Jury duty was a bust. First I was 30 minutes late because I couldn't find a parking garage near the courthouse. (This just confirmed that I will never live in the city - always having a place to park is worth living in the burbs!) Luckily they expect everyone to be late and I really got there at the perfect time to be ushered into the jury assembly room to be given an overview of what was going to happen and then to watch a 17 minute film on what it means to be a juror. After that I waited. And waited some more. And still some more. Then the man, court officer I imagine since he was in uniform, came back and told us that all but the people numbered 1 - 30 could go to lunch. I was number 113, so me and about 150 other people went to the cafe which caused one heck of a line! Back to the jury assembly room where around 1:00 the man came back and said he had some good news and some bad news and not to kill the messenger. There were 3 trials that we were potentially going to be jurors for. The first settled, the second got a continuance and the third, well the third needed a jury - a six person jury and some of us were going up and some of us were being dismissed for the day. Since I already said that jury duty was a bust, I'm sure there isn't much suspense at this point. Standby jurors 1 - 37 were sent up to be narrowed down to 6 jurors and some alternates and the rest of use got sent home. I'm not sure if 1 - 30 every got to go to lunch or not, but they did get a closer look at the wheels of justice than I did.

I'll admit that I was a little disappointed that I didn't even make it out of the room, but I did learn some things. The average trial lasts 4 days and they will give you an estimate upfront for how long they think it will be so if you have a conflict, you can let it be known -- not that it may matter, but still. There can be either a 6 or 12 person jury plus alternates. The alternates are not told they are alternates until the end so that they pay attention throughout the whole trial. And while in Massachusetts you serve for one day or one trial, there are some states that when you server, you serve for an entire month! yikes!

My civic duty is complete for the next three years. Maybe the next time I'll actually make it into a courtroom!

Jury Duty - love it? or hate it?

Tomorrow is the day. I've got jury duty. Now I know this is something that many people dread, but I'm actually looking forward to it. This is the first time that I've been summoned to do what I consider to be my civic duty. I'm actually excited to see the wheels of justice in motion. Before you say it, I know. I'm naive. It's probably going to be a big let down. Chances are I won't be selected. I probably won't even make it out of the room. Instead I'll just waste a beautiful summer day sitting locked in a room waiting to be called. But that's ok. I've been summoned and I'm going in. I have no idea what to expect, but it doesn't matter. Either way I'm sure there will be something in the day that will be blog worthy. Plus it should give me time to finish the baby blanket I've been working on for 'Lil Dubyette (yeah, I'm a little behind on that). Speaking of which, anyone know if you can you bring crochet hooks into a courthouse? They're not considered a weapon, right? I know you can bring them on planes....

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you....

Please join me in wishing a very Happy Birthday to my sister, Mrs. Big Dubya! Which exact birthday she is celebrating will not be mentioned but I will say that she is much younger than Mr. Big Dubya. I'm sure she'd love it if you made your way over to her blog and wished her a Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday and I hope you have a great day!

Why do I do it?

So I've started yet another diet today. I'm about 15 lbs over what I'd like to be, but would be happy to get rid of 10 lbs and maintain. I know, 10lbs doesn't sound too bad, but I tend to sabotage myself when I get close to what I want to lose and start eating all the bad foods that I've been avoiding and then all the weight comes back. Then I get frustrated by the way I look and feel and start another diet. I was at the peak of my frustration late last week and knew I needed to start my new diet. This is where things get curious. Once I get to my frustrated zone I then have to eat all the bad stuff I have in my house to get "rid" of it and I also order or go out for a particular bad meal just to get it out of my system. If I'm going to diet, and I mean diet for real this time, I might as well make it as bad as possible, right? Yeah, I'm pretty much crazy.

So this weekend what did I eat? Buffalo wings (including blue cheese), beer, french fries, beer, nachos, beer, tuna cesar salad wrap (who knew it existed?), chips, beer, fried dough, cheeseburger, pasta salad, wine, ice cream, bacon, eggs, donut, bagel, etc.

But today I've been good. I'm on my diet. (I do WW in case you were wondering) I've walked four miles, started the day with a sensible breakfast, I'm close to getting in my 8 glasses of water, had a multi-vitamin, etc. Yes, today has been good, but how long will it last?

I have a short term goal. The goal revolves around my trip to Ireland for my cousin's wedding reception. My goal is to not only fit into, but look presentable in the outfit I plan to wear. The reception is slightly less than 3 weeks away and it should take about 5 lbs to accomplish. A bigger challenge is going to stay good on that trip, but I'll worry about that later (a true Irish fry for breakfast is to die for and I can already hear an order of sausage and chips calling my name!).

I'll keep you all (yes, the three of you) posted on my progress. Wish me luck.

Update on the bird....

UPDATE: The bird was gone when I got home. In my Snow White view of the world I would like to think that the other birds swooped down during the day and flew the little injured bird to safety where they will all tend to his wounds. What is more likely is that a neighborhood cat got him. Either way, the bird is no where to be seen.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised...

I've always been a dog person. We pretty much always had a dog growing up and I loved all of them. When our last dog died, my parents decided that they weren't around enough to properly take care of a dog and rather than be unfair to one, they decided not to get one. I was in college at this point, so it was hard to argue the point, but I always wanted to get another dog.

Now when I say dog, I mean a real dog. I do not mean to offend anyone that has a lap dog, but in the house where I grew up dogs were not something that fit inside your purse. I'm not talking about a great dane either, but the dog should be of decent size. If the dog had to be in the position to protect the house, it could actually pull it off and not be laughed at by the intruder.

Years go by and I graduate college and go on to live in numerous apartments. I'm also of the opinion that you shouldn't get a dog (again, that would be a dog of decent size) if you don't have a yard for it to run around in, so no dog for Aunt P. Finally Mr Tall Guy and I get a house. The yard isn't huge, but big enough. I'm finally able to get a dog. By now the dog already has a name. I know I want a male dog and I know I want him to be a Brittany. My last dog growing up was a Brittany and I wanted another one. This leads me to the purpose of this post and to the drama I encountered this morning when I went to figure out where Wonder Mutt had gone...

For those of you that aren't very familiar with Brittany's, they are a sporting dog or commonly referred to as a Bird Dog. They not only point, but they also retrieve. Wonder Mutt has been pointing at things, including leaves, since he was just a pup, but this spring he really got interested in the hunt. Squirrels, birds, chipmunks, rabbits.... they all got his attention. He would point, do the slow approach and then occasionally make the pounce only to find that he was a) still attached to the lease and I wasn't going with him, or b) the other animals are just too fast and cagey for him. They can climb up trees, fly away, scamper out of the yard beyond the range of the electric fence or just disappear into a tiny little holes.

So going back to the title of the post, I really shouldn't be surprised. This morning Wonder Mutt got himself a bird. A baby bird, but a bird just the same. I don't know if he got the bird in it's inaugural flight or if the bird fell out of the nest, but he had him (or her as the case may be). It's nature. It's what dogs do. Especially bird dogs, but still. There is my baby. My little puppy staring at this bird on the ground, which is still alive by the way. I tried to go over to them, but I think Wonder Mutt grasped the idea that I was going to take away his new toy so he swatted at it. Luckily he was too fascinated to pay too much attention to me and I was able to grab his collar and take him into the house.

So now what do you do? Try to find the nest to put it back? I don't think you're supposed to touch them. It's injured so do you put it out of its misery? The birds in the trees are all squawking at me. Do I leave it and the other birds will swoop in and tend to it? Do birds do that? By the sounds of them they were definitely pissed off. Do I take it to an animal hospital?

For those of you wondering, no, I didn't kill it. I left it there like the wimpy coward that I am. I went back about 15 minutes later and it had moved 8 or so inches away from where I left it. Not sure if that's a good sign or not. Probably not though.

Like I said, I shouldn't be surprised. Now I just have to hope that this doesn't become a frequent occurrence. Did I mention that my neighbor has a squirrel killing cat?

Happy Birthday 'lil dubya!

I'll continue with the posts about our trip later, but I first wanted to wish my very favorite nephew a very happy birthday.

Happy 2nd Birthday 'lil dubya!

And congratulations to Mr. Big Dubya and Mrs. Big Dubya for making it through the first two years and good luck with the terrible twos :)

Love,

Aunt P, Mr. Tall Guy & Wonder Mutt

Where'd she'd go? Aunt P? Where arrre yoooouuu?

Or at least that's what my 'lil dubya would say when I leave for a while. That's right. I left for a while. Did anyone notice? I have had a couple of visitors lately, and then what do I go and do to thank them for their visit? I disappeared. And you really can call it disappearing because I never got around to say anything that I'd be gone for a while, but I have an excuse. (notice I didn't say a good excuse!) I actually thought I would be posting on my travels. The intention was good. I even started a post on day 1, but it never got finished or posted and instead I've been gone close to two weeks. So some of you may be wondering where I went and if not.... well I'm just going to tell you anyways.

About a year ago my sister and I decided to plan a trip to Orlando. I had a timeshare there and I thought it would be great to take 'lil dub there for another visit. (first visit was when he was about 10 weeks -- got to break them in early I say!) Then in October I found out that my company was going to be having their annual customer conference in Orlando as well and they wanted me & Mr. Tall Guy to speak at it. As luck would have it the conference and our scheduled tripped overlapped slightly, so with a shift of our vacation by one day, lucky old Aunt P & Mr. Tall Guy ended up getting free airline tickets since our company had to fly us out there anyways.

Many more months go by and when you agree to present at these conferences it seems like a great idea. A few days in a warm and sunny location, company is picking up the bill, cocktail parties, a concert, etc. But then you get reminded of the hoops they make you jump through. Yeah we know you are presenting at the end of May, but you need to have your presentation done by the end of February and dry run it three times in March so that you'll be prepared. I'm not sure about the rest of you but if I don't know what I had for lunch yesterday so running through a presentation in March won't really help me that much.

So between the conference and the vacation with the Dubya's, Mr. Tall Guy were gone for 10 days. That's a lot to cover in one post, so I'll break it up into sections

1. Joys of traveling with work colleagues
2. Joys of being with work colleagues 24/7 (or at least that is what it seems)
3. Vacation with two under two and a Granny
and of course
4. Adventures of Wonder Mutt!

Stay tuned for part 1 and enjoy your day!