Update

Just want everyone to know that all three children are healthy for the moment.

Our weekend visit went well. It may take a few days to recover though. Sammy napped for six hours today.

I am back to feeling pretty good again. Though after the court case today (see below) I am pretty exhausted. Before Maggie's trial we had to sit through a number of other hearings. Most were straightforward and lasted about two minutes. The most interesting to me: One man had asked for a change of judge several years ago in a previous trial, alleging that the judge had accosted him in a local restaurant. He claimed the judge was drunk at the time. The judge said something like "I do not recall any such incident" And the idea of this old man accosting anyone seemed somewhat humorous. Judge Sheibenberger recused himself from this case so that the man would not have a ground for appeal. The other interesting case was that of a man whose charges I don't remember. He was an inmate, and the public defender was arguing that the bond should be lower. It was set at $250,000. This seemed rather high, and the man could certainly not have posted it. However, the state attorney countered by listing over half a dozen times in which this man had not appeared in court on the day slated for his trial. The judge decided that the bond was just right.

The rest of the cases were boring. They mostly went something like this:

John Doe, FCYEBKWU8987758 (if person is not chained down he comes forward)
Judge - Have you read the presentencing document? yes
Judge - Is everything in it correct? yes
Judge - Do you or your lawyer have anything more to say?
Lawyer - Because of blah, blah, blah I recommend you reduce the sentence from X to Y.
Prosecutor - Because of the nature of the crime X is better
People mumble a bunch
Judge - John Doe, I sentence you to something that is approximately (X+Y)/2.
Judge - Do you understand the conditions of probation? yes
Judge - As a special condition I require that you participate in (pick one: psychiatric eval, drug rehab, AA, anger management)

Jane Smith, LIHIUGL32875932
" "

Since the court room had several convicts there, it did make some of us testifying a little nervous about stating our address. I figured they were probably half-asleep anyway though.