Sommer & Martin Family Blog

6 mo. recap...sorta

2008-06-19T22:36:00.004-04:00

Well, let's just say the blog is a little out of date. I've been inspired by Sarah's newly active blog: http://sarahmay77.blogspot.com/.

Things sped up at the end of '07 and haven't really let up since then. First, it was preparing the old house to go on the market. Sooooo many projects that we had been intending on completing "one day" had to be completed before we went back to MI for Christmas vacation (which was wonderful, by the way).

Then, we put the house on the market and every evening is spent cleaning up clutter and getting phone calls saying someone wanted to come by and view the house. Yes, EVERY day. I'm not complaining. We were blessed to have a contract on the house in 4 days. 3 weeks later we were moving out. Backing up a little bit, we had our eye on a house in the Evandale Elem. school district for some time and were lucky enough that it was still on the market when our house went under contract. We immediately started working to get that house and it worked out perfectly. So, our new address is 3076 Wanda Woods Dr. Atlanta, GA 30340. Look it up in Google Street View. Well, you can't exactly. You can get within 4 houses of ours and see pretty much the whole neighborhood we live in, but our short street is not covered. Still, Google street view is pretty neat. Here's a link to the view from the end of my street: http://maps.google.com/maps/mpl?moduleurl=http:%2F%2Fmw1.google.com%2Fmw-ms%2Fcode%2Fmapplet.xml&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=33.879769,-84.226921&spn=0.005113,0.007499&z=17&cbll=33.87761,-84.22729&panoid=8TKvIQemqisfbtgK59HUCQ&cbp=1,349.9034269546112,,0,-10.577596747067241

Of course, once we bought the new house there was all the work moving and then all the work that had to be done around the new place. Baby-proofing is a tedious, but very necessary task. Especially when your toddler is a gifted climber.

Now, Allison is almost here. Laura and I are really excited and looking forward to meeting her. Barely over a week away now! Wow. It's amazing how much our lives have changed over the last 2 years. It's been wonderful.

I'll do my best to post some house pictures in the next couple of days and get some updated photos of Katie. Obviously, once Allison is born I'll be adding a bunch of her pictures here too.

In the mean time, here's a link to a Picasa web album we recently uploaded. It has many pictures taken over the last couple of years that we need to get printed. Laura's still working on sorting through all our digital photos to determine which need to be printed. Good luck to her...we have a MASSIVE amount of pictures store on the computer. http://picasaweb.google.com/mlsommer1/LauraSPicsToPrint?authkey=MpGtuaLn1WI

Always Revel in the Glory of God's Creation

2007-12-11T22:57:00.000-05:00

Fall in Atlanta

2007-12-11T22:40:00.000-05:00

Katie's New Trick

2007-12-11T22:32:00.000-05:00

Now, when Katie's full, she starts stacking her food on her head. Nice.

Katie's Birthday

2007-12-11T22:17:00.000-05:00

Been busy lately and didn't get a chance to throw up any pictures from Katie's birthday last month. Here they are...better late than never right?

Sharing cake with aunt Jill.

Katie at the Georgia Aquarium

2007-11-18T15:16:00.000-05:00

Here's Katie having fun at the Georgia Aquarium during the recent Volunteer Appreciation Night on Wednesday, Nov. 7th.

Katie Lauging Hysterically

2007-08-07T21:49:00.000-04:00

Fort Yargo State Park - Winder, GA

2007-07-28T21:35:00.000-04:00

A Plethora of Perfect Pictures!

2007-07-20T21:28:00.000-04:00

Yes Katie, that's a lot of new pictures!

Sorry to take so long to update the pictures on the blog.
Katie is doing well. She's pulling herself up and standing all the time now. She's still a big goof ball and enjoys laughing at her parents. She's eating lots of different baby foods now 3 times a day. She went to the doctor today and is an even 17lbs.

She is currently resting up in eager anticipation of the arrival of Grandma & Grandpa Sommer tomorrow.

I hope everyone is doing very well. We are blessed daily in so many ways and pray the same for all of you.

Don't forget that you can click on the pictures for a larger view!

Do these make me look dorky?

2007-04-26T21:15:00.000-04:00

Ever wonder what a 5 month old would look like in glasses? No, well here you go anyway!

More Giggles

2007-04-24T05:46:00.000-04:00

Katherine

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Katie Giggling!

2007-04-22T22:35:00.000-04:00

She loves to laugh! ...that is until you point a camera at her. :-)

Katie having fun!

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2007-04-22T17:45:00.000-04:00

Katie Pictures!
Here she is just hangin' out in the living room playing with her toys.
Isn't she photogenic?

New Mobile Blog

2007-03-30T07:38:00.000-04:00

I started a new personal blog over at: http://sommermobileblog.blogspot.com/

Why? Well, I didn't want to fill up the family blog with a bunch of pointless blather. However, if you're into reading my rather pointless blather then feel free to check out the site from time to time. The idea behind this particular blog is that I can post to it from anywhere with my mobile phone. So far, it has been working well.

If you want, you can set up your own phone to post to the family blog. Just type "blogger mobile" into google and you'll be sure to find lots of details on how to blog from your phone with pictures & text. It's a pretty easy one-time setup and then all you do is send your multimedia message (MMS, Verizon calls it picture messaging) to "go@blogger.com" and it'll automagically post to the blog. Again, you have to set it up first before that'll work.

Later!
Matt - http://sommermobileblog.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Dad!

2007-03-21T08:05:00.000-04:00

Happy birthday dad! I hope you have an enjoyable b-day. I'll be thinking of you and we'll have Katie give you a call on the video phone tonight.

St. Patrick's Weekend in Atlanta

2007-03-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

Well I had a great weekend in Atlanta visiting Matt, Laura, Katie and all of my friends. Katie is so active now from the last time I saw her in December! I can't believe how quickly she's growing. Kind of sad that I can't be in Atlanta to see her and spoil her rotten.

My weekend consisted of playing with Katie and Jazz, saying goodbye to my apartment, consuming adult beverages in moderation ;), getting a kangaroo costume!, an adventure to Midtown Towing with 8 friends, and lots of eating!

I hope to get back for another visit soon. I miss my ATL life, but love the new adventure in Lansing.

Atlanta Hunger Walk

2007-03-14T21:47:00.000-04:00

Laura, Katie and I participated in the Atlanta Hunger Walk again this year. Well, it was the second time for me and Laura, but Katie's first! She was filling in for the other Sommer girl who participated in last year's event (that's you Aunt Lisa!!!)

Here's a picture of Laura, Julie, and Katie as we just got started from Turner Field downtown.

The weather was fantastic again this year. Perhaps it could have even been a few degrees cooler. I believe it was around 78 and it was quite sunny the whole time. We all had a great time. Katie was quite interested in all the action.

Here I am with Katie and Joanna looking on. You can see Jason & Jennifer (partly) Brewster and their kids plus Mark Fields just behind me. We had quite good participation of Grace Lutheran members again to help raise money and awareness for those who are food insecure in Atlanta.

New Katie Pictures!

2007-03-07T21:18:00.000-05:00

2007-01-15T11:14:00.000-05:00

I can't believe Katie is already two months old. I miss her! It was fun to spend Christmas with everyone.

I attended a baby shower for Ryan's sister-in-law on Saturday. They're due in 3 weeks and are naming the baby Grace. Beautiful name! We talked about Katie several times during the party. :)

Holiday Season

2006-12-14T15:51:00.000-05:00

HAPPY 1-MONTH BIRTHDAY KATIE!

Ryan and I have been busy, busy, busy with a couple of house showings, Christmas parties, and getting our save the date magnets in the mail. The wedding tasks are certainly picking up speed. We have much to do before the big party in May.

I'm looking forward to spending Christmas in Atlanta with Katie, Matt, Laura, Mom, Dad, Lisa, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Judy, Craig & Evan. This is turning out to be a big family holiday. :)

Baptism

2006-12-08T06:14:00.000-05:00

Katie will be baptized on Christmas Eve. Of course, everyone's invited!
It'll be December 24th at the 11:00am service at Grace Lutheran Church on Highland Ave. in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, GA. There will be a luncheon at the church right after the service.

Katherine Grace Sommer

2006-11-14T05:45:00.000-05:00

Katherine Grace Sommer was born November 14th, 2006 at 5:45am. She was 9lbs 5.6oz, 20 3/4" long, had a head circumference of 14" and chest of 15 1/4".

Here's the short version:
After 30 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing, Katherine joined us via cesarean.
Mommy and Katie are both doing very well.
We are just absolutely taken with Katie. She's an absolute joy. A wonderful gift from God.

The hospital website w/ Katie's baby picture and a poll where you can vote on who you think she looks like most is here:
http://www2.thatsmybaby.net/home/babyWebsites/
Personal Access Code of: 092-49331

Here are some pictures of our beautiful baby girl!

Evelyn Karen Gast

2006-11-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

Nick and Steph have had a beautiful daughter, Evelyn Karen Gast!
She was born promptly on her due date of November 5th, 2006 at 6:58am. She weighed 7lbs. and 12oz. and measured 19" in length.

Here's some pictures (from Nick's blog: http://gastfamily.blogspot.com/ )

Derrick Jason-Russell Reinbold

2006-11-10T10:57:00.000-05:00

Tammy & Jason had their young'n on November 1st 2006 at
6:51am.

Here's some pictures:

Introduction to Railroad Operations (IRO) Class

2006-08-23T20:00:00.000-04:00

So, I'm finally taking my IRO class! It's down in McDonough, GA. Yesterday we went over a lot of railroad operation basics. Terminology, safety, how signals work, and how dispatchers control train movement throughout our system in the same manner air traffic controllers keep airplanes safe and organized.

Today, we went over the specifics of how the braking systems work (auto air brakes and dynamic braking), how knuckles work to couple cars, and how the diesel/electric locomotives function.

I spent an hour "driving" a locomotive simulator (pic above). That was neat. I got a good feel for how the motor and braking systems are applied and how long it takes to both start and stop a loaded train and to keep it at the correct speed going up a steep grade and down.

We walked through a GE D9-40CW widebody locomotive right before lunch (next three pics). They call these widebodies the "Caddilacs" of the fleet. The one we went on was built in 2000. Pretty new for a locomotive.

At the end of the day, we got to tour 3 different locomotives. 1 was a smaller GE and the other two were made by EMD. We were encouraged to crawl all over them and open every door and compartment we could find to take a good look at them.

While we were out in the yard, our instructor had us practice moving track switches too. That was pretty cool too.
Tomorrow, I get to drive one of the locomotives a couple miles around our test track. I'm pretty excited about that! I'll get some pictures then too. Maybe I'll even grab a little video clip with my camera. The last picture is a model manufactured by EMD. I'm not certain the exact model number , but it's probably a GP-40 (4000hp Diesel).

Savannah

2006-08-02T23:04:00.000-04:00

So, we went to Savannah over the weekend and it was cool. Anyway, we ate lunch at the Boar's Head down on the riverwalk on Saturday before we went out to Tybee Island.
(See downtown Savannah map on right)

Tybee Island was better than Laura and I remember it. When we went the last time it was off season, so a lot of things were closed. This time, we only spent a couple hours out swimming in the Atlantic, but we did do a quick cruise through town and there was REALLY a lot going on. The water was warm and we caught 3 live sand dollars! Of course we put them back to go about their merry little ways when we were done photographing them. Laura got pinched on her little toe by a crab or something. My money's on it being a 20+ ft. great white shark. I just figure it saw me and got scared off...that's just how I roll. :-)

Then we headed back to the hotel, which I might add was quite the find by Laura. It was about 3 miles out of downtown, but the place was like half the price of the hotels right in town and it was a NICE place! The rooms were a good size w/ 12ft. ceilings. The hotel looked like it was quite new, 3-6yrs old I'd guess, and the rooms had a 40-something inch plasma TV in them! That was fun when we got back at the end of the day because I could stick my SD memory card from my camera straight into the TV and watch a slideshow of all the pictures. There also was a nice pool and hot tub. There was even a foosball table in the lobby. FYI, I destroyed Jill in our first and only game.

Then we headed back into town after a severe, but brief t-storm rolled through. We went to Churchill's Pub and had a good dinner (after searching through 5 or so restaurants that had huge waiting lists). I'm glad we ended up there because it was a more upscale looking/feeling place but it still was priced at your typical Friday's/Outback prices. I had a prime rib that was cooked almost perfectly. It was a little too big though. It was definitely more than a typical 12oz., so naturally, I over-ate.

On Sunday, we grabbed the free breakfast at the hotel and headed back into downtown. We parked at the Visitor's Center and Jack and Sally went on a Savannah Movie tour on an airconditioned bus where they'd show you a scene from a movie right as you drove up to the actual site where they had filmed it. It was about 1.5 hours and they had a good time. While they did that, Laura, Jill and I bought a self-guided Historical Savannah walking tour book. We saw many of the city
squares, beautiful homes, and a couple very ornate churches. We followed the tour for 1.5 hours and got roughly half-way through before it was time to pick up Sally & Jack. It was pleasantly overcast that day, providing some relief from the oppressive heat that was beating down on us on Saturday (it made for a nice day at the beach though). Then, we picked up Sally and Jack and we and drove over to Colonial Park Cemetery where we wandered through this old cemetary where Union troops camped out for months near the end of the Civil War.

I just can't say enough about how beautiful Savannah's squares are. There's really some nice old buildings too, but not as many survived as have in Charleston, SC where they had a much stricter policy on teardowns and renovations over the last 60+ years.

Potato Fest

2006-08-02T13:50:00.000-04:00

Ryan and I had a great time in Munger last weekend. It was his first demolition derby. He wasn't disappointed. We also had fun in the beer tent. If he wouldn't have had to drive back to Mt. Pleasant that night, I'm pretty sure I could have fed him another drink or two and brought him onto the dance floor. Next year . . . :)

Baby Shower

2006-07-28T19:56:00.000-04:00

This one's a little out of order. Sue me. ;-)

Mum, dad, Lisa & Aron

2006-07-28T19:50:00.000-04:00

Here we are, chillin' at Aron's apartment.

Kenny's Married!!!!!!

2006-07-06T07:22:00.000-04:00

What a great wedding!

Michilanta

2006-06-23T09:39:00.000-04:00

Michilanta

Introducing...baby-girl Sommer!

2006-06-21T19:58:00.000-04:00

It's a girl!!!!!!!!!
Here's some pictures from the ultra-sound:

We have a video too, but I'm not sure if I'll get around to posting it. We'll probably just bring it up with us when we come up to MI for Jack's wedding next weekend! See y'all soon!!!!

Kitchen Update II

2006-05-11T20:07:00.000-04:00

OK, the cabinets have been in for a week now and the granite countertops were just put in today.
Here's some pictures of the cabinets after they were installed last week. Click on them to see a full-size picture.

Here are some pictures of the new countertop. This granite is called Sapphire Blue. You can't really see how blue it is from these pictures. These last two pictures were taken with the camcorder (since my camera is in for repairs) so they're not super clear.

We still have to add the new laminate flooring and get the washer and dryer hooked up, but all-in-all, we're getting close.

Kitchen Update

2006-04-20T22:49:00.000-04:00

OK, we tore out the cabinets tonight, so we're progressing! The new cabinets should be shipping in the next day or two. It's getting exciting! Laura looks pretty excited in this picture, doesn't she? Laura says: "Yippee!"

I, however, am too cool to look excited. Here I am as the absolute epitome of cool in my Cartman T-shirt holding two of my favorite things, a power tool and beer. Seriously, I am all that is man. Look how massive I look next to those puny little cabinets. I tower over them like a super-huge manly freak of nature. Later, I crushed them with my mighty man-hands. If I were any more manly, I would be Ron Burgundy. Seriously, the new kitchen will have lots of scotch, many leather bound books and smell of rich mahogany.

Here's a final snapshot of how things are right now. I don't have to work until 2pm tomorrow, so all I have to do in the morning is a little plumbing to remove the sink & final counter top and pull out the dishwasher. Then I'll yank the last cabinet in the corner. I'll leave all the fun cleanup work for Laura to finish when she gets home from work Friday.

Also, I pretty much have the new roof on the screen porch. There's two more panels I have to stick on there. This picture is what it looked like after I finished painting the rafters, etc. and right before I started sticking on all of the new clear, tinted roof panels. It'll be like having a 12x18ft. skylight! ...kinda

We're engaged!

2006-04-11T08:41:00.000-04:00

I know everyone already knows, but I just wanted to make it an official entry in the family blog. ;)

And, congrats to Ryan for finishing his firefighter certification classes!

Home Depot

2006-04-08T13:10:00.000-04:00

OK, finally, it looks like we're good to go. After a major delay due to the main installation guy who is going to do the custom cabinet work around the washer & dryer in the kitchen to hide them and give it a built-in look, we finally have a labor quote. So, we're off to go make the final decisions (what kinda crown molding on the cabinets, etc.) and sign off on it. We should have a new kitchen in the next 1-2 months!

-Matt

Hold on

2006-03-14T12:54:00.000-05:00

Wild windy days in Michigan, bad for roofs and comb-overs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

2006-03-10T15:34:00.000-05:00

Hey Matt, I hope you have a wonderful birthday weekend! I'm sending a hug for you with mom and dad when they travel to ATL next week. :)

Parental

2006-03-02T18:54:00.000-05:00

So, as you all now know, Laura and I are going to be parents. I guess now it's time for us to start acting parental. ;-)

2006-03-02T15:30:00.000-05:00

I will UPS some snow to you for your driveways in ATL we have plenty to spare here.

Martin's Visiting

2006-02-25T11:50:00.000-05:00

Currently, the Martin's are in town.
Looking forward to the Sommer's coming soon!

The Flu

2006-02-23T10:35:00.000-05:00

I'm finally back to work today. I had the stomach flu all week. Ugh. It feels good to be on the mend now.

Yes, Ryan took good care of me all week. :)

t'was a snowy night in Georgia....

2006-02-13T07:31:00.000-05:00

Yep, it did the unthinkable; it snowed. It was snowing on and off all day yesterday before and during church, but none of it stuck to the ground. We woke up to a bit of accumulated snow this morning though. I'd say at least a good 1/32". :-)
OK, so it was just a dusting, but imagine my surprise when I looked out the window this morning. Not to worry, it didn't cross the threshold that causes sheer panic on the streets. I'm certain the commute will take longer than usual today due to slick roads, but people aren't mobbing the grocery stores to stock up on milk and bread.
-Matt

Kitchen

2006-02-08T18:41:00.000-05:00

Well, we're almost finally, sorta ready to let Home Depot run with it. There's an extremely high likelyhood that the kitchen will be in some sort of disrepair when you all come visit in March. I don't remember when exactly in March. Anyway, we're headed to HD in a minute to finalize some stuff. Then, their contractors, Frame-to-Finish will come out and do the final measure. After that, we'll order the cabinets and start rolling with it. We're going to do the demolition work. The plan is to do the floors ourselves too. However, I don't want to buy another whole set of specific tools for hanging cabinets that I'll never use again. Not to mention, they'll be able to get it done in like 2 days, where there's no telling how long it would take me.

It worked

2006-02-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

Matt the link finally worked this time. I don't know why it was giving me trouble the first couple of times. You missed a good old Michigan snow storm and two day power outage, fun , fun, fun.

Dee-troit . . . WTF?!

2006-02-08T09:46:00.000-05:00

WTF happened to our boys last night? I hope you still had fun at the game, but I can't believe the Pistons lost. First time all season they've lost two games in a row. Tonight is CMU night at the Pistons game in Auburn Hills. Let's hope the home court advantage gives them a boost.

Jury Duty III

2006-02-01T19:07:00.000-05:00

So, anywho, back to the jury duty topic. So, first we hear from the arresting officer. A policewoman. So, she talks about how the defendant was swerving in her lane. An odd choice of words I thought, since she was being charged with failure to maintain lane along with the DUI and having incorrect plates. Well, she see's her swerving, pulls in behind her and runs the plate. The plate comes back belonging to a different model car. So, she pulls her over. The officer also make the comment that she did not give her a ticket for having the wrong plate because when she checked her ID, it matched that of the plate and she figured there was probably some kind of mixup at the DMV. So, this is also odd, since the defendant was being charged with both. (We find out later that the prosecutor added those charges, which were dropped right as we come in to hear the closing arguments). So, the officer talks about how she had her do 5 different field sobriety tests and had her blow in an alkasensor (breathalyzer) which showed she had alcohol in her system (but did not say what amount-we find out after the case is decided that that is because field breathalyzers are not admissable in court due to their inherent lack of sensitivity and susceptibility to poor accuracy in some environments).
She said her tests showed that the women was under the influence to the point of being a "less safe driver" and placed her under arrest. Well, there were many specific things she listed as pointing to this conclusion that involved the woman's field sobriety tests.

Well, then we watch the video (from the cruiser's camera). This will be waaaay too long if I go into detail, so I'll summarize. Basically, the vast majority of the things the officer pointed out were not that big of a deal. For example, she told us she had to tell the woman to sit down on the bumper of the cruiser 3 times before she comlied, which show a lack of focus and comprehension. Well, what I saw is the cop point over at the bumper from 15 ft. away (couldn't make out the words). The woman walks over the the car and stands next to it. The officer come over and asks her to sit on the bumper. The woman then sits down on the top bar of the push bumper. The officer grabs something from her car and when she gets back, tells her, no, sit on the bottom part of the bumper. The woman does.

Another example is when the cop tells her to stand with her left foot in front of her right and begins to give her instructions on how to do the heel to toe walk and tells her not to start until she's finished giving her the directions. While she's giving the directions, the woman breaks the stance and begins to stand normally. When the cop is done, she takes 10 steps directly towards the cruiser (into the camera) and hesitates, ever so slightly on the 7th step. She then turns around and does 10 steps back, perfectly. The cop thought it was a big deal that the woman turned around on one foot instead of taking several small steps when turning, as instructed. Now, I heard the instructions myself and it would never have occured to me to take the small steps. It just didn't seem to be that big of a detail. The cop never stopped and said, now this is crucial that you take several small steps. I probably would have just spun around and took 10 steps back even stone-cold sober.

So, there were several other similar details, none of which seemed to tell me that the woman was unsafe behind the wheel. Infact, at one point, the woman drops and earring and quickly bends over and picks up this tiny little earring. She doesn't stumble or fumble around for the earring as she's picking it up, and this is at night, on the side of a highway, under pressure, with cars whizzing by at 80mph on I-285. Anyway, the women gets arrested. Then, when she's told that she would be taken to the police station where she would be asked to take the Intoxilyzer 5000 nt breath test, which she can refuse, but if she does, her license will automatically be suspended for at least 1 year. Well, she asks a few intelligent questions about regarding this, being that she's a postal carrier and her license is critical to her job. The policewoman made it out like this was another sign that she was intoxicated. To me though, she didn't sound slurred and carried on a coherent, intelligent conversation.

So, she's taken to the station and takes the test. She blows a 0.074. So, like I said earlier, she's under the 0.08 limit for a per se DUI, and is then charged under the "less safe" provision of the law. Granted, this is like 2+ hours after she left the B-day party she said she only had 1 20oz. Corona, so she's pretty much a liar about having one drink. But that's not what we were judging her on. We were there to determine, from the facts, if she was indeed a less safe driver.

She was operating a vehicle. That's a fact. And, yes, she was under the influence of alcohol. That's a fact. Was is to the extent that she was a less safe driver? I sure didn't think so. I was worried going into the jury room for deliberations that I would have to argue my point. Well, one lady suggested that we immediately take a poll and see what we were all thinking. 1st guy says he thought the case was tried poorly on both sides and he didn't think she was guilty. Phew, at least one sensible person on my side. Then the next lady goes. Succintly, "no, she's not guilty." Then it's my turn. "Not guilty," and I list a few reasons why I think so. Then the next lady says she agrees. "Not guilty." Another guy say's he has concerns that she lied about how much she had to drink, but didn't really feel like the prosecution proved their case. Essentially, a probably not guilty. Then the last lady says, "not guilty. So, we talk it out with the gentleman who was having misgivings. Essentially though, it came down to the fact that he definitely had reasonable doubt that she was less safe. He wasn't certain. So, we were in agreement, filled out the paperwork and called the bailiff.

We were called back and gave the findings to the judge who read the verdict. Not guilty...plus about 10 minutes of other legalese. Enough to put you to sleep. Anyway, I feel like justice was served.

I do understand the cop's "need," if you will, to arrest the lady and take her in. Basically, from the cops perspective, she knows the lady has had at least 1 beer. She told her as much. She didn't know for sure though if that was all. So, there's a lot of pressure on the cop. If she lets the lady go and she hits another car and kills a family of 5 two minutes later, that's a lot to live with. So, as I see it, as soon as the cop smelled alcohol on the lady's breath, she was going to jail. End of story. However, after the prosecutor got a hold of it and watched the tapes, etc. I think he should have dropped it and not wasted everyone's time and money.

It was an extremely informative experience for me though. I did enjoy being involved in our legal process. Plus, I learned a lot about DUIs. For more info on that see the following link:
http://www.duiguy.com/stop.htm
It talks about what will happen when you are pulled over and what you should do. Basically, when you're first pulled over, you are not required to, and shouldn't, tell the officer anything other than your name and address and provide him with your license and registration. You don't have to take any field sobriety tests, period. At all. You can refuse them with no penalty. According to the link I provided above:

You are probably wondering how you politely decline to answer any questions or take any roadside tests. The solution is surprisingly simple; if you tell the officer that you will be glad to answers any questions or take any roadside tests as long as you have an attorney present, you have just refused without refusing. No penalty attaches at this point because you have no legal obligation to answer any questions (except as they pertain to your identity and address) or perform any roadside tests including the Alcosensor.

However, upon refusal, you will in all likelyhood be arrested for DUI. This guy even provided a handy little "Driver's Rights" wallet card that you can print out that details all your rights.
Here's the direct link to that: http://www.duiguy.com/myrights.htm

Anyway, being a juror was interesting and oddly, kinda fun. I'm just glad it only lasted one day.
-Matt

Fire

2006-01-30T09:15:00.000-05:00

Ryan responded to a house fire last night around midnight and didn't get home until almost 7 a.m.! Poor guy. He's sleeping now instead of going to his day job. I don't know how he does it. I was tired when he called me this morning to tell me he'd made it home, and I'd had a full night of sleep. Guess I can't whine about feeling tired today.

Jury Duty II

2006-01-27T07:29:00.000-05:00

OK, so it wasn't a short day at the Dekalb Co. Courthouse. In fact, I got there at 8:15 and I was there until a little past 6pm, but at least I don't have to go back again.

So, I got picked to sit on a DUI case. My first time called in for jury duty and I get picked to serve. Great.

Well, apparently, there's 2 types of DUIs, at least in the state of Georgia. There's the Per Se DUI, with which we are all familiar. That's the one where you take a breath test back at the station (because the portable one in their car is not admissable in court) and if your BAC is 0.08 or over, then you're Per Se DUI. However, there's also another little something called a "Less Safe DUI" which I was entirely unaware of. Get this, it basically says that if you are operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol to the extent that you are a less safe driver, than you're DUI. This has all the same penalties as a per se DUI.

Here's a copy of the actual Georgia State code:
(taken from: http://www.legis.state.ga.us/cgi-bin/gl_codes_detail.pl?code=40-6-391)

40-6-391.
(a) A person shall not drive or be in actual physical control of any moving vehicle while:
(1) Under the influence of alcohol to the extent that it is less safe for the person to drive;

So, is it me, or is that a rather far-reaching definition there? To me, that's a pretty wide-open phrase. Basically, a police officer can arrest you for being under the influence of any amount of alcohol and later has to prove that you were "less safe." Who determines if you are "less safe?" Well, the jury, if it's a jury trial or, I suppose the judge, if it's a bench trial.

Now, I don't want to downplay the horrible things that can and many times DO happen when people drive while under the influence of alcohol. Please don't think I'm doing that. I used to be a S.A.D.D. officer in highschool. I've seen what can happen when driving drunk with both uncle Allen, and my friends Craig and Steve. However, this law just seems to give way too much discretion to the police. You can basically be prosecuted for having 1 beer with dinner and then driving. Don't laugh, it could happen if you get pulled over by an overzealous police officer and they happen to smell alcohol on you.

I'll let you all think about that for a while and add some more details of what happened in the trial later.

-Matt

Jury Duty

2006-01-26T07:48:00.000-05:00

Off to jury duty at the Dekalb Co. courthouse. Hopefully, it'll be a short day.

ATL weather once again mucks up travel....

2006-01-24T15:29:00.000-05:00

Like Matt and Laura, I, too, was delayed in Flint on the way home.

The difference is my 3 hour delay was at a decent time, and I arrived to have a *free* ride home. Thanks Julie! :-)

In any case, the weather in ATL had been nasty for several days. To paraphrase the captain on my flight:

"There is a weather front that has just stalled in ATL, and as a result, only 70 planes can leave or land an hour as opposed to the usual 120. Everyone is delayed. Your connections are also delayed, and those of you who have connections on this flight will make them. I sympathize with your plight, especially since I do have to fly to NY and back tonight. We will do our best to get you SAFELY to Atlanta, so please relax and rest assured we are doing our utmost to serve you."

I finished an entire trashy '40's Romance novel I took from Grandma's house in the interim. FYI, "The Gorgeous Hussy" cannot compare to modern literature.

AirTran...DELAYED!!!

2006-01-23T20:47:00.000-05:00

Well, as most of you heard, our flight got delayed. SEVERELY. Well, 4 hours wouldn't have been too bad if the flight hadn't been schedualed to leave at 8pm. We got in around 2am and, since MARTA doesn't run that late on Sundays, had to catch a cab home. 30 minutes and $50 later, we were home and collapsed into bed (after shooting off emails to our respective employers to tell them we'd be in late).

Anyway, it was good to see you all back in MI! You can keep your snow though.

I hope everyone's getting the hang of this Blogging thing. I know it's new to most of you. If you want to post a comment in response to this post, just click on the "comments" link at the bottom of this post. If you'd like to start add your own new post, then log into your Blogger.com account. I added a nice little link on the top, right-hand side of the page in the "About" section that says "Click here to login to Blogger.com and Post to the Family Blog!!!" You can click on that, login to Blogger and then you can post a new message.

Later!
-Matt

American Idol

2006-01-19T09:36:00.000-05:00

Did anyone watch American Idol this week? The tryouts are funny, even though I know they set some of these people up to look especially sucky. It's still funny. Honestly, how do some of these people leave the house to go try out for AI? What are they thinking when they get in line? Do they really think they have a chance?

Even worse, why do their family and friends let them go through with it? I'm thinking specifically about the guy who invented the cosmic cup holder and his new buddy, the guy with the strange pajama-like outfits. Oh, and the boy who looked and dressed like a girl, right down to his thinly plucked eyebrows. If you missed this one, check online. I'm sure someone will have a video floating around.

Hello family!

2006-01-18T08:25:00.000-05:00

This is a great idea, Matt! Do you have your plans finalized yet for this weekend? Mom said we might not get to see you. :( It's OK, I know you're busy, but if you can work something out, let me know ASAP. Maybe Ryan and I can stop by mom and dad's house or meet you for lunch.

Hey Lisa! How was the Bon Jovi concert last night? Have fun at the Pistons game tonight.

1st Post

2006-01-16T22:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess I'll start things off. It's getting late though and Laura's gonna get irritated if I come to bed really late and wake her up so I better keep this short. (she just made a comment about me coming to bed...I knew it!) ;-) ...love you hun.

Anyway, I saw that the Houghtaling Fam was keeping a blog and I thought that was a good idea. Those Houghtalings are always cutting edge!
Here's the link to their blog: http://thehoughtalingfamily.blogspot.com
Since we don't live as close together anymore, I figure we can use technology to our advantage and it won't really seem like we live a thousand miles away. With all the cheap (free) calls these days it's easier to stay in touch than (I assume) it would have been just 10-20 years ago.

So, for the uninitiated, what's a Blog? It's a chronological log of something (in this case family messages) that's posted on the web. A web-log or Blog for short. Some people use it as a diary.

Here's the definition from Dictionary.com:
Main Entry: blog
Definition: to author an online diary or chronology of thoughts
Etymology: 1999-2004; abbr. of Weblog
Usage: blogged, blogging; blogger, n

Me and Josh have been doing this Blog thing for a little while now with our poetry blog. You can check it out at: http://wesuckatpoetry.blogspot.com
Um, yeah, so don't expect to find good poetry, but you will find that at least some of it rhymes.

Anyway, I was just out jogging, so I gotta jump in the shower and get to bed!

Later!
-Matt