November

I had jury duty in early November.  To my surprise, there actually was a trial the day I was called in (as opposed to a plea deal), and I was chosen as a juror.  When the potential jurors were called into the court room, I was randomly assigned as potential juror #5 (of 25) that day before.  The judge then asked questions to weed out potential jurors.  Questions included things like if we knew anyone involved in the case, went to any of the doctor practices, had been on a jury of a civil case before, etc.  As potential juror #5, I was guaranteed a spot on the jury unless one of the lawyers particularly crossed my name off and particularly didn't want me on the jury.  The lawyers on each side could only cross out around 5 names each.  No lawyer chose to unselect me, and I became Juror #3.  The entire jury was made of women.  Someone, one or both lawyers decided they didn't want men on the jury, and the implications annoyed all of the women on the jury:-)  In the below picture, I am home on a lunch break, wearing my 'juror' pin.  The trial was for a man suing his car insurance company for a 2015 car accident.  He was suing for 'pain and suffering' and medical bills.  He was a repeat suer, having sued for other things before.  We also had the pain of listening to a pay-for-hire doctor testify in a recording of the man's limitations after the trial.  That doctor does nothing except cases for people trying to get money from insurance.  The trial lasted a day and a half and we decided to give the man suing relatively little, and he and his lawyer seemed quite disappointed.  The Liberty Mutual insurance lawyer was fairly pleased. 

Since we never seem to have enough Snoopy pictures with the kids, here he is being a real live teddy bear:

Nate went to Hawaii on a work trip and Mormor came to visit for a week and help while Nate was gone.  Karina (and Lydia) helped me tie a new blanket for the couch:

It was a help to have Mormor with us, and the kids enjoyed her attention:

I don't even remember what was happening here with their feet in the air.  I just remember all the laughing involved and how funny the kids thought they were. 

More silliness and running around laughing:

Daddy came home!

The kids love to play 'Catch the Crocodile' with Nate.  He runs around pretending to be a crocodile and the kids try to evade him.  Here they are in the action:

After Mormor had visited for a week, she went home. Then nine days later she and Mimi flew back for Thanksgiving week.  So lots of visits in November!