This and that

We've been sick around here. Thanksgiving weekend Emily came down with a nasty cough that lasted two weeks and then morphed into a cold as of this morning. The cough seems to be gone but her little face is a candidate for a Nyquil commercial. I don't think she'll be at school tomorrow.

As of about 3 days ago John and I got the cold and we're feeling pretty miserable. At least this year since I am neither pregnant or breastfeeding I can dose up on the drugs, sweet drugs. Still, I feel like crap.

Hope has miraculously avoided it so far.

Tonight we're spending our evening flipping between the major networks (Canadian included) covering the US election. We plan to have popcorn and make a night of it. I continue to be stunned by the ineptitude of the actual machinery of voting in the US. All these electronic machines hooked up to computers and they have a multitude of problems and still don't get numbers very quickly. Here, we do it the old fashioned way: X marks the spot. A #2 pencil. Bob's your uncle and, I'm not joking, within 1 hour of polls closing the final numbers are in. Never a problem, never long lines, never questions about hanging anything. It works great. It's simple stupid. How does the world's most powerful nation screw this up? It's so damn easy.

I'm am so far behind in writing a birthday letter to Hope. And she so deserves it. She is amazing right now. And after 6 months of worrying that her language was way behind and there was a problem, she has proved me wrong and is talking up a storm, stringing words together and is ultra-cute through it all. She's funny, goofy, playful, sweet, loving, affectionate and strong-willed. Very strong-willed. But I'm getting her to bend to my will more often now without to much trouble. She will be mine!

Have fun watching the results! (Assuming you are political junkies like we are.)