December 4, 2009

So, is it a blog if you only update every 6 months or so? I don't know, but it is the day I went to court on that ticket. All that I was able to do today is enter a plea. The court dismissed the infraction because the registration was paid. The "failure to appear" charge is what remains. Since I never knew I needed to appear, and did show up immediately upon notice of the ticket not being clear, I really felt confident when I plead not guilty. An interesting addition is that a few weeks after I first went to the court to try to clear all of this, I received in the mail a revised ticket. It appears that the officer had but down an incorrect citation number. The new date that was listed for me to take care of this was September 21. I went down to the court to try and pay a fee, and avoid having to go to trial, but the clerks decided that I need to keep my court date. I hope that the judge sees that this is a simple mistake, and realizes that since the police officer made a similar clerical error, it would be appropriate to dismiss the charge. I have had to pay bail in the amount of $704, I will get it back when I am victorious in court (or 6-8 weeks later). January 5 in the new year is my trial date.

Amanda has been down at school all semester, that was a move that was a pain in the tail. The Trojans have not had a great season, but it is not terrible. Last weekend we saw them take care of UCLA for the tenth time in the last eleven years. The James Bond class that Amanda took was great, she had me down for a film festival and Q and A with several of the producers,writers, actors and directors of the films. Allison, has been working without being paid regularly. She is also volunteering on the paper at Cal Poly. She seems to be kicking ass in her classes and hopes to take extra units in the next couple of quarters to finish earlier.

We had a terrific weekend over Thanksgiving although it started on a sad note. Anne's Father passed away on November 22, and the service was on the 25th. That night however, Dolores and I relived our youth once again and saw the Hottest Band in the World at Staples Center. The band is still incredible, maybe more so now that Gene is 60 and Paul 57. Those guys still work their butts off every night. On Thanksgiving, we drove up to Danny and Kim's house for dinner. Allison and Drew came up separately, so we were all together on the holiday. The next morning we had to leave early because Amanda had practice and a rally before the game. Saturday was an all day affair and it ended in tears for the Bruins. This weekend, Angelic is going to take Dee's place at the game and we will see what the Men of Troy can do to the wildcats.

I have been the Speech department coordinator for several months now and that keeps things pretty busy. More meetings than I care for but so far things seem to be going smoothly. The end of the term is coming up at both schools and I will be busy for a few days but then, a break. We are supposed to go to Vegas for the Elvis Cirque De sol show and stay at the new Aria hotel just a few days before Christmas. Movie stuff is coming up and in another post I will try to update our film status for the year.