Guess whose hand I just shook...

Elder Oaks!!!

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time!!
(I guess working at the Marriot Center during all the craziness of women's conference has its advantages)

Summer of Books

Last year I wanted to keep track of all of the books I read over the summer and this year I'm actually doing it - and I convinced Christy to go along with it as well. So on the right you'll see the books we are reading and the ones we've finished (there will likely be a bit of overlap since we tend to read the same books).

And we definitely welcome suggestions. Feel free to post some of your favorite books in the comments. Most of the best books I've read have been suggested by someone else. "Summer of Books," here we come!

School's out for Summer!

It's official. I made it through my first year of law school - alive. And I found that I really liked it too (for the most part). The best part of my first year of law school (even better than all of the free pizza) is that it's over. And to Christy's great relief, I finally figured out what I'm going to do this summer!

For 5 weeks starting in May, I'm going to be doing what the law school affectionately calls an "externship" and the rest of the world calls an "unpaid internship." I guess BYU wants to make you feel like getting paid in college credit is an acceptable substitute for the money you aren't making. Anyway, I get an easy 4 credit hours out of it and get to experience life at a small law firm - Fillmore Spencer LLC here in Provo. I got the externship through BYU without a formal interview so I've never actually met anyone from the firm, but everyone that I mention it to either has never heard of the place or only has good things to say. The point being that I'll likely have a good experience.

I've had this externship lined up since December, but have had a really hard time finding something good to do for the rest of the summer. After half a dozen rejections, I finally found something that is perfect. I'm going to be working as a full time research assistant for my contracts professor, Cheryl Preston, working on "various papers dealing with Internet regulation and the law relevant to children's online activities." I loved being a research assistant as an undergraduate and this sounds like it will be a great opportunity as well. Plus, I'll be getting paid.

And that's that. Hopefully after the summer I'll still want to practice law. But I guess either way, at least I'll know. Wish me luck.

'You can't pull me down! '

Hallelujah! It's the last day of classes for me :)

And sadly it looks like this outside...

Why is the weather not celebrating with me??
Oh yeah, spring is weird in Utah!

Let's play catch-up!

This will be a jumble of a few things...

1) Brandon is now 24! wow, he's old :) We spent the weekend up in Salt Lake celebrating. It was a lot of fun.

2) We finally got a new car!! (like 2 weeks ago) We had to go up to Ogden to look at it and pick it up. Thanks to Rob for being willing to drive us up there!
On the way we thought it would be fun to take pictures of us holding lots of money, probably cuz it will never happen again :)His camera has a cool feature where you can pick a design and then take a picture inside of a picture. So, this is my creation. It made me laugh.


And... Here it is!!
It actually has windshield wipers that work! along with many other luxuries. I am really happy with it so far.
3) My last day of practicum was yesterday. It was a bittersweet day. I am so relieved to be done with all the nit-picky assignments. However, I really learned a lot and really enjoyed teaching those wonderful kids. The kids wrote a class note to me, saying the nicest things. Also, a few kids made things on their own to give to me. I am really going to miss being there. My teacher also gave me some books that I can use when I have my own class, and she made me a little scrapbook of pictures. She was really great, and helped me out a ton. I am definitely going to miss 5th grade!!

Health care, I laugh in your face!

All of the controversy about the recent health care legislation has reminded me just how much we all need a little bit of humor in our lives. And recently, I've had more than my share, so I feel an obligation to inspire others to indulge as well.

A week and a half ago, Christy took me to see Brian Regan in Salt Lake. The tickets weren't cheap (I've been informed they were my Valentine's Day and birthday presents), but the show was amazing!

For those of you who aren't familiar with Brian Regan, he's a stand-up comedian. And he's hilarious. I got my first exposure to his comedy in the last area in my mission when my companion would quote extensively from his shows. And since then, I've enjoyed listening to the audio and especially watching clips on YouTube. Here's a sample:



Anyway, his stuff is funny no matter where you listen/see it, but it was even better in person. So good that they filled up Abravanel Hall with fans for the show. (Who does a comedy show in a concert hall?)


I can't say enough how brilliant the show was. Brian Regan has the funniest expressions, vocal inflections, and even has very insightful jokes. I felt bad because I was laughing so hard (and my laugh gets a bit on the obnoxious side in excess) that I'm sure everyone around me wished they had paid the $5 extra for better seats. But I couldn't help it.

Anyway, the point of this post is twofold: 1) to show that I really do have an amazing wife who knows what I like, and 2) to encourage a little laughter: it really is the best medicine. And if you find yourself needing an extra dose of humor in these interesting political times, failblog.org kept me chuckling for a good hour today. Enjoy!

Discounts and a Slice of Pi

I can't say that I've ever truly celebrated Pi Day (3/14) before despite being in the Statistics department for a few years. But who can pass up a "holiday" devoted to pie? So last Sunday we decided to bask in its glory.

Well, it turned out that we didn't have any ingredients to make pie, so Christy improvised and we enjoyed a delicious Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Pie. Emphasis on delicious.


Part II
I guess that's as good of a transition as I can offer between completely unrelated posts (without actually making this a separate post).

Anyway, I've always kind of looked down on the DI, only using it when I needed something cheap and didn't care about what condition it was in. Well, this past weekend was such an occasion. I needed a junky computer mouse to replace my broken one.

I did manage to find a mouse (even though I foolishly didn't check to see if my computer even had an old-school mouse port), but even better, I found love for the DI. In the form of board games.


Somehow, all 3 of these games had all of the pieces (including the instruction manuals). And who's ever heard of Super Rack-O anyway? (it was made in 1983). But all three of these beauties only set us back $6.50.

Now I realize that I post this at my own risk. Before you go and rush all of the DI's in Utah, just know that we've already laid claim on the Provo DI. Feel free to ransack the rest. And if you feel indebted for such good advice, feel free to donate some of those finds to us (you can even count it as my birthday present).