family photoshoot

We got family pictures taken back in December. I would have loved a nice summery setting but Christmas is the only time of year when we're all home together. So I made everybody get dressed up and smile. Siblings, pick out which ones you want prints of and I shall send them to you. BTW Corina Manning has the copyright to all these photos, I have her permission to use them. But you don't.
A

B

C

D

E

F

This one makes me die of laughter

G

H

I

J

My favorite

K

L

M

N

O

P

So my dad has this thing where he thinks he looks super handsome in his overcoat, so we had to pacify him and let him take some GQ shots in his coat.

Q

He really likes that his foot pops in this one

R

S

Also one of my faves.



duty of the jurors

I got the summons, yep. And this was the first thing I thought of when I pondering having to report:



Ha ha hahaha!

But seriously, they wanted me for jury duty. So I sent back my info and called in on the right date, and they told me to report. I was actually sort of looking forward to it because it was new and interesting and I'd never really dealt with the justice system before. Plus I got to get out of work so...win-win! Both mom and dad had done it before so they told me to take a book because it was a game of hurry up and wait. I reported on a Monday at 8 am. With like 120 other people. Some were interested in being there and some were just the biggest grouches in the world. (I hope they don't need a jury of their peers anytime soon). I wasn't the youngest one there, but there were a lot of older people, plus a lot of retirees. After about an hour a bailiff came in and took about 30 people to be chosen for a first trial. Then after another half hour another bailiff came in to explain that we would be answering a questionnaire and then assigned us numbers and put us in numerical order. Then the actual judge came in to talk to us about a few things. It was an interesting case, the nature of it meant it would be on the long side (two weeks), and that they needed such a large pool of jurors (90). He also explained some of the rules and how things would run. We took the questionnaire and waited another 45 minutes, the bailiff then told some of us to return that afternoon and the rest to return the next morning. I got assigned the morning.

The next morning I reported and then got told to come back at 1:15. Hooray! It was weird because most of the 90 people were still there, I thought some of them would have gotten dismissed already. Then we got taken down to the courtroom. I got a nice tour of the county courthouse. We were led in, the first 12 jurors were seated in the jury box, and the rest of us sat in the benches. It was a tad scary in the fact that it was very serious, proper, and legal. And I've never been in a court room before (except the time I went to Drug Court for class-that was an awesome experience). We had to stand when the judge came in and had to take an oath to tell the truth. After that the process of Voir Dire (old French for "that which is true") began. Essentially they interview perspective jurors. Then the judge asked for people to state any reasons why they couldn't serve, ie financial hardship. He dismissed a few people. Then both the prosecutor and the defense attorneys got up and asked questions to all 90 of the prospective jurors. They each took an hour to ask questions, present situations, pose hypotheticals to see if we could be fair and impartial. They tried to show the difference between having an opinion on something and being able to set it aside in order to look at facts and then just being biased and making a decision based on that bias. They were very lawyery in their questions, you could start sensing a trap sometimes, but really they were trying to smoke out any people who would be really bad to have on a jury. I kind of enjoyed this part. It got me thinking a lot. I don't think I've used my brain that much since college. It was somewhat unusual to be kept that long as part of a jury pool, but like I said, it was a really important case that needed a lot of prepping. After that we had to have a break so all the old people could go to the bathroom. I guess 2 hours is a long time. Then the two lawyers could dismiss up to six jurors each for "Cause," meaining they could turn down a certain person, but didn't have to say why. It could be that you looked at them funny. They passed around a paper, the bailiff passed it around, and wrote numbers down and crossed things off. Twice they had to go to a "sidebar" to conference about things. Then the judge dismissed a few people and thanked them for their service, they started with the first 12 numbers. They were the jury until a few were dismissed, then they were replaced with the next highest up. They became the official jury. I was pretty high up so I wasn't even close to being selected. And then we got dismissed. That was it. The judge thanked us for coming and we were allowed to leave. It was kind of fun to see how that process works and made me appreciate the people who work to uphold the laws of the land, I guess I'm a nerd. Yay America.

no interest in pinterest

If you haven't heard of pinterest, it's this website where you can get on and troll through images of various things and places and people and then "pin" the ones you like or think are cute to your own pinboard. It sounded kinda fun to me at first, I went on once just to check it out. After thinking about it and seeing others' use of the website I decided that I didn't want to use it. Here's why: so there's lots of stuff to look at. Crafts, food, pretty scenes, photos and the like. It could be a cool place to get a lot of ideas for things. But I noticed that after awhile, I started to get envious and covetous. I want a cute hat, I wish I could make that, etc. Thinking like that could get you in trouble. You also start wishing your own situation in life were better than it was. By this I mean that you wish you had the capacity to do all that it looks like everyone else has done. Decorated their bedrooms, sewed a cute outfit, created a fun party theme, BUT you have neither the time, capacity, money, nor energy to do any of it. So it makes you more depressed because you won't accomplish any of your wishes. At least that's where my thinking goes. (Ie., it would be fun to redecorate with paint, throw pillows, pictures etc, but that is money I don't need to spend and I have a perfectly good bedroom set up already). The above thoughts were reasons why I stopped following a few blogs. It's a pet peeve of mine when blogs are too perfect and cutesie. Ladies gushing over this and that, which you know they didn't have a hand in, they just found it somewhere first. Also, it's kind of a sensory overload and I can only handle so much. I've heard that some people spend hours upon hours on pinterest just looking at tons of stuff. I try really hard not to spend too much time on the internets. I'm not really creative when it comes to web surfing. I concede that it could be helpful when planning a wedding. I've heard a few people doing that. It could be greatly helpful, in fact. And I'm not trying to diss anyone that does pinterest, I've just decided that it's not for me.

Canada-The United States' weird little brother

I feel like that's a good description of Canada. Same family as the US, similar to and friendly with it's southern sister, which makes many similarities. But the younger sibling definitely developed habits and traits of its own. I feel like the US treats Canada like you would a strange little brother-teases him, makes fun of him, but ultimately they are family so that's why they get along.

I went to Canada this year (third time I've been) and I had a few observations of what I thought was unique.

-They are pretty proud of their home grown musicians and play them a lot on the store radios. However, they tend to have fewer than the United States so you hear them a lot. Case in point-we were in a gift shop at a tourist local, and the cds they were trying to sell included Justin Bieber, Michael Buble, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, and Gordon Lightfoot. All Canadians.

-They eat this stuff called poutine. It's gravy and cheese curds over french fries. I tried it, it tasted like mashed potatoes. But it wouldn't sell here in the US, don't mess with our fries.

-Boxing Day (the day after Christmas)-why? I don't get why they celebrate seemingly British holidays. Pretty much they use it like we use the day after Thanksgiving. A shopping day. But lots of stuff was closed, which we, being American, didn't account for.

-They really do love their hockey. All the restaurants we went to that had TVs, or other places that had TVs, they were showing a hockey game. Think about in the US, it would be basketball, football, or baseball. But in Canada it's only hockey. Only. And the athletes that are in commercials? They are all hockey players. Complete with missing teeth. I loved it.

-Also, while at breakfast one day, on ESPN (or some sports channel like it), was a whole show dedicated to snow mobiles, how to pick the right one for you and get the right ride for your money! I was dying.

-It's really easy to get into Canada. The border patrol took us five minutes to get through. The US is pickier I guess. Took us almost an hour to get through.

-They have this technology in Canada that we don't have yet. Portable credit card machines that the waiter brings to your table so you can input the amount to charge your card. I think it's to prevent overcharging at restaurants. We'll probs get it here in the US soon.

-The Metric System still evades me. We went skiing and I had to tell them my shoe size (is it the same in Canada?), weight (how many kilos/lb?), and height (meters/feet?). I had no clue so I let them figure it out.

-Money. They have a $1 coin and a $2 coin. Called a Looney and a Tooney respectively. (there's a picture of a Loon on the coin), but when would you ever need a $2 coin? They have $2 bills here, but they haven't caught on. Their paper money is also very colorful.

-They like to use the British way of spelling things. Metre. Colour. etc.

-Vancouvers like their eco friendly vw-type hatchbacks. Saw lots of those bopping around town.

-What we have in Latinos they have in Asians.

Canada is nice though. Seriously. Lots of nice people up there.

2011 recaptured

I rather enjoyed my countdown I made last year, so I'm gonna do it again. Here's my 2011-counting may be of but whatevs.

10 Friends I made

William Hayes

Cherika Woffinden

Tessa Goodall

Nick Barber

Bonnie Roos

Canadian Mike

Jenny Lloyd

Michelle Crawford

Stacey Plummer

Tyler Foster

Katy Higgs

9 Things I enjoyed musically, televisionally and otherwise

Up All Night-Will Arnett, Christina Applegate and Maya Rudolph=hilarious

Parks and Recreation-I love Amy Poheler just about as much as I love Tina Fey

So You Think You Can Dance-Why didn't anyone tell me about this sooner?!!

21-album by Adele-I totally called it becoming life changing, she will win grammys come February

The Help-was a pretty good movie, Viola Davis should win an Oscar

New Girl-pretty funny show, but I hope all men don't think us women act like Zooey, nor would I want to...

Sherlock Holmes-good sequel

Harry Potter 7.2-amazing and completely fufilling, don't you just love Neville in this one?

Neil Diamond-words cannot explain how much I love this man and his music, I may have become obsessed and would be crushing on him if he were 50 years younger or I 40 years older, I may have to see him in concert.

8 things I learned

I learned how to drive stick shift-one of my new years goals; first went with Nick and his BMW, then went with Scott and his roommate's car that was suspiciously easy to drive. I've long felt that this was a skill I needed to have.

I learned how to ride my bike with no hands-Jessica tried to teach me many times, but I finally accomplished it on a magical Crank It Slow ride and was very proud of myself.

I learned how to repel (not the right word-I was going up not down) up a tree-Scott taught me how on his sycamore tree. It was tough because I have zero arm muscles. Scott teaches me a lot of things...that's why I call him Coach.

I learned how to make good rolls-another new years goals: I'm crap at making bread products, but the rolls at Thanksgiving 2010 were terrible, so I taught myself and I have to say they were pretty tasty

I learned that I like to be the Entertainer

I learned that sometimes I need to keep my mouth shut

I learned how to replace windshield wipers and check coolant levels on my car

I learned that I am a good leader

7 books I read-I read lots, but these were my favorite

Midwives

Flavia de Luce-3 so far in a series

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

One Day

And There Was Light: Autobiography of Jaques Lusseyran, Blind Hero of the French Resistance

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Bossypants-Tina Fey's autobiography

6 Places I went

UT in January

UT in May

East Coast Adventure

Portland for Adele

Portland for Josh Groban

Leavenworth

Portland in October

UT in November

Canada in December

5 Miscelaneous/Firsts (going to be more than 5 but I didn't have a better place to put them)

Became an unoffical Auntie

Finished a scrapbook

Google + chatted with my women

Went to a hot air balloon rally for the first time

Started a bike gang-Crank It Slow-we actually ride a lot

Won a round of Tour de Marshall-and wore the yellow leader jersey

Saw Monica and Danny in the TC

Went to the hydroplane races for the first time

Used an emergency flare for the first time

Acted like a girl

Spent a day with Jenn and Aaron in DC

Had the Millers in my backyard all summer

Took ballet class again

Became a Maths tutor

Rented a car for the first time-and it was a Mitsubishi Eclipse!
Had Andy and Tessa for Thanksgiving dinner

4 Scary Things

Got temporarily laid off

Took the GRE

Ate fish-I had to to be polite, I almost died

Rode a Greyhound bus-wasn't that scary

3 Concerts/Shows

Brian Regan

Adele

Josh Groban

White Christmas

2 Highlights-ok, four

Touching Josh Groban twice-thank you Dream Maker!!

Getting to go to DC-I loved it

Classy Date

Seeing two Giant Pandas in DC

1 Awesome year

Thumbs down in 2011

Getting laid off, spending $1,000 to fix my car, not completing exit strategy 2011

Let's have a rockin' 2012!!