Inversions and Idiots

This what an inversion looks like. What's that you say? It must be early morning, late evening, or a big storm day? NOPE! It looked like this outside for about three weeks in January, and had it not finally cleared after three weeks, you would have had to write to me at my new address in Boise at the St. Michael's Institute for Mental Health. Seriously! Three weeks? It even snowed a little bit during that time, which in theory should've cleared out the crap, but no, it stayed GRAY forever. I spent three weeks praying and sitting under lights and trying not to eat myself under the table. . . .

On my birthday Wednesday the 21st, I was called in for jury duty. I had jury duty starting January 1, but of course the 21st was the first day I was called in to be questioned to possibly sit on a jury. This is my second time at jury duty in Canyon County (Brent and most of my friends have never had jury duty, mind you). I wasn't chosen for the jury the last time, so I was kind of hoping I might get a chance to see the jury process at work this time. I arrived at the court house at 8:30 and watched a short video with the other 70 or so prospectives. Then we waited to be called into the courtroom for the "voix dire" process--the jury questions. The attorneys and judge were doing pre-trial stuff, so we waited and waited and waited some more. The baliff gave us a potty break around 9:30, then we waited again. Finally at 10:15 the baliff came back into the room to tell us that the man charged with the crime had pled guilty to felony burglary, and we were all dismissed. He said that once the guy found out there was a jury panel waiting and knew that the jury would actually see the video tape of him committing the burglary, he figured he was pretty much hosed. Duh. A video tape? Why would you think you had a chance at being found not guilty in the first place if there was a tape of you ripping the place off? Ok, to be fair, Brent says that during the pre-trial the defense attorney was probably trying to get the tape excluded from evidence for some reason. I'm thinking that would have been an interesting and short trial. Kind of wish the guy would have taken his chances with the tape. . . :)

Other than that, Brent and I had a great birthday week. In fact, the whole week was a party. Thanks to friends and family who made it bearable getting older. We love you all! (A little spelling error, but the sentiment was perfect. Thanks, Cassie!)