World Revolves Around Adorable Little Baby

We spent Christmas with my family and had a wonderful time. Of course, the highlight was meeting my adorable little niece. We passed her around and around when she was in the room and talked about her constantly when she was not. Obv, we have all fallen in love.













There has been some disagreement among my sisters regarding the roles each of us will play in this little pumpkin's life. Unfortunately, I was the last to enter the fray, so I got stuck being Scary Aunt. Meanwhile, Mary has adopted the role of Fun Aunt, Sarah is Cool Aunt, and Greta gets to be Crazy Aunt. Why do I have to be Scary Aunt? Sure, I nibble on her fingers once and awhile, but who doesn't do that?

If you can still stomach it after the above bombardment of supercutebabyphotos, here is a short video of me holding Natalie for the first time and you can see her super cute baby tricks, like Eyeing Me Skeptically and Sucking Her Thumb. Warning: Sound!



Anyhoo...here is a little quilt I made for her out of some Denyse Schmidt prints. Yikes. I sure hope I don't turn into the Aunt Who Makes Ugly Homemade Gifts.

Holiday Spirit Dampened by Sudden Disappearance of Shiny Red Boots

Did I loan my Wonder Woman boots to any of you? I need to wear them with the excessively festive Christmas skirt I made this afternoon and I can't find them anywhere. It could be that I forgot where I store them. Please let me know if you have any information.

**UPDATE!** I found them. They were with my Supergirl costume (obv), way back in the storage space. Okay, I'm leaving town for a few days...happy holidays!

Juicy Niece Enters World

Sister Kate gave birth to a baby girl at 6:14 this a.m. They named her Natalie. Yay! Can't wait to visit this weekend and try to hold her every minute.

Also--happy birthday, MIL! (Your card is still sitting on the desk in my office, of course.)

Mysterious Bottle of Red Wine Appears in Kitchen

If I know the wine-drinking and wine-buying habits of my friends as well as I think I do, I would accuse joLynn of sneaking it into the house because it's a tasty malbec.

So... I'm done!!! And, oh, man, I don't know what to do first. Upon liberation, I get an incredible urge to cook elaborate meals, sew, read fourteen books at one time.... Instead, after I finished the Bankruptcy exam (which was boring, and I performed adequately at best), I went to work for the rest of the afternoon. After work I called my sweetie-pie and found out he was writing at a coffee shop, so I met him there and read one of the many half-finished books that I had started and cast aside during the past few months. He left, and as I was putting my coat on to follow him out I started talking to some total strangers. I chatted with them for an hour... What a weirdo, why do I always do crap like that. I get that from my dad. Anyhoo...now I'm home and trying to decide if I should clean (boo!), read (hmmm...), or sew (yay!). I probably will sew. The fairies have to show up eventually, and besides, I am trying to finish a project. One of several half finished projects--not unlike the reading pile--that was begun and then cast aside this past semester.

Tomorrow afternoon Molly and I are having our annual cookie-baking extravaganza. We'll be making the usual--peanut butter blossoms (my second favorite (chocolate chip are obviously my favorite but we won't be making those) which we make every year despite an ongoing ideological struggle over whether they should be made with Hersey's kisses or actual chocolate stars; as neither of us will budge, we make both kinds (in case you didn't know, I am in the "chocolate stars" camp and am happy to articulate my reasons if you should ever want to inquire)), ginger cookies (my third favorite, but they have to be this particular recipe that we discovered two years ago), sugar cookies (which I'm ambivalent about, tasty but tedious you know), fudge (we try a new recipe every year; this year we're both feeling lazy, so this is our new recipe, which promises to be easy).

Whenever I discover a new favorite song, I have an embarassing habit of listening to it over and over and over and over and over and over again. At the moment that song is Belle & Sebastian's "Dress Up In You." Puts an incredible bounce in my step.

Juice Stands Behind Ellison Yard Sign

WTF? What is wrong with people? I hate people. No, I like people. But seriously. WTF.

Tumbleweeds Blow Through Blog Town

Sorry for the silence, my friends. I'm in exams right now and am otherwise navigating a bit of a rocky patch. I'm hoping to bounce back soon.

Not much is new anyway. We had a big ol' party at our place last Friday. Shad posted some pics on the BTA blog. It was a fun time and we even decorated our tropical tree--whatever it's called, mass cane?--with lights and pearls. The fake trial went well. It was super fun, and we won. I attribute our victory to Greta and Geoff's dad, who were the best fake witnesses ever, and also to our coordinating outfits (Geoff was kind enough to wear a pink tie to match my suit. I really think the jury dug it.). My other exams were fine. Except for the Federal Courts 24-hour take-home exam, which was a real bear.

After tomorrow's exam I will be 5/6 done with law school! Yay! I have a very distinct memory of the final sixth of the one and only marathon I ever ran/ever will run, and it was brutal, painful, and lasted much longer than it should have. At the time I promised myself that if I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, I would eventually reach the end and I would never have to do it again. I hope the final stretch of school will be better and faster than that. And I will never have to do it again.

Homeless Dude Insults Juice's Hood

I grabbed a mocha from Starbucks on my way home tonight. It is freezing outside, and since my heater isn't working, I have to drive with the window slightly cracked so my windshield doesn't fog up. Very classy, I know. There was a homeless (I assume) guy standing at my exit as I was waiting for my light to change. I was just a few feet away from him, and since my window was partly down, it seemed rude to be so close to him and not say anything, especially since I had already met his eye and smiled at him as I was pulling to a stop. So I said hello and offered him my coffee, which I had barely touched. He said thanks, and by way of complaint, "There aren't any Starbucks out here in the hood." I agreed, that was true. "Man, I don't know what I'm doing in a place like this," he said, motioning with disdain in the direction of my neighborhood, "I must be really desperate. I don't know how I ended up here in this hood." He said a few more disparaging things along this vein and I started to feel a bit huffy and said, "I live here, you know." Then the car behind me honked and I had to go.

I can't say that I completely disagree with the man. I always wonder why folks stand at the entrance ramp to North Minneapolis. We don't have any money up here. But I'm picky about who I will allow to insult my neighborhood. And I especially don't want someone I just met to insult my neighborhood and especially when I just gave him my coffee. I don't mean to be insensitive to his situation, but that was super jerky, right?

Ladies Celebrate Upcoming Marriage With Night of Debauchery

The Mess is getting married in Mexico next Friday, and Thursday night we had a bit of a celebration to send her off. We had a wild dinner at Buca, several drinks and other activities, and stumbled to our respective homes at around five a.m.



The Mess's man was in the vicinity, so he stopped by long enough for joLynn to feed him some inappropriate candy.





I had to drag myself out of bed for class Friday morning, and then headed to Geoff's cabin for a weekend of studying. Geoff and I are preparing for Tuesday's trial (by the way, thanks to The Pirate of Selby Avenue and his lovely wife, I have the jurors that I need--Thanks guys!).

The cabin is lovely as always. We are sacked out studying, reading, eating, and imbibing the occasional glass of wine. It snowed last night, and the fire is perfect.



See, I'm studying. Really.