My baby is back!

So, being a complete and total idiot, I blew up my laptop last week. Had to get a new motherboard. Apparently, you cannot just walk into Circuit City and buy a new motherboard for a laptop, so I had to order it and wait and wait and wait for it to come in. In the meantime, DH set me up with a desktop, but it's just not the same. Using a different computer is like sleeping in someone else's bed. Nothing feels right. I am now so trained to use a laptop keyboard that I am downright clunky on a desktop keyboard.

And even though DH transferred my hard drive to the desktop, stuff was just different. My favorites list reorganized itself alphabetically. That made the blogs that I visit all out of order. Call me anal, but I read the blogs in a very specific order. The most important ones (funniest) get top billing and the rest come later, if I have time. So I go looking for Favorable Dicta--is it under the F's for Favorable, the D's for Dicta, heck no--it is way at the bottom under the W's for Will Work for favorable dicta. As you can see, my whole freakin world was upside down (and I haven't even mentioned being computer-less at school. This is my 3L year, I am supposed to be surfing the net in all my classes).

Anyway, it's all better now, new motherboard came in and DH promptly fixed me up. Still needs a little tweaking but at least I have OneNote and the internet, and that's all that really matters.

P.S. It is a very bad idea to use a corded laptop in a recliner. Recliners hate cords--mine has been eaten twice. It is an even worse idea to tape the power cord back together with packing tape until you can purchase a new one. Just don't.

My babies started school today

My now big third grader decided that she didn't even need me to walk her to class--but I insisted so that I could get pics. Don't know if I'll be able to do that again, I'm sure we're heading into the "Mo-oommm, you're so embarassing" years.

My twins started Kindergaten. One was excited and ready for a new adventure. The other just seemed so depressed. It made me sad that she was so sad, but I know it will get better. She did great in pre-K last year and loved school.

I start my clinic orientation tomorrow. I received a packet of orientation materials a week ago, and of course, I have procrasitnated. I just have not been able to get into the back-to-school swing. Now I'm paying for it, because I have been reading all day and I'm still not done. Now I'm going to have to do all of my first day assignments after I get home from orientation. That's what I get for spending the last week lounging around catching up on all those Gilmore Girls episodes that I had TIVO'd.

ix-nae on the uburban-sae

So we were all ready to finalize everything on the new Suburban, but being the law student that I am, I insisted that we reserve the right to have it looked at by the mechanic of our choosing before making it all official. Good thing--the mechanic found a mystery knock in the engine. Said it could be minor, but more likely it would be an expensive repair.

I returned the Suburban and the dealer is having their own guys check it out, but I have informed them that they better be looking at other options for me. In the meantime, I drove a Tahoe from another dealer. It's basically the same vehicle as the Suburban, but with about half the cargo space in the back. We've decided that we could really use the extra cargo space, so I guess we are officially looking at only Suburbans now. (That was so not our original intention. I was always the one bitching about the soccer moms in their super-sized SUV's). Hopefully we can find something before school starts next week. God, I hate car shopping.

We just went looking...

...and brought home a Suburban. The minivan mom-mobile has grown intolerable lately. The last straw was when the air conditioning quit working properly. So we went out today, just to take a look. We were really wanting to move into a smaller sized SUV, but they all felt about the same as the minivan. The girls are getting bigger and we sometimes have an extra kid or two and just needed something with more space. So we ended up with the Granddaddy of SUV's. We can fit 9 people in that sucker and it's gonna cost $100 a pop to fill 'er up. I know its not environmentally responsible, but at least with three kids I can justify the monstrosity. And you know what? I really like it. It's comfy and drives well. Its just gonna take a little while to learn to park.

My favorite new time killer...

Oceangram

It is throwing virtual messages in bottles into the virtual ocean to see who will respond. It feels sort of like the early 90's when chat rooms first starting appearing, and you would just talk to any random stranger on AOL. Anyway, I have become obsessed. I keep throwing random messages out there and responding to the ones that keep popping up. Some are funny, some are stupid and some are just plain sad. At least there I get feedback. Unlike here where I am just writing into the wind and no one ever comments. (Can you detect that whiney note in my blog?)

I'm not a pirate, as a matter of fact I'm a lawyer*

Today was my last day with the D.A.'s office. I am so sad--I loved it there. I really fit in with the people who worked there and I loved what I was doing. They told me that I was their favorite intern. Unfortunately, it's a small office and there is virtually no chance that they will have an opening when I graduate. :(

I have one full week until school starts. I already have a load of reading assignments from two classes, and a paper due on the first day. Looks like the daily grind is already starting back up.

*Ok, this has no relevance to anything, but we were watching Hook with the kids tonight and this line amused me.

The Crack Fairy

I am no longer a trial virgin. Today I got to do my first direct examination during a jury trial. The 1st chair offered it to me yesterday but our supervisor almost took it away from me because he was concerned that it was too much for my first trial. I told them that I really wanted to do it unless they were concerned that I would screw up the whole case. I guess they weren't that worried, because I got to do it. But first, they brought in one of our investigators to explain to me that cops are like scared little girls on the witness stand, and they get really upset if the prosecutors don't protect them from the defense attorneys. Great, now I had to worry about pissing off my supervisor who didn't want me doing this and the officers.

Despite all the worries I did fine. I really wasn't nervous, and everyone (including my overprotective supervisor and defense counsel) said I did great. It helped that the officer that I was examining was terrific. It was his first time to testify, but he never let the defense rattle him (and he tried).

Unfortunately, even with my kick ass performance ;) we lost the case. Turns out that the jury didn't think that walking on the wrong side of the street should be cause for officers to stop a person. (Yes, walking on the wrong side of the street is an offense--you have to walk with traffic, not against it--or is it the other way around?)

The very best part of the case was during cross of the defendant. The prosecutor couldn't pin him down on where the crack came from, so she finally asked, "So I guess the Crack Fairy came down and put the crack under your grandma's porch?" I think I bit a hole through my lip to try to keep from busting a gut.

The Blind Leading the Blind

We picked a jury for a possession case today. I was pleasantly surprised when the ADA trying the case offered to let me do the direct on one of the officers. The direct shouldn't be a problem, but under local court rules, the att'y doing the direct also has to make all objections to the cross. There is concern that the defense att'y will take advantage of my trial virgin status.

And the best part...the officer has never testified before. This should be great--I've never questioned anyone--he's never testified, we'll make a great pair.

Ok, off to review possible trial objections.

I survived, but my case didn't

So I made it through my first argument. I think I did ok, and gave the defense att'y more of a challenge than he expected from a student. He even conceded two of my points. The judge has taken it under advisement, but I don't think he is going to rule in my favor.

This was an asset forfeiture case. The law allows the state to seize a vehicle used for the illegal transport of alcohol. The defendants were accused of transporting through a dry county. 5 bottles of tequila and two cases of beer. Transporting for personal consumption is ok, but the driver wouldn't admit that the alcohol was his, so the officer seized the car.

So I got the defense to admit that transporting through a dry county is an offense (he went off on some crazy tangent saying there was no offense), and that the defendant admitted (at the scene and in an affidavit) that it was not for personal consumption. I had a good argument (and a good case to back me up) that even if there was another owner listed on the title of the vehicle that he was not a "true" owner of the vehicle and that it could still be seized. The defense didn't even bother to respond to this, but I think the judge was intrigued.

But, the defense argued excessive forfeiture. It was the only argument I didn't have a good response for. A $10K car for the misdemeanor offense of transporting 5 bottles of liquor. And excessiveness is purely within the discretion of the court. The judge ruled for the defense.

Tomorrow I get to be a litigator

Tomorrow I argue a response to a motion for summary judgment. Although I have done a few hearings, this will be my first argument--the first time I have had someone working against me. I am anxious to see how I do.

When I took on this case, neither I nor anybody else thought we stood a chance (which is why it was given to an intern in the first place.) After doing the research and writing the response, I realized that we do have a chance, even if its a slim one. I don't like the case, but I think that I might be able to at least survive summary judgment. It's just gong to take some creative lawyering (i.e. just because someone's name is on the title doesn't mean he is a true owner). I guess we'll see how persuasive I can be.