Lydia, oh Lydia, oh have you met Lydia?

I re-watched this today on TCM- it's probably one of my all-time favourite movies, and this has to be one of my favourite scenes

We're on a mission from God...

I love this part in "The Blues Brothers"- it's right up there with the Illinois Nazis and 1060 West Addison.

The other one who ISN'T my wife, the one who IS my fiancée... she doesn't call me "Steve." She calls me Howard.

So, I've survived my first week of law school- in truth, it's not even a real full week, nor even actual classes. This was just intro week, where I had registration, orientation, and the first of my thinking/writing intro classes. Real class doesn't start until next Thursday. From what I can tell now, I am going to have no life for at all until next May, when classes end for the year. Goodbye guitar and archer, goodbye sleep, goodbye everything else but reading and briefing cases. Actually, it probably won't be that bad, but will still be a definite challenge.

The first week with Frankie has gone well, though it has been an adjustment. She's a good, patient dog, and is catching on to basic commands. She and Ramona are still figuring out the pecking order- they both get extremely jealous of each other, and if you start out petting one dog, you end up petting both.

Went up to Irvine yesterday and met my friend's wife- just married earlier this month. It was a nice reception, and it was very nice to meet her, after hearing so much about her from Ryan. I think they'll be very happy together.

Only made it once out to the range, but I did get to shoot at twenty meters this time, which was exciting. Got three or four dead on bulls-eyes, and then lots in the red and yellow, some in the blue and black, and a few off the target all together, which was kind of embarrassing.

Also saw "Vicky Christina Barcelona," which I enjoyed, but also came away from dissatisfied- with what, exactly, I'm still trying to figure out. Either way, it was nice to see Javier Bardem play something other than a shotgun-wielding psychopath. And he is a good looking man..

Well, I need to go and start the bread, then get to briefing my cases- I'm hoping it won't take more than a couple of hours- mostly because I have so much else to do today.

Things they are a changin'

So, two big changes this weekend. One is that today is my last day of freedom- tomorrow I start up at CalWestern as a first year law student. When I've told people this, I've gotten more condolences than congratulations. But people have also said that if i can get through the first year, I should be okay. It's only natural that I should be apprehensive, and I still have doubts that I'm doing the right thing. But I'm here, and I've already signed my life away to various creditors (the amounts make me cringe) so I might as well give it a shot, and only time can tell.

The other big change is the new addition to the family- Frankie. My Mom has been seriously looking at getting another dog (we already have Ramona- well, she's actually my sister's dog, but since she's back at home, I think we all consider her the family dog), and this yesterday, after going up to a a German Shepherd rescue event, came back with Frankie (aka Venus). She's a year or so old German Shepherd, rescued from a shelter in Riverside. Being so used to Ramona, who is a very sleek hound-something mix (a Romanian MonkeyHound, to be exact), having a large, very hairy, 65 pound German Shepherd in the house has been an adjustment, and will continue to be so for a while. But so far it seems to be working out okay.




Not too much else has been going on- it's been very warm and humid lately, and consequently I've been tired and cranky. But I have managed to get out and shoot some, and last week even went out and rented a guitar- and speaking of which, I need to practice tonight.

It's about time to go and check on the bread, so I had better go. I'll be back with all of the news from the next couple of days.

Hell Yeah!!

This is the first time I've gotten excited over the Olympics in a long time. I'm so glad I stayed up to watch- my sister and I were both on edge, and you should have heard the cheering afterwards...

Just when you think things weren't screwed up enough...

Just a quick note- my Mom pointed out this article to me in Sunday's paper. Apparently Sudan is exporting food, while still receiving millions in relief aid- there is something seriously wrong with that. Here's the link:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080810/news_1n10sudan.html

No pleasure, no rapture, no exquisite sin greater... than central air

Oh god, how true! For the first time in my recent memory my mom let us turn on the air-conditioning- it was a half-day of bliss. It wasn't for our comfort though, but for our cleaning lady. I had to turn it off when she was done, and was sad to do so. The air rarely gets turned on- the only times are for the grandparents (when they come to visit), consistent triple digit temperatures, and the cleaning lady (and then only when it's warm).

And warm is has been- it isn't the heat so much as the humidity we've been having lately that's the problem. I stepped out this morning at 5:30 to go running, and my first thought was "Man, this is going to be a bitch." And it was- I don't think I've ever been quite such a sweaty hot mess. Luckily though it seems to have cooled off- there's a nice strong breeze right now, which is keeping everything reasonable.

A not bad day for a Thursday. I went and did another hour and a half of open shooting, and then worked the rest of the day on my readings (which I've finished- yay!), and have a loaf of bread rising right now as I write. This evening I'm driving my parents to a restaurant- it's they're 27th anniversary, which entitles them to celebrate, I think. It'll be a lonely night in, as my sister is shopping directly after her class, and will be back just in time to go and pick my parents up. Not too bad though- it means a respite from the constant HGTV my dad has playing every evening. Now, if I could only figure out how to work the dvd player, I'd be set!

In the Mood for Love...

Probably one of my all-time favourite movies. I don't think I've ever cried so much in a movie theater

Oh yeah!

Going through my previous postings, I realized that with all of the excitement (well, stress, to be more truthful) of quitting my job, moving, and getting situated in San Diego, I never posted a picture of the continuation of my tattoo- tattoo #2. So, here it is, in all it's red and swollen glory- taken the evening of. It's not a very good angle, or shot- I find it hard to much of anything with my right hand- taking pictures included. It's the first three words from a DeVotchka song- "Til' the End of Time"- anyone who's seen "Little Miss Sunshine" will recognize it, I think. It was a hell of a time trying to explain it all at the family reunion though, especially the "call it" part.

Not too much going on here so far this week. Monday I went to open shooting again, and did much better than I have been- am going again tomorrow for the open shooting session. I think I'll get a price range, and see what an average/baseline recurve bow costs. It might be better to buy a my own bow, rather than rely on rentals. From what I can tell, the place only has two left-handed bows for rent, which might prove to be problematic in the future.

The reading assignment is going well- I've gone through once already, and am going through again to take more detailed notes and to redo all of the end-of-chapter exercises. Most of it is just common sense stuff, but there is some vocabulary and procedure I'd like to get down before classes start on the 18th- 12 (well, almost 11- it's near midnight) left before the madness begins.

I'm hoping to hear from my cousin soon to arrange a trip to L.A. to get set up with a guitar, though I think I'll just stop at the local rental place tomorrow on my way back from archery and see if they have anything available to rent- when I checked in at the end of June, they didn't have anything. But knowing him, it might be a while.

Well, I'm off to other pursuits, and eventually bed. Sleep would be good, as I'm only averaging about 3 hours, and given that I'm trying a new running route tomorrow, some rest would be a good thing!

Yawn

I'm finally getting around to updating, but to be honest, there isn't much to update. It's definitely the dog days of summer- the last precious few weeks before school starts.

Archery is going well- went to class again this past Wednesday- managed three bulls-eyes, and had a ton of nice tight groupings on the white part of the target, and then went to the open shooting on Friday. Spent an hour and a half at it, and have the most vivid welt/bruise on the inside of my elbow- I kept twisting my arm in, instead of keeping it straight, and the bow string kept snapping it- must have done it a good 12-15 times- obviously I'm a slow learner. I plan to go again tomorrow- hopefully I'll remember to keep my arm straight!

Saw "The Dark Knight" last Sunday- another sold out I-MAX, but this time we had enough sense to get there early, so instead of sitting in the second row, I had a nice seat high and in the back. I did enjoy the movie a bit more, if only by virtue of the fact that I could actually see what was happening on-screen. But, overall, my first impressions haven't really changed at all. It's a decent enough movie, but not worth all of the hype it's been getting, and if we're to compare other comic book genre movies, I have to saw I enjoying "Iron Man" much more.

I'm almost done with my assigned reading for the first week of class- "How to Read Like a Lawyer." It's actually been fairly interesting, and not a slow read. I should finish with ease tomorrow, and then I plan on going through a second time and taking some notes and doing the exercises over a second time.

So, apart from archery and my assignment, not a whole lot planned for this week. Tuesday is my dinner night- udon and sushi this time around. Plan on starting way early, so I can actually sit down and eat with everyone, instead of frantically making rolls while everyone else gets to eat!

You know, I think it might even rain- we've been getting cloud build-up all day, and it just feels like rain- still, humid, and very warm. If we were in the Midwest, I'd say it was a sure thing.

"But to have no talent is not enough..."

I love this scene from "Gypsy"!