when trees attack

last week, as i was sunning myself in beautiful southern california, the town that i live in, montclair, nj, was experiencing some truly awful weather. i didn't learn until after i climbed over several downed tree branches on my way to the train station that in fact montclair had experienced a "microburst," a seriously powerful wind storm that in this case i believe also involved driving rain. in fact, even a sports illustrated writer mentioned it here (scroll down to the very bottom). he uses it as evidence that we should all go see an inconvenient truth, which i would almost definitely concur with had i seen an inconvenient truth. i would really like to, though, so maybe this will serve as inspiration for me. weather is so crazy!

i'm baaaaack

well as my reader knows, it's been a hectic couple of weeks, and the nellogg has been somewhat neglected. but don't worry!! that won't happen again, at least until two weeks from now when i leave for a week at the beach in south carolina. ahhh, beach.

so the good part of my hectic couple of weeks was going to sunny san diego with tom to visit his brother, sister-in-law, their two children, his sister, and his brother-in-law-to-be. it was all a lot of fun...i got to go to see horse races, to the beach, and to my favorite place of all, the wild animal park. i'll post more pictures later, but for now you can see some of the cuteness here.

SALT

i just got back from a farewell lunch for a (sort-of former) co-worker at the blue water grill. it is a really well regarded restaurant, and i had some delicious mushroom sushi (and i don't even like mushrooms usually!). but then i had some broccoli rabe, and i must tell you: it was insanely salty. unfortunately i didn't process that reality soon enough, and now i feel sort of sick.

i really love salt, it's just that there are limits, you know?

don't step on my [blue] suede shoes

i would just like it noted that i really need to stop wearing my favorite pair of suede shoes on days that it is predicted to thunderstorm.

holy shit, i'm going to law school

as my 3 readers already know, i'm going to law school beginning august 27th. i also know this; in fact, i've known it for many months now, really ever since i received my first acceptance letter. somehow, despite that fact, the recent influx of information for next year--loan applications, orientation schedule, numerous health and school certification forms--has left me realizing that i am ACTUALLY RETURNING TO SCHOOL. i'm very hopeful that i will prove a dedicated and involved student, but i definitely worry that the cushy working life i currently lead has not adequately prepared me to work as hard as many claim law students have to. hopefully after the extensive vacations i have planned for this summer--certainly more on those later--i will feel rested and excited to...read lots of long, dry legal decisions. woohoo!

butting heads

well, i was going to write about my lovely weekend but i'm putting that on pause to write about zinedine instead. yesterday afternoon my sister came over to watch the world cup final with tom and me. we were having a great time watching the hard-fought game, speaking in accents, and being converted to francophilia by julia. i have to say, though i wasn't rooting for france from the start, zinedine zidane played some great soccer in this world cup--especially given that he's 34 and was a major factor in the 1998 world cup--and i would really have loved to see him take home the trophy. as i'm sure everyone has heard by now, instead he headbutted italian defender materazzi after an exchange of words (brazilian lip-readers claim materazzi called zz's sister a prostitute, but how reliable their take on the situation is remains in question). he was sent off with 10 minutes left to go in overtime, and france lost in pk's. what a total bummer. i really wanted him to win it, and i feel as though, if it hadn't gone down that way and zz was still on the field during pk's, france would have won.

especially since materazzi is reputedly one of the dirtiest players in the cup, i have to admit i kinda support zz. not the most responsible thing to do, nor wise from the winning perspective, but if he was in fact defending his sister you have to give the guy some credit. i just wish he could have done it without the refs seeing it.

BBC coverage of the episode
video evidence that materazzi is not so spirited

the crouchbot

my sister gets credit for showing me this:
this is not the only video of him doing this, and i assure you they are all fantastic. is the robot all the rage in england? you have to wonder why he's so fond of this particular celebration, though in the end i really don't mind so long as he keeps it up.

happy happy

exactly one week ago today it was my birthday, and on friday i went out to dinner with a few friends (the few left in the city over the holiday weekend!) to celebrate. we went to a restaurant called counter. i was excited about the idea of finally being able to order everything on the menu, but i have to admit it wasn't quite as great as i was hoping. still, we had a great time, especially after we left the restaurant.

whoa nelly.

it's happened--i'm actually posting to my own blog. i'm a little unclear how much i'll get into the habit of posting on this blog, especially since i think tom may be the only one to read it on a regular basis, but right now i'm just enjoying the green dots and having my very own little slice of the internet.