Bringing Up Bobbin

My little patriot

Bobbin's class has been learning about elections all week. Not the yucky politics. Just the basics. Like this, which are the answers I got when I asked her what she learned at school yesterday and today

1. Our country is called the United States of America


2. It has 50 states


3. We live in Washington State


4. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 states. Each state gets a star


5. In the United States we elect a President.


6. America has a National Song. An America Song. It's the same song we sing at football games

And today, she came home and taught me something I did NOT know, in my 15 years living here, simply because I've never had to repeat it. The Pledge of Allegiance:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all."

Only when she says it it goes more like this:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and Stand, under God, invisible for all"

Which wasn't entirely inappropriate, given the last 8 years :-)

I'll stick with the official version though when I apply for citizenship. Probably wiser :-)

Easy to fix.

When I told her that Barack Obama had one the election she said, and I kid you not, "Barack Obama? I like him. I want to go meet him and talk to him"

About what, I wondered. That could be a good conversation...

But I responded with, "Well, He'll be moving into the White House soon. Maybe we can take a trip to see the White House". And then she asked "I want to see this white house. Where is his white home he lives in?" and then I explained that it was in the Other Washington, Washington DC. To which she replied "Near Aunt Sarah" (who, with Mike, just moved back to Canada from Quantico. The kid's got a memory in her).

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Words cannot express

How awesomely inspired I am feeling right now. What an amazing, historical night. I will never forget it.

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Bobbin '48!

Bobbin is learning about "voting" in preschool. They've been voting on favourite foods and colours. I asked her if she knew what tomorrow was. After insisting that tomorrow was "pajama day" at school (it's not), I reminded her that tomorrow is election day, when all the people in the United States get to go and vote to choose the next President.

I reminded her of the names of the two main Presidential Candidates this year and asked her who she would vote for. Her response: "ME!" Fair enough. So that led to the following conversation. And these are direct quotes because I grabbed a pen and paper and took notes when I realized she was actually answering my questions :-)

Me: Well, interesting. I might consider voting for you too but I need to know a bit more about you. As President, what would be the first thing you do for the country?

Bobbin: I would give everyone a sticker.

Me: That's a pretty good start. Everyone likes stickers. Is there anything else you would want to do for the country in your first term as President?

Bobbin: Put merry-go-rounds everywhere

Me: That's a very interesting idea. Now, as President of the United States, where do you stand on education? Are there specific policies you'd want to implement for schools?

Bobbin: (pausing to think) Yes. No hitting. No biting. No pushing.

Me: Reinforcing the fundamentals. That's a good start. Now, let's talk about your foreign policy. As President of the United States would you travel the world to make new friends?

Bobbin: (enthusiastically) I would GO TO AFRICA!

(Bobbin knows "Africa", "Australia", "Antarctica", "China", "Canada" and "America")

Me: There is a lot going on in Africa, definitely.

Bobbin: Mommy, I'm all done now. I'm eating my meatballs.

And so ended Bobbin's first round of interviews in her presidential bid. Nothing like getting a head start on the competition. From her current positions and priorities it seems she has an Independent streak but we'll have to see how the Mainstream Media casts her.

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Unfortunately for America, I'm not eligible for the position

A friend forwarded a link to the following game (also accessible via the image on the right menu of my home page)

Budget Hero by American Public Media

While there is no doubt that it is a complete oversimplification of everything, I am proud that I was able to play my cards so that I reduced the debt from 33.7% of GDP to 22.7% of GDP; pushed the budget bust out 12 years; shrank the size of government by 0.9%; increased economic stimulus; offered health care to everyone; and achieved energy independence.

So really, I mean, like how hard can this whole U.S. President gig actually be? ;-)

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How to tell it's a pivotal election year here in the US

The number of people who have reached this blog as a result of searching the internet for "marryacanadian.com" has risen dramatically in the last month and a half.

Alas... it appears that site no longer exists! All the single canucks must have been snapped up in the 2004 election aftermath.

Tim was smart. He married me BEFORE Bush got re-elected.

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debate day

I left Bobbin in tears. Meaning, she was in tears and I was in tears. Our new Preschool has very limited parking, and so if the director sees your car has been out there for "a while", as is the case this first week of Bobbin attending by herself, they tell you you need to get a move on. They're polite and all, but it broke my rhythm, and after having to pull myself away from the pleading hug to not go to work and then mustering a cheerfully sunny smile and wave from the car before breaking down into tears of my own, I headed in to work.

Debate: Go to work and lose myself in hopeful productivity, or go home and lose myself in my king size bed cover. I called Tim and have him remind me why I don't suck as a mother AND an employee / senior manager.

at 2pm my head was filled with snot, my eyes were glazed after staring at budget spreadsheets all day. I can only breath through my mouth. My head is pounding.

Debate: Leave work early on a friday; who's gonna notice, Stay and get my budget stuff done so I don't have it hanging over my head, which already has a cloud of snot hanging over it right now. I cranked out the budget stuff, kept my scheduled 1:1s. Headed out at my usual 5pm.

By the time I got home, after chugging down a large bottle of organic fresh squeezed orange juice in the car, I started thinking about plans for the evening.

Debate: Stay home, take a really long, hot, aromatherapy bubble bath, wrap myself up in my big cozy bathrobe, and snuggle under the covers of my big cozy bed while Tim takes Bobbin to D,B, and Z's house for friday night. Or do I give myself a break and enjoy a nice dinner with friends while Bobbin (hopefully) plans with Z and E. Iwas feeling better by the time I got home, after all that orange juice, and chasing it down with an Airborne fizz, that I decided to wash my hands thoroughly and join the gang.

On the drive, we listened to the presidential debate. Well, as well as we could with a 3 year old belting out songs from the back seat. It's ok, we recorded it. And so once we got Bobbin in bed at 9:45am we turned it on. Tim went to bed before it was over but I plowed through all 90 minutes of it. It was alright. I tell ya, the one I'm REALLY looking forward to is the vice-presidential debate!

Here's something I won't debate: I'm tired. Heading to bed.

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Stop the madness

I want to get off.

This election season has gotten just plain idiotic. I've seen more intelligent, insightful, meaningful discussions between two 3 year olds at my daughter's daycare arguing over a plastic dinosaur than I have in the campaigning so far. This latest whiny accusation from McCain's campaign is just a WASTE of everyone's time. I'd elaborate further, but I'm a little pressed for time; there's a pig in my bathroom demanding a makeover.

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Hedging their bets

Presidential election season always brings a new set of searchers to my corner of the internet. Where a few months ago, the top searches that brought people to our virtual doorstep here at timothyandheather.com were things like:

• Wedding Limericks
• bridesmaids dresses
• Pregnancy
• Ultrasound
• Marmoleum
• Silestone

and so many more baby, wedding, and house building / interior decorating seekers, this month I'm finding a lot more people looking for stuff like

• Marry a Canadian
• Overstressed mom
• Can't get enough air in my lungs
• pain between my shoulder blades
• is my lung collapsed
• Blocked salivary glands
• sublingual gland swelling
• salivary gland milking
• infected salivery gland
• Insomnia Random Itching
• Toothache when I bite cold or hot food
• Bacteria invade dentinal tubual
• I am bringing up yellow acid
• unable to regulate my body temperature

I feel compelled to offer my expert analysis - on the searchers, not on me. Because clearly if they are searching for this icky stuff on the internet and they are arriving here, I have a few problems of my own going on.

So here it is:

1) The economy sucks. Who can afford to build, let alone redecorate a house, get married anywhere other than the county courthouse, or buy paper to write fancy limericks on. :-)

2) The politics is wearing on everyone. It's stressing people out. Stress manifests itself in physical ways. People are getting sick. Panic attacks; trouble breathing; trouble sleeping; trouble keeping stomach acid down; trouble taking care of their oral hygiene because they're too depressed to care; Depression and also depression medication is also one cause of blocked salivary ducts (I learned in my research) so more people are getting depressed and/or getting on depression meds. Woe is the world. Or they are just becoming hypocondriacs because their stressed and emotional minds would rather deal with a problem that is entirely of their own making and fixing than something completely outside of their control.

3) And, if all hell goes to a handbasket (Wait... that's not right, is it? You know what I mean.. oh yeah... if all goes to hell in a handbasket is what I meant to say) and McCain gets elected, there appear to be an awful lot of Americans out there lookin' to make a fast break up to Canada through marriage. Lucky for Tim he's already got me. We're set ;-)

Either way - happy to be of service to those internet searchers out there. I have had some rather unpleasant glandular fun over the years that you might find informative, as have my bouts with insomnia, stress, anxiety and depression. However most of my Canadian friends are married or engaged though so I won't be able hook any'ya up that are looking to move north come November. But keep on lookin'. There are plenty up there.

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My latest favourite web site, favourite woman, and other stuff

Factcheck.org

Although I admit to equal parts "YEAH! Nailed him/her!" and "but can I really count on over 50% of the American voters to actually care about facts?" in my reactions as I read through these on a daily basis.

Samantha Bee is my new favourite woman. SamBee for VeePee! I was just tonight able to watch the Daily Show from Thursday night where she was interviewing people at the RNC about Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter and how they were all saying that it was her daughter's decision to get married and have the baby, and Sam kept trying to get them to use the word "choice". And she really trapped one young woman there who realized instantly she was caught and couldn't get out. It was a beautiful thing to behold.

And tonight's Daily Show had me peeing my pants as one of Jon's minions was at the RNC interviewing a dude in a cowboy hat on rights for gays and the guy walked right into it and made the Daily Show interviewer's point without even having a clue. No clue. Not even a delayed clue.

Watching the Daily Show crew interview random Republican after random Republican at the convention the last three days was like watching someone shootin' fish in a barrel. They just couldn't miss.

In which case with all these dead fish floating around you'd think that the outcome in November would be obvious. But it is anything but. How scary is that?

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Latest aerobic musing: Has he given up on the hot dog?

Now that I'm working out for 60 minutes, I've been doing a lot more viewing of the Colbert Report. I've always liked Stephen Colbert, but just always had something else to do after the Daily Show so it slipped from my regular viewing.

In my last serious attempt to get back on the workout bandwagon before this one - back in December and January - I watched the Colbert Report pretty consistently; that's when I originally got hooked. Back then I noticed in the intro sequence, an almost subliminal graphic behind Steven that said "President Bush have a hot dog with me". It actually took me several episodes to read the full sentence, because it only barely flashes on the screen during the sequence. I always wondered what spawned that invitation. I was a newbie to the Colbert Nation then, but I still don't know the reason behind it now. However I think that I've noticed at least the last two nights, that the graphic doesn't appear in the opening sequence anymore. Either that or I'm just not paying as close attention. Sis - you're a Colbert fan - am I right about the missing hot dog invite? If so, why's he giving up now? Bush is still "president" for a few more months, officially. Anyone? Anyone out there know?

Apparently there is an online petition for getting Stephen into the white house to have a hot dog with President Bush. I came across it when searching the internets to see if I could confirm that Stephen really is asking the president to eat a hot dog with him in that intro graphic in the first place, or if I had been misreading that too :-)

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No comparison

Yeah, I know. This is like the 4,567,498,982nd post doing this comparison since the two speeches aired, but hell, I just can't not say anything.

Man, I wish I could vote in this country. As it is, I'm just pretty darned excited to be living here for this election. I think I'm going to have to take a vacation day on November 4th.

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A sign of the times

It's time to post the top 19 search strings that have led people to TimothyandHeather.com in the month of November thus far. Ok - I'm not going to post all 19 - but I will give you these ones:

#5 - marryacanadian
#6 - sexy canadians willing to marry americans
#9 - canadians willing to marry americans website
#16 - marryacanadian.com

Hmmm... there may have been some merit to my idea afterall. There has GOT to be a way I can cash in on this.

#12 is interesting too: "faithless elector punishment".

I'd like to think those hits were from Ohio :-) Some individuals having second thoughts about casting their electoral vote for their pledged candidate, perhaps? Ah... well, too late.

Well - for all of you folks out there searching the Internet for a better answer or a brighter tomorrow: May you find that which you seek. And if do find it, come back here and tell us about it, 'k?

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The jokes keep rollin' in...

And being a Canadian married to an American and living in the US, I just gotta post 'em.

Marry an American
This first one was forwarded to me by Sarah:

http://www.marryanamerican.ca/

All you american singles (hey - isn't that what Kraft calls their processed cheese slices? But I digress) - here's your chance! However already being married to an American, and being a US resident, I'm inspired to start my own web site this side of the border - "MarryACanadian.com" - for liberal Canadians willing to relocate to the US, and American democrats willing to marry them. "C'mon you Americans - Get yourselves a Canadian spouse willing to relocate in the US. If you marry a Canadian this year, he/she could be elegible for US citizenship in time to vote in the 2008 elections." If we have a web site and are really organized we can ensure strategic geographical distribution of these new american citizens in the key "Battleground States".

New Map
This next one is from Gracie (and also forwarded to me by Dave):

Keep 'em coming folks. Laughter is the best medicine :-)

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Look out Canada, here they come!

Some Despondant Democrats Head For The Border: (cbs2chicago.com)

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Well... at least there are still new episodes of 'West Wing'

Allowing me to escape once a week to the dreamy world where Martin Sheen is President, and world crises are solved in a single hour (sometimes 2 - for those really complicated crises).

:-)

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Election Night at the Democratic Party Headquarters

At the last minute Tim and I decided to head on down to the Westin in downtown Seattle to the democratic party hang-out for election night. First time for both of us doing something like that. Hooked up with Dave and Becky while we were there, heard Patty Murray and numerous others speak. Observed lots of camaraderie and group "yays" when the big TV screen flashed stats showing democrats ahead in the polls group "boos" when the big TV screen flashed stats that showed republicans ahead in the polls, and let ourselves get caught up in the excitement too. It was actually kinda relaxing in a weird sort of way, being with so many other like-minded people.

All in all, great people watching and a fun time. If i didn't have to work tomorrow we'd probably still be there :-)

More pictures

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Heather goes to College

Since I can't actually vote in this election I am busying myself with trying to become educated on the whole Presidential election process, starting with finding the answers to my many questions about the Electoral College:

1) who can be an elector?
2) how are they chosen and by whom and when?
3) how many does each state get?
4) when do they meet and cast their vote for president?
5) what if there is a tie?
6) what if they decide to vote for someone else when they cast their actual vote for president?

So I got all my answers:

1 & 2) I found more "what an Elector cannot be" than rules about who they must be. But usually the major political parties select these individuals either in their State party conventions or through appointment by their state party leaders. Members of Congress and employees of the federal government are prohibited from serving as an elector in order to maintain the blaance between the branches of the federal government.

3) Each State is allocated a number fo Electors equal to the number of its US Senators (always 2) plus the number of its US representatives (which may change each decade according to the size of its population as determined in the Census). Plus there are 3 who represent Washington DC (per the 23rd amendment). The political parties in each state submit to the State's Chief Election Official a list of individuals pledged to their candidate for President and equal in number to the State's electoral vote. Except for 2 states (Main and Nebraska) (and possibly a 3rd next time around I think I heard on NPR today), whichever party slate wins the most popular votes in the State becomes that State's electors ("Winner takes all").

4) On the Monday following the 2nd Wednesday of December (This year, that'd be Monday Dec 13th - my birthday! Woohoo. How exciting) each State's electors meet in their respective State capitals and cast their electoral votes (aha - so they don't all actually get together at the same time in the same room). These are then sealed and transmitted from each State to the President of the Senate who, on the following Jan 6th opens and reads them before both houses of the congress.

5) Here's where my head started hurting. The short answer is that if no candidate wins a majority (270) of the 538 electoral votes, the decision is given to the House of Representatives. The House the selects the President by majority vote with each state delegation receiving one vote to cast for the 3 candidates who received the most electoral votes. This vote is repeated if necessary until one candidate receives the votes of more than half the state delegations. 2 elections were decided in this manner: 1801 (Jefferson) and 1825 (Adams). If the House of Representatives hasn't chosen a winner in time for the inauguration then according to the constituion, the new Vice President becomes Acting President until the House selects a President. If no candidate received an absolute majority of electoral votes for Vice President, then the Senate votes between the top two vote getters for the Vice Presidential office. If the winner of the Vice Presidental election is not known by the inauguration either, then apparently the Speaker of the House becomes Acting President until the House selects a President. Hell - who was I kidding. There was no short answer to that.

6) An elector who casts their electoral vote for someone other than the candidate to whom they were pledged is called a "Faithless elector". Apparently it's happened on numerous occasions for a variety of reasons. Although some states impose some degree of punishment and/or fines for doing this, it really is possible and legal to vote for someone other than your pledged candidate. This is a democracy, after all. And I came across an amusing little article in the post-gazette, on a potential Faithless Elector in this 2004 election.

Just a little bit of trivia to brighten everyone's election night :-)

Gosh - I hope they quiz me on this or something when I apply for citizenship. I'm quite proud of myself for having this all in my head now.

My sources:

Wikipedia - the Free Encyclopedia: U.S. Electoral College - Very helpful site.

How Stuff Works Web Site: How the Electoral College Works Also very informative and readable.

Federal Elections Commission Web Site: How the Electoral College Works

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Who's gonna win the election?

I'll flip you for it:

http://www.random.org/flip.html

Out of my 10 virtual tosses of the "American Voting Coin 2004", 8 came down for Kerry and 2 for Bush. I decided to quit tossing while Kerry was ahead :-)

Sarah's recent blog entry tipped me off to this random number service.

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Barbie for President

Given that I can't actually vote in this election, I've restricted my commentary on the whole presidential election scene to links to wacky articles. So - in keeping with that theme here's another one.

Barbie for President

Candidate of the "Party of Girls!" (exclamation mark included), she has "pledged a campaign that will concentrate on creating world peace, helping the homeless and poor, and taking care of animals"

Ok - I'm gonna have to out and get me one of these barbies. But... what I REALLY want to know is whether they'll be coming out with a Ken Secret Service Man doll, complete with earpiece, dark suit, and sunglasses.

I'm also thinking of all the imaginary scandals you could create with the Barbie for President doll!

When I was little I had lots of Barbies and Barbie clothes, but no Ken dolls (not sure if that was a cunning plan on the part of my parents, or I just never wanted one). So when I wanted to give Barbie a boyfriend, I cut all the hair off of my Cher Barbie doll (who was about a head taller than my other barbies, and sported a much flatter chest and more masculine facial features), dressed her up in boyish clothes, and had her wander around my basement floor holding hands with Barbie while they went imaginary shopping.

Could you imagine doing that with Presidential Candidate Barbie?! All the reporter and journalist barbies would have a field day!

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Do you shop at Costco or Wal-Mart?

A fun article that explains why it matters :-)

http://slate.msn.com/id/2104988

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Well, that explains it.

President Bush admitted today that his administration will "never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people."

Thank goodness. Because to date I just thought it was ineptitude. I didn't realize it was one of his actual goals.

You can read the full article at the Daily Herald. But it is MUCH more fun to take the quote out of context :-)

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