Obama had one, McCain had two… I saw that billboard while driving around Goshen, Indiana last weekend and it nearly made me run off the road. Now who WOULDN’T want to check out that church!

I’m home!
Well, actually I got home yesterday, but I was in no fit state to post. The flight from LAX was actually one of the best I’ve had. We took off at 10:30pm and I was already feeling drowsy. They served dinner not long after take-off, and I popped one of the prescription sleeping pills my doctor had given me. Then I shoved in my ear plugs, pulled down my sleep mask, and I was OUT. I woke up seven hours later feeling about as refreshed as you can when sleeping upright. I finished the flight by watching Iron Man (SO. KICK. ASS.) and Prince Caspian (which was actually way better than I expected*). We landed on time and I sailed through Immigration thanks to my spiffy RFID-enabled Passport. (Yes, I’m sure I should protest that it’s some sort of privacy invasion, but it’s hard to feel indignant when I’m the one who gets to use the oh-so-tomorrow facial recognition kiosk while everyone else waits in line.) I made a quick detour to the Duty Free shop – cheap booze bonus! – and then met up with Snookums at the Arrivals gate. Needless to say, it was great to see him. At home I unpacked, showered, and napped a bit. At 2pm we headed over to Balmain for the wedding (more in a bit), where I managed to stay awake for a few hours. We ducked out during the reception and headed home. I went to bed around 6pm, and I woke up this morning at 4am. That’s pretty good. I’m not trying to force myself to adjust until after the City2Surf this morning.

It feels so good to sleep in your own bed after three weeks away. And I think the cat even missed me! She’s been very cuddly. It’s nice to be home.

It’s time to finishing packing and GO HOME. Only another twenty hours til I get to see Snookums at the arrivals gate…

Man. I feel fairly certain that I actually owned this Strawberry Shortcake lunchbox. I wish I still did!

10 Mispronunciations That Make You Sound Stupid. I’m totally with them on all of those except for the “suppose to” and “use to.” If I’m just talking casually to someone, I’m not going to go to the effort of enunciating an extra “D” in there. And #9… I’m totally guilty of that one. I actually just had to look it up to make sure that “reoccuring” wasn’t a word, so strong was my conviction that I hadn’t been saying it wrong all along. But it looks like I have been.

Also, I have a few of my own that I’d like to add: “exspecially” (NO) and “respite” (it’s pronounced as “respit”). Those drive me up the wall.

Superbugs. Scary stuff. Which reminds me, there’s another hygiene-related oddity I’ve noticed over here (in addition to the antibacterial wipes at the grocery store). Every time I’ve been in the ladies’ room here at the office and another woman has come in, she’s used a toilet seat cover. (I can hear it being pulled out of the box.) Isn’t that weird? Is it just me? I can’t remember the last time I used one, if in fact I ever have. I probably would if it were some really grotty public toilet, but we’re talking about a new, modern restroom in a private office building with maybe 25 businesswomen using it. It gets cleaned every night. What are they protecting themselves from? The occasional drop of wee on the seat? How do these women function when they’re forced to use a bathroom without a box of seat covers mounted on the wall??

The 100 Most Common English Words. How many can you guess in five minutes? I got 52. Judging by the Metafilter thread where I found the link, that’s a pretty good score!By the end there I was, like, reciting Shakespeare and the Gettysburg Address and stuff in my head trying to come up with common words I had forgotten.

Obama Town Hall Meeting in Elkhart
Barack Obama held a Town Hall meeting at Concord High School this morning. I heard about it on the news at my Mom’s house last weekend. To my surprise, a couple people in my family mentioned their interest in going. (I don’t think anybody did though; it sounds like there was a lot of demand for tickets.) Looking at the coverage today, the media seemed to be mostly interested in Evan Bayh’s presence and whether a VP decision was imminent. Personally, I want to know more about what Obama said and how the locals reacted to it. Several members of my family work in the RV industry – hell, I myself worked at Coachmen throughout college – and I know that their companies have been hit really hard this year. Gas prices and the economy were a constant subject over the weekend. When I left the US nine years ago, gas in Indiana was well under $2/gallon. Now it’s more than twice that. The only way to get around is by car (unless you’re Amish). My grandpa went out Saturday morning to get a bag of sweetcorn from one of the local farmers, and he came back indignant at being charged 50c an ear. (I was surprised too, until I remembered that tractors need gas too.) So yeah, this is an area that has really been hurting lately, and I was glad to see that Obama was making a point of stopping there. People think of Indiana as such a Republican stronghold that it would be easy for the Democrats to not bother. Things are changing though, and I think Hoosiers are a lot smarter than the GOP gives them credit for. The fact that Obama wants to understand their problems and listen to their issues… that’s gotta count for a lot.

But man, the whole tire gauge thing is really ridiculous. I agree, it’s like McCain’s supporters really are “proud of being ignorant”.

Hm. Like Max, the Snook and I were also intrigued by Jamie Oliver’s “flavour shaker.” (It’s this plastic thing with a ball inside he uses to bash up spices.) Max found a pretty negative review though, which kills it for me. Back to the mortar and pestle…