Grand Illumination Parade

Last weekend Daniel and I joined my sister and her family at the Grand Illumination parade in downtown Norfolk. The parade kicks off the lighting of the christmas lights that outline the high rise buildings and the light posts in downtown. So we bundled up, warmed our tummies with some Starbucks and fought for a parking spot to get a glimpse of the festivities. I am always pleasantly surprised at how many people show up for this event. I always figure that since it is freezing, and the parking is insane that no one will show up to an after dark festival geared to children, but they do! My favorite float was the space shuttle, I also thought the fish balloon was cute!

Fall & Winter are Here!

The receptionist at my work made an annoucement today over the intercom that the first snowflakes of the season were gracing us with their presence. All of my coworkers with windowless offices (myself included) gathered around the windows to take in the sight. Snowflakes aren't a common occurrence around here, so everyone was kinda excited. I can't believe that three days ago it was sunny and 70s, I think it is safe to say that the 70s are out and the 30s are in, bbrrrrr. Judging by the amount of leaves in our backyard its supposed to be Fall but it feels more like Winter to me. Daniel and I are waiting for all the leaves to drop off the trees before we bother raking. I have a feeling we will be outside raking all day Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Here is a pic of Cooper in the leaves. It is hard to believe that the last time the leaves fell he was just a little pup. He has gotten so big. Daniel weighed him the other night and he was 66 pounds. I think he still has some filling out to do.

As for Daniel and I, we havent done much in the past few weekends. Much of our time has been preoccupied with trying to fix a plumbing problem in our only shower. I have lost count on how many times we have been to Home Depot's plumbing department. That is one boring department! Up until now I have enjoyed gong to the hardware store. Checking out the appliances is fun, the hardware department, the power tools sections, I even find that the lumber section has a few redeeming qualities and it doesnt hurt that it smells good too, but the plumbing department is a snore. While we were out this past weekend we stopped by a local art center to see the "canstructions" that the local college engineer students put together as a benefit for a food charity. The theme this year was from Monty Python's Spamalot. The structures are made of cans, bags, and boxes of stacked food. Here is a photo of a castle and "Yosemite Spam" (the pupil of his left eye fell off and is on the floor in front of it). There was also a few pigs an cows and an entire flea circus. It was cute. Thats it for now.

I voted!

With the fanfare of this election, its hard to admit that voting has never really been that important to me. I try to blame it on my neutral upbringing, (Jehovahs Witnesses never get involved in politics), but I think thats just an excuse. So this election, despite the dreary rain, my desire to sleep in, and lines that wrapped around buildings, I made sure that I got out and voted. My precinct casts its ballots at a local church, which I always think is little odd since I thought church and state werent the best bedfellows so to speak. Anyway, when I pulled up to the church and saw the 6 foot fence with barb wire around it and bars on the window I realized that I was glad I chose to vote in the morning instead of the evening because if I had showed up after dark I dont think I would have gotten out of my car. But it looked safe enough during the day so I stood in line for a bit over an hour to cast my vote. It was a fairly ordinary experience except for the nagging doubt afterwards that I filled out the form improperly and my vote may not have counted, for that fact I feared that we all had filled out the ballot incorrectly and no one in that precinct would be counted! You see, the city of Portsmouth is the only city in the Hampton Roads area that was using a paper ballot that you had to fill out with a pencil. Everyone else has an electronic system. When I was waiting in line, I had noticed that every 5 or ten feet there were signs posted everywhere that showed you how to fill out the ballot properly. On every sign it said "Use a number two pencil", just like a high school Scantron test. When I got up to the voting booth with my paper ballot that said at the top "USE A #2 PENCIL",I was expecting to see cups of pencils available to everyone, but the only thing available to the voters were markers. I looked around and everyone was using markers so I am sure it was ok, right? I seemed to be the only one questioning it, so I am going to assume that markers could work. Who knows, Portsmouth is such a sad little city stuck in the dark ages.

(THis photo was about 45 minutes into the wait, I thought when I got to the doors I could vote, but I was quite disappointed when I got the door and saw even more line.)