Great day!

Today was a really good day. I got paid! YAY for paychecks! This is my first legal job paycheck. I'm very proud. I also got some positive feedback on work I did last week, and was able to handle the 2 assignments that came my way today. What a relief!

Look! Nepenthe has posted pictures of our little yarny adventure on Saturday! I look hideous in that picture. My hips really aren't that big, I SWEAR.

So my roving looks just like hers, though natural white. And my drop spindle looks just like hers except with a lighter colored shaft.

Nothing else is really going on over here. The crazy animals are all doing ok, work is good, weather is freaking gorgeous.

Oh yeah- the BOY gets here Friday!!!!!!!!!! YAY!

It's all her fault.

SO. Nepenthe and I went back to the Fiesta today. Damage was done. I WISH I HAD MY CAMERA! I might borrow my Mom's tonight- this is just too good to pass up.

I got two skeins of yarn from Textiles A Mano... 270 yards of a gorgeous DK weight 50/50 silk and wool blend hand dyed in mid tone pinks and oranges. MMMMMM... Also 600 yards of a watermelon pink rayon/cotton/poly blend- it's kind of thick/thin with pright shiny slubs... Looks like a watermelon with colored seeds.

Now, N has been saying she wanted to start spinning. We looked at drop spindles and fiber on Thursday night. I was immune then.... Today I caved. I bought a drop spindle made from mequite wood- apparently the tree was over 500 years old! and 2 cakes of dyed Romney roving. One in jade green with lime green accents, the other in dark red with perriwinkle blue accents. AND (yikes!) I got 4 oz of GORGEOUS 80 % llama 20% tussah silk fiber in a natural undyed off white color to play with once I figure out what I'm doing. Based on the last 10 minutes worth of trying, this will have to wait for quite a while....

How did this happen?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Anyway, I'm SUPER excited.

Fiber Arts FIESTA!

So Nepenthe and I hit the Fiber Arts Fiesta today. It's no Maryland, I can tell you that much! Alas and alack, it's all we have here right now. Vendors were mixed- yarn, spinning supplies, quilting, beading (beading is fiber? who knew!) silk painting, weaving, general sewing... Lots of stuff was really tacky, but lots was absolutely fabulous. Nepenthe is going to be posting pictures- watch her blog!

I am so psyched for Taos Wool Festival in October!!!!!

My favorites from the Fiesta:
Black Water Abbey Yarns.
Gorgeous traditional Irish yarns, perfect for a cabley goodness sweater. The colors were spectacular- especially Moss, Wine, and Bluestock.

TextilesA Mano doesn't have a website, and that's a shame. Gorgeous hand-dyed yarns in really fab colors. Nepenthe bought approximately 500 yards of scrumptious superwash merino(?) for a baby gift. Lucky baby!

UPDATE: Fellow Albuqeurque Knit Blogger Little HedgeHog found their website: Textilesamano.com

Lezlie King had some absolutely stunning natural dyed yarn. Her deep olive green was spectacular. Her colors were so rich, and apparently the natural dyes she uses create colors that last forever....

I could get in to some serious trouble, but I'm broke! May treat myself to something on Saturday (oh yeah- we bought 2 day passes- WOOT!) anyway. I get my first law job paycheck on Tuesday, after the long weekend. YAY!!!!!!




And I thought this was hysterical, but that's probably just becuase I've spent all of this week on random, esoteric procedural questions:
YOU ARE RULE 8(a)!
You are Rule 8, the most laid back of all the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. While your
forefather in the Federal Rules may have been a
stickler for details and particularity, you
have clearly rebelled by being pleasant and
easy-going. Rule 8 only requires that a
plaintiff provide a short and plain statement
of a claim on which a court can grant relief.
While there is much to be lauded in your
approach, your good nature sometimes gets you
in trouble, and you often have to rely on your
good friend, Rule 56, to bail you out.


Which Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

HEY!

Jen and Laurie, commenters- I didn't get your e-mail address and can't respond!!! Thanks so much for saying hi!!! I hope you come back!

Jen, my favorite legal blogs are, in quasi order....
Sherry Fowler's Stay of Execution. She's not technically an attorney any more, but I still love her blog. She has amazing insights about the profession, legal education, life in general. A great read!

Buffalo Wings & Vodka. Very, very funny guy. Editor in Chief of the UTexas Law Review. Smart, and a great sense of humor.

Jeremy's Weblog. Jeremy has just graduated (?) from Harvard Law and has decided not to go into BigLaw practice. He is very funny, but also has great insights into how legal education and the practice of law can be improved.

Illinois Trial Practice Weblog and Legal Underground. Evan Schaeffer has two blogs. The Trial Practice Blog is more practice oriented, and the other is a little less focused, but equally interesting.

So those are a few. A lot of the blogs I subscribe to don't post very often, and some post 10+ short snippets every day. I rarely read everything all the way through, but I do read the above blogs every time they post.

Tired.

I am so tired. I was woken up at 4:00 this morning by a doggy having a very bad accident in the bedroom. Thanks, doggy! I hope you enjoyed spending the rest of the day outside!!!

Why is it that I cannot get home from work before 8:00 at night? I leave the office every day by 5:30. I know I am housesitting in the middle of nowhere. But if I do ANYTHING other than drive straight home, it's 8:00 by the time I get here, IF I'M LUCKY. Sigh.

SO yeah, no knitting tonight. Orangina and I need to have some words but I'm just too tired to get in to it. I made a gigantic boo boo about 6 rows back and convinced myself it would look fine. Wrongo. I need to figure out how to put in a lifeline after the fact now so I can rip back. Maybe this weekend.

I also need to find time to work on my law review application- I think it's going to have to be the rest of this week, most of the weekend, and all of next week (we get 10? consecutive days to work on the application...) I don't want to be working on it right when C gets here A WEEK FROM FRIDAY!!!! and it's due July 1, so I think I'd better get cracking.

Work is good, with continuing flashes of alternating brilliance and idiocy. The big idiotic thing that happened today wasn't my fault- whee!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mmmm. BBQ

This post reminds me so much of Texas! Shiner, Elgin sausage, crazy 'cue obsessed Texans....

I went to an all women's college in southern Virginia. About an hour down the road was an all men's college. Two of my dear dear friends are twin brothers who went to Hampden Sydney. They grew up in Austin, TX. I was shocked to discover that BOTH of them had driven to college in their individual suburbans, each towing a barrell barbecue (it is just wrong that the barrell bbq website is in the UK, but whatever...) over 1400 miles just so they could make bbq and fajitas. I love them both, and they are both still insane. But man, those were good eats.

Anyway, thanks for indulging my little trip down memory lane, courtesy of someone else's BBQ party.

You know you're a grown up when....

You know you're a grown up when sleeping in until 7:45 on Sunday morning feels like an unspeakable luxury. Which it did this morning.

I have had a really mellow weekend so far, and today looks to be more of the same. Yesterday I knit and watched lots of crappy TV. I keep screwing up Orangina- I've had to unkint more rows than I've knit. The most recent mistake happened 3 rows ago and I'm trying to decide if I need to tink back AGAIN. I also turned the heel on my brother's birthday socks- Lorna's Laces in camoflage and the Fluted Bannister pattern from the Six Sox Knitalong. This is the same pattern as the socks I made for the BF for Christmas. Great pattern. I just realized that I don't think I ever posted a finished picture of my Making Waves socks... They turned out great- LOVE them.
I also got up to the armholes on my Ice cardigan. Knitting both fronts at the same time makes shaping way easier- I can actually see which side is the left front and which is the right so I don't end up with two left fronts...

Mom and I went to see the NM Symphony concert at the Zoo last night- it was a great concert. I'm impressed by all the community events like this around Albuquerque. In addition to Symphony Under the Stars, there's Jazz Under the Stars and Salsa Under the Stars. Someone needs to work on the variety of names for these programs, but they're a great way to get out in our gorgeous, cool evening weather and enjoy good music.

I'm actually looking forward to this week at work. I'm doing some fascinating projects- last week I worked on a huge variety of things that had me digging through City Ordinances, NM Administrative Code, state and federal cases, the US Constitution, state and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, and the NM Tort Claims Act. I like the variety, but I think I'm ready for some feedback on my work last week- verification that I'm going in the right direction, or course correction so I can better focus my efforts. The total lack of feedback is killing me, but it always does!

Better Day

So I feel like I'm getting the hang of this. Today was a better day.

And tonight is a better night because TOMORROW IS FRIDAY. I forgot this part of working- you actually get weekends off! No nagging "hey, I should be studying..." feelings. WHEEEEEEEEEEE! Knitting weekend!

I've gotten just a couple rows in this week, nothing worth showing which is good, since my camera is in Costa Rica. And is hopefully not lost or stolen or dropped in a rainforest mountain lake...

fly by post

HOWDY! I'm wiped out. But I'm writing because I really don't want to go clean out the litter boxes, empty the trash, or deal with the laundry. My list of things to avoid goes on and on but I'll spare you.

One interesting thing about law school and law jobs is that I'm going through this 4 month cycle- at the beginning I feel totally incompetent, then by the time the semester is over I get it and feel like I know what I'm doing. Then, WHAM it starts all over again with the incompetent feelings. I'm in WHAM mode right now. And I know without a doubt that by the end of the summer I'll feel like an old pro and it will all be fine, then WHAM with a new semester and all new classes/topics/terminology/rules. Ah well. Such is life. I figure I should start to feel competent most of the time about 2 years out of law school, or ... uh... in just over 4 years.

Sigh.

UPDATE: Ok, I KNOW I'm not ACTUALLY incompetent... It's just the unsteady feeling of starting a new job in a whole new industry and dealing with all new subject matter--it's disorienting. But I like it. Beats the pants off my old job in Austin where there just wasn't enough to do and work did exist was BORING.

Linkage!

First off, N found her wedding dress!!!!! I'm glad I was there for it, though honestly I did nothing except show up and eat dim sum. She looks maaahvelous, it's totally unconventional and, most importantly, it's totally her. I hope I have the same grace and style to do my own fabulous thing when it's my turn to go through the horror that is finding a wedding dress!

Ok, I subscribe to waaaaay to many blogs. I use Bloglines to aggregate them all in one place so I don't have to actually visit all 308 sites (YIKES! I DO read a lot of blogs! I'm not making that number up!!!!) Anyway, now that I'm only checking once a day I get home and have 75 legal blogs, 30 cooking blogs, and 80 knitting blogs to read every night. Yikes.

Anyway, I'm going to enable you to be overwhelmed like meby sharing some links.

First, see N above. Most of you know about her already (I know you come to my site from hers!!!) but if you don't, check it out.

The Manolo is Super Fantastic! Seriously, if you love shoes (and who doesn't) this blog is great, and the Manolo, he has the impeccable sense of the humor.

Sunday Undies, law school with a twist. This friend of Crazy Aunt Purl is hilarious. I wish I was half this funny, especially about law school.

Knit and Tonic is great. She's gorgeous and a yarn ho. Great photos, too. I want to be just like her when I grow up!

Sherry Fowler is amazing. She's a bankrupcy attorney/sailor in Maine who makes me want to move to Maine to be a sailor/bankcrupcy attorney. She has a really fabulous voice and I love her open, creative ways.

First Day of Work and a Preppy Baby Sweater

UPDATE: I had written a little bit about work but somehow that disappeared before posting... Sorry about that.

Anyway, today was the first day of my first ever REAL law job! I think I'm going to learn a LOT this summer. Today was filled with alternating waves of "Crap, I don't know anything" and "Hey, maybe I know something"! Everyone is so nice and so mellow. I think I'm the loudest person in the firm- must work on that.

In knitting news, I took a few photos before my brother left the couuntry with my camera...



This is a baby sweater for my niece, due any day. The Mama is totally obsessed with pink and green, so I thought this was a great color combo! The pattern is basically the Yarn Harlot's pattern Daisy from Knitty with plenty of mods. I left off all the trim as I was knitting, then picked up stitches all the way around and improvised a ruffle. Note: I WILL NEVER EVER KNIT ANOTHER RUFFLE IN COTTON. EVER. It was murder, but it turned out pretty cute.

Yarn was Rowan Cotton DK, which I lurve. Except for the ruffle part. Bad, bad ruffle. The cotton yarn had very little give, and trying to do that many increases in that little space with no give whatsoever was a pain in the keister. You've been warned.

I love knitters. But I am NOT CUTE.

Laurie over at Crazy Aunt Purl has perfectly summed up what I love about fibery friends- fabulous, interesting people (yes, mostly women) getting together and hanging out. No bar scene, no trying to pick anyone up, plus there's knitting! It's just so freakin cool to meet such neat people. And there's the desire/need to bond with other women. I went to an all women's college (as did Nepenthe, so nice that she GETS that part of me) and I really, truly value my friendships with other women. It's important to me. Any time I move to a new city I don't worry about: are there cute boys? what's the weather like? where do people hang out? I worry about building a new circle of girlfriends.

I had a great Friday night. A girlfriend from law school had some girls over for a girly night. It was great to just hang out and nibble and relax. Made me homesick for my homegirls in Austin. We had a monthly girls' night that was always just wonderful. I hear it's breaking up now- the group has splintered- and it makes me sad.

This was a way estrogen Friday the 13th, now that I think about it... I started the day interviewing to be a Mary Kay Lady. Which I am SO NOT GOING TO DO. A family friend is a new Mary Kay lady and has getting pressure from her sales director to recruit new people, so I agreed to interview but made it very clear to the friend that I am so not interested. The director lady kept telling me how CUTE I am. Uh, NO ONE has called me cute since I was, oh, four years old. I'm too tall to be cute. I'm not cute. It was annoying. Anyway, I'm supposed to do the "pink pillow test" (sleep on it, for those of us who aren't in the cult of Mary Kay) and she's going to call this weekend to see what I think.

The main reason I wouldn't sell Mary Kay (or Pampered Chef or Tupperware or insert-pyramid-scheme-of-choice-here) is that I like my friends. I don't want them to look at their caller ID and go, "Is that Jenny my friend or Jenny my Mary Kay lady? I'll let the answering machine find out." Ya know?

No offense to any Mary Kay or Pampered Chef or whatever people out there- these are great businesses that really empower women. It's just so not me. You know, I'm just not cute.

Hmmmm. Now if KOIGU started a home-based sales business, I might be interested. Except that I'd keep it all for myself. Mwa ha ha haaaaaaa.

Will she rip again?

I finished the back of the Ice cardigan last night. I'm really worried that I am going to hate this sweater. Contemplating ripping it out and possibly staring a Ribby Cardi. But I'm not sure that's what I want either.

I want a plain white cardigan I can wear in an over air-conditioned office with work clothes. Ribby cardi seems to casual for that.

Oh well. Maybe I should take a break from the cardi and let it marinate for a day or two before riiiiiiiiiiiiiping it out.


EDIT: Here's a link to a picture of the ice cardigan, except mine is white. And longer through the waist. And if I get that far, with 3/4 sleeves.

I fought the law and the law won!

Well, maybe not. I'm still standing after the LAST FINAL in my 1L year. I'm ecstatic to be done. Mom and I did some celebratory retail therapy (I'd like to thank the clearance racks and Banana Republic and Ann Taylor for cooperating) and then went out for French food. YUM. It was fun.

Then I stopped by the 1L bash. It was, um, kinda slow. I LOVE the two guys who organize these parties, but they pick really yucky strip mall wet t-shirt contest ladies night type bars for events, and then no one shows. Oh well. Glad I went and said hi, at least.

I haven't knit anything today. I am in LOVE with THESE SOCKS, but there is no way I'm going to weave in 80000 ends worth of sock yarn. I did the mitred square rug out of one of the past Interweave Knits- photos eventually, I swear, though my digital camer is in Costa Rico with my brother until June...but that's not the point. Rug. Yeah. Ends. I think I might just never weave them all in- there are so freakin many ends. It took me 3 hours to do 2 squares, and there are 15 squares. That's a lot. of. ends.

In other news, I'm done with finals!

Knit Night last night was a riot- we were all just slap happy and punchy. There was much guffawing and I can only imagine what the other coffeeshop patrons were wondering... "What is WITH that table of crazy knitting people? They OBVIOUSLY need to get out more often... especially that chick who keeps mumbling about fighting the law..."

Anyway, it was a blast.

I'm wiped out, so I am going to go to bed and NOT STUDY FOR 3 AND A HALF MONTHS! WOOT!

Am I nuts?

This sounds like SO MUCH FUN! Leave it to Ann and Kay over at Mason Dixon Knitting to make the State Fair cool again. Unfortunately, New Mexico doesn't have their guidelines up yet- I guess they're coming soon.

Yes, I am actually thinking about doing some blue ribbon knitting. I'm sure the urge will pass as soon as I finish my last final tomorrow. I am nuts.

It's quasi-official!!!

There's no start date yet, but the BF (boyfriend)is moving here! YAY! Looks like he's going to be here mid June or early July to start just north of Santa Fe. We probably won't be together most of the week (its almost two hours each way) but he'll be within reasonable driving distance. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

House Bound and Loving It.

How can I resist? Moth Heaven is hosting a "house-bound Blogeuse" festival for those of use who aren't at MDSW this weekend. Since I have nothing better to do than study, I'm SO IN!

Speaking of which, here's my "desk": kitchen table covered in study related crap. Ah, the joys of Civil Procedure!

No pictures of me today, as my hair is a bit too "saturday before last final of first year in law school." Maybe next time.

Collum, the NICE cat, is sleeping in the unmade bed:


Noor, the BAD cat, has stollen my koigu (complete with sock attached) THREE TIMES NOW. Good thing I know she takes it directly under the bed. Here's the completed sock and the poor victimized in progress sock:


I'd much rather be working on the sock than studying CP, but such is life. Maybe if I'm a good girl...

Other Works In Progress:

Ice, from Rowan 27. Scroll down... I'm actually making the cardigan version, not the Tneck as shown.

AND

Orangina! What a GREAT pattern. The lace repeat is really easy to memorize and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way its turning out. WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

AND, the ripping is DONE!

I ripped off all the floppy bands last night and am about to start reconscruction. Biker jacket no more.

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

Why oh why is it taking me so long to get through my Civil Procedure notes?

Pages of outline done: 6.25
Pages of book outlined: 82 (which isn't bad, but there are 371 in volume 1, and about 300 in volume 2. yikes)
Hours spent: freaking 5 and a half. But not really, because I've taken a couple phone calls from old friends, made brownies, knitted "just one more row" on each of 2 new projects (details soon), and incessantly checked knitblogs for the first updates from MDSW, which is absurd because the d*mn festival doesn't even start until tomorrow. Sigh.

I must focus.

Housesitting at the Casa de Tee Tee

So, I'm spending May and June housesitting for some friends. It's a big house out in Corrales, which is nice. But there are 4 animals and each has its own unique set of problems. Yes, they are all adorable, cute, and fuzzy.

One of the dogs is 16 years old. The owners assured me in January that the dog was so old it would die before they left town, but she's still kicking! They left me an advance directive of sorts authorizing both me and the vet to put the dog down, should need be, and they pre-dug a grave in the backyard. Please, Lord, don't let her die on my watch.
This is a sweet, sweet dog, but she has some... incontinence issues. Poor baby is also deaf, and she makes the weirdest mourning sea cow noises when she wants to go in or out.

The other dog is a sweetie pie. She's 2 and HYPER! HYPER! HYPER!

One of the cats is typical cat- allof unless he wants something, nothing like my Scooter who will do anything for attention all the time. (NOTE: Scooter is at my Mom's house, where he is doing VERY WELL. I miss him terribly. But with the second cat in this house... Scooter will stay at Mom's house.)

The other cat is... picky. If ALL THREE of her litter boxes are not in pristine condition, she pees all over the couch to show her displeasure. I've been here a week and so far there are no cat pee issues- KNOCK ON WOOD- but we'll see how long my good luck lasts!

Anyway, the house has a spectacular view of the mountains from large picture windows in the bedroom, kitchen/dining room, and living room. It more than makes up for the pee pee issues. Don't believe me? Check out the view for yourself:





I love our hot pink mountains. Sunset is such a beautiful time of day here!

Mama's Got the Clap!

So while I was gone, I got the clap.



I'm giving the clap to my Mom for Mother's Day. She already knows. I got her a little something else to go with it though, and she doesn't know about that!

I made it out of some REALLY CHEAP 100% silk ribbon yarn in silver, blue, and bronze. Got the yarn at A Different Drummer in Albuquerque. The store's name is... quite appropriate! They have a ton of yarns straight from the 80s, but their prices can't be beat. The whole scarf cost $12. For silk. What is this world coming to???

The Chopping Block

Remember THIS?

Well, I lied in that post. I hate it. All the seed stitch bands are floppy. The neck is all wonky, the bottom band does nothing for my hips, and the zipper pooches out in a way that makes me look like I have a third boob. It's bad, folks.

But, the body of the biker jacket is fab. It fits perfectly. I think I can salvage it... Yes, I am deluding myself-play along.

Once the stress of finals passes, I plan to remove the collar, bottom band, and arm bands, rip out the zipper, and FIX IT.

Too bad I did such a great job of weaving in the ends. Must remember to be a sloppier finisher next time...

Oh LORD.

Ok, I'm in the process of taking a 7 hour take home exam (1 hour, 8 minutes to go!!!!) but I just had to share this...

One of my new favorite bloggers wrote a hilarious post about Albuquerque's run in with the run away bride. I'm with Nepenthe: I don't want to hear anything about it.

Who knew that the Jennifer Blanket would become the new Martha Poncho???

Jeez Louise.

Ok, back to my @(*^%@(* exam.

What's wrong with this picture?

Today's exam was completely random.

First thing wrong: Part of the exam was multiple choice. In law school. In a 1L standard course. Um, every other exam is a standard issue spotter/essay exam. Multiple choice? Uh, ok.

Second thing wrong: The multiple choice part had a scantron bubble form for the answers. The form had bubbles for A, B, C, D, and E. Yet at least 5 questions had answer options A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H. Oy vay.

Third thing wrong: The multiple choice questions frequently had at least 3 really truly honestly plausible answers. It all depended on what theory you applied to reach your answer. Yet the question made no reference to anything that would guide on theory choice, and there was no way to tell the professor how you arrived at the answer you did.

Anyway, Part I is done. YAY! At this point, it's just kind of funny. Let's see if I feel this way when I get my grade....

A toe in the water....

HI!

I'm not quite ready to get back into the full swing of blogging, but it's May and I promised M I'd start again in May.

Lots of random knitty thoughts I've been wanting to share! It's been a productive couple months--more so on the knitting front than on the law school front. :-) Pictures eventually, I promise.

Law school is almost over for the year. Classes are done, finals start tomorrow. This semester was much harder than last from a psychological standpoint. I don't want to whine or worry about whether what I post here will come back to hanut me, so I'll spare you the gory details. Let's just say I'll be ecstatic when I'm done with finals May 11.

I've got a great job with a local law firm for the summer. I'm really looking forward to making some moulah again. And practicing some of the stuff I've learned over my first year in law school.

Some goals for the new and improved Woman Obsessed...

• Post at least twice a week.
  
• Increase topics to include law school, cooking, working out, reading, location-specific stuff for Albuquerque and Austin. Basically branch out and use as a whole-life diary kinda thing.
  
• Work on my writing. Get out of "here's what happened today" mode and into "deeper thoughts" mode. Ha! Perhaps possible once finals are over... :-)
  
• Work on photography- taking better pictures.
  
• Maybe participate in different blog events, such as Photo Friday, Is My Blog Burning, and a couple knitalongs (there are SO MANY to choose from, but the Gathering of Lace Along is tempting given the fact that I now have enough laceweight yarn to knit at least 5 shawls..... Yikes.....)
  

Anywho, more as I procrastinate for finals!