More Movement

I am moving to another court next week. This is now the 4th court I have been assigned to since Jan. 1, 2009. But this move should last for a couple of months. I am being moved to one of the hardest felony courts in Harris County. It's got a reputation for either making or breaking prosecutors. Hopefully, I will be in the "making" category. Now I will get to prosecute all sorts of felonies -- not just drug possession. But I won my 1st felony trial last week. The defendant was sentenced to 7 years. The jury wrote a "Thank You" note on a yellow sheet of paper. I made a photocopy. The whole experience was surreal and I still have not absorbed or even enjoyed the experience because the annoucement for personnel moves came out and I had to prepare for my new court. My friends Jenn from Florida and Maribel from San Antonio came for a visit. Here we are outside the courthouse and just hanging out with Fred.

Moolah

This has been a great week for us. I got a raise -- woot! Jason found out that he will get about $2200 per month in BAH when he joins the Guard in July -- woot woot! (BAH is the military housing allowance for you civilians out there). Then we did our raxes and should get a refund -- woot woot woot! Shall we invest? Improve the house? No way! We are going to blow it on TRIPS. Jason will have 3 weeks off in July. He wants to go on a cruise to the Bahamas. Twist my arm -- I'll go. Then we are planning a trip to Europe this Fall or Winter.

Speaking of trips...I kept meaning to post this photo last month. I went to visit the scene of a DWI accident where the guy hit a house. Look what was growing in the yard....hmmm....5-point leaves...what could this be?

Pay raise!

I got a pay raise today -- about $2 more per hour. Even though I am a "salary" employee I get paid an hourly rate. I will not post this hourly rate because -- alas -- I would have made MORE money if I had just stayed in the Air Force. Plus, no debt for student loans! Sigh ... but I would have been miserble, in a soul-killing job, and probably divorced because deployments are not good for blissful matrimony.

On another note, I have just finished the 1st season of "Weeds" which is a show on Showtime. I got it from the library. Hey -- it's free. I started watching it as part of my education for the Drug Court. Much more entertaining than reading the Code of Criminal Procedure. It's about a suburban widow who becomes a pot dealer to make money. It's very funny though. Sometimes explores the dark underbelly of the suburbs too closely -- especially California. But I already had a low opinion of California (just the southern half). I give it a thumbs up.

Moving on up!

Jason and I are moving up the job food chain. I was moved up to the Felony division this week. I am assigned to a special court that handles all state jail felony drug cases. This basically means all the drugs cases under 1 gram. It's sometimes called the "crack pipe" court. But it's a great assignment for a new Felony prosecutor because I will probably pick up a lot of trials and it's a pretty laidback court. Then Jason got some great news from the Ellington Air National Guard unit. They offered him a position as an Active Guard Reserve (AGR) which means he gets to basically be a full-time Guardsman with all his active duty benefits, retirement, mediacl care, etc etc. So let the countdown begin -- he is going on terminal Leave on July 3.

Back from NYC

We just had a great weekend in New York City. The weather was great and it even snowed on out last day there. We saw Wicked, went to Central Park, ate way too much food and did a little tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We also visited the WTC memorial. We stayed in a hotel near Times Square. It was a fantastic location to hit just about everything. Nothing too exciting happened but a guy tried to sell us drugs in a bar. Ahhh, New York. Now we are back in Texas and back to work....

I suck at blogging

I know, I know. If I want more readers I have to post things. But I suck at thing blogging thing. Perhaps that could be my New Years resolution.... but I HATE resolutions. I live perfectly every day. But here are some photos from Jason's promotion to major on Dec. 1. He is such a grown up now. But being a major is awesome because it means --- PAY RAISE. Whoo hoo! I got a pay raise too. Nice timing -- just in time for Christmas and New Years. For New Years we went to the Armed Forces Bowl in Ft. Worth. AF lost. Boo! But we got to hook up with our friends -- Chad and Jen Hillberg, plus Chad's parents and their kids. It was a lot of fun. This weekend we are going to New York. We are going to see Wicked. I will try my best to take photos and update the blod when I get back. That's a promise, not a resolution.

Work Work Work

Jason has a job interview with the unit at Ellington this week so wish him luck. He is applying for a job "flying" the unmanned aricraft they are getting. Also, he is pinning on major on Dec. 1. Hooray! I am chugging away in Misdemeanor court. I hear that I will be moving up to felony soon but I have no real idea when that will happen. There's alot going in Harris county which went "blue" on Nov. 4. ALL the Republican judges LOST (OK 1 held on to his seat). Plus I have a new boss. She is a Republican but she only won by 4,000 votes. In case yoou did not know, my old boss got the boot because of some racist emails and he was banging his secretary. Those crazy horny Republicans! I am so low on the totem pole it will hardly affect me except that some of the older DAs will be turning in there retirement papers and there might be some more vertical movement. Enough about work! Our repairs are coming along. I don't think they'll be finished before Thanksgiving though. I am considering having the room painted green (think "mossy") and Jason wants it the neutral color we had before the hurricane. Decisions, decisions....