A long two weeks comes to an end

Kat and I are back at home after our fortnight at the Red Roof Inn. While having cable was nice, I wouldn't recommend such an adventure to anyone. It was not much fun.

It did make us appreciate our apartment even more - especially now with new kitchen cabinets, new appliances, redone bathrooms and a new water heater. For those who have already visited, you'll have to return since it is like a brand new home. For those that haven't visited, well you can pretend all of this never happened.

Here is a photo of Kat (eyes tastefully closed) in the new "kitch." A bank of cabinets were taken out, so it seems bigger now, so we think now it might be a "kitche." Somehow we were able to force every in the old cabinets into the new cabinets.



(Sidenote: I'm sure this is far from riveting, but my therapist told me the best way to cleanse the mind after my time in the gulag was to speak about my new great digs.)

One other story about the last two weeks occurred yesterday while Kat and I were waiting to get back in. Because we had to check out of the hotel at 11 a.m. but couldn't get into the apartment until 5:30 p.m., we spent the day with fully-loaded cars and dogs with no place to call home. Now normally, since I live far from the law school, I never see my classmates except at school. However, as is just my luck, at the moment that Kat and I had two dogs, two loaded cars and two Whoppers we were tearing into like prisoners because we hadn't eaten in like 15 hours (we pretty much ran out of food and we're trying to last until we got back home), a classmate pulled up (in a Lexus SUV, I might add). I'm pretty sure that he may have thought I was homeless before based on how I look at school (unshaven and wearing T-shirts all the time), but now I know for certain he thinks I'm homeless. At that particular time, he wasn't wrong.

Anyway, some other problems were fixed in the apartment as well and it's great to be back. The dogs seem very happy (especially Lucy who recently had surgery on her girl parts (I respect her privacy) and seems in much better condition). Lucy doesn't like her new food, but I hope she will come around.

(Again, riveting I know. I'm sure you want more, but I have to cut it off here).

In basketball-news, the Suns haven't looked too fantastic with the addition of the Big Cactus. Maybe that will improve, but I can't say I am particularly optimistic. Again, we'll just have to wait and see.

In Suns fandom news, I secured some new basketball shoes after nearly two years with my previous pair (immortalized in this blog post), and I went with some Converse that celebrate the orange of the Suns. To me, nothing says commitment to fundamental basketball and teamwork like orange patent leather shoes. In my first pickup game with the new Dreamsicles, I was making it rain, so I'm thinking they're good so far.



Shalom.

Live from the Red Roof Inn!!!

Yes, friends, the Berlin groundlift of moving nearly everything in an apartment on one side of Tucson to a small hotel room on the other side of Tucson has been completed. I don't think I would have been able to do it without all of my experience in helping Mom with previous lasagna-lifts, so for that I thank her. The room is pretty nice, and we have Internet, so I can't complain too much. We just hope the dogs will keep being good, so we don't get kicked out. 

Notes from the week:

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer was on campus this past week and spoke to the students. He was pretty funny and told some good stories. He said his job was basically "doing homework for the rest of his life."

In the interest of keeping it "fair and balanced," I also heard from the Solicitor General of the U.S. Paul Clement. The SG is the designated advocate for the U.S. Government. It is his job to come up with arguments, both legal and otherwise, for what the government does. He was very sharp.

I have been sick. I think it was because I skipped Dr. Keith's fun-time radio half-hour medical hour to hear Breyer and thus was served with flu-like karmic payback. I was really suffering Thursday night, but I'm starting to feel better. 

In the ongoing Mormon basketball league saga, the team upon which I am the sole ringer notched big win number two on the season. However, after a 1-11 regular season, this victory came in the first round of the playoffs. That's right, the slipper still fits, Gus Johnson! We now stand at 2-11 and are looking at a Final Four matchup with a team that humbled us recently. But that doesn't really matter. It was just nice to win again.

I am studying this weekend, however, one small problem with that is that I have cable and it is NBA All-Star Weekend in NOLA, or alternatively the Black Super Bowl or the name I've proposed Mardi Ball. But anyway, I'll definitely be taking in the Saturday night festivities (although I won't be texting in any votes) and the game on Sunday. I'm a bit of a sucker for NBA All-Star Weekend, and the League in general, if you haven't noticed.

In the interest of furthering that suckeritude (word I also made up that is not as good as Mardi Ball), I casually watched the NBA All-Star "Celebrity" game last night on ESPN7. Celebrity was in quotes because the announcers had to tell you what the people did that made them celebrities because no one knew. I had never heard of Ne-Yo before, and I try to pay attention! If you missed it, and I'm sure you did, I can fill you in briefly. A criminally overweight Chris Tucker shot way too much, Prime Time actually played pretty hard and pretty well, Floyd Mayweather likes to dribble, and Taylor Hicks should have stayed home. The only player that would count as a current celebrity, Terrell Owens, showed up at the start of the second quarter (traffic, delayed flight, Tony Romo girlfriend intervention?) and then thoroughly dominated in leading his team to victory. He is good at basketball; the other "celebrities" are not.

I also watched some of the Rookie-Sophomore game but didn't make it to the end because I took some NyQuil and that was that. 

Last cable note: I also have HBO of some sort, it might be HBO2, but anyway I caught some of the preview buildup to Saturday night's rematch bout between Kelly Pavlik and Jermain Taylor. The fight is on PPV, but the show allowed me to see some nice shots of Little Rock, Taylor's hometown. It seemed quite nice. So my final question is for Lloyd, if he has read this far or read at all: Is there a lot of hullabaloo (for lack of a better word about this rematch after Pavlik humbled the hometown boy)? And my other question for him is whether he had heard of Ne-Yo?

Be cool.

We'll just have to wait and see

You're a huge Suns fan. You're always blogging about them even though anyone who has ever seen this blog has asked for less Suns and more anything else. Thus, you have to have an opinion on the Diesel coming to the desert, right?

Sorry. Can't help you. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Initially, I felt good about it - I think because everyone was trashing the idea. But over time, as some people have come around - I've started going the other way. And ultimately, I don't know.

So my feelings were summed up well by Mr. Abbott at TrueHoop here. We'll just have to wait and see. I don't think "being motivated" can breathe life into a corpse, but if Shaq is actually more than a corpse, than maybe some good things will happen.

The Suns have been repeatedly criticized for not being able to play slowdown ball in the playoffs, and when Kerr pushed in his chips for the ultimate slowdown center he's getting bashed for turning his back on exciting basketball. But the Suns had exciting basketball for three years and little to show for it but regular season wins. I don't know if this gambit will work, but I applaud Kerr and D'Antoni for rolling the dice. I didn't see this season turning out any differently. Now, I definitely do. The only problem is first-round exit is a real possibility in addition to championship. But it should be exciting, and I think that is why we watch.

Quick NBA thoughts on my mind:

Kobe Bryant is always becoming more and more like MJ (manner of talking to the press, greatness, tutelage under Phil Jackson, the raised fist after hitting a game winner ((I love doing that one during pickup games)) and we can add one more eerie similarity: horrific, horrible, terrible, incompetent GM. All it took was Kobe calling for Kupchak to "ship Bynum's ass out" and he turned into the spawn of Elgin Baylor and a condor. And despite Kobe's complaints, Kupchak has shown himself to be likely the best GM out there. MJ, hmm, not so much. But I love me some Gerald Wallace highlights.

I think Jason Kidd to the Mavericks still needs to and will happen. For whatever reason, the Western Conference must always be far superior to the East, and that final addition would seem to be required to ensure Western dominance.

KG is hurt. KG is important. You know this.

The JeffKat Palace will soon be remodeled, so we will be decamping to the Red Roof Inn (near Interstate 10 for handy access for smugglers!) for two weeks. While this is quite an inconvenience, I will have cable. That means I might actually watch some NBA games. Think of all the blogging I can do then! Anyway, I'll have to let you know how that experiment goes.

Lastly, I was thrilled to find out this news. I love FireJoeMorgan and have the shirt to prove it, so I was quite pleased to find out that Michael Schur was the main brain behind the operation. It tied together two things I much enjoy: The Office and making fun of Woody Paige.

And lastly, to Lloyd if he is reading, I've decided to try to hate less and congratulate more. Although I do still find this funny nearly every time it's updated.