Things and stuff

New birds

2009-05-20T08:38:00.004-04:00

For some reason we had a couple of new birds come to the yard a few days ago. A red bellied woodpecker came to the feeder, and a northern flicker (another woodpecker) was out in the yard trying to find ants and other bugs. Check out the pics below.

In other outdoors news, we finished the new garden along the side of the garage. Planted a bunch of different flowers and a couple of interesting bushes—hope they survive. Also started growing sweet peppers and oregano.

Red bellied woodpecker

Northern flicker

Graduation rain

2009-05-14T08:56:00.004-04:00

It's graduation day for the rest of the university (mine's next Thursday), so of course it's raining. Nothing worse than rain on your graduation day—slogging through the rain in your gown, taking pictures inside instead of out in the spring sun, family members getting drenched.

I remember my undergrad graduation day, it was absolutely pouring. My poor parents got soaked waiting outside for me after the ceremony, then everyone skuttled over to the student center for the reception and pictures. On the other hand, my grad school graduation was a perfect day in Washington Square Park in NYC. Wonder what my third (and FINAL) graduation will be like?

In other news, one of my favorite bands, Testament, will be in town in May 27 for a show, so we're checking that out. Along with Metallica and Megadeth (and many others) they were one of the originators of the Bay Area Thrash sound in the 80s. They're still going strong more than twenty years later.

All finished.

2009-05-12T07:44:00.004-04:00

Well that's all she wrote, folks. Had my last final exam yesterday, so I am officially finished with law school. Graduation is next Thursday.

Now I'm sitting on the front porch, sipping coffee, reading the news, and enjoying a nice spring morning. Birds are buzzing around the feeder, and a bright red cardinal is on the neighbor's TV antenna, singing his song.

I'm staying home today, but still doing work Law Review. That'll be ongoing until probably August. Bar exam preparation starts on the 26th, and goes until just before the exam, in late July. My job doesn't start until January now, so I'm not sure what I'll be doing for those few months. My guess is a combination of volunteer legal work and home improvement.

2009-05-10T10:34:00.003-04:00

Happy Birthday, Michele!

Still wet.

2009-05-07T08:46:00.002-04:00

It's still raining.

The roof is leaking in my office.

Our grass is a foot high.

The vegetables we planted are probably waterlogged.

The sunflowers aren't getting any sun.

Please stop raining.

Wet

2009-05-05T08:27:00.003-04:00

Is it ever going to stop raining? We're stuck in one of those big rainy messes that seem to come once every couple of months (and that delayed the World Series for a couple of days). It's basically been raining since last Wednesday.

Our grass is about a foot high; I should've mowed it during the brief break from rain on Saturday, but we decided to drink beers and listen to baseball on the deck instead. It was worth it.

Flu fear

2009-05-02T10:18:00.002-04:00

Following up on that last post, is this article really a surprise? "Emergency Rooms Fill With Record Numbers, but Many Aren't Ill, Just Afraid." Gee, I wonder how people got so scared?

Swine flu

2009-05-01T08:16:00.002-04:00

This swine flu thing is really getting to me. The media coverage is all about how many people have it, how many have died, where is it going to go next, etc. The stories I've seen haven't talked about what it actually is, how you get it, how dangerous it is, the symptoms, etc. It's like the coverage of a political race where all they talk about is who's in the lead instead of what the issues are. That's not to say that there isn't any coverage of the practical issues, but it's far outweighed by articles stoking fear.

Mower

2009-04-28T15:16:00.002-04:00

Like Michele said, our two hand-me-down lawnmowers have fallen on hard times. One cuts really badly, so you have to basically go over everything twice. It also stops randomly. The other one is really hard to start and then conks out after ten minutes or so.

These are probably fixable problems, but we're kind of sick of dealing with this stuff so we just bought a new one instead. It's a Lawn Boy (made by Toro), and has really good reviews. All I really want is for it to work consistently and to be dependable. It better last for a good ten years, minimum. To make sure that happens, I'll be taking good care of this puppy.

The tulips that Michele and her parents planted in the front garden have really taken off. We're also growing sunflowers, but they're just tiny little guys right now. Also have some beans, peas, tomatoes, and parsley on the way.

Class is over

2009-04-23T18:39:00.002-04:00

Just had my last law school class ever. That really kind of snuck up on me, there's been so much else going on that I didn't even realize it until this morning. I can safely say that these three years have flown by. It wasn't always fun, and it's been more work than I ever imagined, but in the end it was worthwhile. Let's just hope I can start my job sometime soon and not get laid off before I even start. Michele, thanks for going along for the ride with me, I know it wasn't always easy on you.

In other news, we went to a Phillies game on Tuesday night. We had the cheap two-for-one tickets in the upper deck, but then there was a rain delay and everyone left so we moved down to the third row from the field, behind the other team's dugout. It was awesome. Just awesome. Besides the fact that Michele's head was almost taken off by a screaming foul ball off the bat of Chase Utley. She (and I) both ducked in time though. Wish I had my glove.

Pushed back

2009-04-21T08:51:00.003-04:00

Well, it's official: my job is not starting until January. Lots of law firms have been delaying the incoming folks (usually we'd start in September) because of the economy, so it wasn't a huge surprise. Still, it's a bummer—both personally and financially—to have to wait four more months to start working. Let's hope it doesn't get pushed back any further.

So now I have to find something to do between September and January... is McDonald's hiring?

Pitt

2009-04-19T09:39:00.003-04:00

Just booked a quick trip to Pittsburgh in June. We're trying to see some different ballparks, and flights to Pittsburgh are pretty cheap so we figured what the heck. I've wanted to see the Pirates stadium for a while now, it's supposed to be one of the best in baseball. And the views are sweet.

After this trip, we'll have been to see baseball games in:

Philadelphia (Veterans Stadium and Citizens Bank Park)
Pittsburgh (PNC Park)
New York (Shea Stadium)
New York (Yankee Stadium)
Baltimore (Camden Yards and Memorial Stadium)
Chicago (Wrigley Field)
Toronto (Skydome, or whatever they're calling it now)
San Francisco (AT&T Park)
Oakland (just me, at the Coliseum or whatever it's called now)
Los Angeles (Dodger Stadium)
Kansas City (just Michele, at Kauffman Stadium)
Cleveland (Jacobs Field)

Next up will probably be Washington.

Goodbye Harry

2009-04-14T08:32:00.003-04:00

It's a sad day here in Philadelphia. Harry Kalas, the Phillies broadcaster since 1970, died yesterday. Listening to baseball won't be the same without him. Sad to see you go, Harry. We're all going to miss you.

Grillin' n' birdin'

2009-03-09T20:06:00.004-04:00

With temperatures almost hitting 70 yesterday, you know we busted out the grill. Made some chicken with peanut sauce marinade—great stuff. You can use the peanut sauce from Trader Joe's (which is more of a marinade, less of a sauce), or you can use the more soy sauce-based type, which is what we went with this time. Grilled chicken can be kind of bland, but this has a nice Thai flavor.

Also managed to snap some decent bird pics. They're coming back to the feeder now, after a long winter. Saw a mockingbird, tufted titmouse, and a bunch of blue jays. Blue jays are probably my favorite, and they seem to be the smartest, too.

More on DVR

2009-03-06T08:38:00.002-05:00

I didn't really see what all the DVR fuss was about before, but now that we have a free one with our Verizon service, I'm loving it. Pausing live TV is cool, but my favorite aspects are (1) the seamless way it records your shows automatically, and (2) the 30-second fast forward button. This is old hat to DVR devotees, but I'm new to it and still think it's neat.

I love that we can watch both the American Idol performances and results show—three hours of programming—in 1.5 hours or less. I love that I can find a two-hour Andrew Jackson documentary and, instead of having to watch it at 10pm on a Thursday and sit through forty minutes of commercials, I can record it (with one button press) and watch it over the weekend in eighty minutes.

Yes, you could technically do these things with a VCR, but with DVR there's no tapes, no malfunctions, no system to learn, you can automate the whole thing, and you can fast forward in 30-second increments to avoid commercials.

For some people it lets them watch a lot more TV, but for us it just lets us watch television smarter. You don't plop down in front of the TV and see what's on--you check your DVR to see what you recorded. Then you skip all the commercials and other BS.

Idol

2009-03-05T08:44:00.002-05:00

You guys watching American Idol? We're pretty into it, especially since we can DVR it now (more on that later). Any favorites? I'm big on Danny (the guy who looks like Robert Downey Jr.) and Adam Lambert. For whatever reason the guys are much more interesting than the girls this season. I'm also a fan of Anoop--hope he makes it through the wildcard round tonight.

Perspective

2009-03-04T15:51:00.004-05:00

For some reason I recently came across Helen Keller's obituary from the NY Times, which is basically a mini-biography. She died in 1968.

Anyway, one part really stood out. Talking about her disabilities (remember—she was deaf, blind, and could barely speak because of her deafness), she wrote:

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times, but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. The wind passes, and the flowers are content.

Bathroom remodel

2009-03-03T08:55:00.003-05:00

We're remodeling our downstairs bathroom. I don't know if you've been to our house before, but the bathroom on the first floor has to be the smallest bathroom ever created. It's a tiny space, but it wouldn't be that bad if it were just painted and decorated properly. So that's what we're doing.

Previously it was kind of a light brown color, kind of the color of mud. The old owners got paint all over the ceiling. Here's what we've done (or will do):

Repainted the ceiling white and repainted the walls a really light yellow
Took down the old medicine cabinet and put up a plain mirror with dark brown trim
Repaint the vanity cabinets the same shade of dark brown
Replace the cabinet hardware to something more modern, like nickel
Change out the sink fixture from a brass finish to something darker, like this (it'll match the hardware)
Hang a dark brown wall cabinet above the potty for storage

It's not much but it will make a big difference. You can probably tell that our theme is light yellow for walls, dark brown for cabinets and trim, and bronze for hardware and fixtures. Should look awesome. All that HGTV will finally pay off.

Big trip

2009-03-02T10:49:00.004-05:00

A snowy day like this makes me look forward to the trip we just booked for August, after the bar exam. We're heading out to see my sister and her hubby at their new house in Slovenia—I absolutely can't wait.

We're flying into Venice and staying there for a couple days, then heading to Slovenia to stay with them for the week, then heading to Croatia for another few days, then flying out to Portugal for a day before coming back home.

Here's a little map I just made, with points at the main places we're going. Portugal's on there too but you have to zoom out a bit.

Finally some snow

2009-02-04T08:18:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone. Well, we finally got some real snow. After being teased a few times with a half inch of wintry mix, this time we got four to six inches of white, fluffy, honest-to-goodness snow. It was really pretty around our neighborhood last night, with all the trees decked out in white. Quite a change from Sunday, when we were outside in the 50-degree sun, sitting on the deck and grilling.

Harry's remark

2009-01-13T09:11:00.004-05:00

The little dust-up over Prince Harry's racist remark seems way overblown to me. If he meant it in a derogatory way then obviously it's unacceptable, but his explanation--that he meant it in a friendly way to a member of his army platoon--is totally believable. People would be shocked at the things men call each other when they're horsing around, or when they're in a group together (like a sports team or, yes, army platoon). They call each other things that would be normally offensive to a lot of people for a lot of reasons, but in context actually show affection.

If Harry had no malice when he said it, and the other guy wasn't offended, then all this feigned outrage is ridiculous. Any utterance of a particular word is not automatically offensive--there is such a thing as context, even for words that are often used with a racist or nasty intent. All of these people being outraged and offended on this guy's behalf are full of it.

An old house

2009-01-11T09:00:00.005-05:00

Here's a real estate listing for a house in our town. The interesting part? It was built in 1693.

316 years before today. Over 160 years before the Civil War. Almost 100 years before the Declaration of Independence and writing of the Constitution. I love that our neighborhood has neat houses like this. It was built by one of the founders of the town and looks like it's still in good shape.

Return of the hawk

2009-01-07T09:10:00.004-05:00

I'm kind of obsessed with this hawk we have living near the house, especially since it's been hanging around the trees near us for the last few weeks. The first pic below is cropped, the second is a wider angle so you can see how big this guy is (look in the upper center part of the photo).

2009

2009-01-02T09:08:00.002-05:00

Happy new year! Did everyone have a good holiday? We went to my parents' and brother's house for Christmas eve, then flew to Buffalo to be with Michele's family until the 29th. Hung out at a friend's house on new year's eve. Michele posted some pictures from Christmas eve and Christmas, check them out.

Ice

2008-12-21T09:49:00.005-05:00

Woke up to a lot of ice outside this morning. Here are a couple pics of the icy deck.

Man pays bill with spider drawing

2008-12-19T08:43:00.001-05:00

I don't know if this is real or not, but it's still funny: read it.

Hawk

2008-12-18T17:15:00.005-05:00

We've got a couple of hawks living in the trees around our house, they're good size suckers. I've been trying to get a decent picture of one for a few weeks now, but they're always way up in the trees. I did manage to get this shot yesterday. The quality's not great, since he was about 200 feet away.

DVR

2008-12-17T10:30:00.003-05:00

With our new Verizon service we have free DVR and premium channels for a short period. DVR is pretty neat, I'm a big fan of pausing the TV. One thing that surprised me though is that when you set it up to record a certain show at a certain time, it simply records whatever is on the channel at that time, regardless of whether the show you want is on. For example, we set it to record the Survivor finale on Sunday night, but it was delayed 30 minutes by football. I thought the DVR would adjust and start recording when Survivor started, but it just turned on at 8 and recorded until 10. We did catch the end of Survivor, since we also recorded the reunion show. DVR is cool, but we don't really watch enough TV to justify the expense.

We've checked out some movies on the premium channels. Michael Clayton (good), The Simpsons (not funny), Talladega Nights (sometimes funny), Edward Scissorhands (better than I remember).

Exam day

2008-12-11T08:29:00.003-05:00

Today is my first final--food and drug law. The course focused mainly on regulation of pharmaceuticals and the drug industry. Next up tomorrow is trusts and estates, followed by securities regulation on Monday and then political and civil rights later that week.

First-year students have their big torts exam today. I remember being in that position just a couple of years ago, being so nervous and having memorized all of my notes. Now in my third and final year, the jitters are still there but the fear is not.

Checks and balances

2008-12-09T08:51:00.002-05:00

Some people on the left are upset that Obama hasn't appointed many liberals to his cabinet yet. That's exactly why I voted for him--although some want to label him as a wild liberal, he's generally a pragmatic person who wants to make rational, informed decisions. He doesn't base his choices on party orthodoxy, and he's willing to work with Republicans to get things done.

The fact that Democrats control both Congress and the White House isn't a good thing in my view. There's a real danger that they'll ram through legislation just because they can; the party that's in total power often seems to end up self-destructing through corruption and hubris. Hopefully Obama will be a check on that.

More history

2008-12-08T08:39:00.003-05:00

I finished reading 1776 over the weekend--fantastic book. You may not think you're interested in the Revolutionary War or George Washington, but after reading this book you will be. McCullough's retelling of the dramatic events of that year is the main draw, but I also couldn't get enough of his descriptions of 18th century America. He's just a great storyteller.

Following up on this, next up on the reading list is Angel in the Whirlwind.

Is this copyright infringement?

2008-12-06T18:02:00.003-05:00

Guitarist Joe Satriani has sued Coldplay for copyright infringement. You be the judge.

They're obviously very similar, but the melody is so generic it's hard to believe Satriani can win this.

Where there's a will...

2008-12-03T08:37:00.003-05:00

It's just about time for finals here. I really liked my Trusts & Estates class--I can see myself settling down in a few years and opening up small firm to just make wills.

History

2008-11-26T17:10:00.003-05:00

I've been on kind of a history kick lately. Just finished reading Miracle at Philadelphia, which is a blow-by-blow account of the constitutional convention in 1787, based upon correspondence from the participants and records kept by James Madison and others. Now I'm reading 1776, which, as you might guess, is about the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

I've also become interested in antique maps. We recently ordered an original 1926 map of Springfield township, which includes a depiction of our lot with the original owner's name written by hand. The original owner built the house himself, housing his family in the garage while he and his brother completed construction.

This town dates back to at least 1686 (there was recently a house from 1688 for sale!), so there's plenty of history to explore. I'm really interested in learning more.

FIOS in the house

2008-11-26T16:50:00.002-05:00

We recently switched over to Verizon FIOS from Comcast. Comcast was just too expensive--and they just raised their rates again. The guy was here to install FIOS today, it took him a couple of hours but so far so good. The internet is much faster; haven't watched TV yet so we'll see about that. The best part is that it's 35% cheaper than Comcast. After the first year the rate will increase when all the promotions expire, but even then it'll be cheaper.

Switched our cell phones too, no complaints so far. The rate was the same as AT&T but Michele gets 17% off each month because of working at Temple. Nice.

Movies and games

2008-11-25T08:28:00.002-05:00

Watched Be Kind Rewind over the weekend--pretty good movie, not hilarious or anything but still funny at times. In a nutshell, it's about two guys who accidentally erase all the videos in a movie store and decide to recreate them on their own.

Played some Wii this weekend. Dr. Mario is still good fun, and now you can play it online against someone else with a Wii. Melinda when are we playing you? Also been playing World of Goo, which is a neat puzzle game where you build structures out of balls of goo in order to get the other goo balls to the end of the level. It sounds weird but trust me it's fun.

First snow

2008-11-21T08:54:00.002-05:00

Got our first snow of the season today. It started overnight and there was only a little bit on the ground this morning, but we're supposed to get an inch or two.

You have any weekend plans? We're going out to watch the Flyers/Sabres game tonight with a friend, but then nothing else all weekend. Nice to have a quiet, do-nothing weekend for a change. Then all of a sudden it's Thanksgiving, and that weekend big sister and two NYC friends are visiting. Fun stuff!

Door results

2008-11-20T19:38:00.001-05:00

When the guys installed our garage doors last week we had a webcam set up to watch. I saved a bunch of the pictures and made this slideshow of the progress. Pretty neat. We still have to paint the new wood they put up around the door on the right side.

Cold

2008-11-19T08:37:00.001-05:00

It's only November 19, but man is it cold outside. It's 28 right now. I guess it's payback for the 70 degree day we had last Saturday.

Pals

2008-11-14T08:46:00.000-05:00

Kitchen Nightmares

2008-11-14T08:35:00.000-05:00

Anyone watch Kitchen Nightmares? It's on Thursdays at 9. Great stuff. Gordon Ramsay, British celebrity chef, visits failing restaurants and turns them around. The restaurants usually have some massive sanitary problems, or the cooks can't cook, etc. It's worth watching just to see Ramsay explode at the owners after finding out the kitchen's full of roaches or the cooks don't know how to make rice.

The UK version is apparently less confrontational and more about the inner workings of a restaurant, which also sounds pretty neat.

Doors are done

2008-11-14T08:21:00.000-05:00

The new garage doors are installed. Took them more than one day, but they look pretty nice. I'll post a before and after this weekend.

New garage doors

2008-11-12T08:40:00.000-05:00

Not the most fascinating topic, I know, but today we're having new garage doors installed. We're using the Overhead Door Corporation, and so far we are not pleased. They were supposed to do it last Wednesday, so me and Michele took the day off and my dad came up, so we could do some work on the house while they did the doors. Well, they called that morning to say the doors hadn't arrived at the warehouse and they couldn't do it that day. We had scheduled it almost a month prior! So Michele wasted a day off. We must get a better deal because they messed up, right? Wrong. Not even a measly $50 to show that they were sorry and were acting in good faith.

Then I have to call them repeatedly just to talk to the installation guy, who never calls me back. We didn't know they were coming today until he called me at 7:45am, while we're on the train.

Anyway, we have the webcam set up to watch the installation. Check it out.

The offseason

2008-11-11T08:56:00.000-05:00

Funny article by a former MLB player on what they do in the offseason.

2008-11-08T09:47:00.000-05:00

Testing out the photo album feature. This is from a zoo trip a few months back.

A new era

2008-11-08T09:40:00.000-05:00

Hey all, this is my new blog. Moved over from TypePad, which was super slow and not worth the cost. This is free. My goal is to just write short little posts, not the long ones I did at the old site. That way I'll post more often. Sometimes I might just post a link to a news article or some other website, with minimal comments. We'll see how this goes.