Pedestrians 1, Drivers 0

How can it already be Friday? How can Ben already be 4 months old? Where does the time go?

We had a most adventursome past week. Charlie came to visit Mom and Dad. They were happy to see him and he had a great time. This past Sunday Cliff came down to watch the Jets game with Charlie and Dad. We had an informal tailgate at my folk's place. Good food, dark and stormies, and trombone playing by Andrew and Charlie!

Monday brought a most interesting day. Earlier this summer the family (Mom, Dad, Charlie, Andrew, Zach, Ben and I) were walking in Princeton. We crossed the street at a crosswalk, and while in the crosswalk, Zach twisted away from me. As he was toddling off, a car came through the intersection within feet of Zach. It was awful. It was so bad, we took action. Andrew filled out a complaint at the Boro Police station. And lo and behold, the driver was issued a ticket. We were told that they could contest it, but most people didn't. We waited and waited. And then we found out that he was contesting it and our court date was Monday at 3. We arrived at the courthouse at 2:30, and found out that the wheels of justice turn VERY slowly in Princeton.

During this inexorable wait, made all the more fun by Zach running all over the place, the defense lawyer came and introduced himself and asked us to "just shake on it and have a nice day". Excuse me? We'd been waiting for HOURS by that point, and he wants us to just accept that his client is a nice guy who has lived in Princeton for a long time? After he'd nearly run my toddler over? No.

So after another hour (it was now 5:30) we proceeded to trial. Andrew testified and I waited outside with the kids. Then I testified and Andrew waited outside with the kids. We both told essentially the same story. Then the defendant testified and he said that he stopped for us in the crosswalk, then when we were well through the cross walk, he went through the crosswalk. And while he saw Zach break away from me, it was ok because he slowed down.

Happily, the judge thought that his testimony indicated that he was guilty of driving through a crosswalk with people in it and found him so. He was fined and had to pay court costs, neither of which amounted to much. However, it did cost him 3 1/2 hours of his lawyer's time. So victory for us! And a family story about how hard it is to do the right thing some times. If you have never tried to keep a toddler quiet in a courtroom, I don't recommend it! It is very hard.

We had no more grand adventures in the week, but did grab some cute pics!