Mother brought up a memory today. She told a story about one of her offspring and a neighborhood friend shooting out the windows of the Tenth Street house's garage apartment with BB guns. I know the name of the guilty party, but I will allow him/her to finish the story. An interesting detail that mother disclosed is that daddy removed the firing pin from the offenders/offenderette's weapon. Okay, come on fess up!
As you know, I was called for jury duty, and had to report last friday. My court assignment, along with 42 other potential jurors was the 213th District Court of Tarrant County. Friday, I was excused for the day after filling out a questionaire and was told to report back to the courtroom on Monday at 1:00PM. I felt fairly confident that I would not be seated as one of the twelve. We were seated in the courtroom in the order in which we were called on Friday. I was candidate number 18. One of the prosecutors gave a presentation and asked a bunch of questions. We saw the participants of the upcoming trial and learned the defendant's name and crime. His crime was felony assault on a public servant. The 42 of us were asked a bunch of questions. After the questioning period was completed, the judge asked us to exit the courtroom while the attorneys decided who would serve as the jury. When we returned, someone (I cannot remember who, possibly the judge) started to read the list of the twelve. Jurors one, two and three were chosen. A false sense of smugness began to set in my being. The next several were skipped. Uh oh! now my hope was that I would be skipped as had several people in the previous seventeen jurors. This was not to be the case. I was seated along with eleven other very nice residents of Tarrant County. We were sworn in as jurors and told that the trial was expected to be completed by Friday. The judge excused us and advised us to return the next day at 9AM.
The victim was a jailor for the city of Hurst. The defendant was a confessed meth user who admitted to having anger management issues and an inmate at the Hurst City jail. We listened to their testimonies and the testimony of another jailor who was present during the alleged assault. The prosecution entered two videos into evidence from cameras at the jail. There were alot of holes in the stories told. We knew that if we found the defendant guilty, he faced a minimum sentence of two years in the pen. We took a vote of the jury when we first entered the deliberations. The results were 3=guilty; 9=not guilty. I was in the minority. We talked and discussed and got pretty much nowhere. We asked to have one of the videos and equipment to view it delivered to us. We watched it, took another vote and the results were the same. At one point we sent a note to the judge asking what we should do if we could not agree. He replied; "keep deliberating." Finally, at about 6PM, the judge excused us for the day and told us to return the next day to continue the process. I was teetering between guilty/not guilty. We asked to see the other video along with the equipment to allow us to view it properly. When we saw this video, we felt that the Officer was greatly overstating the events. The testimony of the defendant seemed more in line with what we saw on the video. Which is really curious, because the defense attorney objected to the showing of both videos. It was the videos that decided the verdict for the panel. I really liked the judge. He seemed very fair and genuine. He came to the jury room to thank us for our time and consideration. He was very nice.
The following is a joke, or maybe an explanation of a joke, that Matthew sent to me in an email. I believe that Garrison Keeler is its author:
A chicken and an egg are in bed together.
The chicken in serious thought; the egg, grinning wildly and smoking a
cigarette.The chicken says to the egg, " Well, I guess we answered that question."
Earlier this month I received a summons to report for jury duty. Today was the day I was to report. I have never served on a jury, so this was all a very new experience for me. I checked in and sat among all the other poor souls who had also been summoned. I kept thinking; "hey, these are my peers!" The much younger lady next to me was lamenting all the work she was missing. She kept thinking that a possible suit she had within the past 2 years would exempt her. However, the young woman next to her tried to be exemted because she was the defendant in an assault suit. She went up and spoke with the lady in charge and came back and waited for our assigned court. She actually was assigned to a court within the first two courts. It was on the seventh court that I was chosen. I, along with 40 other jurors, were chosen to report back on Monday. We were the first group that was required to fill out a questionaire that the attorneys were to review during the weekend. I have no idea whether or not the case for which I was chosen is civil or criminal. If I have to serve, I am thinking that a civil case will be over much sooner, but a criminal case might be more interesting. I will listen to the instructions of the judge on Monday. If it does not violate his intructions I will report here the events of monday.
We watched a new show on FOX tonight. It is called Wonderfalls. I predict that this will be a very successful series. It is pegged a dramedy, which I suppose is a cross between a comedy and drama. I missed some of the dialog because sometime they talk a little fast, but there were alot of laughs. Did anyone else watch it?
I hope everyone that I love and hold dear reads this entry before dressing for the day. I hope you all are planning on wearing something green. If you do not, prepare to be pinched. I plan to wear a t-shirt and a pair of socks that have alot of green and say "kiss me I'm Irish". I will report back all my rewards.
Oh yeah! Today is also Stepan's birthday. I think that since it is his birthday, he should be exempt from being pinched even if he is not wearing green. Do I have a concensus on this?
Some of are very good about blogging. I really love the links page in the Karhub. It is full of information at a glance. For example, you can position your curser over the title of each person's entry and the date and time it was posted appears. Following is the beginning and ending dates of each persons five most recent entries. Someone who is alot better at math, than I, will need to decipher the meaning of this study. Here are the dates:
. Bryan's journal............................04/10/03-01/06/04
. Jennifer's Joyous Journal...............02/18/04-03/05/04
. Journal (P & C).............................02/10/04-03/14/04
. Theresa's Journal..........................12/12/03-03/14/04
. Courtney's Haven..........................02/21/04-03/14/04
. Kathleen's Journal.........................08/03/03-10/22/03
. The Gallerita.................................03/01/04-03/14/04
. Elizabeth's Journal.........................02/11/04-03/03/04
. Leah's Journal...............................09/05/03-03/02/04
. Nonplussed...................................02/22/04-03/07-04
. Innermost Thought (Meredith)........02/10/04-03/10/04
One of the things that I can gleen from looking at this data is that Kathleen no longer has the excuse that she is sooo busy anymore. Matthew and Courtney are out of the house and making their way in the world. Why is she not telling us of her daily happenings. I know for certain that there are events in her life that are worth writing about.
I am going to be a grandma come September. I am so looking forward to it. Jennifer and Stepan made a trip here at the beginning of February. Jennifer wanted to go visit her Grandma Karl and a group of us had tickets to see The Exonerated. I met them at Benny's house for our departure to Wichita Falls on Friday afternoon. We were stalling our departure, visiting with Jen's dad, watching the dogs. I knew that Jen had committed to cooking dinner for mom and I did not want to be too late arriving at her house. Finally, we made it back into the house from the backyard. We were just standing around the living room and I thought we were saying our good-byes to Benny. Jennifer turns to me and says; "Look at my new cell phone." I looked at it and thought how nice. Before that thought completed it's course, I realized Jenny is pregnant. I am going to be a grandma! I love that cell phone and all that it symbolizes. Every story has a dark side. Jen made me promise not to say anything to anyone in the family until she had her next doctor's appointment. During this approximately three week period I received calls from Margaret, Leah, and Kathleen. I was good. I didn't tell them. However, I did tell all my co-workers, people at the mall, a lady in the grocery store and I may have mentioned to a telephone solicitor before I slammed the phone down. Jennifer had decided to tell grandma and Matthew. So, when we arrived at their house Friday night she asked me if I would like to tell her. She may have thought that would get the telling need out of my system. So I said yes and asked for the sonigram picture of the baby. I showed it to mom. She looked at it, smiled and said what is it. I told her it was a picture of my new grandchild. Needless, to say, Mother was very happy about the news. We had a lovely visit. Oh, by the way, I am going to be a grandma.
I am attending the Broadway at the Bass shows this season. Last night I saw the second installment Defending the Caveman. It was very very funny. The first show we saw was Camelot. The lead role was held by a man named Paul Schoeffler. He had a beautiful voice. Lancelot was performed by Bradley Dean. Guenevere was performed by Jenn Morse and Mordred was performed by Deven May. I include this information in my entry because I was wondering if anyone has ever seen or heard of these people. However, back to last nights show; everyone in our family will appreciate the humor contained within this one man showing. Bob Becker was hilarious.
My friend Debbie Edwards, a co-worker, has been having some remodeling done at her home. One of the things she was having done was the building of a barn. She hired this barn builder named Glen Curry from Paris Texas on the recommendation of one of his previous customers. The deal called for Debbie to pay him $4K up front, $4K after the cement slab was poured, and the balance $5+ after the job was completed. Mr. Curry received the second payment and Debbie has not seen or heard from him since. Debbie also mentioned that the law is after this guy for bad checks. I hope they catch him, and I hope that Debbie either gets her barn built or her money back.
I checked the results of this years Cowtown 10K. Joanna completed the course in 1hr 11min 59sec. I finished in 1hr 28min 41sec. I am not sure about Joanna, but this is my best finish yet. Majorly big pat on the back for me!
The official results have not been posted on the official site. I plan on checking back daily til I see my and Joanna's results. However, according to my heart rate monitor, I completed the course in under 1hr and 30min. Joanna finished in a little over 1 hour. It was cold and windy. The cowtown changed the course this year. We started and finished in downtown Fort Worth. In the previous 25 Cowtowns the races all began and ended in the stockyards. I like the new route much better. My one complaint this year is that we didn't have a water stop until midway through the 4th mile. After we both finished the race, Joanna and I were in the "soup" line, still very cold, and I suggested we go eat elsewhere. Joanna agreed and off we went to find a nice place to dine. Lucille's was everything Jeff said it would be. It is actually his girlfriend, Kris's, favorite place to dine. We (Joanna and I) limped in and ordered our meals, split a desert and made our way back to the car. I am not sure if the cold windy weather or the lack of water stops caused both of us to become extremely sore. I thought the fact that I had not trained at all might be my problem, but Joanna has been running with Catcher, their dog, and she was equally as sore. I must say that today I feel great. I am going to become a good runner. I am going to become a good runner. I am going to become a good runner. I have to keep saying it so it will come true. I am glad I participated, I will probably participate again.