Esquire Coffinberry's Great-Grand-Niece

is that sometimes you get too far ahead. So when I'm sitting there thinking "Ok, how does what he's talking about affect the writing assignment," and scribbling notes on my draft pleading, when I hear my name go by... Shoot, he's just switched to dealing with the case... and I haven't got those notes at the front of my computer screen. Thud-thud goes the heart... Ok, here's the answer... Yes, but why? Prof. Waggoner asks. Uh.... "I have no Idea." And then the sea of hands shoots up with people with the ready answer. Ah, the humbling begins.

The search-by-party-name feature at WestLaw is just begging me to see if any cases of genealogical significance lay hidden in its digital bowels... Must...study...torts... Civ Pro... property...

Honest to gosh, the first thing Prof. Peppet asks Mwitterone is: "So, Michelle, how old are you?" After all that birthday angst last week, I couldn't help laugh out loud! I think I blew my cover. **** Speaking of Birthdays... Happy Birthday to my Grandmas! Both my maternal and paternal grandmothers were born on August 25th. Today, were they living, they would be 88 and 89 years old. Both were educators by training, one taught elementary school. The other taught home-economics, and later in life transitioned into pioneering Special Education services in their local school district. Both were immensely loved by the local folk in their small Iowa town. So, in honor of the occasion, a recipe that became locally famous, just the way she published it in the church women's group cookbook: Basic Sweet Roll 1 cup boiling water 1 cup shortening 3/4 cup sugar 2 tsp. salt 2 cakes compressed or active dry yeast 1/2 cup luke warm water 4 eggs 7 1/2 cups sifted flour 1 cup water In ...

Besides Mwitterone, I mean (yes, you're somebody!)... Emily Calhoun's Torts I class has been permanently moved to 8:50 AM-10:00 AM (Same place). Hurrah! Easier to get to school, easier to get the snarls gently removed from my daughter's hair and all the kidlets out the door. **** In other news, I stopped by the middle school on the way home this afternoon to apologize to the teacher. We've fixed the problem (yes, there's an awful lot of legal junk that has to be done, but we made up a waiver and I signed it to make a temporary solution), and fixed the relationship. **** I'm finding the constant 'fit study in between everything else' to be a bit discombobulating. Especially the whole got-a-minute-hurry-study thing. Apparently the mind and body likes to ease into studying with little transitional acts; skipping those acts seems to trigger adrenaline. That, plus I'm a bit short on sleep... so I feel jittery. But I took a 20 minute nap this afternoon, a...

That was me. Twice this week. Somehow, upon arriving home both afternoons so far, I've been greeted with problems that have compelled me to get on the phone and call somebody and express displeasure with how somebody's done something. Today I managed to hack off one of the staff members at the middle school. As a rule, I don't diss teachers or school staff - these are mighty important people who do mighty important work that I am profoundly grateful for. But somehow the fact of not having a kid at the school for one year meant that the rep I'd built up as a parent had melted away - the school has all new staff and principal this year, and so I had nobody that could say "Oh yeah, Mrs. Coffinberry... let's get right to this problem and fix it." Nope. I get the patient long-winded explanation, and I'm busting at the seams thinking "Can we please cut to the chase and identify why this happened and what we're going to do about it?" Particularl...

How do I describe day one? First lesson... arrive Really Really Really Really (I cannot emphasize this enough) Really early to the classroom. A half hour before class, the ROOM IS FULL. And some profs set the assigned seats that first day. Which is why I got the farthest back left-most seat in Civ Pro. (I at least got to pick my seat for Torts today). Second lesson... the food in the Hearsay Cafe is too expensive. So today, I have an almond-butter and Jelly sandwich with apple slices and caramel sauce for dessert. Remind me not to enter the library until after lunch. Third lesson... Torts problems are a lot of fun to discuss at the dinner table. I got a lot of help from my sons that way last night. Fourth lesson... I love it. ***** Quote of the day: "Some might question whether encouraging homemakers to become lawyers contributes to the common good, but I suppose that is for the judges to decide." - John G. Roberts, Supreme Court Nominee

I went downstairs to get some notes I'd printed off the printer, and announced to my husband: "The printer claims it's out of ink." Son Two popped his head up from what he was reading and said: "Oh my gosh! Mom's talking like a lawyer!" "What?" I exclaim. "What are you talking about?" "Normally, you'd holler 'The printer's outta ink!'" he explained. "But no, you said it 'claims' to be out of ink, like maybe it wasn't, and you weren't sure." Oh dear. I think he may be right. Last night, watching Because of Winn Dixie , I found myself thinking "there's a tort... there's a tort..." all through the chase through the grocery store scene and the animals sniffing/gnawing on the state trooper scene (a very good movie, by the way). And yes, as instructed by Prof. Peppet, we did watch Legally Blonde , as well. (Also a good movie).

Ha... not what you think! I want to know why , if there are only so many state highway patrol cars in the Whole-Entire-State, there were THREE of them on the Boulder-Longmont Diagonal just south of IBM this morning when I went by at 7:30 AM (one followed me there from Niwot... I hate it when traffic is doing 5 over, and I've got a smokey bear on my tail... do I slow down or do I go with the flow -- yeah, yeah, I know, go with the flow... but it makes me sweat bullets). Then, this afternoon, leaving Fleming, in line to turn left off Broadway onto Baseline, I witness a wreck... which seemed to be a hit and run, and once the one hit got his senses back enough, he started his truck and did a u-turn over the broken glass and chased the vehicle that hit him up Baseline. Fun times. Re: law school. I picked which thing I wanted to sign up for, and made it so. Just one. I'm not sure I've got the time to devote to more than that...

Parts of 7 chapters plus one case. That was last night's assignment... which meant, of course, first the books had to be located and bought, and traffic (!) navigated back home. Whew! Today wasn't so bad... yet.

Cabbageburgers 1 lb. ground beef 1/2 head cabbage Salt Pepper 2 c. milk 1/2 c. butter 5 1/3 c. flour 2 pkgs. yeast 2 T. sugar 1 1/2 t. salt 3 eggs Crumble ground beef into a large frypan, and brown well. Drain. Chop cabbage, and add to beef. Salt and pepper well (really well), cover and put back on low heat. Allow to steam (cabbage should get nice and limp and nearly colorless). While that is going on over there (stir it once in a while), this is going on over here. Measure milk and butter into a microwave safe bowl, and heat in the microwave for about 4 minutes (until butter melts). In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Crack the eggs into a small bowl and beat them. Pour eggs and milk-butter mixture into the flour mixture. Stir well and long (I use a Kitchen-aid with a dough hook for 10 minutes... but back when I was a newly-wed student, I kneaded it by hand). Set aside to rise. Punch down when dough is doubled, and let rise again. Set oven to 400 degrees. On...

This morning, I shall be released from my church responsibilities. The LDS Church uses a lay clergy; we pretty much take turns doing different assignments. For the last 9 years, I've been on the board that oversees the children's ministry in all 9 Longmont Congregations, responsible for instruction of lay leaders in Music and for Cub Scouting. For the last three, have been a member of the presidency over the whole kit-and-caboodle, but especially responsible for training and teaching. Today, I will officially no longer be doing those things (for now). It is a good change (it leaves me with much more time to manage school stuff). It isn't often that I'm doing 'nothing'... and it probably won't last very long. But whatever I do end up doing next, it probably won't be the same kind of intensive as what I've been doing. So, here's to moving on...

I realized, at 8:30 this morning, that though I had filled out all the paperwork, signed all the parental papers, and written all the checks and applied sticky notes showing where the papers yet needed the student's signature, and tucked them, neatly clipped with paper clips according to which drop-off station they should be submitted, into a big manila envelope... I forgot to tell Son One that this morning at 8:00 AM was the Senior picture/locker/schedule day. (It was written on the calendar, but he hadn't noticed it there, and he hadn't seen the letter from the school, because I just filed it away with all the papers for me to fill out.) Oops. But the good part is that he got there only 45 minutes late (that was one fast shower and dressing!) and that meant there was no line for him to wait in. So sometimes, late pays. Of course, Sophomore Son Two, who has somewhat more of a social life, had been involved in all kinds of phone calls organizing who was going to meet whom ...

Thursday. Trash day. Got some new shoes and some school clothes for me, yesterday. I need to plug my schedule into my Clie, so I can be able to respond about my life availability in general from here on out. I'm not kidding... this is such a huge change for me. Not that I've been sitting around eating bon-bons and watching soaps (I hate soaps, but the bon-bon thing, well...) and not that I've not been dealing with deadlines and stuff, it's just that it's been a good many years since I've up and gone out on a regular schedule, somebody else's schedule. This will take some getting used to. The Court of Honor last night (and the Dairy Queen visit afterward) went very well. Son Two came home with seven merit badges in addition (or should I say, making possible) to his Life Rank. And Son One is remotivated to finish up that Eagle (now that's a countdown... ten months remaining before time runs out forever). Saw in today's Times-Call that the Law School hi...

Son One and I went down to the Aurora Cannery today, and helped can a couple tons of peaches. Some of the time we worked the inspection line (that means making sure the pits are out of the peaches, and that any rotten spots are cut out and no little bits of pits are stuck to the peach half), some of the time (at different times) we were pumping the hot sugar-syrup into the cans, some of the time I was helping sort the peaches into the conveyor belt at the beginning, some of the time I was wiping off the finished cans and dropping them in the labelling machine. A lot of the time Son One was lifting cut peaches into the can filler machine (which is why his chest muscles are sore tonight... we estimate he lifted about a ton of peaches one binful at a time). We were sticky and covered with peach juice when we were done, but it was a good kind of sticky. The afternoon was spent shuttling (or supervising, since Son Two now has a permit) Son Two and Son Three to their Merit Badge Counselor......

Ok, I've got nine days (eleven minus two Sundays) to get all the cr*p I moved out of my house into the garage and porch put back into the house and put away. But hooray! That means all the hard work is done... the carpet was laid down yesterday. The new floorings look great! And somewhere in there, I really need to get a hair cut (yes, me too, Michelle), and go get me some school clothes since I painted in just about everything I've got (and the chiropractor informed me yesterday that I've got blue ink on the seat of my best summer shorts that I hadn't painted in - argh!). And I need some good school shoes (besides my sneakers). My parking pass arrived. It is blue and gold, and has a shiny holographic sticker on it. Now I just need my schedule, so I can figure out the kids' Karate/instrument lesson/Scouts schedule and make sure everyone can get everywhere they need to be (including escorting littlest one from school).

Friday would have been young Jon-Benet Ramsey's 15th birthday. Well do I remember that Boxing-Day morning, when the alarm went off (heaven preserve us! why was the alarm clock set to go off on December 26th?), and I heard the voice of Steve Kelly on KOA say there was bad news, a child was missing in Boulder. A family friend was closely involved in the investigation (he's been seen on national news, I'll just say that); it was a sad and confusing story, all the way around. To this day, nobody knows if there is somebody out there who might 'do it again.' Now that I have my own little girl, though, I don't spend much time worrying about it either (but then again, is that why she is in Karate?). Now don't you go get the idea I've been obsessed over the JBR... no, I only know the date because little Jon-Benet and Son Two share the exact same birthdate in the exact same year. So sometimes, when I look at him, I do think of Jon-Benet, and think of all the thing...