Jury Duty

Yep... it was inevitable... I was chosen for jury duty. I had to report on Wednesday, which is my Sunday by the way, and I was chosen from about 50 people to be on the 12 person jury. I can't talk about what is going on but I can tomorrow after we come up with a verdict... hopefully we can figure it out by tomorrow. I can talk about it all I want after the fact so watch for another post.

Here are a few interesting things I found while looking for this "Scales of Justice" picture on my trusty friend google: First, scales are apparently the symbol for the Libra zodiac symbol. I sure hope this is paint and not a tattoo.

Also, do you know where "Lady Justice" came from? I do. Here it is (I took out the boring "daughter of..." stuff):
The origin may be Themis, a Greek mythological goddess. Justitia, a Roman goddess of justice, wore a blindfold. She had been depicted with sword and scales, but was not always so. Representations of the Lady of Justice in the Western tradition occur in many places and at many times. She sometimes wears a blindfold, more so in Europe, but more often she appears without one. She usually carries a sword and scales. Almost always draped in flowing robes, mature but not old, no longer commonly known as Themis, she symbolizes the fair and equal administration of the law, without corruption, avarice, prejudice, or favor.

It's Alive!

The survey to the right should work now. Turns out, I have to put my email address on there so the votes get sent to me... go figure. I've tested it out and it works now!

Survey

I need your help. In honor of Earth Day 2009 ( I know, still a little late) I am going to plant about 10 trees around our property and I'm not sure which ones to pick. My goal is to provide shade to our house during the summer months as well as make our yard more beautiful. I love all of these trees and I can use a combination. I would like to see which are the favorites. Please vote on the survey to the right and please write some comments to me about what you think! Thank you!


Weeping Cherry


Red Oak- Summer


Red Oak- Fall


Eucalyptus- an evergreen tree which smells wonderful.


Sugar Maple- Summer


Sugar Maple- Fall


Japanese Red Maple

My first LONG run...

Uh oh. In preparation of our Ragnar Relay, I have agreed to go on my first long run tomorrow at Lynx Lake with some friends from work. I'll take Alfie with me and maybe he'll inspire me to keep going. We'll see. I'll let you know.

Sun 'N Fun

As some of you know, I was lucky enough to be picked to represent Lockheed-Martin at the annual "Sun 'N Fun" airshow in Lakeland, FL a few weeks ago. I spent 9 days there and it was great! Very sunny and fun! I flew out on a Saturday and my mom came out on Monday to spend the week with me. We went to Downtown Disney in Orlando, the MOSI Museum in Tampa where we saw "Body Worlds & the Story of the Heart", we went to Honeymoon Island and laid by the beach 2 days (notice the woman behind my mom... a little confidence goes a long way). While I was at the airshow working most of those days, my mom ate breakfast by the pool and read. I taught her how to text message on her phone and she would write me while she was at enjoying the pool. Great job Mom!

We did go to the airshow and watch one day after work. It was so fun! We saw some awesome airplanes doing amazing aerobatics.

While at work we briefed pilots on the weather and forecast what it was going to do for the next few days around the country. We also were able to do group briefings where we would take the golf cart to different parts of the airshow grounds and talk to large groups of people such as the ultra-light pilots or the hot air balloon pilots or all of the pilots and parachute jumpers that performed in the airshow. It was really fun. I got to meet a lot of really neat people and get to talk to them face to face instead of just over a phone.

I had so much fun! I would love to go again next year!

A "Visitor"

Jake and I got home from a nice Cinco de Mayo dinner at Chili's tonight and we had a visitor waiting for us in our garage. We took a picture of him to share with all of our friends and family:

Now this picture is zoomed in and this Wolf Spider, as we later found out online, was about 3 inches from tip of his front leg to the tip of his back leg. Well, Jake sprayed him with "kill on contact" spider killer spray and low and behold, the spider ran away and hid flipping Jake off the whole way! About 10 minutes later, we both went back to the garage to see if he was gone and just as I stepped out of the door there was a sound as if I stepped on a dead leaf... sure enough, it was the ginormous spider! It totally freaked me out and I ran across the garage screaming the whole way! Jake had to clean it up before I would even come back to that side of the garage. I felt so bad. I wouldn't have minded if he was just relocated out of the garage because we found on Wikipedia that they are harmless and good hunters.

Anyway, that was our latest visitor. I promise I don't kill all of our visitors so feel free to stop by sometime!

Earth Day 2009

I know I'm a little late with the Earth Day posting. It was April 22nd, but better late than never. Here are a few facts that may interest you:

• The garbage in a landfill stays for a for about 30 years.
• In 1995 over 200 of the world landfills were full.
• Each person throws away approximately four pounds of garbage every day.
• One bus carries as many people as 40 cars!
• More than 1/3 of all energy is used by people at home
• Most families throw away about 88 pounds of plastic every year
• We each use about 12,000 gallons of water every year
• 1/3 of all water is used to flush the toilet.
• The 500 million automobiles on earth burn an average of 2 gallons of fuel a day.
• Each gallon of fuel releases 20 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air.
• Approximately 5 million tons of oil produced in the world each year ends up in the ocean.
• The energy we save when we recycle one glass bottle is enough to light a traditional light bulb for four hours
• For every 2000 pounds of paper (1 ton) recycled, we save 7,000 gallons of water free from chemicals.
• Recycled paper requires 64% less energy than making paper from virgin wood pulp, and can save many trees
• Every ton of paper that is recycled saves 17 trees
• The amount of wood and paper we throw away is enough to heat 50 million homes for 20 years
• Earth is 2/3 water. but all the fresh water streams only represent one hundredth of one percent.
• 14 billion pounds of trash is dumped into the ocean every year
• It takes 90% less energy to recycle aluminum cans than to make new ones
• 5 billion aluminum cans are used each year
• 84 percent of all household waste can be recycled.
• Computers pose an environmental threat because much of the material that makes them up is hazardous. A typical monitor contains 4-5 pounds of lead.
  
• Each year billions of used batteries are thrown away in the United States. This constitutes 88% of the mercury and 54% of the cadmium deposited into our landfills
• Approximately only 10 percent of every landfill can be cleaned up.
• Ivory comes from dead elephants, its best not to buy it.
• Fur coats often come from endangered animals, it's best not to buy them.
• One gallon of motor oil can contaminate up to 2 million gallons of water. so dispose of properly!
• Here is an example of the water we use everyday:

  3-7 gallons for toilet,
  25-30 gallons for tub,
  50-70 gallons for a 10 minute shower,
  1 washing machine load uses 25-40 gallons,
  1 dishwasher load uses 9-12 gallons

• Here is an example of how long it takes some things take to break down:

  plastics take 500 years,
  aluminum cans take 500 years,
  organic materials, take 6 months,
  cotton, rags, paper take 6 months.

SOME REALLY COOL TOOLS for more fast facts:

• Envirofacts Warehouse provides users with direct access to environmental information contained in various EPA databases including hazardous waste, Superfund information, toxic releases, facility information, risk management plans, grants/funding, water permits, and drinking water contaminant occurrence.
  
• Enviromapper allows users to map various types of environmental information including hazardous waste, water discharge permits, toxic and air releases, watersheds, and Superfund sites. Enviromapper can also be used to spatially view environmental statistics, profiles, and trends.
  
• Environmental Benefits Calculator
  NERC's Environmental Benefits Calculator is the most up-to-date, accurate, and comprehensive tool of its kind in the United States. It is usable by any state, region, county, town, institution, school and business in the United States. Among the Calculator’s unique features are the environmental benefits of computer recycling and reuse calculator, an energy savings comparison chart, and an emissions savings comparison chart.

Hope this helped to open everyone's eyes a little... I know it helped me!