Woot! My GhostBusters package finally came! LOL, I honestly thought I was going to get some things like some postcards, a button pin and such, but what I got was WAY better… especially for me…

Yes, that is a pen filled with green slime!!! If you know me, you know how much I LOVE pens… I am the original Pen Whore!

Here is the inside front cover…

The individual pages have this in the bottom corner:

And the inside back cover:

Yes, I am using the notebook, but no, I’m not using the pen… it writes a little to light for my taste… plus it looks awesome sitting in it’s tube on my ‘puter desk!

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On another note… Go check out my friend’s comic blog, Imy… Every Friday she posts fan art (art work of her comics characters that is made by fans) and guess who today’s fan art is by??? NIKKI! Wooooooo! BTW… Nikki has a ton more to add to her blog, but we just haven’t had time… Squish (the nephew formerly known as Cobby LOL) was sick this week and the poor little booger wanted to be held almost constantly.

Because they always come in 3’s.

This morning I had someone leave this comment @ LunaStone Designs…

i think the whole fact that you charge money for premade blog layouts is ludicrous- much less the fact that they’re so expensive and only to be sold once. what a lame idea! I see you don’t make very much money- if the prices were only 2 or 3 (and no higher) and available to numerous ppl. then you’d make more money and ppl would be more inclined to put links up to you- but since you don’t. well, good luck with that- i wonder how many ppl such as me leave when seeing the price of your layouts. hey *psst* theres free ones that are just as good, better in fact, all over the whole internet!

This was my answer…

LOL, you must lead a very boring life to leave such an asinine comment.

First of all, there are many designers who charge as much as $65 for a premade template.

Second, people know that there are free templates out there, just as they know there will be numerous other people also using that template. And there are many people who would rather pay a nominal fee to have a one-of-a-kind template.

Third, this is not a job. My livelihood does not depend on selling blog templates. This is for fun. While I do more business with custom templates, I make premade ones when I am bored or in between clients. when they sell, it’s great, but I don’t sit around refreshing my mail hoping one sells.

Last, yes, there are many, many templates out there that are way better than mine. I have never tried to hide the fact that I am self taught and don’t know all the tricks. And my prices reflect that. If you actually did a little research, you’d see that my prices are way lower than most designers. This isn’t done to undercut them, it’s simply that I won’t charge huge amounts for my simple designs.

So, am I way off base here? Is $20 too much for a one-of-a-kind premade template? I think not.

I can’t believe I have a child that’s legally old enough to drive!!!

So, I finally got a call at about 4pm on Friday with the verdict… Guilty of DUI, not Guilty of Extreme DUI. (DUI is a BAC of 0.08 to 0.14, Extreme DUI is a BAC of 0.15 or more)

Now that it’s over, I can go into some detail. The basics are this… OnStar called the AJ Police department with a possible rollover accident. The guy drove off the end of a dead end street 300 feet into a wash. The officer tried to perform a field sobriety test, but do to weather and the inability of the guy to complete the task, he was taken into the station. A blood test was done & he had a BAC of 0.240.

The defense’s side was that A. No one actually saw him driving and B. Since no one saw him driving, we couldn’t be certain that the blood test was performed within the 2 hour time allowance. The test was performed in 57 minutes from the time OnStar called the police department.

The prosecutor’s side was that A. There was no one else with him, he was seated in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition, therefor in legal control of the vehicle, admitted twice that he had been driving & that there was no one else with him and B. It’s unreasonable to think that OnStar would wait over an hour before calling the police department, especially in a possible rollover accident.

I, personally would’ve gone guilty on all charges, but I think maybe they split hairs because of the single fact that no one saw him driving.

Either way, it was an interresting experience & one that I hope I don’t have to go through again for a long, long time! LOL

Well, yesterday was my first ever jury duty experience and it wanked!

I got there at 7:45, sat around till 8:30 when we were finally called in to begin the process. There was a 3 hour long session of general questions. It was a DUI case, so the questions were basically along the lines of “Have you, a relative or close friend ever been arrested or convicted of a DUI?”, “”Are you, a relative or close friend in law enforcement?”, yadda yadda yadda. At which point we had an hour break for lunch.

When we got back, they started the round of single person one on one questions… ya, I got to sit in the witness box, oh goody. Then we all sat in the hall to wait while they chose the jury. Of the 5 people in our row of seats, 4 were chosen to be on the jury… and yep, I was one of them. UGH.

So, while the 8 of us watched the lucky bastards that didn’t get picked walk out, we began getting the instructions on how a case works, what the expectations of us were, ect. and the trial began… yep, that quick.

I can’t go into any detail on the actual case (the verdict hasn’t been rendered at this point), let me just say that people are figgin weird! First, the defendant looked like Mark Hamill on AIDS, the defense attorney wore a smug, smarky look the entire time and the prosecutor would stop in the middle of a sentence, stare off into space for a few seconds then start back up again.Very weird…

It was a long, tedious process of witnesses, questions, redundant questions, and so on… at one point I had to literally count lines in the carpet & doodle in my notepad just to stay awake! Seriously… I couldn’t even focus my eyes I was sooooo sleepy! The thing that was really weird and totally startled me the first time it happened, when the attorney & prosecutor approached the bench, the judge (I guess) would hit a button & all of the sudden, over the speakers, there was loud white noise. It was a wee bit freaky.

So, we finally get to the end of all the witnesses, questions, closing arguments and 30 minutes of instructions on our duties as jurors, it was time to draw 2 random numbers. Those would be the alternate jurors. This means that those 2 people sat through the entire thing and then don’t get to go in to deliberate and decide on guilt or innocence… and guess who one of those people was???

Yep… me! I was soooo ! I went through all that and I don’t get a say??? It’s like an ice cream sundae without the cherry, going to Disneyland and not seeing Mickey Mouse… I feel like I’m dangling in the wind. It so totally sucks.

The jury voted to begin deliberations this morning since, by that time last night, it was already 5pm. The court is supposed to call me and the other alternate when a verdict was in, but I haven’t gotten a call yet, so I called them & they’re still deliberating… I’m quite surprised actually. I won’t reveal what I was leaning toward till I find out what the verdict is & I’ll do another post when I find out as well..tc

OK, get this…
Last Thursday I received jury duty summons for tomorrow here in AJ… yes, a week’s notice. So, I call the number on Friday and tried to get excused since I’m watching Cobby. I’m told that the lady I was talking to is only a clerk & doesn’t have the authority to excuse me & that I had to come in to see a judge to be excused.

OY… so I have to go in at either 8:30 or 1:30 to see the judge on Monday… I go in only to find out that he will only see about 5 people. SO… Alissa and I worked it to where the girls will go home with her tonight & watch Cobby tomorrow so I can do my civic duty.

And here’s where it get’s even better! Last night, T walks in and says, “You’re not going to believe this Hon, but you just got summoned for jury duty for the 23ed in Florance.” WTF???? Less than a week’s notice this time! Can you believe this crap???? Am I on some jury duty mailing list or did someone just pull my name out of a hat and say “OK, we’re gonna F with this person this week!”.

So, I called the peeps in Florance (which is about 30 minutes from here BTW) and I am told that I need to fax a copy of the summons from AJ to get a continuance, then fax them the paper work that proves I went to get excused.

I’m sorry, but just because I am a stay at home mom, it doesn’t mean I don’t have a life. Jerks!

This weekend Nikki drew a fan art of Imy… It’ll be posted on Imy on Friday, July 3rd, so I won’t spoil it by posting here… BUT… She asked me to make her a blog (Nikki’s Fan Art & Originals) to post her drawings & we worked on it all day today. She even drew the header graphic herself!!!

Here’s a screen shot…

So… Go and check it out & say HI!!!