Christmas Photos

Kat's ear featuring half of one of her gifts.

Kat and Lily enjoying another gift that matches quite well with their outfits.

This is me enjoying my new shirt that Lloyd sent me. Although it did not lead to a victory on Christmas Day, I still liked wearing it. My hand signals represent the Suns being the 8th best team in the NBA (not because I'm a member of the Van Buren Boys).

This is me looking through my new binoculars that Kat's parents sent me. Kat got some as well. They are great for looking at houses that are built on the mountains north of our apartment.

This is Lily taking a sniff of her present. It contained a new hedgehog plush toy, which soon will be destroyed. That is how you know she likes it.

Thanks to all who sent gifts, and I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas.

Beasts!

These photos aren't exactly perfect - actually, they make the Zapruder film look like Wall-E - but the excuse is that it was 3 a.m. and enormous wild boar-like creatures were tromping around our home. Thus, it was hard to keep a steady hand while simultaneously hearing their primeval, bloodthirsty grunts. But last night we were visited by two wild javelinas who were wandering around near the dog patch outside our back balcony. They might have been lost, in search of poodles (?!?) or just trying to scare people. But they were pretty cool/frightening to see.

Kat and I had only seen them one other time when we were out for a walk and they ran through a wash. They are quite large and look like they would enjoy gnawing on your femur. As Kat and I went back to sleep - and tried to get the dogs to calm down - we both had the same thought:

"I'm glad we don't live on the first floor!"

You kids ready to learn?

The shirt shown above, probably my favorite of the many that I own, is now largely a relic of the past thanks to the most recent trade. The D'Antoni era that I enjoyed so much is clearly very much over. Despite the fact that most people in Arizona had begun loathing Boris Diaw about two years ago, I always liked his style of play. I enjoyed his "big guy who played small, small guy who played big" abilities as well as his French-ness. I fully expect that Larry Brown will soon banish him from even suiting up, but I won't forget the intriguing way he played the game.

One other note on the above picture, I was trying to make a sad face in order to convey my disappointment, but instead I just looked like I always do (sort of my own version of Blue Steel). Acting!

I didn't love this trade - although many other people did - but it probably needed to happen. Apparently Raja Bell did not care for Terry Porter's coaching, and Diaw has never shown that he could play alongside Stoudemire. And despite how much I enjoy Boris, I don't love him Badenov (did you see what I did there?) to take him over Amare.

However, I have a tentative plan for reworking the shirt to keep it in my rotation. Tell me what you think:


Another interesting angle of the trade was the continuing meltdown of Steve Nash, who does not appear to be having a lot of fun or enjoying the post-D'Antoni era. Nash sounded like he should be on suicide watch after the trade. His stats are way down. The team revolves around Shaq, when he plays, and Amare when Shaq doesn't. And this all occurs while D'Antoni takes the dregs of Isiah Thomas's intellectually bankrupt regime and still manages to get the Knicks to win about as often as they lose. It's an impressive achievement considering the players involved. I have not had a chance to watch complete NBA games, so I could be way off in my analysis. However, if the outcome of a season is going to be the same either way, I'd prefer entertaining to boring. I think right now the Suns are a little boring, and even they know it.

In happier NBA news, it is almost required viewing to check the NBA highlights each day to see the exploits of one Lebron Raymone James as well as Dwyane (Dwayne) Wade. LeBron is basically playing like a genetics experiment gone awesome that crossed a locomotive with an eagle with a computer with a headband. And although Charles Barkley has been asking for it for about five years, LeBron is playing like more of a finisher, rather than a point guard, and I think the Cavs (and of course the viewing public - I mean look at these dunks!) are better off for it. Their competition has not been exactly stellar lately, but it is hard to complain when they win in a blowout every night.

As for Wade, his team isn't very good, but he continues to play like he did in the Olympics. I don't know that he can be stopped on the pick and roll because he is so good at splitting the defenders. I just hope he can last the whole season without getting hurt, but he is definitely playing at a high level.

And of course, I haven't even mentioned the Celtics and the Lakers, who appear to be on a collision course for June (assuming LeBron and the LeBronnaires) don't stop the C's first. I think it should be an exciting season, and if my obvious brilliant thoughts don't pump you up, then maybe you aren't an NBA fan. And that's OK.

In other news I have been avoiding by talking about the NBA, I finished my finals for law school. They were punishingly punishing. It was not fun. I will talk about them no more.

In better news, here is a photo from Kat's birthday party from a while back.

The people in attendance sort of changed over time, so we didn't get a full group shot. But here were a few of the guests enjoying the event (check out the nice matching crowns!), and there is me videotaping the taking of a picture (file under apples, trees, distance falling from).

And since it wouldn't be a true Jeffrey blog post without a photo of the Boom's official mascot, Lily, here is the poodle sunning herself after a busy day of doing whatever it is she does.


So, that's all, I guess. I hope everyone is doing well. Merry Christmas!

This is my last post about fun

Kat and I had a great visit with Elliott. Kat allowed us to watch a lot of football, even though in her mind, sitting on a couch staring at the television does not count as "doing something." But in between the football watching and the eating, we did fit in some things that might actually qualify as "doing something."

On Saturday, we went up to the top of Sentinel Peak (A Mountain). Here is Lloyd overlooking the vast expanse that is Tucson and deeming it worthy of a thumbs up.

Here is a photo of Kat - and of me, Matrix-style - on top of the mountain.

After the hike, we took a look at the law school. However, no photographic evidence exists of this trip. You'll have to trust me. Next, we went to the Reid Park Zoo. I had never gone to the zoo before, and I'm not sure why. Kat had occasionally asked to go to the zoo, but for some reason we never have. This, of course, led to lots of comments about how great the zoo was and how annoying it was that we had not gone before. I have no real defense to these arguments.

The zoo was a lot of fun. While we were probably the only people our age who were there and not pushing strollers, it was still a good time. Here is an Asian elephant and an African elephant who were playing a game of "pick up the stick with your trunk and throw it." They seemed to be having a pretty good time.


Here is a giraffe eating some grass. There were three very nice-looking giraffes.


These otters enjoyed playing to the crowd. The log in the picture is hollowed out and acts as sort of an animal water slide. They were thrilling the crowd with their human-like actions. Kat was rather pleased by this exhibit.

After the zoo we hit the In-n-Out Burger, which was tasty as usual. We then returned home for some lazing about and football-watching. While none of the games were anywhere close in excitement to the Nebraska game Friday (I think Kat was thoroughly disturbed by some of the actions that occurred during that tense contest), it was still fun.

Kat and I did put up Christmas lights outside our apartment last evening (Lloyd took a well-deserved nap), so now the house looks great. We also incorporated the wreath we already had up to display the gift that my Mom sent us. And while this is my last post about fun for awhile (finals, grrr!), this weekend has been great. It was awesome for Lloyd to make the trip and we all had a great time. I plan to return the favor during my spring break next semester.

We wish you a

and a happy new year!

By Request

I received an e-mail this week - from a person who alleges that I never return e-mails - that I was not blogging enough. That may, in fact, be true, but I'm trying to make amends. Here's some bullet points from my life.

- It was good to see the family, if only by Skype, for Thanksgiving. It looks like a good time was had by all at Tim and Kay's. I'm sure it will be the same for Christmas.

- I have two finals and a big paper due and then I will officially be half done with law school (as long as everything goes well with those two finals and big paper). I don't really know if it has gone fast or slow (it can seem interminable at certain times), but it seems like I am getting closer to actually knowing something and actually being able to provide someone a service.

- Kat had a good birthday party. There was a pretty impressive turnout (for us) of both people and dogs and we had a lot of fun. The weather was great, and most people seemed to enjoy it. There were some close calls with near dog-fights, but overall a good time was had by all.

- Lloyd and I went and played basketball this morning at the regular 6 a.m. game. Nothing can top the look of incredulity on Lloyd's face when I explain that people are actually willing to play basketball this early in the morning. It was great to get to play with him, and we "dominated the dojo" despite the fact that Lloyd was playing hurt and I can't shoot. It was a lot of fun. Now, we are back and Lloyd is back to sleep and I am blogging. Kat is sleeping, too, so ssshhhhhh!

- Kat did a great job on the food yesterday for Thanksgiving. She even found a coupon online, so we had $10 off of our Boston Market turkey. Some of the employees at Boston Market were not thrilled with working on Thanksgiving, but that is neither here nor there.

- I'm excited to watch the Nebraska game today. I haven't seen a single Corn game all year, but Lloyd promises me that it will be good. He told me that Ndamukong "A Boy Named" Suh has been living in the other team's backfields the last few games and that he is the one I should watch. I withhold judgment but will let you know.

- The Buzzsaw that is the Arizona Cardinals were more like the Butter Knife that is the Arizona Cardinals last night. The rather underwhelming game led to this interesting quote from Bryan Robinson, which made it seem like he did not quite understand the current saturation of American media: "Not a whole lot of people get the NFL Network. That's the good thing about it." Sorry, Bryan, I get the feeling that they are going to hear about how the Cardinals, who are going to win the NFC West even if they don't win another game all year, got drubbed by the worst team in the NFC East. That's just my hunch.

- In marginally good news, I was selected to be a Writing Fellow (I always wanted to be a fellow, whether it was academic-related, jolly good or otherwise) for the law school's writing program. This means I will be the teaching assistant to a small writing class of 1L's during the spring semester. You should probably start praying for them now. I think it will be fun to help and should improve my writing, too.

- As an NBA fun, this Summer of 2010 drama is kind of annoying. It means that the Knicks and Mike D'Antoni have a free pass to continue being terrible for another two years. Despite the fact that eleventy bajillion words will be written about them anyway. I like LeBron, and I know he can't stop what other people talk about, but he is on a good team right now. I don't know if he should have to tamp down the rumors, but it might help if he didn't talk about it quite so much. I don't see why Cleveland can't be the team that plays the Lakers in the Finals rather than the Celtics. That should be their focus - not on stuff that might happen in the future. But even if LeBron is distracted (or distracting) he is still doing amazing stuff every night. That is fact. I don't profess to be totally uninterested in 7-1-10 - if all goes well I should be studying for the bar exam then - which will either decrease my interest considerably or mean that I am going to fail because I never studied and instead read TrueHoop all day.

- On the NBA tip (as the kids said about 10 years ago), I think the other problem with this season is it is abundantly clear that only three teams can win in the end. Last year, it truly seemed wide open and that any of a handful of teams could have the trophy. But this year the Lakers look unstoppable, the Celtics may not be as intense but look like they are ready for the grind and the Cavs look like they have "the player" and enough supporting players to do some damage. I think it will still be interesting, so if it wouldn't kill fans and the media, it would be nice if they could, you know, pay at least a modicum of attention to this season.

- And, just because I was thinking of it, here is Kevin Garnett's insane interview after the Celtics won the title.

- Last, I can't find this birthday card online, so I'll just explain it. (I'm sure it might dampen the hilarity, but you'll have to imagine). Kat received this card from her friend Lena (they were both once copy editors and share this humor, although it can also work for English teachers and people who correct people regularly - although I don't know anyone like that). Lena recently had a baby and Kat went to visit her and him in October. The baby has its own blog (although to me it doesn't look like he can even type yet!) and is relatively adorable. Anyway, that was a terrible and convoluted introduction (and I said I was a writing fellow!) but here is the card, if anyone has read this far:

We open with two girls, teenageish, apparently sitting in a school cafeteria. The quote balloon from the first says: "Where's your birthday party at?" The second then says: "Don't end a sentence with a preposition." 

Then, you open the card and the same photo is present and only the first girl has a quote balloon, which says: "Where's your birthday party at, bitch?"

So, Mom, in the future, you might want to be careful with your corrections.

- Kat is now awake, so I will cease blogging. Keep it real.

You would not believe the number of e-mails I still have to go through!

Change You Can Believe In!

Do not rush to your computers to send me e-mails! The change I am referring to is the orientation of our apartment. Kat was suggesting that we should change things up in our living room, but I was skeptical that things could be improved. As usual, Kat was right because the new setup has energized the place.

This is Kat sitting in her new "office." It was only fair that since I have an office she should have one, too. She likes the new setup because it allows her to work on her computer while simultaneously watching television. See below:

We moved the dining room table under the strange light balls, moved the couch to the exact opposite wall and have provided nice mountain views for admiring during commercial breaks while watching television. For those of you who have never visited or don't have much memory of how things used to be, this probably means little, but I've typed this much, so I'm going to keep going.

Here is Lucy enjoying the new setup. And that is my knee.

Kat enjoying television, mountain views and the helpfulness of a hat on a bad hair day.

Other notes:
-Huskers now 6-4 are going bowling. I am going bowling on Thursday in the annual Arizona Law Review/Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law nerd-off. I hope the Huskers do much better than I am going to.
-This LSU-Alabama game is exciting.
-I have a DTV analog converter (no idea what I'm talking about) but I only get some of my local channels. I don't know why I don't get them all. Currently, I watch NBC through the converter, but have to watch CBS and ABC over the air. There is no point to this except that I am not a technological genius.
-Enjoy Minnesota!
-Keep flying high, Lloyd!
-Viva dogsitting!
-That's all for now.