Some recent photos

Here are a few Christmas-related pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Nicole, Missi, and Adrienne

Drew, a.ka. Santa's Helper, passing out gifts on Christmas Eve at the Hillier Christmas

Sam and Drew on Christmas morning. Could my kids get any more stereotypical (the little princess daughter and the GI Joe son)?

The ladies at the Foglio Christmas party

Visiting Santa at Bridgeport Village

Drew and Sam with Santa

Drew and Taylor

Jesse, Jeff and me

Breaking my blog silence...

I have been meaning to post something on my blog for several days now but I’ve just been caught up in the hubbub of Christmas and haven’t taken the few minutes required to post something up here. As a result, this will be a slightly longer blog post. It’s been so long (over two weeks!) it’s hard to know where to begin…

FAMILY:
We had a very nice, albeit slightly hectic, Christmas. We were in Portland staying with Missi’s mom and we traveled to Salem on Monday afternoon to have Christmas dinner with her mom’s side of the family. The kids seemed to be excited about the gift of a puppy, and we’re all looking forward (with perhaps a bit of fear and trepidation) to January 12 when Zeke will come join our family. I’ve attached a picture of Zeke below. He is the puppy on the left. I got some great stuff for Christmas, but I think my favorite gift was the “12 Days of Christmas” that Missi gave me. I could write a full blog post on just this gift, but ask me about it some time.

In other family news, my sister Julie got engaged a few days ago. Her fiancée is a great guy named Brian who she met during college. They are thinking about a May wedding in Vancouver, Washington. We’re very excited for both of them. My parents spent Christmas in Chiangmai, Thailand, but I was able to talk to them briefly on Christmas Eve.

SCHOOL/WORK:
I finished up the semester feeling alright about my exams, although it’s tough to say how accurate that feeling was as I haven’t received my grades yet. Taking exams was certainly much less painful this time around than it was last year. I am continuing to work a bit throughout my break, but my hours are pretty limited and my work is extremely flexible with my schedule.

OREGON DUCKS:
The Las Vegas Bowl was extremely disappointing. The Ducks just flat-out didn’t show up to play and nobody (perhaps except Jonathan Stewart) really seemed to care or put any effort into it. Here is a really disheartening article about Belloti’s complacency following the game. At least the basketball team is doing pretty well (12-0, ranked #20 in the country). I’m looking forward to taking Drew to the USC game and going with Missi to the UCLA game, which will potentially be a showdown between two undefeated teams.

EXTRAS:
Here is a good article on the Christmas season.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time this Christmas break learning how to use iMovie. I made a ten minute long DVD for some family members. What a sweet program! Makes me love my Mac even more.
I traded in my Treo 650 for the (allegedly) improved Treo 680 and so far I’m really regretting the decision. My phone keeps freezing up and it won’t hot sync to my computer. I’m getting very frustrated with the situation.
Other miscellaneous highlights from this break (so far):
1.) Seeing my buddy Aaron when he came to Portland. He is a really great guy and it was a treat to hang with him. We had coffee together one day and then dinner with another good friend the next evening. He is preparing to enter the Air Force JAG and if I was a single guy I’d be thinking real hard about following in his footsteps.
2.) Hanging out with my buddy Jeff. We watched the unspectacular Ohio State-Florida basketball game together, and while the game wasn’t too exciting, it’s always great to spend time with him.
3.) Visiting with my grandparents. I had lunch with my grandmother at her nursing home and we spent an evening at The Farm with my other grandparents. Both were really great times and made me appreciate even more the fact that they are all still alive.
4.) Christmas party at the Foglios. Although the power went out for about 90 minutes, we had a great time enjoying a chocolate fountain and being with some of our closest friends. Amazingly Jeff and Mike both sported very festive sweaters like I did (see below). Apparently great minds think alike.
5.) Visiting with Missi’s cousin Jake. Jake is a West Point grad currently serving in the Army. He returned in September from his second tour in Iraq and it was really interesting to hear his take on the situation and catch up with he and his wife, who currently live in Tennessee.

The newest member of the Wilson family is on the left.

That feels good...

Whew! So I’m done with finals. Provided I pass all my classes, I am actually halfway done with law school. It seems like just a few days ago I was sitting in orientation and trying to figure out how to read cases. Now I’m a mere 18 months or so away from being a “real” lawyer. Now there’s a scary thought.

I had three exams and I felt pretty good about all of them. The exam that I took yesterday (American Legal Biography) was probably the most difficult, and the main reason I say that is because he asked one question that I had ABSOLUTELY no idea what the answer was. But other than that question I think did OK (The question, if you care, simply said “Dillon’s Rule.” You were supposed to recognize what the rule was, what case gave us the rule, and what judge applied it. The answer was that Dillon’s Rule holds that municipal ordinances are to construed narrowly and the judge was Matthew Deady).

Now that I’m finished, I’m definitely ready for a break. I haven’t been sleeping enough; I haven’t been exercising enough; I’ve been drinking too much coffee; and most importantly, I haven’t been giving enough attention to my family. Missi’s birthday is tomorrow and so we’re all looking forward to that. I’m going to work a bit during the break, but probably only 20 hours per week or so. I also need to work on writing a brief for the National Appellate Advocacy Competition I’m in, but I’m going to take a few days off before I dive in on that. I’m looking forward to being back up in Portland this weekend to seeing friends and family.

With those formalities out of the way...

Now that I've posted the requisite "Wow, I hit 100 posts" entry, here are a few bits of randomness.

1. I mentioned about a week ago that Missi got my a Treo 650 for my birthday. I was pretty happy with it, but it had a few issues (like freezing up at inopportune moments), and Palm just released the Treo 680, which is supposedly an improvement. Given that, I exchanged my 650 for the 680. I really love the idea of a "smart phone" - a PDA combined with a phone - and I think the Treo 680 is going to be great. Here is a comparison of the two that I found.

2. If you have some spare time (like around 8 - 10 hours probably), I'd recommend reading the official report from the Iraq Study Group. I haven't read it, but I've perused it, and I might try to read the full 160 pages over the Christmas break. I'm hoping that it will provide lawmakers with a roadmap out of the mess that is the situation in Iraq.

3. I'm 2/3 of the way done with exams - Evidence and Con Law II done, just American Legal Biography next Monday. I also have to turn in a big paper, which is very close to being done. Fortunately I have several days to finish the paper and study for the next exam. I'll be glad when next Monday at 11:31 rolls around.

I’ve joined the “century club”

Wow, I actually hit 100 posts. That’s pretty crazy. I think I’ve been blogging for a little over a year so that averages to about 2 posts per week. I’ve enjoyed the experience and it will be fun to look back in a few years to see how I’ve documented this period of my life. I hope that it has been enjoyable for the few people who view my blog to get a “glimpse of me.”

As you may know, I can track who actually views my blog (you can see it too – just click on the little hitcounter box in the right hand column underneath the links), and it’s always interesting for me to see how many people has viewed my blog and where they are logging on from. I can usually guess who is logging on from Rizal, Philippines, but when I get a visitor from, say, Germany, I never have a clue who it is.

I always enjoy the comments I get from blog readers, so don’t be shy about posting those. Thanks for checking it out!

Nice sunrise

I just finished my Con Law II exam so my brain is a bit fried, but I got to school early this morning to study and I snapped this picture of the sunrise. It was a nice way to start off my day...

John Wilson, circa 1993

Ha ha ha...check THIS out! I have no idea where this came from. I just found it on the floor in our house. The kids must've dug it out of something.