A week ago today, I had the privilege of attending oral argument at the Supreme Court and hearing two very interesting cases. I was there for the second case, State Farm v. Campbell, which will be very relevant to a petition for certiorari that we have pending in the Supreme Court regarding the issue of constitutionality of some kinds of punitive damages awards. Lucky for me, the first case -- Virginia v. Black -- was absolutely fascinating.
The legal issue was interesting, which always helps. The question was whether Virginia's anti-cross burning statute violates the First Amendment. The statute tries to get around the prohibition on proscribing content-related speech by only outlawing cross burning when it is done with "intent to intimidate." The statute then goes on to say that "intent to intimidate" may be presumed from the fact that the cross was burned in public view.
Better yet, the argument was outstanding. The attorneys all really knew their stuff, and they were very adroit at answering questions. In particular, the attorney representing the KKK just wowed me.
But the best part was the fact that Justice Thomas actually SPOKE. The man has a reputation for not asking questions at argument, and considers it a point of pride that he doesn't need to ask questions. Here, he didn't really ask a question. He fed the Federal Government's attorney a list of reasons why cross burning in particular is a uniquely threatening act, dating back 100 years. When the attorney didn't pick up on the gift he was being given right away, Thomas AGAIN repeated his argument. With the bow now on the package, the Government attorney finally wisely said that yes, what Justice Thomas said was exactly what he meant.
A reserved front-row seat at a Supreme Court oral argument that was well-argued and that all of the Justices, even Thomas, seemed very engaged in: For a lawyer, it just doesn't get any better than that. Geeky, but true.
Just got the call that Ellen Marie Bignault has arrived! Mom labored for more than 26 hours, but by the time she was supposed to push, it was a mere 26 minutes before the not-so-little one made her appearance. Here's the stats:
Ellen Marie Bignault
Born December 17, 2002, 8:14 p.m.
8 lbs., 6.8 oz. 20 inches long
Mom, Dad and Granny Hertle all sounded just wonderful, and assure me that she is a beautiful baby. Yay Allison!
OK, not to sound too girly or anything, but have I mentioned lately how wonderful crock pots are? When I can get my act together, I love to set thing up in mine, and come home to a warm satisfying meal. Today -- for the first time in several months -- I managed to do just that. While Mike was in the shower this morning, I peeled and coarsely chopped two onions and a a pound of carrots, then plopped a beef roast of some sort on top, and some 13 hours later I came home tired and starving to a wonderful meal. Yay me!
This entry could also be titled "My wonderwoman weekend." I've been so out of it (and so busy at work) that I haven't done much at all to prepare Christmas or the end of the year. This weekend, I crammed it ALL in. I paid all my bills and got the four foot-high piles of mail and other crap that were littering my desk down to a manageable one pile. I baked about 8 dozen cookies for presents and prepared the batter for another 8 dozen (should finish tonight). Mike and I together did about 4 loads of laundry. I did all of my Christmas shopping -- whatever I didn't accomplish on Saturday morning around town and Sunday evening at Target, I finalized at Amazon.com, BN.com, and crateandbarrel.com, where I was lucky enough to catch the last day of get-there-by-Christmas-without-paying-for-express-shipping. I finally watched the season finale of the Sopranos, and last week's Survivor. I did some food shopping. I designed and ordered Christmas cards, which should arrive by Wednesday. I interviewed a prospective Cornell student for CAAAN. And we attended a party on Saturday night and dinner with friends on Sunday night (both times, bringing some of the aforesaid cookies as presents). No wonder I am exhausted this morning!
While Mike was off watching football this weekend, Tucker and I trekked to Atlanta for the dual purposes of visiting Hertle (she the 38 week belly) and Nicole (she of the 26 week belly). Allison and David picked me up at the airport and whisked me home for a lovely homemade dinner. On Saturday, we did "girl stuff" -- namely, shopping at Babies R Us and other stores to finalize the nursery for baby Ellen Marie's impending arrival. I bought a baby shower-type gift, a birthday/Christmas gift for Allison, and a birthday/Christmas gift for Ellen, and they ended up with a tub, a rubber duckie, a turtle bath towel and turtle bath puppet, a bedspread for the daybed in the nursery, and an adorable stuffed giraffe. Ellen rewarded me by doing numerous highly-visible, alien-esque summersaults. We finished out the night by watching Monsters, Inc. over pizza with David and Aaron (I would add Kelly, except the poor dear arrived halfway through the movie, then slept through rest of it due to her crazy Saturday schedule).
On Sunday, we had a great brunch at Nicole and Paul's house. What a beautiful place they have; I can't believe it took me this long to finally get to see it. Junior (he won't really be a Junior, but they haven't settled on a name yet) was kind enough to show me his moves as well, and I got to both see and feel a good hearty kick. It was great to reintroduce Allison and Nicole, too, especially since they will soon have babies only three months apart and now live only 20 minutes away from each other. We gals talked non-stop from 10:30 til 3:30, and could have gone on forever if I hadn't had a flight to catch. Paul was a trooper through most of the conversation, though he did get green around the gills from time to time and finally excused himself from the most graphic pregnancy talk.
What a fabulous weekend!
My poor Floridian husband. Before Thanksgiving, he spent an entire Saturday raking the leaves on our front and back lawns into neat little piles. Believe me when I say three large oaks spew a LOT of leaves.
When we returned from New Orleans, we learned that we had two days to get the leaves to the curb if we wanted them picked up via street vacuum rather than having to bag them (a concept I am not wholly familiar with, as they don't do that where I grew up, but hey, they compost what they collect, so yay environment!). So, on Tuesday, Mike spent most of the very cold afternoon raking his neat piles from the backyard into the front, then to the street. He couldn't get it all done that day, so he came home early from work on Wednesday to finish the job. When I arrived home from work last night, the yard was spit-spot, and all the leaves were piled in the street, in anticipation of the Dec. 5 visit from the leaf vacuum fairy.
Overnight, we had a visit from the snow fairy, which pretty much kicked the vacuum fairy's wimpy butt back to whatever county garage in which it normally resides. So at 6:30 this morning, Michael piled on clothes and went outside to shovel our walk and driveway. Anyone who knows Michael knows that 6:30 am is not his optimal time of day, and 6:30 am in the snow is a particularly loathesome thought for him.
Then we realized without a visit from the plow fairy (which, by the way, just finally came for the first time on our block as I was writing this, at 5:20 pm), we weren't going anywhere. So we stayed in and worked from home, and watched the snow pile up again. It doesn't look like he touched the walk or the driveway at all. And if we are going to go anywhere tomorrow, Mike will have to once again bundle up early in the AM to get our walk and driveway and sidewalk clear. And he'll do it, too.
I feel very blessed that Florida boy is braving all of this cold for me! It's just gotta be true love.
After a fabulous visit with Mike's family in New Orleans, we are home safe and sound. Highlights of the weekend included an oh-so-classy meal at McDonalds on our way home from the airport, quality time in Katie's on-call room (lead paint be damned), a truly classy Thanksgiving dinner at the Windsor Court, watching Dad laugh uproariously at a viewing of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Mike being Tucker's unfailing advocate at the Louisianna Renaissance Festival (an outing which included yet another eventful stop at Mickey D's and Dr. Katie explaining exactly how Zoltan the Adequate could hammer a 4 inch steel nail into his nose unscathed). After Mom and Dad left on Sunday, we enjoyed further quality time with Katie (and her couch), both of which were much-needed.