Happy Birthday Leaplings!

Ahhh... Leap Day... Wikipedia has taught me much. For example:

February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, such as 1988, 1996, 2008 or 2016 (with the exception of century years not divisible by 400, such as 1900) for the Gregorian calendar, which is most widely used in the world today. These are called leap years, and February 29 is the 60th day of the Gregorian calendar in such a year, with 306 days remaining until the end of that year. February 29 is also known as bissextile day or Leap Day.

Also:

There is a tradition that women may make a proposal of marriage to men only in leap years, further restricted in some cases to only February 29. There is a tradition that in 1288 the Scottish parliament under Queen Margaret legislated that any woman could propose in Leap Year; few parliament records of that time exist, and none concern February 29. Another component of this tradition was that if the man rejects the proposal, he should soften the blow by providing a kiss, one pound currency, and a pair of gloves (some later sources say a silk gown). There were similar notions in France and Switzerland.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_day

Roommate Stabbing

Apparently, there was a roommate stabbing incident just down the street from where we live. According to the Deseret Morning News Article (click to access), the stabbing took place at 10287 South Locksley Road. Check out how close this actually is to our house!

Craziness! I thought Sandy was supposed to be one of the safest cities in the country! The house in question is actually further south than it appears on the map. It is right at the intersection of Locksley and Sego Lily. Still; that is pretty dang close.

Got Busy?

Yesterday was a 14+ billable hour day (and no travel time!). I'm busy. Are you?

Highly Anticipated Pictures Round 2 - New Decorations

Once again, I am delivering on my promises. I finished reading cases for the night and still need to shower, but here are some pictures of our recent decorating endeavors (click on the slideshow and it will take you to a site where you can view the full size pictures):

Highly Anticipated Pictures Round 1 - Valentine's Festivus

Here is the first installment; the Valentine's Festivus. As described below, Sara made me a wonderful King Crab dinner with all sorts of yummy treats to go along with it. She is pretty much the bestest wife ever (and yes, bestest is much better than best) (click on the slideshow and it will take you to a site where you can view the full size pictures):

Weekend Decorating

Sara and I spent Saturday decorating our entry/living room. We hung lots of cool decorations (in between reading depositions and drafting patent applications). I promise to post some pictures. Jet will definitely likely them. Anyway, just thought you would want to know. Other than that, I'm completely buried in pre-trial and trial work. Billing my life away in 6 minute or 15 minute intervals (depending on the client)... Check back for pictures!

Happy Valentine's Day

Per our friends at Wikipedia:

Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or two or more saints of the same name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Valentine

And a special Happy Valentine's Day wish to my lovely wife Sara (who has promised me one heck of a Valentine's Day feast). I'm sure we'll have pictures of the festivities. Love ya.

NewsNet Reunion

So, we had a KBYU NewsNet reunion of sorts yesterday at lunch (at Settebello in Salt Lake -- It was really good). For all you Facebookers out there, you may have seen the picture (or messages) already. But for those of you aren't cool enough to be "our" friends on Facebook, here you go:

From left to right:

Mary Richards (and Max): KSL News Radio
Katie Christensen: The Sutherland Institute
Tyson Snow: Manning Curtis Bradshaw & Bednar
Andrew Adams: KSL News Radio

Now that is what I call an accomplished group. Quick quiz: can you tell which one of the four is the proverbial sellout? I certainly can. No further comment. Thanks to all for a fun time!

Riverdance!!!

That's right - we went to Riverdance last Friday. It was awesome. There was a rough patch when we showed up, looked for our sweet seats (thanks to Tys), and found the row completely full, including our seats. We checked with an usher, who then proceeded to interview each couple on the row - apparently lots of people were in the wrong seats, but that didn't help us from feeling self-conscious for the whole process. I guess a couple was there who had tickets to the showing on Saturday (yikes), then two other couples were in the wrong seats - displaced by the folks on the wrong day. Eventually, we got our seats.

The show really was fun. Now really, every time I think of Riverdance, I think of Friends. You know the episode - where Chandler's secret fear is revealed - Michael Flatley (the Irish gig guy? asks Joey) ---- "his legs flail about as if independent from his body!" Scary as it may be - I was totally impressed - such quickness and precision! Quite amazing dancing ...

We also had a cute intermission show, where three little girls started doing the irish dancing - people all around, including up on the balcony, where clapping for them - although we couldn't really see their feet, we could see their heads bobbing together as they moved around the tiny space near their seats.

Yay for riverdance ... and the silly music that is stuck in my head - causing me to tap my feet when nobody is looking.

Romney Officially Out -- If Only Huckabee Had Such Grace

CNN is reporting that Romney has suspend his campaign for the Presidency:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/07/romney.campaign/index.html

For those of you wondering why Romney "suspended" as opposed to "dropping out," here is some insight provided by CNN:

Suspending a campaign has a different meaning depending on the party.

On the Republican side, decisions on how to allocate delegates is left to the state parties.

On the Democratic side, a candidate who "suspends" is technically still a candidate, so he or she keeps both district and statewide delegates won through primaries and caucuses. Superdelegates are always free to support any candidate at any time, whether the candidate drops out, suspends or stays in.

National party rules say that a candidate who "drops out" keeps any district-level delegates he or she has won so far but loses any statewide delegates he or she has won.

I don't know how I feel about this yet. The one thing I do know is that if Huckabee had dropped out when he should have, Romney would be the Republican candidate. I dislike Huckabee more and more each day. I'm voting for Duncan Hunter.

Happy Birthday John Prince

Not much to say except for Happy Birthday (assuming my Mom's email was correct). I hope you have an excellent day.

Sara's favorite songs (for the moment, at least)....

So I'm sitting here in our office typing away on a project for work while Tys sits on the other side of our awesome desk, also doing work, and I decided to list some of my favorite tunes ... I think the list should be accurate for at least the next 5 minutes. Also, the songs are in no particular order:

1. chilly chilly cold cold song
2. the song about apple bottom jeans
3. the missy elliot song that starts with "this beat is automatic, supersonic, hypnotic ..."
4. the erasure song with the chorus "always I want to be with you and make [here is where I'm not sure what the song says but if you mumble, it is similar to] believe with you and live in harmony, harmony, harmony".... if you have DDR for the wii - it is the one with the back up dancers in white suits that slowly glide their arms up, one at a time - very catchy! and if any of you want to come over to my house, I'd be happy to kick your trash on that level...
5. warm fuzzy shirt song
6. the old school song - you sexy thing - totally fun to sing along to while driving home from work whenever it comes up on the radio
7. anything by marky mark and the funky bunch

End of the Revolution

Several people have asked me to explain why, if I support Mitt Romney, I voted for Ron Paul. The answer should be fairly obvious. Ron Paul is awesome (although I would never vote for him as President). Romney took 90% of the votes in Utah and he was assured all of the Utah delegates. So I voted for Ron Paul. I think he has a lot of good ideas (and my conservatism has a slight libertarian bent to it -- particularly in light of the ridiculous budget recently proposed by President Bush -- I'm officially changing my status from a Republican to a Conservative). In case you are wondering how things shook out in Utah, here is the breakdown:

Mitt Romney 89.62%
John Mccain 5.36%
Ron Paul 2.91%
Mike Huckabee 1.42%

Hey, at least my guy beat Huckabee. Obama was the clear winner the Democratic Primary:

Barack Obama 56.61%
Hillary Clinton 39.19%
John Edwards 2.84%

Domain & Website Development Ideas

I need some help and ideas for developing the following domains and websites (which have been fairly successful in the past but have been sitting idle for way too long now):

www.funnyauctions.com
www.webmasterbidz.com
www.concealedsurf.com
www.lawreviewed.com
www.freeauctionhits.com

Mom, is it time to bring back HeatedPizza LLC? Anyone else have any suggestions or proposals? Let me know what you think and lets do something with my domains.

Thomas S. Monson Named 16th Church President

After consulting with my IP/Patent advisor, Sara, (who actually does not represent me in any legal capacity -- otherwise, I like to think she represents me in all capacities (but she might disagree)), here is my fair use spin on the Church's recent press release:

Thomas S. Monson (or "Tom Monson" as he refers to himself in frequent Priesthood Session stories) is the new president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Monson has called, President Henry B. Eyring to be his first counselor and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf to be his second counselor.

President Boyd K. Packer, who I candidly suspected might fill the second counselor position, is the new president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. The vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will likely be filled during the spring session of General Conference.

[PHOTO REDACTED BY RESIDENT IP/PATENT ATTORNEY]

How is that for Copyright compliant? Ahhh... The life of a lawyer...

More Superbowl Ads and Rankings

So, if you missed any of the Superbowl ads (because you were out shoveling snow -- there was plenty to shovel here in Utah both yesterday and today), check out USA Today's coverage. They have everything you need (ranked even!):

USA Today Superbowl Ad Rankings

I wouldn't want anyone to be too focused on work; it is before 9:00 a.m. on Monday after all (although, I've been here for almost an hour at this point).

Superbowl Party and Ads

Well, our big Superbowl "party" just ended... We had lots of food, lots of friends, and lots of little kids to keep us all entertained. Admittedly, I was pulling for the Patriots because I'm tired of hearing about '72 Dolphins and their annual celebration when the last undefeated team in the NFL loses, but alas, at least the game went down to the wire (unlike most Superbowls). The "Ads" (which are clearly the most important part of Superbowl Sunday) were somewhat disappointing in my mind. My favorite, far and away, was Justin Timberlake's Pepsi commercial. That was hilarious. I would post a link, but it appears that YouTube has crashed. There must be too many people trying to access Superbowl Ads or something. I'll post a link once it is back up.

Looks like YouTube is back up. Here you go: