2008 Election Experiment - Please respond!

For the last...oh...year or so, I have periodically written all kinds of things about the election, about the issues, and about the candidates. Click on the "Politics" tag to get most of it, although I wrote some in the first half of the year before I started tagging those posts. I suppose if you search "Obama" or "McCain", you will probably get all of them. Here, this will probably do.

Anyone who reads this regularly, assuming you didn't skip this stuff, has seen a pretty large sampling of my thoughts on the election. What I would like now is for some feedback from those of you who have read parts or all of the stuff I have written.

Please leave me a comment, or send an email to me.accidentally@gmail.com and answer these questions:

1) Who do you plan to vote for (or will you, or can you vote)?

2) Who do you think that I am going to vote for?

3) Where do you live/vote?

Obviously, if you can't or won't vote...I still want you to answer #2 (that means you, foreigners!!!). Also, please feel free to elaborate on why you are voting for or against any of the candidates involved.

I will tell you a little more about what I am up to on Tuesday, when I will also tell you who I am going to vote for:-)

Other than that...Happy Halloween, Happy Weekend, and don't forget to turn your clock forward!

Tinkerbelle or Treat

I can't believe no one was impressed that I showed up at a wedding not knowing that it was two girls getting married...seriously, who else could that happen to?

Who watched Obama's infomercial last night? I actually found it almost a little embarrassing... too cheesy for my taste. Also, I may have misheard, but I think he set his new definition of rich at $200,000 a year. Biden said $150,000 last week...anyone else not like this trend? And is it at all surprising? Sigh...

Tomorrow I am going to do my great 2008 Election Coverage Experiment, so you all have that to loo forward to.

I am off to Chicago for the weekend tomorrow because I haven't been in a while and I miss Tinkerbelle:-) Some other people, too...but mostly her. I probably should have picked a different weekend since Munchkin wants to stay home for Halloween with her friends, but what can you do. I don't always think ahead... This means that we will likely go together in the next couple of weeks (maybe right after Thanksgiving?) I suppose she is old enough to go by herself, but I still like to go with her:-) For this weekend, though, it is just me, which may actually be kinda nice (oh, The Boy is going to the Cape for a guys weekend). Munchkin is staying with Smoking Hot Roommate on Friday and Big Sis on Saturday...aren't they awesome?

I am hoping to get there in time to go trick or treating, which will require me getting out of work very early. That may be ambitious, but in the event that I can't, she has promised to stay in costume until I get there...the costume is a closely guarded state secret... Other than that, I am gonna try and catch up with some friends and some family and that is about it. Let's pray it doesn't snow...

Finally, I have been remiss in not mentioning that I am most likely going back to school next fall. I covered a lot of this last fall when I decided to put it off until this year, so I don't have much else to add other than having decided to apply. So, that will be taking up a lot of my time from now until January. I am going to apply to two places (both are super fancy-shmancy schools really close to here...you can probably guess what they are) which might not sound like much, but includes lots of essays and some interviews and lining up recommendations and so on and so forth. Umm...so...wish me luck, I guess:-)

A late weekend recap

It was bad of me not to write yesterday, I know. Many, many apologies...stupid work got in the way. What's up with that?!?!?

I have some weekend recapping to do, which is late, I know. But it was a very eventful weekend, so I feel like I should cover it. First off, wake and funeral for The Boy's Aunt on Friday night. Entirely too suddenly, and it was really difficult on his Mom, but she seemed to hold it together pretty well. I am sure that she is a total mess now that the events are all done and there is no planning to distract anyone. I found myself wanting to hug her a lot...she's nice:-).

We had a really nice dinner with his brother and sisters afterwards. Nothing special, it was just nice to be able to sit down together without children or other family, which we have never really done before. (If you want a brief recap of his sisters' relationship, read here. It might make you cry...it makes me cry:-))

The funeral was Saturday morning, and was equally difficult. I cried a LOT...I really, really liked his Aunt and I will miss her. She was an awfully cool lady. The burial and lunch reception were nice, a lot of his family was in from out of town, so it was a good chance to catch up with some people briefly.

After that, we had a wedding to go to, which was actually a lot of fun, but sort of draining, and The Boy was absolutely exhausted by the end. However, I did get to say something that I never really guessed I would say...

The wedding was for a girl that he used to work with. I have met her once or twice, only briefly. We got to the church, and sat down. I opened the program, looked at the names and said "Hey, you didn't tell me that this was a lesbian wedding." Somehow, that got lost in the discussion...lol. So yes, it was my second lesbian wedding, and quite different from the first...I will spare you the details, though. It was a beautiful wedding and I had a lot of fun, even though I didn't know anybody at the beginning.

The Boy ended up sleeping until about noon on Sunday (I told you he was tired!) so Munchkin and I had a breakfast date with Smoking Hot Roommate. Then we went to dinner for The Brain Surgeon's birthday (Happy Birthday, buddy:-)) and that was about it.

So, there you have my eventful weekend... and this weekend? Chicago...more on that tomorrow.

Two years

Was your blog-i-versary a week ago? Mine was...and I seem to have forgotten it entirely. But yes, two years and six days ago, I sat down in my (then, and again now) living room on a Friday night and decided to start writing shit down. I was a little bit sick, so I had stayed in and the mood struck. Two years, and 560+ posts later...voila!

I wish I had more time to write about this, because I feel like I should have some pretty deep thoughts. And, given the time to articulate them, I do. But I am a little rushed and can't give this the attention that I want to right now. Maybe some other time...

I am actually disappointed in myself for missing the anniversary. Because, I LOVE blogging. I really do. I love that I can spout whatever nonsense comes to mind that day...be it politics, TV or what I had for breakfast. And I love that I can read other people's nonsense, too. I love that I can go back and read my thoughts from certain times. I love that other people can chime in on life. I blog almost every weekday, and almost never feel like it is a chore. In fact, there are a lot of times that I wish I had a computer nearby to write something down. Often, I forget what it was that I wanted to write.

Mostly, I love the "blog friends" that I have made...who are, at this point, too numerous to even begin naming. You stretch across the world, and around the country. You have political views from the far left to the far right and everywhere in between. You are lawyers, and doctors and nurses and teachers and bankers and techies and students and all things in between. You are smart and funny and charming and cute and friendly and compassionate and thoughtful and all of the other nice words that I can't fit into that sentence:-). You are married, single, divorced, engaged, gay, straight, tall, short, men, women, old, young, parents, children, brothers and sisters (um...I just realized that there are very few minority bloggers...what's up with that? I have two Asian readers, and um...that is about it...seriously?). You are all different, and that is what makes you so great:-)

A lot has changed in two years, and I am sure a lot will change in the next two and the two after that. But hopefully, I will be able to blog it all:-)

Oh...some things...

I just realized that I have kind of a busy weekend ahead of me, partially because I completely forget that I have a wedding to go to tomorrow...oops. Anyway, the sad part is that I have a wake to go to tonight and a funeral tomorrow for a (semi-close) member of The Boy's family. And the person died too young and too suddenly, so that may be sort of tough.

The funeral is tomorrow, but I think I will be able to get to Munchkin's soccer game and still have plenty of time to go...fortunately her game is early. Like, really early...

An old co-worker of The Boy's is getting married tomorrow, and I sort of forgot that we were going to that. As such, I am not sure that I have anything to wear...I could very well wear the halter from my dress for Big Sis's wedding (it was a two piece dress) and a black skirt. But I have to make sure it is clean (I think it is) and have to come up with some kind of a jacket, too, since that was really a summer dress. Decisions, decisions...

Finally, on a much lighter note...did anyone watch Celebrity Rehab? If you never have, it is a really interesting show on a whole bunch of levels. Also, Gary Busey is on it, and he is hilariously crazy!!! Like, totally bat shit nuts. He has checked himself in, but he has been sober for 13 years, so he doesn't view himself as a patient, he views himself as like a helper to the staff. Totally weird.

It also led to a great quote from Amber Smith, a model and actress that I recognize but whose name I never knew. First of all, for a drug addict, I can't get over how remarkably gorgeous her hair is. I mean, she is gorgeous overall, but I feel like people that use that many drugs have like dead, stringy hair...but she somehow has long, shiny, flowy hair that totally defies a drug addiction. Anyway, after a brief conversation with Gary Busey where he told her about his role as like a helper, she confessed "I don't think I want to take advice from someone that seems crazier than me."

Anyway, I laughed really hard at that...

Have a nice weekend, everyone:-)

Prepare to cry. And smile. And cry some more.

Short post today. First, it looks like Obama's vacation is only two days...not the five that I heard. Still, he wouldn't be going if he wasn't 100% sure he was winning big.

Munchkin cracks me up...seriously, that kid has everything figured out. Much more than I did at her age, or maybe even do now. You can probably guess how things went at school...people ask why they are broken up, she and the boyfriend each tell their friends (probably different stories;-)) and then by the afternoon, she has become a prude and a goody-goody. About which she said to me..."How come I am supposed to be offended by that? I will happily be that." That's my girl...the class good girl:-)

And, if that is genetic, it doesn't come from your big sister...

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Two things from Laurwilk today. One, she gave me a blog award, which is actually my very first blog award ever. I would be lying if I said that I had never been at least a little dissapointed to have never gotten one. So, thanks for that, sweetie:-)

Second, she sent me a link to this blog, which is simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring. It is written by a single father who lost his wife the day after she gave birth to their first child. Beware, you are going to cry at you desk. Maybe a lot. But, it can also be quite inspirational. On a personal level, it actually stirs a lot of emotions, but I can't go into that without bawling all day, and I have a couple of meetings to go to;-)

Mother of the Year

Did I really just hear that Obama is taking a five day trip to see his sick Grandmother? That is as close to a "Yea, I already won this thing," declaration as you are ever gonna get two weeks before an election.

Other news...I seem to have made two new German blog friends in the last couple of days. Germans love me! I am the David Hasselhoff of bloggers!

In completely other news, I may just be the best mother ever. Munchkin is having some boy troubles. Or, she was. As I have written before, she has kind of sworn off boyfriends for a while. She went through the period last year where all of the boys and girls started to notice each other, and everyone "went out" with everyone else for about three days at a time and then "broke up".

While most of her friends...boys and girls...have kind of continued that, she made a decision to kind of avoid it. As such, she has stayed away from overtures from various boys to be their girlfriend. Last week, however, she gave in and agreed to "go out" with a boy in her class. Just to translate..."going out" means that you are boyfriend and girlfriend, although it doesn't necessarily involve going anywhere or doing anything.

If we fast forward, she had three people over after school yesterday to work on a group project, including the new boyfriend. The other two left at like 6:00, and he stayed until maybe 7:00. They were in her room working on this project, and the door was open, but I wasn't really paying that much attention to what they were doing. After he left, she was kind of upset, so I asked her what the problem was. Long story short...she wanted to finish they project, and he wanted to make out;-). At least that seemed to be the gist of it.

She was upset that he got mad over it and yada, yada, yada... Not that he was at all physical or inappropriate (I'd have stabbed him by now) but there was a clear difference of opinion on how they should spend that time together;-). I think she was kind of mad, and kind of disappointed and maybe even kind of offended.

My solution, of course, was that we should put on our bathing suits and turn on the jets in the tub for a while:-). So we did...and after some talking, some venting and some foot rubbing, she was in much better spirits. Seriously, who communicates with children better than me? I didn't think so!!!

There is your rock solid parenting advice for the day...fire up the hot tub when necessary;-)

Oh, and this means the end for this boyfriend, too...

An election rant

I have a quick election rant to go on.

When this election started, I genuinely liked both candidates. I liked Obama's perspective and his composure and his thoughtful approach to things. I liked McCain's devotion to his principles and his toughness and his willingness to do what is right, regardless of the cost. I felt like each party did a good job of putting forth someone that gave us some good reasons to vote for them

But seriously...what the fuck happened? Where did it all go so wrong?

McCain, the man of principle, is totally off the rails. Suddenly, the long-time, devoted, solid conservative who believed in small government, personal responsibility, government accountability and free markets is calling for the government to guarantee people's home values? And he has a program for everything? Whatever happened to "No, that's not our responsibility"? I feel like he alternates between trying to sell out to the right and trying to sell out to the middle.

His campaign has lost all focus and it can't even organize its thoughts around attacking the other guy. Are we getting after him for raising taxes? Or for being inexperienced? Or for associating with bad people? Make up your minds... And, for someone who has been a media darling for most of his career to cry foul because the Networks, cable news stations and newspapers love the super-liberal is, well...tacky.

As for Obama, you are going to have to excuse me for not drinking the Kool-aid, but I like very little of what comes out of his mouth. Let's talk about his tax policy proposal for a second.

He wants to raise the highest marginal rates...fine (just stop talking about "fairness"...it is an arbitrary term, and totally not applicable to ANY part of our tax code). He wants to raise capital gains taxes, and estate taxes and some others, fine. I have a problem with his basic theory that all of our problems can be solved by taxing the rich, but whatever...it is a philosophy (although, let's be honest, raising taxes on the super wealthy just leads to more tax shelters. You want to tax the rich? Simplify the tax code.)

But what of this "tax cuts for 95% of Americans"? As stated before, most Americans do not pay any income taxes. In fact, about a third of workers (i.e., people with an income) pay no income taxes. Or negative income taxes. What is a negative income tax? Well, it is simple...imagine you earn, say $10,000, and you have $1,000 withheld from your paycheck. In April, when you files your tax return, you are refunded your entire $1,000 because you are in a 0% bracket (ignore the numbers...they are rounded). But, you also get the Earned Income Credit, which is a check for a couple of hundred dollars above and beyond what you have been refunded.

And this is how he gets to his 95% number. He is calling for more people to pay no income tax, and for more people to pay negative income taxes and for a higher payout to those paying negative income taxes. In my book, that is not a tax refund, it is not a tax rebate, it is not a tax credit...that is welfare. Plain and simple. And it will undo one of Bill Clinton's major accomplishments (he did an excellent job of getting people off of welfare).

For supporters of both sides, I would ask you...do you really know what your candidate believes in? And do his proposed actions match those beliefs? Not "Obama wants change" or "McCain is a war hero"...I mean their actual core beliefs as they will translate into actions.

So, how did we get here? When we started this, we had two candidates. One was a dynamic young healer with a fresh perspective, a sharp mind and mountains of potential. The other was a grounded war hero with strong convictions and a proven moral and political compass.

And now we are somehow left with a Quasi-Socialist calling for a massive increase in the size of the welfare state, and a suddenly rudderless political appeaser who has forgotten what he is supposed to stand for or believe in.

Can Presidential politics really poison people this much?

I'll give you a special day...right in your face!!!

It is really fucking cold outside, and has been for three days. The nice warm fall we were having? Nope...replaced overnight on Friday with a cold, dry, wintry weather front. It made Saturday morning kind of cozy...I got to wrap up in a scarf and mittens and Munchkin's super cute "Chicks Rule" hat (it is a baby blue winter hat with a cartoon chicken and the words Chicks Rule:-)). It was actually a beautiful morning to be outside with a cup of coffee to watch soccer. Really cold for the girls, but nice to be bundled up watching.

Dress shopping was not all that exciting. Actually, kind of annoying. I had fun because I always have fun hanging out with Smoking Hot Roommate and Munchkin, but the process itself was stressful and irritating. I won't bore you with the details, but the short version is that there are simply too many brides around!!! And, the next person who tells me that this is "my special day" is getting punched in the teeth.

I am kinda sour on the whole "wedding industry"...I am having a hard time articulating what it is that bothers me, but I find the whole thing to be sort of sexist and degrading. It is like the whole thing is set up to tell girls that they peak on this day, and everything is down hill afterwards. I dunno...I am not sure I really know how to say what I am thinking about it.

I think we made Munchkin try on more dresses than I did...is that bad of us? It was kinda fun:-) She is fun to dress up...lol. And, since most dresses are cut for women who actually have bodies that look like women, most of them look better on her anyway...:-D. So, I didn't find anything that I really liked beyond a really simple white dress. I may keep looking a bit, but I am pretty sure that is gonna be the end result. Which kinda matches me, I guess...I am sort of a simple, plain girl;-).

The rest of the weekend was nice and pretty relaxing. Hung out with a lot of friends, cleaned the apartment, paid some bills, did some work on school applications (I owe you an update on that), and then Munchkin and I did some cooking yesterday afternoon. I also had a long conversation with Tinkerbelle, who reminded me that I am way overdue to get out there for a visit (two weekends maybe?). Who thinks she should come for Thanksgiving this year? Or Christmas? Or both!!!

Anyway...I guess I oughta get back to work...hope everyone had a nice weekend:-)

Friday Fun

Happy Friday everyone:-) I feel like everyone is in a better mood on Fridays...maybe craving a drink, but in a better mood;-).

So, yesterday was a pretty typical Thursday (albeit a really warm one). I got Munchkin at school, and since The Boy worked late, we went over and met him on the way to chicken fingers. He is so cute in a suit:-). Smoking Hot Roommate and The Rocket Scientist met us, as did Papa Bear, which was nice. He has been sort of stressed lately...difficult environment for what we do as a firm. We are better positioned and will weather it better than most firms like us, but it is still stressful for him.

After dinner, we went home, Munchkin did her homework, I did some work and The Boy hung around looking adorable:-). I was kinda tired, so I went to bed pretty early, leaving the two of them watching the stupid Red Sox, who were losing badly. I had settled into a nice, comfortable deep sleep...just in time to be woken up by the rabid screaming of two insane lunatics jumping up and down in the living room!!!

Seriously guys, I understand that it was exciting...but I thought there were terrorists storming through the living room... Anyway, after restoring my heart rate back to normal, I went back to bed. However, I understand that I was spared by one day from paying off on the bet I never made with e.b.;-)

Now on to the weekend... Is it bad of me that I am not that excited about dress shopping tomorrow? I know I have to do it, and I am not at all dreading it or anything, but I feel like I am missing out because I don't have the complete gaga-ness about it that most people seem to think I should. Seriously,I want a plain white dress...what's the big deal? Someone is gonna have to give me a compelling reason for me to get something much more fancy than this (oh, The Boy, don't click that in case I buy it:-P). In fact, if I didn't feel like it was my responsibility as a woman to spend some time shopping, I would maybe just buy that one and be done with it. Am I really gonna find something better for a sorta casual summer beach wedding?

Regardless, Munchkin, SHR and I are gonna go to a bunch of places tomorrow afternoon to look at dresses. I suppose when I get into the stores, I may get more excited about it, but I am not really expecting to be awed by anything. I guess we will see...does this make me less of a woman? It might...

Not much else going on besides that. Going out with a bunch of The Boy's friends tonight, and then a bunch of my friends tomorrow night. Munchkin has a full social calendar, so I won't see her much outside of soccer tomorrow morning and dress shopping. Busy little kid, that one...

I guess that is about it. I hope everyone has a nice weekend:-)

Runway and Debate recaps

I think that maybe my excitement in seeing GLB reappear may have scared him off...if we are very quiet and look the other way, maybe he will come out of hiding again. He can totally write a guest post telling us where he has been for a year and a half now if he wants, too...consider it an open invite.

[Runway spoiler...look away if you haven't watched]

LOVED that Leanne won Runway last night. I thought her clothes were really stunning. Maybe too much of the wave thing, but I loved the subtle colors, the variety of pieces and the...um...chicness? Is that a word? I liked Korto's, too...it reminded me a lot of the stuff that Chloe did in season 2. Kenley's stuff was beautiful, but the only time she broke any new ground, it was when she clipped stuff from other people. There was no way they could pick her as the winner after chastising her repeatedly for her liberal borrowings of design ideas...

[OK...safe to look again]

Anyway...the debate...I thought it was interesting. McCain clearly knows that his days are running out, which left him in the uncomfortable position of having to really attack Obama all night. And Obama is too slick and too polished to let any of that get to him. I think that maybe the McCain folks were hoping that they could get Barry to fly off the handle a bit, but he managed to maintain his composure.

My impression in watching this was that McCain was thinking "Seriously, people...do you know who Bill Ayers really is? Why does no one care that these two are associated?" Unfortunately for him, I think he has had trouble making the association really stick. No one seems to be that phased by Obama's "casual friendship" (that is Obama's spokesman's words) with this guy, and that seems to really frustrate McCain.

So, this debate was clearly spicier than the last ones. Don't laugh, but McCain would have done better if he had not been on camera when he wasn't answering. He just looks kinda creepy and evil when he is just sitting there, blinking and smiling. He could do with looking a little more...I dunno...Presidential?

Let's see, I will say that Obama won the debate by not losing. He is very clearly ahead right now, and this was the last scheduled major event of the race, so McCain needed to make something happen. The tax discussion continued to be totally bogged down in minutiae and avoided the major issues. The health care discussion was as nonsensical and idiotic as it was last time and they made very little progress anywhere else.

I found the education section interesting. I thought McCain had a good moment on school vouchers when he cited the successes in Washington, D.C. I was surprised that Obama said something about paying teachers more in exchange for better accountability...the teacher's unions are a huge supporter of Democrats in general, and will never go for that on any scale. Ever. Also, I found it really interesting that he stopped and called on parents to improve their kids learning. The big, unmentioned truth about education is that money, teachers and resources do not make good schools...parents make good schools. It is unusual to hear a politician note that, especially a Democrat, and especially a Democrat with dark skin (because that is the politically incorrect reason for the "achievement gap" that the left talks about at length). So, while they skimmed over education quickly, I found it the most interesting part of the debate.

I think I may vote for Joe the Plumber. He really seemed to be the star of the show...if they both like him that much, then I think I need to examine him further.

I will talk about the election more as it approaches, but I am not going to tell you who I vote for until the very end. Then, I am gonna do a little bit of an experiment...so, you have that to look forward to;-)

Guess Who's Back...

Many thanks to Smoking Hot Roommate for her response yesterday, which I see that many of you enjoyed. She has told me that I sometimes portray her as "overly perfect," so I think that maybe she wanted to point out some of her flaws. Like weird eating habits.

One food habit she left out...she eats like a horse! Seriously, she eats as much as my football-player ex-boyfriend ate, and he was about two and a half times her size! I am guessing that all of her running and sports-playing has wound her metabolism up to some ridiculous rate...but she has the appetite of about four large men.

To be serious for a second (and she has given me the green light to talk about this...which, since none of you know who she is, may not seem like a huge deal, but I think it is), I wanna talk about that second thing that she mentioned. I am proud of her for talking about it, even if it is in an anonymous manner. It seems to come with such a stigma, and I wish people that have suffered from it didn't have to feel like it was somehow shameful or embarrassing.

I think, unless you have gone through it (and I haven't), you just can't understand what it's like. There is nothing physically wrong with you, which just makes it so hard for everyone around you to understand why you can't get out of bed, why you have no energy, no motivation and no will to do anything. And it leads to insulting, accusatory exchanges with people who, deep down, just want you to be better.

I have seen it, and it is really scary...like a horrible cloud of evil has descended on someone, seeped into their brain and made them into a person unlike the one you previously know. It is scary because you can't always tell what caused it, or what will cure it, or when it will get better. There are drugs, and there are doctors, and they all help...but she can be a fickle, unpredictable menace. And don't think that it somehow preys on the weak or the feeble...I have seen it wreak havoc on the strongest and smartest person I know.

And now, I am filing that away, and I doubt you will ever read anything more on this from me again.

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But, on to much more important news...did anyone see the comments to yesterday's post and notice who has made a reappearance? That's right...Green Line Boy himself...(or, someone possibly pretending to be him, but let's assume it is him for now). Whine Girl, Ella, Ally, Not Carrie Bradhsaw and anyone else that has wondered what cliff he fell off of...are we all excited by this? It is almost like the Loch Ness Monster just showed up, carrying Sasquatch and Yeti on its back!!!

Everything you ever wanted to know about Smoking Hot Roommate

So, Laurwilk and e.b. have both claim to have passed my tag along to Porter and Magoo, respectively. Aaron has acknowledged receiving it, but hasn't yet said he would actually do it. C'mon, Aaron...we all know that Sarah is a good sport! She wants to do this, I am certain. Jenny has thus far ignored me;-) (maybe I have teased her about this Hooker character once too often?) and I am anxiously awaiting Otto's renewed health so that he can chime in as well. Smoking Hot Roommate responded directly, attached below.

But first, a little updating. The weekend was really nice. Weather was absolutely gorgeous, and I had very little that I really had to do. I babysat for The Boy's niece on Friday (he fell asleep when he got home and woke up at about 10:00 am Saturday), went to Munchkin's soccer game Saturday morning, went out with The Boy to a friend's apartment on Saturday night, went for a walk Sunday morning and then had an outstanding afternoon of Fantasy Football;-). Pretty nice weekend, if you ask me.

I was talked into leaving work early yesterday to watch the Red Sox game, which was fun. I should drink more on Monday afternoons;-). Unfortunately, they lost, so everyone was in a pissy mood. Regardless of their unhappiness, I enjoyed the beers and nachos:-)

I have several comments on Dancing With The Stars. I don't watch this often, but I did catch some of it last night. My thoughts...I feel like these people are worse than years past. Lance Bass is not getting any less gay;-). Warren's partner has the most absurd fake boobs I have ever seen. I consistently worried that Cloris Leachman would lose a hip. Susan Lucci is 61 years old...I seriously would have guessed like 45 from looking at her!!!

And finally, on behalf of all the women in the world who have had children or may one day have children and face the horrors of the absolute abuse to your body from doing so... FUCK YOU, BROOKE BURKE!!! How the fuck has she had four children? Are we sure of this? Maybe she hired someone...I am suspicious. Honestly, if I thought I would look like that afterwards, I would have like a dozen of them.

Anyway...below is Smoking Hot Roommate's six things...she definitely came up with some good stuff, as you will see. For the record, I will vouch for the weird food habits and the unnatural love of Diet Coke:

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1) I tore my knee up playing soccer in High School. At the end of a slide tackle, I tried to plant my foot to pop up. She slid right through me. Bye-bye knee ligaments. Hello large, winding scar.

2) I've suffered from some really bad bouts of depression. AM has seen it, she has been a big help in getting through some of it. I love her for it.

3) Big Sis, AM and I are all pretty sure that I was an accident. My older sister was 7 years old, and my parents were both about 35. People don't have a baby at 28, then all of a sudden decide to have a second one seven years later. My Father refuses to admit this, but he doesn't exactly deny it, either.

4) While we are on that subject, my Father definitely wished I was a boy. Big Sis is all girl. I learned to play golf and love every sport you can think of by the time I was about 5. Boys are, for some reason, really attracted to the idea that a girl can beat them at golf. Latent desires to be dominated sexually? I am just throwing ideas out there.

5) I have less artistic ability than virtually anyone I have ever met. I have always wished that I could be an artist. I can not draw. Nor paint. Nor sculpt. I can not sing and never could figure out how to play any instruments. I am a pretty good dancer, though.

6) I have food OCD. I like to eat food in its individual parts, not the whole. Example: Twix Bars - I nibble the caramel top off, then the chocolate sides, then the cookie. Oreo Cookies - I eat the top cookie, then as much of the bottom cookie as I can without eating the cream. Then, finally, the cream. Maybe this applies mostly to snack foods and candy. Whatever it is, I eat food weird. Also, I drink Diet Coke in unhealthy quantities. So much that you likely wouldn't believe me if I told you. In a normal day, I usually drink 5-6 of the 20 oz. bottles.

Tagged

I got tagged by Snarky Much, and while my record of responding to tags is...um..."spotty", this one seems like a good way to occupy a quasi-holiday Monday morning. So...

1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website
6. Let your tagger know when your entry is UP

First of all, this is kinda hard. There are lots of things about me that I have never written, but they are almost all by intentional omission. I have very few secrets that I don't intend to keep. But here goes...some random facts and a couple of stories from the past...

1) I never smoked cigarettes. Seriously, I have had a lot of bad habits, but I never picked this one up. I am not really sure why...but I have probably had less than four cigarettes in my life, and never ever felt any desire to be a regular smoker.

2) Weather permitting, I usually drive barefoot. Someone told me that this is actually against the law in Massachusetts...can someone confirm that? But during the summer, I almost never wear shoes while driving, and actually find myself weirdly pained to do so. This was an awfully nice part about living in Arizona...no need to really ever wear shoes while driving.

3) Speaking of driving...have I ever told you how I learned to drive? My mom used to hang out at a whole bunch of local bars, and often drank herself into oblivion. One night (I was probably 12) she got completely hammered and they wouldn't let her drive home. She called me to come down and get her. So, I walked the three blocks to the bar (not a really safe three blocks, by the way) and drove her home. Somehow the bartender felt like it was unsafe for her to drive herself, but it was OK for me to drive her. I dunno...it made sense at the time. Fun story, huh?

4) BFFg and I were once almost involved in a bar fight in which three people ended up getting stabbed. We were 17 with really bad fake ID's and were hanging out in a really, really wretched, unsafe place. We got out because BFFg recognized the gang dress from a kid in our math class, and dropped his name to get someone to sneak us out the back. More fun times.

5) BFFb has saved my life on two occasions. Once figuratively, once once literally. We were at a pool with a bunch of people and I was playfully being chased around the pool. I slipped, cracked my face on a metal pole and knocked myself unconscious (I still have a scar on my lip from it). I also, according to everyone that was there, teetered on the edge of the pool deck, which fell off about 10 or 12 feet into a parking lot. BFFb grabbed me as I started to fall off the edge. OK...maybe I wouldn't have died...but it would have been messy. That's why he is my favorite boy in the world:-)

6) My favorite jeans come from the boys department at Old Navy. The boys jeans don't make my butt look that good, so they aren't my hot jeans...but they are the most comfortable. I have trouble finding clothes that fit me (no surprise there) so I end up buying lots of stuff in places intended for teenagers;-)

-----

OK, here is where it gets fun...

I am going to tag some people, but I am gonna do it a little differently. I am not gonna tag bloggers, I am going to tag their attachments and ask them to post their responses on their blogs. Or, email them to me and I will post them here. So...Laurwilk? Let Porter know that he is on the clock. And e.b.? Magoo is expected to respond. Aaron? Let the fabulous Sarah know that she is tagged, too. Jenny, you can give it to either Hooker or Andy, but I want one of them!

Because I know he is going to feel better soon, I am gonna tag Otto and Martha together:-).

And finally, I am gonna tag the wonderful, fabulous, divine and famous (at least in these parts)...Smoking Hot Roommate.

Around the Blogosphere

Chicken fingers were excellent, although I had to do a little disciplining. Munchkin neglected to do a couple of homework assignments earlier this week because she was up late watching the Red Sox. That is very unlike her...she always does everything, and is really good about prioritizing.

So, we had to have a brief talk about how I like to let her have as much freedom as I can, but that she has to remember what her real responsibilities are. So, hopefully that will be it (meanwhile, everyone who has ever had a teenager, or been a teenager, is laughing at me and saying "Are you fucking kidding me? She skipped two meaningless homework assignments, and this is her worst transgression in three years of living here?" Um...yea, it kinda is...:-D I am not sure this really counts as "parenting a teenager"...)

I suppose I could tell her that she can't go to the dance that she is supposed to tonight, but I really don't see the need to punish her over this. Generally speaking, I don't have to tell her things more than once...so as long as she acts like an adult, I will continue to (sort of) treat her like one.

Nothing super exciting going on this weekend, how about the rest of you? Who has a long weekend? I don't... The Boy and I are babysitting his niece tonight, although I am guessing that I will be doing the babysitting and he will be completely passed out. I may just tell him to stay home, and I will go over myself. I can handle that...right? Maybe? As I am sure you can all guess, this has been a VERY long week for him. And today doesn't look any better...

So, in lieu of any actual thoughts from me...I will give you a little Friday trip around the blog world...

First up, a hearty congrats to Billy and MuchosFe, who are set to be married..um...Sunday, I think? Billy has suspended his Presidential campaign for the big event.

Essentially Me wrote about Canadian Thanksgiving, and I am wondering whether or not the back story on theirs is the same as ours. Is it the same story about the Pilgrims, or is there a whole other story? I need some educating.

I was a little disappointed to see Jerrell go on Runway, but his dress really was the worst of the four, so I am OK with it. Leanne's was absolutely stunning...

Brandy has a wonderful open lover letter to bloggers. It makes my heart all warm:-)

And here I see that A has dropped a Rita Skeeter reference...brilliant!!!

I guess that will do for now...Happy Weekend, everyone. Enjoy the holiday if you have it;-)

More on Debate #2

I'm not Carrie Bradshaw gets my "Most perceptive blogger" award for the day, although I am not telling you why:-P. But, trust me...she knows all of your secrets!!! She also confessed that she originally thought I was an aspiring author trying to land a book deal...hmmm...a book deal, you say:-) (For the record, I don't want a book deal. Unless it pays me enormous sums of money and requires little to no actual work. In that case, call my agent.)

Anyway, it seems like most of the debate analysis is in line with my own...total snooze that was good for neither candidate and bad for all of us. I have a couple of points left over that I forgot to make yesterday.

First of all, in two Presidential and one Vice Presidential debate now, we have heard not a single word about abortion, gun control, judicial appointments or immigration. Does anyone else find that kind of odd? I understand that the news has been about economic and financial issues...but to totally ignore those, and to spend only a minuscule amount of time on education or other social issues...I dunno, I question who is setting the debate agendas.

Second, the health care discussion was horrifying. Hillary Clinton may have been off the mark in 1992, but she was right in her basic thesis that the whole system needed to be torn up and re-built. Really, if McCain and Obama represent the best ideas that we have, we oughta just quit right now and let everyone fend for themselves. I thought Obama was a single-payer, universal health care fan...did I miss something?

Regardless, the entire discussion revolves around pushing costs from one bucket to another...business should pay, individuals should pay, government should pay, etc. They are totally missing the point...we need to remove cost from the system, not reallocate it. They did mention some IT and automation, which is certainly a good idea, but is just a drop in the bucket. The basic, core issue is that doctors and patients make decisions without regard to the cost of the decision because neither of them is effected by how much it costs. Until we institute some cost controls into the system, the cost of health care will continue to spiral upwards.

Newt Gingrich is right...unless people have to make a pocketbook decision about care, they will ALWAYS choose the most expensive option. And what does that do? Drives up the overall cost of care that we all share, and encourages people to feel entitled to get three kinds of MRI's every time they sprain an ankle. And yes, in two paragraphs I just said positive things about Hillary Clinton and about Newt Gingrich. Try and find that somewhere else!!!

I also object to calling our system "insurance" at all. It is not, it is a communal payer system. If it were insurance, then all regular and routine health care expenses would be out-of-pocket, insurance would be much cheaper and it would exist to cover the catastrophic, un-predictable events. Your homeowners insurance doesn't cover painting, cleaning the gutters or filling the oil tank...but it covers a fire. Your car insurance doesn't cover dings, scrapes or oil changes, but it covers damage above and beyond a certain amount.

I could go on, but I imagine you are already bored out of your mind...

In better news, it is Thursday, and we all know what that means:-)

Can we have a do over?

Ok...quick debate recap...BORING!!!

I find myself liking them both less all the time. Now McCain wants to buy up mortgages and renegotiate them to keep people in their homes. Which is both impossible and stupid...a winning combination! (If any Bank holds a whole mortgage, they will gladly renegotiate that loan if the borrower can pay the new loan and will do so in good faith. The alternative is foreclosure, which is expensive and time consuming and will result in a much bigger loss. The problem comes with loans that have sliced up and resold into several pieces, and you couldn't buy that even if you tried.)

Obama still wants to cut income taxes for 95% of Americans. Which is patently impossible. These numbers are all rounded, but you will see the nonsense of this anyway...there are about 150 million workers. Therefore, only 50% of Americans earn anything upon which they could pay income tax to begin with.

Now, Obama did correct himself later on and say "95% of American workers" which is better, but still preposterous. Why? Because about 35% of American tax filers do not pay any income tax. Now...if your tax rate is 0% (or less), how exactly is that going to get cut? And what will the new rate be?

Unless he is talking about cutting social security taxes (he isn't, of course, but follow me for a second), which are a MUCH larger burden on the poor and lower-middle class. While the income tax is progressive (you pay a higher rate as your income rises), the social security tax is regressive. If you earn $80,000, you pay 6.25% of your salary, and your employer also pays 6.25% of your salary. If you make $200,000, that percentage is about 3%.

And, before you give me the "Oh, but your benefits are capped," argument, please note that the two are entirely unrelated. Don't be fooled...it all goes to the same place. Whether they call it and income tax or a social security tax, it all goes into the same pile and pays the same bills.

Anyway, I got totally off track there for a second...

I thought the most interesting part of the debate was the question about humanitarian intervention and the Doctrine of each candidate. If you get the chance, go back and watch it...I don't think either of them expected that question. Obama had to answer it first, and really seemed taken aback. His answer was, well...nothing. The question called for "We will act when..." and he didn't have much of an answer. McCain's response was a little better (and he, of course, had the 90 seconds of Obama's answer to think about his own response) but I don't think he had a really good answer for it either.

Anyway, I am prepared to make a statement today...barring a major, unforeseen incident (like, say a missile test from Iran or footage of Michelle Obama chanting "kill whitey" while drinking blood in a bizarre pagan ritual), this race is over. Obama will win, and he will do so by winning Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, Nevada, Colorado and Missouri (among the more obvious ones.)

McCain has allowed himself to be tagged by the financial difficulties of the day, he hasn't distanced himself from Bush enough (should we all remember that they hate each other?) and his campaign can't get past that.

Elvis...as they like to say...has left the building.

I can't promise that this post will not be a total waste of your time

Sorry to be kinda busy and not posting much today...I am being a bad blogger. But, occasionally, actual work gets in the way of my fun!

Nothing much of note today, anyway. Everyone in Boston is happy because the Red Sox won last night, so they are moving on to play the Tampa Bay Rays in the next round. Anyone think this calls for e.b. and I to make a Tampa-Boston blogland wager? Loser has to post naked pictures!!!

(Settle down. I am not making that bet, and I am gonna go ahead and assume that she isn't either.)

Munchkin tried to stay up to watch the whole game, but her long weekend, combined with a soccer game yesterday afternoon finally caught up with her and she fell asleep on the couch pretty early on. I am glad that she did...otherwise she would have been a totally zombie today, and that is not good for her. I am all for letting her stay up late sometimes, but I do like her to be rested and focused for school.

She has a date on Friday;-). Actually it is sort of a double date...one of her very good friends has a boyfriend who goes to school somewhere else (one of those rough and tumble public school boys...) and she is going to a dance as the "date" of one of that boy's friends. OK, so really it is not actually a date of any kind...but you have to be someone's guest to be let in. So, I don't expect any making out...lol.

And The Boy and I have a date of our own...babysitting for his sister's kid, who will be one whole year old in two weeks. Seems like she has been around forever! Honestly, if babies were all like this one, I would have like four of them...she sleeps, eats, giggles and never cries. OK, she sometimes cries, but she is a super easy baby.

Um...I guess that is kind of my scattered post for the day. I have little to report and some actual work to do, so I will have to come back with some solid debate recap tomorrow to get back on track:-) Until then...

My, how smooth your legs are...

I am glad that everyone else felt as twinkly inside as I did about The Boy and Munchkin hanging out:-) I joke about the level of cuteness, but it really does make me feel good, I like that they are buddies.

Since she got home super late, she was exhausted after her soccer game on Saturday morning, but she still played and it was still a pretty nice morning to be outside watching. Even if I did have a bit of a hangover from being out with some of my girlfriends the night before. After she took a nap, she left for her friend's house for the afternoon and the evening. The Boy was golfing, which meant I had most of Saturday afternoon to myself.

I took a very, very long bath, shaved, plucked, waxed, moisturized, painted, exfoliated and did just about any other type of self-spa-ing that you can imagine. And it was heavenly!!! After The Boy got home and showered, he did a thoroughly wonderful inspection of all of that pampering...lol.

We had a really nice date after that:-). It dawned on me that we haven't really spent a ton of time together just the two of us lately (at least not outside of the house.) So it was nice to just be able to sit and talk and eat and people watch and stuff. Nothing special, but that is what makes it nice, I guess.

And Sunday was kind of uneventful. Munchkin and I went to the store in the morning to buy a whole mess of groceries and stuff. She had a project to work on for school, so she had to skip her football watching date with Smoking Hot Roommate (which meant no afternoon-long romp in the bedroom for me...which I guess is OK since we got a lot of that taken care of on Saturday:-D).

I did make dinner, which makes me feel responsible and domestic. I made a chicken and broccoli and ziti thing which turned out really good and which will provide leftovers for a while, too;-). I should cook more...I always enjoy it, but I never feel motivated enough to do it...

Anyway, back to work, I guess...hope everyone had a nice weekend:-)

Sappy...

Email from The Boy on Friday...

"Is it cool for Munchkin to come out to [place with bar food and TV's] with us [him and four friends] to watch the Sox?"

How cute is that? I say...cuter than a box of puppy dogs!

I was going to go through a whole lecture about how he doesn't need to ask my permission, yada yada yada, but then they stayed out to watch the WHOLE game, and got home at like 1:30 am;-)

So, I guess we have to work on that...but the sentiment was cute, no?

What if Yoda were running?

Well, since Blogger apparently does not support password-protected posts, I will have to refrain from yesterday's story. Which is OK...I think the secrecy may have actually implied that it is a better story than it really is. It really wasn't that big a deal, and in fact was a pretty minor issue.

Anyway...Two things today as we prepare for the weekend. First, Munchkin is one unhappy camper today. Her beloved Cubs are NOT performing like she so desperately hoped that they would. They have already lost their first two playoff games, and there is most definitely an impending sense of doom for the spiritual residents of Wrigleyville. Plus, she stayed up way too late to watch the game, so she was crabby this morning:-P.

The only saving grace is that the friends and family members that are baseball fans are all White Sox fans, and they lost, too. So, she at least doesn't feel like she needs to take any shit from them. There are some rivalry issues...

And now, on to the debate...I found myself cringing a lot.

My take on it is a little different than what seems to be the consensus this morning. The consensus seems to be that Palin was OK, seemed likable, hit her talking points and didn't make a fool of herself. And I guess I agree with that...she had no major gaffes and gave as good as she got. But she also stumbled over her words, especially early on when she was clearly very nervous, and seemed to have some trouble responding on the fly. A lot of her sentences seemed to be written by Yoda ("Taxes cut we will, want raise they do to.")

I especially liked how she chose to answer her own questions and not the ones that were asked...lol. But, my guess is that she didn't change many opinions, positively or negatively. I felt like she missed plenty of chances to really hit him, but he probably did, too.

However, in its over-analysis of Palin, the media seems to have forgotten that there was someone else on the stage last night. And Biden's performance was, as these things go, really good. His makeup artists should be questioned on the weird yellowy skin tone;-), but his command of the arguments and his ability to deliver his message fluidly and quickly was really outstanding. This is his forum, and he showed why he is considered such a strong debater last night.

And don't get me wrong...he is totally full of shit...lol. He can talk about tax relief, but he is and always has been a liberal thinker who beleives in a larger, more active government. He shouldn't feel like he needs to apologize for that, but he seems to think he should. Despite their claims, neither he nor Obama is cutting anyone's taxes (and seriously guys...how do you cut taxes for 95% of Americans? Only about 40% actually pay taxes!!!). They are a lot of things...tax cutters is not one of them.

And he can criticize McCain all he wants, but before he was Obama's running mate, he said categorically that he would be honored to run as McCain's VP. He can question McCain's policies and proposals, but this nonsense about him thinking that McCain is wrong and clueless is just totally not believable. His skills as a debater, however, are totally top notch.

So, my final word on this, before the two of them basically disappear until 2010...it was a clear win for Biden, but probably no more or less than you would expect. This was, after all, a match-up of a six-time candidate and 36 year veteran of the world's most prominent debating society and a veteran of one state-wide Gubernatorial campaign. He should have been expected to look better, and he clearly did. She did OK, but it is an awful lot to expect someone's first debate of this type to be on this stage against that opponent.

Will this change any votes? I doubt it.

Veep Veep

Who can tell me how to password-protect a post? I have a kinda funny story, but it requires a little more knowledge about me than many of you know...nothing at all bad, but it kind of relies on "that thing" that I conveniently leave out of this;-). So, if someone could explain that to me, it would be swell...

(update: Looks like this is not possible in Blogger, so you will all have to do without! Unless you care to ask me via email or Gchat...I am always open to people who would like to distract me from work via Gchat)

Back to the regularly scheduled program!

[Skip all of the red text if you don't want to read what happened on Project Runway! I don't want to get yelled at for spoiling the ending...this means you Ella!!!]

I feel like last nights Project Runway was a cop-out. They have done this three years in a row now and it is getting old. Two seasons ago they sent the whole final four to the finals, which was OK because they all sort of deserved it. Last season they sent the whole final four, but two of them were essentially "semi-finalists", and I was OK with that, too. But now, to basically put off making a decision entirely? They could have kicked any one of them out last night and felt good about it...especially Korto and Kenley would have been completely justifiable. Neither of them could really argue that they absolutely had earned the right to go to Fashion Week.

I also feel like Jerrell and Leanne are being punished despite winning. Their outfits were way better, they got the better scores, and then the judges basically said "Well, we didn't like any of it, so none of you really win." If your four best designers all did poorly...maybe the challenge was too hard? The whole point of keeping score is to pick winners and losers, not to call it a tie!!! Anyway...I have no idea who will win...Jerrell is my pick for now, but I don't really even love his stuff.

OK, now back to the non-TV spoiler stuff:-) Who is fired up for the debate tonight? I am! I am! I actually think Palin will do fine, although I worry that they are setting expectations too low. I know that, going into a debate, you always want low expectations so you can come out looking like you did better than expected...but there is a risk of setting them so low that whatever happens, it will be interpreted as failure.

She is clearly being set up to look like an idiot. Does anyone think all of these Conservatives calling for her to quit are serious? I don't...I think it is all part of the expectation setting...it just allows them to come out tomorrow with "Wow, I was totally wrong about her. I didn't like her, but did she ever impress me." So for her, anything better than abject failure will be seen as a good night.

Biden is almost in a tougher spot because he is expected to be so much more convincing. And he will be fine, too, because he really is a good debater...probably better than either McCain or Obama. However, he has more at risk in some senses...if the lasting sound byte from this debate is of him saying something stupid (which he does a lot;-)) then he will have failed dramatically. He needs to stay on subject, answer the questions and hit his marks. No news out of this debate is good for his camp...

One final note...how did the McCain people sign off on Gwen Ifill as a moderator? For those of you who haven't seen, she has a book coming out about Obama and the political revolution that he is leading. Obviously, the success of that book sort of relies on him actually winning... I know that most of the "respectable" journalists lean left (or more than lean), but couldn't they have maybe picked someone who doesn't have such a vested financial interest in Obama winning? Seems like poor planning on their part.

TV...I have left you alone too long!!!

Let's get away from all of this serious nonsense and back to cheesy television...

Project Runway is on tonight and I haven't really covered it at all this season:-). Honestly, I don't love any of them...I feel like last season's group was much, much stronger and deeper than this one. They are still cutting people that are really just sort of marginal (Suede? C'mon...how did he make it that far? And Kenley is not bad, but she is also not that good, and totally melts under any criticism.)

I do think that they should have a strong final 3. Korto and Jerell have been really strong pretty much since the beginning...I like them both. And Leanne has come on pretty strong towards the end, although she hasn't been as consistent as the other two have. I don't know that I have a favorite...I don't super love any of them.

Heidi, however, is still awesome. I feel like she is much funnier this year, and still as absurdly gorgeous as ever. Michael Kors continues to crack me up to no end with his fantastical analogies..."Seriously, it looks like Minnie Mouse stopped into a crack den on her way to cheer leading practice!" And Tim Gunn...oh...Tim Gunn...how art thou so unbelievably awesome?

I haven't watched Top Model at all...is the dude still there? He is NOT pretty...

I still love The Biggest Loser, that show makes me want to do something with my life. It creates motivation. Also, any one of the people on that show could literally eat me for a large dinner.

The Office is back, which is a huge relief...I was having trouble living without it. I felt like they dragged out Pam and Jim's engagement too long, but it was cute the way they finally did it. Everyone on that show continues to crack me up. I want to be Stanley's friend:-)

I have started watching Heroes again, and I remember why I loved it so much early on. I watched almost none of it last year, and I still feel like they are rehashing the same story over and over, but it is constantly entertaining. I wish they would kill Sylar and have a new bad guy, though...it is time to move on. But I am hooked.

Can we get a new VH1 celebrity dating show? I am ready for a new cast of tramps...

And, are there any new shows I should be watching? I don't have any of them on my radar...