Visiting Christie in Rochester, NY 2017

After the children's museum, we met up with Christie for dinner at the Genesee Brew House restaurant. I was so excited to see her! I haven't seen her in a few years but it was just the same. She's the nicest person and we can talk nonstop. There was a little wait for dinner so we went to the attached brewery, and did a beer tasting.

Christie, Kevin, and I did a tasting in the Brewery

This was the third time the kids ate out on this trip with some mixed results. James is good to go on restaurants and enjoys them. Miranda often won't eat even her favorite foods at a restaurant and instead just wants to drink chocolate milk or sugary drinks as much as possible. Then she likes to freak out over nothing because of the sugar high. I know, this is my fault because parenting.  Good luck with your own threenagers, haha.

Dinner- James was well-behaved, Miranda... sigh.

After dinner, we went for a little stroll over the Genesee River and with a view of the falls. The sun was in our eyes, but Christie and I are professional models. The kids, not so much.
 

Genesee Falls

So great to see and catch up with Christie!

My Civil Rights Case Settled for $1 Million!

Twenty-two Latino victims of unlawful warrantless home raids by by the government obtained a settlement today requiring new national policies for conducting warrantless home operations and $1 million in damages and fees. While I worked at Dewey, I spent countless hours with our Latino pro bono clients preparing them for deposition, attending their depositions, and even taking the depositions of the government agents who conducted the illegal raids. To be clear, our clients included many US citizens and people with documentation! I'm so happy that my hard work came to fruition for them, and that things will be a little better for Latinos in our country.

On a more personal note, the intensity of this case is also how I became friends with many of my former colleagues including Christie P, Adrienne, Eri, Eric, Evan, Lee, the two Matts, and  Ghita and Christina from LatinoJustice, and so many more people I can't even count. Doing good is good for the soul.

Read more here:
http://www.ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/%241-million-ice-settlement-new-york-families-requires-national-changes-agency-policy

St. Patrick's Day 2012!

Hello! This year we definitely had one of our best St. Patrick's Days. First, I had a little Irishman I could dress up! His dad bought him a "You're Lucky I'm Not Your Kid" shirt with a shamrock on it, as a nod to ever-continuing bad attitude. Perhaps James can read because he was especially grumpy. Alternatively, it had to do with teething or the fact that Kevin and I were out a lot and James is pretty attached to us. In any case, the lovely Gramndma Kathy was here to love him and play with him, so his grumpiness didn't slow me down.

James's First St.Patrick's Day 2012

Michele and Jon came to visit us. Kevin made his delicious corned beef sandwiches which we all enjoyed to the extent that we could with James grabbing food off our plates. (James also enjoyed quite a bit of corned beef.)  We also had some Guiness and Baileys and coffee. Then we set about our plan to go to the 4 Irish bars in our neighborhood.  The bars are for-real Irish with bartenders from Ireland and whatnot.  We started at Jameson's Bar and Grill. I've been wanting to go there since we moved to town because it looks like a nice restaurant, but the food selection and prices demotivated me from entering.  It was a low key beginning to the afternoon, but we also started on a course of only drinking Irish refreshments. I had a Baileys on ice, Michele had a black and tan, and the men had Guinness.

Starting out at Jameson's Bar & Grill

Next, we spent a ridiculous amount of time at J. Fallon's because it was actually full of people having fun.  Christie and Chris came by for a short visit, but since they had spent the entire morning driving down from Rochester, I wasn't allowed to take a photo.  I think I'm most likely to go back to J. Fallon's, because they had all sorts of fun specials and made-up drinks for each night of the week. I'm a sucker for that stuff.  I believe the men had more Guinness and the ladies had Killians.

Michele and Ericka at J. Fallon's Tap Room for the first time (but we're coming back!)

Then things started getting silly... we went to McCarthy's which was a totally different scene.  We all got Smithwicks and Jon started asking us market research questions regarding pick up lines.  Michele and I agreed on some and disagreed on some, and then suddenly I seized upon it: the perfect pick up line.  Ladies, tell me where you fall in this debate.  A gentleman walks up to you with a slice of cake on a plate and a little plastic fork, and he says, "Hello. Would you like some cake?"  Michele claimed that her response would be that she would prefer a beer, but regardless, I really don't see where you could go wrong offering a woman some cake. Not at all.

And then! Would you believe it?! A man at the bar unceremoniously gave us each a slice of cake and walked away. Like a slice right from heaven delivered by cake angels. Okay, I'm getting carried away, but I was having a lot of fun, I was somewhat intoxicated, and it was pretty good cake.  I also decided that shots of Jamesons would be a good idea to go with the cake.

Toasting with Jamesons at McCarthy's Public House

Free birthday cake!

After a brief dinner break for sushi (I know we deviated off the Irish theme, but the Irish-food-pickings weren't too good),we went to the fourth and final bar, Jack Duggan's.  Again, it was totally different with the youngest crowd so far, and loud dance music.  Even though I should have been winding it down, I thought now would be a good time for a whiskey sour. It was definitely not a good time for that, but Michele was more or less in agreement and got a whiskey tonic.  The men were smart enough to get beers.

Jon, Ericka, and Kevin at Jack Duggan's Pub

Totals-
Corned beef sandwiches: 5, not counting leftovers or the little shreds James ate
Whiskey drinks: At least 8
Smithwicks: 5
Baileys: 4
Killians: 2
Black and tans: 1
People who wore the shamrock antennas: 3
Slices of cake: 2
Guiness: 11, at least
Pieces of sushi: 35
Sapporo's (oops): 4
Photos I took: 82
Fun per capita: Um, 40? Whatever that means.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Girls' Nights- August 2011

Group photos of two recent nights out with the girls. For the record, Kevin goes out regularly with his guy friends but he doesn't document everything he does with photography.  Go figure.

Getting Cuban food at Copellia in Chelsea- Michele, Christina, me, Rachel, Sarah T

 
Mexican food at Cancun with the ladies from work- Adrienne, Christie, Akua, and me

33 Weeks, February 27-March 5, 2011

Milestones: This week, baby is supposed to be filling out his loose skin and losing his wrinkly look. Look your best for the sonogram, Baby!
What I miss the most: Not carrying a boulder. Going up a set of stairs without needing to stop to catch my breath and wanting to nap on the landing. 
Craving: Strawberry juice, which doesn't exist, but to Kevin's chagrin I won't accept this and keep asking him to bring it home. Vanilla. Cereal with flakes. 
Anti-craving: Water gives me acid reflux. And even though I fantasize about drinking gallons of cool refreshing water, I only manage a glass or two a day and then have to make do with milk and juice the rest of the day.

Symptoms: This was the first really difficult week of pregnancy symptoms. The first week when I thought, if only for a moment, would it be so awful to have an only-child? It's been the best hits of all my symptoms, even nausea. Epic mess.

Moodiness was a big one. I admit this is not the first week I have been moody, but this is maybe the first week I have been so bothered by it that I have waged battle against my moodiness. I held back a lot and then broke down at inopportune times, usually at night when I'm too tired to be reasonable.

And obviously I'm big and uncomfortable almost all the time. Picking things off the floor is a disaster because I get a rush of acid reflux. When I'm a little horizontal (for example when I try to sleep) I'm attacked by acid reflux.

The baby likes to somersault a lot still. He turned upside down again for a brief while, but mainly he hangs out in awkward horizontal position.  He enjoys kicking some organ I can't identify. Every day I feel generally ill. So I'm really looking forward to the next 6 weeks of increasing suffering. But then I think, at least I don't have to feed and diaper him right now, I can just exist and take his beating. Although once he's out, I can at least be rewarded by his cuteness.

Baby-size: A pineapple
Weight gain: 34.5 pounds. Yeah, I'm sure I'm just going to gain half a pound in the next 6 weeks.

It was a fairly low key week, except I went into Manhattan on Friday to have lunch with some friends from work. And then afterward I sat through a super boring Ethics Continuing Legal Education class. Lots of random people were there, including my friend from law school Jane. It was good to catch up with her, and apparently she secretly reads this blog, so hi, Jane!

Me, Christie, Adrienne, and Akua

Second Trimester 2010!

13 Weeks, October 10-16, 2010:
We started telling other friends and family this week, which was lots of fun. A few people suspected, but many were surprised. Kevin got to tell Jon, Briggs, and Lukas in person. They bought him shots for fatherhood. The same does not work for motherhood. I called my close friends, and I got to tell Wendy and Clark in person, as well as my friends from work, Akua, Christie, Adrienne, and Lee. Sarah said I could tell our law school friends the weekend of her wedding, so I waited to make it totally public until we were there.

Milestones: End of first trimester, telling close friends and family about the pregnancy. Our baby book says that the baby is growing vocal cords.
Craving: Cereal
Anti-craving: Coffee
Symptoms: Round ligament pain (still sick but that doesn't count).
Baby-size: Medium-size shrimp, hm
Weight gain: 5 pounds

Friends watching the sonogram video

14 Weeks, October 17-23, 2010:
Hurrah! We're public! And it's the second trimester! It was a lovely week of being completely in the open about being pregnant. I finally got over my cough. Dad was in rehab and is improving every day. His leg tumor got smaller so he was able to walk more with a walker, and this put him in much better spirits. His speech is almost perfect, he just occasionally gets stuck on a large word like "obstreperous." But considering most people don't even use words that big, mom and I don't think this is a big problem. The final hurdle to taking him home is that he be able to get up and down the stairs to our apartment.

My clothing is just too uncomfortable now, so I had to give up on just using the belly band and I bought a couple pairs of maternity pants and shirts. Sadly, being short is an even bigger problem when it comes to maternity pants than it is with regular pants. Maternity pants only come in small, medium, and large, and because of this inexact sizing, even the petite sizes are too long.

Milestones: Second trimester! Being completely public about being pregnant! Maternity pants. Our baby book says that our baby might be growing some hair now.
Craving: Fish!, rice, cereal, fruit, lots of water
Anti-craving: Not exactly interested in red meat
Symptoms: Bending over a little when I'm sitting is uncomfortable, acid reflux
Baby-size: Lemon
Weight gain: 6 pounds