Even more snow!

The image below is borrowed from Oregonlive.com. A little proof that people are literally skiing around the city now. We've spotted skiing outside our own window too!





Remember the last picture of the mini under snow? A lot of snow for Portland? Well all the snow from the first picture melted, and now we have triple that amount of snow. Sheesh!


At least I get to put my snow boarding gear to good use, although I never thought it would be needed for collecting the mail!

The long awaited photograph

Behold! The astoundingly awkward photograph of us flanking Justice Kennedy.
We were separated in the mish-mash of getting to the front of the classroom, so we were not right next to each other, but at least I got the opportunity to look like a tumor sprouting from Justice Kennedy's back. Delightful!

Oh the weather outside...

We woke up this morning to a few inches of snow on the ground!
Per usual all of Portland is freaking out since this only happens every 3-4 years, the news has been showing accident after accident because people think the best thing to do is slam on their breaks, and you know, that kinds of leads to your tires locking up and you sliding down the street. Oh Silly Portland!



From our deck--the Fred Meyers looking so majestic!

YAHOO!!!!

We made it! Cue the balloon drop! Finals are over!!! Wooohoo!!!

Genaro took his last final on Thursday, and I finished today, then we jetted off to a Vampire Weekend concert which was a nice way to unwind.

Anyways! We thought we might log through our classes and share a little of what we learned over the semester. (In other words...on to some boring law stuff! You're warned to stop here if you're not interest!)

Felicia's Classes!

Administrative Law: Our government is so complex it boggles the mind, and the laws that deal with the gubillion agencies that have been created within our government boggled my mind for an entire semester. I had a love/hate relationship with this class--it was challenging, but every class it seemed like I was learning the secrets of the Federal Government. M'Waaahahaha. I also have to note that I learned about five hundred more acronyms in this class, my favorite was the Federal Advisory Committee Act, or FACA, because I got to say, "what the FACA!" while doing my homework. Ahhhh, the satisfactions of law school.

Public International Law: I had the funniest professor for this class. Imagine a genius, with a Scotish accent, continually telling you how "full of shit" the International Court of Justice is, or pausing class to explain how you can best differentiate a Scottish and English accent. Good times!

Genaro's Classes!

Energy Law: You're either with us or against us! Errr...that is, you're either with the energy company sympathizers or the energy company intolerant. At least at Lewis and Clark there is NO in between. Who would of thought energy law would get people so worked up? Answer: Apparently our professor because she gave us an EIGHT HOUR final.

Environmental Litigation: Best moment in this class? Getting more than 100% on a mock brief because it made a better argument than the real brief, in the real case, made by the real lawyer. He shoots, he scores!

Felica and Genaro's shared classes!

Professional Responsibility: You shouldn't steal from your clients, you shouldn't lie to courts, you shouldn't commit fraud, you shouldn't sleep with your clients (unless you were sleeping with them before they became your client), you shouldn't agree to settlements without your client's consent...blah...blah...so basically this class taught us "don't do stupid things." It was pretty entertaining (and sometimes concerning) though, to hear just how far some of our classmates tried to push the ethical boundaries.

Legal History: From the Code of Hamurabi to the laws of Colonial U.S. Phew! This class only had about a dozen students and led to the most congenial, open and interesting conversations about law and it's place in society that we have encountered thus far in law school. We quickly grew to like the professor too, who seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of EVERYTHING, but we loved him even more when he showed up to the last class with pizza and wine! Why aren't all our classes like this? What are they really using our tuition money for? :)

Next semester, our LAST semester, we are looking forward to:

Law and Economics, Health Care Law, Legal Regulation and Political Practice, Business Associations, Trial Advocacy, Supreme Court Environmental Seminar, International Environmental Litigation Project, and more Legal History!

But for now -- it's BREAK TIME!!! WOOHOO!!!!

Still busy studying, but how about some holiday giving?

I became a member of Mercy Corps this year, so prepare for some gushing on how great I think this group is.

Mercy Corps an awesome Portland charity, that as they say, "exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities." Having worked with non-profits before, I am constantly impressed with how much they are able to do and how efficiently they do it -- they consistently get top marks and awards for making sure that the overwhelming majority of the money they get goes straight into serving people.

Anyways! If you're at a loss for what to buy people this year, I suggest you check out their "Mercy Kits" that allow you to buy things as simple as emergency food kits, or as fun as family gardening or goat kits for those in need around the world. Or, you could always become a mercy corps member yourself!

Check it out here!

Happy Holidays!

PS- Genaro says if anyone is looking for a gift for him, he would like his own goat so he can be just like Tumurchuluun. :)

Busy studying...

But not too busy for a little political activism!

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Rankings

Lewis and Clark's Public Interest program (which I am a part of) was recently ranked 3rd in the nation! Check out the announcement here. (Funny note -- after my first year of law school I worked at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, which is ranked #2 -- I just have to find a connection to Northeastern I suppose and I'll have all of the top 3!)

My program only has to move up 2 spots to be in the same national ranking as Genaro's. He's part of the Environmental Law program which is proud to be number 1 in the nation. Lewis and Clark has long been recognized for it's environmental legal prestige, although I heard from a professor that a few federal agencies stopped interviewing on our campus during the Bush administration because the school was considered too "liberal leaning." Perhaps we'll be more interesting to the Obama crew?

Anyways! At the end of the semester when we're working our butts off studying for finals and finishing research papers, it's nice to have an excuse to stop and brag. :)

Halloween at TrailBlazers opener.

So, we went to the first Blazers home game of the season on Halloween and made appropriate costumes for the event.


The best part was walking past people and they would stare and then just as we're passing go, "OH!!! DEFENSE!!! I GET IT!"

A good number of people asked to take our picture, so our image is likely floating around out there somewhere. Alas, the goal of making it onto the elusive JUMBOTRON was not achieved. We're pretty sure that since we sat one row from the top, the cameras could not even see us if they wanted to. Oh well! What really matters is that the Blazers WON! Yahoo!!!

We got tickets for a game this Saturday too that are MUCH closer to the floor, so hopefully we'll have some cool pictures to post from that too.

Oh, and before this post ends... OBAMA!!! Thank you God.

Unfortunately, I think theonion.com (a satirical, fake news site for anyone not familiar) sums it up with this headline: Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress.


Goodness!

Carved Up!

Genaro's fantastic Barack-O-Lantern! It's shining with HOPE!


Felicia's tower-o-lanterns!


The scared little guy has his top popping off!


And a closer look at the scary pumpkin, or Mr. Scary.


I would post more, but I have to go eat some halloween candy! I love this holiday so much...

Shameless Promotion and Cuteness Attack!

It's almost pumpkin carving time. Here's the shameless promotion: http://yeswecarve.com/




And the promised cuteness attack is below. Pictures from my cousin's football game last weekend (they won and remain 1 of 3 undefeated 3rd/4th grade football teams in the state).


Dad (coach) and son (Aidan) out on the field. Aidan is number 68 -- if you click on the photo it gets bigger.


Younger brother (Seth) showing off a missing tooth.


Older brother (Clayton) goofing around and already suited up for his game later in the day.

Pumpkin Patch!

Portland weather, being Portland weather, was gorgeous this last weekend. Why is this Portland weather? Because one weekend earlier it was inopportunely POURING rain during the marathon. But the weather Gods are forgiven since the weekend was just so darn nice.


First we took an enchanting stroll through the animal barn. Here is our good friend Mr. Pig. He plays basketball. Obviously.


Then it was out to the vast pumpkin fields! The farm has several different fields, the closet one was only about a 1/4 mile walk, so we ditched the tractor hay-ride and hiked on over for some quality pumpkin searching.

Quick Lesson:

Pumpkin #1 -- NOT Quality Pumpkin.


Pumpkin #2 -- Quality Pumpkin! Yay!



After mastering the ability to distinguish between non-quality and quality pumpkins, we found ourselves 2 giant pumpkins and strained our arms carrying them back to the barn. We thought they maybe weighed around 20 pounds. Official pumpkin weights: Genaro = 44 pounds, Felicia = 37. Combined pumpkin weight = 81 pounds.

According to some pumpkin pie recipes, you need 15 ounces of pumpkin. Disregarding that our weight includes stems and seeds, we have enough pumpkin for 86 and a half pumpkin pies.

Thank goodness those pumpkins managed to fit in the back of the Mini! :)

Marathon!

Big smiles after finishing the Portland Marathon!

The picture is cut off at the waist so you can't see the throbbing pain emanating from their legs--which I would guess looks like stink lines coming off garbage in cartoons, but they are pain lines, which are probably more jagged and pronounced.

Both Genaro and Dewey (Genaro's Bro-in-law) finished and about the first thing they said was, "That was the most PAINFUL experience of my life!!!" The craziest thing to me, is that when Genaro and Dewey were talking about "hobbling around" and discovering that "stairs are the worst architectural feature EVER," I call my mom the day after the marathon and she's talking about really enjoying yoga class -- she's a SUPER HUMAN!!!


Look at the super human roasting her marshmallow...is this what fuels her ability to DESTROY marathons in effortless leaps and bounds!?


We went to Disneyworld last spring and saw some Power Rangers, but post-marathon, we're not so sure that we really saw Power Rangers. It's clear that a performer with that much spunk and agility, is more likely my mom in disguise, scouting the course for the DisneyWorld Marathon.

Anyways, you heard it hear first: Rosemary Chapman runs marathons like she's secretly a Kenyan.

High Quality Entertainment

Sometimes, after a long week of school and work the only way to really kick back and relax is with some cheap wine and the cinematic classic Jaws 2.



It had "Oscar" written all over it, but somehow it got edged by some movies called "Apocalypse Now" and "Kramer vs. Kramer." Injustice!!!

Note: sarcasm :o)

First day of the last year of school.

Genaro's reflections: By this time in our law school career, we've been so desensitized to any type of stress that it's almost a new feeling. Not to say anyone misses the constant terror that filled the 1L year -- it's nice to know what's going on!

Felicia's reflections: By far the most profitable first day of school of my entire academic career. Because I posted first on a class web page the professor gave me a copy of the case book for free! Which (a) is TOTALLY welcome to the tune of $130 dollars, and (b) a little silly to me, because the prof. actually is one of the authors of the book -- maybe I can get him to sign it.

Side Note: Felicia got a new bike last week (early christmas+birthday present), a 2009 Trek WSD 7.3 (in Nickel -- pictures will be posted). This bike rocks my world, and I logged ten miles trekking (pun intended) to school, work and the gym! I felt it was appropriate to wear one of my favorite shirts today: the design pictured below.

Quick! Before School Starts!

On Monday we start our 3L year (i.e. our LAST year of school). It is exciting to near the finish, but that doesn't mean we are not a little grumpy about saying goodbye to the summer! :) Here are a few pictures from our last bits of summer fun!


A picture from Sokol Blosser, one of the vineyards just outside of Portland. The vineyards are all beautiful, and most have picnic areas, so you can pack a lunch, buy a bottle of wine when you get there and just enjoy the pretty views.


This is from the rooftop bar at the Hotel Oregon, the city of McMinnville is the home town of the "Trent" UFO sightings from the 1950s, thus the UFO statue on the roof. With this unique history (and already kooky owners of the McMenamins hotels and bars) the Hotel Oregon has an annual UFO festival, but we were at the hotel on a normal day -- so we only spotted a few UFO statutes and alien pictures around the grounds, like the silly picture below.




Next stop in McMinnville was the Evergreen Air Museum -- the new Northwest home of the Spruce Goose. A few pictures below show us in trying to provide a sense of scale of the Spruce Goose and a Titan rocket base.

Yurt Camping with the Familia.

Genaro and I hit the jackpot-o-luck this weekend and got a last minute reservation for one of the much sought after Oregon State Park Yurts on the coast. People book these things months and months in advance, and by chance I caught a cancellation opening Monday morning -- yippie! Since the yurts sleep 5 we invited along Mom, Dad and Kenz to partake in the yurt-age.


I grabbed this photo from the internet -- it's not our specific yurt, but it's from the Oregon state parks, and looks almost identical. Check out the website of the yurt company here. My parents keep saying they have to build one in their huge backyard -- Kenzie likes the idea of taking over a yurt with her friends, so she is in full support of this idea!


Kenzie playing with food and fire, and me making dinner and a weird face.


Marshmallow gourmet...


Inhabitants of the tide pools. It sure is nice when low tide is at 8 am!


Dad is the ultimate beach comber -- here are a few of his finds.

A nice way to spend the weekend :o)

Deck Gardening!

Adventures in gardening without a yard.
These are a few of the plants we've managed to grow on our deck. :o)


Miniature Snap Dragons

Dahlias

Petunas

Verbena -- their buds are cool little firework shaped things, making little bouquets of blooms.

Normal size snap dragons.

And my favorite looking flower, Nicotiana.

Beerfest and Æbleskiver!

Portland already has more breweries per capita than anywhere in the world (that's right, the whole world), so naturally, we are always ready for an excuse to partake in a few brews!
This weekend was the 21st Oregon Brewers Fest down at waterfront, with the fantastic legally nerdy theme "Celebrating the 21st Amendment," so my dad, Genaro, and I checked it out on Saturday. Besides enjoying the insane crowd of people, there were some amazing beers! Our favorites were "Hell or High Watermelon", who knew watermelon and beer could mesh so well? As well as a dark ale called "Quilter's Irish Death" -- something about funny names seems to lead to good beer! :o)

Dad and Genaro looking over the program, deciding which beer to taste next.

Genaro and I with a little "Hell or High Watermelon."

Now! On to Æbleskiver...

A few weeks ago Kati bought me a special cast iron Æbleskiver pan, and I finally put it to use today. Æbleskiver is a traditional Danish dessert, usually eaten around Christmas (they sell them all over the place during the holidays). They are delicious little poofs of dough which you can dip in lots of different things, but I stick to the basic jam and powdered sugar. Here's some pictures of how it turned out!

Mmmm! A nostalgic taste of Denmark! My Æbleskiver were a little larger than usual, but it's a tricky pan to get used to! The little blue coffee mug above the plate is actually from Tivoli, the theme park in downtown Copenhagen. My Danish host sister Nanna (who has an amazing family that I loved living with in Denmark) came to stay with our family last summer, and she is so sweet she brought us Danish themed gifts, including that little mug.

This is post cooking, so the pan is a little dirty, but those little half-sphere openings are where you pour the dough, and once it cooks a little, you slowing rotate the ball, letting the dough fill out into a full sphere of fluffy goodness. A little tricky at first, but the end product is worth it!

Family Reunion!

Thanks to a few of my cousins, we have pictures of the family reunion at Lake Tahoe. This is the 4th time my Mom's side of the family has gotten together, and this summer we had about 40 people to partake in the madness!


Here are most of the people who came -- 7 of the Welsh siblings and their families. (We're on the far right of the photo, my sister Kenzie to the left of me, and my mom in front. My dad had knee surgery a few weeks prior and couldn't make it, boo!)


On the first night we all had to pick crazy hats and wear them to dinner every night or risk being on clean-up duty.


Watermelon eating contest! My uncle Bob has won every year! We're going to have to read up on Kobayashi's techniques to beat him...


Here's a picture from the scavenger hunt. Teams got a list and had to take pictures of everything they found -- this item was "team pyramid" for Genaro's group.

Alright, that's all for this lunch-break post! :o)