Celebration!

Finals are over!!!!!!!

How did I feel about them? I have no idea. I've decided by this point that I am incapable of judging my own performance. Virtually every exam I've felt good about has landed me a below-average grade. And conversely, almost every exam that dragged me through the mud ended up being at least an A-. So where does this leave me? I can't tell. I won't find out my grades until February 1, and ultimately my grade will depend more than anything on the performance of my peers. Thank you very much, Mr. Curve.

But seriously, I felt fine. And I know I at least passed, so last-semester-of-law-school, here I come!

Also, Cleveland here I come. For Christmas. And then Salt Lake here I come. But after all that, Spring 2008 semester... here I finally come!

Some overdue photos

From Thanksgiving.


It was nice to spend some quality time with family.

We also followed the Parma family holiday tradition of making chocolates for friends and family. First you have to assemble all your supplies, and melt all the chocolates in crockpots and double boilers.




Then you just start sculpting and dipping.

When you're finished with a set of chocolates, you put 'em in the freezer. Or even in the ice maker if you're running out of space.

Then when they've hardened, you drop 'em on wax paper until the end of the day when you wrap them up in baggies for friends. The shape choices are endless.

And sometimes, when your friends aren't looking, you maybe sneak a bite.

It was a fun trip! Thanks to my brother's family and Rosa's brother's family for all your wonderful generosity.

Sigh

I hate finals. I hate 'em I hate 'em I hate 'em. They completely ruin the holiday season. I should be having visions of sugar plum fairies right now, but instead jack frost is just chomping away at my spirit. It's not so much the studying, but the ominous 3- or 4-hour exam period where you walk in the door and realize there's nothing you can do but type, and there's no way out of it.

Oh well! Soon it will all be over. And at least I have an excuse not to clean my house or shave. And people are more understanding when I don't return their calls or emails for days at a time.

And occasionally, exams can even produce some really interesting stories.

I'm back

Okay, a little while no bloggy blog. I've returned.

Rosa and I went to Dallas for Thanksgiving -- sooo faaahn! We stayed with her brother and his cute family. Lots of good game playing, baby adoring, and chocolate making. Yum. And we spent lots of quality time with my brother and his family. It was so nice to see them! It had been too long. They're such great examples to me; I love being with them. And of course it was great to see my folks as well. Lots of hugs. Lots of mom staring at us.

Now we're back to C-ville and trying to make it through each day. Rosa's working by day and performing by night. Everyone should go see her show! I'm trying to do finals.... blekch. Wish me luck.

Rosa Lately

Rosa's a busy little bee. Recently she joined our softball team for a game.

Not only was she a great catcher, but her swinging bunt set the pace for what ended up being a very successful inning.

Besides playing softball, and working nearly full time, Rosa's also getting all prepped for her big show.

She actually has direct orders from the show's director that she can't cut her hair!

They want her to grow it out so they can put it into a lovely turn-of-the-century style.

This was the first attempt. She doesn't like this photo 'cause the hair is falling down (the photo was taken a couple hours after they put it up), but I think it looks great! I'm excited for the show (opens Dec 6).

And if you watch close enough, and remain patient, every once in a while you can catch a glimpse of Rosa actually relaxing.

Love you, Rosie!

She's got pipes

Check out Rosa's blog for some amateurish videos of some very professional singing.

SoJam

In true a cappella nerdiness form, Rosa and I traveled all the way down to North Carolina this past weekend to attend a big a cappella festival. Bringing together dozens of groups and hundreds of fans, this is truly a mega event if there ever was one. Fortunately, it had less of a trekkie convention feel and more of a sweet concert feel.

Friday night there was a great collegiate competition. Saturday they had classes all day (including a few by yours truly), and then Saturday night was the greatest pro concert I've ever been to. We saw an energetic young group from NYC called Duwende, an unbelievable heavy metal (yes heavy metal) group from Finland called Fork, and the coolest batch of street guys from the Bronx called Naturally 7. I highly recommend looking these guys up on YouTube. The show was jaw dropping.

Overall, we had fun teaching, helping groups, helping the event producers, and especially meeting old friends. A great weekend!

Autumn Abounds

It's finally getting cold here in Virginia. The low was 25 last night. I wouldn't have noticed, except through a series of unfortunate events, I ended up locked out of our apartment for quite a while. Luckily, my new iPhone kept me up to date on the latest temperature, just so I'd know how freezing I was.

I digress. Now that it's getting cold, fall is finally upon us. Having been raised by a New Englander mother transplant in California, I was taught to appreciate the colors on the trees during this amazing season. Here are a few of my sites walking back and forth to school each day. Eat your heart out, Mom.

Simpsons Dave

Eat my shorts. Or something.

Marathon Weekend

I have definitely run more than 26 miles in my life. But not in a row. Yesterday Rosa's sister Monica and her husband Matt did just that in the Marine Corps Marathon up in DC. We drove up there after church to catch them in the end of the race. They did it in under 5 hours, which as far as I'm concerned is a miracle.

Matt is a firefighter in the Cleveland area. They met up here with a bunch of fellow firefighters. This is their group outside the IAFF tent.

Back inside the tent, there were a million little bottles of Gatorade, bananas, cookies, bagels, and Goldfish crackers. The gatorade and bananas I understand, but cookies? I guess they're shooting for replenishing carbs. Matt and Monica told us that pretty much everything tastes good after the race.

It was so fun to see them! We don't live near any family, so we gotta take every chance we can get.

In front of the Iwo Jima monument. Congratulations, M&M! See you again at Christmas!

Chocolate Festival

This past weekend, right here in our own little city of Charlottesville, they held a Chocolate Festival! Could there be anything in the world so exciting?!

A few steps into the tent, and who did we find? Our good friend Jenni Bowman, selling her beautiful faux chocolate.

Her husband Jeff was reeling in the crowd with real chocolate.

Jenni makes these deceptively delicious looking cakes and candies for decoration. They look great at parties, weddings, or as a fun gift.

This tree is covered in beautiful handmade faux chocolates. You can store this tree and bring it out every December. And you don't have to worry about little hands eating your ornaments.

Don't those cupcakes look tasty?

Yum.

I like the dipped apples. They'd make a cool holiday decoration.

While our senses of smell and taste were being entertained with fudge samples and cupcakes, our ears were filled with the fun folk music of... these two dudes.

Virginia's favorite son Robert E. Lee looked on approvingly.

I think the cream cheese chocolate muffins were Rosa's favorite.

Or was it the Melting Pot strawberries and pineapples dipped in warm chocolate?

I think the Melting Pot chocolate won. This is the cleanest picture I had of Rosa eating it. Don't worry - her fingers were clean before she started "scooping" out the chocolate.

Although Rosa was in heaven, I found something I loved too - dark chocolate fudge! What a delicious day.