Keeping Chris Entertained Entertains Me

There are many things that I love about my husband. I would like to enumerate them all here on the blog, but I don’t know if he would appreciate that so I’ll keep my enthusiasm about him down to a minimum; but I would like to write just a little bit about him. My Chris is one funny man especially when he’s not trying to be funny. We started talking about our move back to Salt Lake, and we decided that we are going to take our time driving across the country. On our way here to DC, we tried to make the trip as short as possible and were able to make it in just a couple of days. When we drive back to Salt Lake, we are going to take our time and see things that we haven’t seen before, specifically baseball games. The other day Chris planned out our entire route home by the baseball games that he wanted to see. At the moment, he has planned 4 baseball games (the tickets are already paid for) and would probably have added one or two more if I hadn’t put my foot down. He’s funny because he is more excited about our baseball tour than about being finished with law school and moving back close to his family and close friends. Fortunately his enthusiasm is contagious so I’m starting to get excited about seeing the games as well even though baseball is my least favorite sport to watch. I don’t mind watching a game or two, but I would much rather be watching Hockey or Football or even basketball. So instead of leaving on the 10th of May and making it home by the 12th or 13th, we are going to be extending our trip three, maybe four days. Luckily we don’t have to be home for Chris’ bar classes until the 19th, so if he should decide to add another game, we’ll still be back in time for him to attend. The trip should be a good time.

Our Car Part III

To conclude the series about our car, I am pleased to announce that we finally got a new car. We decided to buy another Elantra because we really liked the one we had. For just a little bit more than the insurance check, we were able to buy a brand new 2008 Elantra, and I have to say, I'm not a big fan of the new car smell. I know, that's crazy talk, right? Some people will do an awful lot to get that smell, even buy a sent they can spray in their car that will smell the same. I am not a fan, though. What I am a fan of is all the new little compartments and new features of the car. I'm a sucker for gizmos. We can hide things all over our car, and who knows if we'll ever find them again. We'll have to do some real searching if we need to find something in there. It's a relief to finally have that all taken care of. I've been driving around in an awful rental car that was big and bulky and had huge blind spot because the car was attempting to look sleek while in reality, it was just making it hard to see. The windows were all slanted at odd angles making it hard to see. But now we have a nice car that I feel comfortable driving. The end.

Thanks For The Recommendation, Mummie

My mother has been telling me for ages to read Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. She told me that it's a really funny book and that I would get a kick out of it. Of course she was right. You should always listen to your mother. I'm a big Steinbeck fan. I've read a number of his books while we've been here in Virginia, mostly because there always seems to be one that I haven't read when I'm perusing used books. I with the exception of one or two, I've found that his books are funny and enlightening and insightful. Cannery Row was not one of the exceptions. It was very entertaining of course, but what I liked best about it were the characters. Steinbeck is able to portray his characters in such a way that one is able to empathize with them in almost anything that they do. He is able to make vagrants, prostitutes, and philanderers almost lovable. The main characters of Cannery Row scam a store owner out of giving them a free place to live, they end up practically destroying a laboratory, they lie, they cheat people out of money and other goods, they drink too much and they do other things that would normally make them objects of derision. But Steinbeck is able to show these characters as well meaning. Nothing they do is malicious and as we follow their thought processes we find that they are really kind and want to do good, though things they try to do end up going wrong most of the time which is what makes the book so funny. I would definitely recommend this book.

Why Don't We Just Buy A New Car Every Year. Oh Wait...

I had written a post regarding our car the other day, but it was just too bitter and angry to post, so I’ve given myself some cooling off time, revised it and here it is. Chris and I get to shop for a new car, woo whoo. Last month I was rear ended as you might remember from a previous post. The damage to the car was considerably more than either I or the insurance people had originally thought, enough that fixing it would cost more than the car is worth (so they’re not going to). Thus, as soon as we hear how much the insurance company is going to give us to replace the car, Chris and I will once again be shopping for a new one. Luckily for us, we’re old pros at shopping for cars as we had just bought our freshly damaged Elantra only a year ago. I’ve been trying to talk Chris into buying us a car that has seat warmers for those long cold winter days in Salt Lake which we will be experiencing next year, but he doesn’t seem too enthusiastic, so it’s probably just a pipe dream. Alas!

Oh Canada

Chris and I got back from Toronto on Saturday. We had a great time. A lot happened, so instead of writing a post that would be much too long, I've decided to just post the pictures instead. Enjoy!

This is Chris with the holy grail of hockey stuff. Now he can never win it!


There was no way I was going to kiss that thing. I don't know who's lips have been there. I told Chris if he gets cold sores, I'm never kissing him again!


This is where the Maple Leafs played for almost 75 years! Canada has so much hockey history. I know what your thinking...what are leafs?


This was at the new Maple Leaf stadium. Those crazy Canadians.


These are our seats at the game we went to. What seats? We got there and found out that we paid for standing room only!


In keeping with the hockey theme, we went ice skating. Look at Chris showing his stuff.


Chris was even able to get me onto the ice.


This was the biggest piece of pizza that I've ever eaten. It was really yummie!

Movies For One And All

Last night the JRCLSSA had their monthly girls night, and it was my turn to host with a good friend. I am not a good host, to say the very least. I get really nervous when a lot of people listen to me at one time and I hate being the center of attention. So of course when I was talking, I was babbling like and idiot and making asinine comments when I would be talking like a normal human being if I was talking to just one person. Anyway, everything seemed to go fine. Sarah and I decided to do our night on Movies, so we picked out some of our favorites and had everyone email their favorite movie quotes and it worked out pretty well. We had a nice mix of some fun contemporary movies and old favorites. My contribution was a mix of old stuff. I love old movies, old musicals and whatnot. The dialogue in old movies seem to me so much better because they couldn’t rely on special movie effects and people were always breaking out into spontaneous dance routines (yes I know “spontaneous dance routines” is contradictory which is why it’s usually pretty funny). I got a chance to talk a little bit about some of my favorite movies last night, and while I’m sure people just thought I was a little crazy, they had the chance to humor me for a little while and I would be thrilled if someone sat down and watched one of those movies on my recommendation. It was a fun night.

Let's See How Much He Really Wants To Be A Lawyer

As Chris is getting ready to finish his law school experience, he’s finding that getting out of law school seems to be a lot harder than getting in. Sure, in order to get into law school he had to take the LSAT exam and send in applications to good schools and maybe write an essay or two for those applications. But in order to call himself a lawyer, to use those three little letters at the end of his name, Esq. (not that he cares about that sort of thing, I’m just using that as an example of the little he receives after all the work he’s put in), he has to do everything but sign away the rights to our first born son. Of course he has to finish his final semester and get the diploma (he doesn’t want to attend graduation). After he’s finished with finals and graduation, however, he has to take another class to learn how to pass the Bar Exam, a grueling 2 or 3 day mind numbing horror of a test that over half the people who take in California fail (okay, so the Utah Bar pass rate is higher, but I’m going for effect here, experience the horror with me people). For the price of the class that Chris is taking before the bar, we could have taken a nice vacation, or put a nice down payment on a car, or paid our rent for a couple of months. After he’s finished the class, of course comes the Bar itself. But you can't just walk into the examination room and say “hey, can I take this test?”. Oh no, you have to send in an application that needs a background check, fingerprints, a passport type photo, driving records for the last three years, lawyer recommendations, peer recommendations, a urine sample, a blood sample, a lock of hair, the location of your childhood baseball card collection, and your signature to a paper stating that you haven’t sold your soul to the devil yet but he can have it for the right price after the test, and it all has to be notarized. Okay, okay, some of that is made up, but you get my point. The background check alone was enough to disturb the peace of our little family. Chris looked at the Bar application a month and a half before it was due, which should have been enough time, right? Wrong. Chris looked into it and apparently the background check can take up to 20 weeks to get back. 20 weeks! That means that an applicant would have to look at the application 5 months before turning in the application! Also, the application has to be turned in four or five months before you can take the exam, so really, you have to be getting ready to take the bar a good 9 months before you can take it. When Chris read that, he panicked a little bit because without the background check, they will not allow you to take the test, period. No excuses, no exceptions. Luckily the FBI is having a bit of a slow month because Chris got his background check back in a mere three weeks after doing everything he could to get it expedited. Chris is waiting on just one more letter of recommendation and his driving record and then after paying somewhere around $500 for the actual test, he can hold his head high as he walks into the test that everyone dreads for three years of law school. Hopefully he passes the first time because he has to wait 6 months before he can take it again, but if he does pass it, what a relief. Then he’s a lawyer.