Spring Break

Well the week after Selection Sunday was terribly busy. Let's get a recap!

Early in the week I pored over brackets and lounged around...NOT! As usual I made my first impression picks before I heard all the pundits talking for 3 days about the bracket and those picks are up on southerncollegesports.com. (Of course that bracket is doing far better than the 2 I pored over Wednesday night, proves impulse better than over-thinking things). Also as expected, Kelley is doing far better than any of my brackets, and if the "chalk" keeps winning for her then she has a big shot at winning big money in the law school pool. More on that later.

I finished up a couple last final reads for Issue 3, and I think the JDR year is about over. I also had the joy of getting car insurance...yay! But now we are covered for anothe 3 or 6 months...and it is much cheaper for me than insuring myself without Kelley. Also in the mail this week was an official state notice requiring me to prove I had insurance on March 12. My insurance changed companies six months from my birthday on 3/15. If I do not send them a copy of my old Progressive insurance card (now with Nationwide), my license or my truck registration gets suspended. Now I'm not one to throw away paperwork, so all I have to do is go to Kinko's and make a copy. But still, is this "random verification" process necessary when people get busted all the time for no insurance when they are pulled over? More needless paperwork and a waste of my time. Thanks to you Ohio, thanks to you.

We are currently 2 weeks behind on Lost (which we will be able to catch online as usual) and we missed this week's 24 for the first time ever. I hope to find it online somewhere as I do not want to read the summary alone. I have to see if Charles Logan died in person damnit! What a beautiful episode 2 weeks ago, even if they brought back the AWFUL Logan family background noise from Season 5...it sounds like a violin screeching quietly in the background, makes me want to scream. I really think this season is finally looking up, but last week's episode might have been a stinker. Anyone know where I can find 24? Lost on the other hand may be good or may be terrible. At least the storyline is going somewhere with Kate, Locke, and Sayid tromping through the woods to get Jack back. We shall see.

The end of last week was strange, as I guess I was not really done with the semester rush until spring break. I worked endlessly and late nights all that week on my JDR Note final draft and grading final ME exams. I got all the work done around 5 PM Friday and sent grades in and dropped off the JDR Note (8 copies of 36 page paper equals way too much money printing the stupid paper). I actually think I have a decent chance to get published because my footnotes are much better than most on journal (I'm guessing but final reads make you a little good at FN'ing) and I have a great topic. It is recent, it is relevant, and JDR has shown a tendency to publish articles on patent law in the past. No big deal if it is not, but after all that effort it would be nice. Guess we'll see in 3 weeks at the JDR banquet. Exams were blah as usual, but it's money.

One final note before spring break began. The March Madness of law school bowling had its Sweet 16 last week, and here's how it all played out:
(1) Pin Pals LOST TO (16) Bring Clovis Back [Bill Browne's team, 5-1 against us this season]
(2) Enlightening Strikes [professors] DEF. (15) The Kittens [Brandon Middleton et al]
(3) She Said She Was 18 [Spangler's team] LOST TO (14) Pinning the Blame [Will Collins, Derek Heyman, etc]
(4) MFR Minus Judas [US!] DEF (13) Alley Cats [Krystle Myers and 3L girls]
(5) Penal Servitude [Bart, Avonte, Christie] DEF (12) Team 13
(6) Split Happens LOST TO (11) Jim and the Holograms
(7) Bubb Rubb Law LOST TO (10) Elvis Lives
(8) Motion to Strike LOST TO (9) Imwinklereids [Larry Lanham et al]

This leaves us with an interesting mix of teams. The (2) seed is the professors, always a strong bet. Our division has three teams left after losing Spangler's team to random upset as is the norm in law school bowling playoffs. The champions of the league since we joined law school have been:
1. 1L autumn: Life in the Slow Lane - Shariq, Rich, etc. from our 1L class (2008).
2. 1L spring: Bring Clovis Back - Bill Browne from the 2007 class.
3. 2L autumn: She Said She Was 18 - Phil Spangler's team from class of 2008.
So our class seems pretty dominant in bowling and we again have quite a few contenders to keep the crown. The class of 2008 will make it 3 for 4 if any of the following teams win: MFR Minus Judas, Penal Servitude, Imwinkelreids, Pinning The Blame. That's half the teams left. I like our chances.

We personally bowled a good game and a mediocre game, but we won both games by about 30. Daniel carried us with a 110 game one, so props to him for carrying us to the Elite 8. The bowling playoffs are usually re-seeded every round, so we should be playing against (14) Pinning the Blame, Derek and Will Collins' team. If they keep the original bracket then we will bowl against (5) Penal Servitude, Bart/Avonte/Christie's team. I'm hoping for the former as I do not think Will and Derek will have another amazing week (they needed it to knock out Spangler's team last week). At least if we bowl against our division rival, Bart's average is up to 175 now which is his realistic average...the first time we played them he had a 140 average. Always tough to play the good teams, so looking to avoid the professors and Penal Servitude as long as possible.

We always lose in the Elite 8 though, so maybe all this jibber-jabber is irrelevant. I still think the class of 2008 is taking aboth title though. We dominate bowling.

Finally, spring break arrives and I have nothing law school related to do! Hoo-ray! But still absurdly busy until today. Friday night was Tom and Heather's wedding rehersal. Heather refused to walk down the aisle or take part in the rehersal because he aunt told her it was bad luck, so Tom was saying his vows to Craig's girlfriend instead (Craig is Heather's brother). Very weird and her aunt must be psycho because nobody at the rehersal including the pastor had ever heard of such a thing. IT'S A DAMN REHERSAL...which by definition means YOU GET UP THERE AND WALK THROUGH IT. What a farce. Kelley and I were running 5 minutes late due to traffic because they started at 6 PM across town, and Tom called 4 times during the 20 minute trip to find out where we were. Jeez, LOL! We got through the rehersal and dinner was at Don Pablo's. Kelley and I had never been there before and it's pretty good Mexican eats. Any time you get a fully paid meal (margaritas and all) from someone else it's a good time. My only complaint was at the beginning. We were the first carload there and the hostess directs us into the party room where we are having the rehersal dinner. Everything is set up so we get ready to sit down and a couple of servers come in and shoo us out of the room because "it's not ready yet." So everyone else shows up and we are all jammed into the waiting area for 15 minutes...and for what you ask? To put salsa and chips on the table. That's it. It took them 15 minutes to do that one thing because everything else was set to go. Why in the world it was so important to shoo us into a cramped waiting room for 15 minutes to do something all other mexican restaurants do after you get to the table....it just baffles me.

Friday night the groomsmen staying at my place played Castle Risk and watched NCAA basketball. I was knocked out by Shep in an interesting gambit and then inexplicably Chris Owen handed Tom the game by suicide attacking Shep down right before Tom's turn so that Tom could take them both out easily. Craziness. The next morning each of them showered and got ready before we all headed out to the Mariott where the whole thing was held. We got into our tuxedos while I listened to the OSU-Xavier game on my personal radio (we had no TV and the closest one was in the hotel bar). OSU was doing terrible and I kept giving the guys updates. They finally call us for pictures right in the last 3-4 minutes of the OSU game, which was irritating because that's when the OSU comeback happened. I had the earbud in right up until I had to take it out to take pictures (which by the way happened while Xavier was at the free throw line trying to ice the game after Oden's hard foul with 10 seconds left). I just presumed we were done but I put the earbud back into my ear just in time to hear the call of the ridiculous 3 to send it to overtime after Xavier choked on the free throw. The pictures wrapped up and all the guys went to the bar to watch overtime (which OSU dominated). Then it was back into wedding mode as it was about half an hour to showtime. No big surprises in the wedding and reception, except that now that I've met Allison (Heather and Craig's sister who was maid of honor and is pregnant w/o boyfriend)...she is such a trip :-) Their families are pretty redneck, so some relative showed up in a Hoodie and jeans and apparently this was dressed up to him. Whatever. I just like Tom did not give the best toast ever and was surprisingly a little nervous because the DJ decided to do the toast RIGHT AFTER WE SAT DOWN after coming in the room for the reception. So much for thinking it over a little bit. Oh well. The DJ was the worst wedding DJ I've ever met, and the photographer was a joke. Thankfully Kelley wore multiple hats during the day to save the day: photographer (I'm guessing she gets more good shots than the photographer), musician (played piano for ceremony), seamstress (Chris's tux had pants legs about 4 inches different from each other and she fixed that last minute), and Dr. Phil (she talked to Connie who was about the dump Chris and his stuff on the street and apparently saved their relationship somehow). Amazing work Kelley, amazing work. I hope they have a LONG RELAXING honeymoon because they need it.

Kelley hosted two of her piano lesson families for a recital at our apartment Sunday afternoon. Busy times preparing for and cleaning afterwards (as well as entertaining the three young boys by playing Wii Sports with them while the "adults" chatted upstairs). So we finally get on the road to Philadelphia at 8:30, 2 and a half hours later than plan. I only made it to about 1 AM and somewhere in Pennsylvania before I had to give up the wheel to Sarah. A few uncomfortable hours of sleep/non-sleep later, we arrive in Philly. Monday we packed up a lot of the smaller stuff in her 1 bedroom apartment and went out to IKEA and an Irish Pub for dinner. IKEA is a great store, we need one in C-bus. We had set the TV to tape 24, but the odd daylight savings time switch wrecked that plan and we missed it as said above. Sadness! Tuesday we picked up the Uhaul downtown, had to drive to another Uhaul place to pick up a dolly we did not want or need, and then back to the apartment. We loaded the major furniture and got all that done by around 3. We then went downtown to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. Nice to see these things live and the place where the US Supreme Court first began doing "justice" 200 years ago. We then grabbed a Cheesesteak from Jim's (famous place in Philly) and it wasn't bad with a good Cheese Whiz instead of crappy swiss/provolone. We for some unthinkable reason walked all the way back to Sarah's apartment, stopping in the middle of the University of Penn and Drexel U area to get Auntie Anne's pretzels. Based on city blocks, I think we walked 5 miles. So Sore! Wednesday we woek up early, got the Uhaul packed up the rest of the way, and finally hit the road around 3. We stopped for gas at the last exit before the Penn turnpike and decided to eat in the biggest mall I've seen since the Mall of America (this is the King of Prussia mall). We had to walk to the other end of the mall which does not sound like much but it was like a mile from one end to the other. We could've went to the Lone Star steakhouse outside the mall and wasted less time. But oh well. So we get on the road again around 6 and do not get into Columbus till around 1 AM. I was pretty beat after driving the Uhaul and 3 days of moving/walking long distances. Kelley gets rewarded with 3 full days of work Thursday-Saturday, so I helped Sarah unload the Uhaul and get all the major furniture where it is going in the apartment. We really are stretching to fit a third person in, but it's a good thing financially. I just hate moving (who doesn't) but at least it gave me something to do for 4 days of spring break not-law related.

Met with the moot court team last night. We will probably do OK, but I'm not too confident. Hoping that if we make Saturday's playoffs (16 teams out of 32), we lose early enough to wander into a sports bar somewhere in time to see the OSU game, that is if they make the Final 4. You have to wonder after winning 2 games in a row we had no business winning (Xavier in OT after being down by 9 with 4 minutes left, Tennessee last night after bring down by 20 at halftime). Of course our Elite 8 opponent also was lucky to win last night against the "home" team Texas A&M in San Antonio. I'm happy we don't have to play the Aggies, but Memphis is pretty much exactly like OSU with a little less talent (both 33-3, both of us on 20+ game winning streaks). Saturday at 4:40 PM should be interesting!

If we do not make Saturday playoffs next week in NYC at all, I think we are going to Ground Zero and maybe something else in the city. I just want to see OSU play in the Final 4 if at all possible, as that does not happen very often.

So a short week this week as we leave Thursday for Seton Hall U and the competition. We'll see if I manage to update sometime before then. If not, have a good week and GO BUCKS!