More Vay-Kay Photos

Several clay pigeons died for our recreational pleasure.


Q-ball rides.

So Much to Write About

We went to South Carolina for Thanksgiving, and the environs were not conducive to blogging, i.e. I was too busy/tired/surrounded by people to sit down and compose a thought. I have so much to blog about that I made notes for myself yesterday, and spent much of the early morning hours (2;30-4:00 a.m.) pondering what may be the most boring blog post ever to be composed. It's upcoming. But first, some vacation photos:

The plane ride there.
At the stables.L doing god-knows-what on the back of a horse.

What The...?

I think I am a reasonably intelligent person. Not Harvard Business School smart, maybe, but I went to the University of Chicago, and I have three degrees and no bar complaints against me (that would be the California State Bar, by the way). People say I'm smart, funny, trust me to do reasonably complicated intellectual tasks. So then why the HELL do I not understand a word of this article: Obama's Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators?

All I can say is, thank GOD Obama did not read that article before he ran for President. Otherwise, he would still be sitting in his office in Springfield, Illinois, holding his head from the pain of trying to understand what it even means.

How to Drive Yourself Crazy, and Then Sane Again

How to drive yourself insane: Decide at 7:00 p.m., while trying to get kids to bed, that you need to learn how to knit again. Attempt to find knitting needles. Settle for chopsticks. Try to decipher pictures of yarn being cast onto needles. Fail. (You are left-handed, by the way).

How to become sane again: Check YouTube for How to cast on knitting left handed.

(This assumes that you think sane=knitting with chopsticks)

Update: I confirmed that I am capable of knitting, but also that chopsticks are an insufficient tool for the task. This means its unlikely that I will fulfill my son's command of earlier this evening, "Knit me a very warm blanket tonight! Mom!"

More on the Fish

Here are their names, followed by the birth order number of the child who named each: Max (1), Frump (2), Wallace (1), and Gromit (2).

As to the question of whether goldfish mortality has been broached: It has. At least with Thing 1, who responds with a serious look on his face, as if to reassure me, "Fish die, right mom?" Number 2 could seriously not give a s**t. Although if someone asks, "how are the fish?" He races out of the room, yelling, "I check!" He doesn't usually make it to the kitchen to see, though. He usually gets distracted before he gets there.

The Dumb Things Parents Do

When you are a parent, you do a lot of weird and sometimes stupid things: volunteer to make all the Christmas cookies for the class, scream at your child for doing a head stand, having another kid. Today, I got the kids 4 goldfish. What started as a promise to get one fish quickly became a major undertaking. Why? Because they are 4 for a dollar. Four fish means you need a much bigger bowl, and plants, etc etc. Some of you might not think this is crazy. Maybe you got a puppy when you were 7 months' pregnant, so 4 fish seems like no biggie. But we are going away for a week in 6 days, which means I have to find someone to watch the damn fish. My fish, because the kids will be negative helpful, and Mr. Scobie has already disowned me. Better than getting a puppy - or pregnant - right?

Back to The Wire

Now y'all know, I am crazy about two things: Barack Obama and The Wire. And I am over the moon about Obama's election. Sh*t's changing already. I saw a headline today: "Obama plans to close Guantanamo". Amazing. It hasn't even been a week and the cloud is lifting, the sun will shine.

I do have one little lump of worry in my throat, though. The short-hand for all this, in Wire terms: "It's a new day in Baltimore."

For those of you who refuse to take my advice and just watch the damn show, I will give a little context. At the end of season 4, Daniels has been promoted by Mayor Carchetti, who has promised him that much-needed change is coming to the Balmawr Po-leese. Daniels shares with Lester Freemon, a long-suffering homicide detective, the above-quoted sentiment. At the beginning of season 5, we learn that things are worse than they were before, and our heroes spin off in unfortunate and, in some cases, unethical circumstances. Freemon is disgraced by a bogus serial killer created with McNulty; Daniels has resigned under pressure and blackmail. It's a total (excuse my language) fucking tragedy.

And so, I worry. My worry is not alleviated by this:


Please will.i.am, do not doom the Obama administration!

*Hey, Wire nerds, I just realized (when I tried to find Daniels' speech on YouTube) that New Day was also the name of the drug co-op run by Stringer and Prop Joe. Once again, Simon and Burns amaze me with their genius.

Wow.

http://change.gov/page/s/application

That's the website to apply for positions in the Obama-Biden administration. Scroll down to the bottom of that page ad read the non-discrimination language. Wow. Sexual orientation and identity are both protected classifications. Monumental in even the smallest details.

My two year old

Is carrying a tiny lemon around the house, saying, "this is amazing creatures" repeatedly. "Open the creatures right now. Get the seeds out. Cut in another half, the 'mazing creatures."

With Nothing Left to Talk About

I've turned to researching my next car. VW Jetta TDI Sportswagen. It's adorable. Clean diesel, too.

Now back to politics. I saw something on Facebook today about a movement to repeal Prop 8 in 2010. Why would we wait that long? Why not put it on one of those obscure election days before the next federal election, and then run an actually decent and effective campaign, where only the people who give a shit come out to vote on it. The No on Prop 8 campaign blew chunks, and whoever was responsible for that should publicly bear some responsibility for fucking up what should have been an easy (relatively) win. Back to the drawing board, toot sweet.

Change Can Happen, And Happen Fast

My PDA battery died last night so I couldn't post again after I left HQ. I spent a decent part of my night driving around Vegas, first to a wierd bar to watch the final returns, although I knew he had won while I was on my way there, then to my hotel to dump the car and get a cab to the Rio for the Dems party. I was happy to spend the evening partly alone, however, because I felt very emotional. I cried intermittently, partly from joy and partly from exhaustion.

Then when I saw Jesse Jackson crying, I almost started bawling. I felt a little terrible watching him have such a private moment in such a public way. Jesse has lived in the public eye for nearly a half-century, so in some ways it was fitting that he would cry deeply among a million people, televised to millions more. He's a little like Zelig, isn't he? Present at so many world-changing events. He used to seem to second string, the guy standing next to King, but not the man himself. Even though Jesse Jackson had a hard time with the Obama candidacy in some ways, very few people deserve as much credit as Jackson for making it happen. In fact, it is the millions and millions of people who have stood next to our moral leaders over the past century that have made this moment, and our future, possible. This time, there were over 50 million men and women standing with a moral leader, and change is not only possible, it has happened, and we have the capacity, and infrastructure, to make it happen again and again.

So I felt okay being alone, because I wasn't.

The Dem party was actually a rally of sorts for the Obama volunteers, and was winding down when we got there. It was nice to mill around with a thousand other people just beaming at eachother and being super-polite and nice. Lots of people had gotten dressed up and were treating it like a real party, dancing and drinking.

I want to thank all my friends and family who have been so supportive of me, whether they support my candidate, I mean, president, or not. You have all borne my enthusiasm graciously, and even been a bit infected by it. This is just the first day, though, of a long and hopefully transformative journey for our country and our world. I can't wait to find out the role that I, we, can play in it.

gotta get out of here

all is quiet. i look and feel like a ragged mess. gonna go get a beer, and then head to the Rio for the after party. more as events warrant

Still Not Over

The last real issue bubbling is that a LOT of people registered outside the Sahara DMV and their registrations were never turned in. So we have gotten a two dozen calls from upset people about this.

Also, we have some asshole pollworkers who are telling people that they will kick people out of the polls at 7pm. And telling people that their provisional ballots won't be counted. We are doing what we can do correct that problem.

And don't worry, I will go to the party.

things are really winding down

calls are slowing down, or getting sillier. people who are just literally now realizing that they have forgotten to vote. Nevada had early voting for two full weeks plus mail ballots. I don't mean to be dismissive of these voters, but its supremely irritating that they are just getting on the ball. Oh, well. Every vote should be counted. Not everyone is an obsessed maniac like me.

The Democrats are having a party at The Rio tonight. I hope that I will have the energy to make it that far tonight. I am wicked tired.

Different Problems

So the kinds of problems have shifted a little bit: late this afternoon, we have had more folks with old felonies who say that they have voted in the intervening years and are now dumped from the rolls. The ex-felon rules are complicated so its a little hard to walk people through the details. Another issue is that some folks who are now at the wrong polling places don't feel that they have time (they have 2 hours) to get to the proper polling place.

There are a lot of callers to our national hotline who are little just now realizing that they need to vote. One called from Arizona, another from Tennessee. Annoying. This election has been going on for what? Two years?

Things are Quiet

But not too quiet. We aren't getting many calls and the worker influx hasn't materialized. Maybe at 5?! Or 7!?

7 is when the polls close, and anyone in line can vote.

FW: Beat this, EP Vegas!!!

From our friends in Reno:
Subject: Beat this, EP Vegas!!!

From J.D. Deming at rgj.com:
A mysterious 6 foot tall robot was kicked out of a Reno polling station this afternoon by polling officials. The sophisticated robot carried a sign reading, "Say No To Computerized Voting". The Robot also talked and seemed to be remotely controlled from an unknown location. It cracked jokes as it strolled. Poll station officials finally came out to instruct the robot to move out of the exclusive "no electioneering zone" which it slowly did, making it's way up Monroe St. in SW Reno.

Fw: Brentwood, NH

From my MIL Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2008, 3:47 PM Brentwood NH had long long lines when they finally opened at 8 am!  Generally upbeat and feeling confident at the local headquarters (to about six small towns)  At 10:30 there was a big bang (there was tree cutting along the nearby power lines) and all the power went out.  paper ballots, not to worry, but did put everyone into a spin.  Of the sign holders there were about a dozen for various Democratic candidates (Obama, Shaheen for Senate) and only one, just one, for McCain.  but we offerred her water and snacks, anyway.   Dixville Notch went for Obama 3 to 1, that seemed to seal it for these folks. We tried to do our "voter ID" data entry over the cell phones, but system crashed, so had to do it from headquarters (Painters Union) on computer.    -   Anne

provisional ballots blow chunks

Seriously, its so stupid. Its completely confusing and no one even thinks they will ever be counted.

wow

The registrar of voters has told us that the turnout may hit 85% in Clark County, where Las Vegas is.

two things about to happen

Its almost 3, which means that NH polls are about to close, and that will start to cascade of election results.

Also, casino workers get off a shift at 3pm, so we expect to see an onslaught of voters in the next half hour. So we will need to be answering calls when the best stuff is happening. Email me interesting stories you hear.

Something of Lull

Things are slightly quiet, although we are busy doing legal research on some of the wierd questions that have come in.

oops. power outage at Chuck Minker Sports Complex. So I think that they are bringing in mobile units.

so that's exciting.

Live Blog 5

Smokey Robinson voted at one of our polling places. Sadly, my poll monitor missed him, and is totally bummed out.

live blog 4

Getting wicked tired and hungry now. Unfortunately, there's sort of an antagonism growing at a couple of precincts where the poll workers are giving incorrect advice and then feeling beleaguered when they get called on it by the poll watcher. But for the most part, people are reporting that the voting is very orderly and very exciting. One monitor said she was almost moved to tears to see families voting together, people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, disabled and able, old and young. She said voters are in a good mood, very excited. Its totally gorgeous outside. We are in a tiny room, with 7 people huddled around a conference room table. tap tap tap tap tap.

Live Blog 3

Here are the issues: 1. poll workers are just having people vote provisionally rather then figuring out where they ought to be voting, checking the inactive list (to get activated, the voter just needs to vote), etc. The problem with this is that in Nevada provisional ballots only have federal races on them. 2. poll workers don't understand that poll observers should be allowed to talk to voters outside of the polling place. this is a big problem at churches and the law is not clear about the rules at those locations. 3. African American male told he wasn't registered to the same poll as his white wife, although they've lived at the same place for 8 years. The supervisor intervened and found the man's information. So its sporadic stuff like that. Some of the poll workers are antagonist and feel put-upon, particularly because the Obama people are out in force. 4. Also, cops have shown up at a bunch of places but the sheriff has been cool about pulling people off. I am getting hungry!

Live Blog 2

Things here at Legal Command Center are brisk but not overwhelming. We've had some broken machines, and some voters turned away because of "voided" registrations. One woman has family members who were arrested over the weekend and may not get out in time to vote.

All in all, exciting but things are under control. I am wicked tired.

Election Day Live Blog

It's 4:15 a.m. I'm in a hotel room in Las Vegas. I can't sleep. I have heard construction vehicles all night. Vegas hotel rooms are funny. They purport to be luxurious (well, here at the Monte Carlo), but there are amenities. No coffemaker. Internet is $15/day. No extra lock on the door. Which is very strange.

On the news, I can see that there are long lines at polls on the east coast. I tear up.