Okay, Alex was not the cute one, but here he is.

tommy, was it you contested a traffic ticket and won? Could you recap? mr. flea's license will be automatically suspended for 6 months if he waives court and pays the ticket (driving 76 in a 55 zone). He talked to a lawyer who says he can probably make it go away in a court appearance (somehow they agree that he was going slower? makes no sense to me but this is apparently how you game the system), and the cost for the lawyer is $200. Ugh.

tommy, was it you contested a traffic ticket and won?

No. I was so naughty that I had to appear in court regardless. There I discovered that the maximum sentence for what I did (drive with a suspended license) was a $1000 fine and a year in jail. But, you know, jail time for this first-offender would have been extremely unlikely. I just plead guilty and the judge fined me around $120 (can't recall the exact amount).

I forget exactly what they did - suspended sentence? Anyway, I got the license thing all cleared up before the court appearance and they let me still drive afterwards.

Also, I did not have a lawyer. I totally threw myself on the mercy of the court. I wonder if mr. flea could appear in court without a lawyer, and if he would still have the same chance to reduce the sentence. I think probably, but IANAL.

Traffic court is weird.

flea, I don't know what the laws are where you live, but in RI you can go to court, say "I plead my good driving record" and just pay the court fee. I haven't done it myself, but I have friends who have. Is there anyone you know there who has had a speeding ticket recently who you can ask?

shrift, your doing nothing all weekend sounds like a whole damn lot to me.

I did manage to do two loads of laundry, and then -- this is what makes me feel all totally accomplished and shit -- I scampered down to the Embarcadero last night in time to hug Anne W. before her return to St. Louis! Which was a whole huge exhausting to-do, because I thought I wouldn't be able to meet up with her, then Hec's jumbled schedule un-jumbled mine and I realized I would after all, except I couldn't reach Anne or deb or Suzi or beth or her DH, and I had to call Lee and ask her to call people and try to figure out where they were and if I could get there.

But I did, and all was well. Anne continues to look amazing in her longish slightly angled bob and was totally sweet (if a teeny bit nervous) with Matilda -- she used the same hold on Matilda she does on her cats, and it turned out, since Matilda is also a small mammal, just fine. Matilda stared and stared at Anne's glamourous face quite a bit (until she got distracted by some twinkly fairy lights outside and then fell asleep). Beth's DH took many, many pictures, and possibly he or beth can be prodded into posting them.

Also, deb pressed a very yum fried artichoke heart on me, and then Anne pressed some highly yum pesto pasta on me, and I went home all sated and ready to deplete myself at the next feed.

Which didn't happen until 1:30 a.m.! Go team sleeping baby!

Off now to work. Actual, worky, all day work. Bleh.

There are four new episodes of Daybreak up at the ABC site.

Good luck at work, JZ!

Ooh, thanks sumi!

It might be cheaper to just convert cash to Canadian dollars and burn those for warmth.

Loonies and toonies don't burn all that well.

shrift, your doing nothing all weekend sounds like a whole damn lot to me.

I also burned a bunch of DVDs, edited code, did the dishes, read fic, and watched two episodes of MythBusters. No wonder the weekend went by so quickly.