Aztec Ruins

Since we spent Friday in Albuquerque, we passed a lazy Saturday in Farmington. Waking up far too late, we decided to go to Ancestral Puebloan ruins in nearby Aztec.

The coolest thing about these ruins is your able to walk through them. Turns out Ancestral Puebloans were short rounds (catch that Indiana Jones reference?), so it makes getting through the doors, complete with a Sherpani kid-carrier somewhat difficult.

Thankfully, Elliot dug going horizontal.

Here's a little more of the ruins.

This last photo is of a kiva, which is a religious ceremonial structure. This kiva has been rebuilt, and is neat inside.

We sat through a presentation on Ancestral Puebloans and their use of turkeys. Turns out, for most of their history, they used turkeys, not for food, but for their feathers, which they made into clothes, including shoes. It was only when they suffered deep droughts, that they started eating those tasty, tasty birds.

Pretty good stuff, for a lazy Saturday.

The Rest of The Day

Like I said, the best part of swearing in day was what we did after being sworn in. First, we ate at a darn good Greek restaurant in Albuquerque named Yanni's. Scallops, good stuff. Braised lamb shank, fall-off-the-bone tender. Spanakopita, tasty.

Next, we went to the arts festival downtown and visited an old family friend, Paul Wisdom, from Cold Bay. It had been eighteen years since I had seen him. I forgot his beard; although, having seen it again, I wondered how I ever forgot.

Saying goodbye to Paul, we headed to the aquarium. Elliot was mesmerized, as he is with most everything at this point in his life.

The jumping stingrays caught his attention first. But what he really enjoyed was the big tank, filled with tortoises, fish of all stripes, and a shark with an unexplained teeth bearing problem (as in, it bore its teeth continuously). Maybe this is its way of paying homage to Fire Marshal Bill.

And here's one last shot of Elliot with Dem, just for good measure.

Another fun day for the Browns.

Swearing In

I was sworn in as a lawyer yesterday. It was a pretty elaborate ceremony actually. We all conglomerated at the Albuquerque Convention Center, and the Supreme Court called itself to order.

Our first speaker was a former alcoholic lawyer who talked the entire time about how lawyering drove him to addiction. He then noted there is a large minority of New Mexico lawyers addicted to either drugs or alcohol. Honestly, dude was a total bummer. I hope for future generations' sake, they never ask him to speak again.

We then listened to admittees' bosses extol their virtues while moving the court admit them to the bar. Primarily, these went off without much too much fanfare. There were even truly touching moments of fathers admitting their daughters, etc. Unfortunately, it was not all so touching. When it came to the new ACLU and other public interest lawyers, they felt the need to wax loquacious about how they are the true harbingers of justice in America, and about what a great sacrifice they are making in becoming public interest lawyers. There was some additional self-ingratiating blah, blah, blah, and yada, yada, yada, but you get the gist.

Following the yadas and blahs, the court had us raise our hands and promise to serve our clients well, be honest, and strive to do what is correct. We all said, "I do." (No joke, it was like we were getting married to the bar.)

And that was that. Walked out a lawyer. As you can tell, this wasn't an impressive swearing in ceremony. Anyway, the best part of the day was yet to come, but that's a post for a later time.

Quick Crepe Breakfast

If the French do one thing well, it's crepes (pronounced with a short first e, not an a sounding e). This is a quick and relatively healthy crepe and fruit breakfast which will satisfy just about anyone.

Ingredients

Fruit filling
• 3 cups fruit of your choosing, cut small
• 1 1/2 tablespoons honey

Crepes
• 2 cups milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Pinch salt
• 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon butter to brush the crepe pan

Cream–honey sauce
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 tablespoon honey

Directions

Add milk and eggs to blender and combine. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, blending after each addition to ensure there are no lumps. Add pinch of salt and melted butter then blend for 30 seconds until you achieve a smooth, silky consistency. Set aside in refrigerator for 30 minutes to rest.

Preheat oven to 170 degrees F.

While crepes are resting, make your fruit filling. Start by cutting your fruit into small pieces. Place those pieces into a medium size bowl, and mix in honey. Let sit while you cook your crepes.
Dip a corner of a paper towel in butter and grease a small frying pan (you only want a light coat of butter). Ladle either 1/4 or 1/3 cup (depending on your preference) of batter into the pan. With a flick of the wrist swivel the pan in order to get a nice even covering all over. A good crepe should be paper-thin. Cook on a medium–high heat and flip it over when you see the edge turning golden brown. Cook for another 15 to 20 seconds, then remove from pan, place on plate, and cover with kitchen towel to keep warm. (To assure warmth, place covered crepes in a 170-degree oven until ready to serve.)

Place cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Introduce honey, and stir until incorporated and mixture is warm.

After crepes are cooked and sauce prepared, place one crepe on a plate, fill with fruit filling, and roll. Repeat process with another crepe. Spoon some of the cream–honey sauce over top. Enjoy.

(Attributions: I adapted the crepe portion of this recipe from Tyler Florence. The rest is all mine.)

Water Slide

Dem signed Elliot up for swimming lessons about three weeks ago. Turns out he's a little fish. Well, today was graduation, and for graduation Elliot got to ride the waterslide. Dem thought it would be good if I participated, so I came down and we got our swimmin' on.

After dunking Elliot a few times, we moved on to the slide (i.e., we got our slide on).

Having finished our family swim time, I returned to the office and got my lawyerin' on, and Dem went back home and got her casalinga on.

BYU v. Wyoming (a.k.a., Elliot's First BYU Game)

So Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out.
We're on a trail to fame and glory.

Rise and shout, our cheers will ring out

As we unfold our vict'ry story.

On we go to vanquish the foe

For Alma Mater's sons and daughters.

As we join in song,

In praise of you, our faith is strong.

We'll raise our colors high in the blue

And cheer our Cougars of BYU.

Thus is the last half of the BYU fight song, which we heard seven times this Saturday, as BYU routed the Cowboys 44-0. More important than the score, however, is it was Elliot's first game. More on that later.

Denis and Lisa graciously allowed us to stay at their apartment. They even went on a hike with us before the game in Rock Canyon.

Dem and I loved Rock Canyon when we were in college. It's just gorgeous.

After the hike, but still before the game, we ate lunch with some friends at Cafe Rio (we had a pork salad, like always). This was Elliot's first time meeting Matt and Evige Warner's adoptive son, Jorgen.

We even got to see the elusive, and now high-powered attorney, John Anderson.

Not disparaging our wonderful friends, but nothing was better than the game, which we attended with another friend who drove nine hours from Montana, Josh Campbell. (We were bummed not to see Naomi, but not all our wishes can come true at once.)

Elliot took a nap through the second quarter and part of half time, but after that, he enjoyed himself.

Having witnessed a blowout, and having bought some books at the BYU bookstore (Huevos Verdes con Jamon, a couple Italian boardbooks, and Glimpses of Lehi's Jerusalem), we ate at the Bombay House. The chicken coconut kurma and the lamb saag and the saag shorba were drop dead awesome. In my hierarchy of world cuisines, Italian is on top, but Indian food runs a very close second.

Finally, pooped out of our minds, we went to bed.

First Legal Publication

I just had my first legal publication as a lawyer -- I was published during law school, but they were just op-ed columns in the newspaper. It's a book review in the New Mexico Bar Bulletin. While it's not a big deal, it's nice to have the first publication out of the way. I have a couple other ideas in the pipe, one of which is a larger, more scholarly piece on the New Mexico constitution, but those will take a while. In the meantime, enjoy.

Making Your Case: The Art of Persuading Judges, A Book Review by Marco Clayton Brown