Civic Duty/New Gig

I've just spent the better part of the past two weeks doing my civic duty serving on a jury. Man, I would've thought all those hours watching "The People's Court" and "Judge Judy" would have given me an edge on deciding who was trustworthy and who was a lying weasel. Not so much. And Judge Ronald wasn't nearly as entertaining as Judge Judy. Lots less yelling at people. Anyway, not much exciting about the case. Sounded really juicy when we were going through the jury selection ("Assault with a Deadly Weapon"), but didn't turn out to be much. At least not much that we got to see. There were only a total of six witnesses, one of the victims didn't even show up and the one that did was only partially believable. All in all, four felony charges turned into three "not-guilty's" and one "guilty". Now I just need to figure out what to do with my $60 in juror pay (plus the $0.34/mile one way mileage). The $60 might be enough to fill the tank in my 4Runner. Maybe.

In other news, I gave my 21-day notice at work (it was going to be a full month, but I got stuck on a jury). I've been at the same company for 17 years this month, but it's time to move on. Mostly because they're closing my office, and if I don't "move on" the new tenants of our office space may not be too happy. The office isn't actually closing until February(ish), but I got an offer that I didn't want to turn down. The job is with a much smaller company that handles things in a much less corporate way. No real number of sick days, you keep track of your own vacation, actual I.T. support, etc. I don't even think I get a company I.D. badge or anything. The company's based in the San Diego area, but I'm not going to move. Rachelle still likes her job up here and we can actually afford to own a home in Orangevale. I guess I'll see how much I like travelling to SoCal on a fairly frequent basis.