YES! It's finally REALLY snowing!

I know I said I wouldn't blog until the bar but I've received so many calls and emails about "the snow in upstate New York" that I have to respond. You see, Binghamton misses the "lake effect" snow that pummels places closer to the Great Lakes, like Rochester and Buffalo. Compared to those places, Binghamton has been a downright balmy 22 degrees lately, with no snow to speak of.

Last night, however, it started dumping and is still going strong. The entire downtown Binghamton (such that it is) is closed, and my office even closed at 1 pm today.
This photo is of John cleaning off our car this morning- ain't he sweet? Anyway, we think it looks gorgeous ("Snow covers the ugly. And we got a lot of 'ugly' around here." as one partner told me) - such a fun Valentine's Day treat!

Anna Nicole Smith and Bar Exam Studying

OK, I lied in my last post: I am not actually devoid of things to blog about, in fact I think I'll have a backlog that I can dig into post-bar, but I am trying to be self-disciplined and not get distracted by blogging. However, the combination of the incredibly-more-interesting-than-studying topic of Anna Nicole Smith (that issue has at least 15 blog entries brewing in my brain right now) finally crossed paths last night, and it was too much to bear so I'm going to write a short entry.

So I'm going over practice New York bar essays last night, and there is an issue where a guy dies with a will that does not mention his illegitimate daughter, and the daughter now claims her intestate share (see, I'm learning fancy words) of inheritance under state law. In the sample answer, I was horrified to read that I was supposed to know that the out-of-wedlock daughter could have helped her argument (for inheritance rights) if she had registered under the Putative Father Registry. WHAT THE . . . ? Is that some kind of joke?

At first, I was HORRIFIED that the bar is 2 weeks away and I've never heard of this "registry," but I almost immediately cracked up with the image of Anna Nicole Smith having her own personal putative father registry!! As of last night, she was up to FIVE possible "baby daddies" when her bodyguard (who is married to her private nurse, by the way) said that he may also be the father.

p. s. A google search of "Anna Nicole" and "putative father" returns 266 results right now. Awesome.

BAR-ring!!!

It has been over 2 weeks since my last post, which is extraordinarily lame and out of keeping with my goal of 2 to 3 posts per week. You are probably thinking that I haven't posted much because I'm too busy studying for the bar exam (February 27th and 28th in Albany, since you asked). This is only a partially true statement.

Yes, I am studying my buns off for the bar. As of February 1st, I started working 1/2 time (mornings off) and going crazy with studying the rest of the time. But this diversion of time is not really the source of my unbloginess. Really . . . it's just that I'm . . . (sigh) . . . BORING!

Despite appearances, these blog entries do not usually roll off the brain. It usually takes me several hours of good mental time, plus up to another hour of writing, to get a good one out. And that is assuming I have a good photo or nugget of humor to work with in the first place. See, life doesn't just tell its own humorous anecdotes- I have to spin them for you (or at least I like to think I do).

That's where the bar studying is getting in the way. Now, I am definitely not doing anything interesting besides going to various coffee shops to study, going to work, and going home, so I don't have any fun ethnic festivals to make fun of, or strange encounters with the locals to analyze. Heck, I don't even have a photo for this entry, since I guess it would just be a photo of my mountain of telephone-book-looking tomes, hundreds and hundreds of home-made flashcards and lecture tapes. And even that photo would be . . . BORING!

I have the kernels of lots of future blog entries rolling around in my brain, but they simply are not getting the mental cultivation necessary to grow them into something worth publishing. All that mental fertilizer? It's going toward more pressing questions that would bore you to tears: is a contractual separation agreement, that does not merge with a divorce decree, enforceable in contract or also in equity? is past moral consideration sufficient, without a writing, to support an oral modification of a contract in which there is a pre-existing duty? under the common law, is it technically legal to burn down one's own house? These are the issues that distract my brain cells from the much more interesting thoughts that end up in my normal blog postings.

So, although I'm pretty silent for now, please know that I am really just saving the reader from what would be half-baked or plain old lame blog entries while I study for the bar. I'm thinking I'll have a back-log after I awaken from this long nightmare.

And don't think it's for lack of time. Which reminds me: I want to personally thank San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and his flavor-of-the-week (and best friend/chief of staff/campaign manager's wife) for giving me a most excellent and juicy distraction this week. See, I had plenty of time for that!