The radio said it was 20 degrees colder this morning than it was at this time yesterday. Sarah said its more like 30 degrees difference (based on the indoor-outdoor thermometer she is just a little obsessed with). So, maybe it did make sense when Cari left my jacket out on the table. Unfortunately, I didn't heed her warning and take it. It was just a little chilly this morning. I was colder than I was any time in the last 5 days in D.C. Though, not nearly as cold as Gavin and Jen and their 17 inches of snow in Wyoming.

Today, on the agenda: Working on a presentation that I will most likely be giving on Thursday, going to lunch for a coworker's promotion (yummy Chinese), possibly more debugging in the afternoon, going to class (well, not quite sure, waiting to hear from a classmate about the likely scenario of it being canceled), then studying like mad for a test tomorrow.

Last night I made Greek salad with shrimp and spinach. Yum yum yum! Plus we actually got a loaf of fresh bread at Randall's that was still warm to the touch. Double yum!

I took 243 pictures in D.C. I'll post them tomorrow.

I'm off to D.C. this afternoon. Yippy for me.

On the agenda: Dinner Thursday (with a free-range, organic turkey Aunt Diane preordered for us) with Aunt Diane, Aunt Ellie and assorted first, second and once or twice removed cousins (if someone would explain what is what in the cousin definition department).

For the rest of the weekend: ice skating in the sculpture garden, a trip to the new Air and Space Museum Dulles hanger, probably going to the movies, and lots of good meals (sushi and Ethiopian seem to be definitely on the agenda), and, OF COURSE, visiting Melissa and Sharon (though not *that* social because their mother is in town for the holiday) and their alien cats.

For the count this will actually be my THIRD Thanksgiving dinner for this year. Time 1: Canadian Thanksgiving. Time 2: Houston random-people potluck on Saturday.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Gobble Gobble.

I'm off to D.C. this afternoon. Yippy for me.

On the agenda: Dinner Thursday (with a free-range, organic turkey Aunt Diane preordered for us) with Aunt Diane, Aunt Ellie and assorted first, second and once or twice removed cousins (if someone would explain what is what in the cousin definition department).

For the rest of the weekend: ice skating in the sculpture garden, a trip to the new Air and Space Museum Dulles hanger, probably going to the movies, and lots of good meals (sushi and Ethiopian seem to be definitely on the agenda), and, OF COURSE, visiting Melissa and Sharon (though not *that* social because their mother is in town for the holiday) and their alien cats.

For the count this will actually be my THIRD Thanksgiving dinner for this year. Time 1: Canadian Thanksgiving. Time 2: Houston random-people potluck on Saturday.

Happy Thanksgiving!! Gobble Gobble.

Last night was entertaining. I made salmon curry for dinner (yum yum!). And I had a headache from caffeine withdrawl (seriously, no coffee in the morning, no coke at coke break and all the sudden, my body goes into shock -- who said caffeine shouldn't be a controlled substance?). Plus I was kind of feeling philosophical about whether I am contributing enough to the world. So, when I have a headache, I think: What will take the edge off? Thanks to my Mom, I think, the answer is, "Have a glass of wine, honey, that will help."

That's all I have to say about last night. Oh, and absinthe makes the heart grow fonder, just because that expression makes me laugh.

First of all, my A/C is pretty much totalled. Apparently when they put the new coil in last year, they put the wrong size in (a 4 ton coil into my 5 ton system). This resulted in my blowing out the fan motor (which they replaced a few weeks ago) and, with the bad motor, running liquid instead of vapor through the compressor - destroying that too. Anyway, damage = $3700. Luckily, its covered by my home warranty. Though I can upgrade to a much MUCH better system (way more energy efficient) for about $5000, so if I cash out on the damage and pay the difference, I can get a new A/C. So, I have some thinking to do, luckily this is the middle of winter.

From some random trivia I had e-mailed to me today: If you were born in Los Alamos, New Mexico during the Manhattan project (where they made the atomic bomb), your birth place is listed as a post office box in Albuquerque.

Another piece of stupidness: 5 hunters were gunned down in a dispute over a prime hunting spot. And, if you're just aching to practice your markmanship, check out Live Shot. So, they've got this gun set up on a pivot and a web cam through the site - and you can sit at your PC and aim it at paper targets. No joke. Its set up somewhere in Hill Country. This is one thing I love about Texas - its completely predictable. I read an article about it and I thought to myself "That must be in Texas" and it was.

Someone convince my Aunt Diane its worth waking up early on Thanksgiving Day to do the Turkey Trot race with me!

And, the game of the week: Type each single letter of the alphabet in the address bar of your browser and list something that the auto-complete function pulls up.

A is for ACLU
B is for Badger, badger, badger
C is for CNN
D is for Diplomat's Blog
E is for End of the World cartoon
F is for Feminist Majority
G is for GTCrows
H is for Houston Realtime Traffic Map
I is for In the Agora
J is for nothing
K is for nothing
L is for Live Shot
M is for Mechanical Engineering at Rice
N is for NASA Watch
O is for Ostelli Online (Italian Youth Hostels)
P is for Phi
Q is for Quixotic Pixels
R is for Run Washington
S is for Sarah
T is for Talking Points Memo
U is for U.S. Sailing
V is for Vet City
W is for Washington Post
X is for Xanga - Jo's Blog
Y is for Yahoo!
Z is for nothing

A brief timeline:

12 p.m.: Scheduled time of arrival of A/C repairman (though I was warned he may come earlier)
12:15 p.m.: Time I finished working out. Decided not to shower, since I wanted to be around to let the A/C repairman in.
1:15 p.m.: Received call saying that A/C repairman was "on his way."
2:45 p.m.: Wanting to take a shower, I call A/C repairman to ask where he is. He says he is "on his way" and will be here in 15 minutes.
3:00 p.m.: No sign of A/C repairman. Still haven't showered. Starting to smell. Canceled plans to go to a movie at 4:15 because I still have to grocery shop and cook something for a Thanksgiving potluck at 6:30. Worried that the A/C repairman might not be here even then.

And the saga continues...

A brief timeline:

12 p.m.: Scheduled time of arrival of A/C repairman (though I was warned he may come earlier)
12:15 p.m.: Time I finished working out. Decided not to shower, since I wanted to be around to let the A/C repairman in.
1:15 p.m.: Received call saying that A/C repairman was "on his way."
2:45 p.m.: Wanting to take a shower, I call A/C repairman to ask where he is. He says he is "on his way" and will be here in 15 minutes.
3:00 p.m.: No sign of A/C repairman. Still haven't showered. Starting to smell. Canceled plans to go to a movie at 4:15 because I still have to grocery shop and cook something for a Thanksgiving potluck at 6:30. Worried that the A/C repairman might not be here even then.

And the saga continues...

A/C Update: No sign of the A/C guy. Called the company, and the secretary (not the one I talked to yesterday) said that I was not on the schedule for today. Then she insisted that I was on the board for being a no-show SEVERAL times - including Nov 11 when I/Nick sat home all day waiting. This only makes me think that the 3-4 times they called to schedule me that I responded "No, I'm not available," they scheduled me anyway, sent the guy out, and duh, I wasn't there. Anyway, I had a few words with the new lady over the phone and she's trying to get it resolved. Let's just say I'm less than pleased.

This morning I had a meeting for potential reduced gravity program mentors. There's a pretty low chance that I'll be selected as a mentor. The room the briefing was in was frigid. I mean, frost bite frigid. Shivering frigid. Unbelievably cold.

I've had Starbucks 4 out of 5 days this week. I really must scale that back, at least a bit.

No big plans for the weekend. Aren't I exciting?

Yesterday, I mentioned my favorite cities, and Jen O inspired me to think more about it. Including with categories. This is what engineers do, they organize.

So, from yesterday, favorite cities: Washington D.C., Vienna, Rome, San Francisco, and Edinburgh.

Runner Up Cities: Vancouver, Burlington, Ottowa, Miami

Favorite Towns: New Hope, PA; Fussen, Germany; Cava de Tirreni, Italy; Key West, Florida; Baden, Switzlerand

Runner Up Towns: Stromness, Orkney; Kinsale, Ireland

So, I took this quiz, and it said I was Neptune. But I didn't like the answer, so I shifted some of my answers to other ones I considered and turned out to be Mercury. I think that's more like me. Anyway, my friends were saying that I was flighty and artsy, which surprised me. I mean, sometimes I'm a little scattered. But flighty implies not grounded in reality... Anyway, I'll leave you to test out my new commenting system and tell me what you think.

You Are From Neptune

You are dreamy and mystical, with a natural psychic ability. You love music, poetry, dance, and (most of all) the open sea. Your soul is filled with possibilities, and your heart overflows with compassion. You can be in a room full of friendly people and feel all alone. If you don't get carried away with one idea, your spiritual nature will see you through anything.

You Are From Mercury

You are talkative, clever, and knowledgeable - and it shows. You probably never leave home without your cell phone! You're witty, expressive, and aware of everything going on around you. You love learning, playing, and taking in all of what life has to offer. Be careful not to talk your friends' ears off, and temper your need to know everything.

So, as I was reminded Whoo hoo! for Irwin for getting this up and running. I'm not quite "live" yet at Piles Of Rock. I'm trying to import my diaryland archives, but when I tried last night, all I got was blank entries. I'm planning on messing around with it again tonight.

Ok, begin rant. I got yelled at by the A/C repairman dispatcher this morning. First, she made it seem like I was asking her a huge favor to get the repair guy out this afternoon or tomorrow. This was despite the fact that I called on Monday and asked her to schedule me at the end of this week. She said she would call back Wednesday night (which she didn't). So I called this morning. First she left me on hold for like 10 minutes. Then she came back and said that the technician had "agreed" (like he has any choice!) to come out tomorrow afternoon. But, she derided (in a harsh, mother-yelling-at-small-child manner), "There better be someone there this time. Last time he came there was no one there." Last time was Veteran's Day, when he was supposed to come between 9 and noon. I sat home until 11:30 and then went swimming. Nick stayed home in my place (and I know he was there because when I came back from swimming he was still in his PJ's). The A/C guy called at 12:20 to say he was on his way over and that I should call him back. I didn't get the message until 20 minutes later, and I did call him back, but it went strait to voicemail (where I left a message that someone could wait at home until 4 p.m.). I also left this same message at the dispatcher. Anyway, no response. That evening, I called to see what happened, and they said they would call me back with details. Again no response. Ug ug ug!! You may wonder why I don't change companies? Well, this is the one my home warranty contracts too, so I'm stuck. Not quite, though, if he doesn't show up tomorrow, I'm calling the home warranty company and insisting they find me someone new. End rant.

This is such crap. Why does it bother me so? Its completely unimportant. Better to raise my blood pressure over other things.

On the agenda for today: Working on an old project that I was kind of sick of last year, but I don't mind giving it a little bit of new life for now. Its more frustrating because the results aren't really that important at least in the near-term, though there is potential in the long-term which is why its important to work on it. I'm more of an instant gratification kind of gal. Or maybe its a limited attention span on my part. Anyway, Gavin tells me that my emotions about this project are too readable (judging by me, very theatrically, rolling my eyes this morning while talking about it). So, I'm also going to use this project to work on my poker face.

After that class. I'm hoping class next Tuesday is canceled. I can't wait to go to D.C.! I love D.C.! My favorite cities in the world list includes Washington, D.C. (if you're interested, the list can be rounded out with Vienna, Rome, Edinburgh, and San Francisco).

Ok, I feel like even more of a slacker than usual this morning. We were way too social in my office. The social center of the universe, that's my office.

Well, this entry isn't really about life on an atoll. But I was struggling for a title.

I really like my classmates this semester. They are so friendly and social and talkative and supportive. Compare this to previous semesters, where I felt lucky to get a grunt from 80% of my classmates.

I'm starting a migration over to my new domain, Piles of Rock. Not fully yet, I'm going to keep posting in diaryland, because its a work in progress over there. But I'm actually typing this entry in my new blogging software right now. A completely new look will be thanks to Sarah In the near future. Until then, I found a nifty little template to use. You'll also have to wait to read my trite description of why my domain is Piles of Rock and not Piles o'Frock.

Its a monsoon outside today.

I was up way WAY too early this morning (0445) thanks to my friends in the military and their idea of a good time of day to plan an exercise. (We're not going to talk about the one at 0300 later in the week that I may or may not attend.) But the good news is, I'm leaving for class shortly and I've already put in 8 hours for today. That's a nice thing, since I usually struggle to make up class time. Only two more weeks and one big homework assignment. Yippee!

To entertain yourself, build a superhero. I've had lots of fun - I particularly like lightening bolts, capes, and staffs and right hair. I'll post some of my creations later.

I didn't realize how I've become accustomed to the chaos in my house. On Saturday morning, Nick left for Oklahoma, and Cari wasn't returning from Canada until Sunday afternoon - leaving me all by myself in the house. Most of Saturday, I revelled in it. I stayed in my PJ's. I ate leftovers (not having to rush to make sure I got them before a hungry roommate). I watched t.v. I read random things (Cari left "Band of Brothers" on the end table, so I started that). I walked around the living room naked (no, not really, but I thought about it). I watched Fellowship of the Ring (on dvd) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (on tv). I was basically determined not to leave the house, and I succeeded. Though, once evening rolled around, I realized I was more than slightly overwhelmed by the quiet and sought out people to talk to over IM. I think I talked Irwin into installing Movable Type for my blog (I was especially convinced when I found out I could "liberate" my diaryland archives with a script available over the Internet and move them over to MT). Yes, I know I could install it myself, but reading the directions gave me a headache. Then I went back to quietness.

Yesterday I went shopping and got a jacket, a new skirt, two books (including A Wizard of Earthsea by U. LeGuin because they are making it into a movie on the scifi channel, and I feel remiss in never reading it), new headphones for my iPOD (but not the white iPod kind because they were freakin' expensive), a gingerbread latte, new bras, and new underwear. Whew. Shopping frenzy!

I'm hoping my purchase of new books will get me out of the reading rut I've been in - I've been re-reading all my favorites, which is fun and comfortable and happy, but it does feel like I'm in a rut.

Yesterday we had another random government holiday off - Veteran's Day! Yeah for random government holidays. Before you go thinking civil servants are lazy, I'll have you know that I was sitting at my desk the day before and after Christms for the last two years while all the contractors had a holiday. So, blah, fair trade I guess.

I actually had a really busy day yesterday. Woke up, waited for the A/C guy (who never came), bought an ugly swimsuit, went swimming (felt sick for the second week in a row, I think there's something in the water), went to class, went to Mely's. Sleep.

Now, its Friday.

Last night I was in a sim until really late. One of the things the LSO's do is that they add some "failures" into the system. So, I got called and told to break one of the TACAN's in Florida. Anyway, I called the relevent other people and told them it was broken.

Of course, they asked "why."

On the advice of an older, wiser LSO (who is currently away in Bumfuck, Africa on an all-expense paid tour of duty), I said "An alligator ate the antenna." Actually, the advice was always blame failures on a wild animal, because then all the backseat engineers won't start asking why too detailed questions when all they need to do is just accept that is was broken. This is leading me to wonder if his advice was more hazing than realistic, because all this could have been avoided if I said there was a power failure.

The response I get was "How big was that alligator? Have you ever SEEN a TACAN?" (The answer is no)

My response: "Have you seen this alligator? Its the size of the one who ate Captain Hook!" (At this point, I had lost all composure. Ah, the joys of a late night.)

Some joker listening in: "A crocidile ate Captain Hook!"

For the rest of the night, I got one too many alligator jokes.

Then, later on in the sim, they called up WSSH (another airport for the shuttle to land at). Now, getting the forces out there is notoriously difficult, just on shear driving time and distance. So, I calmly try to explain how long-simulated since the people there are really snug in their beds not playing with our sim- it will be before a weather balloon will be ready. The responses I got back included the following: Can't we get them a police escort so they can drive faster? Don't they understand this is an emergency, can't they hussle just a little bit? I could get out there faster than that! Let's send a T-38. Silly Air Force, they are SO lazy, if it was the Navy, now they'd be ready to go...

Ah, the questions you get.

This is worthy of a new entry for today.

Sorry Everybody has a gallery of people apologizing to the world for re-electing Pres Bush.

Fuck the South has language as bad as its domain name, but makes great points, my favorite:

You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? It’s fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, that’s right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think that’s just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we're-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part.


On the lighter side, go here, upload your picture, and give yourself a makeover. It works fabulously.


And, I just had a very Baden moment.

The stupid people (person 1 and person 2) back from ISU keep having these conversations that make me all philosophical about my job.

You see, part of this philosophizing (ooh, Pres Bush is rubbing off on me), is the recent bout of rumors suggesting the Space Shuttle could be retired in less than 10 flights, rather than 28 flights like currently planned. (here and here are some print discussions of it). I can say I would necessarily fault that decision. There are a lot of good reasons for early retirement and I think its really up to policy makers to weigh the trade offs accordingly.

But that's not what I philosophizing about. I am wondering, what will I do? No secret, I wasn't ultra satisfied with my job over the last year or so. And then I made some big changes -- moved into doing some flight control work in particular, and hopefully soon will get to do some FDO work in specific (when, oh when, I'll get to start that is still a big mystery to me). I like working on flight programs. I.E., I like working on things that fly. I know, its a simplistic concept, but I wouldn't be an engineer working on anything else. Engineering is too boring to keep my interest if we weren't blasting holes in the sky.

So, here's the question. What would I do if my employer suddenly stopped all manned flight programs? So, then, what would I do?

Would I be happy spending the next 5 to 15 years working on exploration studies before we fly again? Needless to say, if I was just doing paper explorations studies, I might as well do them in a better located center than Houston.

Would I work for a different part of my agency, doing flight testing or robotic probes - so at least I can work with hardware?

Would I try to get a rotational position working with a foreign space agency?

Would I make a BIG switch? Join the Peace Corps? Apply to the Foreign Service? Go to school for Public Policy? Apply for a job with the International Red Cross? Work in a bookstore in New Zealand?

Would I make a lifestyle switch? Move to D.C. or Vermont or California or Canada or Australia and just find any sort of job I qualify for there?

Would I move to a more cutting edge part of the space program and work for (gasp) private industry at Scaled Composites or Blue Origin or "Virgin Galactic" etc that would give me real freedom to design entire parts of spaceships rather than being a cog in a machine?

Would I drop it all, as one flight instructor suggested that I would eventually do, and go into an enormous amount of debt to blast through all my flight ratings and go for a job at the airlines?

Would I move to another branch of the government - the NTSB and the State Department both seem like really interesting places to work? Even better, working on Congressional Staff or in the White House would be awesome.

This really reminds me of a certain list I hand wrote in close to 6 point font outlining all the post-graduation options that interested me a few years ago.

The weekend was blissfully boring. I saw The Incredibles which was awesome! Highly recommended. And then I saw Alfie - two hours of my life that are now gone forever. I mean, the first hour didn't need a plot, it was worth it just to gawk at Jude Law. However, Alfie's inner monologue was so trite and boring and stupid that by the end, I didn't care how cute he was, I just wanted the movie to end.

Burt Rutan was on 60 Minutes.

"You know, I was wondering what they are feeling, 'they' being that other space agency," Rutan laughs. "And, uh... you know, quite frankly, I think the big guys, the Boeings, the Lockheeds, the nay-say people at Houston, I think they're looking at each other now, and saying, 'We're screwed!' Because, I'll tell you something, I have of a hell a lot bigger goal than they do!"

Sigh. I don't want to be a nay-say person, I just want to have a darned space ship that, you know, flies into space. I want Burt Rutan (or one of the other companies on this route) to hurry up and make something that takes crew to low earth orbit (which is a far more challenging task than what won him the $10M), and we can just buy launch services from them for cheap and move onto bigger and better stuff. I also wish "we" (the Houston nay-sayers...) would get passed the need to let the computer fly everything. Its so much more beautiful (and simple) to let the pilot do his job.


And, today's words of wisdom from our safety and health folks: DON'T PUSH YOUR LUCK, YIELD TO A BUCK IN RUT!


And, 50 Jobs Worse than Yours


These "cartograms" that change the size of the state based on its population is a fascinating way to examine the election demographics and red and blue states...

Gosh. I don't have anything to say today.

Oh well. Maybe I'll add something later.

Conversation at Starbucks this morning while I was being a nice roommate and getting coffee for both Nick and I:

Me: I'd like a grande no-fat mocha. And also a grande white chocolate mocha with a shot of vanilla and a dash of cinnaman.

Man making the coffee machine perks up: Did you say a white chocolate mocha with vanilla and cinnaman? Is that for Nick?

Me: Um, yes [thinking Nick comes here way too often].

Man: [swoons] How do you know Nick?

Me: He's my roommate

Man: [even more swooning] Oh my gosh! You..are...so... lucky!!! [swoon swoon swoon]

Me: [trying to excise the traces of sarcasm from my voice] You have no idea...

I've been chuckling all morning. I tell Nick this story, and he just shrugs, and says Yeah, he kind of has a thing for me. His whole office did get a kick out of it though.

As for my test tonight, well, as usual, I am not ready at all. I studied for MAX an hour at 4 a.m. and then went back to bed (why oh why do I have to be an early morning studier?) Now, I'm going to try to squeeze a bit more in this morning, because this afternoon is booked up.

Another four more years.

I'm trying to think of things I like about President Bush in order to stay positive. I like his space exploration initiative. I like that I will probably get a tax cut. I like the fact that he acknowledges social security is broken. I like the fact that he used to be able to fly an airplane. I like that some of his advisors seem to be pretty smart people. I like making fun of him...

I saw Chorus Line last night. Which was nothing like the movie from the 1980s. The music was so-so and the plot moved WAY to slowly. The dancing was awesome. In the spirit of the last paragraph: I like dancing, and I like that there was no intermission (at an 8 p.m. show, you want to get home as fast as possible).

Before the movie, I had possibly the unhealthiest dinner imaginable. I had "Avocado Adobe". The only part on the menu I read was "avocado stuffed with shrimp". Well, it was really stuffed with shrimp in a cheesy gravy, and then covered in more cheese, and deep fried and then covered in tomato sauce. To summarize: avocado, cheese, more cheese, and fried breading. All in one meal. Whew! Needless to say, it was really really yummy!

I'm going to have to restrain myself from constantly (and I mean constantly) reading election news. Usually you can count on the morning of election day being slow for news, because no precincts are reporting in, its too early for the pollsters, etc. However, with all the allegations of voter fraud and intimidation, well, the morning news already kicked off on a "high point".

Anyway, my favorite blogs for today: Talking Points Memo and Mystery Pollster.

I voted this morning in an elementary school. My observations:

1. No lines, its great to be in Texas! I just walked right up and cast my vote.

2. Being in an elementary school is a lot like Liliput. Everything is miniature. It was really funny, because they must have run out of "grownup" size table and the election officials were sitting at little mini-tables all hunched over.

3. There is no such thing as secret voting here. Not even a curtain, just neck-high cardboard walls.

4. There doesn't seem to be much point of voting here. Most of the positions were uncontested (including our congressional race and the vast majority of the judges). There weren't even any referendums or bond issues...

5. Liberatarians are weird. Many of the "contested" races were Repub's vs. Lib's., especially for judicial positions. Anyway, I would've considered voting for the Lib's if THEY EVEN HAD A WEB PAGE! I mean, the party has a web site, but then you go to the candidate's info page and all you have is name, age, and where they went to school. Nothing else. Not a single word about them or their position or experience even if you google them. Now, maybe I'm a new fangled kind of gal, but I need to know a little bit more about the candidate than how old they are.

6. I voted for two Republicans over Democrats (whoa!). One was for the county tax assessor/collector, simply as vengence to the incumbant (a dem) for denying my appeal on the amount of property tax I had to pay. The other was an uncontested Republican for appellate court judge who put a bunch of her rulings on her web page and they seemed very level headed to my uneducated legal mind.

7. My way of expressing my pissed-off-ness of so many uncontested races (gosh darn, you think the Democrats could at least make a small showing...) was just not filling in the bubble if I didn't like the incumbant. I wonder if that makes any difference at all.

8. I didn't fill in the bubble for Ron Paul. He's my new Congressman (running, yes, you guessed it, uncontested) thanks to DeLay's stupid redistricting. He's more Liberatarian than Republican, and I would've voted for him if he was consistantly lib. But the number of times that he mentions "God" on his web site freaked me out. Plus I think that to be a "good" liberatarian you should support a women's right to choose (which he doesn't) and oppose the death penalty (which he doesn't). So, he lost my vote. Not that it matters.

7. I view my vote for Sen Kerry as counting even though I live in a solidly red state (see here for an interesting article on the color coding of states). There's always the off-chance that Pres Bush will win the electoral college and Sen Kerry the popular vote, and, well, I just want one more data point to support my belief that the electoral college is an out of date remement from the days where communication was slow between states (or non-existant) and the voting public was ill-educated.

10. I am having trouble counting this morning.

11. I don't think any news channel is going to be so stupid as to call the election tonight. Most likely there will be a lot of talk all night and pretty red and blue flashing lights (and maybe some purple and grey and stuff). Oooh, flashing lights. I'll be seeing the Chorus Line musical in town. Maybe when I come back the results will be clearer, but really I'm just hoping we'll have a President by January.

11. I think I voted against the space program by voting for Sen Kerry. But I think I voted for World Peace. So it probably all comes out in the wash.

On a non-voting issue, this one is for all my friends here at work. WebTADS (our time keeping system) has won an award for financial management. I don't know what these people were thinking when they gave this award out!

I love Halloween. Kids in random costumes. Me wearing p.j.'s and two pigtails to a party (and later to Walmart to look for a Oijee Board -- no joy there, because if the store doesn't sell naked cartoons of Supreme Court justices, it won't sell a game that lets you communicate with the demons). Lots of candy.

On Saturday I went on a Haunted Tour of Galveston. Ask me later how "made up" everything was. There were some pretty entertaining moments.

As for costumes: Cari dressed like a 70's hooker. Nick dressed as a gay (happy!) pirate. Sarah as a sweaty soccer player (since she came strait from her soccer game to the party). Jen in the beautiful costume that she spent a month working on (the Queen of Hearts). Gavin in a Hawaiian shirt and swim trunks because he probably didn't think about his costume until an hour before the party. Stephanie as Tigger (a store bought costume for children ages 4-6). Matt as himself -- with K.C. Chiefs warpaint. Debbie as a geocache. Jason as himself (or a cowboy... but since he always wears cowboy boots and would probably wear a hat too if it was professional, well..). Melanie as a cowgirl (she's from Michigan, so it really was a costume). Jo as Santa's Little Helper (a costume she made herself, originally it was a she-devil costume... we'll not talk about the humor in that).

Ah, Halloween.

This weekend, the weather was beautiful, I got a LOT of yard work done. Each of the last few weeks, I mow my lawn thinking "Ah, this is going to be the last time this fall." But, so far, not yet. Stupid Houston. Spent two hours talking to Karen (hi Karen!), making me want to go visit Atlanta (its been SO long since I've been back).

Oh, and my favorite. This morning on NPR, they were talking about the new Health Curriculum and Textbooks being adopted in Texas High Schools. This is particularly important because Texas orders SO MANY text books, that it becomes the standard book available to many smaller states. Anyway, the new textbooks will make no mention of contraception and advocate abstinence only (which I don't get - abstain your entire life? ah, the end of the species is nigh!) So, the interviewed some lady with one of the Texas "pro-life" groups and she said (quoting as close as possible) "Well, maybe text books that include contraception work for those folks in Washing D.C. - but this is TEXAS! Parents here know better. Texas is the buckle of the Bible Belt. And our parents know that its wrong to teach our kids about contraception and abstinence is the only way." OH, it made me want to scream!