The Patton family Christmas celebration was lots of fun, too. Poor little Anna Kate had a terrible cold (as did I), and she could barely breathe, so we held her the whole day and tried to make her feel better. Madeline got lots of fun "girly" stuff - including a Snow White Disney princess dress from her Uncle James and Aunt Kristen. Upon opening it, she promptly stripped naked in the middle of her presents and put on her new dress. Tyler got a really cool "imaginext" dinosaur, which we all enjoyed. He loved to "scare" people by making it roar at us.

We had a great time at the annual Park, Patton, Little family Christmas party. Almost the entire gang showed up, and we enjoyed some good food and "hang out" time. Madeline and Tyler were undoubtedly the life of the party, with Maddy spending quite a bit of time cuddled up to her Uncle James, whom she adores. (The feeling is quite mutual!)

My new necklace and earrings, with a Wash U law sweatshirt!





















James with the tree

















Dinner with our china and crystal





















Our tree, with a beautiful cross at the top.


James and I had a lovely "family" Christmas in our little apartment before we left St. Louis. We had a nice dinner, read the Christmas story in the Bible, and then opened presents that we got each other. James got lots of stuff - books, dvd's, games, xbox stuff, and clothes. My "big" present was a beautiful necklace and earrings made of south sea pearls! The next morning, we packed up our things and made the long drive to Georgia...

I'm FINALLY finished with finals. I actually only had three of them - Federal Jurisdiction, First Amendment, and Corporations. I am so glad to be finished - and now I have an apartment to clean up, presents to deliver, and lots of other stuff to do. James and I are hoping to drive back to Atlanta on Friday for Christmas.

CITY OF ANGELS

James and I spent this past weekend visiting family and interviewing at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. (James interviewed, not me =) He really liked the neurosurgery department out there, and he was impressed with how they run their program. They seem to allow the residents an unusually large level of responsibility and experience, which James really liked...basically, you spend the final two years of your residency as a "junior attending" with your own patients and no call (which is awesome, even though you're not being paid more for it). We also visited lots of family in the city. First, we went to Uncle Jim and Aunt Sherry's house to see all of their crew. All four of their kids came out to see us, and we had a great time hanging out with them. Scott's kids, Kyle and Troy, were SO cute, and they were so much fun to play with! Then we drove into Venice to spend some time with (my) Uncle Mike and Aunt Crystal and Joe. They took us out to this GREAT mexican restaurant that they love, and we ate fajitas. On Saturday, while James was at his interview, Aunt Crystal and I went to the Getty Villa, which is an art gallery near the beach in Malibu. It was AMAZING. They had beautiful mosaics, sculptures, and artifacts there. Then we went to lunch at Gladstones, which is a restaurant on the beach just down the street. It was so beautiful to sit and look out at the ocean, which was right beside our table out the window! The food was great, too.

Saturday night, James and I went out to eat at Villa Sorriso, an Italian restaurant in Pasadena, with the residents and other applicants from USC. The food was good, and we sat across from some really nice people. It was funny because it was halloween weekend, so they had a costume party at the restaurant and all the wait staff were wearing these crazy costumes. By the time that we left, most of the people in the restaurant were dressed in wild costumes (some of them looked pretty skanky). It was fun to watch them, though!

On Sunday afternoon, we drove out to El Monte to see (James's) Uncle Mike and Aunt Jenny. We visited with James's grandmother, who was so sweet to us. She seems so cheerful - every time she says something, she sort of chuckles. We showed her our wedding album, and I think that she enjoyed looking at the pictures. That evening, Jeff and Tracy (Mike and Jenny's kids) came out with their families, and we had a fun dinner with all of them. Jeff and his wife Jackie have two cute little boys with the most beautiful eyes, and David and Tracy have such an adorable, sweet little guy named Tyler. We played with the kids and hung out and watched the Chargers game - it was a fun, relaxing night. It was great for me to meet all these people who are now in my family - I'm so blessed to have such great people in my family!

We spent most of the day on Monday travelling back to St. Louis, and by the time we got home, we were worn out. All the driving, flying, carrying luggage, time change, etc. took lots of energy, but it was definitely worth it. We are planning another trip back to LA to visit the family again soon.

Hello Everybody! MY LITTLE SISTER GOT ENGAGED!!!! Isn't that awesome! I'm so excited. Tom proposed in Centennial Olympic Park right by the fountains (see the picture) and it was so pretty! He had a friend hiding with a camera, and then he took Meghan to the Sundial restaurant. They're going to get married in about a year and a half in spring of 2008. YAY!!!

We went home this past weekend for James to do his residency interview at the Medical College of Georgia. Meghan came home for Saturday night, and we went shopping with Mom. I got to see her ring, and it's beautiful. Tom did a really good job picking it out! Dad has been working in the yard, and it looks awesome.

This coming weekend, we're going out to Los Angeles to visit family out there. It will be nice to get to a warmer climate for a few days...it's been FREEZING here in St. Louis.

We went to Georgia this weekend for several reasons: Meghan's family weekend with her sorority, Jordan's birthday, and Anna Kate's being born a couple weeks ago. We had a great time...UGA won the football game (we all got sunburned), we gave Jordan a birthday party, and we got to hold and admire our new little niece, who is absolutely beautiful! Here are a few pictures...

I just got back home from a long but tiring weekend in Virginia. James is in Charlottesville for a month doing a visiting rotation at UVA, and I went to visit him for the weekend. I almost didn't make it because my flight to Washington DC was scheduled for Friday afternoon - right in the middle of the hurricane! Fortunately, I managed to get onto a flight late Thursday afternoon and get to C'ville before the storm hit. I flew back tonight, and now I'm really tired from all the travel.

We had a lot of fun this weekend, though. We drove out to the Blue Ridge Parkway and it was SO beautiful. We ate at all the best restaurants, too - Panda Garden, Amigo's, Cafe Europa, etc. We even walked around the Pi Lam house, and it was amazingly clean. (They must have gotten some good pledges for this year, because I would hardly have recognized the house inside - it looked so much cleaner!) James is staying at the house of a friend of the Sagar family, a really sweet lady named Robbie Munn, and her house is beautiful. I had so much fun talking to her and playing with all her cats! It made me want a pet so much!

Okay, well I'd better get some sleep...I'm really worn out from 8 hours of travelling today, and I've got class tomorrow morning. Fortunately, it'll all be done soon....

Highlights of my day:

1) waking up in Charlottesville on the University's move-in weekend for first year students....realizing just how long ago it was that I moved into the Webb dorm (now more than 7 years)

2) driving 2 hours to Dulles Airport at 8 in the morning

3) navigating through the Dulles Airport's construction zone...which will apparently be there for three more years

4) navigating through the Dulles Airport's HEIGHTENED security measures (thanks stupid Al Quaida)

5) doing all of the above with a HUGE head cold, including that a-million-needles-sticking-into-your-eyes-and-nose feeling

6) flying for TWO HOURS back to St. Louis with the aforementioned head cold - the pressure on my ears was excruciating

7) realizing when we landed that I actually couldn't hear anything....and I still can't really hear very much - I think I'm missing phone calls (sorry everybody)

8) standing in a long line at the grocery store while all the new students at Wash U buy their groceries

9) spending over $500 at the bookstore for my books

10) realizing that I have to start back to school tomorrow morning

11) realizing that I'm in St. Louis ALONE while James is in Virginia for the next FOUR WEEKS on a visiting neurosurgery rotation at UVA

It's just one of those days where I wish I hadn't gotten out of bed. I think I'll go get back into it now and stay there until tomorrow.

If you've been watching/reading the news for the past couple of weeks, you know that St. Louis got hit with a HUGE storm about 10 days ago, leaving up to 500,000 people without power. (That's the latest estimate from our terrible electric company, which is called AmerenUE.) Then, just a few days later, ANOTHER storm came through and blew out the power for 200,000 MORE people! We were blessed not to lose power for more than a few seconds, but the storm was really scary. James was in the operating room in a neurosurgery, so he didn't see it, but I was home all alone, and it was one of the scariest storms I've ever seen. The entire sky turned into a huge, low black cloud...in fact, we live on the 20th floor of our building, and we were so high up in the cloud that I couldn't see the ground...I could barely see across the street! I rushed to bring my plants inside from the outside balcony, and I made it with just seconds to spare. In fact, on my last trip inside, the storm was blowing so hard that it held my screen door shut, and I couldn't get it open no matter how hard I tried. It scared me because I was really afraid that I could get blown off the balcony - the wind was really blowing that hard - it was like being inside a tornado. Between gusts of wind, I finally wrenched the door open and made it inside.

When it was finally all over, I looked outside to check the damage, and there were huge trees blown down EVERYWHERE - on top of houses, cars, and telephone lines (many of them were setting the huge trees on fire, burning houses and cars, etc.) We had a close shave - my car stays parked inside under the apartment building, but James's car stays parked on the street, and he missed having a tree fall on it by about 4 feet!! The car behind his was smashed!!!!! I copied the pictures above from a friend's blog so that you guys could have an idea of how things looked, but these pics are from after most of the damage was cleaned up, so it was really much worse. I couldn't believe that we kept our power - everyone else I know lost it for at least 4 days, many for much longer. I think that since we are on the same part of the grid as the huge hospital complex, our power lines are more protected. Amazingly, even some of the other hospitals lost power, so they had to ship their patients to Barnes. Most of the grocery stores did, too, so there wasn't alot of fresh food in town. Not that the city had refrigerators to hold it anymore.

Okay, well back to work...

Here are a few pictures from our family vacation to Disney World. We were a little worried that Tyler and Madeline were too young to enjoy it, but they did really well....so well, in fact, that they often shamed me into behaving myself and not complaining when the Florida heat made me uncomfortable! Lisa, 6 months pregnant that she is, was a trooper as always, and Dad recorded the whole time with his camera. We missed Jordan, though. He was unable to get away from work for that long, so we weren't able to have the whole family along, but we still enjoyed the time together.

Hello people,

So my sister finally showed me how to put pictures on my blog and now you'll see cool stuff that I'm telling you about! This was a fountain inside a restaurant in Memphis that I saw a couple weeks ago when James and I went to see Jordan there. Cool, isn't it? It has a real fire rising up out of the water.

WOW QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve been tying to see things from a liberal perspective. Unfortunately, I can’t get my head that far up my ass. I guess it takes a lot of flexibility to be a liberal. It also takes a considerable lack of backbone.” - Mike Adams

I've been surprisingly busy since school ended. As soon as I got home from my last exam, I started working on the project that is my summer job so that I could bill some hours, and I've been basically working on it every day since then. Last week, I flew home for the weekend to attend Jonathan's graduation from the Medical College of Georgia, which was really nice. It's funny to think that my dad did the exact same thing at the same place before I was even born! So now there are TWO Dr. Pattons - Dr. Henry and Dr. Jonathan. I might as well just admit right here that I'll never think of Jonathan as a doctor. To me he'll always be that guy who rented me his crayons when he was 7, shot Jordan in the rear end when he was 10, and tried to vacuum my toes off when he was 12. He's going to stay in Augusta, Georgia to do his residency, so they're living in the same house. I think that's really nice - it's so expensive to move, and they'll be close to home, which Lisa will love four months from now when she's got 3 kids.

I also went home to pick up the car that Nana is letting us use, but I had to fly back early because James and I got invited to a party at the head of neurosurgery's house back in St. Louis. We went to the party on Tuesday night, and it was really nice - we met lots of people that were good for James to meet, and we even got to talk to Dr. John Jane, who is the famous neurosurgeon at UVa - the one who did the neurosurgery on Christopher Reeve (aka Superman). Dr. Jane was really nice, and I think that he'd be a fun guy to know. James and I both had a good time, and I'm glad that I flew back for the party because I think that it made it easier for James to talk to people.

We had lots of the guys in the medical school over tonight to watch fighting on television, and they're all excited because next weekend is the Ultimate Fighting Championship #60....where Royce Gracie is fighting Matt Hughes. It should be a great fight because they're both famous MMA fighters. It's going to be on pay per view, so everybody is going to pitch in and come over to watch it. Hopefully when it's over, I'll have time to do a fight recap and let everyone know who won each of the fights.

Okay, well I'm tired, so I'm off to bed. Goodnight everyone....

Hello, lovely people...I'm FINALLY DONE WITH EXAMS!!!!!!!!! I finished my second year of law school yesterday when I turned in my last exam, and I am so glad that I went ahead and finished those things early, because I could not study any more if my life depended on it. James had the day off today (finally) so we just spent the whole day playing. We slept really late this morning and then skipped breakfast in favor of an early lunch at the Macaroni Grill, which was FREE since I had a gift certificate. Then we went to Best Buy to return something and to Sports Authority to buy James a muay thai pad that he wanted to use to work out. Then we went to Borders and read magazines, which we love to do and haven't done in a long time. We were there like an hour and a half just hanging out.

Then we drove out of the city to west county to the Bentley/Maserati/Ferrari/Rolls Royce/pretty much any ridiculously expensive car dealership to look at the cars. I'm not really into cars at all, but it's still fun to go there with James because he's like a 5 year old in Toys-R-Us. They know us, so they trust us enough to let us sit inside the cars (you can't normally touch them). Today we played with the Bentley's new car, the Flying Spur. It was beautiful!!! We want one in this really cool blue/black color with the light leather interior and the full back seat. (So if anybody has $200,000 that they don't need and would like to give us, feel free to do so!) We played at the dealership for about an hour and a half, and when we left, James gave me a big hug and said "Thanks for taking me to the toystore!! I had so much fun!!" Ha, ha, ha!

Then we went to Ben and Jerry's, across the street from the car place, to get some ice cream. We ate it at one of the cute little tables outside, and then we went to lay on a blanket in the park beside the boathouse. It was so nice to just sit outside and pretend that we don't have to live in a city. James never minded cities before (I always hated them) but I think that by the time we leave St. Louis, I will have at least one reason to be thankful for living here....This place has made James HATE cities and want to live somewhere quiet, out in the country. We think Savannah would be nice.

I'm going to start working tomorrow. I've been doing nothing but exams for 7 days, and I got all 4 of them done, so now it's back to the potboilers. I'll probably get up in the morning tomorrow, run on the treadmill, and then dive into getting all of the files that I have at home finished. My work this summer, which is mostly on prison litigation, is going to be pretty boring, but I'm really thankful to have it. It will pay the bills (hopefully) while still allowing me to spend some time at home and get out of St. Louis for awhile. Hopefully I'll be able to spend a few weeks in Georgia at least.

I am going to be at Mom and Dad's house a bit next week because I'm going home for Jonathan's graduation. I'm going to fly home, go to the graduation, ride to Savannah with Nana, pick up the car that she has for James, and then drive it back to St. Louis. That'll probably take about 6 days because I need the car to get checked out and insured before I can drive it back, so hopefully it'll all work out. James is working all night shifts for the next three weeks, anyway, so he wouldn't be around, and it seemed like a good time to get all this done.

Okay, well James just finished his workout, so I'm going to go hang out! See ya later.

Countries I've visited are in red, and those I haven't visited are gray.



create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

I finally did it....I watched the movie Predator. James has been trying to get me to watch it for like 4 years because it's one of his absolute favorite movies, but I've never wanted to see it. For his birthday last week, I gave him a dvd copy of the movie and told him that I would finally watch it with him. So, tonight we watched it while we ate dinner. It was a yucky movie, with some bloody scenes in it, but it was a good story! (Better than I thought it would be.) All-star cast - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed from Rocky), Jesse the Body Ventura, and everybody else!

This is my last week of class for the semester, and my seminar final paper is due on Friday. I did my presentation on it today in class, and I'll be happy to finally have all this over. Well, I'd write a little more, but I've got to get to bed so I can get up early and study. I'll write again soon...goodnight!

After some bad car experiences in the past few months, it was great to get some GOOD car news this week. On Wednesday, my mom called and told us that my grandmother had an extra car that she didn't need anymore, and that James and I could have it for FREE if we wanted it! We are so excited...James doesn't have a car, and sometimes that's been really difficult this year when he's had to drive far away and I had to take the bus to school. The buses are unreliable this year, but they were going to get even worse next year because the school is turning the student bus system over to the city. Public transportation buses aren't all that safe in St. Louis, and I'd have been afraid to ride them. It's so nice to know that I won't have to worry about that!

I bought some more herbs to grow in my kitchen window, so now I have 2 types of basil, tyme, oregano, lavender, and parsley. The basil won't live through the winter, but hopefully everything else will if I keep it under the special agro-light. We'll see...I'd love to have some nice herbs to plant in my garden when we move out of St. Louis for our residency. I can't wait to have some land to plant flowers and vegetables. I think I must have inherited that from my dad and from my nana, who can make ANYTHING grow. It's so much fun to grow vegetables and fruit and then eat it and cook with it. It's like getting free food, and you can share it with other people, too!

The weather has started to warm up here FINALLY, and we are excited to be able to spend some time outside. We went to the Missouri Botanic Gardens today, and lots of the early flowers were out. It was pretty, and they smelled so good! It made me itch to be outside even more. Of course, it also means that exams are coming...

WHAT ARE YOU DOING MAY 19TH?

May 19th is the date the Da Vinci Code movie opens. A movie based on a book that wears its heresy and blasphemy as a badge of honor.

What can we as Christians do in response to the release of this movie? I'm going to offer you the usual choices -- and a new one.

Here are the usual suspects:

A) We can ignore the movie. ........

The problem with this option: The box office is a ballot box. The only people whose votes are counted are those who buy tickets. And the ballot box closes on the Sunday of opening weekend. If you stay home, you have lost your chance to make your vote heard. You have thrown your vote away, and from Hollywood's point of view, you don't count. By staying home, you do nothing to shape the decision-making process regarding what movies will make it to the big screen.

B) We can protest. ........

The problem with this option: It doesn't work. Any publicity is good publicity. Protests not only fuel the box office, they make all Christians look like idiots. And again, protests and boycotts do nothing to help shape the decisions being made right now about what movies Hollywood will make in the next few years. (Or they convince Hollywood to make *more* movies that will provoke Christians to protest, which will drive the box office up.)

C) We can discuss the movie. We can be rational and be ready with study guides and workshops and point-by-point refutations of the lies promulgated by the movie. ........

The problem with this option: No one's listening. They think they know what we're going to say already. We'll lose most of these discussions anyway, no matter how prepared we are, because the power of story always trumps the power of facts (why do you think Jesus taught in parables?!). And once again: rational discussion of history does nothing to affect Hollywood's choices regarding what movies to make.

But there's a fourth choice.

On May 19th, you should go to the movies.

Just go to a different movie.

Save the date now. May 19th, or May 20th. No later than Sunday, May 21st -- that's the day the ballot box closes. You'll get a vote, the only vote Hollywood recognizes: The power of cold hard cash laid down on a box office window on opening weekend.

Use your vote. Don't throw it away. Vote for a movie other than DVC. If enough people do it, the powers that be will notice. They won't have a choice.

The major studio movie scheduled for release against DVC is the DreamWorks animated feature Over the Hedge. The trailers look fun, and you can take your kids. And your friends. And their friends. In fact, let's all go see it.

Let's rock the box office in a way no one expects -- without protests, without boycotts, without arguments, without rancor. Let's show up at the box office ballot box and cast our votes. And buy some popcorn, too.

May 19th. Mark your calendars now: Over the Hedge's opening weekend. Buy a ticket.

And spread the word. Forward this e-mail to all the Christians in your address book. Post it on your blogs. Talk about it to your churches. And let's all go to the movies.

It's been a pretty busy spring break, and I've gotten tons of work done, but now I think that my eyes are starting to blur from trying to read words off a computer screen. I got like 40 folders finished for the civil rights clearinghouse project that I've been working on, so I'm really pleased about that (and about the money that they'll pay me for it...we gotta pay the bills. If anyone wants to check out the website, it's http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~crlch/ but it's not completely done yet. We'll probably be working on it for the next year.

I planted a few herb plants by the window in my kitchen on Tuesday, and I am hoping that they'll grow even though they won't get direct sunlight in our apartment. All of our windows face north, so the sun is always on the other sides of the building, but we get lots of reflected light. I also got one of those lightbulbs that is supposed to help plants grow, and I've been shining that on them all day each day...so we'll see! If it works, I'll have some nice thyme, oregano, parsley, and basil to use in my cooking. I need SOMETHING to make me feel like I don't live in a huge city...

We've had pretty nice weather for the last couple of days, but it's supposed to get cold again starting tomorrow...grrr. Oh well. We'll see what happens. It can't stay cold forever, and when it warms up I'm going to go dance a jig in the park by the lake to celebrate the spring. Only one more St. Louis winter!!!

Well, it's been awhile since I've written anything, but this afternoon I had my last class before spring break, so I can finally manage to waste a little time. I had a HUGE seminar paper to turn in, and I got it in a few days early because I was so tired of dealing with it. It can get a little tedious to spend weeks reading about reproductive rights in prisons, but that was the subject of my paper, and it was better than what some of my classmates had to write about! Anyway, the first draft has been turned in, and I hope I get some good feedback on it.

Even though I'm on spring break now, I will still end up spending the next 10 days just sitting in St. Louis getting work done because I can't afford a $500 plane ticket to Atlanta...sigh. I was REALLY hopeful that there would be a fare special for this week, but there isn't one because everyone seems to be on spring break. Oh well. It will be a good chance to make some money working on a project for one of the professors at the law school, and every little bit helps. If we have a bit of warm weather, I'll probably go spend a few hours laying in the park some afternoon, too!

James just finished his last day on the surgery rotation today, and tomorrow he has to take the surgery board exam....which is probably the last "big" test that he'll ever have to study for in his life. He'll still need to take the board certification exams periodically, but you pretty much just need to pass those...unfortunately, on this one he really needs a good grade in order to get a good residency. Well, we've been praying about it and he's been studying for weeks and weeks, so it will be fine. But just in case, I'm making an apple pie...life is always better when there is dessert.

We had some sad news this week...Jordan's cat Max had to be put to sleep last weekend. He had been really sick, and he took a definite turn for the worst, so it was the only humane thing to do, but Dad (who makes the medical decisions) still felt terrible about it, as did we all. We've had Max forever...like 18 years...and he was a member of the family. He will go down in the annals of Patton family history as a cuddly playmate, a soulful sympathizer, a good housemate, and a faithful furry friend. We will all miss him.

Hey guys,
A friend sent me this, and I thought it was hilarious!!


WINTER CLASSES FOR MEN AT THE LEARNING CENTER FOR ADULTS

REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED BY February 21, 2006

NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM.

Class 1
How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays --- Step by Step,! with Slide Presentation. Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 2
The Toilet Paper Roll --- Does It Change Itself?
Round Table Discussion.
Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours.

Class 3
Is It Possible To Urinate Using The Technique Of Lifting The Seat and Avoiding The Floor, Walls and Nearby Bathtub? --- Group Practice.
Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 4
Fundamental Differences Between The Laundry Hamper and The Floor --- Pictures and Explanatory Graphics. Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.

Class 5
After Dinner Dishes --- Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Kitchen Sink?

Examples on Video.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM

Class 6
Loss Of Identity --- Losing The Remote To Your Significant Other. Help Line Support and Support Groups. Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7:00 PM

Class 7
Learning How To Find Things --- Starting With Looking In The Right Places And Not Turning The House Upside Down While Screaming.
Open Forum .
Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours.

Class 8
Health Watch --- Bringing Her Flowers Is Not Harmful To Your Health. Graphics and Audio Tapes. Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 9
Real Men Ask For Directions When Lost --- Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined.

Class 10
Learning to Live --- Basic Differences Between Mother and Wife. Online Classes and role-playing. Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined

Class 11
How to be the Ideal Shopping Companion Relaxation Exercises, Meditation and Breathing Techniques.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 12 Is It Genetically Impossible To Sit Quietly While She Parallel Parks? Driving Simulations 4 weeks, Saturday's noon, 2 hours.

Class 13
How to Fight Cerebral Atrophy --- Remembering Birthdays, Anniversaries and Other Important Dates and Calling When You're Going To Be Late.
Cerebral Shock Therapy Sessions and Full Lobotomies Offered. Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 14
The Stove/Oven --- What It Is and How It Is Used.
Live Demonstration.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM, location to be determined.

Upon completion of any of the above courses, diplomas will be issued to the survivors.

I'm starting to feel like everything I own is falling to pieces...literally. First, my laptop's hard drive died, and Dell is fortunately willing to send me a new one since it's still under warranty...but I'm going to have to install it myself, and I lost most of what I had on the computer. Then, the piece of wood at the foot of my bed broke, which made me really sad. I accidentally leaned on it one day when I was standing by the bed, and I heard a CRACK and there it was in 2 pieces. I managed to screw them together, so you can't really tell, but we'll probably have to buy a new bed when we move out of St. Louis. Just moving from one apartment to another within the city pretty much broke my bed to pieces. THEN, my car's front brakes started making lots of noise. I took the car to the Toyota place, and they told me that it would cost almost $500 to fix the brakes, and another $3500 to fix everything else that's wrong with the car!!!! Can you believe that??? I had them fix the brakes, and hopefully everything else will hold together until we're out of school....

I still don't have a job...and the prospects aren't too bright, either...it's been a discouraging couple of weeks.

Sigh,
The job interview was not cool. The woman was fine, but she is only paying TEN dollars an hour. In college, that would have been fine, but that's really low for a second year law student. If I did ten hours of work for her, she'd bill her clients 700 dollars for it and only pay me 100!! That's just not cool...most of my friends are making like 20-30 dollars an hour at least. I'd take the job if it was something that I really wanted to do, but it's not, so I'm going to turn it down. Oh well.

I'm sitting in my Religion and the Constitution class right now, and we're discussing what the government's definition of "religion" should be. What does a belief system have to have in order to be a "religion"? What do you think? What should the courts say needs to be present in order to be protected by law?

So my computer crashed 2 days ago, and I pretty much lost everything. I got some of my notes back, but I can't get them off the computer in any way other than to retype them onto James's computer....so that will probably be my weekend activity. This will be the second time I've had to format my harddrive in 7 months...grrr. I am wondering if I have a defective harddrive. All you computer people out there, please weigh in. I could use some experienced opinions...

I have an interview tomorrow in Clayton for a job in family law, which is the area that interests me. I still need a job for the summer, and this one seems to be a good one for me....there's just one problem. She wants me to work during the schoolyear, too. I wouldn't mind picking up some hours this spring - heaven knows we need the cash - but this is the busiest semester of my LIFE so I'm a little worried about having the time to do my schoolwork. Of course, if she pays enough, I'll be taking the job no matter what - I'll just have to work on Saturdays. Anyway, I'll let you all know what I decide to do.

So we had some big news a week ago....Lisa is having ANOTHER BABY!!!! YAY!!! I just can't wait to have another Tyler or Maddy around. I got a phone call from Tyler today, and it was hilarious to talk to him on the phone. We got some little bathtub stickers at the zoo the other day and mailed them to him. They're little plastic stickers in the shape of animals, and you're supposed to stick them on the side of the tub. He got them in the mail today, and he called to tell us thank you. He's so hilarious...I asked him what he was doing, and he said "I'm playing with Mama and Daddy." Then when I asked him what he was playing, he said that he was getting into the bathtub. Then Lisa got on the phone to tell me that even though it was the middle of the day, Tyler wanted to get into the tub to play with his stickers =). Ha, ha, ha! I love that kid.

James got a new Xbox 360 game today...it's called Perfect Dark. I got it on ebay, so it was a good price, and he's been playing with it for about an hour. He says it's a cross between Halo and Splinter Cell, so it's a good game. He also has the FIFA 2006 Soccer game and the Call of Duty game for the 360, and his friends have been over here every spare moment to play them. Those guys crack me up. They have such a good time together.

Okay, well I think that I'm off to bed. I've got class and an interview tomorrow. I'll keep you posted!

Today is my first day back at school for the spring semester, and I'm really tired already. (I haven't even been to class yet.) I'm taking a seminar this semester, and that will be a lot more work than most classes - I have to turn in a big paper at the end of it, and there will be tons of reading. I'll get through it, but I feel lots of sympathy with Meghan's looming busy semester.

I finished reading the Harry Potter books last night, and I will admit that they're better than I originally thought when I tried to read the first one several years ago. I think that they are getting progressively better, and J.K. Rowling has an astounding imagination. The only problem is that the better the books get, the more predictable they are. (NOTICE: If you haven't read the books...spoiler ahead...) When one considers that Harry's parents both died to protect him as a child and that Cedric died trying to protect him (both of them) in the Goblet of Fire, it was pretty obvious that Sirius would die in book five and that Dumbledore would die in book six. Neither of them would have let Harry face Voldemort alone, as he will inevitably have to do at the end, thus we knew they were going to die. (Besides, Sirius would never have been able to have a normal life after his time with the Dementors, and Dumbledore was obviously preparing the readers for his death by talking about how it was nothing to fear...) Perhaps even more obvious was the fact that Snape was the half-blood Prince...the author threw in a few too many clues to give that one away. I won't tell you my predictions for Snape's future, for fear of spoiling the future book, but I will tell you (honestly) whether I was right after it comes out.

Anyway...I did enjoy reading them...they're really interesting, and I'm glad Jordan and Meghan talked me into it. I would never give them to a little kid to read, however, and I don't think I'm going to read them again myself. When I finished the sixth book, I had the same feeling that I had the day I met the witch doctor in Haiti. (The one who was casting spells on our missions team.) I know that some people think that "magic" is a joke, and NO I'm not crazy, but I've seen things that most people have never seen. There is no such thing as a "good" witch or wizard - the Bible is very clear about that.

Okay, well, I'd better get to class...hope everyone had a good Christmas!