30 November 2004

Last day of classes! I made it. Finals will be over in a few weeks. We covered intentional torts in 50 minutes today (!). I guess I’ll have to learn that on my own before I take the bar.

I’ve got a drippy cold. I can't really study in the library at school since it's not heated (budget cuts). 

So what was I reading this afternoon before my fingers got too numb to type? Here's a choice morsel:

An easement appurtenant to one parcel of land may not be extended by the owner of the dominant estate to other parcels owned by him, whether adjoining or distinct tracts to which the easement is not appurtenant.

But can an easement in gross be extended?

Mercury went retrograde today, so back-up your data.

27 November 2004

I’ve been studying like crazy, which means working my outlines. I just finished (more-or-less) 41 pages (13,500 words) on Civil Procedure. Still to go: Property, tomorrow.

Mostly food in this paragraph, so skip down if you don’t care. I had a nice Thanksgiving with my family. I made the cheese crackers in the December issue of Saveur. I can’t recommend them as they tasted exactly like Cheez-its, but with a delightful, friable texture and no chemical aftertaste. I followed the recipe and didn’t add the optional water; I think, however, the water would have helped to activate the gluten and make them puffy (as shown in the photo). I also didn’t roll out the dough: since I’m a professional, I spotted this waste of time and just rolled the dough into logs, chilled them in the freezer, and sliced off 1/16-inch disks and baked them. In any case, tensions were simmering all afternoon (politics, general crabbyness, the stars (my mother, father, and I are all Geminis)), so by the time my sisters got there I was dying for a drink. One Manhattan settled everyone right down. We had prosecco with hors d’œuvres, and then a lovely sherry from Montilla with the broth (chicken with pastine, with a little tomato in the background), and then a vinho verde (Broadbent, 2002) and Rex Hill pinot noir (2001, Willamette Valley) with the turkey & trimmings. Since we have two stuffings (one plain and traditional baked in the turkey and one with sausages, mushrooms, and olive baked outside the turkey), we never have mashed potatoes. I can’t quite imagine eating turkey and potatoes: all that white. After our heirloom turkey misadventure a few years ago, we went back to Diestel. I wanted something green besides the usual green beans (out of season anyhow), so I made a little spinach gratin (this sketch is for you: several bunches lightly wilted in butter, cooled, squeezed, and chopped; set it on top of a chanterelle and shallot duxelles, and moisten with bechamel. A drizzle of cream, then breadcrumbs and butter to finish. Hot oven for half-hour. Very nice, if not very Thanksgivingy. It went very well with the vinho verde.)

I stayed at my parents’ until Saturday morning, mostly hibernating in my room, studying.

Minor escapade to report involving at the same time the two outer poles of my types: A husky Latin (think: the guy who operates the streetsweeper in your neighborhood) and a lean, clean-cut, sandy-haired WASP. Your Cunégonde was the mayonnaise in that sandwich.

I only got through studying this evening with the help of George Shearing and João Gilberto. When I needed a break, I looked up the lyrics and sang along.

Corcovado

(Antonio Carlos Jobim)

 

Um cantinho, um violão,

Este amor, uma canção,

Pra fazer feliz a quem se ama  

Muita calma pra pensar,

E ter tempo pra sonhar  

Da janela, ve-se o Corcovado,

O Redentor, que lindo  

Quero a vida sempre assim,

Com você perto de mim,

Até o apagar da velha chama  

E eu que era triste,

Descrente desse mundo  

Ao encontrar você eu conheci

O que é a felicidade, meu amor 

24 November 2004

5:24 PM

I stopped by my local wine shop and stood in line behind a lawyer who works nearby. He was buying a case of Spanish wines to bring to Thanksgiving dinner. His total bill was roughly equivalent to a car payment ($312).  I’m going to keep the reward in mind as I slog through finals. One day, I'll be able to be that generous too.

9:05 AM

I’m thinking of changing my name to Pashmina, to reflect my Indian heritage.

Only seven more hours of class this semester!

My sister and I are negotiating the Thanksgiving wine line-up. So far: Prosecco, then a German reisling (even though they were part of the Coalition of the Unwilling), and then an American pinot noir (probably Oregon).

What was the holding of Kerr v. District Court, 426 US 394, anyhow?

22 November 2004

Candy!

C. brought me back some chocolates from Barcelona. The first is flavored with cinnamon (In Catalan, the label says: cacau, sucre, canyella i farina de blet). I haven’t tried it yet. The second is chocolate bonbons filled with a saffron cream (Bombons de trufa al safrà: cacau, sucre, mantega de cacau, llet en pols [powdered milk], nata [cream], sucre invertit, safrà, vainilla i lecitina). The box held nine of these little obelisks. I cut one open so that you could see the color. Chocolate and saffron: the two

bitter flavors play off each other fairly well; the candies were fortunately barely sweet. The combination grew on me, but I don’t think I want it again.

Farmers’ market report: lamb, apples, young chard, and that’s it.

I’m tired and hungover today. I went to the Miss Trannyshack Pageant last night, not so much for the show but for the audience. Where are all of these cute guys the rest of the year? It almost didn’t seem like San Francisco. The handsomest man in San Francisco and I took the bus together to the Regency. A rep from Falcon tried to give us free copies of one of their DVDs.  He couldn’t understand (1) why we didn’t want the DVD (neither of us have TVs) and (2) why we weren’t sleeping together. The more he talked, the sadder he seemed: an underpaid fat kid working for a porn company whose products he couldn’t even give away.

I didn’t stay till the end — I met a little fox from LA and took him home (my height, wavy dark hair, great smile). I couldn’t sleep well with a stranger in my bed. He slept like a puppy, so I got out my Property outline (today: joint tenancies and tenancies by the entirety). Every time I woke up during the night I found he had his arm around me, or his leg over mine or his hand on my back. I could get used to that. Too bad he’s moving to Madrid next spring.

15 November 2004

Two milestones today: I registered with the state bar and I paid off my car loan.

I went home for a family birthday dinner on Sunday. My nephew is very chatty. He looks right at you, speaks earnestly, and gestures appropriately, but it sounds like Hungarian. I can’t wait until he really talks. He'll fit right in. One cousin described a family get-together as 29 people, 28 of whom were talking at any given moment.

My uncle the chemist made us a couple batches of perfect Manhattans. He got engrossed (“water-soluble phenolic compounds in olives”!) in Harold McGee’s newly updated masterpiece, On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen. It’s a must for anyone interested in the why’s of cooking. I can't put it down.

I've been working out at the Gold's in the Castro. Note to the gays: there's a difference between leering and cruising. More staring is not going to make him more interested in you.

7 November 2004

“If we want to have a hopeful and decent society, we ought to aim for the ideal, and the ideal is that marriage ought to be, and should be, a union of a man and a woman.” -- Karl "Jackass" Rove on Fox News, 11/7/04.

By this time next year, they’ll be smashing the windows of our community centers.

I’m trying to take heart by remembering that the civil rights movement had many setbacks before it more-or-less took hold. We’re in for a long fight.