Gingerbread Dreams and Candy Cane Wishes

SO MUCH SNOW!!!!

The things we go through daily are either magnificent or a grind, depending on one's mood. Lately it's felt like a grind because it is COLD! OK it's not Minnesota cold or Canada cold but it's Texas cold and Texans do not like the cold. Ever. We had "snow" on Sunday and we were so cold! Saturday was warm but Sunday was freezing. Monday was still pretty cold and we even had a late start to the day. Yes we are that dramatic. Besides we have such good weather that no one ever has snow tires or even all season tires. I mean I do but that doesn't mean everyone else does. I also live in a college town, so that means a lot of students who just learned how to wipe their ass, behind the wheel of vehicles too big for them to handle.  That is my biggest and only complaint of the week. I'm sure I could find plenty to complain about but what for?

Especially as Thanksgiving is fast approaching! How can I complain when I once more have the opportunity to taunt the diabetes? I will eat turkey. Eat pumpkin pie. Eat all that I feel is worthy of enticing the diabetes but then I will say, "HA! Diabetes! I have beat you again! We will meet again in a year but you will taste defeat once more!" That may be verbatim what I think internally when I stuff myself on Thursday. What can I say? I like taunting the diabetes.

Lets hope we don't end up doing this.

We also decided that we will be making a gingerbread house with my nephew! I am pretty excited about this, especially because he was the one that suggested the idea. Well sort of. We made gingerbread cookies last year and he kept on complaining that we were missing the eyes and mouth. My sister and I thought it would be a fun activity to do that weekend with him. I might even stop by World Market and pick up some ninja cookie cutters, I think he would love that. This may be a success of epic proportions or an epic failure, we will see.

48 AMERICAN STATES DISAPPEAR!

I am very disappointed this year in our electoral participants. According to our last census there are 316.1 million people in the United States. Let's subtract approximately 12 million people from that number because they are "illegally" here in this country. I use air quotes because I'm not going to lie, I support the DREAM Act because I do believe that many were brought here as children and are as American as apple pie. However, that is an issue to discuss at another time. No today I want to encourage more people to vote. It is our civic DUTY as citizens! It is one of the few things this country asks of us as citizens, we have such liberty that we have the liberty to not give a F.

Lets get back to the numbers, so 300 million people approximately that could potentially vote but now remove underage citizens. On November 4th, our midterm elections only 33.9% of eligible voters voted. That means that only approximately 50 million people showed up to vote, that means those people are actually registered to vote. According to the last census we have 206 million eligible voters.

Now of these eligible voters there are only 146.3 million people registered. Where were the other 97 million people? I would like to know what 97 million people are doing during early voting or on the actual day. That means we have 97 million people whose voice is not being heard or who have given up completely on this country. I walked my butt off during the summer and it was not an easy feat considering my foot was still in pain from February when I developed plantar fasciitis. I spent so many weekends knocking on doors and trying to register people to vote and yet we saw a decline in voter turnout. Yeah this country had a 7% decline in voter turnout. Yup. California has a population of 38 million, Pennsylvania has 12 million people.

1 California and 1 Pennsylvania voted.

In other words - 2 states voted.

97 MILLION REGISTERED VOTERS DID NOT VOTE. Translates to 48 states did not vote.

48 STATES DID NOT VOTE.

These numbers come from different websites and the 33.9% was from Al Jazeera America, I chose them because I feel they have more to gain from being brutally honest about our voting habits than say FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, or similar broadcaster. Google provided population numbers. Registered voters came from Statistic Brain because it seemed that they cared more about the numbers than politics.

Please register to vote! 

Happy Weekend!

It's the weekend!

Some Change Please

It is Monday, it made it's presence known early on today. Recently Monday's had been ignoring me, I guess they remembered I was here. I ran out of gas this morning. I have a sort of new car, new to me but it's got maybe 7 years on the motor. It was a hand-me-down from my sis but it's in great condition - other than the fuel gauge that only shows 3/4 full at a time. The tank may be full but that's how it reads so I always know that I have a least 1/4 tank left. Today I over-estimated how far I could go on that 1/4 tank. Good thing I was already at work in my allotted parking lot, but I still had to find someone to push me into a spot. My adventures. I'm laughing a little now but I can tell you I was pretty embarrassed this morning. I hadn't had that happen to me since I was 20 years old! I'm pretty sure the guys who helped me thought, just some woman who doesn't know her car. I hate when people say that about women but I feel I deserved it today. I really should have known better. Oh well, lesson learned and next time I won't put off what I could have done
yesterday! Good thing I wasn't wearing heels :)

In other news, elections are tomorrow! Remember to vote if you haven't voted yet! I am so excited! I voted early but they didn't give me a sticker, a little disappointed.