Busy Week

Well, I'm done with my P.E. Exam! I took it last Friday and I think it went O.K. The morning was pretty easy and the afternoon was pretty tough so I hope it averages out to a passing score. I won't find out if I passed or not until early January so that kinda sucks. I'm so glad it's done, though. I can finally focus on other things and get some stuff done at work! I never thought I would be so excited to work.

If studying for my P.E. exam wasn't enough to distract me from doing work. I found out on Monday that I had to serve on Jury Duty all day on Tuesday. It was a rather interesting process on how people get selected. On Monday morning I was put in this big room with about 440 other people. You are assigned a number and at various times they called out a set numbers to follow the bailiff into a courtroom for a specific case. In the courtroom, the judge, the 2 lawyers, the defendant and a few others were there. They proceeded to weed us out by asking lots of questions to determine any biases. After about 4 hours of that, they called out the names of the people that weren't picked for the jury and I was not one. We were then told to go and report on Tuesday morning at 8:15am for the trial. On Tuesday morning I got up early, got a coffee, and headed to the courthouse. It was a sexual assault case so I thought it might get kinda graphic, but it really didn't. There were a ton of people brought up for testimony; detectives, teaches, family members, the victim. There were many objections and approaching the bench just as I had anticipated, the jury had to leave several times so the lawyers could clear up a few things with the judge. The case ended at 5:00pm and then it was time for us to deliberate. They put us in this room, took all of our possessions and locked them away so we couldn't have contact with the outside world. The bailiff brought us a bunch of pizzas for dinner. We found the defendant guilty on 1st degree sexual assault in about 20 min. and the other 3.5 hours was spent determining if he enticed the child with intent to have sexual contact. In the end we found him guilty on both charges which is a maximum sentence of 85 years in prison. Then it was time for us to come back in the courtroom for the verdict. My heart was pumping so hard and I couldn't look at the defendant. Is was so nerve wracking waiting for the judge to read the verdict. This guy's life was totally about to change based on the decision of 12 people. Afterwards the judge (who looked a lot like Martin Sheen from the West Wing) came back and hung out with us for like an hour to talk to us about the case, his thoughts on it, and he would answer any question we asked him. He said he agreed on our verdict so that was fairly comforting. Overall I was very impressed by the process and the people I got to work with. Everything was so organized and both of the lawyers were so friendly. Maybe in 4 years I'll get picked again!

And if that wasn't distraction enough, I also had to move offices on Wednesday to a different part of the floor so I spent all day on Wednesday doing that. On Thursday I unpacked most of the day so today is finally a day when I can do work. And what am I doing? Writing on my blog. And it's Friday so it's hard to get any work done anyway. I think it's a slightly bigger office so that's cool and I got rid of a lot of crap that I don't need so that opened up some space too.

Last Sunday I started making my beer. And let me tell you, it's not as hard as you would think. I started at 7pm on Sunday night and got done at about 10:30. The tricky part for this particular beer is the specific temperatures you need to get the wort at to steep the grains and add the malt extract. Also, it is crucial to sterilize everything. If bacteria gets into the mix, then the yeast could spoil the beer. I was nervous on Monday morning when I didn't see any bubbles coming out of the relief valve. I thought for sure fermentation would have started so I thought I screwed up the yeast part somehow. I called the Wine and Hop Shop on Monday afternoon, told them my concerns and the guy basically laughed at me and said I ad to wait at least another day for it to start. And sure enough, on Monday night it was bubbling like crazy. Whew! And it smelled great! On Wednesday after work I transferred the contents into a glass carboy for the 2nd stage of the fermentation process. It makes for a smooth tasting beer. Then next Saturday I'm going to bottle it. So 3 weeks minimum for start to finish. Although they recommend keeping it in the bottle for a month before opening it for the best taste. It should be ready just in time for Thanksgiving, can't wait! I'm not sure about the name quite yet so I hope to focus on that more next week. Amber recommenced "Rew's Brew" (although she doesn't like beer so I don't think she has a say) I'll post some pictures up once the brew is complete.

Ah, Halloween is today and it's time to hand out candy to the 2 people that stop by our house. Amber and I were thinking about walking around State St. tonight to check out some of the funny costumes. My co-worker and I went to Starbucks like every Friday and man, there were a lot of people with costumes on! By 9am I already say a Batwoman, Chewbacca, Little Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf, Hippie Dude, various princesses, Tigger and a bear.

Big vote next Tuesday. I gotta get more informed. That's two huge civic duties in one week, Jury Duty and Voting for the presidency, man I feel like an American! Please comment below if you want to sway me in any particular direction. (Although I am already leaning pretty heavily in a particular direction)