The Edge of Empty

When I am not seeing the beauty or humor in the world, I know it is time to make something. I have found that I am a much happier person when I take time to create. Making things has been a part of my life since I was tiny and playing with my grandmother's button box. Last semester, I brought only paper craft materials with me to school. Over the winter break, I spent days making chain maille. I took that as a sign that perhaps I should bring my supplies back for this semester. Because the school had us take a Contract Negotiation course this past weekend (woohoo-1 credit in a weekend!), we have been going for almost two weeks without a day free from school. Last night, I was studied out and decided to take a break. I rummaged through my rings and found that I had the supplies to make this pendant called Dragon's Eye by Lisa Smeltzer. I bought the tutorial from Blue Buddha Boutique ages ago, so it was fun to finally tackle it. The finished pendant is fairly chunky--abo...

One moment they will be wrestling and the next they will be sleeping. The positions can be the same.

I am a Florida girl and have always been a Florida girl. Even when life has taken me elsewhere, my heart has still yearned for the warm breeze and white sands. That is not to say I haven't appreciated and enjoyed the places we have lived. And, thanks to the U.S. Navy, we have lived in some awesome places: Monterey, California-where we watched the otters frolic in the Bay.  Seattle, Washington-where we walked down Queen Ann's Hill to go to Sonics games or the Space Needle. Yokohama, Japan-that allowed us easy access to Tokyo. The common denominator on all of those places is that they were not in cold weather climes. Except for a brief stint in Rhode Island, the Hubster kept me happy by requesting warm locations. Although moving is hard, I made a conscious effort to embrace all of the places that we lived. It was hard sometimes, I am not going to lie. (And the Hubster may have varying opinions on how well I did). But, I like to think that I was fairly successful in keepin...

Most of the time, the cat feigns indifference to the ferrets. However, when the ferrets run through their tunnels, the cat just can't help himself and has to get closer. He will pounce on the tunnels and bat at the ferrets as they run past him. Here, Bela is in the tunnel near Count's hind end and Count is "sneaking" up on the cat.

Count is our tunneler. He is never content to be on top of things and will figure out a way to get under something as soon as possible. Here, he has tunneled from one end of the bed to another. This is no problem unless your feet happen to be under those covers. Even though ferrets have been domesticated for many years, Count is our second ferret that retains the wild instinct to hunt and kill whatever he finds in a tunnel. Do you understand where this is going? Yep, the innocent sleeper is quite likely to be awakened by teeth embedded in a foot or calf. He never went through the phase that many young ferrets go through where they bite anything anytime it moves. He does like his tunnel biting though, so we will continue his training. Besides, who could stay made at this little guy?

From very early days here in law school, my fellow 1L's (first year law students) and I heard about the importance of time. As students, we have been learning to manage our time in order to get things done on time. As lawyers, we have been told that we will be tracking our time in fifteen minute intervals for billing clients. I decided that it is never too early to apply and learn career related skills. To that end, over the holiday break, I dug out one of my favorite parenting tools. Here it is: Yep, it is that magical bit of technology known as a kitchen timer. When the boys were young, we employed these lovely gadgets in many different ways. Quite often, we would make a game of cleaning up their rooms by setting the timer for fifteen minutes and scrambling to clean up as much as possible in that time. This made a game out of cleaning and it also made it more bearable. Those handy timers also were employed in our school room (we homeschooled). Of course, the timers were als...

Those who know me will not be surprised to learn that, of all my classes, I am most excited about Criminal Law this semester. From the time I picked up A Study in Scarlet , I was hooked on crime and Sherlock Holmes was my hero. Over the years, I have read and watched anything Sherlock related from "The Great Mouse Detective" to the BBC's  Sherlock . You might wonder what any of that has to do with this week's word which is  carouse . Per Dictionary.com , to carouse, is to engage in a drunken revel. This is not something that I have ever been inclined to do. However, a bit of me likely lived vicariously through the villains in those old stories. Also, for some reason, carouse makes me think of my grandfather and the stories he told of his time in the Army. Anyway, while reading for Criminal Law, I have seen several fun words that will likely appear here in the future. The first, carouse, is mentioned in the case of People v. Beardsley  heard by the Supreme Court ...

It seems that ferrets are fascinated with anything wrapped in plastic. If there is a plastic bag, they will be in it, on it, and dragging it to their hiding spots if the humans aren't careful. Bela decided that this plastic bag of pennies was going to be her bag and is pictured here just as she begins her attack.

My friends and family know that I do not like snakes at all. In fact, I can honestly say that snakes scare me. This fear stems from several incidents in my childhood. The first incident occurred at my great-grandfather's home. Grandaddy Findlay was a cantankerous old man in his 80's. When I was very young, he took me out to the chicken coop and sent me in to collect the eggs. His chicken coop was low and dark. Once inside the coop, I reached into the nest, found an egg, and pulled it out. Unfortunately, this egg was wrapped in the snake who had swallowed it whole. Needless to say, this was a bit traumatic and I have suffered from ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes) since that time. To be honest, I don't even like to touch pictures of snakes in books. I know this is unreasonable, but phobias are irrational. During the first semester of law school, I missed having time to craft so one of my main goals over the winter break was to spend as much time as possible making things. ...

After a busy afternoon of play, Count and Bela are enjoying a nap in their favorite hammock.

With ferrets in the house, there are never any boxes that don't get a thorough inspection. If you are not paying attention, they will unpack the box and hide the contents too.

Bela and the boy!

As I was studying for my Civil Procedure final, I was munching on Nabisco Premium Soup & Oyster crackers . It made me think back to my childhood. I was one of those crazy kids who couldn't stand for food to touch on the plate. I also was a bit of a picky eater so meal times were fun for my mom. The worst thing was biting into a casserole and coming across a chunk of hidden onion. Actually, that wasn't the worst. The worst was my dad's hamburgers--you never knew what might be lurking in them. Eddie Murphy knows what I mean: Most summers, I stayed at my grandparent's house. I am guessing that my grandmother was a picky eater also because she always bought fun foods for me to eat. One of those foods was oyster crackers. Anyway, I grew up to have a picky eater of my own. Using what I knew from my childhood, I often served the boys what we called Bits & Pieces for lunch. Basically, it was a variety of finger foods such as cheese cubes, ham cubes, fruit slices, ...

Count has the suitcase under control and is ready to head off on an adventure!

Examination is the word that is rattling the halls of the law school this week. If you have ever heard horror stories about law school exams, they were likely true. Imagine having one test to show everything that you learned in a whole semester. One grade only to determine whether you will keep your scholarship or not. One grade that your future employers will see. Aargh! And now I am wondering why I am not studying.... See you after finals!

Here is Bela, anxious to know what her humans are doing. She can get on the bed via the chair on the other side, but she knows that I won't make her go around.

This week's word is complicit and has been chosen as Dictionary.com's Word of the Year . It isn't a word that I have encountered in my law school reading yet, but it is certainly a word that may apply to future clients. Dictionary.com defines complicit as "choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act, especially with others; having partnership or involvement in wrongdoing." Although the word has been in use since the 1800's, usage of the word was revitalized this year when a sketch on Saturday Night Live featured Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka Trump touting a new fragrance. Then, Ivanka herself was interviewed on CBS this morning and admitted to not knowing what complicit means. Finally, Senator Flake of Arizona announced his retirement and stated "I won't be complicit." It is fascinating to see etymology taking place right in front of us. Will our great-grandchildren someday look up complicity and see these usages explai...

So it is long past time that Bela and Count were introduced. I can't believe they will be a year old in just a few weeks. Time sure does fly! We brought them home at the end of February when they were about 9 weeks old. Bella  is our sweet girl on the right. She is a very mild-mannered girl who loves to stalk the cat. Often, we will find the cat laid out on the floor with Bela's nose gently buried in the cat's fur. When she gets too nosy, the cat runs away. I truly think Bela wants to be friends with the cat, but the cat is too dumb to play along. Bela likes to be close to anyone that sits still. She isn't a lap ferret, but she will come lay her head on a foot if given the chance. Where Bela is sweet, Count is sassy. Count is an active boy who loves to wrestle. His favorite activity is to climb the bookshelf in our room and push every book off. He then noses them around the room. He is quite territorial about them and gets upset if he sees anyone putting them away....

As a child, I was a voracious reader and loved to learn new words, especially big ones. Unlike most of my classmates, I enjoyed the weekly spelling and vocabulary lists in elementary and high school. Sadly, I have lost many of those great words over the last few decades.  However, learning fun, new words is one of the things that I have been enjoying in law school. Apparently, judges also like to use big words. Several times a case, I am forced to consult a dictionary to look up legal terms--which is not unexpected. What surprised me is that I find myself looking up other words as well. Obviously, the plain language  movement invading the halls of most state governments has not reached the courtroom. Won't you join me each week as I share a word gleaned from my reading? Contumacious is this week's word courtesy of Justice John V. Vaughn in the case  People v. Pettigrew , 332 N.Y.S.2d 33, 37 (1972). And his quote: Refusal to heed the warning so given; persistence in p...

So there are lots of things I need to share with you about law school, but that will have to wait for another day. One of the things that I am doing a lot of during school is reading cases. I quite enjoy when I come across a great quote. Here is my favorite from this week: “Discovery was hardly intended to enable a learned profession to perform its functions either without wits or on wits borrowed from the adversary .” Hickman v. Taylor , 329 U.S. 495, 516 (1947) (Jackson, J., concurring). The quote is in reference to a lawyer who requested information through the discovery process. Obviously, the judge thought he needed to work a little bit harder rather than rely on the work of the other side.