I'm Off The Hook!

As instructed, I called the phone number on my jury summons today. Listened to the instructions, punched in my juror number, and waited. The mysterious court phone voice said,

"There is no jury service scheduled for the dates of April 7th through April 11th. You are not required to report or call again. This concludes your service. Thank you."

Wooohooooooooo! I was supposed to be on call for the whole week, so what I expected was for the voice to tell me that I didn't have to report on Monday, but that I needed to call on Monday after a specific time to see if I had to report Tuesday, and so on. But no, one call and I'm done. Thank GOD.

Now maybe I'll have time to read and catch up on friends' blogs, on which I am so very far behind.

In other news, we went out for Danni's birthday tonight. Her birthday isn't actually until Tuesday, but since I work evenings during the week, we decided to celebrate tonight. We went to Dos Gringos, and the food was great! Danni got a dessert called Muerta Por Chocolate (Death by Chocolate) that was served in a chocolate tortilla shell, filled with mini chocolate chimis that were filled with...chocolate, of course, surrounded by chocolate ice cream and whipped cream. I can't believe I didn't think to take a picture of it. It took all four of us to eat it (Kylie just had her little scoop of vanilla), but finish it we did. YUM.

This dinner was significant for me. Not only is my baby turning 16 on Tuesday (SNIFF!), but this is the first time that I can remember that all five of us went out to a restaurant, and I actually enjoyed myself. Everyone (read: Kylie) actually behaved themselves! It was a fun, relaxing, yummy meal. Even Kylie said, "Mommy, that was the best dinner ever!" I had to agree.

Finally, at the age of 5 1/2, we can take her to a restaurant without me getting furious? Finally? It's about stinking time.

Here's a huge change from earlier in the day, when Shannon was having one of those adolescent-snotty-attitude kind of afternoons. It's amazing how taking her cell phone away brings about an attitude adjustment right quick. I kind of love having that little weapon in my arsenal.

I couldn't get a good picture of Danni, but I'll wait until Tuesday for that. I can't believe she's turning 16. It's gone by so quickly.