Please excuse the delay

Please excuse the delay in posting! It's been an interesting week and a half, and ever since work computers stopped allowing me to blog, this whole project has been a challenge!
The last week was fantastic. Last Friday I went fishing for what was intended to be a couple of hours. We were going out at 6pm, and sure to be in by 8pm. You know how fishermen have an unspoken rule that you are allowed to increase the size of your fish by 10% when you tell other people about it? (This explains Kristie's "45" pound salmon.) Well, there's another rule that when you say "one more time down the river" you really mean "let's never stop fishing!" So, that's how I ended up fishing until well after midnight last Friday night. Your next question might be to inquire about how many fish I caught. Well, indulging my Jewish side as always, I've been too cheap to get a fishing license, and have refused to fish all summer. It's been interesting. Seriously, though, the fishing up here is a whole different culture. Coda and I took a drive down the river, stopping by his favorite fishing spots, and watching the fishermen to see how active it was. I saw little children that could rip filets out of a fish with more expertise than your average sushi chef. Later that night, Coda took me down to the river to watch the dipnetters. Dipnetting is a suprisingly effective method of fishing that involves, as one might guess, a large net dipped in the water. People stand in the water, holding the net, and WAIT for fish to swim into it. I can't make this stuff up! You know what's even more ridiculous? The fish actually DO swim into the nets, and because this technique is so effective, only residents are legally allowed to dipnet.
We went for a short hike back to Russian River Falls (most well-maintained trail, ever) and Kristie participated in a fishing derby. Last night Coda convinced me that I need to go shooting with him, and today, my shoulder is killing me from the kickback of his shotgun. Gosh I love Alaska! But you know what I don't love? Those little clay things that get slung out of a big, metal, glorified slingshot for us to shoot at. Pesky little suckers!
So I'll try to post photos in the next day or so of all these adventures. As a final note, for those of you following my housing crisis, I got an apartment! I learned that being proactive isn't just for motivational-speaker types that are always encouraging you to think outside of the box. I went wild. I found a place in a good location. I liked the price. I decided it would be my apartment. I e-mailed the girl who posted the ad, telling her, "I want to rent this apartment." I got my info to the landlord for the credit check, and was in good contact with the landlord before the open house even happened. By the time my darling boyfriend (who earned about 100 relationship points during this whole house-hunting adventure) made it to the open house, I already had the address to send a deposit to. I have a home when I get back to DC, and I am VERY excited!

My Dad's visit

My Dad's in town, and we've taken the opportunity to travel around the entire penninsula. We saw Homer and Seward, and of course spent a lot of quality time in Kenai - even an entire afternoon in the Kenai courthouse.
The photos came out in a funny order, so bear with my descriptions. The third photo down is one I took from Kristie's parents' place. Alaska is absolutely stunning. The second picture is from a suprise visit from Matt - a friend from law school. I got a call Friday from Matt that he'd be down on the Penninsula with a couple of friends, and might like a place to stay on Saturday. Well, we made it back Saturday just in time to give Matt and his friends a floor to crash on. The next morning, in an adventure I entitled "cooking with SBA," Matt and I made pancakes. Knowing where his place was, Matt did the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen a good bit! Then his friend Jason made us coffee... This photo shows us with my kitchen's finest mugs - a measuring cup, my travel mug, and the top of a thermos. Nothing but the finest when you're with the Macks!

The next top and bottom photos are from our travels. Dad and I went to Homer, and walked into a tourist shop around 11:45am, asking about tours. The nice girl working said she might be able to squeez us into the noon tour. Sure, boarding was at 11:30am, but when you're travelling with me and my dad - we fly by the seat of our pants! That's how we ended up in Halibut Cove, an amazing artist town of about 100 people, eating at a beautiful restaurant on the water, and having one remarkable afternoon.
The next day we went to Seward, and I walked through some very cold glacier water (about 2 inches deep, for about 10 feet) to get up to Exit Glacier. Thus, this last photo - me, and my friend the glacier.

Adventures to the max, when you travel with the Macks!

A brief posting on why I love the law...

I know I usually write about the bars we've been to, the sights we've seen, and the funny people we've met, but today, I'm going to take a quick break and talk about the law. There are three reasons for this.
1) I've meant to post photos, but our work computers recently blocked blogger, so it's been tough to find time to post.
2) Right now, my camera batteries are charging. My dad is in town and we are touristing like mad. The camera batteries have taken the brunt of the work, and they need a break, so I can't put up any photos.
3) If I don't post anything, I will lose readership. So here goes!

There's a sickness that a lot of lawyers and law students have - this gnawing feeling that somewhere out there is a case that proves their point. They are sure that some judge (ideally, in the lawyer's preferred jurisdiction) has ruled on this exact point. They know that this situation has arisen before, and the side of justice (and coincidentally, the side the lawyer is currently taking) has won out. So, instead of just finishing the darn brief or memorandum of law, the lawyer sits in front of westlaw, trying new combinations of words, new westlaw key numbers, and other jurisdiction, for the case on point. Of course, the case doesn't exist, and somewhere around the time of day that the lawyer has just enough time to get the motion to the court, hot off the printer, the lawyer will give up the search for the golden case.

But in all that reading through caselaw, the lawyer comes across the occasional gem - the witty clerk, the eloquent judge, the absurd fact pattern - all of which make research worthwhile. I remember the first time I found a case that made me realize judges were people too - people with a captive audience and, potentially, a lot of creativity bottled up. In research an environmental law case, I found this quote:

In this appeal, we consider the management of the waterways in Arizona's Sonoran desert. This case, of course, inevitably brings to mind the exchange between Claude Rains and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (Warner Bros.1942), which aptly distills this dispute to its essence:

Captain Renault: What in heaven's name brought you to Casablanca?
Rick: My health. I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Captain Renault: The waters? What waters? We're in the desert.
Rick: I was misinformed.

In our case, it was not Rick Blaine, but the United States Army Corps of Engineers that came to the desert for the waters.
Save our Sonoran, Inc. v. Flowers, 408 F.3d 1113 (9th Cir. 2005).

There are lots of funny cases (such as the 7th Circuit decision in 2005 which clarified the difference between "ho" and "hoe" in a footnote, U.S. v. Murphy, 406 F.3d 857 (7th Cir. 2005)) but those pale in comparison to the truly spectacular writing that I stumble across is daily research.

After a couple months at the Public Defender office, I've gained a new appreciation for the Fourth Amendment. Call me old fashioned, but I don't like the idea of being searched for no reasons. I've also gained a deeper appreciation for the Fifth Amendment, and sincerely wish all prospective criminals could be given a STERN warning to SHUT UP when questioned by law enforcement officials, but I digress.

Back on the Fourth Amendment, I've spent a lot of time this summer on Terry stops, which has brought me back to reading Terry over and over again. And you know, it's just plain beautiful. Check this out:
It is quite plain that the Fourth Amendment governs 'seizures' of the person which do not eventuate in a trip to the station house and prosecution for crime-'arrests' in traditional terminology. It must be recognized that whenever a police officer accosts an individual and restrains his freedom to walk away, he has 'seized' that person. And it is nothing less than sheer torture of the English language to suggest that a careful exploration of the outer surfaces of a person's clothing all over his or her body in an attempt to find weapons is not a 'search,' Moreover, it is simply fantastic to urge that such a procedure performed in public by a policeman while the citizen stands helpless, perhaps facing a wall with his hands raised, is a 'petty indignity.' It is a serious intrusion upon the sanctity of the person, which may inflict great indignity and arouse strong resentment, and it is not to be undertaken lightly.
Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 16-17 (1968).

Beautiful! How do you argue with that? It's clear, it's eloquent, and it's just.

I'll quit now, and go to bed, refraining from reminding everyone to read Federalist 10 over and over again for some fantastic writing. Okay, just one quote:
"Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires. But it could not be less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to wish the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency."

We'll miss the Kiwis!!

It's been a tough week for Kristie and I. We've had a lot going on at work, gone out enough to kill lesser women, and said goodbye to new friends. I'll start from the end of that list. To be absolutely clear, there is no better way to Kristie's heart than to buy her drinks. And Rob - well, you have her heart! We tried to calculate out our debt to the Kiwis... and our best guess is around $450. No, guys, the check is not in the mail. Postage to New Zealand is just too much! But beyond the kind-hearted nature of these men (looking to us each time they bought a round) we've laughed over some outrageous activities at karaoke, heard more about Toby than we probably need to know, and had a sure group of friends to meet at Hooligans. That kind of devotion to a bar is priceless!
This week, Kristie and I realized that Hooligans has become our Cheers. Walking into the bar on a Tuesday, the bartender looked up at us and said, "Two T&Ts?" She even knows what kind of gin I like! What service! When we have to leave this town, I think I will cry over the shuffleboard table and kiss the dance floor goodbye.
Finally, work has been wild. The second photo from the top is the courthouse on a gray day. The bottom photo is our office - conveniently located across from the courthouse. (The top photo is of our backyard... just because I love how barren it looks. We have gone four-byen' back there!) I came to Alaska by accident (it's a long story) but I've been so glad to have ended up with my job. This week I did a cross-examination and a closing argument in an evidentiary hearing, a couple of change of pleas, a few bail reviews - and had three telephonic court appearances. The best thing about practicing in Alaska (for the lazy lawyer) is being able to kick back in a t-shirt and cordouroys, drinking coffee, a file open on my lap, and be in court in a neighboring city via speakerphone. You know, working at the Alaska Public Defender Office has been a little bit like legal boot-camp, but I realized Friday how much I've learned in seven weeks. I was in a courtroom without any lawyers present, and for the first time, I didn't have any desperate questions to ask the attorneys. Unlike a week before, when I told a judge, "I'm really sorry your honor, I don't know what I'm doing, I'm still learning this whole thing," I think I seemed semi-competent. This lawyering as an extreme sport - submitting motions hot off the printer, getting to court at exactly the time of our hearing - really speaks to my way of life. So, the decision's made; I'm going to be a criminal attorney for at least a little while. Anyone have any job openings for August 2008?!?

5K and ATVs

Another weekend, another adventure. This past weekend was the 5K! No... not a jog, but a visit to 5 bars in Kasiloff... and a schoolbus going from bar to bar. Here is Kristie with the "body fluid cleanup kit." Gosh I miss schoolbuses!
I'll admit, I generally look awful in pictures. The cute photo of Kristie and I on the bus took 3 tries... but don't we look happy? The bars were a lot of fun. We started around 5pm, and stayed out most of the night. I quit at 4am, and got called a "dork"for my lack of staying-power. Finding 5 bars in Kasiloff is a bit of a stretch; this one bar was more of a lodge for people who like playing darts and Elks meetings. On the lower right is Kristie posing with the moose antlers. She's a moose! Below that is me with Adam, our bus-driver on the 5K adventure. Note that I am wearing the official 5K t-shirt! The 5K was wild, and actually became a 7K for me, as I went to two bars after the 5K was finished. I guess a Saturday night just doesn't work without a trip to Hooligans and Riverside!



In other news, we went four-wheeling yesterday! Yes, we rode ATVs! Our new friend Will took us out, and we saw parts of Alaska that are neither accessable by foot nor car. What adventures! More to come, as we have big plans for the week!

Ginnie shooting...

Okay, so guns scare me, but here is my first time shooting a gun!!!

I love guns!?!?

Here we go - another flattering picture of Kristie! This time, it's Kristie with a gun, protecting us from our neighbors. Below that is me, relaxing after shooting things in a gravel pit. Ruben decided that what was missing in our lives as Alaskans was time spent pulling triggers. So, while Kristie slept off the previous night's river party, Ruben and I drove off to the middle of nowhere with a bunch of ammo and a... .45? Is that what they call it? You all should have seen me! Taking out the clip, clumsily putting bullets in, loading the gun... I think I've found my calling in life. But none of that compares to my love of actually shooting things. Apparently, I have good aim! Shooting is such a stress reliever, which is odd when you consider how deadly the sport can be.

In other news, I sure hope Ben (one of the attorneys, and our friend at fairbanksorbust.blogspot.com ) likes these photos. Because I have realized, as of late, that I mostly write this blog to keep him from yelling at me at work. (Stop beating me, Ben!! I won't let your coffee get cold next time!) See Ben, this blog isn't just about making me look good at the expense of my friends! It's about guns, too!

P.S. I am "that friend."

Kristie has recently accused me of being "that friend," the girl who is always posting cute pictures of herself, and ugly ones of her friends. The girl who tells her friends to wear sweats to the party, and shows up wearing something tight and cute. The girl who is always doing "friendly" things that are secretly self-serving. I have three defenses to this:
1) See the picture of me in the trunk? I think that's a pretty strong affirmative defense.
2) See the picture in this post? This is wear Ruben has just told Kristie about his encounter at the gas station that morning. Apparently, Ruben walked in and saw a girl he knows working at the gas station. "Wow," the girl said, "I saw you and that girl in the red dress dancing last weekend. You're amazing! Did you take lessons? Is that your wife?" Now, neither Kristie nor I are Ruben's wife (who is a very lucky lady that Ruben is very fond of) but I should still let everyone know that we have confirmation that Kristie is a very good (and attractive!) dancer.
3) For crying out loud, I was the one wearing the men's t-shirt, and Kristie was wearing my sundress. She looks fantastic, okay?

We've gotten in touch with our inner hicks!

Celebrating, Kenai style! It was Coda's birthday, and I just had to go "four by'en," because it's my favorite thing to do in Alaska. Everything was going well, until we (Ruben) tried to go over a mound which turned out much softer than he expected. We were "high-centered." (I love my new lingo!) There we were with lots of time to kill while Coda went to get his truck to rescue us, and Kristie and I decided that this was the time to begin our modeling careers. And you, dear blog readers, are the first viewers of the resulting photos.
In between the truck photos is a photo of me, Ruben, Kristie, and Coda at a bar, celebrating Coda's birthday the way all birthdays should be celebrated:
with shots!
If you're into getting dirty, drinking, and being around dead animials in bars, Alaska is the place for you! If you think last call should be around 4:30 am, and that coffee should flow from anywhere it physically can... again, Alaska might be a place to consider.
Dead animals are the centerpiece of any decorating scheme here. The airport in Kenai: filled with dead animals. The gift shops: displaying large dead animals (if the shops are classy). And the bars: the proud homes of many a dead moose.
Kristie and I are both enjoying our job. One of the exciting parts about criminal law is the truly gory photographs that you come across. At my job last summer, I used to thumb through crime scene photos in my spare time. At my current job, I've taken a real liking to autopsy photos. Nothing says fun like photographs documenting the internal organs of the deceased. We also have come across naked photographs of over-weight, middle-aged men. One of the attorneys in our office suggested using the photos as the basis for a motivational poster promoting abstinence. Personally, I'm considering compiling a poetry collection from homocide reports. Any takers?

If I never see another moose again...

First, before I start complaining about my newfound indifference to Moose, or whining about the time the Emards stuck me in their trunk, I should point out how unbelievably beautiful Alaska can be. Mike took this photo of the view from the Emard's lodge, and while I'm sure I wasn't up at 3am or whatever time that photo was taken, I can attest to how beautiful that view is. I certainly have landed myself in a kind of paradise.
Kenai is on the Kenai Peninsula, which means that along the entire coastline of the peninsula, whenever we drive down the highway, we look at the mountains across the inlet. The views are remarkable along the entire roadway.


Alright, now for stories and whining. See that photo on the right... that terrified looking 12-year-old? That's me, in the Emards trunk. Next time my parents have kids, I hope they do everything in their power to make the child a tall one. Being short used to be kind of fun: I got to be front and center in the school choir, could sneak into the McDonald's PlayPlace for years after my other friends were getting disapproving looks, and got sneakers at discount prices when I bought kids sizes. Now it's just getting absurd. Not only did a client recently tell me that I look 12, but now I'm getting stuck in people's trunks? This is nothing short of discrimination... no pun intended.












And see that lovely lady in the lower photo? That's Kristie, and her new friend the moose, taken from the back porch of our apartment. Remember the story about last weekend at Hooligans and Riverside? Well, after a few drinks, apparently Kristie thinks that getting close to a moose is a friendly thing to do in Alaska. I can't really blame her, because our moose friend certainly doesn't respect our property lines.

Happy as a clam... or the 220 clams we caught!

Another weekend, another adventure. We went clamming in Ninilchik and managed to dig up over 200 clams. I refuse to fish, because I just don't have the patience for it, but clamming - well, there's more reward for your efforts. After catching over 3 limits (among 5 fishing licenses) the gang retired home to clean them. Let me tell you, cleaning a razor clam is more commitment than I'm ready for. We spent about 3 and a half hours outside, rinsing off bits of clams in clod water, until my opposable thumbs were useless. But in the end, it was all worthwhile, because we ate the best chowder and fried clams I've ever had.
In other news, Kristie and I checked out the social scene in Soldotna Friday night. We went to Hooligans, the town's most happening bar, dressed to kill and ready for fun. And fun it was. Kristie took advantage of the generousity of the nice British man who liked my eyes - four drinks worth of generousity. Ah, the things I do for Kristie. I believe he grabbed my face and squeezed it. My eyes popped out in disbelief. Kristie later recalled that she was shocked that a man could be so intrigued by a woman made to look like a fish. But then again, we're in Alaska. A few more drinks later, and I (still sober) went with Kristie to pick up Mike and Melody at the Kenai Airport. Back to Soldotna we went, and after a brief visit to Houligans, we moved on to Riverside. It was all well and good, until we were kicked out of the bar...
It started with an innocent game of limbo. There we were, determining how low we could go, and I had already been eliminated. (Darn my cute new heels!) Kristie, limboing lower now, fell during her turn. It was crushing enough to have to take second place, but imagine her heartbreak when the bouncer not only asked her to leave, but wouldn't let her take her drink with her! Smiling, I asked the nice bouncer if I could have the piece of crepe paper as a souvenier - our former limbo stick. He obliged, and I have one very funny memory.

Mail, or so we thought

Kristie and I have been religiously checking the little box outside of our apartment door labeled "Mail." Making what we thought was a fairly conservative assumption, we decided that it was the mailbox. Days went by. When our library cards weren't showing up, I blamed the library. When we weren't getting any advertisements, I thanked the lack of local business. When my boy at home claimed to have sent two cards already, I chalked it up to a "the check's in the mail" kind of excuse. But when the electric company called me to tell me that our bills weren't getting through, I got worried. So, I showed up at the local post office.
Now, in the past few years, I've gotten used to not fitting in. I lived in Montreal, not speaking a word of French. I moved to DC, and still can't name my Congressional Representative. Heck, I lived in St. Thomas as a white person. Here in Alaska, I stand out pretty strongly, due to tendency to wear vaguely clean shirts, my even-toned hair, and my distinct lack of a Carhart suit. So, I went into the post office, armed with a big smile, and knowing that I stood out like a sore tourist.
"Hi!" I said. "I just moved here with my friend a couple weeks ago, and we have this box labeled 'mail' outside of my door, which we foolishly assumed was a 'mailbox.' Now, we haven't gotten a single piece of mail. Where do you think we went wrong?"
"Did you sign up for service?" the nice man asked.
"No, how do I do that?" I responded.
Three forms later, I was just a phone call and a day away from receiving mail.

That is just one of the further adventures we've had in Kenai. In other news, Kristie was hired right away at Home Depot. The only real negative point of the interview was when the interviewer said, quite confidently, "I think you'll really fit in well here!" Kristie looked to her left, looked to her right, and saw mustaches... on the women. Her heart sank. What had 3 weeks in Alaska done to her!??!

Kristie's Big Interview

Sunday, 6 p.m. Kristie Emard will have the biggest interview of her summer. No, not the JAG, not a public defender or prosecutor's office... but the home depot. With "some graduate school" completed, we're fairly sure that Kristie is among The Home Depot's strongest candidates, in an academic sense. But in other ways, she has real weaknesses. She doesn't have a lot of experience with plumbing, but since many Kenai residents don't have running water in their homes, we're hoping that this absense is one The Home Depot will overlook. She has years of experience as a cashier and working in a stockroom, but only in a grocery store and Nike outlet. Will these skills transfer over to bigger challenges that she might face at The Home Depot? Stay tuned, and Sunday night at 6pm (Alaska time) we'll find out!

In sadder news, Kristie was recently rejected at "Three Bears," which is a bulk discount store. Management couldn't hire someone for the stockroom position whose schedule wasn't "wide open." It's your loss, Three Bears, your loss!!

Aside from the adventures in employment, Kristie and I have been having plenty of other adventures. We went out with co-intern Sean to a house party last night. When Sean said "house party," I foolishly assumed we'd be going to a house for the party. Wrong again! When I showed up in a sweater-dress over thin dress pants, I realized that I was not wearing the requisite jeans and jacket combination that the other girls were sporting. (And by "the other girls," I mean all 4 of the other girls. Alaska is mostly men. Heck - Kenai is about 4:1 men: women.) Anyways, Kristie and I had a good time and ended up planning the first annual Kenai pub crawl. We're carving about 45 minutes out of our busy schedule this week to hit up all of the bars in Kenai. Hopefully we won't bump into too many of our clients!

Work is going well. Kristie wrote a few more motions, and I got to appear in court 3 times between Thursday and Friday. I'm writing a motion on an interesting constitutional issue that's currently an unsettled point of law in Alaska. They certainly give us good work here at the Public Defender office. In other news, we're compiling a list of life lessons we've gotten from work. For instance, "If there's a warrant out for your arrest, try not to have 29 marijuana plants on your property," or "When driving around with your portable meth lab in your car, obey the speed limit." The title to our upcoming book: Chicken Soup for the Felonious Soul.

That's all for now! Back to drinking tea and bumming around!

Second week of work!

Well, we made it here, and so far, things are just as odd as ever. Kristie and I seem to have landed in a legal anomaly.
Our office is wild - full of interesting characters. Until I figure out
blog etiquette, I'll refrain from naming names, but let's just saw that
our co-workers range from the guy who used to light himself on fire
before diving off a 40-foot high board into a 10-foot deep pool, to the
attorney who drops more f-bombs in any given day than I believe I have
in my entire life.
Our work is interesting. We're writing motions
(okay, only Kristie has written complete motions so far) and I've been
able to appear in court twice already. Within the first 7 days of work
- that's pretty amazing.
Last weekend we took a boat tour of the Kenai Fjords. This is us on the boat. Obviously, because we were there, the world worked in our favor and a humpback whale breached - a fairly rare event. I didn't catch the breaching in a photo (look, I can only get so lucky in one day) but here's evidence of the whale's existence.


Seward is one amazing town. We walked around and enjoyed how beautiful it is for quite some time. Bear in mind, we currently live in Kenai - which is breaking new records for being the most inconvenient, unappealing town I have ever lived in. In the mid-60's, Seward was entirely destroyed by a tsunami. Kristie and I, being sensitive souls, stopped for a moment to admire the warning sign for tsunamis.

That's it for this posting - mostly because I'm tired and blogger took forever to let me post photos - but I promise another posting tomorrow, and some funnier stories about life in Alaska.