The summer of George

I played basketball last night for the first time in I don't know how long. It is definitely the first time since I moved to NJ in August 2004, so that gives you a good idea. I decided to play for our Elders Quorum team to try to get a little bit of exercise, and we had our first game last night. The good news is that we won, but the bad news is that I had a shocking realization of just how out of shape I am. I scored a whopping 2 points on a layup, and I airballed a foul shot late in the game. (My legs were so tired I shot it with all arms and missed by about a foot). I feel like George Costanza in "the summer of George" when the doctor tells him "Mr. Costanza. ..your legs have sustained extensive trauma. Apparently your body was in the state of advanced atrophy, due to a period of extreme inactivity. But with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, I think there's a good chance you may, one day, walk again." Personally, I am hoping that with a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, I may, one day, hit a free throw again.

10:10

I have somewhat of an obsession with watches, and I currently own three. My first "real" watch was a 1962 Rolex Air-King (top picture) that was my high school graduation present. I am wearing that watch today, and it is fitted with a black lizard band. Sometimes I wear it with a tan strap, depending on my mood. In 1999 I bought a Rolex Submariner and owned it for about a year, when I traded it for a Baume & Mercier Capeland Chronograph. (Middle picture). I love the Baume & Mercier, but looking back I wish I would have kept the Submariner. The Baume & Mercier is fitted with a "honey" colored crocodile band. In 2000 I received a 1951 Gruen Curvex (bottom picture) as a Christmas present. Like the Air-King the Gruen is fitted with a black lizard band. I don't wear that watch as often as the other two, partly because it is more delicate and I don't want it to break, but also because it is much more dressy. I usually only wear it with a suit. Most of the time that I waste on the internet is devoted to looking at watches, and I have been able to find pictures of watches that are identical or very close to those in my collection. The Rolex pictured is not my watch, but I did buy the dial of that exact watch and had it installed on my watch. The Capeland and the Gruen pictures are virtually identical to mine. By the way, pay attention next time you see a picture of a watch in an advertisement. The hands are almost always set to the 10:10 position. I have heard that this is because it makes the watch appear as though it is "smiling" but another reason is it usually provides a pretty clear shot of the dial.

I won the lottery!!!

I had a funny memory the other day. I was at the church talking to the first counselor in our bishopric and we were talking about pranks we had pulled on people, and one of the all-time funniest pranks came to mind. I was working at the "garage" about 5 years ago, when my cousin Ryan and I purchased some fake lottery tickets from a joke shop in the mall. We hatched a plan to give them to our cousin Brian (a big gambler)and watch his reaction. Anyway, Ryan told Brian that a friend had gone to Nevada and brought back some lottery tickets, and he offered one to Brian. It was later in the evening, probably around 8 pm or so, and Brian was in the sales office along with a few others, shooting the breeze. The lottery ticket had three spots to scratch off, and if all three matched, you "won" the amount revealed -- in this case $10,000. He scratched off the first spot to reveal $10,0000. For anyone who has ever scratched a lottery ticket, this is not too unusual so he didn't really react. His second scratch revealed the second $10,000 and this is where the prank really started to materialize. He was showing it off to everyone around, saying things like "I shouldn't even scratch the third, because I know I won't win. I should just frame it right now with the two $10,000's. But I'll tell you what, if I do win I'm driving to Wendover tonight to claim the prize." For those in on the prank there were a few stifled snickers reminicient of Lloyd Christmas on Dumb and Dumber ("why don't you eat up and we'll tell you all about it.") When he scratched the third $10,000, he was jumping in the air screaming "I JUST WON TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! I JUST WON TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!" On about his fifth jump, he saw everyone laughing hysterically at him, and I think I remember some pretty colorful language. I have been privileged to be a part of (sometimes victim of) some pretty funny pranks but that ranks pretty high on the list.

The Jiffy Lube Club

I had to check Jay's oil last night. (Jay is my 14 month old son). I was initiated into the Jiffy Lube Club at a young age when my mother checked my oil, and again 18 months ago when I was bending over the table in Dr. Jellyfinger's office the day after I saw red in the toilet. But back to Jay -- I have been paranoid that he is sick because he was around sick people throughout Christmas break and I have been worried that Lindsay passed him strep. He hadn't been acting sick until last night, when he was really fussy for about 2 hours straight. He is normally a very good boy and although he has learned how to throw a pretty good tantrum, he generally doesn't fuss. Doing my best impression of mom, I felt his head and determined he felt "hot" and must have had a fever. When Lindsay returned from the store, I told her we should take his temperature and concluded that the only way to get an accurate reading was to check his oil. (We had previously tried the mouth and armpit methods with no success). So I greased up the dipstick and Lindsay and I held him down until we got the reading. To my dismay it was 98.0 degrees, so either I was doing it wrong, or he didn't really have a fever. I wasn't about to retest, so we tried to see if there was something else wrong. Lindsay offered him a graham cracker snack and he gobbled it up. Was it possible that he was only being fussy because he was hungry? After all, he had eaten 3 (yes, 3) helpings of lasagna for dinner just an hour before. After a couple more graham crackers I decided to give him a fruit in gel cup (kind of like Jell-O but a little thicker) and he ate it all. Problem solved. The good news is that I learned somewhere, maybe in a college psychology class, that children aren't able to form long term memories until about age 3, so Jay still likes me in spite of his membership in the Jiffy lube club. As a final note, I will be organizing a meeting for members of the Jiffy Lube Club for anyone interested. So far only Jay and I are signed up to attend, but we will welcome anyone else who has already been initiated. (We won't be performing initiations in the meeting).

Back to school

Yesterday was my first day back to school after Christmas break. Although I would have liked another week of vacation, in many ways it was good to get back into my routine. I am definitely eating less (or I should say snacking less) and that is always a good thing. So far I think my favorite class of the semester will be Pretrial Advocacy. It will definitely be the most useful as I prepare for my job this summer. I dropped Federal Courts and added Employment Law today. Federal Courts seemed like it would be interesting, and the Professor is amazing. He clerked for two Supreme Court justices and is brilliant. I just couldn't justify the amount of work the class would require considering it won't really help me when I take the bar, or when I am practicing law. It is really designed for people who want to clerk for a federal judge, or for people who do public interest litigation. The Employment class seems like it will be pretty cool. The firm I will be working for does a lot of Employment litigation, so it may come in handy this summer, plus it is a lot less work than the Federal Courts class. I have a pretty good friend in the class. Her name is Jenn and she is married with two kids. She had her second kid 2 weeks before school started last year. I have had about 3 or 4 classes with her and she is in my circle of friends here at school.

The beginning of the end...

Ok, so I decided to give in and create this blog. Not too sure who will read it (if anyone at all) but I am mainly doing this for myself. I am hoping that this will be a more productive use of my "downtime" while I am taking breaks from studying. Usually I just surf the internet and I end up wasting more time than I should. My brother Travis is the one I blame for getting me interested in blogging, and I recommend his blog.

By way of introduction, I am a 2nd year law student at Rutgers School of Law - Camden, and today is the first day of the Spring '06 semester. I am registered for 4 classes: Intro to Federal Taxation, Federal Courts, Interviewing, Counseling and Negotiation, and Pre-trial Advocacy. I have been married for about 3 1/2 years and I have a 14 month old son Jay (the daredevil in the picture above).

We are planning to move to Las Vegas in May as I will be working as a summer associate at a law firm in Vegas. The plan is to make it a permanent move and I will finish my 3rd year of law school at UNLV as a visiting student.