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.

It's About Time

Here we are half-way through the year and this is only the third post. This week reminds me of all the stuff that I wanted to keep a record of. Let's start with the legal issues. On April 25th I got pulled over for expired tags on the Flagship. There was a little confusion because we had only ordered the personalized plates in September. Anyway, while the police officer was writing up the ticket and checking the computer records, Amanda called home. Before we pulled away from the curb, Dolores had already paid the registration on-line and the late fees. The police officer told me that there was no fine on the ticket, I just needed to show proof of compliance. On the following Monday, I sent in the ticket with the registration receipt from the DMV. I looked for but did not see any fee for the ticket. A few weeks later a notice came reminding me to take care of this issue. The notice did not specify an amount due, and it said that I should disregard the notice if I had already taken care of it. Since I had, I simply disregarded the notice. On July 9, as we were getting ready to travel to Vegas for the weekend, a notice came, telling me that my license was to be suspended and that I owed $600 if I paid immediately and it would go to $900 in 30 days. We tried to get some kind of information on-line and on the phone but we were not able to. On Monday July 13, I went to the Metropolitan Office of the Superior Court in Los Angeles. After waiting to see the clerk, I was informed that they never received my payment. I asked the clerk to explain what payment I was supposed to have sent, he was not very clear and simply repeated the same statement about a $25 fee. I offered to pay that, but he said I need to get a court date to dismiss any fee. I also needed to pay a $10 fee for what he called an "abstract" which appears to be an electronic wavier of any suspension of my drivers license. My Court date is 8:30 a.m. on DECEMBER 4.

Dolores is in the middle of a breakdown over trying to get a loan against her TSA. The process has been unclear, she has talked to 4 or 5 different sets of people, and has spent 11 days on this, after the paper work was originally sent in. There appears to be some progress but she could explode tomorrow or on Monday.

The fuel pump went out on us as we returned from the Hollywood Bowl after the Faith Hill concert. The Yennys were with us and we had a little adventure in Pasadena at 1:00 a.m.. I remembered after we took the car in for repairs that we had an extended warranty. The total cost was $1100, there is a $250 deductible, so we should be getting reimbursed for some of this.

Amanda is trying to schedule a move from the house she lived in last year to the apartment that she will be in next year. She wants us to rent a truck, pack up all her stuff, store it overnight at home and then move it back down to SC. Also, all of her roommates are getting in on this and we will be moving them also. It seems somewhat convoluted to me, but what do I know?

Summer school ended today and I was just trying to tidy up some loose ends. I am now the Speech department Coordinator and there will be trouble if I don't get my life a little more organized. Rebooting this web journal is on way that I am trying to get some of that discipline.
I am sure there are other things I should write down, but this will do for now. Hope it isn't because my court date went bad that I next post.

First Week

The weekend was fine. We had a very nice time at John and Anne's house, with Johnny's friends playing a new type of Pictionary. Some of the clues were a little risque, and I am a little embarrassed that I laughed so hard. On the other hand it was very therapeutic. Amanda stayed at home and played Scene It with her friends. This resulted in my having to go out on Sunday and acquire this version for our family. We then spent part of Sunday evening playing just the four of us. Each side won one game so we called it quits before people got too testy. We finally started watching Twin Peaks on DVD, the girls started laughing out loud at some of the lines they recognized from years of living around us. Dee is back to work today and was none too happy about it. I have classes at Cal Poly this evening, it is the start of the Winter Quarter and there are a lot of things to do, it seems like a long time to go until the Summer, but it will get here quick enough.

New Years Resolutions

It is the second day of the year. Amanda is home for another week, She is exhausted from marching in the Rose Parade and Playing for an additional 10 hours for the game. Thank goodness the Trojans won or things would be unpleasant around here. Allison is out with Drew, they went shooting and have not been heard from for a while. She and Drew were here from about Mid-night to 1:30 am. Dee spoke with them before she came to bed. I was out by Midnight, the game took a lot out of me as well. The day was fantastic, we had a terrific time. Today the weather is overcast and it is freezing around here. We just got a call from Jeff the car service guy. The van appears to be fine and we can pick it up. A couple more college games to watch. We are supposed to go to the Yenny's tonight for some chili and Pictionary before Johnny heads back to the Navel Academy. My resolution this year is to try and keep this journal and add as many video updates as I can. The goal is to have a record of the year, work on becoming a more proficient hunt and pecker at the keyboard, and learn more technology skills that I can use in other places. I don't know if anyone else will ever read any of this, but I hope that I will enjoy putting it together and reviewing the events of the day.