Saturday, July 29, 2006

Stir Crazy

It's already the end of July and I'm finally feeling like I can enjoy the summer. I've finished my bar exams and PLTC is over. Spending more time studying would probably have bored me into complete sloth and lethargy. Good thing that's all over and done with.*

*Note: it's only all over and done if I haven't failed anything. I'm hoping that I haven't ... I did try my best even though I didn't appear to study hard!

In slightly less than two days, hubby and I are off to the land of heat waves, fog, and earthquakes. Good old Frisco awaits. (I heard the locals hate the name "Frisco.") I'm looking forward to the vacation, but at the same time it's been a difficult trip to plan. Our entire honeymoon was easier to plan, and it was twice as long. But I guess that's what happens when you travel in a group, and when people don't even live close together.

After the trip, we'll be back the long, hard grind of daily life. Hooray! Well, I suppose it isn't all bad. At least I'll eventually be referred to as a lawyer and not just a student.

In other news, hubby and I got accepted to an Operation Christmas Child shoebox distribution trip. You've probably heard about it before, but in case you haven't, here's the link to give you more information. We'll be going to Costa Rica, in Central America, sometime next January. Pretty exciting. I've actually never been on a short-term missions trip - the timing has never worked out for me. Now that I can take time off, it'll be a cool experience, I think.

When we were in Orlando we enjoyed some delicious ice cream at Ghirardelli's, which as you probably all know, originated in San Fran. Yummm... I'm looking forward to more of that. Here's a picture to keep you all entertained while we're gone. Stay safe!


Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Why do today what you can put off for tomorrow ...

By now, those of you who have been following must realize that I'm not nearly as studious as I might appear to be. If you looked in the dictionary under "procrastination", you'd see me ... that is, if I could get my butt in gear to send Webster my picture :D Hope I haven't burst anyone's perfect impression of me.

Anyway, Part I of my exams is over. It wasn't too bad, or at least, I hope I didn't do badly. Hey, I wrote something on every question, that's helpful eh! My next exam is on Friday. I'm not looking forward to it, as you can imagine. In fact, my plan for today is to do nothing at all. Heh.

Last night, we had a dinner of chicken wings and .. well... chicken wings! We also had watermelon, and then I made these for dessert (from a box - don't get excited):


These lava cakes are made by Dr. Oetker. When you put your fork in them, warm chocolate oozes out while the cake is nice and moist. (Sorry Char - I know you aren't a chocolate fan - but if you were - you'd enjoy these!)

Unfortunately, I missed one crucial step - I forgot to grease the little aluminum tins that come with the box. You wouldn't think this would impact the entire dessert, but so it did. (Actually - if you were a chef - you would TOTALLY think this would impact the entire dessert.) I ended up with a sort of chocolate sauce/cake puddle. Oops. Hubby still ate two and pronounced them delicious, particularly with vanilla ice cream. It takes a strong man to love someone who can't even prepare a dessert from a box correctly.

Only five more days until San Fran. I broke out the suitcases and got them ready for packing already. Okay... actually... the reason I got the suitcases out is because I had to load one of them full of books for my exam (it's open-book) and I already had one out when I realized it was too small. How nerdy! I wasn't the only one who showed up with a suitcase though, and personally, I think it's a little better than a big cardboard box filled with books. At least a suitcase is easy to pull around. I'm nothing if not ergonomically sensitive.

Till next time, friends!

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Studying puts me into a haze.

I used to study in the Law Library on some occasions while in law school (this may seem like an obvious thing to say, but actually, a great portion of people in the Law Library aren't actually in law school. Why they would choose to study in the most dungeon-like building next to Main Library's bowels is beyond me.) I have to say that studying at school was pretty useless though, as I was armed with a laptop and wireless internet.

So, I started studying at home. You'd think that would be worse, but in fact, I got a lot done.

I haven't had to study in over a year, but now that the bar exams are close at hand, I'm forced to apply myself once again. So, I've been studying at my new home. It's very different. For one thing, the lighting is best in the living room (at my mom's house, the lighting was best in the kitchen) - so I'm studying on the couch. As well, it's very quiet here when the hubby is gone, and I hate quiet.

What do I hate more than quiet? STUDYING. My gosh. It puts me into this lethargic, apathetic state. I get up in the morning and shower ... and then, it takes a herculean effort just to crack open a book. I spend most of the day in sweats or other unappealing clothing. I feel hungry but at the same time, I'm too lazy to actually make anything. I feel as though I absorb hardly anything when I am studying... ugh.

I know I shouldn't complain... but it's difficult not to :) Can't wait to go back to work!!!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

It's crunch time

...and in more ways than one!

1) The first part of my bar exam is in about two weeks (it's two parts spread out over a few days.) Nervous, you ask? Nope! Shouldn't I be? Probably! I do need to do some major studying, but it's been difficult since they've also given us assignments to do in the next two weeks. What a waste of time.

2) In my haste yesterday, I managed to scratch someone's car while parking. I didn't feel a bump, but rather, I heard a lovely scratching noise. Fantastic! I'm so pleased with my driving. I was in a rush, so I left them a note and took a few pictures (I carry my camera everywhere, usually!)

3) There's less than three weeks to San Fran, and it's been an irritating process for me to plan this trip. I'm usually so good at the trip planning, so when I'm not good at it, it's incredibly frustrating. Blah. Too bad the Yam isn't getting married at Disney World, I would have been far more organized for that :)

4) I have a springform pan and would love to make a cheesecake sometime - but not those super dense ones. Unfortch, I've put myself on a three week starvation diet. Well, not starvation. But far less snacking and hardly any treats. Perhaps I shouldn't watch so much Food Network, it just makes me hungry!

Thursday, July 06, 2006

One year and counting

It's a few days past our first anniversary now. Thanks to everyone who remembered - you guys are so sweet! We had a great weekend, very relaxing. Unfortunately, I had some delightful work to do in the form of an Assessment. (assignments = worth no marks; assessments = worth a pass/fail mark) Ugh. Oh well, we still had a good time. We bought a crepe maker and enjoyed some delicious banana/chocolate-filled crepes with ice cream (for breakfast! ridiculous.)

Hard to believe it's already been a year, maybe because we dated for a long time. Lots of people say the first year is the hardest, particularly when you're adjusting to living together for the first time. I have to say, however, that if this is the hardest year, life is gonna be incredibly easy for the rest of the years. Hubby and I get along pretty well (despite my bad temper and his slightly worse temper) and we seem to have a good balance of "us time" and "not us time". (The words - they are falling out of my head right now.) If there's one area to improve on, it's that we sometimes fail to put God first.

Here's one of our wedding pics. I really like this one (kinda blurry on the computer, we had film and not digital pics) - it's like we're walking toward our future, but with a glance back at our past.


Ahh, memories. Well, at least my voice is around this year.

Okay, onto other news.

I'm watching Bob Blumer right now. He's one of my favourite chefs on the Food Network. I'm not a huge Anthony Bourdain fan (sorry Char) or Jamie Oliver fan and I definitely could do without Bobblehead. But how cool is Bob Blumer - he cooks in a trailer shaped like a toaster! Fantastic! He just made pear wontons. I also like Michael Smith (the huge guy) - except that sometimes his staring is a smidge creepy.

Class is so dull right now that I've made it my goal to complete one crossword puzzle a day. Not as easy as it sounds, since I insist on completing the NY Times crossword. I got a lot of help today from classmates, so we finished all but three words (which were all names of people we don't know.) I used to do crosswords in law school too. I have a super short attention span, it's kind of unfortunate.

Hmm - Bob's making walnut gorgonzola bites with honey which he says are delish. Ummm.... I'll take your word for it, Bob.