Esquire Coffinberry's Great-Grand-Niece

The abundant rain last weekend resulted in prolific raspberries in my backyard bramble. Son Three sat in front of the bush yesterday like a medium-sized grizzly bear, popping berries with both hands. The whole neighborhood-ful of kids have been grazing like starved gazelles. And yet there was still a gallon of berries. Which, this afternoon, became 12 pints of jam. Two batches of straight unadulterated raspberry. And the third batch, because there wasn't quite enough raspberries for another go-round, to which I added the left-over half-bag of frozen mixed blueberries/strawberries/blackberries from the freezer, a quickly sliced-up nectarine from the fruit bowl, and a cup of orange juice out of the fridge to fill in the spaces between. That batch just came out of the canner, a deep purple and delicious.

Unlike last summer, there are now 5 little girls ages 7-9 that live nearby. Yesterday, unplanned, all five converged at our house for the afternoon. They played Twister, House, Barbies, and School - all in a forty-five minute span. They played in the sandbox and swung on the swings and roamed the house playing hide-and-seek and sardines. They devoured three-quarters gallon of cranberry-apple juice (unpolitely called "crapple juice" by my teen sons), two pounds of cherries left-over from the fourth, all the ripe raspberries from the bush in the back yard, and then several asked to stay for supper, which was black-bean chili, in which the tomato chunks proved to be too much to swallow, but the bag of doritos and the cheese was quickly consumed. Giggles, shrieking, running, chasing. A noisy day at the Coffinberry place.

Yes, we got our usual spot. 5pm, Roger's Grove, snug up against the do-not-cross tape. (Telling people "this is the end; you can go no further" loses none of its appeal over the years). Veggies (broccoli, jicama, tomatoes, peas, carrots, celery, cucumbers) and dip, lots of cheese, crackers, three kinds of chips (Sun Chips, Doritos, and those wonderful veggie chips -- mmm, sweet potato chips), Oreos, and a chocolate birthday cake with chocolate chip frosting. A long, leisurely game of Apples-to-Apples (did you ever pretend that the cards you win say something about yourself? My husband's cards said "normal" and "ancient" - poor sweetie! - but mine said "sexy," "sensual," and "boisterous." Ha!). We had just sent the little ones off to play in the cattails, and had started a very loud game of Pit among the 9 adults, when we looked up at the sky... all previous rain clouds had tracked to the south and west of us, but this ...

In Property class this last semester, the spring section of the course was introduced with a discussion of the use of rent control or subsidies to generate affordable housing. In keeping with the theme of "The Tragedy of the Commons" which seems to be the whole story of Property in a nutshell, we discussed the pros and cons of applying either governmental regulation on property owners (rent control) or artificially stimulating a segment of the market (via subsidies, either supply-side or demand-side). The class, largely consisting of renters feeling the pinch of housing costs, enthusiastically engaged in the debate. It was easy to see the problem of not-enough or too-expensive housing... everyone needs a place to live, right? But it's not so easy to see the problem of not-enough-children. Though my generation (yes, I'm an X-er) has long known that Social Security is a bogus farce because the whopping baby-boomers just before us will eat it up for lunch (breakfast, din...

I'm cleaning house, dumping trash off my desk, stacking books for resale (anyone need some?) when suddenly, it hits me. The answer to part "e" of question "2" on last Thursday's Civil Procedure Exam... I totally missed the option that AA and EE had of possibly starting a Class Action law suit over the manufacturer's defect. I could have gone a long time talking about that one. And it didn't even occur to me until what, five days later??? Grrr...

Colorado is sure beautiful this time of year... it's especially nice, being as finals are over! Spent yesterday totin' kids (one kid to a church day-camp, one kid was on a Scout hike, and one kid had a rehearsal and concert down in Niwot), cleaning out the old canes from the raspberry bushes, and clearing the detritus of the long winter from the corners of the yard. Son 1 mowed the grass (even though it wasn't his turn). I did a load of dishes. Normalcy. Aaaahhhhh.....

Examining the societal impact of the decline in sisterhood, female altruism, and childbearing among educated women. Edited to add: Check this out... my efforts in my pre-law career were worth (at the low end) $115,600. Wow...

You know what? I really like the new country station in town... 92.5 KWLI. Perfect for driving up the Diagonal after the ConLaw final, windows down, view glorious!

I couldn't bear to look at Constitutional Law any longer, so I joined the family for Pizza & Movie night. I'd picked the flicks (wandered around Showtime USA for 30 minutes trying to find movies both interesting and appropriate), left the store with two I'd never heard of before, worried, a little, that maybe they weren't great but desperate for the break. I needn't have worried. First up on this double feature (well, more like triple or quadruple or something more, but that's for later...) was a golf movie. That's right, a golf movie. And it was very very good. We found ourselves holding our breath, amazed at both the special effects and the ability of the film-maker-as-story-teller to make us care about the characters, and about a golf game. It was also an eye-opener to my kids about the reality of class-divisions in society (and foreshadowed the racial equality struggle that still continues). The film is titled "The Greatest Game Ever Played,...

For my grandfather's generation, it was Pearl Harbor. For my Mother, it was the Kennedy Assassination. Some would say, for mine, it was the Challenger Disaster. I was an adult by then. But, before that one, I remember that March afternoon when I was sixteen, sitting in DH's classroom, my classmates scattered around the room quietly studying math, when the radio (tuned to NPR, of course), announced that President Reagan had been shot. What? we all started from our chairs, desperate for more news. The sky outside, already cloudy, somehow seemed darker. Our teachers sat silent, remembering a November day nearly twenty years before. Unbidden, we stopped silent, a prayer in our hearts. Most of us didn't have television at home, so the only news we got was on radio. Who can forget Alexander Haig's "I am in charge," and all of us looking around thinking, "uh, is that right? Who is in charge, then?" And later, the relief that the President had survived. Tw...

If you missed the first two installments of this series tonight, don't miss the next one (Wednesday, Feb. 8, on PBS). In commemoration of Black History Month, this show tells the story of the Black experience in America by tracing the genealogy of 9 remarkable Americans -- Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Tucker, Quincy Jones, Dr. Mae Jemison, Dr. Ben Carson, Bishop T.D. Jakes, and Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot. A profoundly moving series, frank and poignant and direct about the conditions these individuals' ancestors endured; the message is who we are today is so inseparably connected with those who came before us. Their triumphs become our triumphs, their sorrows our sorrows. We must not forget. ***** I am struck by the importance of story-telling for knowing who we are and understanding how we got here and why things are the way they are. It seems to me that a central feature of the Law School experience is story-telling. Not only in how as law...

Of course I'm talking about Taxes. Being the last day of January, the w-2s are out, and it's time to put nose to the grindstone and churn that sucker out. We need a schedule A, B, C, D, and a form 6251, not to mention the long 1040. And the Colorado 104. Fun fun fun. Hoo-rah for TaxCut software. Then, when that's done, time to do the FAFSA, folks! Only I get to do it twice. Did you know that a student pin doesn't count for a parent pin? Downpayment on son's college housing went out yesterday. I can't believe that in just 5 months it's launch time - fly baby birdie, fly!

Whew! Last night I was trying to study property at my son's basketball game. Who knew that you a land owner not only have a right to the use of your land and to not have intruders, but your land has the right to support from the land beside it and below it? I'll remember that today as I drive past the hugemongous excavations in what used to be the Yeager farm. I miss the cows. I'm not so sure I like the houses. I'm finding it a little bit harder to get into the swing of things this semester. I miss the comfortable predictability of known professors. And that Constitutional Law book is HEAVY! It weighs too much. I have given up on any hope of vaguely resembling cool (or at least not so darned old), and resign myself to rolling my briefcase (brief? it's ten inches deep!) and using elevators. Otherwise, my chiropractor was going to get rich indeed. (whine whine whine) Things in the Coffinberry house since I last updated: Son three turned twelve, and thus this past Sund...

It was just the kind of barn that Charlotte would have built a web in: two-storied but built into the side of a hill, so that the sheep-fold was warm down below, but you could drive the tractor into the upper floor. Painted red. Built to last. In the spring of '04, a violent storm brought down my grandpa's old barn. The last building remaining on the old farmstead, several of us had seen the barn standing alone the day before as we passed through for the family reunion; but that morning on our way to church, it was quite a shock to see it gone. Several of us risked the poison ivy and trekked up to see the remains. A couple took a board from the wreckage, to keep - for what purpose, I don't know. Just sentimental, I guess. I chose a wide piece, maybe three feet long, with an angle cut in the end. Flakes of red paint clung in random spots. The wood was swollen, soaked and soft. Back home it came, wedged between the sleeping bags and camping gear. For more than a year, the bit...

Logging onto the Dish Network website, I select the service I pay good money for, and scan the entire screen. More than a hundred channels of nothing! Not one thing to exercise by. Zip. Zero. Nada. Not a thing of interest. How do they manage such an amazing absence of anything at all of interest? No M*A*S*H, no Waltons, no Little House on the Prairie, no Are You Being Served, no Keeping Up Appearances, not even Law and Order, nothing worthwhile on History or Discovery, no intriguing Biography somewhere, not even a Star Trek, Next Generation, DS9, or Voyager. No Andy Griffith, no Happy Days, no All in the Family, not even Bewitched. Pathetic. *** Oops. I lied. I have a larger service than I thought I did. So when I looked at the correct chart, I discovered that Monty Python's Flying Circus is on at 9:00... so I shall exercise to that. Isn't that just amazing. I have to subscribe to so many channels just to have a slim chance that one will have something interesting on?

On my Christmas card list are a couple of very special teachers, from back in high school days. I got a card back from one of them, DH, this past month, sharing news and catching up. I've long treasured DH's counsel and advice; and admired his values. DH mentioned that another teacher from that school, Mr. C., to whom I owe so much, passed away in November, at the age of 72. Once an Air Force colonel, Mr. C. was director of a military band; whatever brought him to cross paths with me in the tiniest high school in Tennessee, I'll never know, but I'll be always grateful. I truly doubt I'd be where I am today if it weren't for him... I still recall the day he walked into class, dropped a folder of papers on my desk and told me "you're taking this test." So the next week, I travelled over two mountains to sit in a roomful of strangers, alone and frightened to death and not quite sure what I was doing there. The test was the PSAT-NMSQT. And because of t...

The other day, on an expedition to the K-mart, a dvd of The Muppet's Christmas Carol landed in the cart and in due course came home. It has become my daughter's favorite Christmas video, and has played every day (and sometimes twice a day) since. She has two favorite tunes, the Scrooge opening number (mentioned above), and the "Marley and Marley" number. Though it is playing constantly, I know there are worse things out there (such as my childhood favorite "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", or worse yet I could be hearing the refrain "You'll shoot your eye out! You'll shoot your eye out!"). Tonight's movie, though, for after the supper and the story from Luke, will be the incomparable "It's a Wonderful Life."

200 years. Today marks 200 years since Joseph Smith, the prophet of the Restoration, was born. Mr. Coffinberry and I celebrated the day with a trip down to the temple in Littleton. It was a particularly special trip, because some close friends of ours were having a special ceremony to celebrate the adoption of their youngest son. It was an emotional occasion. For a second day in a row, I shed many tears. *** In other news, poor Shadowfax got a hot surprise when he decided to jump up onto the table this evening. Mr. Coffinberry had just set two pizzas hot from the oven on the table, and had turned to tell the kids to come for supper; I was fetching the pizza slicer from the kitchen drawer. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a black and white streak do a somersault in the air, land on the floor, and zip down the stairs. Looking over the counter, I see the reason for his sudden acrobatics - two footprints squashed through the cheese, hot tomatosauce oozing between toe marks. Poor baby. H...

I wept. It was good. Better than I hoped. I've read the entire series aloud to my children twice (once for the older set, once for the younger), and I was glad for the loving touch the filmmaker brought to the tale.

The dough for the cinnamon rolls is rising, Santa's sleigh is loaded, the children have all been shopping (using their own money, which made them very careful and thoughtful shoppers); let Christmas come. Mr. Coffinberry poked his head up the stairs this morning, announcing news from Slash-Dot, news that will probably make front page in tomorrow's Daily Times-Call, news that probably make for a nervous holiday for many of our friends. Seagate bought Maxtor. That makes for a lot of redundancy, and we all know what tech companies do when there's a redundancy, and they do it with a vengeance. This is not going to be good for the local economy. Ouch.