm putting off something (other than App Ad). Also, if anybody has a copy of Mario Party 6 and a gamecue microphone they wish to sell...message me. I don't want to buy the game new and MP7 is good but would be better with a mic (and I think MP 6 which my old roommates have has better mini-games).
Shipman cancelled class today, hope he's doing alright. Especially since that's my primary job for next semester and my best reference until after this summer's employment. This is a good week, as last night we went out to celebrate my job offer, tonight is bowling, Thursday Dell is coming to fix my computer in my house (new motherboard and touchpad among other small things), Thursday night I'm watching Saw III with Tom and Heather and then the WVU-UL football game, and Friday night we are hosting poker and Thomas and Lisa will be down to stay the evening as well. Time for a little payback for Mr. Applebaum :-)
Anyways, class is about to start and I'm sure I've caught everyone up and all they want to know (and more than they ever wanted to know) and my life. To sum it all up...I GOT A JOB. WOO-HOO!
I was all ready to write a blog article yesterday about how Halloween and October passes me by and I still have no job offers after 3 months (the Loyola Patent interview program was August 3-4). But then, a Halloween treat in my inbox. Wood Herron and Evans from Cincinnati gave me a job offer for next summer.
HALLELUJAH! (Happy dance and much rejoicing in the background)
If you had asked me before I went to the 8 firms which one I would cut first this would have been the one based solely on location...but a job is a job and this firm is the biggest IP boutique in Ohio so that makes me happy. Summer salary is higher than all non-Chicago and non-Dallas places too, so I'm more than likey accepting the job offer (plus being only 2 hours away this summer is convenient for its own reasons). I did notify the remaining three firms that they have one week to offer me a job, so Harness Dickey (Detroit), Leydig Voit and Mayer (Chicago), and Greenebaum Doll (Louisville)...you are on the clock. It is so satisfying knowing that I have a job next summer and I will be doing IP work and I will be officially done worrying about jobs in 6 days. Now I'll have even more time to focus on school, whatever that means.
Let's review quickly what I think of the firms left in the pool today:
1. Wood Herron and Evans in Cincinnati: The plus is I have a job offer (just kidding), but seriously they do pay better than the others and it's close enough for next summer and I get to see Reds games...the downside is still long-term location but that's not such a big deal anymore.
2. Harness Dickey in Detroit: I think these guys have the best overall summer experience to offer and really have a good IP firm going, but living a half hour north of Detroit sucks. The people were really nice though, and it seemed like I could fit. I do not know the pay for these guys.
3. Greenebaum in Lousiville: This was probably my best job interview after Fish in Dallas, but the one thing that scares me from this firm is that it is GP. I really favor IP boutiques now, and so this factor is crucial even though Louisville is one of the nicest cities I've been to.
4. Leydig Voit in Chicago: well let's see, they are in Chicago. That's about it (they are IP as well). The firm was not the greatest, their recruiting seems out of order, they did not confirm my interview until the day before, they did not get a hotel reservation until I was driving to Chicago the day of, and they were condescending on the phone when I told them they have a week to make a choice as of yesterday...hmmm, much as I love Chicago this has not gone well for this firm so far.
Bowling is going fantastic, and it has been a great season. Daniel and Brodie are crazy, and we do a nice job as a team of freaking out the competition or getting in their head with our antics. Everything from the Dr. Mario Virus dance for three strikes in a row to our mascot the creepy garden gnome to the weekly theme and outfits Brodie and Daniel (and sometimes I) wear...we wreck the competition. Everyone except for Brodie has a much higher average than last year, and we just keep on rolling. I finally made the bowling sheet for the first time last week for 2nd high average in the league at 153, so now we are taking over the sheet as well (Abbie's 187 is holding up nicely as a top game...187 = killed the other team = murder cop code = mens fucking rea). We started the season 1-6 but have ripped off 11 straight and stand at 12-6. I think we will be in first place tonight when the sheet is passed around the bowling alley, so all we have to do is hold serve this evening and we will be division champs. To hell with the playoffs...division champs would be sweet. Can you tell it's bowling night...?
I've successfully put off Appellate Advocacy now and I have 5 days to comeplete my brief. Thankfully all I have to do is minor repairs and mostly grammar, spell checks, and cite checks. One quick oral argument in 2-3 weeks and then that hassle is over. Just in time to start worrying about my 4 exams.
The Schottenstein Center here on campus has been jumping this week. Saturday night was a Daily Show cast and Jon Stewart event for the students at OSU, Sunday Barenaked Ladies played, and Monday Red Hot Chili Peppers played. That's the best three straight days ever at that crappy arena probably. Kelley and I went to see Jon Stewart, and it was a nice funny evening. They showed clips from previous shows, the highlight of which had to be when they followed around a Cleveland area reporter who is known for investigative reporting in a clip called "You Jackin It?" This reporter caught a college kid jacking off in a public library, and then proceeded to hound him and his family for weeks about it on the local news. Not to be trumped, the Daily Show hounded this real life reporter and libraries in the area seeing if they could find more people "Jackin It." Stewart and the gang are taping this week's shows on campus so they can be in the middle of the most important swing state during these midterm elections. Should be good times.
I'm playing a little online poker (down a little again since I talked to you last, but I'm sure the luck will turn around) and some Magic online now...it's nice to have time to play those games and not feel like I'm putting off something (other than App Ad). Also, if anybody has a copy of Mario Party 6 and a gamecue microphone they wish to sell...message me. I don't want to buy the game new and MP7 is good but would be better with a mic (and I think MP 6 which my old roommates have has better mini-games).
Shipman cancelled class today, hope he's doing alright. Especially since that's my primary job for next semester and my best reference until after this summer's employment. This is a good week, as last night we went out to celebrate my job offer, tonight is bowling, Thursday Dell is coming to fix my computer in my house (new motherboard and touchpad among other small things), Thursday night I'm watching Saw III with Tom and Heather and then the WVU-UL football game, and Friday night we are hosting poker and Thomas and Lisa will be down to stay the evening as well. Time for a little payback for Mr. Applebaum :-)
Anyways, class is about to start and I'm sure I've caught everyone up and all they want to know (and more than they ever wanted to know) and my life. To sum it all up...I GOT A JOB. WOO-HOO!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Time!
I did not realize how much time I really had until I stopped going on these callback interviews. Wow do I actually have time to read, go to class, and work on app ad without going crazy? Yes!
The real reason I'm writing this short update. Call the presses, you don't have to worry about me moving across the country. The dream job wrote me a letter, just like every other firm that has given me a final response thus far (that's fancy talk for no offers). So I'm not moving to Dallas. Speaking of Dallas, I am watching the end of a joke on MNF as the Cowboys inexplicably are not playing their starting QB...thanks Cowboys, right when I picked you Parcells goes crazy.
But back to the matter at hand. With the "dream job" out of the pool, I still have five firms I have not heard back from, and I know somewhere out there a job offer will drop in my lap. So firms (if you are reading blogs and facebook profiles like the National Jurist says), the door is wide open for all of you.
If none of those work out, Dom and Everson and I are opening our own law firm. Moving the ildhell out of Ohio and opening our own law firm. Everson, Brook, Fitzgerald, and Geiger. Has a nice ring to it (we are renting Geiger's name as the anchor, but he might join up too). Then we can build a firm and make law students sweat while waiting for rejection letters from us.
And one more thing, I'm cheering for the Cardinals in the World Series...but I've never seen so much ado about nothing last night when Detroit pitcher Kenny rogers had some dirt on his pitching hand in the first inning. The announcers went crazy thinking pine tar, they discussed it, Rogers washed his hand, and then proceeded to give up 1 hit in the next 7 innings (the tigers won easily 3-0 to tie the series). It was obviously not cheating, and why would this veteran try in the World Series where everything is scrutinized...what a joke. Let's all focus on some guy's dirty hands instead of the great effort Detroit put up and the fact that this series looks like it could go 7 games and be very competitive like the NLCS. This just in: I have a little dirt under my fingernail on my right hand (throwing hand)...STOP THE PRESSES, I might be blogging with pine tar under my fingernails.
Have a good week, I'll be busy doing something. I did win $47 in 7 minutes on ultimatebet tonight and got right back offline. Happy to be back where I was 2 months ago before my big slip.
The real reason I'm writing this short update. Call the presses, you don't have to worry about me moving across the country. The dream job wrote me a letter, just like every other firm that has given me a final response thus far (that's fancy talk for no offers). So I'm not moving to Dallas. Speaking of Dallas, I am watching the end of a joke on MNF as the Cowboys inexplicably are not playing their starting QB...thanks Cowboys, right when I picked you Parcells goes crazy.
But back to the matter at hand. With the "dream job" out of the pool, I still have five firms I have not heard back from, and I know somewhere out there a job offer will drop in my lap. So firms (if you are reading blogs and facebook profiles like the National Jurist says), the door is wide open for all of you.
If none of those work out, Dom and Everson and I are opening our own law firm. Moving the ildhell out of Ohio and opening our own law firm. Everson, Brook, Fitzgerald, and Geiger. Has a nice ring to it (we are renting Geiger's name as the anchor, but he might join up too). Then we can build a firm and make law students sweat while waiting for rejection letters from us.
And one more thing, I'm cheering for the Cardinals in the World Series...but I've never seen so much ado about nothing last night when Detroit pitcher Kenny rogers had some dirt on his pitching hand in the first inning. The announcers went crazy thinking pine tar, they discussed it, Rogers washed his hand, and then proceeded to give up 1 hit in the next 7 innings (the tigers won easily 3-0 to tie the series). It was obviously not cheating, and why would this veteran try in the World Series where everything is scrutinized...what a joke. Let's all focus on some guy's dirty hands instead of the great effort Detroit put up and the fact that this series looks like it could go 7 games and be very competitive like the NLCS. This just in: I have a little dirt under my fingernail on my right hand (throwing hand)...STOP THE PRESSES, I might be blogging with pine tar under my fingernails.
Have a good week, I'll be busy doing something. I did win $47 in 7 minutes on ultimatebet tonight and got right back offline. Happy to be back where I was 2 months ago before my big slip.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Playing Four Corners of Ohio
The latter half of my fall break was spent playing four corners with the state of Ohio. Let me explain.
Callback number 7 (Wood Herron Evans) was on Thursday in Cincinnati OH (CORNER ONE, the SW corner). The firm is a good sized boutique, rare in Ohio for sure. The personalities were interesting, and I got to meet a good mix of attorneys. I do not know if I want to end up in that city, but the firm was nice and I on this day realize I really want to work for a boutique or a firm that was a boutique but added a corporate practice just to keep up. So the Louisville firm has a serious knock in it now, but oh well. I drove down in the morning and drove back in the afternoon, was alone with Chip the new dog since Kelley was at choir until late and brought Zach up to our apartment to watch the dog over the weekend. A decent trip, and we will see what they will say.
Woke up dark and early (5:00 AM) on Friday to drive to Troy MI, a suburb north of Detroit for Callback #8 (Harness Dickey). I drove through Toledo OH, the NW and CORNER TWO of Ohio. This is another nice IP boutique, and they seem a little more uptight or professional than all the other firms I have visited. Even being 20 miles from downtown Detroit, the location is not the best. At least there is no BS commute into a high0rise of a big city though, so that’s a big plus. This firm sits in the middle of all my other firms I would not put at number 1, but I would accept a job offer from (and would be happy if they were my only offer). This firm seems a lot more dedicated toward a good summer experience, and I like that the firm goes out to lunch together every Friday.
Kelley got lost in northern suburbs shopping, so we went to the hotel and checked in at the Drury. Nice hotels, lots of extras like free bar drinks every evening and free popcorn and pop all afternoon and evening. We chilled in the hot tub and pool for an hour, then caught up on a little sleep before going out for the evening. We shopped for warm clothes and alcohol for tailgating the next day, went out to dinner at Outback, saw the area in general, then went down to Greektown Casino in downtown Detroit for a nightcap. We had never been to a real casino, so this was new for us. Table games are so expensive, so going to have to wait until I make bigger bucks to play in these casinos. The slots were plentiful and fun though, and we did play one table game I just had to try (War). What a simple silly game, but mildly entertaining anyways.
Saturday morning we started slowly and got on the road for East Lansing, about a 90-minute drive up the road. We get there and manage to find a parking garage not too busy (we just beat the rush). We bundle up, get our coke and rum ready, and go walking around to find the Buckeye Bob tailgate. Took us about a mile of walking some in the wrong direction and a hour, but we find the tailgate right when the fries and steak are coming off the burners…so yummy stuff not missed. Good sized group of us there, and Kelley and I downed a half bottle (BIG BOTTLE) of Bacardi and coke together in the course of an hour there and an hour back at the car. Finally stumble into the game around halftime, sit in the MSU band section while they are on the field, get kicked out up to our upper deck seats for the second half. A little chilly up there due to wind, but not crowded because a lot of MSU fans left at halftime since they were already down 24-0. I personally needed to get plastered in the middle of the law school term after being done with interviews and so on, so I am not sorry about missing what must have been a boring first half (barring Teddy’s punt return for TD). OSU goes on to win, I go on to get sober, and we hit the road for home again. We drove through Cleveland OH (The NE CORNER, or CORNER #3) on the way to Marietta.
Sunday I woke up around noon right before Kelley got home from church and watched TV with her stepfather for a while. We chilled in Marietta for a while (CORNER 4, the SE CORNER) on Sunday, then finally went back up to Columbus to do some grocery shopping and let Zach finally go home. Chip was happy to see us, and we were happy to see him except for him tearing up the blinds in our room. The end of a long but good relaxing weekend and fall break, and while I was not quite ready to go back to class…Monday calls.
The first day back in class was not too shabby. Shipman has had good lectures and good reading assignments…starting to feel like accounting is a good class. I’m totally just reading the nutshell guide and outlining the course at the end of the semester based on that and the HW problems. Tax was rather boring, but patent law was actually engaging for the first time since the first week of class (because we were doing sample exam or patent bar questions on the unit we just finished). Went out with Dan after class and caught up on fall break stuff (and there was some serious stuff). Seems like the job search for everybody other than Jonathan and I has slowed down and not many people are walking around with offers. I know I have the most callbacks to hear from in my group of friends, so I would hope my optimism that I will get 2-3 offers is not misplaced. Think I’m calling Dallas this afternoon to see if they held their meeting and to see where I stand since it has been quite some time. Going out to dinner at Quaker Steak tonight with brother-in-law and fiancée this evening, as it is wing night.
The ACC-Check does not look so bad this time around, a little shorter. Time to get back to that and perhaps revising my AA brief for oral argument season.
Oh one more note while I am thinking about it. I for the first time in six years, completely disagree with the President and I am very unhappy with his actions. Not about the war or anything like that, but the port security bill he signed into law last Friday which tries to kill online gambling for US citizens by blocking bank and credit card transfers from US banks to gambling websites. Now I know my site has already in place a work-around (UltimateBet), but how long before some goon in the US Attorney General’s office goes after these big boys? I have enough money on there that I do not have to reload anytime soon and so I should be able to keep playing casually…but sneaking this overbroad and ridiculous legislation in a security bill republicans in Congress and the President are forced to pass politically is WRONG. I have no problem if the government wants to regulate these online casinos like the offline ones, as I am one of millions of players willing to pay reasonable taxes on deposits…but to try and quash them completely is an impediment to freedom in this country. I know some of my readers will completely disagree with me here, but most of my readers will be happy to see me finally upset with Prez W over something.
Callback number 7 (Wood Herron Evans) was on Thursday in Cincinnati OH (CORNER ONE, the SW corner). The firm is a good sized boutique, rare in Ohio for sure. The personalities were interesting, and I got to meet a good mix of attorneys. I do not know if I want to end up in that city, but the firm was nice and I on this day realize I really want to work for a boutique or a firm that was a boutique but added a corporate practice just to keep up. So the Louisville firm has a serious knock in it now, but oh well. I drove down in the morning and drove back in the afternoon, was alone with Chip the new dog since Kelley was at choir until late and brought Zach up to our apartment to watch the dog over the weekend. A decent trip, and we will see what they will say.
Woke up dark and early (5:00 AM) on Friday to drive to Troy MI, a suburb north of Detroit for Callback #8 (Harness Dickey). I drove through Toledo OH, the NW and CORNER TWO of Ohio. This is another nice IP boutique, and they seem a little more uptight or professional than all the other firms I have visited. Even being 20 miles from downtown Detroit, the location is not the best. At least there is no BS commute into a high0rise of a big city though, so that’s a big plus. This firm sits in the middle of all my other firms I would not put at number 1, but I would accept a job offer from (and would be happy if they were my only offer). This firm seems a lot more dedicated toward a good summer experience, and I like that the firm goes out to lunch together every Friday.
Kelley got lost in northern suburbs shopping, so we went to the hotel and checked in at the Drury. Nice hotels, lots of extras like free bar drinks every evening and free popcorn and pop all afternoon and evening. We chilled in the hot tub and pool for an hour, then caught up on a little sleep before going out for the evening. We shopped for warm clothes and alcohol for tailgating the next day, went out to dinner at Outback, saw the area in general, then went down to Greektown Casino in downtown Detroit for a nightcap. We had never been to a real casino, so this was new for us. Table games are so expensive, so going to have to wait until I make bigger bucks to play in these casinos. The slots were plentiful and fun though, and we did play one table game I just had to try (War). What a simple silly game, but mildly entertaining anyways.
Saturday morning we started slowly and got on the road for East Lansing, about a 90-minute drive up the road. We get there and manage to find a parking garage not too busy (we just beat the rush). We bundle up, get our coke and rum ready, and go walking around to find the Buckeye Bob tailgate. Took us about a mile of walking some in the wrong direction and a hour, but we find the tailgate right when the fries and steak are coming off the burners…so yummy stuff not missed. Good sized group of us there, and Kelley and I downed a half bottle (BIG BOTTLE) of Bacardi and coke together in the course of an hour there and an hour back at the car. Finally stumble into the game around halftime, sit in the MSU band section while they are on the field, get kicked out up to our upper deck seats for the second half. A little chilly up there due to wind, but not crowded because a lot of MSU fans left at halftime since they were already down 24-0. I personally needed to get plastered in the middle of the law school term after being done with interviews and so on, so I am not sorry about missing what must have been a boring first half (barring Teddy’s punt return for TD). OSU goes on to win, I go on to get sober, and we hit the road for home again. We drove through Cleveland OH (The NE CORNER, or CORNER #3) on the way to Marietta.
Sunday I woke up around noon right before Kelley got home from church and watched TV with her stepfather for a while. We chilled in Marietta for a while (CORNER 4, the SE CORNER) on Sunday, then finally went back up to Columbus to do some grocery shopping and let Zach finally go home. Chip was happy to see us, and we were happy to see him except for him tearing up the blinds in our room. The end of a long but good relaxing weekend and fall break, and while I was not quite ready to go back to class…Monday calls.
The first day back in class was not too shabby. Shipman has had good lectures and good reading assignments…starting to feel like accounting is a good class. I’m totally just reading the nutshell guide and outlining the course at the end of the semester based on that and the HW problems. Tax was rather boring, but patent law was actually engaging for the first time since the first week of class (because we were doing sample exam or patent bar questions on the unit we just finished). Went out with Dan after class and caught up on fall break stuff (and there was some serious stuff). Seems like the job search for everybody other than Jonathan and I has slowed down and not many people are walking around with offers. I know I have the most callbacks to hear from in my group of friends, so I would hope my optimism that I will get 2-3 offers is not misplaced. Think I’m calling Dallas this afternoon to see if they held their meeting and to see where I stand since it has been quite some time. Going out to dinner at Quaker Steak tonight with brother-in-law and fiancée this evening, as it is wing night.
The ACC-Check does not look so bad this time around, a little shorter. Time to get back to that and perhaps revising my AA brief for oral argument season.
Oh one more note while I am thinking about it. I for the first time in six years, completely disagree with the President and I am very unhappy with his actions. Not about the war or anything like that, but the port security bill he signed into law last Friday which tries to kill online gambling for US citizens by blocking bank and credit card transfers from US banks to gambling websites. Now I know my site has already in place a work-around (UltimateBet), but how long before some goon in the US Attorney General’s office goes after these big boys? I have enough money on there that I do not have to reload anytime soon and so I should be able to keep playing casually…but sneaking this overbroad and ridiculous legislation in a security bill republicans in Congress and the President are forced to pass politically is WRONG. I have no problem if the government wants to regulate these online casinos like the offline ones, as I am one of millions of players willing to pay reasonable taxes on deposits…but to try and quash them completely is an impediment to freedom in this country. I know some of my readers will completely disagree with me here, but most of my readers will be happy to see me finally upset with Prez W over something.
Monday, October 09, 2006
In Chicago and Waiting
So I'm sitting in my hotel's lobby on a super-comfy sofa enjoying free wi-fi (when you charge $250 a night, charging for wi-fi is in my opinion undignified). Decided to not go out around downtown last night, just ordered in room service which was not as good as the price had hopefully suggested. At least I ordered a lot so I could be picky and choosy instead of starving. Enjoying this brief respite from even thinking about law school, well except for when interviewers ask about it of course. Next week I'll have to start again on appellate advocacy so I am not scrambling before final submissions the first week of November.
You might ask why I am sitting here blogging at 1:18 in the afternoon (12:18 local time)? Because check-out was noon and my interview starts at 1:30 with McDonnell Boehnen a few blocks from here. Better to sit here with free wi-fi than look like a terrorist with my big garment bag just sitting around a corporate office building lobby or showing up to the interview too early. Let's review this crazy interview season...
35 first interviews at Loyola Patent Program and OSU OCI August 3-September 14.
52 unsolicited letters to chicago and texas firms.
8 callback interviews thus far (#6 today, #7 Thursday, #8 Friday).
16 rejection letters from first interviews...and 12 firms have not responded yet amazingly.
1 rejection letter from callback interviews.
0 offers.
I believe this is where Mastercard would say "Priceless."
Fish and Richardson in Dallas TX - (Loyola Patent Program) Callback was 9/1, no response.
Maginot Moore and Beck in Indianapolis IN - (OCI) Callback 9/6, no response.
Brinks Hofer Gilson and Lione in Chicago IL - (Loyola Patent) Callback 9/22, quick rejection letter.
Leydig Voit and Mayer in Chicago IL - (Loyola Patent) Callback 9/29, no response.
Greenebaum Doll in Louisville KY - (OCI) Callback 10/6, no response.
McDonnell Boehnen in Chicago IL - (Letter!) Callback 10/9
Wood Herron Evans in Cincinnati, OH - (OCI) Callback 10/12
Harness Dickey in Detroit, MI - (Loyola Patent) Callback 10/13
Seven fishing lines still in the lake, perhaps there will be more added but hopefully I can catch a fish or two in the next couple weeks. I fully expected to hear from the first three firms on the list this week, but Brinks went above and beyond by letting me know last week they did not want me :-) At the time I was having trouble deciding whether I would take that offer or another top one on my list, so that clears the order up a bit.
The Greenebaum interview impressed me, and I really like Louisville if I choose to settle in a smaller city. South enough to not be awful weather for 6 months, on the Ohio River, nice driving distance to Columbus, Cincy, Indy, Chicago, and Nashville. If I had to make a snap judgment or list of firm preference right now, they would be number 2...but further consideration will be merited if I get multiple offers.
The OSU-BGSU game was one of the more boring contests I've witnessed at Ohio Stadium, and it marked my 30th OSU game overall. On a stretch of 5 straight weekends with the Iowa trip and MSU trip, so looking forward to seeing the Bucks defend their number 1 ranking this month and getting ready long-term for the showdown with Michigan for the Big Ten title and a likely berth in the BCS title game. As last week proved though, undefeateds are falling quickly (13 last week, 4 of them lost so 9 left). OSU has to avoid the upset bug...
I forgot to mention this last week because I was too busy rushing home and finishing the brief for app ad and then going to bowling, but I witnessed a squirrel on Chittenden Wednesday that made me about roll off the sidewalk laughing. This squirrel was going hardcore on a piece of pepperoni pizza left by drunk undergrads in the grass, and I for some reason found this sight so funny. Since when do squirrels go for Papa John's? The way it was tearing into the pizza kind of reminded me of quite a few 1L's and undergrad students I know :-P
So Zach (my brother in law) is home finally this week from the Air Force after being forced out due to a kidney stone. Now he is back spending tons of time with fiancee Sarah in his room at his Mom's house. My father-in-law, grandparents-in-law, mother-in-law, stepfather-in-law, and wife are all supportive but all of them do not seem to completely trust Sarah. I kind of feel the same way, and I am definitely worried Zach will do something dumb now that he's home like get married really soon or have a kid. He needs to continue with his life plan and go to school somewhere...as maturity (which I'm sure he got some in basic training) comes from life in college and depending on yourself and not living at home. Kelley and Bruce (and I) are a little pissed Zach's mom lets them hang out all day in Zach's room until 3 AM alone, whereas Kelley was not allowed to be in her room with guys at all. Well I just hope he makes good decisions, as he is definitely a smart guy and has more computer skills than I ever care to have. The only thing that keeps me from saying stuff to him is that I HATED the crap I got from family about my own wedding, so I don't want to be that guy. Things have seemed to work out great for me, so hopefully the same to him.
I got measured for my tux for Tom and Heather's wedding the other day, which got me to thinking...what the hell am I going to say as the Best Man toast? Tom had his moments when I though his speech would be a disaster, but he pulled it all together and I loved it. I just hope I can do the same...and I am totally looking forward to the honor. Wish we could get out and play tennis before it freezes over, but with all these interviews it probably will not happen till next week. I'll hope for sunshine, even if we have to play in sweats.
Went to Chi Alpha this week, nice to see the old gang and the new people. Pastor Jim just had his second kid, so big news there. Saw Pastor Jeff and grabbed coffee with him randomly earlier that day as well, so that was nice. With Zach coming back and going to contemporary Lutheran services now...we both might be able to influence the worship and music committee or whoever runs this shebang that changes need to be made. You cannot make everyone happy and the contemporary service IS a big improvement over the regular liturgical worship, but the darn service is still confined by liturgy (on the powerpoint slides mind you). If they want to draw in new members and non-Lutherans to see attendance actually grow, they need to change it up a little bit. I'm not saying exactly like Zach's basic training contemporary church service or my Chi Alpha services, but make it a lot more like those and start over instead of basing it strictly on liturgy. I do not know why I should care just like why should I care about who wins elections in Ohio when I'm moving out of state in two years...but something makes me want to stand up to the hardcore Lutherans and tell them to be open-minded. Just like when I "stole" communion from the not open-table Missouri Synod Lutheran church my father attends...but that's another story for another time.
For some reason, after rushing to finish the app ad brief and not revising it at all, I looked it over Thursday morning and was proud of it. I know it will be ripped apart by my adjunct professor, but for a few days I can be proud of my work.
Well it is time to go hail a cab and get on with this interview. More fun on this trip other than having this mid-day wait was having to re-schedule my flight tonight since I thought the interview was in the morning and so I set up the 5:30 flight out of town. It's now the 7:30 flight because there is NO WAY you can have an interview at 1:30 and make it to O'Hare by 4:30. Just impossible. Especially if I bring home Giordano's ;-)
Have a good week, I may be on here more as the week off progresses.
You might ask why I am sitting here blogging at 1:18 in the afternoon (12:18 local time)? Because check-out was noon and my interview starts at 1:30 with McDonnell Boehnen a few blocks from here. Better to sit here with free wi-fi than look like a terrorist with my big garment bag just sitting around a corporate office building lobby or showing up to the interview too early. Let's review this crazy interview season...
35 first interviews at Loyola Patent Program and OSU OCI August 3-September 14.
52 unsolicited letters to chicago and texas firms.
8 callback interviews thus far (#6 today, #7 Thursday, #8 Friday).
16 rejection letters from first interviews...and 12 firms have not responded yet amazingly.
1 rejection letter from callback interviews.
0 offers.
I believe this is where Mastercard would say "Priceless."
Fish and Richardson in Dallas TX - (Loyola Patent Program) Callback was 9/1, no response.
Maginot Moore and Beck in Indianapolis IN - (OCI) Callback 9/6, no response.
Brinks Hofer Gilson and Lione in Chicago IL - (Loyola Patent) Callback 9/22, quick rejection letter.
Leydig Voit and Mayer in Chicago IL - (Loyola Patent) Callback 9/29, no response.
Greenebaum Doll in Louisville KY - (OCI) Callback 10/6, no response.
McDonnell Boehnen in Chicago IL - (Letter!) Callback 10/9
Wood Herron Evans in Cincinnati, OH - (OCI) Callback 10/12
Harness Dickey in Detroit, MI - (Loyola Patent) Callback 10/13
Seven fishing lines still in the lake, perhaps there will be more added but hopefully I can catch a fish or two in the next couple weeks. I fully expected to hear from the first three firms on the list this week, but Brinks went above and beyond by letting me know last week they did not want me :-) At the time I was having trouble deciding whether I would take that offer or another top one on my list, so that clears the order up a bit.
The Greenebaum interview impressed me, and I really like Louisville if I choose to settle in a smaller city. South enough to not be awful weather for 6 months, on the Ohio River, nice driving distance to Columbus, Cincy, Indy, Chicago, and Nashville. If I had to make a snap judgment or list of firm preference right now, they would be number 2...but further consideration will be merited if I get multiple offers.
The OSU-BGSU game was one of the more boring contests I've witnessed at Ohio Stadium, and it marked my 30th OSU game overall. On a stretch of 5 straight weekends with the Iowa trip and MSU trip, so looking forward to seeing the Bucks defend their number 1 ranking this month and getting ready long-term for the showdown with Michigan for the Big Ten title and a likely berth in the BCS title game. As last week proved though, undefeateds are falling quickly (13 last week, 4 of them lost so 9 left). OSU has to avoid the upset bug...
I forgot to mention this last week because I was too busy rushing home and finishing the brief for app ad and then going to bowling, but I witnessed a squirrel on Chittenden Wednesday that made me about roll off the sidewalk laughing. This squirrel was going hardcore on a piece of pepperoni pizza left by drunk undergrads in the grass, and I for some reason found this sight so funny. Since when do squirrels go for Papa John's? The way it was tearing into the pizza kind of reminded me of quite a few 1L's and undergrad students I know :-P
So Zach (my brother in law) is home finally this week from the Air Force after being forced out due to a kidney stone. Now he is back spending tons of time with fiancee Sarah in his room at his Mom's house. My father-in-law, grandparents-in-law, mother-in-law, stepfather-in-law, and wife are all supportive but all of them do not seem to completely trust Sarah. I kind of feel the same way, and I am definitely worried Zach will do something dumb now that he's home like get married really soon or have a kid. He needs to continue with his life plan and go to school somewhere...as maturity (which I'm sure he got some in basic training) comes from life in college and depending on yourself and not living at home. Kelley and Bruce (and I) are a little pissed Zach's mom lets them hang out all day in Zach's room until 3 AM alone, whereas Kelley was not allowed to be in her room with guys at all. Well I just hope he makes good decisions, as he is definitely a smart guy and has more computer skills than I ever care to have. The only thing that keeps me from saying stuff to him is that I HATED the crap I got from family about my own wedding, so I don't want to be that guy. Things have seemed to work out great for me, so hopefully the same to him.
I got measured for my tux for Tom and Heather's wedding the other day, which got me to thinking...what the hell am I going to say as the Best Man toast? Tom had his moments when I though his speech would be a disaster, but he pulled it all together and I loved it. I just hope I can do the same...and I am totally looking forward to the honor. Wish we could get out and play tennis before it freezes over, but with all these interviews it probably will not happen till next week. I'll hope for sunshine, even if we have to play in sweats.
Went to Chi Alpha this week, nice to see the old gang and the new people. Pastor Jim just had his second kid, so big news there. Saw Pastor Jeff and grabbed coffee with him randomly earlier that day as well, so that was nice. With Zach coming back and going to contemporary Lutheran services now...we both might be able to influence the worship and music committee or whoever runs this shebang that changes need to be made. You cannot make everyone happy and the contemporary service IS a big improvement over the regular liturgical worship, but the darn service is still confined by liturgy (on the powerpoint slides mind you). If they want to draw in new members and non-Lutherans to see attendance actually grow, they need to change it up a little bit. I'm not saying exactly like Zach's basic training contemporary church service or my Chi Alpha services, but make it a lot more like those and start over instead of basing it strictly on liturgy. I do not know why I should care just like why should I care about who wins elections in Ohio when I'm moving out of state in two years...but something makes me want to stand up to the hardcore Lutherans and tell them to be open-minded. Just like when I "stole" communion from the not open-table Missouri Synod Lutheran church my father attends...but that's another story for another time.
For some reason, after rushing to finish the app ad brief and not revising it at all, I looked it over Thursday morning and was proud of it. I know it will be ripped apart by my adjunct professor, but for a few days I can be proud of my work.
Well it is time to go hail a cab and get on with this interview. More fun on this trip other than having this mid-day wait was having to re-schedule my flight tonight since I thought the interview was in the morning and so I set up the 5:30 flight out of town. It's now the 7:30 flight because there is NO WAY you can have an interview at 1:30 and make it to O'Hare by 4:30. Just impossible. Especially if I bring home Giordano's ;-)
Have a good week, I may be on here more as the week off progresses.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Iowa Weekend
Left after appellate advocacy on Thursday for Chicago. Stopped at half price books and got some new ones to read finally, keep the wife happy :-) Did reading on the way out. Got there late at night and went out to Hard Rock Cafe for some dinner and a new bear for my collection. It was a concert night, so no tables for dinner means we moved on. Red Lobster closed, Rainforest Cafe closed...not going to McDonald's on the firm dime. We then turn the corner and see Melting Pot, the fondue restaurant from home that got us hooked on fondue (we have two pots of our own and fondue all the time now). Well, since the firm is paying...might as well make it like a second honeymoon and get the dinner there while enjoying the $300 a night hotel room downtown. The interview was OK, but this firm probably will not beat Brinks in Chicago if both give offers, but it is a perfectly good firm as well.
Spent the rest of the day at Navy Pier, doing the big Ferris Wheel. Nice view of Chicago if you ever go. After dinner at Giordano's, off to Iowa.
Iowa game was fantastic, as the Buckeyes are starting to play like the dominant team in college football. We shall see if they make it undefeated to Michigan which they certainly should. 44 point favorites against BG this week (the Buckeyes have covered all 5 spreads against them this year), and that is unbelivable. I think I was at the biggest blowout in the Jim Tressel era and that was a 43 point win over San Jose State 50-7. I'm seriously tempted to take the Falcons plus 44...it's a near certainty even with OSU dominance. We will back it off if we get up by 28.
Anyways, Iowa fans lived up to their reputation as the nicest in the Big Ten. Mostly. A lot of fans went out of their way to greet Kelley and I and welcome us to Iowa or wish us a safe trip back or have fun at the game. A few drunken idiots (all students) as usual before the game. Of course the assholes who made fun of Kelley for her weight really ruined it for her as we were walking back to the car. One carful of fans ruining all the outstanding work of the other Iowa fans, who were gracious even in defeat. I did not care if they drop to personal attacks because words don't mean anything to me in that instance, but she cried all the way back to the car and I wish I did not have to worry about passing the bar (no incidents of law allowed)...I totally wanted to go run my key across their Escalade and throw a punch or two to shut up the assholes. For me it was a perfectly fine trip but for her this probably ruined a great day. Went to dinner at Perkins with Dad and Patti afterwards, had our good adult chat without the siblings around.
I forgot to mention we got to see Samantha and Cassandra play volleyball and smash some competition Saturday morning. I feel so lucky to have seen one of CJ's soccer games, these volleyball games, and other extracurriculars...as Dad did not get to see mine and I know how much it probably means to them to have me there at least once in a great while. I enjoy seeing them play as well of course.
Sunday we played a little MP7 with the kids before having to hit the road for Ohio. Got home late and passed out so I could wake up in time to go to lunch with Everson today. Got all my reading done through the first classes after fall break, so all my attention tomorrow and Wednesday will be on app ad draft two. Lunch with Everson was nice...hard to not lose track of friends with my awkward school schedule (everybody else is leaving while I am in my first or second class of the day). We are both looking for our first offers, and it is nice to bounce interview stories off each other. He's off to another this week so Kelley will get to bowl which is good because she has the itch to bowl again (I was planning to go on fall break if nothing else) and will get to sub most likely. Looking forward to that as that marks the end of app ad till after break and the end of law school really till after fall break.
So until then...I write. But then I will binge on all things not law school, including time with Kelley and time with things like Lost...Xbox...Gamecube....and whatever else tickles my fancy.
Spent the rest of the day at Navy Pier, doing the big Ferris Wheel. Nice view of Chicago if you ever go. After dinner at Giordano's, off to Iowa.
Iowa game was fantastic, as the Buckeyes are starting to play like the dominant team in college football. We shall see if they make it undefeated to Michigan which they certainly should. 44 point favorites against BG this week (the Buckeyes have covered all 5 spreads against them this year), and that is unbelivable. I think I was at the biggest blowout in the Jim Tressel era and that was a 43 point win over San Jose State 50-7. I'm seriously tempted to take the Falcons plus 44...it's a near certainty even with OSU dominance. We will back it off if we get up by 28.
Anyways, Iowa fans lived up to their reputation as the nicest in the Big Ten. Mostly. A lot of fans went out of their way to greet Kelley and I and welcome us to Iowa or wish us a safe trip back or have fun at the game. A few drunken idiots (all students) as usual before the game. Of course the assholes who made fun of Kelley for her weight really ruined it for her as we were walking back to the car. One carful of fans ruining all the outstanding work of the other Iowa fans, who were gracious even in defeat. I did not care if they drop to personal attacks because words don't mean anything to me in that instance, but she cried all the way back to the car and I wish I did not have to worry about passing the bar (no incidents of law allowed)...I totally wanted to go run my key across their Escalade and throw a punch or two to shut up the assholes. For me it was a perfectly fine trip but for her this probably ruined a great day. Went to dinner at Perkins with Dad and Patti afterwards, had our good adult chat without the siblings around.
I forgot to mention we got to see Samantha and Cassandra play volleyball and smash some competition Saturday morning. I feel so lucky to have seen one of CJ's soccer games, these volleyball games, and other extracurriculars...as Dad did not get to see mine and I know how much it probably means to them to have me there at least once in a great while. I enjoy seeing them play as well of course.
Sunday we played a little MP7 with the kids before having to hit the road for Ohio. Got home late and passed out so I could wake up in time to go to lunch with Everson today. Got all my reading done through the first classes after fall break, so all my attention tomorrow and Wednesday will be on app ad draft two. Lunch with Everson was nice...hard to not lose track of friends with my awkward school schedule (everybody else is leaving while I am in my first or second class of the day). We are both looking for our first offers, and it is nice to bounce interview stories off each other. He's off to another this week so Kelley will get to bowl which is good because she has the itch to bowl again (I was planning to go on fall break if nothing else) and will get to sub most likely. Looking forward to that as that marks the end of app ad till after break and the end of law school really till after fall break.
So until then...I write. But then I will binge on all things not law school, including time with Kelley and time with things like Lost...Xbox...Gamecube....and whatever else tickles my fancy.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
A midweek entry
Hey, why not two entries in a week! Put my article up on SCS just now, looks decent but not my usual ramble. This one is more like last season's articles, and I do not know if that is good or not. All I know is I am PUMPED for the Iowa game. Cannot wait for Saturday.
I really wrote to speak of my day. This was a bad day, despite no reading and getting to start my day with tennis. First Kirkland and Ellis calls, says they are SO SORRY because they sent the wrong letter to me and I actually do not have a callback. As if that unprofessional behavior did not get it going (and that is really what got in my craw as the day went on), the other phone calls of the day set it off. Fish from Dallas called back, and it turned out to be a good call as they are meeting October 10 to make final decisions so I will know for sure in 2 weeks. It is nice to know finally when that will be, but still I wait for my first offer. Then Leydig (my callback for Friday) FINALLY got a fourth attorney for me to interview with Friday and confirmed my interview at 5 PM today. I'm leaving for Chicago tomorrow at 11 AM and I get confirmation of the interview at 5 PM the day before I leave. Considering they had 3 and a half weeks from when we tenatively scheduled the callback...I find their conduct unacceptable. You cannot make someone wait until the day before they have to leave to set up the interview! I mean I am happy I have a callback, but they are behind Brinks and Fish based solely on how they have acted thus far. And so much for not making last minute travel plans...I do not have a hotel reservation for tomorrow night. Well I am pissed, but I'll call them tomorrow morning and they better answer the phone so we can work this all out before we hit the road.
I do not know what pisses me off more: Kirkland being unprofessional or Leydig being such a pain. If only I had an offer...
On the bright side it was bowling night, and we were bowling against Applebaum's team. Aaron has been talking trash all week and so have we. The team theme this week (we're crazy) was Holy Rollers so Daniel and Brodie dressed up in suits and acted like crazy southern baptist preachers. I had on my Halloween costume, Roman Catholic Cardinal. Abbie totally should have dressed like a rabbi, but she did have the MFR shirt on. Well anyways Aaron and I were focused on beating each other individually as the best players on the team...and he beat me by 2 first game 162-160...more painful was our team losing by 2 pins as well. 1-6 on the season. Then game two I took off my outfit so we had two baptist preachers and the more subdued members of the team in MFR shirts...well we got revenge for game 1. I bowled a little worse (but still beat Aaron 146-143 and the one pin win over two games means I've got bragging rights) but Abbie totally carried the team getting her first ever turkey of her life and 7 marks in 7 frames (2-9) to go get a 187. GO ABBIE! 96 pins over average, and like I said she carried the team as won the second by a dominating 97 pins and the series by 95. We are only 3-6, but we are bowling so much better. I do not know if Abbie can keep it up (or me, having the third or fourth highest AVG in the league)...but Daniel has been consistent and Brodie has been bad so he could easily carry us the rest of the way. Bowling totally turned the day around, and I get to keep my 153 average another week.
One final thought: Is it scary I bowl better in a cardinal dress where I have to bowl with backwards spin than when I bowl a normal game in normal clothes? Yeah I thought so too.
I really wrote to speak of my day. This was a bad day, despite no reading and getting to start my day with tennis. First Kirkland and Ellis calls, says they are SO SORRY because they sent the wrong letter to me and I actually do not have a callback. As if that unprofessional behavior did not get it going (and that is really what got in my craw as the day went on), the other phone calls of the day set it off. Fish from Dallas called back, and it turned out to be a good call as they are meeting October 10 to make final decisions so I will know for sure in 2 weeks. It is nice to know finally when that will be, but still I wait for my first offer. Then Leydig (my callback for Friday) FINALLY got a fourth attorney for me to interview with Friday and confirmed my interview at 5 PM today. I'm leaving for Chicago tomorrow at 11 AM and I get confirmation of the interview at 5 PM the day before I leave. Considering they had 3 and a half weeks from when we tenatively scheduled the callback...I find their conduct unacceptable. You cannot make someone wait until the day before they have to leave to set up the interview! I mean I am happy I have a callback, but they are behind Brinks and Fish based solely on how they have acted thus far. And so much for not making last minute travel plans...I do not have a hotel reservation for tomorrow night. Well I am pissed, but I'll call them tomorrow morning and they better answer the phone so we can work this all out before we hit the road.
I do not know what pisses me off more: Kirkland being unprofessional or Leydig being such a pain. If only I had an offer...
On the bright side it was bowling night, and we were bowling against Applebaum's team. Aaron has been talking trash all week and so have we. The team theme this week (we're crazy) was Holy Rollers so Daniel and Brodie dressed up in suits and acted like crazy southern baptist preachers. I had on my Halloween costume, Roman Catholic Cardinal. Abbie totally should have dressed like a rabbi, but she did have the MFR shirt on. Well anyways Aaron and I were focused on beating each other individually as the best players on the team...and he beat me by 2 first game 162-160...more painful was our team losing by 2 pins as well. 1-6 on the season. Then game two I took off my outfit so we had two baptist preachers and the more subdued members of the team in MFR shirts...well we got revenge for game 1. I bowled a little worse (but still beat Aaron 146-143 and the one pin win over two games means I've got bragging rights) but Abbie totally carried the team getting her first ever turkey of her life and 7 marks in 7 frames (2-9) to go get a 187. GO ABBIE! 96 pins over average, and like I said she carried the team as won the second by a dominating 97 pins and the series by 95. We are only 3-6, but we are bowling so much better. I do not know if Abbie can keep it up (or me, having the third or fourth highest AVG in the league)...but Daniel has been consistent and Brodie has been bad so he could easily carry us the rest of the way. Bowling totally turned the day around, and I get to keep my 153 average another week.
One final thought: Is it scary I bowl better in a cardinal dress where I have to bowl with backwards spin than when I bowl a normal game in normal clothes? Yeah I thought so too.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Two more weeks...
It is only two more weeks until fall break at school, and wow has the time flown by. I am kind of in a rut as far as classes go (less motivation to read, even less motivation to pay attention in my boring classes...but at least Morgan and E. Lee have good classes to look forward to). I doubt I'll do any catching up over that week, but maybe things will get turned in the right direction as I hope to have 2-3 callbacks scheduled that week and finish those off so that I do not have to bother with those anymore. If I could just get an offer from Fish... :-)
My callback with Brinks Hofer in Chicago went well, until today. I'll explain later. Anyways, the interviews were only 20 minutes long so they were a little too rushed for my tastes, but I did get to see 7 attorneys and the recruiting coordinators. The firm is growing slowly (like every other firm in america) and is currently at about 140 attorneys. Everyone I talked to has a balance of patent litigation and patent prosecution work. I like that aspect, and the tougher interviews were the last two because these guys worked in the power and/or nuclear industires before going to law school (and so grilled me on my NE classes which was a change). The lunch was very nice at a place I currently cannot afford, but when the firm buys you steak you eat steak. I also like how they had 2 first year associates who just started 3 weeks ago take me to lunch, as they know the summer program and could answer all of my pressing realistic questions. Of course both of these people were ND undergraduates and UM law students. Go figure...and we start talking about why The Ohio State University insists upon the "THE" at the beginning of their name. LOL. I got payback over dinner when I asked them, "so since you graduated from both universities how did you like the UM-ND game?" Both visibly cringed, so obviously I struck a blow into the Irish hearts...oh well. They said a week and a half to get back with me, and I have a suspicion this is legitimate. So I should hear from F&R by no later than next week and Brinks said then as well. Now you ask how did it go bad today? Well I was rushing to class and grabbed the reimbursement letter (form and original receipts for food and taxicab fares the firm pays for while you are there) out of my backpack and threw it in the US mail drop box at school. As I let it go I notice there is no stamp on the damn thing. Great. So I rush off to class after checking the pickup times (10 AM each day) and figure I'll come back after class and dig it out (the mailbox is not easy to reach into but with a newspaper you can reach the mail in there). So after class I go check the mailbox and it is empty. I call the USPS and they say it will be delivered with a postage due stamp on it...so I left a phone message with the recruiting coordinator apologizing in advance for my brainiac moment. It's probably no big deal, but I do not want to throw the job away on something silly like that.
I will be so happy when I get that first offer. I know with 7 callbacks now I'll get one, but it will feel better to have one nonetheless. It seems like the job market is opening up for all my friends now, as most of us are getting callbacks and waiting for offers (except for Jon, but his PHD in bioscience gives him a huge leg up on the rest of us, even us patent lawyers). It finally seems realistic that by November 1, most of us will know our summer plans and probable futures.
Met with my adjunct today about my app ad paper, as the next draft is due already next week. Craziness will ensue, but he's a really nice fellow and we had a good chat. He ran away from his family by moving to a Boston law firm with no ties to the area, so he was encouraging about my wanting Texas and Chicago. I also told him while I was stuck in OHare coming back from the interview for 4 hours, a lady traveling to Cedar Rapids IA (my hometown) sat down beside me and we chatted about Iowa. She was from Seattle, and had kids get assigned by the racial tiebreaker in my app ad supreme court case. Small world huh...getting to speak with one of the parents I am advocating for was a unique opportunity. It doesn't help the paper, but Pierce (my adjunct) thought it was neat, and said "you know in life, there are no accidents." How true.
I forgot my combination for my locker at school. Not that I use it anymore, but I used it over the summer and did not use it for 4 weeks, now I cannot figure out the damn thing. I wrote it down in my planner last year to remember it, but I cannot find that either. Eh, not a big deal but I keep going back every few days and trying new combinations. Hmmm...
In life there are no mistakes. What a strange concept, but so believeable. Having Kelley as a third wheel at junior prom (obviously led to marriage)...moving to the border between high school districts (allowed me better opportunities in Marietta)...getting rejected by my dream school MIT (probably changed my life plan entirely)...well I am sure we all have moments that seem like they mean less than they actually do in the long run. Well I don't blog about philosophical issues, so back to something more concrete.
The undergraduates are back. In force. All 22,000 or more of them. It gives campus a nice lively feel and I'm not that far removed to love all that goes on when they come back, but my fellow law students don't like it much and this year I can agree a little. I much preferred my parking possibilities before they came back, the first week is hell because you cannot walk down high street without having some stupid young'un run into you, and no longer can you grab lunch somewhere not busy. Law school is just another planet, as I suspect you ask most OSU undergrads where the law school is located and they probably would not know.
This weekend the PSU-OSU game was great, and looking forward to the Iowa trip this weekend after my Chicago callback. It will be the only time in a while I'll see the siblings as well. Hopefully I'll be a happy Buckeye fan for the drive home Sunday, but we shall see. This will be the biggest game in Iowa City in two decades probably, so should be an electric atmosphere.
Sunday was fun, as the new Magic set came out. They have the normal big set which brings back a lot of old mechanics such as flanking and flashback and buyback, but the big news was a subset of cards (121 bonus cards, 1 in each booster pack) are reprints of old cards with purple expansion set symbols and printed in the old cardface. It was nice to open up a pack and get a Mystic Snake, another with a Lightning Angel, another with a Grinning Totem...so the nostalgia theme looks awesome. Shep and I playe din the 2HG on Sunday, 44 teams of which only about 5 could be considered true threats and only 2 other teams with players as good as us. We get paired round 1 against one of the good teams and lose because both our decks get stuck on mana issues. We win two rounds against awful competition before losing again due to my deck and more mana issues (you'd think with a 10-8 split of mana I'd get both...). We decided to stay in and smashed the last two opponents, but got 10th on tiebreakers (6 percentage points behind the tied 8th and 9th place teams). It's a shame, and more of a shame is they ran out of pre-release cards so we did not get a promo. Considering that was the only thing I wanted...that kind of sucks. I quit competitive Magic and they bring out arguably the best two blocks in 5 years including one with nothing but nostalgia. Damn them. Extended and 2HG seasons in 2007 should be fun.
One more thing, guess I saved the best for last. At the tournament Tom let me know I'm going to be his best man in March. That is such an honor, and I feel like it is so undeserved even though we lived together 2 of the last 3 years, and he was my best man. You know how I said there are no accidents in life...well I ran this little thing called Marietta Magic League my senior year of high school, and the best player (the only player better than I) in the area and the only guy who finished better than me in the overall standings was Tom. We became friends thorugh Magic and because I started the league and he saw the ads for the tournaments...and now we are each other's best man six years later. Funny how this world works.
Going to be two more bachelor parties next year, one I'm planning and one someone else is planning for Burton. I can only hope I do as good of a job as Tom did for me this year. Well enough for now...
My callback with Brinks Hofer in Chicago went well, until today. I'll explain later. Anyways, the interviews were only 20 minutes long so they were a little too rushed for my tastes, but I did get to see 7 attorneys and the recruiting coordinators. The firm is growing slowly (like every other firm in america) and is currently at about 140 attorneys. Everyone I talked to has a balance of patent litigation and patent prosecution work. I like that aspect, and the tougher interviews were the last two because these guys worked in the power and/or nuclear industires before going to law school (and so grilled me on my NE classes which was a change). The lunch was very nice at a place I currently cannot afford, but when the firm buys you steak you eat steak. I also like how they had 2 first year associates who just started 3 weeks ago take me to lunch, as they know the summer program and could answer all of my pressing realistic questions. Of course both of these people were ND undergraduates and UM law students. Go figure...and we start talking about why The Ohio State University insists upon the "THE" at the beginning of their name. LOL. I got payback over dinner when I asked them, "so since you graduated from both universities how did you like the UM-ND game?" Both visibly cringed, so obviously I struck a blow into the Irish hearts...oh well. They said a week and a half to get back with me, and I have a suspicion this is legitimate. So I should hear from F&R by no later than next week and Brinks said then as well. Now you ask how did it go bad today? Well I was rushing to class and grabbed the reimbursement letter (form and original receipts for food and taxicab fares the firm pays for while you are there) out of my backpack and threw it in the US mail drop box at school. As I let it go I notice there is no stamp on the damn thing. Great. So I rush off to class after checking the pickup times (10 AM each day) and figure I'll come back after class and dig it out (the mailbox is not easy to reach into but with a newspaper you can reach the mail in there). So after class I go check the mailbox and it is empty. I call the USPS and they say it will be delivered with a postage due stamp on it...so I left a phone message with the recruiting coordinator apologizing in advance for my brainiac moment. It's probably no big deal, but I do not want to throw the job away on something silly like that.
I will be so happy when I get that first offer. I know with 7 callbacks now I'll get one, but it will feel better to have one nonetheless. It seems like the job market is opening up for all my friends now, as most of us are getting callbacks and waiting for offers (except for Jon, but his PHD in bioscience gives him a huge leg up on the rest of us, even us patent lawyers). It finally seems realistic that by November 1, most of us will know our summer plans and probable futures.
Met with my adjunct today about my app ad paper, as the next draft is due already next week. Craziness will ensue, but he's a really nice fellow and we had a good chat. He ran away from his family by moving to a Boston law firm with no ties to the area, so he was encouraging about my wanting Texas and Chicago. I also told him while I was stuck in OHare coming back from the interview for 4 hours, a lady traveling to Cedar Rapids IA (my hometown) sat down beside me and we chatted about Iowa. She was from Seattle, and had kids get assigned by the racial tiebreaker in my app ad supreme court case. Small world huh...getting to speak with one of the parents I am advocating for was a unique opportunity. It doesn't help the paper, but Pierce (my adjunct) thought it was neat, and said "you know in life, there are no accidents." How true.
I forgot my combination for my locker at school. Not that I use it anymore, but I used it over the summer and did not use it for 4 weeks, now I cannot figure out the damn thing. I wrote it down in my planner last year to remember it, but I cannot find that either. Eh, not a big deal but I keep going back every few days and trying new combinations. Hmmm...
In life there are no mistakes. What a strange concept, but so believeable. Having Kelley as a third wheel at junior prom (obviously led to marriage)...moving to the border between high school districts (allowed me better opportunities in Marietta)...getting rejected by my dream school MIT (probably changed my life plan entirely)...well I am sure we all have moments that seem like they mean less than they actually do in the long run. Well I don't blog about philosophical issues, so back to something more concrete.
The undergraduates are back. In force. All 22,000 or more of them. It gives campus a nice lively feel and I'm not that far removed to love all that goes on when they come back, but my fellow law students don't like it much and this year I can agree a little. I much preferred my parking possibilities before they came back, the first week is hell because you cannot walk down high street without having some stupid young'un run into you, and no longer can you grab lunch somewhere not busy. Law school is just another planet, as I suspect you ask most OSU undergrads where the law school is located and they probably would not know.
This weekend the PSU-OSU game was great, and looking forward to the Iowa trip this weekend after my Chicago callback. It will be the only time in a while I'll see the siblings as well. Hopefully I'll be a happy Buckeye fan for the drive home Sunday, but we shall see. This will be the biggest game in Iowa City in two decades probably, so should be an electric atmosphere.
Sunday was fun, as the new Magic set came out. They have the normal big set which brings back a lot of old mechanics such as flanking and flashback and buyback, but the big news was a subset of cards (121 bonus cards, 1 in each booster pack) are reprints of old cards with purple expansion set symbols and printed in the old cardface. It was nice to open up a pack and get a Mystic Snake, another with a Lightning Angel, another with a Grinning Totem...so the nostalgia theme looks awesome. Shep and I playe din the 2HG on Sunday, 44 teams of which only about 5 could be considered true threats and only 2 other teams with players as good as us. We get paired round 1 against one of the good teams and lose because both our decks get stuck on mana issues. We win two rounds against awful competition before losing again due to my deck and more mana issues (you'd think with a 10-8 split of mana I'd get both...). We decided to stay in and smashed the last two opponents, but got 10th on tiebreakers (6 percentage points behind the tied 8th and 9th place teams). It's a shame, and more of a shame is they ran out of pre-release cards so we did not get a promo. Considering that was the only thing I wanted...that kind of sucks. I quit competitive Magic and they bring out arguably the best two blocks in 5 years including one with nothing but nostalgia. Damn them. Extended and 2HG seasons in 2007 should be fun.
One more thing, guess I saved the best for last. At the tournament Tom let me know I'm going to be his best man in March. That is such an honor, and I feel like it is so undeserved even though we lived together 2 of the last 3 years, and he was my best man. You know how I said there are no accidents in life...well I ran this little thing called Marietta Magic League my senior year of high school, and the best player (the only player better than I) in the area and the only guy who finished better than me in the overall standings was Tom. We became friends thorugh Magic and because I started the league and he saw the ads for the tournaments...and now we are each other's best man six years later. Funny how this world works.
Going to be two more bachelor parties next year, one I'm planning and one someone else is planning for Burton. I can only hope I do as good of a job as Tom did for me this year. Well enough for now...
Monday, September 18, 2006
Day 1 of the Workout
Well hard to belive it has been 10 days since I blogged, but then I think about last week and it is easy to see. We went home the weekend of the 9th and went to Kelley's mom's place to watch Texas get whooped on the big screen. That was a sweet game, if a little boring. Nice payback for them ending our long streak of home victories the year before. I was tempted (with the trip to Texas being officially cancelled and airfare to use within the next year) to go ahead and book airfare for Phoenix Arizona for the national title game...but we will wait. Like rational fans who know there are 9 games left on the schedule. Anyways, the only other thing of note last weekend was Shep coming over to help me move the behemoth of a TV into the Tracker we were borrowing from Zach while he's in Texas and Kelley's car was in the shop. The thing must weigh over 300 pounds and has no handholds at all (a slippery box basically). But we got the TV up to Columbus and Kelley and I very slowly got i where it needed to be downstairs. Thanks thanks thanks to the grandparents moving, as we could not afford a big TV but God do football games and Xbox games and TV in general looks great on that big thing. Now the guys have something to watch on poker night too.
Speaking of TV's, been working with a local paralegal (why do all the people I deal with on Craigslist end up being attorneys, lawstudents, or paralegals?) to get her big TV for $35 before she moves to San Diego in 3-4 weeks. Well she finally got in touch with me after 2 weeks of phone tag and said she would sell it to us but not until the week she leaves in about a month, but she will off it for $10. Hey, I have no problem waiting :-)
School was busy as could be last week. I barely kept up with things and let a couple readings go which I will not go back and do since the professors basically went over the reading in class. But my first draft of App Ad is done and I think I've done pretty well. I go meet with my adjunct (the guy who grades it) on next Monday and then I will throw together the second draft for the following week. I might even work on it a little this week, but don't count on it since App Ad is at the bottom of my list until a draft is due. So that kept me busy.
Somehow wrote an article by deadline Wednesday, but did it during patent class. Of course I think it's my best article of the year and I have pretty good patent notes...maybe I should multitask all the time. OK maybe just in Shipman's class, where I am now of course. I do not need 2 days to go over a problem I did in a little under an hour...but whatever. I did not get everything 100% right, but I'm doing pretty well. Speaking of SCS, have no idea what to write about this week...but I've got more important things before deadline on Wednesday.
Last Wednesday I had my App Ad paper turned in the night before the night it was due, but that was just because I was so busy. Interviews in the morning and early afternoon, classes 2-5:30, dinner at Dean Rogers' house at 6-8:15, and rush to first week of bowling. Dean Rogers has a very nice house, but really who is surprised there? I realize now that IPLS has the most insignificant meetings and agenda of pretty much all the Moritz student organizations, but can you fault us? Get the people info about patent law and copyight law, the patent bar, and encourage them to go to the Patent interview fair (which got 2 of the 4 IPLS board members jobs by the looks of it assuming one of my 4 callbacks works out), and call it a year. Not too hard.
Bowling was fantastic. Brodie was late because Vorys was busy buying him dinner and sucking his proverbial nuts (class rank means a lot to them), so Kelley got to bowl the first game for him. She rolled a 116, Brodie shows up and rolls a 117 in the second game...who's going to know it was not him the first game lol? I got a 128 and then a 149, so right around my average for last year which was 140. Our averages for next year are cute, they take 20 pin steps (Me 138, Brodie 117, Abbie 97, Daniel 78). Isn't that cute? Well we lost 2 out of 3 because out two games were within 6 pins or so, while our opponents improved by about 160 pins between games (one guy rolled a 66 game one and a 167 game two, WTF). We are definitely taking the cake for strangest team to bowl against, and that suits us perfectly. Mens Fucking Rea, if you know what I mean.
Thursday I had my final OCI interview, and thank God. 35 first interviews from August 3 to September 14 was enough to make you sick of the little make conversation game. I got two more callbacks, so no more striking out in OCI! And they said I would be more prepared after learning the ropes in Chicago...hell I did so much better in Chicago. Anyways, Chicago Patent program is like this (4 YES, 4 NO, 5 DO NOT KNOW YET) with 2 callbacks done (Fish in Dallas and Maginot in Indianapolis) and 2 not done (Leydig in Chicago and Brinks in Chicago). The OCI stats are (1 YES from Louisville, 10 NO, 11 DO NOT KNOW YET). Woot.
Feels good to get the App Ad monkey and the interview monkey off my back. Of course I still have callbacks and getting offers to worry about, but the hard part is done in my opinion.
Friday was my birthday. Yay 23. Spent it at Mongolian BBQ getting free stir fry AND free dessert and then at Lodge Bar getting tons of free stuff and drink specials. Kind of lame because nobody came, but oh well. Good times.
Weekend was not all that interesting, but since Shipman ended class early I have to finish this up. Kelley and I started working out today by playing tennis and walking, hopefully we get in at least 30 minutes of walking/running or more than an hour of tennis every morning until we lose a little weight. Eating healthier too, but that's gradual. Yay Law School 1L 60 punds...gotta go away. So day 1 of the workout...just blogging to make sure I keep it up :-)
Oh and I got tickets to the Michigan State road game and we are going to the Iowa game as well in 2 weeks, so I have tickets to 6 straight Saturdays counting the 4 home games around those. I need to get rid of two of those games probably, so anyboyd need tickets? Should be fun roadtrips though.
Back to the grind, I'm next up to be called on in tax class so I better go get ready. Have a good week everyone (oh I forgot, JDR had a mixer on Thursday night that was decent and now we have ACC-Checks again this week due Thursday...hooray to fixing authors).
Speaking of TV's, been working with a local paralegal (why do all the people I deal with on Craigslist end up being attorneys, lawstudents, or paralegals?) to get her big TV for $35 before she moves to San Diego in 3-4 weeks. Well she finally got in touch with me after 2 weeks of phone tag and said she would sell it to us but not until the week she leaves in about a month, but she will off it for $10. Hey, I have no problem waiting :-)
School was busy as could be last week. I barely kept up with things and let a couple readings go which I will not go back and do since the professors basically went over the reading in class. But my first draft of App Ad is done and I think I've done pretty well. I go meet with my adjunct (the guy who grades it) on next Monday and then I will throw together the second draft for the following week. I might even work on it a little this week, but don't count on it since App Ad is at the bottom of my list until a draft is due. So that kept me busy.
Somehow wrote an article by deadline Wednesday, but did it during patent class. Of course I think it's my best article of the year and I have pretty good patent notes...maybe I should multitask all the time. OK maybe just in Shipman's class, where I am now of course. I do not need 2 days to go over a problem I did in a little under an hour...but whatever. I did not get everything 100% right, but I'm doing pretty well. Speaking of SCS, have no idea what to write about this week...but I've got more important things before deadline on Wednesday.
Last Wednesday I had my App Ad paper turned in the night before the night it was due, but that was just because I was so busy. Interviews in the morning and early afternoon, classes 2-5:30, dinner at Dean Rogers' house at 6-8:15, and rush to first week of bowling. Dean Rogers has a very nice house, but really who is surprised there? I realize now that IPLS has the most insignificant meetings and agenda of pretty much all the Moritz student organizations, but can you fault us? Get the people info about patent law and copyight law, the patent bar, and encourage them to go to the Patent interview fair (which got 2 of the 4 IPLS board members jobs by the looks of it assuming one of my 4 callbacks works out), and call it a year. Not too hard.
Bowling was fantastic. Brodie was late because Vorys was busy buying him dinner and sucking his proverbial nuts (class rank means a lot to them), so Kelley got to bowl the first game for him. She rolled a 116, Brodie shows up and rolls a 117 in the second game...who's going to know it was not him the first game lol? I got a 128 and then a 149, so right around my average for last year which was 140. Our averages for next year are cute, they take 20 pin steps (Me 138, Brodie 117, Abbie 97, Daniel 78). Isn't that cute? Well we lost 2 out of 3 because out two games were within 6 pins or so, while our opponents improved by about 160 pins between games (one guy rolled a 66 game one and a 167 game two, WTF). We are definitely taking the cake for strangest team to bowl against, and that suits us perfectly. Mens Fucking Rea, if you know what I mean.
Thursday I had my final OCI interview, and thank God. 35 first interviews from August 3 to September 14 was enough to make you sick of the little make conversation game. I got two more callbacks, so no more striking out in OCI! And they said I would be more prepared after learning the ropes in Chicago...hell I did so much better in Chicago. Anyways, Chicago Patent program is like this (4 YES, 4 NO, 5 DO NOT KNOW YET) with 2 callbacks done (Fish in Dallas and Maginot in Indianapolis) and 2 not done (Leydig in Chicago and Brinks in Chicago). The OCI stats are (1 YES from Louisville, 10 NO, 11 DO NOT KNOW YET). Woot.
Feels good to get the App Ad monkey and the interview monkey off my back. Of course I still have callbacks and getting offers to worry about, but the hard part is done in my opinion.
Friday was my birthday. Yay 23. Spent it at Mongolian BBQ getting free stir fry AND free dessert and then at Lodge Bar getting tons of free stuff and drink specials. Kind of lame because nobody came, but oh well. Good times.
Weekend was not all that interesting, but since Shipman ended class early I have to finish this up. Kelley and I started working out today by playing tennis and walking, hopefully we get in at least 30 minutes of walking/running or more than an hour of tennis every morning until we lose a little weight. Eating healthier too, but that's gradual. Yay Law School 1L 60 punds...gotta go away. So day 1 of the workout...just blogging to make sure I keep it up :-)
Oh and I got tickets to the Michigan State road game and we are going to the Iowa game as well in 2 weeks, so I have tickets to 6 straight Saturdays counting the 4 home games around those. I need to get rid of two of those games probably, so anyboyd need tickets? Should be fun roadtrips though.
Back to the grind, I'm next up to be called on in tax class so I better go get ready. Have a good week everyone (oh I forgot, JDR had a mixer on Thursday night that was decent and now we have ACC-Checks again this week due Thursday...hooray to fixing authors).
Friday, September 08, 2006
Delaying App Ad a while longer
This has been an interesting week at school. Labor Day was pretty laid back for me which was kind of unexpected, but I finally bought insurance for myself from Progressive. Boo on paying for insurance while in school :-) I also painted all the new poker room chairs black, but it was late at night when I ran out of spray paint so I had no idea how well I had done them. Kelley reapolstered the cushions from ugly orange to a nice red pattern. The chairs are so comfy too. Anyways, forgot Miami and FSU were playing but found out the next day the game was not worth watching really.
Tuesday I left early to go to the BMV to get my new title since I now own my truck officially, a new registration with new plates, and a new driver's license since I intend to stay in this apartment till my license expires in 2008 (at which point I better be settled somewhere with a law firm job). Well I couldn't find a bank on the way there, so I figured I would suck it up and pay the ATM fees again at the BMV like we did when we got Kelley's new license after the wedding. Well this branch of the ol' BMV does not have an ATM, and the nearest one is half a mile down the road. When you only take cash, you should have an ATM. Anyways, I look at the fee schedule and get a ticket for the title office which I did not have to wait for at all...they tell me I need 6 dollars. It is 60 for a year registration and 20 for a new license, so I figure 100 would cover it. I run to the Shell station, get my money with stupid fee...and back to the BMV. I get a new ticket for the title office, and apparently they got rushed since I was 11th in line now instead of walking right up 20 minutes before. Ugh! So I wait patiently and finally get called up and get my new title. Now at least they transfer you over to the BMV people so you don't have to wait for 50 more people to go, so I go right up to the other desk. We get all the registration and license forms filled out and she says, "is there any way you could wait 10 days until your birthday to get the registration?" Ummm, since the registration on the truck runs out today (Sept. 5), I guess not. "Well I hate for you to pay a prorate for only 10 days." I asked her what the prorate was, and it was 30 dollars. What? 30 damn dollars because my birthday falls 10 days after my mom's. Nice. So now I do not have enough money and she holds the info while I go back out into the driving rainstorm (Ohio is lovely) and back to the Shell station to get charged another ATM fee. So counting ATM fees and the whole shebang, it cost me 130 dollars for a new license, title, and registration for 375 days. But now I have new plates and a new license plate cover I just had to have. I ended up skipping Shippy's class because the whole mess took over 2 hours, much longer than I had thought.
Wednesday I had to skip class again because of hectic interviews. The first of my regular OCI interviews was with a great Chicago firm (Fish and Richardson's top IP litigation competitor) and then I had to leave immediately to drive to Indianapolis for a callback. This firm (Maginot, Moore, and Beck) is a small 8 person firm much like the WV office I had a callback with last school year, so I knew how to play it. They like FR have a beautiful office in the tallest building in their city, and I spent my whole callback in their conference room with a view. I met all the partners and none of the associates, but the interviews went very well. I am a little suspicious that all I saw of the office was the lobby and the conference room, but maybe they did not want to clean off the desks or maybe they thought it more convenient for me to just stay in one place. Regardless I enjoyed the experience and will seriously consider an offer there if I get one around the end of September. Speaking of, we are 5-6 days away from when I am supposed to hear from F&R...I am on pins and needles since I think I will just cancel everything but the Brinks callback if I get an offer (which will simplify my schedule). Of course other than 3 OCI interviews next week, I have no other callbacks yet so no big deal.
I hate missing Shipman all week, that stinks. Labor Day, Stupid BMV, and Callback. I fell behind a bit in classes this week, but I'll stay on top of things I think. App Ad is getting largely ignored despite my macro draft being due in 5 days and JDR will have another acc-check next week to keep me busy. At least it sounds like we will not be going to Texas, so I will not have to BB and TMS while on vacation at least.
Speaking of Texas, my article previewing the big game went up this morning on southerncollegesports.com. I think my article is better than my co-workers who also wrote about the game, but if you want full coverage beyond ESPN check us out.
Held our first social event at the new apartment, and with the exception of a TV or two we are done decorating and bringing things in finally. We had my first of hopefully many poker nights this year last night. 11 people showed up, and it was like a couples atmosphere really since 4 couples were there (Chris and Connie from Cinci, Tom and Heather, Mike and Leah, and of course Kelley and myself). A couple law students did show up (Aaron and AK) and throw in Olwen and there's 11. It sucks Carl, Shep, and Villa had to cancel out but hopefully I run enough of these get togethers that missing one here and there will not feel so bad. The event went really well as we ordered in pizza and snacked on chips and alcohol all evening while watching the Steelers kick off the NFL season. Poker play was good, but I got canned in 10th place out of 11. Details of hands later on my poker blog. Aaron (the poor, poor law student) won the whole thing and Connie got second, with Kelley just missing the cash in third. I'm happy it was successful as hopefully we can do poker night and maybe even have people over for games of other kinds (Palabra, Settlers, Risk, the like) as well down the road. Fun times.
I just realized I am 7 days away from being 23. I'm getting old...just kidding. But I did get a coupon for a free meal at Mongolian BBQ for my birthday, so that's awesome.
GO BUCKS! BEAT TEXAS (for real this time please).
Tuesday I left early to go to the BMV to get my new title since I now own my truck officially, a new registration with new plates, and a new driver's license since I intend to stay in this apartment till my license expires in 2008 (at which point I better be settled somewhere with a law firm job). Well I couldn't find a bank on the way there, so I figured I would suck it up and pay the ATM fees again at the BMV like we did when we got Kelley's new license after the wedding. Well this branch of the ol' BMV does not have an ATM, and the nearest one is half a mile down the road. When you only take cash, you should have an ATM. Anyways, I look at the fee schedule and get a ticket for the title office which I did not have to wait for at all...they tell me I need 6 dollars. It is 60 for a year registration and 20 for a new license, so I figure 100 would cover it. I run to the Shell station, get my money with stupid fee...and back to the BMV. I get a new ticket for the title office, and apparently they got rushed since I was 11th in line now instead of walking right up 20 minutes before. Ugh! So I wait patiently and finally get called up and get my new title. Now at least they transfer you over to the BMV people so you don't have to wait for 50 more people to go, so I go right up to the other desk. We get all the registration and license forms filled out and she says, "is there any way you could wait 10 days until your birthday to get the registration?" Ummm, since the registration on the truck runs out today (Sept. 5), I guess not. "Well I hate for you to pay a prorate for only 10 days." I asked her what the prorate was, and it was 30 dollars. What? 30 damn dollars because my birthday falls 10 days after my mom's. Nice. So now I do not have enough money and she holds the info while I go back out into the driving rainstorm (Ohio is lovely) and back to the Shell station to get charged another ATM fee. So counting ATM fees and the whole shebang, it cost me 130 dollars for a new license, title, and registration for 375 days. But now I have new plates and a new license plate cover I just had to have. I ended up skipping Shippy's class because the whole mess took over 2 hours, much longer than I had thought.
Wednesday I had to skip class again because of hectic interviews. The first of my regular OCI interviews was with a great Chicago firm (Fish and Richardson's top IP litigation competitor) and then I had to leave immediately to drive to Indianapolis for a callback. This firm (Maginot, Moore, and Beck) is a small 8 person firm much like the WV office I had a callback with last school year, so I knew how to play it. They like FR have a beautiful office in the tallest building in their city, and I spent my whole callback in their conference room with a view. I met all the partners and none of the associates, but the interviews went very well. I am a little suspicious that all I saw of the office was the lobby and the conference room, but maybe they did not want to clean off the desks or maybe they thought it more convenient for me to just stay in one place. Regardless I enjoyed the experience and will seriously consider an offer there if I get one around the end of September. Speaking of, we are 5-6 days away from when I am supposed to hear from F&R...I am on pins and needles since I think I will just cancel everything but the Brinks callback if I get an offer (which will simplify my schedule). Of course other than 3 OCI interviews next week, I have no other callbacks yet so no big deal.
I hate missing Shipman all week, that stinks. Labor Day, Stupid BMV, and Callback. I fell behind a bit in classes this week, but I'll stay on top of things I think. App Ad is getting largely ignored despite my macro draft being due in 5 days and JDR will have another acc-check next week to keep me busy. At least it sounds like we will not be going to Texas, so I will not have to BB and TMS while on vacation at least.
Speaking of Texas, my article previewing the big game went up this morning on southerncollegesports.com. I think my article is better than my co-workers who also wrote about the game, but if you want full coverage beyond ESPN check us out.
Held our first social event at the new apartment, and with the exception of a TV or two we are done decorating and bringing things in finally. We had my first of hopefully many poker nights this year last night. 11 people showed up, and it was like a couples atmosphere really since 4 couples were there (Chris and Connie from Cinci, Tom and Heather, Mike and Leah, and of course Kelley and myself). A couple law students did show up (Aaron and AK) and throw in Olwen and there's 11. It sucks Carl, Shep, and Villa had to cancel out but hopefully I run enough of these get togethers that missing one here and there will not feel so bad. The event went really well as we ordered in pizza and snacked on chips and alcohol all evening while watching the Steelers kick off the NFL season. Poker play was good, but I got canned in 10th place out of 11. Details of hands later on my poker blog. Aaron (the poor, poor law student) won the whole thing and Connie got second, with Kelley just missing the cash in third. I'm happy it was successful as hopefully we can do poker night and maybe even have people over for games of other kinds (Palabra, Settlers, Risk, the like) as well down the road. Fun times.
I just realized I am 7 days away from being 23. I'm getting old...just kidding. But I did get a coupon for a free meal at Mongolian BBQ for my birthday, so that's awesome.
GO BUCKS! BEAT TEXAS (for real this time please).
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Texas Trip 1
Figured it was time for an update while I take a break and ignore my law school work till labor day. the Texas trip was FANTASTIC. I love the firm and think the city is pretty cool too. Fish and Richardson is not only the top IP firm in the country as far as cases go, but they are growing very fast and don't have hard walls between patent prosecution and patent litigation. The people I met with were all very nice and answered a lot of my tough questions. I just hope I showed them how seriously I want the job, since I know I can fit in and I know with my work ethic I can get the job done. I talked with their recruiting coordinator after the interviews (PS if you are ever in downtown Dallas and want some good Tex-Mex, go to Iron Cactus), and she said I should know one way or another about an offer or rejection by late the week of September 11. I'm going to be anxiously anticipating word. After visiting this firm, I still care about my other callback interviews but I would be STUNNED if I did not take an offer from FR. They are just too perfect of a fit for me.
I'm having my first poker party of the year this Thursday, and we got 2/3 of the furniture today from Kelley's grandparents we've been promised. We will have our new washer/dryer on thursday during the day probably, and we brought up her Dad's old poker table and chairs. So now counting the fold up table we can hold 12 people easily on two tables. That's good since all the 888 collective including Shep is coming and that fills it up without law school people who will surely show up. Should be a good time, and cannot wait to use my poker room for poker :-)
So Zach is in the medical ward of basic training all weekend thanks to a small kidney stone. Hooray. Unless he gets out early tomorrow he will miss a test and that will knock him off course to graduate on time, which means all those travel plans the whole family made for my birthday weekend to go see him graduate are probably bunk. So we'll get screwed by the airlines on every ticket to change them and if he graduates the next week I will have to miss it since I'll be in Chicago on a callback. Sigh.
Well catching up on 24 so we can start on 2 seasons of Lost I'd like to get through before Season 3 starts next month. App Ad is going to kill me with all this other stuff going on, but I will get it all done like always. I cannot wait for thursday.
I'm having my first poker party of the year this Thursday, and we got 2/3 of the furniture today from Kelley's grandparents we've been promised. We will have our new washer/dryer on thursday during the day probably, and we brought up her Dad's old poker table and chairs. So now counting the fold up table we can hold 12 people easily on two tables. That's good since all the 888 collective including Shep is coming and that fills it up without law school people who will surely show up. Should be a good time, and cannot wait to use my poker room for poker :-)
So Zach is in the medical ward of basic training all weekend thanks to a small kidney stone. Hooray. Unless he gets out early tomorrow he will miss a test and that will knock him off course to graduate on time, which means all those travel plans the whole family made for my birthday weekend to go see him graduate are probably bunk. So we'll get screwed by the airlines on every ticket to change them and if he graduates the next week I will have to miss it since I'll be in Chicago on a callback. Sigh.
Well catching up on 24 so we can start on 2 seasons of Lost I'd like to get through before Season 3 starts next month. App Ad is going to kill me with all this other stuff going on, but I will get it all done like always. I cannot wait for thursday.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Two more notes
Two things forgotten.
Bowling probably begins next week...thank God. I need breaks from law school and hanging out with Mens F'ing Rea will do the trick. We hung out last Saturday and saw our new mascot, the uber-creepy Bowling lawn gnome. He will scare our opponents away. I feel bad for the 1L teams who have to face us this year, as they will be crushed by all our awesomeness. Oh and we won the title against enlightening strikes at Eastland Lanes Saturday, but we needed a one frame bowl-funny style bowl-off to do it.
Anybody who says they have no time or are too busy, I'm calling bullshit. Or at the very least I am saying if they are not a 2L in law school right now, they probably do not have nearly as many time committments as I have set up right now. Unless you are a law student like me (and the vast majority of you friends are), I don't want to hear you whine about your lack of time. You have enough time to sleep don't you? Well then you have more time than me.
That was a very Anonymous Laywer type of rant, and if you do not religiously read that blog you need to. Well since I probably ought to pay attention in tax class, I'm going to leave you now at the turn of the tide.
Bowling probably begins next week...thank God. I need breaks from law school and hanging out with Mens F'ing Rea will do the trick. We hung out last Saturday and saw our new mascot, the uber-creepy Bowling lawn gnome. He will scare our opponents away. I feel bad for the 1L teams who have to face us this year, as they will be crushed by all our awesomeness. Oh and we won the title against enlightening strikes at Eastland Lanes Saturday, but we needed a one frame bowl-funny style bowl-off to do it.
Anybody who says they have no time or are too busy, I'm calling bullshit. Or at the very least I am saying if they are not a 2L in law school right now, they probably do not have nearly as many time committments as I have set up right now. Unless you are a law student like me (and the vast majority of you friends are), I don't want to hear you whine about your lack of time. You have enough time to sleep don't you? Well then you have more time than me.
That was a very Anonymous Laywer type of rant, and if you do not religiously read that blog you need to. Well since I probably ought to pay attention in tax class, I'm going to leave you now at the turn of the tide.
Sitting in Morgan's Class
I decided to take a break from poker today in Shipman's class and celebrate having OSU wireless internet again by making a blog entry. I hate having to go to the wireless help people and asking for help...especially since I did not figure it out by watching her today (she turned the screen away from me). Oh well at least I have internet, and I'll try to not eff up the computer again.
This weekend was interesting. You know how I said I hope Patrice my old landlord doesn't give us a bill because I cannot afford it...well it got worse. Kelley got into a car accident on Friday afternoon, busting up her precious Cavalier (the Cavie...) by rear-ending another very old Cavalier. Nobody was hurt. The guy had no insurance, suspended driver's license, and open beer containe rin the car, so they wrote Kelley up for following too closely because they could not let him go scot free with all that. That's $85 dollars. Her car damage appears to be all cosmetic, but the hood is bent at a 70-90 degree angle and her bumper is messed up and her headlights work but one is knocked out of its casing. no engine or side panel damage at all, so the repairs will be expensive but all cosmetic. Thank God she has full insurance, but she found out she has a $500 deductible. Just another showing of why insurance is one of the biggest ripoffs ever, but we all have to have it and it comes in handy sometimes. Add in a new set of tires her car needs badly and we are looking at $800 easy before it is fully drivable again. Patrice better not charge me, stupid b%&#@ of a landlord.
I put 52 cover letters, resumes, and transcripts in the mail Monday morning after spending a significant portion of my weekend putting those together. All to Texas and Chicago IP firms, all the ones I have not interviewed with already. Kind of a back up plan since I've already got 3 callbacks, but I started putting them together a couple weeks ago before moving and getting busy and forgetting all about these letters. I figure I have a better chance of landing a job with Fish and Richardson Dallas or Brinks Hofer Chicago (my first callbacks) than get a second interview with any of these 52, but it's the game we play. I still have no callbacks from OCI, which makes the patent program such a good deal. Got my $100 check from career services paying me back for that Chicago trip, so that's good. With firms paying all expenses for callback interviews and the suits freshly dry-cleaned, I think I have incurred the majority of expenses I will have to for interviewing season.
Kelley's chain has been yanked again by St. Luke's where she plays organ on the weekends. Her contract runs out 9/1/06, so they had not found anybody to replace her and were going to sign a new contract on Sunday. I go with her since she doesn't want to drive after her wreck and we have to go get a replacement car for her for now (Zach's tracker lol). We get to church on Sunday and are told the people who want Kelley fired had a huge stink because they found out one of the candidates that was turned away was not interviewed after finding out about his rough reputation wth other churches in the area. So now they have to interview him this week to calm this egotistical church-running family who spreads dissent to other church members tog et their way. Churches are scary my friends, not religion. I trust in Jesus and all and I love my pastor, but I refuse to attend that church unless I have to because of what this family has done to turn the congregation against my wife. Funny how when they need her she becomes great but when they think they've found someone else they find all her shortcomings (AKA not being an organ performance major). So there is Worship and Music committee meeting tonight Kelley is attending and she plans on forcing the issue since they have put her around the ringer. I'm pulling my hair out wanting to set up a budget for us so we know what we can spend and we know just how bad the car wreck hurts us financially, but I cannot because I have no idea what her income is. Frustrating!
The cincinnati reds, you write about how well they are doing and then since that entry, the Cardinals swept the Cubs and Cincy loses 4 in a row (3 to San Fran and last night to LA). It's so frustrating watching them play awful defense and give up tons of runs with 2 outs while never scoring with 2 outs themselves. The last 3 games against SF were a joke, as they got outscored 16-2 over 3 games and never made it close. This roadtrip has turned into a nightmare, but somehow they still have the wild card lead since the teams behind them are just bunching up close behind the Reds. 3.5 game deficit to the Caridnals now, and if they do not turn around this roadtrip soon we can forget about the division title...and probably the Wild Card too since I think the Cardinals will be easier to catch than whoever gets hot in the 6 teams behind us in the wild card race. So I keep watching, praying they will finally win again.
So I was planning on staying in Marietta till Monday this weekend to meet with Mom and get the truck in my name and get a new registration. Well Monday is Labor Day, so I called Mom and she told me to send her the title to the truck so she could go get a new title in my name this week so I can have it this weekend and get a new registration early next week. Well I couldn't find the title. Not in the glove compartment (but I did find everything else in there such as the odometer statement which is a part of the title, all my registrations and insurance cards since we've had the truck, and the sale order and receipt for the truck). Not in the tax paperwork box. Not in my lockbox where I keep important things. Not in my file cabinet. Hmmm. Where did the title go? Well I call her and she is all angry about something I can tell and she is upset she has to go on Wednesday and get a replacement title (at a big cost of 5 dollars, lol). She was pissed at her computer for messing up she said, and then she finally broke the real irritation. I told her and Steve I might sell them OSU tickets this season to help pay for my tickets. I sold my Cincinnati tickets for $105 apiece, so I offered her BGSU or Indiana tickets for $100 apiece. She accused me of gouging her and was asking how much they cost me ($30 apiece, but non-student tickets are $65) and why I was not giving her a better deal. Well I'm not going out of town and quite frankly I want to go to those games, so she is not buying my extra tickets...she is buying my tickets. I bet she feels like I'm screwing her since Kelley has a ticket with me now, but honestly the 2 tickets together are worth way more than when I had one ticket and got her into games on the cheap since one ticket is exponentially easier to get than 2. I pulled so many strings last year to get her into the Iowa game (crappy end zone seats top of the stadium) for $50-60 and her and Steve into the Northwestern game with my tickets while Kelley and I found tickets in the top row of the stadium (for about $100). So I do not think it is unreasonable to ask for $200 for the two tickets...and she disagrees. Well if she wants me to pull some strings and get them terrible law student tickets from my friends I could do it probably a little cheaper but she's going to have to ask. Sorry the free ride is over and my football tickets are paying for themselves. Is that unfair? I don't think so.
Well I've now blown off Morgan's class almost completely, so I better get off here so that my blogging buddy in here gets an update "before 250." Probably will not be on here again till the weekend, so look for 3 things.
1. OSU hosts Northern Illinois Saturday, GO BUCKS!
2. My first southerncollegesports.com article will go up Thursday.
3. My first callback interview Friday in Dallas. Wish me luck!
This weekend was interesting. You know how I said I hope Patrice my old landlord doesn't give us a bill because I cannot afford it...well it got worse. Kelley got into a car accident on Friday afternoon, busting up her precious Cavalier (the Cavie...) by rear-ending another very old Cavalier. Nobody was hurt. The guy had no insurance, suspended driver's license, and open beer containe rin the car, so they wrote Kelley up for following too closely because they could not let him go scot free with all that. That's $85 dollars. Her car damage appears to be all cosmetic, but the hood is bent at a 70-90 degree angle and her bumper is messed up and her headlights work but one is knocked out of its casing. no engine or side panel damage at all, so the repairs will be expensive but all cosmetic. Thank God she has full insurance, but she found out she has a $500 deductible. Just another showing of why insurance is one of the biggest ripoffs ever, but we all have to have it and it comes in handy sometimes. Add in a new set of tires her car needs badly and we are looking at $800 easy before it is fully drivable again. Patrice better not charge me, stupid b%&#@ of a landlord.
I put 52 cover letters, resumes, and transcripts in the mail Monday morning after spending a significant portion of my weekend putting those together. All to Texas and Chicago IP firms, all the ones I have not interviewed with already. Kind of a back up plan since I've already got 3 callbacks, but I started putting them together a couple weeks ago before moving and getting busy and forgetting all about these letters. I figure I have a better chance of landing a job with Fish and Richardson Dallas or Brinks Hofer Chicago (my first callbacks) than get a second interview with any of these 52, but it's the game we play. I still have no callbacks from OCI, which makes the patent program such a good deal. Got my $100 check from career services paying me back for that Chicago trip, so that's good. With firms paying all expenses for callback interviews and the suits freshly dry-cleaned, I think I have incurred the majority of expenses I will have to for interviewing season.
Kelley's chain has been yanked again by St. Luke's where she plays organ on the weekends. Her contract runs out 9/1/06, so they had not found anybody to replace her and were going to sign a new contract on Sunday. I go with her since she doesn't want to drive after her wreck and we have to go get a replacement car for her for now (Zach's tracker lol). We get to church on Sunday and are told the people who want Kelley fired had a huge stink because they found out one of the candidates that was turned away was not interviewed after finding out about his rough reputation wth other churches in the area. So now they have to interview him this week to calm this egotistical church-running family who spreads dissent to other church members tog et their way. Churches are scary my friends, not religion. I trust in Jesus and all and I love my pastor, but I refuse to attend that church unless I have to because of what this family has done to turn the congregation against my wife. Funny how when they need her she becomes great but when they think they've found someone else they find all her shortcomings (AKA not being an organ performance major). So there is Worship and Music committee meeting tonight Kelley is attending and she plans on forcing the issue since they have put her around the ringer. I'm pulling my hair out wanting to set up a budget for us so we know what we can spend and we know just how bad the car wreck hurts us financially, but I cannot because I have no idea what her income is. Frustrating!
The cincinnati reds, you write about how well they are doing and then since that entry, the Cardinals swept the Cubs and Cincy loses 4 in a row (3 to San Fran and last night to LA). It's so frustrating watching them play awful defense and give up tons of runs with 2 outs while never scoring with 2 outs themselves. The last 3 games against SF were a joke, as they got outscored 16-2 over 3 games and never made it close. This roadtrip has turned into a nightmare, but somehow they still have the wild card lead since the teams behind them are just bunching up close behind the Reds. 3.5 game deficit to the Caridnals now, and if they do not turn around this roadtrip soon we can forget about the division title...and probably the Wild Card too since I think the Cardinals will be easier to catch than whoever gets hot in the 6 teams behind us in the wild card race. So I keep watching, praying they will finally win again.
So I was planning on staying in Marietta till Monday this weekend to meet with Mom and get the truck in my name and get a new registration. Well Monday is Labor Day, so I called Mom and she told me to send her the title to the truck so she could go get a new title in my name this week so I can have it this weekend and get a new registration early next week. Well I couldn't find the title. Not in the glove compartment (but I did find everything else in there such as the odometer statement which is a part of the title, all my registrations and insurance cards since we've had the truck, and the sale order and receipt for the truck). Not in the tax paperwork box. Not in my lockbox where I keep important things. Not in my file cabinet. Hmmm. Where did the title go? Well I call her and she is all angry about something I can tell and she is upset she has to go on Wednesday and get a replacement title (at a big cost of 5 dollars, lol). She was pissed at her computer for messing up she said, and then she finally broke the real irritation. I told her and Steve I might sell them OSU tickets this season to help pay for my tickets. I sold my Cincinnati tickets for $105 apiece, so I offered her BGSU or Indiana tickets for $100 apiece. She accused me of gouging her and was asking how much they cost me ($30 apiece, but non-student tickets are $65) and why I was not giving her a better deal. Well I'm not going out of town and quite frankly I want to go to those games, so she is not buying my extra tickets...she is buying my tickets. I bet she feels like I'm screwing her since Kelley has a ticket with me now, but honestly the 2 tickets together are worth way more than when I had one ticket and got her into games on the cheap since one ticket is exponentially easier to get than 2. I pulled so many strings last year to get her into the Iowa game (crappy end zone seats top of the stadium) for $50-60 and her and Steve into the Northwestern game with my tickets while Kelley and I found tickets in the top row of the stadium (for about $100). So I do not think it is unreasonable to ask for $200 for the two tickets...and she disagrees. Well if she wants me to pull some strings and get them terrible law student tickets from my friends I could do it probably a little cheaper but she's going to have to ask. Sorry the free ride is over and my football tickets are paying for themselves. Is that unfair? I don't think so.
Well I've now blown off Morgan's class almost completely, so I better get off here so that my blogging buddy in here gets an update "before 250." Probably will not be on here again till the weekend, so look for 3 things.
1. OSU hosts Northern Illinois Saturday, GO BUCKS!
2. My first southerncollegesports.com article will go up Thursday.
3. My first callback interview Friday in Dallas. Wish me luck!
Sitting in Morgan's Class
I decided to take a break from poker today in Shipman's class and celebrate having OSU wireless internet again by making a blog entry. I hate having to go to the wireless help people and asking for help...especially since I did not figure it out by watching her today (she turned the screen away from me). Oh well at least I have internet, and I'll try to not eff up the computer again.
This weekend was interesting. You know how I said I hope Patrice my old landlord doesn't give us a bill because I cannot afford it...well it got worse. Kelley got into a car accident on Friday afternoon, busting up her precious Cavalier (the Cavie...) by rear-ending another very old Cavalier. Nobody was hurt. The guy had no insurance, suspended driver's license, and open beer containe rin the car, so they wrote Kelley up for following too closely because they could not let him go scot free with all that. That's $85 dollars. Her car damage appears to be all cosmetic, but the hood is bent at a 70-90 degree angle and her bumper is messed up and her headlights work but one is knocked out of its casing. no engine or side panel damage at all, so the repairs will be expensive but all cosmetic. Thank God she has full insurance, but she found out she has a $500 deductible. Just another showing of why insurance is one of the biggest ripoffs ever, but we all have to have it and it comes in handy sometimes. Add in a new set of tires her car needs badly and we are looking at $800 easy before it is fully drivable again. Patrice better not charge me, stupid b%&#@ of a landlord.
I put 52 cover letters, resumes, and transcripts in the mail Monday morning after spending a significant portion of my weekend putting those together. All to Texas and Chicago IP firms, all the ones I have not interviewed with already. Kind of a back up plan since I've already got 3 callbacks, but I started putting them together a couple weeks ago before moving and getting busy and forgetting all about these letters. I figure I have a better chance of landing a job with Fish and Richardson Dallas or Brinks Hofer Chicago (my first callbacks) than get a second interview with any of these 52, but it's the game we play. I still have no callbacks from OCI, which makes the patent program such a good deal. Got my $100 check from career services paying me back for that Chicago trip, so that's good. With firms paying all expenses for callback interviews and the suits freshly dry-cleaned, I think I have incurred the majority of expenses I will have to for interviewing season.
Kelley's chain has been yanked again by St. Luke's where she plays organ on the weekends. Her contract runs out 9/1/06, so they had not found anybody to replace her and were going to sign a new contract on Sunday. I go with her since she doesn't want to drive after her wreck and we have to go get a replacement car for her for now (Zach's tracker lol). We get to church on Sunday and are told the people who want Kelley fired had a huge stink because they found out one of the candidates that was turned away was not interviewed after finding out about his rough reputation wth other churches in the area. So now they have to interview him this week to calm this egotistical church-running family who spreads dissent to other church members tog et their way. Churches are scary my friends, not religion. I trust in Jesus and all and I love my pastor, but I refuse to attend that church unless I have to because of what this family has done to turn the congregation against my wife. Funny how when they need her she becomes great but when they think they've found someone else they find all her shortcomings (AKA not being an organ performance major). So there is Worship and Music committee meeting tonight Kelley is attending and she plans on forcing the issue since they have put her around the ringer. I'm pulling my hair out wanting to set up a budget for us so we know what we can spend and we know just how bad the car wreck hurts us financially, but I cannot because I have no idea what her income is. Frustrating!
The cincinnati reds, you write about how well they are doing and then since that entry, the Cardinals swept the Cubs and Cincy loses 4 in a row (3 to San Fran and last night to LA). It's so frustrating watching them play awful defense and give up tons of runs with 2 outs while never scoring with 2 outs themselves. The last 3 games against SF were a joke, as they got outscored 16-2 over 3 games and never made it close. This roadtrip has turned into a nightmare, but somehow they still have the wild card lead since the teams behind them are just bunching up close behind the Reds. 3.5 game deficit to the Caridnals now, and if they do not turn around this roadtrip soon we can forget about the division title...and probably the Wild Card too since I think the Cardinals will be easier to catch than whoever gets hot in the 6 teams behind us in the wild card race. So I keep watching, praying they will finally win again.
So I was planning on staying in Marietta till Monday this weekend to meet with Mom and get the truck in my name and get a new registration. Well Monday is Labor Day, so I called Mom and she told me to send her the title to the truck so she could go get a new title in my name this week so I can have it this weekend and get a new registration early next week. Well I couldn't find the title. Not in the glove compartment (but I did find everything else in there such as the odometer statement which is a part of the title, all my registrations and insurance cards since we've had the truck, and the sale order and receipt for the truck). Not in the tax paperwork box. Not in my lockbox where I keep important things. Not in my file cabinet. Hmmm. Where did the title go? Well I call her and she is all angry about something I can tell and she is upset she has to go on Wednesday and get a replacement title (at a big cost of 5 dollars, lol). She was pissed at her computer for messing up she said, and then she finally broke the real irritation. I told her and Steve I might sell them OSU tickets this season to help pay for my tickets. I sold my Cincinnati tickets for $105 apiece, so I offered her BGSU or Indiana tickets for $100 apiece. She accused me of gouging her and was asking how much they cost me ($30 apiece, but non-student tickets are $65) and why I was not giving her a better deal. Well I'm not going out of town and quite frankly I want to go to those games, so she is not buying my extra tickets...she is buying my tickets. I bet she feels like I'm screwing her since Kelley has a ticket with me now, but honestly the 2 tickets together are worth way more than when I had one ticket and got her into games on the cheap since one ticket is exponentially easier to get than 2. I pulled so many strings last year to get her into the Iowa game (crappy end zone seats top of the stadium) for $50-60 and her and Steve into the Northwestern game with my tickets while Kelley and I found tickets in the top row of the stadium (for about $100). So I do not think it is unreasonable to ask for $200 for the two tickets...and she disagrees. Well if she wants me to pull some strings and get them terrible law student tickets from my friends I could do it probably a little cheaper but she's going to have to ask. Sorry the free ride is over and my football tickets are paying for themselves. Is that unfair? I don't think so.
Well I've now blown off Morgan's class almost completely, so I better get off here so that my blogging buddy in here gets an update "before 250." Probably will not be on here again till the weekend, so look for 3 things.
1. OSU hosts Northern Illinois Saturday, GO BUCKS!
2. My first southerncollegesports.com article will go up Thursday.
3. My first callback interview Friday in Dallas. Wish me luck!
This weekend was interesting. You know how I said I hope Patrice my old landlord doesn't give us a bill because I cannot afford it...well it got worse. Kelley got into a car accident on Friday afternoon, busting up her precious Cavalier (the Cavie...) by rear-ending another very old Cavalier. Nobody was hurt. The guy had no insurance, suspended driver's license, and open beer containe rin the car, so they wrote Kelley up for following too closely because they could not let him go scot free with all that. That's $85 dollars. Her car damage appears to be all cosmetic, but the hood is bent at a 70-90 degree angle and her bumper is messed up and her headlights work but one is knocked out of its casing. no engine or side panel damage at all, so the repairs will be expensive but all cosmetic. Thank God she has full insurance, but she found out she has a $500 deductible. Just another showing of why insurance is one of the biggest ripoffs ever, but we all have to have it and it comes in handy sometimes. Add in a new set of tires her car needs badly and we are looking at $800 easy before it is fully drivable again. Patrice better not charge me, stupid b%&#@ of a landlord.
I put 52 cover letters, resumes, and transcripts in the mail Monday morning after spending a significant portion of my weekend putting those together. All to Texas and Chicago IP firms, all the ones I have not interviewed with already. Kind of a back up plan since I've already got 3 callbacks, but I started putting them together a couple weeks ago before moving and getting busy and forgetting all about these letters. I figure I have a better chance of landing a job with Fish and Richardson Dallas or Brinks Hofer Chicago (my first callbacks) than get a second interview with any of these 52, but it's the game we play. I still have no callbacks from OCI, which makes the patent program such a good deal. Got my $100 check from career services paying me back for that Chicago trip, so that's good. With firms paying all expenses for callback interviews and the suits freshly dry-cleaned, I think I have incurred the majority of expenses I will have to for interviewing season.
Kelley's chain has been yanked again by St. Luke's where she plays organ on the weekends. Her contract runs out 9/1/06, so they had not found anybody to replace her and were going to sign a new contract on Sunday. I go with her since she doesn't want to drive after her wreck and we have to go get a replacement car for her for now (Zach's tracker lol). We get to church on Sunday and are told the people who want Kelley fired had a huge stink because they found out one of the candidates that was turned away was not interviewed after finding out about his rough reputation wth other churches in the area. So now they have to interview him this week to calm this egotistical church-running family who spreads dissent to other church members tog et their way. Churches are scary my friends, not religion. I trust in Jesus and all and I love my pastor, but I refuse to attend that church unless I have to because of what this family has done to turn the congregation against my wife. Funny how when they need her she becomes great but when they think they've found someone else they find all her shortcomings (AKA not being an organ performance major). So there is Worship and Music committee meeting tonight Kelley is attending and she plans on forcing the issue since they have put her around the ringer. I'm pulling my hair out wanting to set up a budget for us so we know what we can spend and we know just how bad the car wreck hurts us financially, but I cannot because I have no idea what her income is. Frustrating!
The cincinnati reds, you write about how well they are doing and then since that entry, the Cardinals swept the Cubs and Cincy loses 4 in a row (3 to San Fran and last night to LA). It's so frustrating watching them play awful defense and give up tons of runs with 2 outs while never scoring with 2 outs themselves. The last 3 games against SF were a joke, as they got outscored 16-2 over 3 games and never made it close. This roadtrip has turned into a nightmare, but somehow they still have the wild card lead since the teams behind them are just bunching up close behind the Reds. 3.5 game deficit to the Caridnals now, and if they do not turn around this roadtrip soon we can forget about the division title...and probably the Wild Card too since I think the Cardinals will be easier to catch than whoever gets hot in the 6 teams behind us in the wild card race. So I keep watching, praying they will finally win again.
So I was planning on staying in Marietta till Monday this weekend to meet with Mom and get the truck in my name and get a new registration. Well Monday is Labor Day, so I called Mom and she told me to send her the title to the truck so she could go get a new title in my name this week so I can have it this weekend and get a new registration early next week. Well I couldn't find the title. Not in the glove compartment (but I did find everything else in there such as the odometer statement which is a part of the title, all my registrations and insurance cards since we've had the truck, and the sale order and receipt for the truck). Not in the tax paperwork box. Not in my lockbox where I keep important things. Not in my file cabinet. Hmmm. Where did the title go? Well I call her and she is all angry about something I can tell and she is upset she has to go on Wednesday and get a replacement title (at a big cost of 5 dollars, lol). She was pissed at her computer for messing up she said, and then she finally broke the real irritation. I told her and Steve I might sell them OSU tickets this season to help pay for my tickets. I sold my Cincinnati tickets for $105 apiece, so I offered her BGSU or Indiana tickets for $100 apiece. She accused me of gouging her and was asking how much they cost me ($30 apiece, but non-student tickets are $65) and why I was not giving her a better deal. Well I'm not going out of town and quite frankly I want to go to those games, so she is not buying my extra tickets...she is buying my tickets. I bet she feels like I'm screwing her since Kelley has a ticket with me now, but honestly the 2 tickets together are worth way more than when I had one ticket and got her into games on the cheap since one ticket is exponentially easier to get than 2. I pulled so many strings last year to get her into the Iowa game (crappy end zone seats top of the stadium) for $50-60 and her and Steve into the Northwestern game with my tickets while Kelley and I found tickets in the top row of the stadium (for about $100). So I do not think it is unreasonable to ask for $200 for the two tickets...and she disagrees. Well if she wants me to pull some strings and get them terrible law student tickets from my friends I could do it probably a little cheaper but she's going to have to ask. Sorry the free ride is over and my football tickets are paying for themselves. Is that unfair? I don't think so.
Well I've now blown off Morgan's class almost completely, so I better get off here so that my blogging buddy in here gets an update "before 250." Probably will not be on here again till the weekend, so look for 3 things.
1. OSU hosts Northern Illinois Saturday, GO BUCKS!
2. My first southerncollegesports.com article will go up Thursday.
3. My first callback interview Friday in Dallas. Wish me luck!
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Weekends Rock...When they are 3 days long
Yes indeed, no Friday class means I'm out for the weekend on Thursday afternoons. Pretty sweet deal, even though App Ad will give me more than enough to do over the weekends. Oh and interviewing lol. Beazley appears to be the same after skimming her textbook as she was last year in legal writing...so h opefully I can get on the right foot again with her.
I'm really writing to say wow about my friends. I'm helping my best friend and best man on Monday set up for proposing to his girlfriend. This right on the heels of the only other non-married person in our small friend group proposing last week to his girl. My wedding is contagious! I'm happy for him though, so hopefully the dream evening goes as planned and I can help out as he wishes. Least I can do after all he did for me this year.
Got 7 interviews out of 17 signups in regular OCI. All of them from September 8 to September 14, and a couple I figur eI have a good chance with since I got a good repertoire with both firms as a 1L. Not that it matters all that much, as I really want the two firms I already have callbacks from.
The best news of the night was watching the Reds knock off the Giants in the first game of a 10 game west coast trip. Usually if we go on this long of a road trip out west while the Cardinals stay home for 9 games...I would say no brainer they gain ground. But the way the Cardinals have been playing the last two weeks (2-7 against teams other than Cincinnati), I do not know if that is the case. The win tonight tied up the Central division, and it gives us a chance to lead the division late in the year for the first time in ages. I so wish they make the playoffs so I can finally go see a playoff game (I refuse to go unless the Reds play). If we win the divison instead of the Wild Card which we have somehow held onto for 2 months, so much the better as we will not have to play the Mets in the first round. I'd much rather take my chances in the NLCS against them than right off the bat, and if the Cardinals were the wild card they might stand a good chance. Still a long time until the end of the season, but the last 1.5 months have not knocked us out so I finally have realistic hopes for the playoffs for the first time since 1995 (1999 technically, but that was a one-game playoff for the wild card against the Mets and we lost).
This weekend is the final one before college football. I cannot wait, and this means I can start writing again. My articles are the anchor of 6 writers (4 article writers) on southerncollegesports.com and my articles will go up on Thursdays if you want to read them.
I'm really writing to say wow about my friends. I'm helping my best friend and best man on Monday set up for proposing to his girlfriend. This right on the heels of the only other non-married person in our small friend group proposing last week to his girl. My wedding is contagious! I'm happy for him though, so hopefully the dream evening goes as planned and I can help out as he wishes. Least I can do after all he did for me this year.
Got 7 interviews out of 17 signups in regular OCI. All of them from September 8 to September 14, and a couple I figur eI have a good chance with since I got a good repertoire with both firms as a 1L. Not that it matters all that much, as I really want the two firms I already have callbacks from.
The best news of the night was watching the Reds knock off the Giants in the first game of a 10 game west coast trip. Usually if we go on this long of a road trip out west while the Cardinals stay home for 9 games...I would say no brainer they gain ground. But the way the Cardinals have been playing the last two weeks (2-7 against teams other than Cincinnati), I do not know if that is the case. The win tonight tied up the Central division, and it gives us a chance to lead the division late in the year for the first time in ages. I so wish they make the playoffs so I can finally go see a playoff game (I refuse to go unless the Reds play). If we win the divison instead of the Wild Card which we have somehow held onto for 2 months, so much the better as we will not have to play the Mets in the first round. I'd much rather take my chances in the NLCS against them than right off the bat, and if the Cardinals were the wild card they might stand a good chance. Still a long time until the end of the season, but the last 1.5 months have not knocked us out so I finally have realistic hopes for the playoffs for the first time since 1995 (1999 technically, but that was a one-game playoff for the wild card against the Mets and we lost).
This weekend is the final one before college football. I cannot wait, and this means I can start writing again. My articles are the anchor of 6 writers (4 article writers) on southerncollegesports.com and my articles will go up on Thursdays if you want to read them.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Landlords
So yesterday was the first day of classes, but before that I had a noon appointment with Tom and Heather to drop off keys and get the damage inspection from Patrice, our old landlord. For those who do not klnow, Patrice Vrsansky and her husband Tony run quite few apartments in the campus area and she manages them. She is a legalistic nagging irritating b$#@$ sometimes. Especially when it comes to moving out and moving in. Anyways, lived there two years and the first one was with Jon and Berens but this is the 2 year inspection so everything they messed up, Tom and Heather and I have to pay for too. Anyways I get there at 12:03 since I have not figured out the optimal time to leave Bexley yet. Apparently I wasn't worth waiting for as Patrice is already through the kitchen and most of the dining area. I'll save most of the details, but here are the highlights.
1. Why is there dirt in this refrigerator? Have you guys cleaned it? (Heather spent an hour and a half making it look like the best refrigerator I've ever seen)
2. A plastic piece broke off a glass light fixture in the kitchen and she wanted to replace the whole fixture, but apparently Tom told her to just replace the plastic piece and hopefully she will listen since the glass light cover is in perfect condition.
3. Have you guys cleaned the windowsills (after finding the only 2 we did not wipe down)?
4. Light bulbs...she's replacing about 10 of them that Tom and Heather did not replace or we did not replace in the common areas at 2 dollars apiece...better be damn good light bulbs.
5. Batteries...I replaced the batteries in the main floor and basement smoke detectors because I knew she would check and she did and found a dead battery in the upstairs one...sigh.
6. A window screen Jon took out of his bedroom window two years ago I tried to put back in but it was a pain in the ass and there was a wasp nest I did not want to disturb in the top of the screen setting. So I set the screen next to the window. Patrice comes in and says what's going on here...and pushes down on the screen which causes one side to bend violetly. "Oh this screen is bent, have to be replaced." Nice work b^%#$.
7. Who cleaned this bathroom (the upstairs one of Tom and Heather's)? Oh this plunger and toliet brush and outside floor mat are yours, I'll have to throw them away if you don't take them (since apparently the new tenants must provide their own plunger...so much for being nice). Oh the top of the bathroom faucet falls off, going to have to charge you for that. To which I reply I don't think so and pull out the lengthy list of broken stuff from 2 years agow hen we moved in and what do you know...that's on there.
8. This ceiling fan and light were brand new when you moved in and now the chain to turn the fan on and off is missing (probably cheaply pulled out by Jon or Berens in the first couple weeks we lived there and forgotten). Might have to replace the whole fixture. To which I respond, you better not even think about replacing the fixture for that chain.
9. She tries the outside light and finds it is burnt out, which of course like a few other fixtures in this apartment burns out light bulbs amazingly quickly. I tell her to have fun putting a fresh one in that since it will burn out in two days. She says well if the fixture is broken...I say oh no it's not, you cannot charge us for it since it will work when you put the bulb in, but the wiring will burn the bulb out and that is your problem.
10. And the king of them all, since the unclean oven (about 50 dollars) and all that other stuff including the last water bill might come out to $250...this carpet on the main floor is a mess. It will have to be totally replaced. It was new when you moved in, and this is not normal wear and tear. I completely disagree and think a steam cleaner would get out everything except for the oil stain in the dining room area which happened when Kelley and Tom and Heather and I had a fondue disaster this summer. Since this all was decided befor eI got there, Iw as asking questions to clarify what she was replacing and asked if she would replace the dining room only since the living room was fine. She says there are stains in the living room and it will have to be replaced too. I did not see the stains and think she is full of shit. Tom asks for an estimate on cost and she says something vague like "it cost thousands of dollars to carpet all these apartments 2 years ago..." I tell her what a piece of garbage the carpet has been in 2 years and recommend she tries a different brand, and she gets all defensive and says why would I attack her since the carpet is lower quality than residential and replacing it will be to our benefit since it is not really expensive high grade stuff. That has nothing to do with the fact that your carpet is crap...and she told us because we did not vacuum it every day that we were responsible for the crappiness. Whoever told her they vacuum the carpets every day is either OCD (obsessive compulsive) or lieing.
We had to go out for Applebee's lunch and a drink after that. So much for the deposit...now I just hope we don't have a bill for her precious new carpet. What a b%#$, but there's nothing I can do about it now. Patrice Vrsansky is not a good person to rent from, so BEWARE.
First day of classes was alright. Shipman is the usual, Samansky looks like he could be a real dick, and Lee seems awesome. Today I get to see Mesher for Patent law. Woot.
1. Why is there dirt in this refrigerator? Have you guys cleaned it? (Heather spent an hour and a half making it look like the best refrigerator I've ever seen)
2. A plastic piece broke off a glass light fixture in the kitchen and she wanted to replace the whole fixture, but apparently Tom told her to just replace the plastic piece and hopefully she will listen since the glass light cover is in perfect condition.
3. Have you guys cleaned the windowsills (after finding the only 2 we did not wipe down)?
4. Light bulbs...she's replacing about 10 of them that Tom and Heather did not replace or we did not replace in the common areas at 2 dollars apiece...better be damn good light bulbs.
5. Batteries...I replaced the batteries in the main floor and basement smoke detectors because I knew she would check and she did and found a dead battery in the upstairs one...sigh.
6. A window screen Jon took out of his bedroom window two years ago I tried to put back in but it was a pain in the ass and there was a wasp nest I did not want to disturb in the top of the screen setting. So I set the screen next to the window. Patrice comes in and says what's going on here...and pushes down on the screen which causes one side to bend violetly. "Oh this screen is bent, have to be replaced." Nice work b^%#$.
7. Who cleaned this bathroom (the upstairs one of Tom and Heather's)? Oh this plunger and toliet brush and outside floor mat are yours, I'll have to throw them away if you don't take them (since apparently the new tenants must provide their own plunger...so much for being nice). Oh the top of the bathroom faucet falls off, going to have to charge you for that. To which I reply I don't think so and pull out the lengthy list of broken stuff from 2 years agow hen we moved in and what do you know...that's on there.
8. This ceiling fan and light were brand new when you moved in and now the chain to turn the fan on and off is missing (probably cheaply pulled out by Jon or Berens in the first couple weeks we lived there and forgotten). Might have to replace the whole fixture. To which I respond, you better not even think about replacing the fixture for that chain.
9. She tries the outside light and finds it is burnt out, which of course like a few other fixtures in this apartment burns out light bulbs amazingly quickly. I tell her to have fun putting a fresh one in that since it will burn out in two days. She says well if the fixture is broken...I say oh no it's not, you cannot charge us for it since it will work when you put the bulb in, but the wiring will burn the bulb out and that is your problem.
10. And the king of them all, since the unclean oven (about 50 dollars) and all that other stuff including the last water bill might come out to $250...this carpet on the main floor is a mess. It will have to be totally replaced. It was new when you moved in, and this is not normal wear and tear. I completely disagree and think a steam cleaner would get out everything except for the oil stain in the dining room area which happened when Kelley and Tom and Heather and I had a fondue disaster this summer. Since this all was decided befor eI got there, Iw as asking questions to clarify what she was replacing and asked if she would replace the dining room only since the living room was fine. She says there are stains in the living room and it will have to be replaced too. I did not see the stains and think she is full of shit. Tom asks for an estimate on cost and she says something vague like "it cost thousands of dollars to carpet all these apartments 2 years ago..." I tell her what a piece of garbage the carpet has been in 2 years and recommend she tries a different brand, and she gets all defensive and says why would I attack her since the carpet is lower quality than residential and replacing it will be to our benefit since it is not really expensive high grade stuff. That has nothing to do with the fact that your carpet is crap...and she told us because we did not vacuum it every day that we were responsible for the crappiness. Whoever told her they vacuum the carpets every day is either OCD (obsessive compulsive) or lieing.
We had to go out for Applebee's lunch and a drink after that. So much for the deposit...now I just hope we don't have a bill for her precious new carpet. What a b%#$, but there's nothing I can do about it now. Patrice Vrsansky is not a good person to rent from, so BEWARE.
First day of classes was alright. Shipman is the usual, Samansky looks like he could be a real dick, and Lee seems awesome. Today I get to see Mesher for Patent law. Woot.
Monday, August 21, 2006
Classes Starting Means Summer Ending
For some reason while packing my backpack for tomorrow's first day of classes, I got that little tingle I have gotten every year for 18 years (I'm in the 18th grade...wow). The little excitement that tomorrow brings a new school year with fresh opportunities and a whole new set of classes and professors. So anyways...between the new apartment and being a newlywed and having a new school year, nothing is quite the same as it was a mere 3 months ago.
so I did my first day readings, and there are some constants. Shipman assigns readings like we've got nothing better to do all day than his class, but that is to be expected after Property was exactly the same. He reads a lot, so I guess he expects us to as well. I guess in the long run we learn more. Copyright was a terribly basic introduction about the justifications for why we protect written and other works. Yawn. The tip of the top was opening up the Federal Income Taxation books. You see there's the textbook which is probably 800 pages, and the SELECTED federal income tax code sections and regulations book which is 1900 pages long (out of about 12000 pages of the stuff in total on the books)...and as a bonus, a tax map which is a big wall sized complicated line chart showing how this all works. So the intorductory reading was 16 pages long. The first 2 pages are intorduction, page 3 is a basic tax problem where a married couple has a certain number of income and expenditures and etc...and they are jointly filing and we are supposed to use the tax code to find out what their gross income is, adjusted gross income, taxable income, tax owed, etc. They even tell you exactly what code sections to go to, and it still takes 11 pages to explain the answers. Then the last 2 pages is a 1040 form which summarizes the tax code and makes it useable for real people. So anyways before I even get into class I have concluded...it is obvious why America hates taxes and the IRS. NOBODY CAN UNDERSTAND IT ALL. This class should be crazy.
So I have Accounting for Lawyers and Federal Income Taxation. I pulled out the TI-92 tonight and put it in the backpack, because if there was ever a time in law school to use a super awesome calculator (OK really any calculator at all)...this would be it. So I'm busting out the 92 to enjoy a little math in law school. Let's look at my schedule again.
Tax - 4 days a week of math word problems
Accounting - 4 days a week of math problems
Copyright - 2 days a week of IP!
Patent - 2 days a week of good IP!
App Ad - Oh well, guess they cannot all be awesome.
At least if second year first semester is going to kill me, I should be happy with the subject material. So we begin tomorrow.
so I did my first day readings, and there are some constants. Shipman assigns readings like we've got nothing better to do all day than his class, but that is to be expected after Property was exactly the same. He reads a lot, so I guess he expects us to as well. I guess in the long run we learn more. Copyright was a terribly basic introduction about the justifications for why we protect written and other works. Yawn. The tip of the top was opening up the Federal Income Taxation books. You see there's the textbook which is probably 800 pages, and the SELECTED federal income tax code sections and regulations book which is 1900 pages long (out of about 12000 pages of the stuff in total on the books)...and as a bonus, a tax map which is a big wall sized complicated line chart showing how this all works. So the intorductory reading was 16 pages long. The first 2 pages are intorduction, page 3 is a basic tax problem where a married couple has a certain number of income and expenditures and etc...and they are jointly filing and we are supposed to use the tax code to find out what their gross income is, adjusted gross income, taxable income, tax owed, etc. They even tell you exactly what code sections to go to, and it still takes 11 pages to explain the answers. Then the last 2 pages is a 1040 form which summarizes the tax code and makes it useable for real people. So anyways before I even get into class I have concluded...it is obvious why America hates taxes and the IRS. NOBODY CAN UNDERSTAND IT ALL. This class should be crazy.
So I have Accounting for Lawyers and Federal Income Taxation. I pulled out the TI-92 tonight and put it in the backpack, because if there was ever a time in law school to use a super awesome calculator (OK really any calculator at all)...this would be it. So I'm busting out the 92 to enjoy a little math in law school. Let's look at my schedule again.
Tax - 4 days a week of math word problems
Accounting - 4 days a week of math problems
Copyright - 2 days a week of IP!
Patent - 2 days a week of good IP!
App Ad - Oh well, guess they cannot all be awesome.
At least if second year first semester is going to kill me, I should be happy with the subject material. So we begin tomorrow.
Friday, August 18, 2006
Well here we are at the end of the summer, and what do we have to show for it? Definitely some shiny new bling on my finger :-)
And for those waiting for pictures...sorry. But here's the only one I have and I'm using it as my computer background. If you want to see more then please let me know and I'll track down the disk and we can have a picture party! UPDATE: Go to facebook and see it...sorry guys blogger is not letting me upload pictures! I found a big file of photographer pictures on my computer and uploaded 42 decent ones there.
The interviewing process is long and tedious (as opposed to the interviews themselves which are short and sweet). After my last 2 interviews today, I will have had 27 in 16 days. Most of them on the Thursdays and Fridays in this 2 week span. So when I'm talking to other students and I say I do not know who else I am interviewing with today, they giggle because that sounds so absurd to them. But honestly, first interviews are all the same. Leave an impression, ask some general questions about the firm, and try to have a good conversation. Who cares what firm is on the other side of the table...just connect with the person. I am apparently sought after probably because of my IP background, so hopefully with most of these interviews going well I can get some callbacks and go to the firms. And yes, when there is one firm I am seeing all day I will know who it is and be able to talk about it. After 27 interviews, all I am going to remember about my first interview with Fish and Richardson (for example) is the people. Not what we talked about. Thankfully after these 2 more today I will be done with first interviews until OCI kicks up again September 6. Of course I have the callback to dallas on September 1, but this just means I can have more time to research that firm and prepare for that interview.
Stats on that job by the way: $2400 a week summer, $135000 starting associate salary. Location is perfect (Dallas). they are an IP firm. Hmmm...going to have to say if I get offered a job, probably going to take it unless another firm REALLY REALLY wows me off my feet. Now, just have to get the offer :-)
The honeymoon was great, as I'm sure you read my last entry (which I believe was all about that). Moving sucks as everyone knows, but man it is taking forever to get everything in the proper place when two people come together for the first time. At least I did not have anything for furniture, so we did not have to trash a lot of good furniture. We moved my stuff Thursday, got it where it was supposed to be Friday, moved Kelley Saturday, and have not completely caught up at all on her all week. But we do have a living room, kitchen, and study basically completed. Once the clothes get put away in our bedroom basically everything will be done except for downstairs (Kelley is making me a poker room for my birthday, so I'm not allowed to touch it till she is done). Then we can settle in since school starts next week and I'll be busier than usual again.
Journal Acc-Check was not all that bad, but it is time-consuming and boring. Lots of busy work, but it looks fantastic on the resume and since we all know law school is just a scam to get us all jobs, I'm loving journal :-) In all seriousness, we do have a great group of people and I think I fit in a lot better with this group than the people I saw on "main" journal. I call them "main" journal because that's what we do at JDR...we are very established and the official journal of the ABA in the dispute resolution field (Harvard has a journal too, but we are better). So we brag that we are the real main journal. Whatever...doesn't really matter what journal you do, they are all the same in the end I think. Just more prestige BS lol.
So Italy won the world cup, and all I have to say to that is the US was the only team to beat them (I know it was 1-1 and I know Italy scored on themselves, but if you cannot beat an obviously subpar team while a man up for the whole second half...it's a victory for the US). Woot. Germany took home third and since I was cheering for them, that was nice too.
OSU is preseason number 1 again, just like 2003 after they unexpectedly won the title in 2002. That year we had way more experience and went 11-2. Hopefully we only lose one at most this year, and it better not be to Michigan at home since I'd like Tressel to keep his job. the pressure is on as every week we will be target numero uno, especially after we knock off the defending national champs Texas in their own stadium (sound familiar Longhorn fans...). Anyways, we shall see how it goes but it is an exciting season to be a Buckeye I think. Add that to Acc-Checks, Classes, and Interviews and I just cannot wait for winter break already. Oh wait most people write their journal notes (35+ page paper) over winter break? Maybe I should look forward to the summer instead.
Man I cannot wait for August 31. What a great weekend...job interview with a dream firm in Dallas and fly back up in time to see the Buckeyes play their opener against Northern Illinois.
Time for lunch and get ready for another interview. Man I gotta get some work done...or not. Last weekend to relax before it gets crazy again, so I think Everson and I are going to chill tonight and then who knows what tomorrow. Have a good weekend everyone, and I'll see most of you readers at school on Tuesday.
And for those waiting for pictures...sorry. But here's the only one I have and I'm using it as my computer background. If you want to see more then please let me know and I'll track down the disk and we can have a picture party! UPDATE: Go to facebook and see it...sorry guys blogger is not letting me upload pictures! I found a big file of photographer pictures on my computer and uploaded 42 decent ones there.
The interviewing process is long and tedious (as opposed to the interviews themselves which are short and sweet). After my last 2 interviews today, I will have had 27 in 16 days. Most of them on the Thursdays and Fridays in this 2 week span. So when I'm talking to other students and I say I do not know who else I am interviewing with today, they giggle because that sounds so absurd to them. But honestly, first interviews are all the same. Leave an impression, ask some general questions about the firm, and try to have a good conversation. Who cares what firm is on the other side of the table...just connect with the person. I am apparently sought after probably because of my IP background, so hopefully with most of these interviews going well I can get some callbacks and go to the firms. And yes, when there is one firm I am seeing all day I will know who it is and be able to talk about it. After 27 interviews, all I am going to remember about my first interview with Fish and Richardson (for example) is the people. Not what we talked about. Thankfully after these 2 more today I will be done with first interviews until OCI kicks up again September 6. Of course I have the callback to dallas on September 1, but this just means I can have more time to research that firm and prepare for that interview.
Stats on that job by the way: $2400 a week summer, $135000 starting associate salary. Location is perfect (Dallas). they are an IP firm. Hmmm...going to have to say if I get offered a job, probably going to take it unless another firm REALLY REALLY wows me off my feet. Now, just have to get the offer :-)
The honeymoon was great, as I'm sure you read my last entry (which I believe was all about that). Moving sucks as everyone knows, but man it is taking forever to get everything in the proper place when two people come together for the first time. At least I did not have anything for furniture, so we did not have to trash a lot of good furniture. We moved my stuff Thursday, got it where it was supposed to be Friday, moved Kelley Saturday, and have not completely caught up at all on her all week. But we do have a living room, kitchen, and study basically completed. Once the clothes get put away in our bedroom basically everything will be done except for downstairs (Kelley is making me a poker room for my birthday, so I'm not allowed to touch it till she is done). Then we can settle in since school starts next week and I'll be busier than usual again.
Journal Acc-Check was not all that bad, but it is time-consuming and boring. Lots of busy work, but it looks fantastic on the resume and since we all know law school is just a scam to get us all jobs, I'm loving journal :-) In all seriousness, we do have a great group of people and I think I fit in a lot better with this group than the people I saw on "main" journal. I call them "main" journal because that's what we do at JDR...we are very established and the official journal of the ABA in the dispute resolution field (Harvard has a journal too, but we are better). So we brag that we are the real main journal. Whatever...doesn't really matter what journal you do, they are all the same in the end I think. Just more prestige BS lol.
So Italy won the world cup, and all I have to say to that is the US was the only team to beat them (I know it was 1-1 and I know Italy scored on themselves, but if you cannot beat an obviously subpar team while a man up for the whole second half...it's a victory for the US). Woot. Germany took home third and since I was cheering for them, that was nice too.
OSU is preseason number 1 again, just like 2003 after they unexpectedly won the title in 2002. That year we had way more experience and went 11-2. Hopefully we only lose one at most this year, and it better not be to Michigan at home since I'd like Tressel to keep his job. the pressure is on as every week we will be target numero uno, especially after we knock off the defending national champs Texas in their own stadium (sound familiar Longhorn fans...). Anyways, we shall see how it goes but it is an exciting season to be a Buckeye I think. Add that to Acc-Checks, Classes, and Interviews and I just cannot wait for winter break already. Oh wait most people write their journal notes (35+ page paper) over winter break? Maybe I should look forward to the summer instead.
Man I cannot wait for August 31. What a great weekend...job interview with a dream firm in Dallas and fly back up in time to see the Buckeyes play their opener against Northern Illinois.
Time for lunch and get ready for another interview. Man I gotta get some work done...or not. Last weekend to relax before it gets crazy again, so I think Everson and I are going to chill tonight and then who knows what tomorrow. Have a good weekend everyone, and I'll see most of you readers at school on Tuesday.
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Short Update
For the readers like Megan :-)
I am so busy moving into the new apartment and Acc-Checking, but I promise once internet comes to my new apartment I will update on the whole end of summer. It was crazy and now interviews are crazy (after tomorrow I will have had 27 first interviews in 16 days). Got my first callback today for a TEXAS IP FIRM! WOO-HOO!
Now I just have to not eff it up since it's like my dream job. No pressure lol.
In the words of Shipman the great...I will "stay cool"
The firm is blowing $900 to fly me down and put me up for a night...counting lunch and incidentals they might blow $1000 to interview me. Guess this is serious.
I'm so happy I could scream, but Panera is closing and I don't want to scare people on my way out. No internet sucks...talk to you all next week when classes come back to haunt us all.
I am so busy moving into the new apartment and Acc-Checking, but I promise once internet comes to my new apartment I will update on the whole end of summer. It was crazy and now interviews are crazy (after tomorrow I will have had 27 first interviews in 16 days). Got my first callback today for a TEXAS IP FIRM! WOO-HOO!
Now I just have to not eff it up since it's like my dream job. No pressure lol.
In the words of Shipman the great...I will "stay cool"
The firm is blowing $900 to fly me down and put me up for a night...counting lunch and incidentals they might blow $1000 to interview me. Guess this is serious.
I'm so happy I could scream, but Panera is closing and I don't want to scare people on my way out. No internet sucks...talk to you all next week when classes come back to haunt us all.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Weekend Drama
But not us! Zach (my brother in law) announced his engagement Saturday at his going away to the Air Force party thrown by the family. It did not go over all that well, but seriously. She cheated on him 3-5 weeks ago and they JUST got back together 2 weeks before getting engaged. They say they will wait 3 years which will put sarah out of school, but that sounds familiar to us and we only lasted 2 years. Anyways, best of luck with the long distance and the family will not make it easy. Thankfully this even more takes the focus off us and while the limelight had its nice moments I am ready to be in the background again.
My whole bowling team got on the two very good and long-established journals at OSU. Abbie and I will be holding down JDR while The Sleeping Giant and Ye Olde Sniper will be on Main Journal. Makes me happy we did so well, because we are a close knit bowling team. Funny considering we came together kind of randomly!
Got back from Marietta and found the roommates gone and tennis rackets missing...so we decided we wanted to go to the park and play them. Since we got back, we lost to them Wednesday in doubles 0-6 2-6 and then Kelley had a bad singles game against me Friday 2-6 0-6. Anyways, we were looking to redeem ourselves and we really have not beaten them in a set at all since May (kind of embarrassing because we are not much worse than them). Anyways, tonight we played and beat them 6-4 7-6 (7-3 tiebreak). Man it felt good to play competitively against them, especially since we would like to play each other at least once a week when we move out of this apartment next month.
Well dinner is done, byes!
My whole bowling team got on the two very good and long-established journals at OSU. Abbie and I will be holding down JDR while The Sleeping Giant and Ye Olde Sniper will be on Main Journal. Makes me happy we did so well, because we are a close knit bowling team. Funny considering we came together kind of randomly!
Got back from Marietta and found the roommates gone and tennis rackets missing...so we decided we wanted to go to the park and play them. Since we got back, we lost to them Wednesday in doubles 0-6 2-6 and then Kelley had a bad singles game against me Friday 2-6 0-6. Anyways, we were looking to redeem ourselves and we really have not beaten them in a set at all since May (kind of embarrassing because we are not much worse than them). Anyways, tonight we played and beat them 6-4 7-6 (7-3 tiebreak). Man it felt good to play competitively against them, especially since we would like to play each other at least once a week when we move out of this apartment next month.
Well dinner is done, byes!
Monday, July 17, 2006
The Married Man
That's what I am...married. Wow.
The wedding weekend went off without too many hitches. The rehearsal was not too bad, but a little long. Our ceremony was kind of long so it makes sense. At least everyone was on time! I made one little mistake when doing the vows, but I was hoping I'd make it through them on Saturday. The dinner afterwards was nice, despite it being a little uncomfortable with Kelley avoiding my family since my Mom was with them. We had a lot of food and once it got dark all the older kids (us) and the young ones blew through our sparklers. That's the best 9 dollars I have ever spent....ever :-)
I think everyone liked their gifts. We got the bridesmaids necklaces and the maids of honor each got a nice engraved bracelet. The groomsmen got engraved keychains and Tom also got an engraved flask. I'm guessing Kelley's grandparents spent more than my parents gave them to run the party, but that was pretty much expected. The wedding morning we boys got up and met at the golf course after I got Zach and Ahmad up. I had watched the weather and it looked stellar all day (which it turned out to be, so that was good). We get started and my first ball goes right into the lake beside the fairway...so we decide each person gets one mulligan off the tee. We all had not really played much before if at all, so it was a great few hours in the morning. I won if that's what you could call it, Shep and Tom came in about 9-10 back and Zach was a few more back while AK was comic relief all day. I'm not too bad at golf and could get pretty good if I keep playing I think. Good lawyer skill.
We left to get food and get ready at Shep's. AK took forever, and we ended up a little late to the church. No big deal though as we got dressed and were ready for the photographer pretty much when she was ready for the guys to take pictures with Kelley. Then I took pictures with the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Finally after waiting for what seemed like the longest 2 hours of my life...it was time to go. The ceremony went well and Kelley was absolutely gorgeous (as a bride should be). Then after another round of pictures and waiting for the girls to pack up their stuff at the church, we were finally off to the reception. It was fun and they even played songs Kelley hates such as the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken dance! The food was very tasty (meatballs and chicken wings) and the cake was also amazing. We apparently had a bunch left, which means people missed out on some good cake. It was weird to have everyone's eyes on you EVERY SECOND of the day, but nice at the same time. Tom and Sarah gave good toasts and lots of people danced (well some of us "danced.") I was definitely happy to have all my family and new family and many of my friends there (law school table ppl, you rock for coming). The two most eligible bachelors according to what I saw and heard...AK and Pastor Steve. What an interesting two guys, but they could certainly find dates at our wedding if they wanted to. Well enough matchmaking.
The week after the wedding was busy busy busy as I tried to catch up everything on my list and got some stuff done. Thursday came quicker than expected and it was time to pack for the honeymoon and leave. We spent Thursday night at Thomas and Lisa's, our friends who used to go to OU with Kelley. Besides Tom and Heather, probably my favorite couple friend we have. We were up late talking and showing them pictures from the reception disposable cameras. Hopefully we can make it up to Cleveland or they can make it down to Cbus often in the next 2 years. After a very short night on their futon, we woke up bright and early before sunrise to go to Akron-Canton airport. A short hop to NYC LaGuardia and a shuttle ride to the pier and then some waiting...finally we made it on the boat, the Carnival Legend. Yay honeymoon!
The honeymoon was great. Kelley has all the pictures on her camera or else I would post some here. The trip down was very overcast and stormy, but once we got to San Juan the weather got better. The Bacardi factory in San Juan was a good tour and I recommend it to anyone going to Puerto Rico. It was also fun to learn all about the future 51st state and see the government buildings. We also tracked down the Hard Rock Cafe and got another bear for the collection. Lots of souvenirs later, we went back to the boat and watched as we left port under a starry sky and bright moon. St. Thomas was our second port and we went to Magan's Bay beach, one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It took a taxi ride over the mountain (great views) to get there, but it definitely lived up to the reputation. It was the only beach we went to in the three ports and I do not know if I will find a better beach anywhere. We went back to town after swimming for 3 hours and rode the skyride to Paradise Point up on the mountain. A good ride even though it kind of creeped Kelley out. The views were amazing and we stayed up at the Point shopping and getting good drinks in souvenir cups. Back to the ship and more good food and good shows and good gambling. Our third port Tortola was very unexciting and expensive to shop at, so we went back to the ship early and hit the pools. The food on the cruise was very good, except for the chicken which they couldn;t seem to get right. Other than waiting too long for our bags to be delivered on the first night, there was no complaints about the housekeeping and waiters. Much better than royal Caribbean in my opinion. The casino was bigger, the pools and hot tubs seemed about the same, and this boat had a waterslide! Did not fare too badly at gambling despite losing money. Kelley was up $15-20 at slots, down $30 in blackjack, and down $25 at roulette. I ended up down $30 at slots, up $25 at blackjack, and down $45 at roulette. I could not catch a break from the slot machines or the roulette wheel, so I spent most of my time at blackjack or watching Kelley play cheap slots. Overall it was a good length of cruise for a honeymoon and I think Kelley finally relaxed a little bit! Nice to see that after 6 months of nothing but stress over school, the church job, and mostly the wedding. The last day sucked as we got off the boat early, had to pay $80 for a taxi across town (the shuttle ride on the way to the port was $30), then got to the airport where they said we could not check our bags until 3 PM. It was 11 AM ad our flight would not leave until 7 PM. So instead of going on the subway and seeing NYC, we got to stay in little crappy LaGuardia playing cards with each other all day. 8 hours of Palabra, Euchre, Texas Hold Em, and Blackjack. Then the flight as delayed an hour. Then we finally get on the plane and get to Akron and finally get on the road for Marietta.
Got back and had another short night of sleep before church on Sunday. The sermon was replaced at both services by a 20 minute video presentation from the high schoolers who just spent the last week in San Antonio at the big Lutheran youth gathering that happens only once every 3 years. Looked like fun. Took an afternoon nap while Kelley showed the grandparents honeymoon pictures and then we packed up stuff again. Filled the car with the remainder of the wedding gifts and bridal shower gifts, and on our way. It felt all kinds of good to get home to the apartment. But not for long, as my roommates ran both bathrooms out of TP! So I had to make an emergency run lol. They bought some this morning since I found a new 4 pack in the downstairs bathroom, but we took care of it anyways.
So now we are back. I am back to working for Shipman slowly, and law school matters are impending as well as our move in a few weeks. Trying to get boxes organized this week to make room for more of Kelley's stuff from home and the room is a disaster zone after throwing stuff around packing for the honeymoon. Got onto 3 of 5 journals as well, missing Business Journal and Main Journal. I/S is too new for my tastes and Criminal Law is not really my field (but I would LOVE to work with our great professors in that field), so I chose our second most prestigous journal, Journal of Dispute Resolution. Got the resume updated for OCI right before the deadline so that companies will give me interviews hopefully. Now it's back to trying to get Sallie Mae to give me money and getting ready for school and job interviews which begin the year. Back to the grind.
PS - It's good to be married. It's not much different with me and Kelley, but living together now is better than her living in Marietta or Athens.
The wedding weekend went off without too many hitches. The rehearsal was not too bad, but a little long. Our ceremony was kind of long so it makes sense. At least everyone was on time! I made one little mistake when doing the vows, but I was hoping I'd make it through them on Saturday. The dinner afterwards was nice, despite it being a little uncomfortable with Kelley avoiding my family since my Mom was with them. We had a lot of food and once it got dark all the older kids (us) and the young ones blew through our sparklers. That's the best 9 dollars I have ever spent....ever :-)
I think everyone liked their gifts. We got the bridesmaids necklaces and the maids of honor each got a nice engraved bracelet. The groomsmen got engraved keychains and Tom also got an engraved flask. I'm guessing Kelley's grandparents spent more than my parents gave them to run the party, but that was pretty much expected. The wedding morning we boys got up and met at the golf course after I got Zach and Ahmad up. I had watched the weather and it looked stellar all day (which it turned out to be, so that was good). We get started and my first ball goes right into the lake beside the fairway...so we decide each person gets one mulligan off the tee. We all had not really played much before if at all, so it was a great few hours in the morning. I won if that's what you could call it, Shep and Tom came in about 9-10 back and Zach was a few more back while AK was comic relief all day. I'm not too bad at golf and could get pretty good if I keep playing I think. Good lawyer skill.
We left to get food and get ready at Shep's. AK took forever, and we ended up a little late to the church. No big deal though as we got dressed and were ready for the photographer pretty much when she was ready for the guys to take pictures with Kelley. Then I took pictures with the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Finally after waiting for what seemed like the longest 2 hours of my life...it was time to go. The ceremony went well and Kelley was absolutely gorgeous (as a bride should be). Then after another round of pictures and waiting for the girls to pack up their stuff at the church, we were finally off to the reception. It was fun and they even played songs Kelley hates such as the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken dance! The food was very tasty (meatballs and chicken wings) and the cake was also amazing. We apparently had a bunch left, which means people missed out on some good cake. It was weird to have everyone's eyes on you EVERY SECOND of the day, but nice at the same time. Tom and Sarah gave good toasts and lots of people danced (well some of us "danced.") I was definitely happy to have all my family and new family and many of my friends there (law school table ppl, you rock for coming). The two most eligible bachelors according to what I saw and heard...AK and Pastor Steve. What an interesting two guys, but they could certainly find dates at our wedding if they wanted to. Well enough matchmaking.
The week after the wedding was busy busy busy as I tried to catch up everything on my list and got some stuff done. Thursday came quicker than expected and it was time to pack for the honeymoon and leave. We spent Thursday night at Thomas and Lisa's, our friends who used to go to OU with Kelley. Besides Tom and Heather, probably my favorite couple friend we have. We were up late talking and showing them pictures from the reception disposable cameras. Hopefully we can make it up to Cleveland or they can make it down to Cbus often in the next 2 years. After a very short night on their futon, we woke up bright and early before sunrise to go to Akron-Canton airport. A short hop to NYC LaGuardia and a shuttle ride to the pier and then some waiting...finally we made it on the boat, the Carnival Legend. Yay honeymoon!
The honeymoon was great. Kelley has all the pictures on her camera or else I would post some here. The trip down was very overcast and stormy, but once we got to San Juan the weather got better. The Bacardi factory in San Juan was a good tour and I recommend it to anyone going to Puerto Rico. It was also fun to learn all about the future 51st state and see the government buildings. We also tracked down the Hard Rock Cafe and got another bear for the collection. Lots of souvenirs later, we went back to the boat and watched as we left port under a starry sky and bright moon. St. Thomas was our second port and we went to Magan's Bay beach, one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It took a taxi ride over the mountain (great views) to get there, but it definitely lived up to the reputation. It was the only beach we went to in the three ports and I do not know if I will find a better beach anywhere. We went back to town after swimming for 3 hours and rode the skyride to Paradise Point up on the mountain. A good ride even though it kind of creeped Kelley out. The views were amazing and we stayed up at the Point shopping and getting good drinks in souvenir cups. Back to the ship and more good food and good shows and good gambling. Our third port Tortola was very unexciting and expensive to shop at, so we went back to the ship early and hit the pools. The food on the cruise was very good, except for the chicken which they couldn;t seem to get right. Other than waiting too long for our bags to be delivered on the first night, there was no complaints about the housekeeping and waiters. Much better than royal Caribbean in my opinion. The casino was bigger, the pools and hot tubs seemed about the same, and this boat had a waterslide! Did not fare too badly at gambling despite losing money. Kelley was up $15-20 at slots, down $30 in blackjack, and down $25 at roulette. I ended up down $30 at slots, up $25 at blackjack, and down $45 at roulette. I could not catch a break from the slot machines or the roulette wheel, so I spent most of my time at blackjack or watching Kelley play cheap slots. Overall it was a good length of cruise for a honeymoon and I think Kelley finally relaxed a little bit! Nice to see that after 6 months of nothing but stress over school, the church job, and mostly the wedding. The last day sucked as we got off the boat early, had to pay $80 for a taxi across town (the shuttle ride on the way to the port was $30), then got to the airport where they said we could not check our bags until 3 PM. It was 11 AM ad our flight would not leave until 7 PM. So instead of going on the subway and seeing NYC, we got to stay in little crappy LaGuardia playing cards with each other all day. 8 hours of Palabra, Euchre, Texas Hold Em, and Blackjack. Then the flight as delayed an hour. Then we finally get on the plane and get to Akron and finally get on the road for Marietta.
Got back and had another short night of sleep before church on Sunday. The sermon was replaced at both services by a 20 minute video presentation from the high schoolers who just spent the last week in San Antonio at the big Lutheran youth gathering that happens only once every 3 years. Looked like fun. Took an afternoon nap while Kelley showed the grandparents honeymoon pictures and then we packed up stuff again. Filled the car with the remainder of the wedding gifts and bridal shower gifts, and on our way. It felt all kinds of good to get home to the apartment. But not for long, as my roommates ran both bathrooms out of TP! So I had to make an emergency run lol. They bought some this morning since I found a new 4 pack in the downstairs bathroom, but we took care of it anyways.
So now we are back. I am back to working for Shipman slowly, and law school matters are impending as well as our move in a few weeks. Trying to get boxes organized this week to make room for more of Kelley's stuff from home and the room is a disaster zone after throwing stuff around packing for the honeymoon. Got onto 3 of 5 journals as well, missing Business Journal and Main Journal. I/S is too new for my tastes and Criminal Law is not really my field (but I would LOVE to work with our great professors in that field), so I chose our second most prestigous journal, Journal of Dispute Resolution. Got the resume updated for OCI right before the deadline so that companies will give me interviews hopefully. Now it's back to trying to get Sallie Mae to give me money and getting ready for school and job interviews which begin the year. Back to the grind.
PS - It's good to be married. It's not much different with me and Kelley, but living together now is better than her living in Marietta or Athens.
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