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....

More Interesting

I am not getting as many readers as I would like so perhaps I should make my posts more interesting or -- what the hell -- make my blog public. Because what I truly crave is not sharing our little adventures with my friends and family but getting attention, adoration and glory. But the problem with going public is my job....and unsavory defendants. For example, I have an Assault trial against a Houstone gangster on Monday and I would hate for his buddies to figure out where I live.... So I think my desire for attention has to be tempered against my desire to remain alive ... in 1 piece. I haven't been blogging about work much because I spend so much time there -- why blog about it on my free time right? But work has been particularly interesting lately. In case you don't know, I am still in misdemeanor court and I should be moving up to felony in the next few months. Then I will REALLY be busy. But I have some juicy misdemeanor trials coming up -- 1. Insurance fraud doctor submitting fake accident injuries, 2. high school teacher/prostitute, 3. frat boy drunk driver hits apt gate, and 4. blonde teen girl drunk driver hits skateboarder ... to name a few. Prosecuting drunks is not as easy as people think. For example, this week the junior prosecutor in my court was got a big NOT GUILTY on a DWI case even though they thought the guy was drunk (he could not say his ABCs on the video....). They did not like the fact that the cop pulled him over for making a wide right turn. Juries want the drunk to hit objects or people first. But even with an accident... and with a breath test ... the jury will hand a lovely Not Guilty out because they don't like punishing people for doing what they do themselves. It's frustrating. Enough work -- blah blah blah -- Jason has Columbus day off so he is here for a nice long weekend. yay!

Ike -- Yikes!

Never make fun of hurricanes. Mother Nature will bitch-slap you for it. We got slapped this weekend. A tree fell on our house. The front study is ruined and there is a big hole in the roof. We spent 2 days fighting the water to save the rest of the house. It has finally stopped raining and yesterday a crew from Florida removed the tree. Jason and I are emotionally and physically drained but we are OK.

Go away Ike

This week has been CRAZY. I found out that I am switching courts next week. I will be going from the Juvenile division back to a misdemeanor court. Hooray! I am looking forward to going back to the main Criminal Justice Center.

I am really excited about having a new judge. My current judge is a weirdo. Our office prosecuted his 19-yr-old daughter for Intox Manslaughter last year.... and a jury of her peers found her guilty and sent her to jail for decapitating her boyfriend when she plowed her SUV into a truck while drunk, drunk, drunk. But I have a feeling he was weird before she went to jail. Who knows. The black robe has a strange effect on people. Now -- being weird by itself is OK. In fact, I like a little weirdness in people. Makes life interesting. But he's also racist and an ego-maniac. Awesome.

But then Hurricane Ike rolled into town. I had a trial in Juvenile on Thursday (a nice purse-snatching Robbery) and the judge had not taken his medication. He stopped my witness in mid-sentence -- no kidding -- to take a 1-hr lunch break (which actually lasted 2 hours), answered his cell call during testimony and then postponed closing arguments to Sept. 18. So now I have to come back to Juvenile to finish this trial.

I went back to my office and told another prosecutor about his antics and she told me last years during a child custody hearing for an infant who have been physically abused and neglected he looked up from his computer and asked the attorneys what's a 4-letter word for "blah blah blah." He was too busy doing a crossword to pay attention.

Then the county shut everything down on Friday so I had no chance to move my stuff, meet the new staff, work on transition with the prosecutor I am replacing. Plus, I am working midnight to 8 am on Monday so I will be a total zombie going into my new court that morning. Argh! But Jason took Friday off and he is here to face down Ike with me. He's stressed about the hurricane. I am stressed about my new job. Oh well. Such is life.

Kiddos

Hello world. The dog found a new home. I named her Angel. She managed to break out of my yard during a thunderstorm and broke part of my fence so she was a little "devil" in disguise. But my neighbor repairs fences as a business and fixed it for $20. Also, there is a new hurricane coming to H-town. Whoo hoo! Jason is grumpy about it because he thinks the windows might get smashed by flying debris. But I am happy because court might shut down.

New foster dog

I have nothing exciting to report except that I have another foster dog (see picture). I am part of a group of people in my neighborhood that helps finds homes for dogs that are lost or dumped. I have a big, bleeding heart underneath this cold and tough exterior -- muah ha ha! But I am very, very good about NOT keeping my foster dogs because I just can't handle having a zoo right now. I just re-home them. Sometimes I have to deal with people (i.e. criminals) who really make you think that the world is a very dark and evil place. But a good dog or cat lets you know that it's not so bad. I wish I could have a pack just like the Dog Whisperer. On another note, Jason is flying a cross-country trip this weekend. So let's hope for good weather.

Name of the day: Que but pronounced "Q" like the letter ... and this was a girl

Tropical Storm Edouard is a wimp

Tropical Storm Edouard lived up to his wimpy French name today. The city shut down, school was cancelled and everyone prepared for the mighty 20 mph winds that puffed through the county for about an hour leaving huddled citizens drenched in about 2 inches of rain. It was like a "snow day" for me because court was cancelled and I left work early. I got a pedicure and facial. Life is rough. Here are some photos of the "devastation." All of the oranges survived on my baby tree. Bear decided the grass was too wet for exploring and had to step between some downed pine needles to get back into the house. Also, some mulch was swept onto the porch. Oh my!

Debut blog

Welcome to our blog. On this blog you will learn how to live your life, make new friends, earn lots of money and even lose weight. Perhaps you will even laugh. I chose the name of the blog in homage to my legal background and it looks like a court case. Don't worry, we are not headed for divorce. All the cool names with "Smith" were already taken. Surprise, surprise -- the world is full of Smiths who like to blog too. Our family consists of me, Jason, Bear the cat and Fred the dog. Plus a merry cast of friends and family.