I had to laugh at Nikki's entry about being followed by the cops. You see, there's no way to please a cop who's driving behind you. If you drive fast, you're a reckless speeder. If you drive slow (at the speed limit or below) you're Miss Daisy, and in my way! There really is nothing more aggravating than to be driving along, get behind someone, and then see them glance in their rear view mirror and then tap the brakes so that they slow to exactly the speed limit. Trust me, if you'd been speeding before, you were already nailed and slowing down now won't save you.

But really, there's just no pleasing us.

And then I had to smile a bit at Chiara's entry about her husband's jury duty. One cool benefit about being a cop is that I'll never serve on a jury again. I'm exempt as long as I'm in law enforcement, and even after I get out, what defense attorney in his right mind would want an ex-cop on the jury?

But on that note, I do, of course, still have to go to court. In fact, I go to court Monday for when I was bitten. It'll be my first time testifying. Should be... interesting. Fortunately it's only misdemeanor court, so it shouldn't take too long. And it's also on a day that I normally work, so I don't have to come in on my day off (which is usually how it ends up. Yeah you get paid--a pittance from the court--but it takes forever to get that check.)

But, of course, the big news is that Tamela arrived last night shortly after 6pm. Fortunately I'd managed to take my 8-hour day yesterday, so I got home at 2pm and was able to do some last minute cleaning (like the bathroom--so it would be a nice change from the gas station ones!)

(Eight-hour day: We work 12 hours shifts, seven days out of a two week pay period. Obviously this comes out to 84 hours. So, the people on the shift rotate taking one day where they only work 8 hours. Sometimes you come in late, sometimes you leave early, and then everyone else covers for those few hours. It's pretty nice, especially if you can snag your eight for the end of the long weekend.)

Back to Tamela: She and Zeus managed to hit it off quite nicely. I'm pleased with how much better he is with strangers--I think having the guys from my shift come over so much has gotten him used to the concept that some people are allowed in the yard. He was kinda hyper and kept wanting to slobber all over her laptop while she was typing her journal entry last night, but he never once made any sort of aggressive move, and in fact seemed thrilled that there was someone else around who might play with him. (Tamela threw the Kong for him several times, which instantly got her onto the list of People Zeus Won't Eat.)

So later we went out and had sushi, and then went to a coffeehouse next door where I tried to teach her how to act if she gets pulled over, and also explain that if a cop asks for permission to search her vehicle it is totally within her rights to say, "Nope, don't want you to search my vehicle," without fear of repercussions. (It's called the Fourth Amendment.) Unfortunately I think I mostly just made her nervous about the thought of getting pulled over! (Hey, cops are human too... well, some of them...)

I think we're going to try and visit a plantation (possibly Oak Alley) today, though it just occurred to me that being Good Friday, places might be closed. I'll have to do some checking.

It's really good to see Tamela again though. It doesn't really feel like it's been a year since we've seen each other!