There are actually a few things to write about this week. This past week has been especially eventful, most notably in the amount of good news we have received. But let me start a little earlier.
About two weeks ago (Monday, March 11 to be precise), I went to a CLE symposium. What's that? CLE stands for Continuing Legal Education. As a practicing lawyer I am required to obtain a certain number of credits every term (that's two years), to show that I'm keeping up to date on legal issues. In February I attended a seminar about the legal issues surrounding the 2000 election (you know, that huge fiasco?!). Anyway, the symposium a couple of weeks ago was more up my alley...intellectual property. For those who don't know, that's what I focused on in lawschool. My main areas of interest are copyrights and trademarks, especially in the realm of entertainment law. The symposium was a full day event and I found most of it pretty interesting, especially a presentation about the right of publicity. Okay, enough shop talk!
Over the course of the past week we have determined that we will be able to fix up our basement a lot faster, and for a lot less money, than we first thought. We plan to replace the old basement windows with glass blocks (very popular around here) and discovered that we can buy premade glass block windows and install them ourselves (well, with the help of a friend of ours who knows how to do that sort of thing). That alone will cost us only about one third of the cost of having a company make and install them for us! Kylan also wants to build his bar out of glass blocks and we found a building system at Home Depot which lets you put the blocks together with reinforcing bars and silicone. We also found out (through the diynet.com website) that we won't have to build a subfloor...we can put tile down on the concrete. Yes, it will be a little cold in the winter, but that's what area rugs are for! And we are going to plaster the walls to cover up the current state of ugliness. In total, it should cost us less than $1000...just like those tv decorating shows!
As many of you know, about a week ago I finally got a letter that my application for residence in the USA has been accepted. This means that I have my greencard...no more worrying about renewing my work visa! It also means that we'll be able to travel across the border sometime in the not-too-distant future. We had been waiting to find out my status for awhile. I sent the original paperwork in last April and we weren't interviewed until September. We had a couple more forms to send in last November and since then it's just been a waiting game. I am so glad that the wait is over. I haven't changed citizenship or anything yet, though. Although I'm married to an American, I can't become a citizen for another three years.
And we just received somemore happy news yesterday. There is a new member of the family. My cousin Llaina and her husband Jay, welcomed a baby boy into this world on Monday, March 18th. He weighed in at more than 8 pounds which, if you've ever seen how slim Llaina is, you would be amazed. His name is Jackson Liam (how cool is that?!) By all accounts mom, dad, Jackson, and new big sister Patricia are all doing well. I'm sure that I will be posting photos of the new bundle of joy in our family photo album sometime in the near future.
I guess that's all for now. Until next time,
D.
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