Well, the World Series is over and I have finally allowed myself the consolation that just seeing the Astros get there is good enough. Anybody but the Yankees, right? At least there is plenty of chocolate around to soothe the soul. That's because of the serious lack of trick-or-treaters this year. As a result I got stuck with a ton of candy. Proof that you should not skimp and buy the cheap stuff.
When I was young it didn't matter if it was a school night or not, Halloween was a call for a full frontal assault of the neighborhood. Nowadays it seems as though parents are holding the reigns a bit too tight. I live in a safe neighborhood for pete's sake. Now, if I lived in that old studio on 9th Ave. in Tucson I could understand it. But I live near country club with soccer moms everywhere.
Maybe the parents are standing up for their children's health by not letting them gorge themselves on all those partially hydrogenated oils. Sure one snack size snickers won't do much harm but we all know ol Jimmy will not just have one while he's learnign how to jack cars and take out the five-O on his x-box. No, that little pudgy knob will try to cop his mom's leftover candy stash as soon as her back is turned.

But now, on to more important matters.

Since I last took time to actually post on my own site we have had Harriet Miers, Scooter Libby, an Iraqi vote, Republicans distancing themselves from their once great icon, and tons of effort poured into my academic endeavor.

First we have the whole Miers fiasco. This can be covered in one simple sentence. We don't need to stinkin' evangelicals in office, in uniform, or on our most revered and respected court. Why not just fill our Supreme Court with one of each. Let's get a catholic, a jew, an evengelical, a protestant, a buddhist, a muslim, and a rastafarian for good measure. This way we can base all of our justice system's decision on a religious doctrine. How about using a general feeling of respect as a moral compass instead of a religious dogma?

Scooter Libby - Does anyone really believe it ends there? Does anyone remember Ollie North? The White House has their fall guy. Ooooo, prediction time. Libby will get some real hard time in a cushy federal country club for white guys but he will be pardoned by Bush on his last day in office.

Iraq - I say let's just get the civil war started now that way we can some nice news coverage for sweeps week.

Bush sucks in the polls - well it's about time the rest of the country got it. I guess they were busy watching Meet Your New Mommy to pay attention to the idiot they re-elected. Of course I know this paragraph will get me placed on a list of dissiedents. I guess this will also end my politcal aspirations here and now.

School - Work work work. Finals loom ahead like a train wreck.

On to the wine report.

Wine has become a rare indulgence. Between the Mrs. working late now and school I have taken to modifying one of those beer hats to hold a bottle of tequila on one side and a bottle of sweet and sour on the other.

Off to class - I hope you liked this one Mr. Joshua.

I was supposed to start this blog a month ago as a way to let those who know enough to care how life as a 1L was going. It was also supposed to be a way make me remember the good things in life...fine wine and good chocolate. Two of the things that made college worth the time and money. But now that I have given up my lucrative and enriching life as an engineer to become a lawyer I had to be prepared to forego such vices for three years. Yeah right.

So law school. What's it like? Interesting actually. I think that is how they get you to come back after the first semester. Maybe it's the fact that I've been an engineer for too long and just needed to read something different but I actually like the work load so far. It's really not that much different than real work. Once you learn how to sit in a cube for 9 hours a day coming up with ways to convince people you're worth what they're paying you despite the fact that your biggest accomplish of the year has been to reach a 93% success rate at freecell studying for torts is quite enjoyable by comparison.

I actually feel bad for those who've come straight from their undergrad degrees without experiencing the real world. They've never known the drudgery of waking up at 4:45 am every day for three years to go sit in an 8X8 cube. Many of them complain about having to read for three hours a day, and brief cases, and write memos, and sit through class. I'll take this over a meeting to discuss mapping out a process that no one follows but has to be documented so that the quality guy can justify his place in the company for another 6 months.

I just mentioned memos. That was the big assignment due last week. The smallest part of the final grade but the biggest thing so far in law school. I actually found it quite enjoyable to watch the chaos unfold. Just the dark looks on faces on the day it was due was great. The few that got it done early and slept the night before still had that look of fear in their eyes. It was just impossible for me to get to worried about it. Sure it was hard. Sure it took about 16 hours to complete. But it was nothing compared to spending over 100 hours on an engineering analysis that has to be summed up on two power point slides.

Sounding overly confident? That's only because I haven't got my grade yet and finals are still far enough away to not to enter my mind.

Now to the wine report:
I can report that in the last month I have had a very good Barolo (available now at Sam's Club believe it or not), an Inniskillin Ice Wine (reason enough to get a college degree), and still managed to empty a few bottles of my favorite Pinot, La Crema. Luckily my wine chest remains full.

And who can forget the chocolate?
This month's recommendation - King Arthur Flour Chocolate Lava Cake. Holy crap that is good stuff. Goes great with ice wine, though this combination won't likely be had for some time to come. Luckily Moscato is a good alternative to ice wine.