509-495-1246 www.AlbrechtLawFirm.com
December 2018
What Motivates Me Folks Love to Help Others —They’re Just Hoping to See Your Passion
I ’ll never forget the day I decided I was going to law school. I was biking to work and listening to the radio when the newscaster announced a second plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. I stopped peddling, climbed off my bike, and walked the next 2 miles to my office building to contemplate what I had just heard. Like many of the people who had walked into the World Trade Center that day, I thought it was going to be a normal day. Instead, everything changed in an instant when it hit home that there are no sure things in life, and tomorrow isn’t guaranteed to any of us. Late for work, I walked into my boss’s office at the Washington Department of Transportation. It was a job I had thoroughly enjoyed since graduating from Gonzaga University with my undergraduate degree, and I planned to continue working there because I’d been told there was no way to work part-time while going to law school. But that morning, I told them I was going to go to law school somehow, someway, but I needed to keep this job. I had a pregnant wife and 1-year-old daughter; I needed to fit in law school while also working to keep health insurance. So, what were we going to do to make it work?
fell in love with Spokane and planted our roots here. I didn’t want to move my family to Seattle just for my dream. I may be the first lawyer in my family, but I come from a long line of hardworking, nose- to-the-grindstone kind of people. I grew up in Montana with four brothers and a family of ranchers and construction workers. My summers and after-school activities were filled by helping my parents with the various projects they were working on. When we could, my brothers and I would wrestle, box, and ride motorcycles, but my big passions in life were reading, politics, and history. As baffling as it was to my family, I enjoyed debating our nation’s issues and getting lost in history books. You see, learning and arguing never seemed like hard work for me. Coming from a place where blisters and injuries were commonplace, I’m grateful for the gift of a profession that lets me spend time doing what I love —making sure our clients get fair treatment and standing up to the bullies of the legal world.
something would be possible, your idea will be ignored. But if you approach someone with determination and say, “This is what I’m going to do. How can we make it work?” they will work with you. I used that same approach when I talked to the administrator at Gonzaga. They didn’t have any night classes, and most law programs require the full attention of their students. If they weren’t going to help me, I told them I would find somewhere that could. My initial plan to attend Gonzaga wasn’t going to work, the administrator told me, but I could try. Three years later, I graduated law school while also parenting my two young children with my wife and working 30 hours a week at my job. Once I’d shown the determination to go forward no matter the cost, both my employer and Gonzaga were amazingly helpful, patient, and flexible. I knew for a while that I wanted to be a lawyer, but I got married in college and started a family. I cannot imagine my life without my wife and our four kids, but having a young family makes law school way more difficult. What’s more, we
I learned an important lesson that day. When you gingerly test the waters to see if
This Month’s Happiest Client!
“Great communication and a huge heart for the client and those we serve — it’s great to have someone so knowledgeable and trustworthy!” -Aaron T.
www.AlbrechtLawFirm.com | 1
WHAT YOUR EYES CAN TELL YOU ABOUT LOVE Is Love at First Sight Real?
For example, Sears allegedly sold a Kenmore washing machine at a “sale price” of $999.99, compared to a “regular price” of $1,179.99. The problem was the so-called sale price was actually the price that product was offered at every day. Therefore, it wasn’t actually on sale. Duping your customers is a bad business practice, but what makes it illegal? Well, California law requires that retailers post a retail price no higher than what the product was sold at within three months prior to the ad. “Families today … are striving to get the very most they can get from an extremely hard-earned holiday shopping dollar,” said LA City Attorney Mike Feuer. “They deserve to make an informed decision.” After the suit was brought against them, the retailers all quickly moved to settle, promising to never engage in false reference pricing again. Most retailers offer discounts around the holidays to encourage shoppers to come into their stores or visit their Promotions and sales are great tools in any business’s arsenal, provided they aren’t out to mislead customers. Big-box stores may try to manipulate innocent people, and it’s up to aggrieved customers to hold those corporations accountable. Nearly every year, you’ll read about a class-action lawsuit that develops in response to the shady tactics of businesses eager to secure those holiday shopping dollars. Are there great bargains to be had on Black Friday? Of course. But if something sounds too good to be true, it very well might be. Keep your eyes peeled and don’t let retailers trick you into a purchase you wouldn’t make otherwise. In the last decade, researchers have determined that from a romantic and reproductive standpoint, both men and women are attracted to partners with bigger pupils. Studies demonstrate that when women are at their peak fertility, they might subconsciously be more attracted to a person with sizable pupils because it could indicate a partner’s attraction to them. Likewise, researchers have reported that men seek out women with dilated pupils due to the association of larger pupils with youth and longevity. The connection between the eyes and enthrallment has inspired some of Shakespeare’s most iconic sonnets, and the science behind our eyes validates some of the Bard’s romantic claims. But does this connection between larger pupils and attraction corroborate the idea of love at first sight? If you believe that attraction equates to true love, then absolutely. But if your definition of love requires a little more depth, then you may have to toss aside the idea of love at first sight and instead view your partner’s eyes as mere “windows” to their soul.
The idea of love at first sight is wonderfully romantic. Two strangers see each other across a crowded room. There’s an instant, magnetic attraction, and suddenly they’ve found their match for all of eternity. In a world in which dating often requires a lot of work —work that comes with disappointment, rejection, and uncertainty — falling in love at first sight has strong appeal. But can it actually happen? Can your eyes tell you anything about love? The connection between the eyes and love has been described in poetry and prose since time immemorial — it’s the stuff of heroic epics and fanciful fairy tales. And evidence has increasingly shown that the human brain is hard-wired to both display and notice visual cues when gazing at a potential love interest. Enlarged pupils are one such cue. When you survey a person or object you are interested in, your brain releases a surge of dopamine — a chemical that controls the brain’s reward and pleasure centers —which causes your pupils to dilate. In this sense, beauty really is “in the eye of the beholder.”
Fake Discounts and Angry Shoppers A MASSIVE BLACK FRIDAY LAWSUIT
Shoppers flock to retailers every Black Friday in hopes of securing the best deals on the year’s hottest products. There are many nasty aspects of Black Friday — the long lines, the overzealous shoppers, the limited stock of items — but phony pricing and fake sales shouldn’t be among them. But that’s exactly what happened to folks in Los Angeles during the 2016 holiday season, leading to the biggest Black Friday lawsuit in history. In December of 2016, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office sued J.C. Penney, Sears, Macy’s, and Kohl’s for a practice called “false reference pricing,” a nefarious tactic whereby retailers lie about the original price of an item to make a discount appear bigger than it actually is.
2 | 509-495-1246
TAKE A BREAK
How to Indulge Your Sweet Tooth With Less Sugar SURVIVING THE SEASON OF SWEETS Cookies, cakes, and pies, oh my! The holiday season is brimming with sweet treats of all kinds. Sometimes it can feel like candy and sugary desserts are around every corner, and yet you still want to indulge. However, when you consider that over 50 percent of Americans are insulin-resistant, prediabetic, or diabetic, that piece of pumpkin pie with whipped cream starts to look more dangerous than appetizing. During the holidays, how can you satisfy your sweet tooth without worrying about consuming excessive sugar and calories? Skip the candy and go for the fruits and nuts. Keeping a bowl of fruit and nuts nearby can help keep sugar cravings at bay. Dried fruits, such as cranberries, pineapple, or apricots, are both sweet and nutritious. Just be sure to check the packaging for added sugars. You can even make your own dried fruit with a food dehydrator. This way, you are completely in control of the ingredients. No matter what you do, just be mindful not to overindulge. Dried fruit is high in sugar and calories, but the fiber and vitamins make fruit much healthier than just about any other sugary treat. Another way to cut down on your sugar intake is to use dark chocolate in all your chocolate-based treats. Dark chocolate has about half as much sugar as milk chocolate, twice as much healthy fat, less cholesterol, 4–5 times more iron, twice as much potassium, fewer carbs, and more flavonoids and theobromine. The antioxidant properties of the theobromine and flavonoids make dark chocolate as good for your heart as it is for your soul. If you have a recipe that calls for chocolate, reach for the dark stuff, whether it’s dark chocolate chips, cocoa powder, or baking chocolate. While it may seem as though everyone and their grandma is overindulging in sugar this season, know that you have the choice to opt for healthier sweets. And come NewYear’s, you won’t have to spend the first fewmonths of 2019 working off that extra cookie weight.
HOLIDAY ROAST PRIME RIB
Looking for an easy holiday roast that still feels elegant enough for the occasion? Look no further than this delicious prime rib flavored with garlic, thyme, and red wine.
Ingredients
•
1 tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
•
1 bone-in prime rib (6–7 pounds)
•
8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
•
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
•
2 cups red wine
•
4 cups beef stock
Directions
1. 30 minutes before cooking, remove roast from fridge and let sit until it reaches room temperature. 2. Heat oven to 350 F. 3. Make small slits in prime rib and stuff with slices of garlic. Liberally season with salt and pepper. 4. Place a rack inside a roasting pan and roast prime rib for 2 hours, until medium-rare. 5. To make au jus, place roasting pan with drippings from roast over 2 burners on high. Add wine and scrape pan as liquid reduces. Add beef stock and cook until reduced by half. Finally, sprinkle in thyme. 6. Slice roast and serve topped with au jus. Inspired by Food Network
AlbrechtLawFirm.com | 3
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
509-495-1246 www. AlbrechtLawFirm.com 421 W. Riverside Ave., Ste 614 Spokane, WA 99201 INSIDE THIS ISSUE
1 2 3
What Motivates Me
What Your Eyes Can Tell You About Love The Biggest Black Friday Lawsuit in History Holiday Roast Prime Rib Surviving the Season of Sweets
4
Everything You’ll Need for an Ugly Sweater Christmas
Ugly Sweater Parties A Fun Trend You Can Easily Follow!
ugly photo booth, complete with terrible, tacky props; and, of course, an ugly sweater contest.
store to pick one up. However, if you have a sweater that’s been cozied up for years in the back of your closet or a drawer, now’s your chance to give it new life. Arm yourself with a hot glue gun, thread, and needle, and patch Santa, Rudolph, or Frosty on it. And let it be known that an ugly sweater isn’t complete without sparkles, beads, and sequins galore. WHAT EXACTLY IS AN UGLY SWEATER PARTY? It’s rather simple — slip on your favorite Christmas sweater, gather all your friends and family members, make sure there are plenty of refreshments and games, and you’re guaranteed to have a top-tier party. A few ugly-sweater-themed games that should be on the agenda include an ugly gift exchange, which is similar to the white elephant exchange, except with the gaudiest gifts you can find; an
This is the only time of year when slipping into a lurid red sweater with a stuffed Santa sewn on the front is considered trendy. So adorn yourself in the frumpiest, tackiest sweater you can find, and have some fun this December!
It’s speculated that the first ugly sweater party took place in Vancouver, Canada, back in 2001. Since then, the trend has become one of the most popular holiday party themes. Come Thanksgiving, you’ll start to see racks in all types of clothing stores lined with hideous sweaters. If you’re ready to jump on the ugly-sweater-party bandwagon this Christmas season, here are a few things to keep in mind. YOUR VERY OWN UGLY SWEATER Ugly sweaters come in all shapes, sizes, and prices. You can head to H&M or a local thrift
4 | 509-495-1246
Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online