Election Day 2024

Well, today was fun.  I mean, it started out fun with the bundt cakes given to us by a friend who left them in the office - thanks, Clint!  We got a good bit of of work done today with setting up for the new series and for this weekend, but there was one big thing on everyone's minds in this nation:  Election Day.

Here's our election campaign center.  You can see Josh and I at the office with our team hats...

Ah, and Maddie has her hat on too.  Of course, we ourselves voted a few weeks ago, and you can probably tell by Maddie's attire who we voted for.  Polling was indicating tonight that the swing states would be a battle, a "razor's edge," and over the weekend more in favor of the other candidate.  And so the results started to come in.  The idea was to do other stuff like decorate trees and so on, but nope.  It was sort of an invasive thing, listening to the election.  We listened early and sure enough the usual suspects started to fall - Kentucky and Indiana went red.  Later on, Vermont went blue.  Same old, same old.  It was taking a little longer for those blue states to fall in line up top.  But Florida was quickly going red, and that was interesting.  And Georgia was going red too, and that was a flip from last time.  It took hours for Georgia to be called.  The usual suspect counties are to blame there, but we live in a battleground state, one that was supposed to be super close.  It wasn't.  Maddie's vote added up with the others, and our state went red eventually.  It was a lot later.  Things were lining up as expected.  Ohio was a big deal that went red like it was supposed to.  Michigan and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were the biggest prizes of the night, and whoever got those would win the night.  All the Southeast went red.  The Northeast went blue.  Illinois went blue because of Chicago.  Colorado went blue, and of course we were expecting the West Coast to go blue, which it did.  We were talking with others online the whole night as we watched the returns come in.  Georgia was finally called, and that was huge.  Bigger was North Carolina.  And then it was a waiting game... hours went by, but things were certainly leaning red.  And somewhere super late, that's when the shocker came:  Pennsylvania went red.  And that was pretty much it, just three votes shy of 270.  It was apparent this could come from anywhere - Michigan and Wisconsin were clearly going red, but Arizona and Nevada were leaning red too.  Still are - those two haven't been declared yet.  It would be funny if it came to Alaska to finalize things, but that's when Wisconsin was called, and a President-elect was announced:  Trump will be returning to office.   

Interesting fun fact:  there's a county that is in Texas that hasn't gone red since 1896.  During that time, the President was Grover Cleveland, who until tonight was the only President to be elected to two non-consecutive terms. 

Anyway, it was clear what was happening tonight - a red wave.  Before the end of this election, the US Senate would be red, and the House of Representatives would be too.  Quite a night.  We waited for a good while, although Maddie was in bed long before any of this.  We read to Maddie and we all said our prayers - Maddie knew who was going to win the election before she went to bed.  We just had to wait on the confirmations, and then the speech our President-elect made at something like 3am or whatever it was. It was late.  Wow were tired, but we were excited and we got to see it.  And then...  sleep!

But tonight the winner got the popular vote and the Electoral College.  It was a quick and decisive election that didn't take days or weeks to determine.  I say that remembering the year 2000, which sort of set the precedent for that sort of thing.  But leads were too much, and it was clear tonight:  Donald Trump will be President of the United States this January.

I was about to say 47th President, but we'll see how that unfolds over the next few months. 

...

 

...taekwondo, one day to go, living room tree, chiropractor, Groot... updates coming soon...

Return to Vernardos Circus

We were back with Bernardo's Circus tonight, and you can see just about the whole gang up there behind us on stage.  Pretty neat opportunity to get a photo with the cast.  Super talented people.  We saw the circus about a year and a half ago, and had a great time.  It's a small circus, and it's like a small business, the type of thing that we love to support.  The great thing is that the people involved are really talented and it's actually a very enjoyable show.  Maddie was laughing all throughout, as were were.  And she had her mouth wide open in awe at a few of the performances that kept going higher and higher and higher.  We got there earlier, and found the premium seating.  We paid for those seats so that we could see better this time, and we sure did.  We had front row there, and from time to time the performers were literally a few feet from us, or at least swinging directly over our heads.  We got cotton candy and popcorn, and Maddie got a drink too.  We talked with some of the performers beforehand, and one of the things I love about this sort of circus is that the guy who was an usher leading me to the seats was the Ringmaster, and the ticket scanning folks were performers too.  It's just a warm circus family, and we were happy to be there.  I took a few pictures with my phone, although the lighting and movement were a little much for that phone.  Still, a few of those pictures came out well enough to share here, including some posed ones.

It was a pretty full day.  Of course, there was KidPak in the morning too, which went really well.  The kids loved the skit we did - I had something simple, and sometimes you just think it's too simple, but in fat, simple is just what was needed and it was perfect.  There was a lot of laughing and screaming.  And of course the bottom line was really well put this morning, a message about guarding your heart.  Maddie took some pictures as always, and we shared many of those on the church site.  The great thing about that is the social media team is starting to use Maddie's pics for other things, and Maddie will catch these online.  It's a fantastic way to confirm that she's taking super good pictures now.

The in between of the day involved us eating a rotisserie, Mardi Gras flavoring, of course.  And I got all the nutcrackers up on the shelving too.  They look good up there, quite a crowd!  I'm not sure if there's room for any more, actually!

Tonight we watched a few more episodes of "Hawkeye," including my favorite episode of all, the one with the Nutcracker Suite car chase with trick arrows, and much more.  And after that, we were certainly ready for bed.  We read some more from "Wyrd Sisters," a bit about traveling back in time, and then we aid our prayers.  It was time for some sleep.  We had a great day!

An Admiral Thrawn Christmas

This afternoon I got the Star Wars tree set up, really getting that Christmas machine going here.  Yesterday was the Nativity Empire, and now the Star Wars tree.  I had to go get new lights with Mom, the two of us heading to Hobby Lobby, which was packed.  Can you believe the holiday shopping already?  Anyway, all those lights from before are pretty much shot, and that's crazy to think about.  So we just bought about fifteen boxes of lights and I used a few of those boxes on the tree, fluffing it up first and then adding the ornaments.  Maddie was helping with the unboxing of the ornaments, and then Mom showed up with some birthday presents - or Christmas presents?  Either way, they were great new gifts, some new ornaments for the tree. 

We now have Admiral Thrawn at center and top of the tree, overlooking the artistic design of the tree.  As you know, he can tell a lot about our culture and strategies by studying our artistic displays.  Which will enable him to defeat us, I think.  So we should be careful.  And there's Cad Bane on the tree, which is basically one of the coolest ornaments ever.  There's a swagger to that ornament that is just too much for even the jedi ornaments.  And finally, this amazing AT-AT ornament, which looks so fantastic up there on the tree.  We top it all off with a Death Star at the top, and the tree skirt that Mom made for the bottom.  Some of the classic ornaments are there, the ones that remind me of this or that.  A Stormtrooper ornament that I won in an ornament exchange game.  A Chewbacca that was first given to me by Ba-Ba and Nana many years ago.  A light-up Darth Vader ornament that I've had since 1997.  The list goes on and on, and they're all on the tree - it looks great!

So today we had Team Edge in the morning, and that was good practice for Maddie, who is a little sore but doing well.  We set up a lot of things for tomorrow's KidPak service today, and there were the other usual chores too.  I give oxygen to those sea monkeys, go for a walk on the treadmill - lately the walks are getting longer.  Today I was watching "Muppets Family Christmas" on glorious VHS while walking the treadmill.  I've resolved to watch a lot of those old Christmas VHS tapes while walking this season - should be fun.  

Speaking of which, tonight we started the "Hawkeye" series again because it's Christmas time, and we just love this one.  There were four good Marvel series, five if you include "What If...?"  This is one of the best, so good we've watched it a few times now.  Anyway, we saw the first two episodes tonight, then got to bed with reading and prayers afterwards.  It's been a pretty good day though.  Tomorrow should be fun too!