Now there's an award for it!

The other day I was reading a post over here, and while I wasn't experiencing the same thing Lara was exactly, I still feel like I've been quite lame lately. Most likely because I've been living and breathing the election for a while now, but not writing on my own blog about it because I really didn't want a debate here. Now that it is over, and my candidate did not win, I feel like I have something akin to a mild case of postpartum depression, er .. post-election depression. So I have not had anything to say or anything to write about and haven't even been reading and or commenting on all of the blogs I usually do.

I figured I should apologize to anyone who regularly reads here for being so lame, but I really didn't want to make myself feel even worse than I already do - so I made it into an award! A lame award, of course.


Don't worry, I'm not going to nominate, tag, or award this to anyone else. But I AM awarding it to me, in honor of my lack of substance or amusement lately. Sorry. And if anyone else feels the same way - feel free to grab it for yourself. I mean, I made the badge and it's pretty lame but even lame awards are meant to be shared. And I'm not exactly attached to it.

Enjoy. Or not. I guess I'm kind of ambivalent about it.

Champion shopper

How do we end up doing some of the jobs we do? At work, totally unrelated to what I do, somehow I ended up being the employee responsible for ordering the office supplies for my department. Maybe because people knew I was a big online shopper? No, when I started doing it I had a catalogue and an order sheet that I had to fax to the company we shopped from. Sheesh. Didn't realize I had been doing it that long.

Once a month my Outlook calendar reminds me to send out an email to my co-workers asking them if they need anything, that I will be ordering in the next few days and they can email their requests to me. I do my best to find what everyone asks for but doggone it - sometimes even a champion shopper like me comes up short!

Click to see bigger

But I DID try.

Sorry Laura.

John McCain's Concession Speech

John McCain just gave an incredibly gracious concession speech. He spent the first few minutes reflecting on America's history of racism--and the moral significance of electing an African-American. He saluted Obama for inspiring so many young people and first-time voters, then offered his sympathies for the death of Obama's grandmother.

The address contained not a whiff of ideology or partisanship. Instead, McCain called upon all Americans, even those who had voted for him, to offer the new administration its support and seek common ground.

He concluded by saying "I wish godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president." Then he asked his countrymen "to not despair of our difficulties but to always believe in the promise of America."

--Jonathan Cohn Posted: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 11:26 PM

From: The New Republic

I am deeply saddened, but I am also very proud.

It's time to move forward.

** For the entire text of the speech go to McCainBlogette which is Meghan McCain's blog. If you did not hear it - it's worth the read.

Please do it.

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I will be snug as a bug . . .

It is the eve of one of the most important elections of our time. Many people across this country have voted already, my son being one of them. I will be voting tomorrow. And then I will be going home and watching the election returns into the wee hours of the morning, and I have taken the next day off work to watch it all on TV as well.

What I will not be doing is going downtown to Chicago's Grant Park to get lost in the crowds of Obama supporters. And I wouldn't do it even if I were supporting Obama.

The event has been in the works for the last couple of weeks at least, and the security is supposed to be high. There were invitations emailed out and from what I hear, the people bearing those invitations will need to have a driver's license to identify them as the person the invite was sent to. But they will each be given a "guest" invite as well. Who is going to vouch for them?

Added to the crowds inside the actual event area which will number in the tens of thousands, Mayor Richie Daley has seen fit to encourage everybody to "come on down" and "you don't need a ticket to come out and celebrate!" It's all well and good that he's an ardent Obama supporter, but wouldn't it be a good time for him to recommend a certain amount of caution? I can just imagine the police superintendent cringing when he heard the mayor say that.

I fully understand the gravity of the event and people's desire to be part of history and all, but it seems big crowds celebrate these days by turning over cars and starting things on fire, as evidenced by winning sports teams recently, and the like. Some shop owners near the event will be buttoning up their stores early and heading out of the area "in case anything happens" is how one man put it on the news this morning.

Not liking big crowds anyway, it would be my preference to stay home even if it were my candidate staging an event on such an important evening. And I am hoping that win, lose, or draw (draw? I doubt it) the crowd behaves in a safe and dignified manner. This is a presidential election after all, and not the Super Bowl.

There will be no alcohol served at the event but that does not extend beyond the fences where people may see fit to ward off the chill with a nip or two, or to celebrate with a bottle of something, or three. And I must admit to a bit of trepidation about the whole thing. I sincerely hope that it is a calm and happy crowd and not a rowdy one.

Regardless of my choice of candidates and what I want the outcome to be - I do not want to see anyone get hurt or the evening to be one that is tinged with regret or ugliness on either side. I know there will be gatherings all across the country and after such a long and contentious campaign - I'm kind of hoping people are just too damn tired to party all that hard!

Please be responsible and be safe, everyone.

Maxine Monday

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The other one has gone somewhere else.

Recently I wrote about my other blog, and the problems I was having with it. I could not get the format to change in the date stamp and comment areas. I mean I tried everything I could think of and a few things other people suggested. I loved the template and the whole look of the blog but those 2 things I could not change made.me.crazy. I think I am learning from this blog just how anal retentive I am about some things.

In the end I decided to do what any other normal (read-neurotic) blogger would do. I duplicated the entire freaking blog using a new URL, with just a one digit difference. I did not know of a way to transfer all of the old posts to the new URL so I laboriously copied and pasted every detail, down to each posts' date and time, from the old to the new. If there was an "export" function I did not know about in Blogger - DON'T TELL ME NOW!

Finally, today, I moved the last old post to the new location and then - put up a "moved" post. Unfortunately I was not able to move any comments I had, and I cannot move the few followers I have. I am hoping anyone who follows that blog - will do me the huge favor of moving on to my new one. It's exactly the same except for date stamp and commenting features I was finally able to get just the way I want them. So please update your bookmarks for A Picture a Day, and come have a look. What? It doesn't look any different? Yeah, I know. It's supposed to be that way. Except now if you want to comment it's at the BOTTOM of the post. Like normal! (But it is still a difference blog address. Really.)