That's GAL to you

Last Wednesday I spent the morning doing my mandatory court observation for CASA. That was an experience, to say the least. All parties to all cases are required to be on the 5th floor by 9am, it's refered to as the Cattle Call and it is hectic. You do not have an assigned time for your case to be presented, it will happen sometime between 9-12 after all the parties have arrived. There are a bloomin' million people and kids milling around outside the courtrooms, lawyers and social workers wheeling and dealing, and bailiffs yelling for parties to enter the courtroom, it's utter chaos.

There are 6 courtrooms with Magistrates on the bench and they fly through their dockets. Not all the cases they see are abuse/neglect cases, they have juvenile delinquents, truancy, probation etc. The best thing about this experience was the fact that a couple of the Magistrates knew who we were and why we were there and talked in depth to us inbetween cases. That was an awesome experience. One of the retired, traveling judges came into the courtroom that I was observing in and the magistrate introduced her to me. She was one of the judges who had founded CASA in Franklin County and spoke to me about why she thought the program was so important.

I completed the remaining 20 hours of CASA training this past weekend. We learned about the court process and what documents we need to prepare and what we might say during hearings, the mountains of documentation that we need to fill out, domestic violence (Specifically that I do not want any domestic violence only cases, for a bunch of reasons. Since I'm a volunteer I can specifiy that.), personal safety and spoke to a panel of current GALs. I was pretty slap happy and brain dead by the end of Sunday. Yesterday I had my post-training interview and was fingerprinted.

Next Wednesday is the swearing-in ceremony in the Franklin County Courthouse. A judge will be administering the oath to us, all of the judges and magistrates have been invited to attend along with the Columbus Dispatch. The county gave CASA additional funding this year, but with the caviot that they get one new lawyer and 100 new volunteers before the year is over. There were two classes running over the past 10 days and they are combining us for the swearing-in, with the intent that 30 something new guardian ad litems might make for a neat story that the Dispatch will run and hopefully get them more volunteers.

I will be getting my first case as soon as my background check comes back. In theory I could get a call next Thursday, although the volunteer director threatened to give me one before I left the swearing-in.

Fate bites

So, today is the first day of my vacation. I should be yelling, "Whoopie" but I'm not.

First of all, I had to call into a conference call at work today. The president of Kentucky Power didn't really care that I was on vacation and wanted to talk to me. Nice.

Second, I have been sick for awhile now, coughing, sneezing, sore throat, fever stuff and not able to sleep worth a flip because of all the above mentioned ailements. Today, I added incredibly ouchy ear to the list. Having had enough, I took myself to urgent care and was diagnosed with an ear infection and bronchitis.

Ah, but not to fear. I at least get to go to Florida on Wednesday. Nope, hurricane Fay has ruined that. Orlando airport is shut down, the schools are all closed and the national guard has been activated.

I'm gonna go drown my sorrows with some codeine cough syrup.....

What weekend

So, I just finished 20 hours of the required 40 hour CASA training this weekend. It was a lot to cram into only two days and I get to do it all over again next weekend. I also have to go observe the court for three hours on Wednesday. I am well on my way to becoming a social worker, mental health assessor, child development and psychology expert, lawyer, negotiator, intermediary and child advocate!

The first day was a sort of high level overview and a focus on perceptions and bias. Today was much harder. We started at 9am and ended at 6pm, working through lunch and getting a few, 5/10 minute breaks here and there. We had a lot of Franklin County Children Services folks talking to us about how complaints are handled, the process for evaluating the child and family and saw some pretty awful pictures. I would have assumed that folks would've know that would be coming to us at some point, but a few of them really struggled. I don't know how they are going to do when faced with seeing pictures of injuries on a kid that they will have to meet or going to the hospital and seeing the injuries directly. The thing I noticed was that all of the kids were mugging for the camera or in general being silly, even with their injuries they were still being kids. We also spent a lot of time learning about mental illness and child attachment.

Before the class started, 11 people dropped out. Two more didn't show up today and it will be interesting to see who comes back next weekend. It isn't easy and I'm guessing it's going to get worse, but I do feel that it is worth it.

Problem solved!

Yesterday's post was a bit heavy. Here's to the lighter side of politics. Credits to Beth for finding this most awesome shtick. I'll see you at the debates!

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Stop that Jibba Jabba!

Mr. T totally sums up how I'm feeling about all the presidential race garbage that I constantly hear and read about. Shut up presumptive presidential candidates, both of you.

For the first time in my voting history, I'm completely at a loss as to who I am going to vote for this coming November. There are a few things that I like about both McCain and Obama and a long list of things that I greatly dislike about them too.

I really want to vote for Obama just on principle. I'm annoyed by folks who won't vote for him just because he's black, end of story. I'm annoyed by all the hate mongering that has centered around him and sick of getting hate filled emails with outright lies ment to inspire terror, "He's a muslim and can't be trusted to lead this christian country!" I wish he WAS muslim and won the presidential race. It would be great for this country to have to deal with the fact that there are other religions in the world besides christianity and the fact that you don't have to be white to be president.

But alas, he drives me batty for other reasons. Usually, my choice for candidate is fairly easy, whoever is the most pro-gay gets the vote. While Obama talks about being all for gay rights, I don't really believe him. He rarely speaks about his stance and until fairly recently was against same-sex marriage. Not until California's recent marriage issues did he come out saying he was for it. The only thing he really speaks out about is the fact that Don't Ask, Don't Tell should be repealed and us gay types should be allowed to serve openly. Thanks for that, really. It's great that he thinks we're good enough to serve and possibly die for a country that won't even extend us the right to marry.

He also doesn't list gay rights issues anywhere under the Issues column of his website, especially not under the Civil Rights Issues section. No, you have to go and hunt around on the website for the LGBT section. How many folks know that stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender besides someone who fits into one of those definitions? Not very many. I'm assuming that this is an attempt to keep the christian, african american community oblivious to his support of us folks. Then there's his scary inclination to add his faith into everything, which I never approve of in any politician.

McCain and Obama basically have the same stance on gay issues, so no luck on a deciding factor there....

Now, I'm in general very annoyed by Obama's personality. He is a very eloquent speaker and can be mesmerizing. Unfortunately, I don't think he ever really tells me anything. I always come away with the sense that he just told me, "Everything will change and be better when I'm president, just because it will." I'm not sure that I've ever really heard a plan for anything. Energy, we will be independent of all foreign oil in 10 years, because we can. How? And no matter how he tries to deny it, I do think he is woefully inexperienced to be president and I wonder who his handlers will be if he's elected.....

He also strikes me as an incredibly pampas ass. According to him, he's not a typical politician and yet everything he does I've seen politicians do a hundred times. When close friends become troublesome, he gets rid of them. He's above negative attacks on his rivals, yet when he does turn negative it's all McCain's fault because he started it. His new seal that looks just like the eagle used by the president, really? How long did he spend campaigning in foreign countries, acting more like someone who's already won the presidential race instead of one who's trying to win it? Moving his acceptance of the democratic party nomination to a football stadium so he can get a billion people in to watch it, arrogant. Pointing his finger at his rival for taking big oil money, when he also has big oil money. I could keep going, but I need to stop at some point.

That leaves McCain. I like the fact that he seems to be more independent and has voted against his own party at times. It amuses me that the conservative republicans don't really like him, his stance on stem cell research being one example of why, that's a major plus in my book. But then there's the possibility that he might choose Huckabee, a.k.a Satan, to be his running mate to appease all those conservative types. I think that he has more experience and is more qualified than Obama to be president. I like the fact that he hasn't changed his stance nearly as often as Obama has on issues that he claims are important to him.

I also prefer his stance on Iraq. Don't get me wrong, I hate this war and have been against it since before it happened and I would love to get out, but we can't just walk away now. Like I tell my four year old, there are consequences to your choices. Our country decided to go over there and start this war, it is now our responsibility to not make Iraq and its people in worse shape than when we went over there. No matter how painful and expensive, we have to suck it up and help them rebuild. Think about how world war II got started and it might make more sense.

But he is still a republican, which usually elicits a sneer from me before I even realize it (although this is starting to become a problem when I hear democrat too). He recently met with some of the scarier ultra-conservative christian groups and promised to speak out more against gays. Like I said before, his stance on that topic has closely resembled Obama and the "Let the states decide but I think it should be between a man and a woman" thing. But then he had to go and meet with the equivalent of the KKK and agree to do their bidding. Nice.

Although Obama's circle would have you to think otherwise, he is super passionate about climate change. My thoughts on climate change would need a very long post all of their own, but I will leave it at I'm not buying into the media frenzy on this topic (and no, not because I work for an electric utility. As a scientist I have my doubts and felt this way while working at the EPA). I think that we could put ourselves into a serious situation, both economically and with electric supply, that could damage this country beyond repair if we aren't sensible about this. We had an electric utility lobbyist speak to our company a few months back. When asked which candidate would be better for the company, he answered that neither would be a problem. Then went on to state that it is difficult to rationalize with passionate people, and McCain is very passionate about climate change. He wasn't worried about Obama at all. So if climate change is your bailiwick, the republican is probably your best choice.

With that said, I still think he makes more logical choices with his energy policy. Clean coal, not just getting rid of it, more drilling for our own oil, and increase funding to find ways to get off oil all together. And thankfully he wants to get rid of that really stupid idea of ethanol mandates (another topic that I could do a long post on).

More tax breaks for big corporations, oh how very republican of you. I know that keeping corporations happy and making money is one way we keep jobs, but dammit, why do I have to pay more of my measly salary to the government than them? Hmmmm?

Oh, yeah. He's old. That generally translates into someone who's out of touch with most of younger america. The idea that he doesn't know how to use a computer or access email being one example.

Then there's his personality, good grief where to begin. "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iraq!" Really not the attitude I want someone with a lot of explosive, world destroying weaponry at their fingertips to have. The lovely term that he used for his wife in public, I don't even have words for how awful that is.

So, come November I'm doomed. I have a plan to write in a vote for a woman at work who will return the favor for me. At least I can say I got a vote to be president one day.... Rant over.

That wacky devil

This show makes me laugh way too much. I recommend you check it out. It's a story about this poor kid whose parents sold the soul of their first born son, in exchange for saving the dad's life. So, when Sam turns 21 the Devil shows up and informs him that he now works for him as a bounty hunter and must hunt down souls that have escaped from hell. He must put them in special cages or vessels and return them to the gateway to hell here on earth, a.k.a the BMV. The vessels have been all sorts of things from dirt devils to a lighter. Kevin Smith of Mall Rats and Clerks fame directed an episode and is creative consultant on the show. It's stinkin' funny and I can't do it justice. Just watch it.

What were we talking about?

Oh yeah, the beer. You've probably been wondering what happened to the beer I've been making forever now (or maybe you weren't). I've been letting the beer hang out in the secondary fermenter for a very long time. Usually, the beer only hangs out there for about a week, maybe two. This is not a normal beer. Everytime I checked on it, it was still just bubbling away. So, who cares? Well, the next step in the beer making process is to add priming sugar and then bottle the beer. The priming sugar gives the remaining yeast some more food, they then make carbon dioxide which when trapped inside the bottle carbonates the beer. Pretty neat! The problem here is that my yeast was still pretty darn active and fermenting away. They weren't done making beer yet and if I put all that really active yeast in a bottle with a lot of food, well my beer would certainly get carbonized. In fact, I would probably have exploding beer bottles, which while messy is also very dangerous. How do you move a bunch of glass bottles that at any minute could turn into a grenade?

So, I waited. I'm not sure that it still might not end in exploding bottles. I don't know what's going on here, but hopefully it will all be okay. I tasted the beer and although flat and not completely ready it didn't taste too bad. My last batch of beer ended in disaster, all two cases were contaminated with a wild yeast or bacteria and became undrinkable. Beth very kindly dumped all of them down the drain for me so I wouldn't have to do it. I would really like for this batch to come out good. We will just have to wait and see.

Hopefully, it will all be drinkable in about 3-4 weeks.