Death Penalty

On April 4, 2009, Richard Poplaski ambushed and killed three City of Pittsburgh Police Officers. In June 2011, he faced a trial in which the Commonwealth sought the highest penalty under the law, Death.  The case was presided over by Judge Jeffrey Manning.

On that terrible morning (in order) Officer Paul Sciullo (who was going to testify for the first time in one of my cases) was shot and killed, followed by Officer Stepehn Mayhle (whom I never had the pleasure of meeting), and Officer Eric Kelly (who I had as a witness on a gun case in Judge Manning's courtroom on either April 1 or 2 of that year, in which he was the deciding voice in how the case resolved).

Officer Sciullo was struck in the head by a shotgun blast as soon as he walked through the door.  The psychology major didn't even have a chance to draw his weapon in self-defense.  Stephen Mayhle stepped over his fallen comrade and called for help while engaging the coward Poplawski in a gun battle.  During that fight, Ofc. Mayhle was able to defend his comrade, call for assistance, and engage a more heavily armed defendant in a gun battle.  Poplawski, armed with a 12-gauge shotgun fired repeatedly at Mayhle, armed only with a .40 caliber pistol.  Mayhle struck Poplawksi in the heart with one of his rounds.  Unfortunately, the coward was wearing a military-grade bullet-proof vest.  Mayhle PURSUED Poplawski throughout the house in a gun battle.  When Poplawski reached his automatic rifle, however, Mayhle realized he was outgunned and headed for the door.  He was shot in the back by Poplawski's AK-47 and fell over his comrade's body, splitting his head on the concrete steps as he fell out the door.  Poplawski stood over Mayhle and pumped several rounds into his body, creating divots in the concrete beneath him.

Officer Eric Kelly, who just dropped off his "step"-daughter at their home blocks away, raced to the scene after hearing Mayhle's desperate calls for help.  Poplawski waited, then fired round after round of his 7.62mm ammunition from his AK-47 into Officer Kelly's vehicle, fatally wounding the 14-year veteran before he had a chance to even exit his vehicle.  For the next 45 minutes, Eric Kelly bled to death outside of Poplawski's residence while rescuing Officers tried to save him.

In may of 2009, I was assigned to City Court for Preliminary hearings. During that time, I got to know many more City Officers, most of whom had a deep connection to that day.

In June of 2011, Richard Poplawski came to trial. I was present for much of it, including the closing arguments for both the guilt phase and the penalty phase.  The greatest reward for me, was to be there when the penalty decision by the jury came in. (Here's the deal, in a regular jury trial, the jury decides the Defendant's guilt and the judge determines the sentence. In a Capital Case, the jury decides the guilt AND the sentence.)

I couldn't get in to the courtroom for the penalty sentence. It was a small courtroom.  Family was permitted and fellow Officers from Zone 5 were rightfully admitted. I went to a courtroom with closed circuit TV access. In that room was me and a ton of uniformed (and non city officers). Tension was high. I was with my officers. (Of all officers in Allegheny County, the City officers are Mine. I'm their defender when they get up to testify.)

A collective sigh arose as the jury came back with death for the man who assassinated three police officers in cold blood.  Upon the formal, bone-chilling pronouncement of three consecutive death sentences from Judge Manning, the officers in the remote room rose and rushed to the door.  I raced out of the way to avoid the rush of officers heading to the hallway to see the man who murdered their colleagues.  I stepped aside to acknowledge those officers who actually saw me through their own tears and followed these soldiers of peace out of the faux courtroom.  We lined the hallways, these officers of peace, and waited for the condemned.  Slowly, the coward made his way down the hall.  Every single one of us, representing the law enforcement community of Allegheny County, centered in the Citry of Pittsburgh, stared the cold-hearted bastard in the eye as he passed, the K-9 Officer Niko, barking once as he passed before traveling beneath the stairs of the Sheriff's Office.

I've been through court hearings, trials, honest to god court battles, and real-life scenario trainings with many of these officers. This was the moment where I truly felt I was a member of law-enforcement. After Poplawski diappeared beneath us, the prosecutors emerged from the courtroom to applause from the officers.  I did not join, they did their jobs, and would not expect such a reception from their peers. Trust me, it was respectful. The exact same procedure followed for the jury and the Judge. All did their job. The officers applauded, I did not. I'm an officer of the Court as well. These are my peers and do not expect applause. Just as Mayhle would not have received applause had he killed Poplawski with his shot. Or Detective Friburger who shot the AK-47 out of Poplaski's hands during the standoff.

After the applause, the Officers present received an address and a commodation from their Deputy Chief.  He expressed his pride in Bureau of Police...one that I shared.  Poplawski faced a fair trial after killing three of their own.  That's worth being proud of.  We shared a moment of silence for the fallen.  Then the Officers departed forthe Courtyard to form a line of honor for the families of the fallen.

Truly a memorable evening.  Truly closure for many in the law enforcement community.  The compiments I received on behalf of my office afterwards are truly special.  Being welcomed into this community is more special than you can imagine.  I work with heroes daily and am truly blessed to do so.

Do I support the death penalty? When necessary.  It's the highest form of punishment allowed in PA. Was it deserved in this case?  Absolutely.  Three times. Consecutive to each other.

Stress Induced Improvement

It's been a crappy day. Wife's stressed. I'm stressed. All kinds of things going on that we can't do anything about right now.

So I decided to start a project days before we have people over. I stripped, nay, peeled by hand, the paint from our mantle. YOu see, there are stains on it, and it bubbles every time we use the fireplace! It would seem that the original finish was that of stained wood. The previous owners painted right over it. So when it gets hot, it just bubbles! Yes, it's been driving me nuts. So tonight, out of an overwhelming urge to fix SOMETHING, I peeled the mantle.

It'll be a quick fix. Some sanding, some primer, maybe some paint over top. Honestly, I think the primer alone will do. Who's going to notice the difference between the white of the mantle and the rest of the trim (besides the two loyal Blog readers...).

It'll be fixed by Sunday...I hope...I mean I promise! :-)

Progress...of sorts

We remain bad at blogging. Sorry. In addition to our house and job woes, we can add computer problems. My computer only works by hooking up an external monitor. Seems my backlight is burnt out. Lauren's computer works, but it's really slow. So we rarely use the laptops anymore.

However, I FINALLY uploaded some photos!

Quick recap;

February we had a blizzard. It looked like this:

 

After the snow stopped falling, our house looked like this:

  

 

So some guys came to dry out the house...and then it looked like this:

 


In June and July, we got a new roof, followed by a new floor in the majority of the downstairs:

 

Now we've got work going on in the bathroom and it's really starting to come together! I'd show you those pictures too, but now it's getting late. It's been a long process, but really all the damage has been a blessing as far as the house is concerned. It's really let us make some improvements that we'd wanted to do for a while but couldn't afford. Thank god for insurance!

I know you're on the edge of your seats to see the improvements to the bathroom...that's going to be a whole series though... the demo, the prep work, the before & after... Ok, fine. Here's a sneak peek:

More soon....I mean it this time!

Progress Rescued from Setbacks

We have tile!!!
After a ... less-than-wonderful ... day, Lauren and I came home from work to find that the guys from Avalon Tub & Tile had laid tile in most of our kitchen and sunrooom! It's so nice to see it down. It's so nice to get an idea of how it'll look in the end.  It's just a relief to see it coming together.

We carried that good relief to a nice and relaxing dinner at Sarafino's in Crafton.  It's a BYOB Italian place.  It's amazing how a tremendous meal can simply elevate the spirit.  After the disasters throughout the day, it was just so nice to lose ourselves in a delicious Italian meal and some white wine.

When we got home from dinner, we found our neighbors and their wonderful children returning from vacation.  We were greeted with hugs from the kids and a giant piece of chocolate!!

Today had the potential of being destroyed from the very beginning.  By the end of the day, we're just content to see the floor coming together, to have happy stomachs, and to know we have some wonderful friends!! I can certainly go to bed content tonight!

New Beginnings!

It's our Two Year Anniversary!
Apparently we haven't updated this thing since October of '09. Well....quick update: December of '09 ... Tessa's birthday, followed by Christmas, followed by NEW YEARS 2010!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! WHEEE!!!

Which was followed by February 2010....Snowmageddon....it broke our house. Ice dams led to water coming in to the house which led to damage to the master bedroom, the master bathroom, the sunroom, the breakfast nook, the kitchen, the walk-in closet...

That's ok though. Now we get to remodel the rooms we wanted to eventually remodel with special funding from the insurance company...yay!!!

So where are we now?? Well...thanks to my cousin Rocco, we got walls and insulation over Easter. We are taking this opportunity to redo our kitchen floor along with the sunroom and breakfast nook.

Today is our Second Anniversary. Tomorrow we get a new floor throughout half of the first floor of our house! Suffice to say, the past few months have tested our patience and our nerve, but we've stuck together, worked it out and tomorrow we get new floors...oh and the new roof is going up soon as well. Honestly, this was a heck of a test so "early" in the marriage...but I'd say so far so good!!!!

The next project is the master bath, but we're still in the planning phase with our contractor.

Special shout out to both Jim and my dad for helping with the bathroom demolition! (I'll post some pictures soon.)

What else is going on? Well, I'm now 30. Special shout out to Jim for coming all the way in to Pittsburgh for my 30th. And major props to the wife for planning on awesome party. It was a great time!

Ok, we'll be better at this...more posts more often. In the meantime, Congratulations to Nate & Brooke, two of the best people we know, on their wedding this past weekend.

Home is where...

...the cats and husband are.

I had a rough day at work today. A day that reminded me, harshly, that going to work on the weekend wouldn't kill me, would probably help me show true dedication to my career/ clients, and would certainly help me get my desk cleared off. A day where everyone else seemed to be moving at the speed of molasses, whereas I had to be in 3 different places at once. I lost my keys; snapped at interns; and unleashed the sailor-mouth in front of my boss' new assistant (I didn't know she was in the next room!). Top it off with the insane sinus pressure I've been battling all weekend and by 10 am I was pretty much ready to throw in the towel.

And my husband, forward thinker that he is, was home today. Jim and Joe came in for the first of their 6 (I think) Steelers home games and in preparation for the craziness Bri took today off weeks ago. So we won the game and the guys didn't get in until 2ish. And I was the only one awake at 7am.

When I leave work I'm the human equivalent of a rain cloud. I grow in irritation on the ride home (non-Pittsburghers should know better than to attempt the West End "Circle" at rush hour...feel the wrath of my puny little car horn, out-of-towner in the wrong lane!). But when I finally get in the door and see the whole family outside (the cats are in harnesses, but that's another story) chasing birds (Buca & Indy) and weather-proofing the cellar door (Bri), rain cloud Lauren melts away. The cats acted excited to see me (at least that's how I interpreted Indy's bolt for the door). I got a well deserved kiss from my hard-working husband and suddenly all was right with the world.

Zombieland

Lauren and I had a nice Saturday. We saw Zombieland with two of our friends. Now, it should be noted that Lauren has had at least two nightmares about zombies this week. I, on the other hand, have had a very aggravating and stressful past two days at work -- which tends to make for a fairly punchy and restless Brian on the weekend.

Zombieland was quite a good movie. It was not your usual serious/dramatic/horror movie. There was a lot of comedy and action. It's thoroughly entertaining and we BOTH highly recommend it. Lauren even wants to own it!

However, Lauren is also a bit freaked out. She has asked me repeatedly throughout this evening not to pretend to be a zombie. She has threatened me with hospitalization should I try to scare her or act like a zombie. I was also asked to go upstairs with her -- I'm sure as the zombie-protector -- because we all know I look like I'd be good in a fight against a normal person, let alone a zombie!

Anyhow, this not-pretending-to-be-a-zombie thing is getting harder and harder with each request. Not to mention when she asked me whether or not zombies existed. Needless to say, I'm going to burst if I don't get this all out, so this is for everyone out there, so:

"Brian, do zombies exist?"
No Lauren they don't exist, certainly not in our closet.
No Lauren they don't exist, certainly not in the basement.
No Lauren they don't exist, certainly not in the attic.
No Lauren they don't exist, and they certainly don't blend in with the crowd until you least expect---AAAAAAH!

So here I sit, laughing to myself and unable to explain why, and fighting the urge to give her the slightest step from Thriller...and I can't! Ah, the sacrifices we make for the ones we love...

...and she's the one who LIKES halloween....

Dirty banana cookies, potting soil and baseball

I love weekends. Especially this one. The weather hasn't been too great all summer, but the cool breezes and overcast skies made it a good day to get some stuff done in the yard. We have a pretty big, fairly flat back yard for living in Pittsburgh and big plans on doing fun stuff to it. When we moved in there was a concrete patio, a wooden deck and a raised platform with a swingset on it. We've added some hanging lanterns and a small garden. We tore down the swingset (much to our 5 year old neighbor Maggie's dismay) and used the corners of the platform for some herbs from Mom Melfa. The goal is to put in a veggie garden, a pond and a pergola where the swingset used to be. It's slow going.

Step one: clearing out my makeshift herb garden to make way for the pergola. The herbs (rue, chives, lavender and something unidentifiable, but nice-smelling) have been there for 2 years, enough time to, in the case of my rue plant, develop a root system close to that of a small tree. They are also pretty weather-beaten from a recent storm and leaning precariously to the right. So I dug them all up. We had to dig a 2 foot hole just to uproot the ruta. All of them now have new homes in pots scattered across the patio which looks a lot neater. Hopefully everything survived the move.

Step two: pergola. Eventually.

Tonight we're going to the Pirates Game with DP and Elaine. As with all Melftanzarite/Petragallo outings, this one will involve hanging out at their place, drinking miccrobrews and live music. O.A.R. is playing after the game, which is the main draw for going. (College memories are flooding back...) It should be a good time.

On another note: I made the most amazing cookies this week. Bri and I have been calling them Dirty Banana Cookies. They are well-worth turning the stove on in August, so I'll share. Enjoy!

Dirty Banana Cookies

1/2 cup mashed rip banana (I think I used a little ore an it it turned out ok)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/4 cups flour
2 cups old-fashioned oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Add egg; beat well.

Combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture to banana mixture in bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoons 2 inches apart onto baking sheets covered in PAM. Bake at 350 for 18 minutes or until golden. Cool on pans 2 minutes. Remove cookies and cool completely on wire racks.

This is supposed to yield 2 dozen cookies, but my heaping tablespoons only yielded about 17 cookies. They were ginormous and yummy.

HELLOOOO SUBARU!

Throughout last week, over the weekend, and into this week, I began research into a car that was -- absolutely obsessive. I poured over websites and articles, often reading each more than once. Of course, I printed out and rehashed them all with Lauren -- the lucky lady that she is. I went over:

• Pros & cons of leasing
• Pros & cons of buying
• How to negotiate a lease
• How to negotiate a purchase
• Confessions of a Car Salesman
• Confessions of an Auto Finance Manager
• Loan Calculators
• True Market Value vs. MSRP vs. Invoice
• Lease Calculators
• New vs. Used vs. Lease
• Comparisons
• Consumer Reports
• Edmunds
• Motor Trend
• Reviews
• Ratings
• Trims
• Specs

And finally, TEST DRIVES! (I almost lost my internet allowance for this one!) Anyway, we test drove the Hyundai Santa Fe on Monday and the Subaru Forester on Tuesday. We drove the Forester home that night! That's right, folks, we're the proud new lessors of a 2010 Subaru Forester 2.5x Premium! Despite our excitement, we've only actually driven it home from the dealership.

On Wednesday, I threw my neck out...there was no driving for me. On Thursday, Lauren was sick and stayed home from work. I took the Accent in because my neck was still very sore and stiff. So that awesome new vehicle has been parked in front of the house just begging to be driven. I'm sure we'll get there soon. In the meantime...it looks great and I can't wait to drive it again!

RIP Accord

Nine years, 130,000 miles and LOTS of moving me and all my stuff around over the years finally took its toll on Brian's car. It was acting up last Wednesday. Diagnosis: a bad ignition coil. We picked it up from the shop on Thursday and had to take it back that same night because the problems had gotten worse (how the repair people failed to notice this is beyond me). By Friday we were told that the alternator and transmission were also shot. So now we have a choice: pay a ton to fix it or dive head first into the foreign world of car shopping.

Car shopping is SCARY! And slightly depressing since we hadn't really anticipated having to buy a new car in the near future. Luckily, we still have my Accent. And luckily Brian's mom is off for the summer, Brian's grandpop rarely drives now, and my parents are coming out soon to fly to New Mexico, so there are plenty of borrowable vehicles to go around if we need one. (Watch out though, we may trade yours in for something fabulous!) And super-luckily, Brian and I can still carpool to work, so we're in pretty good shape. Hopefully our ability to wait out a good deal will make us indispensible to car salespeople and we'll get something good within our price range. Or we'll win the lottery and after a long stint traveling the world we'll buy everyone new BMWs and call it a day. Whichever.

Oh yeah...Blogs need...writing

So it's occurred to me that we haven't posted anything since our mouse. Yet so much has happened! Lauren and I were in a movie...I've advanced in my lawn-care techniques...there's been some excitement on our street...and...the cats remain slightly special.

I'll be updating in much more detail shortly, but for now, we're finishing up with The Wire. We've been using Netflix to go back and watch the series in its entirety. Let me just say: Best Series Ever. Certainly most realistic cop/law show since...Cops? If you've never heard of Omar Little...you need to rent some of these episodes!

PS: I caught one mouse in a trap. Another died in an old tennis shoe of mine that I had been using to mow the lawn -- yeah, I found him when I put my foot in the shoe.

There's a mouse in our house!

There's a mouse in our house!

There I was, writing a motion
When all of a sudden - there arose a commotion!
I jumped off the couch and dove to the floor!
Where alas I was staring at a creature standing on legs of four!
It had teenie eyes and really big ears.
Such a scared little thing I'd not seen in years.
My kittens lay not ten feet away,
Yet neither seemed interested in stalking this prey.
Now traps are strewn both far and wide.
I don't think there's a corner in which this mouse can hide.
I hope I can catch him before he meets my spouse.

There's a mouse in our house!!