Judge This Painful

So, I traveled to San Francisco to present oral argument in a case I have before an "en banc" panel of Ninth Circuit judges. This means that 11 of the more than 20 judges are picked to hear a case on rehearing. We won with the panel of 3 judges last year. This is a big deal. . . kind of like the Supreme Court. It is rare. So, we have 30 minutes per side to argue, and because another Nevada case got consolidated with ours, 3 of us on the defense have to share the time. We carefully agree to take 10 minutes each, but the judges don't respect that. They keep asking the first attorney questions, and won't let him sit down. He went first to address a factual issue, but never gets to it until he is about to sit down. Attorney # 2 gets up with 12 minutes left. I am going 3rd as clean up. At 6 minutes I start to stand, but the attorney doesn't make a move to sit and the judges keep asking questions. Finally, he sits down, the red light comes on, and before I can say anything, the Chief Judge announces my time is up, and invites me to sit down. UNBELIEVEABLE! That is the control judges have. Thank goodness my clients (retired architect and his wife) were understanding. She laughed, thinking of the expression on my face when I was told to sit down. She then created a new MasterCard commercial: "Flight to San Francisco: $377. Hotel room at the luxurious Best Western Americanna: $249. Being told by the judge to shut up and sit down: Priceless!" I'm just hopeful that we win the case. If it is appealed to the Supreme Court, the other attorneys have agreed I get to go first. They do really feel bad.

Anyway, I went to dinner the first night in China Town, and had great Italian at a little place called Caffe DeLucchi in Little Italy. Then enjoyed some Italian pastries from an older woman who spoke broken English and I'm sure came here as a little girl from the "Old Country." It wasn't all that bad.

Whirlwind Rock Out

This past weekend, we drove to Provo to go to Jonathan's concert and enjoy Easter with the kids. The concert was great, and as a treat, Malorie joined the band for the final number. We also ate at Tacano's Brazillian Grill for lunch on Saturday. Cousin Alecia joined us and that was great to see her. We celebrated Jon's admission to dental school and Tyler's offer to supervise workers at the clinic in Buffalo he worked last summer. Lorrie got to take in the Minerva Teichert show at the MOA. We all got to see cousin babies of Leslie/Kyle and Stacy/Jake: cute and watching Tyler and Jon with babies was even more enlightening. Sunday, Jon and Malorie hosted us for a wonderful lunch of salmon, asparagus, garlic mashed potatoes and yellow cake with strong strawberries. WOW! We basically only needed 2 meals for the entire weekend: Tacono's & Hall's. It was a fast trip, but we had a blast. We haven't been to a rock concert for awhile, and this one was worth it.

More McCall

We truly enjoyed our time with all our children AND our granddaughter. There was so much snow everywhere, and then it snowed another 3-4 inches while we were there. Jake, Lorrie, and I took our maiden voyage to Brundage Resort and found the skiing terrific. We enjoyed having Great-grandpa Naylor and Lindsay's parents for a time as well.

McCall Family Fun!

This weekend, we had all the kids, spouses, and REESE at McCall. Lindsay's parents joined us on their way back from Phoenix. It was the first time that I had HELD Reese, and she is cuter than her pictures even reflect. We had fun just hanging out, playing games, and passing Reese from one person to another. The kids went snowshoeing and sledding on the frozen lake. THERE IS SO MUCH SNOW HERE! It is unbelievalbe how much snow. The sidewalks have a 5 foot wall of snow channeled out, and that has melted in recent weeks. It was great to have everyone here. Jake and Lindsay and REESE get to stay with us for a few more days because Jake has spring break. She is just so much fun. She makes the cutest faces and is full of expressions.

My latest project

I love quilting. This is my latest project--a string quilt. It's a pioneer quilt, the premise being that the thrifty pioneer women believed that no scrap was too small to be used, and nothing went to waste. I feel the same way! It's done on strips of muslin, then the strips are sewed together. One person who saw this hanging on my design wall called it "intense". I think that was a compliment...

Blue Skies and Sunny Snow

After the Foggy experience (see below), we went skiing again today, and it was GREAT! Lorrie has discovered the backside of Bogus, and loves the long runs. We ran into Tony Giauque, who grew up in our stake. He now is a Dr. of radiology, and was up with his 5 year-old son. Ironically, he skis without a helmet. I meant to ask him if he encourages others to ski helmetless to increase his work with brain scans, or he just doesn't fancy himself as the Sonny Bono tree-skiing type.

(This photo is a pre-helmet photo, but represents the weather today.)

The End of an Era

Today, the stake presidency was reorganized. It seems different to think that I have been serving for 8 1/2 years. Kids who were just baptized then are now seniors in high school. It seems to have gone by really quickly for me. It was a growing experience for me. I look forward to however I may be ablet to serve.

Last week, after spending so much time preparing for, and having the jury trial, Lorrie and I went skiing 2 days. The first was foggy (see below posting) and then Thursday, it was sunny and wonderful. We went with the Coltrins and had a blast.

We are getting anxious to see Reese (and our kids) next week. That will be great!