ugh I am sick. Am running a low fever and sniffling. B thinks it's cuz I just finished a big trial last week. I hope not; there are going to be a lot more trials in my career.

We took Hulu and the Bjorn to the Hawai`i Kai dog park.  There must have been at least forty dogs there.  It was great to have so many dogs around, because Hulu has a habit of fixating on one little dog and barking at it for half an hour.  But with forty dogs, there were too many distractions for Hulu to fixate.  Much better to have him go from dog to dog than stand and bark at the same dog the whole time.  I don't know why Hulu does that.  He's kind of a bully.  Because as soon as a dog growls at him, he backs off.  But if he finds a scared little dog, he'll just stand there and bark and bark and bark. 

Yay!  The verdict came back guilty.  The jury was out over two nights.  That was nerve wracking.  Brian and I are going out to celebrate tonight.  :) 

 I've never had a jury out overnight before.  It's driving me bonkers.

So I started this child abuse case on Tuesday.  We closed today, and the jury started deliberating at about 3:15 p.m..  Then at 4:15 I talked to the clerk, and she was like, "Don't go anywhere, the jury said they just needed five more minutes."  So I was happy, because an hour is a good deliberation time.  But then the clerk called me back at 4:25 and said they had to send the jury home, because they couldn't decide on a verdict.  

Now I'm going nuts.  I keep replaying my closing statement in my head and wondering what I should have done differently.  The fact that it's a child abuse case makes it even more depressing.  

All my other cases, the jurors took between one to three hours, so I'm not used to an overnight wait.  And I don't like having my thoughts dwell on child abuse.  Ugh.

My best friend from high school got married on June 23, 2008.  Some of you might remember Becky.  She was the maid of honor at my wedding.  Anyway, she and Carol visited Hawai`i in April of 2007.  They loved it here, so I was happy when they told us they were flying to Hawai`i for their commitment ceremony.  

It was very special.  They had in on the beach at Waimanalo Bay.  Captain Howie presided.  It was just Becky, Carol, Becky's parents, Carol's brother and his wife, Becky's friend Gina, Brian, and me.  I don't have a ton of photos, because I only brought my iPhone, not our camera.  But here's Becky and Carol with Cpt. Howie to the right.  Carol's brother is on the left.  They're looking at their commitment ceremony certificate.




Anyway, it was beautiful.  Congratulations, Beckle! :)

Wow.  Since I last posted, life has been crazy.  I got promoted, and I'm super busy at work.  I'll update more later. 

Ughworkugh.  That is all.

Wow, it was hot out today.  I wanted to go to a movie just for the air conditioning.  But I went to lay down on the bed, and wound up napping through the movie time.  

I think our house has gotten warmer without the trees.  The sun beating down on the house makes it hotter than before when we had four trees shading us.  Brian doesn't think so, though. 

OMG 

Brian and I hiked the lighthouse trail on the windward side of the island.  The park is called Makapu`u Point.  It includes a paved trail that goes up the hill, and also splits off to the lighthouse.  I was huffing and puffing my way up the trail, so I didn't really concentrate on taking pictures.  I just kind of aimed the camera and pushed the button.  But the photos turned out great, anyway.

Here you can see Kokohead as you look Leeward toward land from the trail:





As you hike around the hill, the noise of traffic disappears.   You look out east over the ocean.  The water is a gorgeous blue.





The area is a monsoon ecology, with heavy rain during part of the year that allows a lot of grassy vegetation to grow.  Then for the rest of the year, it's dry.  All the grass dies.  There is some cactus. 






Here is a view of the lighthouse from above:




From the top of the hill, you can look Leeward and see the cliffs over Waimanalo.  Our friends are getting married in Waimanalo in a few weeks.




I had no idea how this photo would turn out.  But it turned out quite well.  You can see two little off-shore islands.  I like how they're nesting.  You can also see the parking area at the bottom of the hill. 





Here is a photo I took as we were going back down.  You can see the paved trail.  Apparently the military made the road out of concrete and lava rock.  Then, when the area became a park, they paved over the road and it became a trail.




Here is Brian taking a shortcut down the hill.  At various places on the hill, there are old military installations.  Bunkers, storage sheds, and other random buildings made of concrete.  Oahu is funny that way.  You'll be in the middle of the jungle, and then suddenly come across an abandoned military building.  Good for conspiracy theorists.




Ah, I slept really well last night.  We should go for hikes more often. 

I am snorting out loud at Brant Hansen's album covers. 

I walked the dogs yesterday with Brian.  Becky would be proud.  My ankle started hurting halfway through the walk.  I have to get the ankle fixed.  But I don't have time.  Maybe I can make a doctor's appointment this week.

Ah, we've gone an entire day without eating at a restaurant.  Feels good.  I imagine my parents are back to cooking, too.

Well, no trials this week.  Surprising.  I thought there'd be like five cases where the State was ready.  But one victim had back surgery, another victim had to go to work, a defendant didn't show up... just goes to show, you never know what will happen.  Now instead of prepping a bunch of cases for tomorrow, I can download the most recent Lost episode and then be driven nuts by it. :)

Ms. divkatagged me. Only seven songs?  Eek.  

_______
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to. 

1.  Silent Shout by The Knife
2.  Love in the Year 3000 by The B-52s
3.  One Week by Barenaked Ladies
4.  Dizz Nee Land by Dada
5.  I Got a Man by Positive K
6.  The Way I Are by Timbaland
7.  Disko Boy by Shantel

 

My goal this week was to post on a Wednesday. But I forgot! Oh well, it's been a while since I poste on a Thursday, too. So this post will have to do.

My friend Rob got in to law school! I'm so happy for him. I was telling a mutual acquaintance that Rob really deserved to get into law school. Then I corrected myself and said Rob really deserves to be happy... nobody really deserves law school per se. :)

I spent all day today working on one case. That is highly unusual in my job. Prosecutors have tons of cases, and we work on different ones all the time. But this one case is set for re-sentencing, and the judge wanted a memo. I had to research facts and law. The memo took a long time. The rough draft is done and sitting on my desk. I'll go in tomorrow and revise it. You know how you can't revise your writing right after you write it, right? :p

Huluhulu is licking Tertullian. Huluhulu is a regular Cat Wash. We should charge the neighborhood strays.

I wanted to go to a movie tonight, but Brian is still working. He wants to get his one project finished. Too bad. Maybe on the weekend. My parents are visiting next week. Maybe I can get them to go to all the movies that Brian won't go to.

It's somewhat less voggy today. I hope the ash clears by the time my parents get here. They are undoubtedly looking for a little sun. The vog really traps in the humidity. It's warm.

Unfortunately two of our trees are gone. Brian had tree guys chop them down, because the trees were growing onto our roof and making a mess. I'll miss the trees. I'll miss the shade. We don't have AC in our house. We haven't really needed it, in part because of all the shade from our trees. Now with the trees gone, I hope it doesn't get too warm.

Thorbjorn is staring at me. She is jealous of the grape popsicle I just ate. Speaking of cold food, Ben and Jerry's is now selling oatmeal cookie ice cream. Yum, it's good. :) They used to sell it at the B&J store in Ward Center, but then they stopped. Now at least we can get it in pints at the grocery store.

Well, the weather guy just said the vog should go away. I hope so. It is bothering a lot of people's breathing. I'm not sensitive to it at all. Don't know why.

Incidentally, May Day is Lei Day here in Hawai`i. Folks at Kapiolani Park got together and went for the Guiness Book of World Records longest lei. They think they did it, but it will take a few weeks for the official result. Why is that, anyway? I mean, either the lei was long enough, or it wasn't. Why does it take weeks to figure out if their lei was longer than the last longest one? Maybe some Heisenberg uncertainty flower power principle.

We are always losing drinking glasses. Brian drinks so much water, I think he wears out the glasses. Anyway, Brian just bought four new plastic glasses from the grocery store. Thorbjorn has already managed to eat one. Brian says that's OK, though, because Thorbjorn ate the orange one, and that one was the worst color. Personally I think the avocado green one I'm drinking out of right now is the worst color. But I grew up with a lot of avocado green in our kitchen, so I don't think avocado green is anything special. Orange, on the other hand, seems cheery to me.

I need a new black sweater. Somehow, I pulled a thread in my current sweater, and when I wasn't watching, the pull turned into a run. There is a long hole in my current sweater. Which is too bad. I like this sweater. It has three quarter length sleeves, so I don't have to roll them up all the time when I'm writing or typing.

I have gotten addicted to the Tudors, the Showtime cable show. I download episodes from iTunes. The current season isn't out yet. Man, the show is melodramatic and not very good. Don't know why I'm so addicted.

OK, something smells like grilled cheese. Thorbjorn ate our cheese slicer. I don't think I'd ever owned a cheese slicer before Brian bought ours a month or so ago. And we didn't own it for very long, either.