... you're just not paying attention.

There have been so many great events in Hartford this summer.

Jazz Fest (free), Taste of Hartford (for two weeks!), the Still Wavy concert put on by Hartford Party Starters Union and the Wadsworth starring Janelle Monae (free), vintage baseball in Colt Park (free), the VISA Gymnastics Championships (State House events free), Hartbeat Ensemble's Plays in the Park (free), Kathleen Turner starring in High at TheaterWorks, the Wadsworth's First Thursdays and other assorted free music performances, multiple performances and events at the riverfront including ballet and the Taste of Caribbean Festival (free), farmers' markets (free to look), parades (free), fireworks (free), grown-up time at the Connecticut Science Center, Cirque de Soleil, free carousel rides, dragon boat races (free), Monday night jazz in Bushnell Park (free)...

I think you get the picture. Those are all just off the top of my head -- I know there's a LOT more going on around the city that I'm just forgetting about right now, including events at the Bushnell, at Real Art Ways, at Hartford Public Library. And please note that many of the events listed above are free of charge. Meaning you have no excuse not to be getting out to see what's happening around the city.

Kudos to whoever in Hartford was responsible for bringing in the gymnastics championship and scheduled all of the accompanying events. It was great to see action over at the State House every day and to see so many extra people on the street, in the restaurants and in the hotels all week. I hope the success of that event will make Hartford an appealing location for similar events in the future.

If you're paying the least bit of attention, you know there are more fun events coming up in the next few weeks, including the biking and walking tour of Hartford, more vintage baseball, the new season of the CT Forum series at the Bushnell, the Hartford marathon, more events at the riverfront each weekend, including concerts and speed boat racing.  

Doesn't sound like Hartford is a "dead" city  to me. But what do I know, I just live and work and shop and play here. I'm sure all of those commenters on the Courant's "community" boards know a lot more about the city than I do.

        

Back in February, I saw my first Tom Foley television ad. His message was simple:  Hartford is broken. It needs to be fixed. I will fix it. So vote for me.

Foley's website echoes that refrain. On his issues summary page , Foley mentions Hartford four times:

• "Connecticut has lost almost 100,000 jobs in two years and Hartford isn’t doing enough to bring them back."
• "Hartford is spending your tax dollars at a reckless rate."
• Under a whole topic titled "Reforming Hartford":  "Hartford has developed a tax and spend culture that isn’t listening to what our citizens want."

There's more:

• Presently on Foley's home page is this description of one of his ads: "Tom has a no-nonsense plan to end the game playing and fix the mess in Hartford."
• From his bio : "Tom believes the same expertise and problem-solving skills he used to fix problems in his businesses can be used to fix our economy and our broken government in Hartford."
• On a survey page  designed to get voters outraged at the status quo is a category of questions on "The Way Business is Done in Hartford."
• Here's a tidbit from Foley's latest press release  on his lawsuit against an opponent over alleged improper campaign financing: "[This] is exactly the type of game-playing the voters want stopped in Hartford."

Sounds like he's running for mayor, right? He's going to clean up the city government, reform the city, fix the way business is done here, stop recklessly spending the taxes city residents pay to the city? Wrong. 

Foley is running for governor. He's using "Hartford" as a shorthand for "the Capitol" or "state government." And that makes me crazy.

That's my city you're talking about, Mr. Foley. I don't appreciate you using Hartford's name like that. It's lazy. How hard is it to say "the Capitol is broken" instead of "Hartford is broken"? In fact, it's so lazy that it leads me to wonder if, as another Fairfield-county based candidate, you're using "Hartford" to stir up the negative emotional reaction to my city that so many people in the suburbs have. If so, shame on you.

Unfortunately, this use of "Hartford" is not limited to Foley's gubernatorial campaign, although as far as I can tell, he's certainly the worst offender.

From Dan Malloy's policy  pages:

• "For 16 years, Hartford has been out of touch with the economic realities of our state."
• "Too often over the past 16 years, and especially over the past two years, Hartford's played a budget shell game; piles of money get moved around, erasers get used, and voila, there's a 'balanced budget.'"

From Ned Lamont's issues pages:

• "For too long, Hartford has passed ambitious environmental laws but failed to provide executive leadership to implement them."
• "Connecticut is nearly bankrupt-we face multibillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see, we have nearly maxed out the state's credit, and Hartford has resorted to one-shot revenues and yet more borrowing, rather than tackle the problem head on. "

I'm not denying that this city has its own problems, but not one of these guys is interested in solving them. So they should stop using Hartford's name for their own gain.

        

"Ladies and gentleman, the loser in this case is the city of Hartford."

-- Prosecutor Michael Gailor during closing arguments in the corruption trial of Mayor Eddie Perez (as reported by the Courant)


Truer words may never have been spoken.

I didn't pay attention to the Perez trial as much as I should have. Part of the reason for that was life getting in the way -- I was working on a trial myself on the day Perez's trial started. The main I didn't track the mayor's trial closely, though, was simple: The trial was damn depressing. Sure, I'd read the articles leading up to Perez's arrest and I read the charges, so I knew what the testimony would be about. But actually reading the testimony about the blatant corruption going on at City Hall was somehow different, more real. I didn't have the stomach to read all the details every day.

I was also disgusted that Perez didn't step down after he was arrested, or at least during his trial. How often could he possibly have been at City Hall during the past month of his trial? I don't doubt that his staff has always done the day-to-day business of running the city (and frankly, I think his hands-off management style exacerbates Hartford's problems), but that's not the point. I, as a Hartford taxpayer, was paying Perez's salary while he was in no way capable of doing his job because he was in court every day. It make me slightly crazy to think about that.

My fair city now joins the ranks of Connecticut cities whose mayors have been convicted of corruption. I don't know what it is about being a mayor that goes to some men's heads. Is it that men who are prone to being bribed are the ones who run for public office? Or is it that once you win that position in City Hall, you get so cut off from the average citizen that you actually believe it's OK to accept favors and cut no-bid deals in exchange for votes? Is the mentality that as the mayor, you actually deserve those favors, like they're part of your benefits package?

Perez's supporters (yes, he apparently still has a number of them) reportedly chanted "This isn't over" after the verdict was read. Unfortunately, they're right. Perez won't be sentenced until September and then there's the appeal he promised, so for at least the next few months, we'll all hear about and read letters in support of Perez, reports about the good things he's accomplished, etc. And I'm sure that most of those letters will speak to actual accomplishments of Perez. In his time as mayor, I'm sure he did accomplish things that people remember and appreciate and served to better the city. Ultimately, though, he'll only be remembered as yet another crooked Connecticut politician and an example of everything that's wrong with Hartford. He'll just be more fodder for the online trolls who trash our city at every opportunity. Once again, Hartford comes out the loser. And for me, that's the saddest part of this whole debacle.

        

        

Growing up, us kids always helped with yard work as part of our weekly chores. We mowed the lawn, weeded and mulched, helped plant annuals, sometimes helped trim shrubbery. We also had a gravel driveway for the majority of my childhood, so every spring, we spent hours ridding the gardens that lined our driveway of the rocks that had been shoveled into the gardens with the snow. That was probably my least favorite chore.

Perhaps as a result of all those outdoor yard-work type chores, my sister has become a plant girl. She's worked at the Salem Herbfarm for I don't even know how many summers, has a degree in environmental planning and design, and is now looking at graduate studies in something like urban planning, where she'd focus on planning urban landscapes and open spaces.

I never caught that green thumb. I regularly kill houseplants. Those that I don't kill, my cats kill. I appreciate nice gardens but haven't ever been interested in creating my own.

Until I bought my house.

The previous owners clearly did some planning of the yard; when I first saw the house and during the inspection, there were all sorts of daylilies out, some scraggly azalea bushes, a very unkempt weeping cherry tree, and hostas everywhere. But there wasn't a vegetable garden or an herb garden and the front yard was a mess.

So I I hired someone to build some raised beds and a compost box for me and I asked my sister to come up with a general plan for my yard. To start the process, I went through a gardening magazine and flagged or circled things I liked. Turns out I like pretty much everything, from grasses to roses to shade trees to herbs. She's had some trouble reining me in. 
     
We started by transplanting the many daylily, tulip, hosta and daffodil bulbs that the previous owner had put in the backyard to other locations so the raised beds could go in. Turns out we also saved an iris during that transplanting day.

        

Once the beds were in, we planted the beginnings of my vegetable garden (tomatoes were rotated in this weekend) and some herbs, with a pansy border. The pansies may be replaced later in the season with some globe basil. 

        

The veggies took off. I have dozens of pea plants growing up around the trellises and the Brussels sprouts are getting huge. The herbs are also doing well, and I have more than enough lettuce for one person. 

        

This weekend I rotated in tomatoes for some of the lettuce. I'm trying out some heirloom varieties and a beefsteak tomato and a cherry tomato plant. I'm crossing my fingers  for a no-blight season. Last year was apparently a tomato disaster for everyone.

    

So far, so good -- then I made the mistake of going to a nursery without the supervision of my sister. I walked out with two hydrangeas (I have one already and love it), some zinnias, and a whole mess of Gerbera daisies. Plus what may become a few raspberry bushes. None of those plants, with the exception of the hydrangeas, were in the plan for the yard. Whoops. Then I went to the Knox Parks annual plant sale. I walked out with flats of coleus, some bee balm, some shasta daisies and some more lilies. You guessed it: 90% of those plants were not in the plan. Whoops again. I used a lot of them in my raised beds and I faked some planned beds in front of my house. The raised bed turned out nicely. The front yard, not so much.

        

Since, as you can see below, my front yard is still quite the disaster, I think the hydrangeas may go out there. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my daylilies in bloom soon, but those daylilies and the weeping cherry tree are really the only redeeming things about the front yard. Eventually I'd like it to be more plants than lawn. I'm picturing lots of grasses, more hostas, maybe some holly bushes up at the front of the house.

            

I also have to figure out what to do with the corner of my front yard in front of the new fence. There were some very ugly bushes up there that are now stumps, and the area is contantly sprouting baby maple trees. I'll definitely be putting in some more hostas to help keep that hill in place and prevent erosion, but beyond that, I'm not quite sure what to do with that corner.

    

Any thoughts?

        

Early this morning, I was returning from a midnight airport pick up. I got off the highway at Flatbush Ave, turned onto Brookfield Street, and stopped the car. A small furry animal was trotting along slowly in the street. At first I thought it was a cat, but it turned out to be a small very fuzzy dog. Wandering. With no visible collar or tags.

I'm a total sucker for animals. I currently have six cats in my house, five of which I am responsible for. I technically only own two, but then I took in a stray cat and I saved two sister cats from being put down, so let's face it, I own five cats. Shadow is also living with me for a few months because my boyfriend (his owner) was shipped down south for several months for work. So I have a full pet house, which is why I hesitated for approximately 3 seconds before pulling over and getting involved with this little dog.

The little guy was shy at first but came up to me when I sat down and let me pet him. (I'll call the dog a him, but I honestly have no idea if it's male or female.) He'd obviously been wandering for quite some time -- his hair was matted, he had leaves and twigs attached to his body and his eyes were watery. I'm pretty sure he's a Pomeranian, which are ridiculously cute little balls of fluff. (And I say that despite the fact that I very strongly prefer big dogs.) Once I decided he was friendly, I called the Hartford PD and asked them to send out an animal control officer. The officer responding told me it could be awhile before someone came out, so I decided to take the dog home with me to wait for pick up. We wrapped him up in a towel and he was remarkably good for the very short ride to my house.

Fortunately, I have an enclosed front porch, so I put the little guy out there with some water and a little bit of food to keep him segregated from my cat posse and from Shadow. He sucked down that entire bowl of water in no time, but only grabbed a few pieces of food. Every time I opened the door to the house, he came up to me wagging his tail. He obviously had a family at some point.

A Hartford police officer stopped by maybe 10 minutes after we got back to my house. After realizing the dog was just a little one (and congratulating me for being able to catch such a ferocious animal), he decided to pop him into his cruiser and take him to the pound himself, rather than wait for the animal control officer to respond. So at about 1am, the little dog was whisked away.

I keep telling myself that he's really cute and he'll probably get adopted, so I did the right thing, but the truth is, I have no idea. I hopped onto the Hartford pound's website today and I'm now worried that I did the wrong thing and should have kept him overnight and tried to find his owner or tried to get him into a dog rescue group. The little guy only has 10 days to be adopted. 10 days! And it's a holiday weekend! I'm also worried that since he doesn't look as pretty and fluffy as he could, the pound might think he's sick and he might not even get a chance to be adopted.

If you or someone you know is missing a Pomeranian, he's at the pound. If any of you are looking for a small dog or know someone who is, please contact the Hartford Dog Pound by phone at 860-757-4395 or by email at pizon67@yahoo.com or admin@hartforddogpound.com. Also, if you or anyone you know works for a dog rescue group and could help him, please contact the pound. I assume the little guy will be on the website soon, but if you need an idea of what he looks like, here's his twin.


(picture from Dog Names and More)

How can you resist that face?

PS: If anyone is looking to adopt a cat, I have three to choose from. Two older sister cats who generally mellow, are pretty much lap cats, and are declawed (they don't have to be adopted together) and a very affectionate but energetic less than 2-year-old male who is fine with dogs but probably shouldn't be adopted by someone with other cats in the house. Just thought I'd put it out there...

UPDATE 4/6/10:
My little friend is officially available for adoption on Petfinder.com (no picture yet, though). I'm playing phone tag with the animal control officer trying to find out more about him -- his legal day of adoption is next Tuesday, meaning that he can leave the pound on Tuesday and he can be killed on Tuesday. Please help!

        

Live in Hartford is a big fan of Phoenix Art After Hours at the Wadsworth Atheneum, and April's offering looks to be as fun as ever!

Join other readers of Live in Hartford at ¡Noche Caliente!, Thursday April 1 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

The event is just $5, but free to Phoenix employees and museum members.

GOZA Latin Band will be offering Rumba, Mambo, Samba, Bossa Nova and Tango.

Salsa lessons will be provided by Rey Bermudez.

For those lucky enough to arrive in time, City Steam will be providing free cerveza: Acapulco Gold or the famous Naughty Nurse.

I'm hoping to get there early enough to snag a telenovela t-shirt from Telemundo.

And finally, Sea Tea Improv will be providing comedy for the crowd.

And maybe, just maybe, when it's all over, we'll head down to Arch Street for some country karaoke.

Come hang out with old friends at meet new friends at First Thursday's hottest night out!

        

Live in Hartford learned over the weekend that the famous New Haven Cupcake Truck will be in our fair city TODAY and TOMORROW, for two hours each day during the Big East tournament. That gives you four full hours to get your hands on scrumptious baked goods, people.

The Truck will be "near" the Trumbull Street entrance today from 4 to 6pm and tomorrow from 5 to 7pm. Check the Truck's blog for updates on timing and location. You can also pre-order your dozen or more cupcakes by emailing the Truck at order@followthatcupcake.com. Might be a good idea if the lines are as long as last time the Truck was in town.

Today's flavors include chocolate, red velvet, vanilla, and GUINNESS. That's right, Guinness. I know which one I'll be trying.

        

Ho hum. Nothing to do in boring ol' Hartford.

Too bad we don't have a brand-new science center that opens its doors at night every other month so the adult crowd can play in the water exhibit, learn about penguins and polar bears, analyze our batting stance and play weatherman, all while enjoying drinks and entertainment. Wouldn't that be cool?

Too bad we don't have several theaters in town that showcase amazing performances and thought-provoking plays like "Gee's Bend."

Too bad we don't have a world-class art museum in town. Because if we did, I bet it would house a movie theater and frequently show films that run the gamut from classics to indie to contemporary. Too bad that museum didn't show a trio of love-themed films for Valentine's Day, including one of my all-time favorites, "An Affair to Remember." (Laugh all you want, but I absolutely adore Cary Grant.)

Too bad we don't have a funky little basement comedy club where you can see free shows put on by a local improv group that met while taking classes at the local theater company just a block away. And too bad you can't also enjoy beer made on the premises of said comedy club.

Wait, what? Hartford has all those things? And all of those events took place over one weekend? Hmm. Maybe there are things to do here after all...

If you missed "Gee's Bend," you missed what might be the best show I've seen yet at Hartford Stage. Definitely the best one so far this season. Don't miss "Tom Sawyer" in April.

Another don't miss: This month's Art After Hours this Thursday at the Wadsworth. This month's theme is "March Love Madness."

If you're into improv, check out "Improv Idol" at Cloud 9 on Congress Street this Friday at 7pm. Local improv groups competing against each other, judged by Hartbeat Ensemble's artistic directors. Trust me, you'll laugh.

If movies are your thing, catch "The Proposal" at the Wadsworth this weekend as part of "March Love Madness," the Oscar-nominated short films at Real Art Ways through Thursday, or Clint Eastwood's latest, "Invictus," at Trinity College's Cinestudio starting Wednesday.

Or you could stay home all week and lament the lack of things to do here in our fair city. Your choice.

        

I've been a registered voter since I turned 18. I've owned and registered a car since 2006. But it seems that buying a house is what finally got me called for jury duty here in good ol' Hartford. (Or maybe being a lawyer – a coworker also just got called for jury duty, as did two other lawyers I know.)

Maybe I'm just a total nerd about this because I'm a lawyer, but I pretty much found the whole process fascinating. (Though I did have a brief freak-out about whether I would be in the pool for the Cheshire home invasion trial, but it turns out that jury selection is happening down in New Haven.) Like a good little potential juror, I filled out my initial screening form and sent it in, waited for the papers to arrive a week before my scheduled date, and called the jury administration number to see if I was excused from appearing. The recording had a list of maybe 20 people who didn't have to show, but I wasn't among them.

On my assigned day, I pulled into the designated juror lot next to the Hartford criminal courthouse (surprisingly, they don't ask to see your papers before letting you park there) at about 8:10am and waited for the doors to open at 8:15am. The crowd was pretty big. Some people got turned away at the door because only the jury pool is permitted through that early. Everyone else has to wait until normal business hours to get in. Jurors get a special elevator up to their special floor, where we had to check in first with a guy who made sure we filled out our juror information cards correctly and second with our handlers, who took our forms, made us sign in, and handed us JUROR stickers. We were to wear them in a visible location at all times, so judges, court personnel, attorneys and everyone else could easily identify us.

The juror floor isn't a bad place to spend a day. Plenty of chairs, TV, pretty pictures of Hartford and some surrounding towns on the walls, a "library" of paperbacks on a bookshelf, free coffee and water and tea, vending machines, even a quiet lounge. Once we were all herded into the main room, we listened to a short presentation on the nitty-gritty of jury duty – where to park, the lunch break, how to prove to your employer that you had jury duty, your employer's obligation to pay you for the day, what to do if you're self-employed or have daycare expenses, etc. The big take-away was that jurors should expect to be there for the day. Lots of grumbling about that.

Next up was a speech by Judge Michael Sheldon of the Superior Court. I assume the judges rotate the responsibility of talking to jury pools, but I could be wrong. Judge Sheldon spoke to us for 15-20 minutes about the jury selection process (known as voir dire), the importance of our service, our role in the process. Then, after a brief break, we watched the infamous jury duty video. All I'll say about the video is that Judge Sheldon was a lot more interesting. Note to the judicial branch: Time to update the video. I recommend using Judge Sheldon as a narrator.

Shortly after the video, the jury handlers (I assume they have a much more official title, but I kept thinking of them as our handlers) began reading off lists of 20-30 people. Each group gathered at the front of the room and was led by a court officer to a courtroom for voir dire. I was called for the third or fourth group at about 10:30am.

Once our group gathered, we trooped down to a very small criminal courtroom, where the 30 of us filled the jury box and almost every other seat in the room. (Some groups were led across the street to the civil courthouse for voir dire.) Judge Julia Dewey introduced herself and the case, and we were sworn in by the court officer. The prosecutor introduced herself and named the other attorneys and investigators who worked on the case. Defense counsel did the same, and also introduced his client, who was accused of murder. Anyone who recognized any of the people involved was asked to raise their hands. We trooped out of the courtroom to a jury room, and one-by-one each of us was called in for voir dire. The people who knew anyone involved with the case went first, and were dismissed quickly. The rest of us were called in order of our jury numbers. There was a lot of waiting.

I got called in just before the 1pm lunch break. I wasn't really expecting to be chosen for the jury because I'm a lawyer, but one of my colleagues has served on two juries, so you never know. I sat in the witness box and the prosecutor asked me maybe six questions, all of which concerned me being an attorney. Defense counsel didn't ask me anything. I was excused to stand in the hall for about 30 seconds, and when I went back in, I was excused. I returned to the jury floor, where I was told that I wasn’t needed because so many cases had settled that morning. After grabbing lunch, I was back at work before 2pm.

My take-aways from and recommendations about the experience?

• The process was very well organized. Yes, there were some lulls and delays with the intro stuff in the morning, but overall, the jury handlers and the court officers who manage this process were efficient, professional, informative and courteous. Kudos to the judicial branch for either providing a great training program or picking great employees.
• Expect to stay the whole day and be pleasantly surprised if you get out early. If fewer cases had settled, I probably would not have been excused at 1pm and would have had to stick around and go through voir dire for another jury panel.
• Bring the following: (1) something to keep you occupied (a book, some work to catch up on, Sodoku puzzles, your iPod); (2) a snack; (3) your phone (yes, they're allowed in); and (4) your own coffee, because the free stuff wasn't very good.
• Remember that jury duty is important. I could have been picked to sit on a murder case, which means I could have been responsible for putting a man in prison for a very long time. That's a big deal. It's important to show up on your assigned day, answer the voir dire questions honestly, and serve without too much grumbling if you're picked for a jury.

        

Taste of Hartford Restaurant Week, a summer favorite of Live in Hartford, is being incarnated as a January event!

Restaurant Week will take place from January 18 through January 24, and many of Live in Hartford's favorite restaurants are participating.

For $20.10, participating restaurants will offer a 3-course dinner: appetizer, main plate and dessert (alcohol, taxes and gratuity are not included).

It's a great way to try out restaurants you might otherwise not be able to afford, or an affordable way to take folks out for a special treat.

Reservations are strongly encouraged by Taste of Hartford, and we recommend them too. Last summer we were DENIED at Costa del Sol, but ended up with a yummy dinner at La Casona  (not participating) where we planned our fabulous trip to Ireland.

We also went to Carbone's (oh.my.gawd.amazing), and I went with Heather and her lovely husband to Trumbull Kitchen.

This time around I'm thinking of another visit to Carbone's, and perhaps an Intro to Sushi night at Feng.

So get out there! Warm up your cold January evenings and give some love to our wonderful Hartford restaurants!