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First off, can you believe tonight’s World Series baseball game? It’s like how I used to act out a World Series game when I was a kid! Crazy.

So, yes, my jury duty responsibility wrapped up today. We all arrived just before 9am to find our notepads and jury instructions on the table in the deliberation room. We soon learned which of us was named the alternate (not me!) and she left. Then a foreman was selected (me!).

The deliberation was difficult. The challenge had to do with the issue being injuries sustained during a car accident, BUT the injured party was in a second accident two days after the first. We were being asked to determine an apportionment of injury from EACH accident, although the defendant in our case was the driver who caused the first accident. Sound complicated? It was.

We talked through the morning, wrestling mainly with the question of whether or not the defense met their burden of apportioning the percentage due each accident. People were on both sides of this fence. But we came to a decision by 2:30, it was read in court, and we were dismissed. Another juror and I spent another 45 minutes debriefing the trial with the lawyers from both sides. Boy, that was fascinating!

In fact, the whole thing was fascinating!

One piece of advice – don’t get into a car accident.

Yes, it was Day Three for me on the jury and I found the whole process immensely fascinating. I mentioned I’m part of a civil trial which, I think, are a lot less glamorous than criminal trials. For instance, in the courtroom next to ours we all saw a couple of people come and go in handcuffs. Nothing like that in our courtroom.

Still, it’s really interesting. For instance, we were due back after lunch at 1:15 but were kept in the deliberating room (with its view of Smith Tower – see yesterday) until 2:30. I can only imagine what was going on in the courtroom. I think it had to do with a disagreement over the wording in the jury instructions we were to receive before the lawyers made their closing statements.

Speaking of which, the closing statements were finally made and tomorrow morning the case is turned over to us, the jury. Before that, however, one of us will be picked at random to be excused. Since we have 13 jurors hearing the case and only 12 are needed to deliberate and reach a decision (the 13th is present in case of illness), one will be sent home first thing in the morning.

At this point, having been present for everything else, I really don’t want it to be me!

It was a long, tiring day in court today. Lots and lots of testimony. Much of it fairly boring. Much of it redundant. But from a legal standpoint, I suppose, all of it was necessary to establish various facts and determine expertise and authority. It takes some doing to stay attentive through all of it sometimes, especially when the same question is being asked to yet another witness.

Still, it’s a fascinating process. Being on a jury is tremendously fulfilling. I recommend it!

During breaks we are ushered in to the jury room. There is a big table inside, just like you’d expect, and enough chairs for 12 people to comfortably sit around it. This is where our deliberation will take place, likely on Thursday (but maybe early as tomorrow if things go quickly).

Of interest, this is the only room in the courthouse I’ve been in with a window. And the view out the window is to the west and just across the street is the famous Smith Tower, one of the world’s first skyscrapers (I kid you not). If you study the picture carefully, which I took at the tail end of the lunch recess, you’ll see a ferry on the Puget Sound.

If that doesn’t say “Seattle,” nothing does.

I was seated on a jury late this morning. And let me just say what a fascinating process this is!

I arrived at 8am and gathered with other potential jurors, about 200 of us, I ‘d estimate, in the Juror Assembly Room at the King County Courthouse in downtown Seattle. After we sat through a variety of orientations, courtrooms started requesting jurors. 50 selected at random were off to one case. 45 to the next. Me, I was part of 32 assigned to a courtroom on the 9th floor. Of the 32, I was juror #14.

So from that 32, 13 were ultimately selected, me being one of these 13. The whittling down process took place over about 2 hours. Three or four people were sent back to the assembly room, having requested to be excused because of the nature of this case (I can’t talk about it until it’s over, other than to say it’s a civil case). Then the “voir dire” process began.

That’s right, voir dire. Two French words (voir – see; dire – say). Basically, what it means is that the lawyers interview the potential jurors to weed out bias. They “see” us, I guess, and get us to “say” things. Actually, Wikipedia explains it better.

So I’m on a jury and the trial is expected to last three days. Today’s picture is of me riding the escalator from the downtown Seattle bus tunnel, a block from the courthouse.

So last night I wrote about Chloe’s pumpkin weekend at college. I thought I’d use another photo tonight she sent me from that pumpkin carving event. With her in this picture is her roommate Andrea. I wrote about the roomies back on September 3rd. It sounds like they continue to get along splendidly. In fact, Andrea will be heading to Seattle to stay with us for an American Thanksgiving in a few weeks.

In other news, Melinda spent a chunk of the weekend working on putting in a ceiling in our laundry room. This is a very hard thing to do because of all the plumbing pipes and heat ducts. But she’s committed to it and soldiers on. She’s also committed to continuing the juice cleanse, this being her 7th day. I returned to using my teeth yesterday.

Tomorrow I have jury duty and am due at the courthouse at 8am. This will cause me to miss school for at least the start of the day and perhaps longer. If I get on a jury, it could be several days. I’ll know more tomorrow.

Every year, Melinda’s sister Brenda and her husband Greg (Perrin’s parents) have invited Chloe and Ella over to their house to celebrate what has become a family Halloween tradition, Pumpkin Weekend! It involves heading over on Saturday afternoon, picking up pumpkins, carving them, having dinner, watching scary movies and spending the night. This has gone on for years and when the girls were young served as a night out for Melinda and me. Of course, last year was interrupted by our year in France. But Ella is excited to be back at it, with Pumpkin Weekend scheduled for next weekend.

Not to be outdone, apparently, Chloe participated in something she called Pumpkin Weekend up at Quest University. I’m not sure how she can call it that, but that’s what she has done. She just sent me several photos from the event, including this one. I can see the France influence is live and strong.

Speaking of Chloe, she continues to report being happy at school. She’s involved in her second “block,” a 3 1/2 week long class, this one on rhetoric. It’s supposed to bring the freshmen to their knees. I guess that happened to Chloe yesterday, but that may have been more due to the food poisoning she reported knocked her down last night and today.

I can safely report that there has been nary a case of food poisoning from Pumpkin Weekend in Seattle.

Ella is taking two dance classes this fall. On Thursday evenings it’s a beginning ballet class. And on Friday evenings, a ballroom/swing class. She is very happy about both and has asked me to take a picture of her and write about it here on the blog. I had hoped to get a shot of her tonight before class was over, an action shot, but it took an extra long time to get to the studio to pick her up. Melinda was guessing that may have to do with The Black Keys performing tonight at the grand opening of the Microsoft Store at University Village.

Anyway, dance seems to be a better fit for Ella than was soccer, what she had done for several years in the fall before our year in France. Her heart was never really into it, especially when compared to dance. I just don’t think Ella is the competitive type.

It seems I may have told this story before but it bears repeating. Back when she was something like 3, we signed up Ella for a Creative Dance class in the neighborhood. In her first class Melinda and I kind of spied through a small window in the door. Ella seemed to be having a great time. When class was over she came out and we asked, “So how was it??” She replied with some scorn, “I don’t know how they can call it creative dance when they tell you what to do!”

It was both funny and stunning, coming from Ella.

A year ago today I wrote about the crêpes that Ella’s homeroom teacher made for her to bring home to the rest of us. It was such a profound act of kindness that I let it supplant what I first intended to write about that day, the fact that Melinda made homemade coq au vin (I did tell about that two days later). Today’s photo is from exactly a year ago. As you can see, it’s of Melinda in our kitchen in Nantes making said coq au vin.

I’ve got food on my mind – crêpes, coq au vin, anything(!) – because Melinda talked me in to joining her for a 10 day juice cleanse. The other day I wrote about the fact we bought a juicer. Now I guess we have to use it. And use it. And use it. Man, are we ever going through a lot of produce. And man, am I ever hungry.

Truth be told, I’m ending this juice cleanse after Day 5, which is tomorrow. But Melinda has asked that I keep to a strict vegie diet for her remaining 5 days. Which, of course, means no coq au vin (just writing that makes my mouth water).

Say, can coq au vin go through the juicer??

First, let me just point out that the blog got 144 hits yesterday, about double the recent average. Just what makes this happen, I wonder. Given I don’t post until the evening, most of the visits are coming for the previous day’s post which, in this case, had to do with my weight loss. Do you think it was some kind of Google search having to do with losing weight? Like I said, I wonder.

Clearly, a photo like today’s (or yesterday’s) is much more interesting than one of me having to do with losing weight. I mean just look at young, three year-old Ella here, another from my collection of our trip to France in the year 2000. I think the only thing that prevents this from being a full-blown “French” photo is the blue socks. It’s breakfast time in our Paris hotel. Ella’s got a croissant and hot chocolate. She looks great.

But blue socks?

Not too long ago I had several thousand old family photos digitized. It’s been fun looking through them, including finding a number of photos from our trip to France in the year 2000. That summer, Melinda’s grandfather treated his entire family to two weeks in France to celebrate his 90th birthday. We spent a week in Paris and a week in a villa in southern France. I mentioned all of this not too long ago, back on September 2nd this year.

This is one of my favorite photos from that incredible trip. Yes, that’s Ella, age 3. She’s on a carousel under the Eiffel Tower. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Speaking of Ella, it’s hard to believe that she’ll be 15 in December. Soon after that comes her driver’s permit and then soon after that her driver’s license.

I don’t recall her needing a license to ride this horse on the carousel.