Ignoring for the moment the substance of a certain new Supreme Court decision issued this morning, I’m going to be talking law to Spinner’s 5th graders tomorrow, and wondering if I should try to make them Venn diagram this:

KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,
C. J., and SCALIA and ALITO, JJ., joined, in which THOMAS, J., joined as to all but Part IV, and in which STEVENS, GINSBURG, BREYER, and SO-TOMAYOR, JJ., joined as to Part IV. ROBERTS, C. J., filed a concurring opinion, in which ALITO, J., joined. SCALIA, J., filed a concurring opin-ion, in which ALITO, J., joined, and in which THOMAS, J., joined in part. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part,in which GINSBURG, BREYER, and SOTOMAYOR, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

I’m taking the ‘scared straight’ approach to their exposure to the world of law. Just say no, kiddies.

I wasn’t completely sold in the concept going into Thanksgiving dinner, but last night’s buffet experience at the Treasure Island in Vegas has completely sold me.  No cooking, no cleanup.  Ten members of the extended family, including my brother who flew in from Salt Lake City around a big table eating all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes, plus chinese, seafood, pizza and cotton candy made it a great time for everyone.

And just in case our own family couldn’t supply enough drama, there were the hundreds of people at the tables surrounding ours adding to the evening entertainment.  Highlight of the evening: the waytooskinny blonde Asian chick who upchucked her first course but stayed at the table as her dinner companions kept fetching her more plates.  Gotta admire the professional staff who brought her a tub without batting an eye – that’s when you know a buffet really, really, means the meal is ‘all you can eat.’ 

Still enjoying the weekend.  Spent the Black Friday away from the malls, but took Diego and Spinner to the beach to stretch the legs and see some new sights.  Boulder Beach at Lake Mead might not be a great surf spot, but it allows us to keep with the family tradition of always hitting the beach on vacations and Diego had a blast chasing the birds.

I’ve been spending a lot of time the last two months on a little non-public website.  It’s no secret – it’s just that by design it has about 35 users and is not open to the public.  It started off simple – a place some kids could access online some photos Spinner uses as writing prompts for his class.

Then it expanded into a way for them to submit their related writing assignments online.

In the current iteration the class can get an assignment with text and related media online, and complete and return their assignments online.  Students get teacher feedback as soon as it’s entered.  True/False, multiple choice, fill in the blank, open-ended essays – it’s all there for the teacher to use, including some automated scoring.  Cross-indexing lets the teacher look at a student’s entire semester work at once to get a feel for progress or issues, and share that with the parents.  It even sends the parents e-mail copies of their kid’s work if they want.

Why?  It saves trees. Teaches kids computer skills for the real world, while incorporating content not able to be shown in text-based ditto copies. Lets a certain school district off the hook with their draconian photocopy restrictions. My husband spends less time carting stacks of paper around, and so has more time for Diego (and possibly me-me-me-me-me).

And it did keep me busy while other business was slow this summer and pumped up my php and mySql skills a notch or two.

But this week a silly little plugin and a developer’s gratuitous use of javascript(s) are pushing me to get out a chainsaw and pulp an entire forest into xerox paper for him just so the headache will go away.  I’m sure the feeling will go away after a short nap and some puppy licks, and I will get this update done and published, but I just needed to share.

Sunday started nicely with some good surf in Encinitas, and a good breakfast burrito in a little dive on the coast highway.   It was  brought down a bit by the realization that Spinnner’s wedding ring was apparantly lost in the ocean during the session.  We then consoled ourselves over the loss with a relaxing drive home through the back county on Via de la Valle and the Del Dios Highway, admiring all the bright colors on the side of the road.  Just wanted to reach out the window and grab a handful.

Plants in north county are looking pretty dry after days of 100+ degree heat, bringing back lots of memories of Firestorm 07, but those cyclists looked plenty hydrated, and so pretty in the varying hues of lycra.   Mmmm, nap time until we meet some friends for pizza this afternoon.

I’m just trying to keep my head down around here right now; this is Spinner’s weekend.  He’s singing two shows Sunday with the San Diego Men’s Chorus at their Pride concert at the Qualcomm Campus (NOT the Stadium, but the Jacobs Concert Hall in Sorrento Valley), and coordinating a poetry exhibit as part of his Master’s program.

[Just had a little earthquake.  Back now.]

Me, with temperatures that might hit triple digits here in Escondido, I just want to stay cool.  If I end up venturing out, there better be plenty of water or air conditioning.

[Just got the numbers.  Looks like a 4.0 20 miles off the coast.]

We’ve had a running joke here about roller coasters ever since the Mouse tried to kill Spinner back in ’07.  Now I’m not even going to be able to get him on the Monorail.  Maybe we can just sit around the Carnation Cafe on our next visit to the Magic Kingdom and sip sodas while the Dapper Dans sing. That’s gotta be safe, right?

Spinner treated me to dinner at the San Diego County Fair last night.  The artery clogging menu included courses deep-fried zucchini spears, Australian-style batter fried potatoes, and a foot-long hot dog on a stick.  We saw no deep-fried twinkies, last year’s delicacy of choice, and a quest for chocolate covered bacon (recommended by the Sparklett’s man) was unsuccessful.  If someone has managed to merge the two flavors-above-all, we couldn’t find him.

My camera died early for want of charged batteries, hence the lack of pixels in this post, but I couldn’t have done the sunset justice anyways.  We were a hundred or so feet above the ground on top of the ferris wheel, watching the sun set over the dog beach in Del Mar as all the lights of the fair started to pop on.  If my camera had been charged I would’ve offered the operator a fortune to stay up there for half an hour or so, but had to settle for a few short minutes and commit it all to memory.  Wonderful.

We also did the roller coaster and the sky way over the fair, and took in a lot of the exhibitions and vendors.  Too much shopping and too much walking, but certainly a great night.

Still on vacation in Pismo, making a quick post while Spinner forages for breakfast.  Diego’s getting spoiled rotten with the long, leashless, walks on the beach.  This morning’s was a special treat though.

About halfway down the beach we stumbled on (and Diego sniffed) a young couple enjoying a bottle of champagne with the sunrise.  Didn’t want to intrude to the point of asking what they were celebrating – settled for luring Diego away so they could get back to their moment.  Have to assume though they were there to help celebrate our anniversary.  Yep, our wedding was one year ago today, on the second day of California’s 2008 marriage equality window.  The marriage is still going strong despite the best efforts of the H8ers, and I love Randy even more today then I ever have.

We spent Friday night at a local restaurant that we thought was new.  Neither of us had ever heard of Stone Brewery’s World Bistro & Gardens until it started popping up as a recommendation on the Urbanspoon app on my iPod.  The waitress said they’ve been open two years, and Spinner’s lived in Escondido for five, which just shows that despite lousy marketing you can still have an amazing restaurant.  

Good drinkies, of course, but also very good food.  The Mac & Cheese was delicious, and Spinner raved about the pork roast.  Best though was the venue.  Tough to find and literally in an industrial park, but they’ve built a wall and set up an enclosed garden for their guests that completely blocks out the Escondidoness.  Foot bridges and a pond with fake frogs and some adirondacks so you can relax a bit before or after the meal. Totally unexpected.

Zip forward to Sunday, when we brought home our newest shiney, a new Wii.  I know we’re late adopters, and we certainly can’t use the excuse that it’s for the kids, but OMG it’s so much fun.  Nothing like a little tennis in the morning before work without ever being more than a step away from the coffee.  Diego seems to think we’ve gone insane, but he learned pretty quick to get out of the way, and hasn’t stolen the controllers (yet).  Lots to explore there.  Nice to have some new in the life.

Diego’s eating his normal dog food for the first time in a week.  I guess the fact that he isn’t expecting more ham, or roast beef, or quiche, or bacon, or some other buttery/greasy food to ‘accidentally’ fall in front of him shows his acceptance of a return to the status quo.

It was a great holiday season, incredibly busy this year, but I’m happy things have slowed back down.  I’ve got things I need to get done, and really need to take a look at the practice and make some changes for an economy that looks bleaker and bleaker by the day.  Too many projects became involuntary pro bono this year.  Sorry folks, but I decide where I volunteer my time, not you.

At least it will be a short work week as I ease back into some kind of a pattern.  Spinner goes back to work on the fifth, so I won’t get much done until then, except maybe a little mental health roadtrip.  And, weather permitting, our local little