I got Henry back yesterday! Seems to be no internal damage, so he’s running as he had been. He has a new door and everything else that got damaged was salvageable.

I had been hesitant about driving after the accident, but now that I’ve got Henry back, I’m much more attached to him. Like, not at all motivated to look for another car now. We’ll see how things go…

The Before Pictures.

And, thank you.

But am I the only one who listened to the victory speech and thought of this scene from the Goonies?

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.

This is our time, to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope. And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.

And after re-watching that, I can even see corollaries with our current political scene. The parental Republicans see us as childish, naive Democrats. They are faced with a financial crisis. There is one who stands among us ready to lead, to instill hope and confidence to reach for dreams we never thought possible. And if all goes as the Goonies went, by turning our backs on Troy’s bucket, Mikey will save us from financial ruin. Or something.

***********

Dear California,

What’s up with you? I thought you were supposed to be the future of this country. I thought you set the example that the rest of us eventually caught up to.

But, really? You’re going to join Arizona and Florida and write discrimination into your constitution? I can understand them doing that. I wasn’t even surprised when they passed overwhelmingly.

I really thought you’d make it ok. And, in a way, you have. Well, you will.

Good job to all my friends out in California and the many, many volunteers who tried to reject Prop. 8. Thanks to the 61% of the youth vote who voted No on picking a new scapegoat.

CNN’s holographic technology brought us ever closer to the future. And as I’ve been saying more and more often recently: The future is awesome. So, just wait. It’ll be the future soon.

Still Disappointed,
Enjanerd

***********

Dear Colorado and South Dakota,

Thank you.

Hugs and sparkles,
Enjanerd

***********

Dear Michigan,

You are such a goofball. I hope marijuana gets legalized soon so we can tax the bejeezus out of it. But until then, just be responsible. The medical profession has enough issues without more people trying to scam drugs out of it.

Best of luck,
Enjanerd

Ian and I went out this morning to help out with the Get Out the Vote effort. We received a canvassing packet and by the time we got back, all the remaining packets had been done. Another pair of canvassers returned just as we were heading out to another location and they gave us a packet they gave up on. After finishing that, still no packets.

We headed back to the Alexandria office and they were all abuzz there. Nothing to do yet though. Too many volunteers. Who ever heard of such a thing? They should’ve adopted a highway or something with all their extra volunteers.

So now I’m at home completely obsessed with the talking heads offering no new information. I don’t even want to watch, but I can’t pull myself away. And I’m totally pissed that I have class tonight, which starts right when the first polls close.

Despite my hesitance to talk to strangers and unwillingness to wander around unfamiliar neighborhoods, I did both those things a few weekends ago.

I volunteer to do data entry for the Obama campaign most weekends. But this time, they asked me to stop by one of the canvassing meeting locations to pick up the data to be entered. I requested the location in Ian’s neighborhood, so I would at least know the area and get to see him when I passed through.

Ian signed up to canvass at 3 and 5 and invited me to join him for the 3 o’clock canvass before bringing in the packets at 5. Seemed reasonable enough. He told me he could use the help sorting papers and whatnot, assuring me that I wouldn’t have to talk to people. He would do the interacting. (Why did I believe that..?)

We ended up getting the worst route ever — clusters of houses along 9 different streets. The people we talked to were mostly polite though, which did make things more pleasant.

One woman supporting McCain said that we were the 3rd group to stop by her house that day, so with that much support, Obama better win. Another house, the husband came to the door and let us know they were watching the Ohio State game… and they’re voting for McCain anyway. Followed by the wife, who we actually had on our list, yelling from the other room, “I’M not!”

There were a couple Obama volunteers who came outside to chat for a few minutes. A few people who started pointing out houses on their block and telling us who was voting for whom. There were a few people who, jokingly, asked for childcare services so they could go vote.

All in all, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was very pleased to hear how many people had already voted. Many of the people we were looking for weren’t home for school or military reasons, but the person at the door assured us that they had already mailed in their absentee ballots.

JOTD:
What’s red and smells like blue paint?
Red paint!

I started my morning off with a nice little treat for myself:

It turns out absentee-in-person voting is just like early voting, but with more paperwork. I thought it would be like absentee voting, but with less postage. Got to use the voting machines like usual and still get a sticker!

LOTD: Implicit Association Test

Linked this a while back, but they have a new test just for the election! Plus, I retook the male/female science test and am now neutral. I definitely have my coworkers to thank for that, as well as the many competent female engineers I have befriended over the past few years.

Ian and I were out at dinner one night and we both noticed the light fixtures in the restaurant. Didn’t think much more of it… until we went shopping the next day for light fixtures and they had the exact same style on display. This one is 3 lights together, which works well over a dining room table. The one in the restaurant had individual lights over each table.

The kitchen lights used to be on a dimmer switch, which was very finicky. One day, the switch stopped working, so Ian and I replaced it with a regular 3-way switch. Only two of the lights worked after that and the switch at the far end of the kitchen didn’t work at all. Two weeks later, one of the lights went out and immediately blew out again when I replaced the bulb. Something was definitely wrong.

This was “fixed” for a few of the intermediate months by using the overhead stove light. That, in conjunction with the one remaining light, was sufficient. …Until the stove light burned out. So, I brought in the lamp from my nightstand. This was good enough to bump the whole lighting situation down many notches on my to do list. Except that my bedroom was dark. Didn’t seem like a big deal though, since I only sleep in there.

While we were at it, we also changed out the shower heads in both bathrooms — one new, and the old one replaced the crappy one in the second bathroom. And there’s one bathroom faucet left to do. Glenn suggested we replace the whole vanity while we were at it, since it was pretty old and ugly. I was surprised to find that the ones at Home Depot ranged from $70-$2200. Seemed like I could find something in my price range.

After removing the old vanity though, it turned out that the people who had remodeled the bathroom before had just painted over the wall paper in there and had only done so up to the edges of the installation. So… we’ve decided to just do it right and remove the wallpaper, paint, and install the new stuff. So, that’s the new project. But until then, the other bathroom is fully functional!

Thanks to Ian for saving my last 5 years of memories. And it only took him a couple hours! :)

Anna made General Tso’s chicken from scratch. We were all thoroughly impressed with her cooking skillz. Sooo good!

And a belated happy birthday to Crit!

Happy birthday, Lenny!

And happy early birthday, Sonny!

I don’t know where they get it from or why anyone with a nose would want to be near it. But it’s awful. I’d rather they just left the bathroom smell alone than to mix it with this offensive stench. Ick.

Obama, on the other hand, was incredibly calm. I pretend to be a nice person. I don’t make waves and I’m non-confrontational. But when McCain started talking about Obama’s “attacks” [on his health care plan], I was yelling at the TV. I was angry that Obama wasn’t pointing out the death threats and encouragement of the us/them Arab=terrorist divisiveness. And he didn’t mention the fact that McCain has been a keynote speaker for ACORN! (Plus, ACORN wasn’t committing fraud, etc.)

But in the end, two wrongs don’t make a right. He did an amazing job not taking things personally and rightly so. None of this is actually personal. Arguing accusations and pointing out that “he started it” or “what he did was worse” doesn’t help your cause.

So, wow. I was thoroughly impressed.

And great job by Bob Schieffer! He was like a good marriage counselor. Bringing up the uncomfortable topics, allowing each person their chance to respond, kept the debate moving, while reminding the candidates what the original question was to keep them on track. Granted, not necessarily questions the political junkies want to hear, but good for the general population who are seeing all these ads/clips out of context.

Memorable moments:
- McCain’s bug eyes upon hearing small businesses are not fined for failing to provide health care to their employees.
- McCain’s “I’m not Bush” line. I can see what people liked about it. I thought it was too little, too late. But I’m also not a voter he’s going to sway. So, good moment for him.
- “And we find bad teachers another line of work.” (followed by “We need to encourage programs… [where people] can go right to teaching and not have to take these examinations…”)
“I’m sorry… You’re not good at this. Let’s make you a janitor instead.”

Omg! I was trying to make fun of this, but it’s genius! I want to use this philosophy at work. They let people be engineers without certifications. I’ll just start pulling people aside, “I’m sorry. You’re a huge moron. I think you’re more suited for a career as Underwear Inspector #312.”

Annoyances:
- Hatchet/scalpel analogy. Let it die already. It makes no sense! Who uses a hatchet and then a scalpel? I better call up BFF for her professional medical opinion.
- Does McCain not know the difference between autism and Downs?
- Joe the Plumber (winner of the night by a landslide, and I say this grudgingly… what with him not being named Joe, not a licensed plumber, a registered Republican, and delinquent on the taxes that he’s so very concerned about)

I will not do your work for you just because you’re incompetent. Seriously.

I will, however, continue to point out your inadequacies until I lose patience and am forced to kick you in the face. It won’t be my fault though. You made me do it. You should apologize now.