Monday, September 15, 2008

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.

Friday, September 12, 2008

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.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

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.