Well, the election is now over, and the results are (mostly) in. I’m fairly happy with most of the results, I think. It should be exciting to see what gets done in government in the next two years with a changing of the guard. And Rumsfeld resigning? I didn’t see that coming, but I can’t say I’m sad to see him go. It was a nice added surprise, like putting on an old pair of jeans and finding a $10 in the pocket.

Here in Ohio, even though the weather was awful, turnout seemed to be good. We now have a new governor that I like (which hasn’t happened in awhile here). But for me, even though the political office races were interesting to watch, I was more interested in the issues we voted on.

Issue 2 passed, meaning we’re going to see a significant raise in the minimum wage here in Ohio. I see this as a very good thing, considering that the current minimum wage is not a living wage, even if both adults in the family are working. Did you ever watch 30 Days? The very first episode featured Morgan and his girlfriend coming to Columbus, OH to try living on minimum wage for 30 days. The result was a disaster, and not only did they leave town at the end of the month in debt, but they also were suffering from health problems they couldn’t afford to fix.

Issue 3 failed, and I saw that coming. While it would have been nice to have state scholarships available to help offset the costs of college, funding it through slot machines at race tracks probably wasn’t the best way to accomplish it. I’m curious to see the fate of the racetracks now – they were hoping this issue would bail them out of the financial troubles they’re currently in. My hometown has one of the largest racing horse farms in the state (not racing on horseback – buggy racing), and the farm may be selling more horses for dog food than for racing soon.

But most important to me were issue 4 and issue 5. Issue 4 was known as the “smoke less” issue, and tried to bring a constitutional amendment banning smoking in public buildings, unless they are on the enormous list of exceptions, like restaurants, bars, clubs, bowling alleys, etc. Basically I think it was pretty much limited to government buildings. Also, it was designed to trump all other smoking bans, so if it had passed, Columbus would once again have smoking allowed in restaurants. Had it passed, it also would have trumped issue 5.

Issue 5, known as “smoke free” was a flat out statewide ban on smoking in public areas, including restaurants, bars, and clubs. There are few exceptions to this issue, with those exceptions being private clubs (membership only) and private homes.

It should come as no surprise that the backers of issue 4 were bar owners and tobacco companies, while the backers of issue 5 were waitresses and health care companies. Thankfully, issue 4 failed by a large margin, and issue 5 passed.

I should explain why this makes me so happy: I’m allergic to smoke. Not the anaphylactic shock kind of allergic – more like the swollen eyes, scratchy throat, stuffy nose, worst-cold-ever type of allergic. Being around smoke in an enclosed area for even thirty minutes will have me feeling miserable the next day. And smoking areas don’t help, since we all know the smoke always migrates to the non-smoking section. As I’m sure you can guess, I was a lousy club-goer as a college student.

As a child, with two aunts who smoked and thought I was “faking it”, family gatherings were torture. I’d wheeze and cough around them, begging to be allowed to go elsewhere, and they’d tell me to stop being so dramatic. Thankfully, one of my aunts has quit smoking after developing one too many serious lung infections as a result of her smoking. She now understands how I felt.

I don’t think smokers are bad people, but I think smoking is a bad habit. Most habits don’t hurt other people, but this one can drastically affect the health of those around you. If you want to do that to yourself, fine. But I don’t deserve to suffer in public, or be unable to go out to normal places, like a restaurant, because of your bad habit. And should my children inherit my allergy, I want them to be able to go out in public without worrying if they will be spending the next day in bed from an allergic reaction to smoke.

So yeah, I’m a little happy about issue 5 passing.

How were the issues where you live?

Go vote today. Even if the weather is crappy. Even if you are stuck with the kids. Even if it means stopping by a drive-thru for dinner instead of taking the time to make something.

If you want to see better lives for your kids, vote. Otherwise, you’re leaving the fate of the country up to other people. People you may hate, like your neighbor with the Hummer who thinks poor people deserve what they get. People you may think are idiots, like Scientologists or the kooky old lady at work who thinks her dog is Ghandi reborn.

And we don’t want that, right? There’s still time to vote.

Yesterday evening, as I was bringing Cordy in from the car, I noticed four young teens in street clothes (2 boys, 2 girls) walking out from the brush near the back of our house. Two were carrying pizza boxes (looked empty based on the way one boy was throwing his around), and two were carrying shotguns.

OK, maybe they were fancy BB guns (our BB guns in the 80’s never looked this real), but they were long and looked like shotguns to me. The teens walked down the length of our property to the street, and then walked down the street, guns propped on their shoulders, not saying anything to each other.

Did we move into the Wild West and not know it?

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Be sure to check out Mommy’s Must Haves today to read about the new love in my life.

…at least not for a very long time.

– Go to the post office on a busy Friday with just me and a toddler who wants to wreck havoc. The worst was when she would lean back while I held her, straining my back and making my arm go numb.

– Eat Halloween candy even though I know high sugar foods make me sick right now. It was so tempting, and yet it made me feel so awful. Luckily, a few pickles made everything better. (I swear this pregnancy is all about the pickles.)

– Take a tired and cranky toddler to the grocery by myself.

– Sort and then throw away the metric ton of junk mail about all of the local candidates send us every damn day. And I’m not talking one or two negative ads in the mail – more like 5-10 pieces a day, half of them from the other party, even though neither of us are registered for that political party. Same goes for the recorded phone calls. Stop calling us already – our votes are already safe with the Board of Elections, waiting to be lovingly hand counted on Election Day.

– Attempt to call our old health insurance to question a bill I received from a procedure done in April and was now charged way too much for, only to be repeatedly told, “But you’re no longer insured with us now.” Yes, but in April I was. However, when you’re no longer insured by them, they can make up some “well, that was an exception to your 20% rule” and you’re stuck with the bill, no matter how many times you try to question them about it.

– Take the same tired and cranky toddler, who chose to skip her nap for the day, to an evening party at a friend’s house, where there is an old-style wood burning stove in the kitchen, with no gate around it. Let’s just say that the new theme of the party became “keep the child from burning herself” and everyone played.

Yeah, you can say we’ve had a busy week here. Thankfully, there have been some good moments to balance out the rough ones, too. Like Cordy’s newest favorite game:

Cordy: Mommy! Mommy!
Me: Yes, Cordy?
Cordy: Mommy! Mommy!
Me: Cordy?
Cordy: Mommy! Mommy!
Me: What?!?
Cordy: Hi! (laughs and runs away)

It’s cute, although it does have potential to be annoying very soon. But hopefully not for a few more weeks.

Last night I rushed out of work early in order to be home for trick or treating. Aaron planned to pass out candy, and I wanted to take Cordy door to door. However, everyone else in the city was apparently thinking the same thing, so getting home took a little effort due to massive traffic jams.

The weather also wasn’t very good – cold and rainy. But thankfully the rain stopped right before trick or treat began. As I walked in the door of our house, I was greeted with our little brown and white cow:

I’m very happy with the costume choice. Not only is it adorable on her, but she also didn’t mind wearing it.

I gave Cordy her pumpkin candy container, and we set off to try trick or treating. Last year I took her out in costume in her stroller, mostly to meet some neighbors and show off her cute Tinkerbell costume. This year, though, we were a little more serious. She walked the entire time, and she insisted on holding on to her pumpkin. “Itza pun-kin!” could be heard every 10 steps as we walked down the sidewalk.

The neighbors loved seeing her in costume. She was a little less sure of them, though. She didn’t quite understand why we were walking up to houses, standing at the door, but then not going in. And she didn’t understand why people kept wanting to put things in her pumpkin. Cordy would always look in her pumpkin afterwards as if to say, “What’s that doing in there?” Thankfully, she doesn’t know what candy looks like yet.

Manners weren’t very good, either. She would usually say hi to people, but saying “trick or treat” was impossible and “thank you” was tough. After someone got up in her face, she generally got nervous and responded with, “Bye!” and tried to pull me away.

Even though I told people not to give her much candy, since she’s not going to eat it anyway, they still heaped handfuls into her pumpkin. Which meant that after several houses, her pumpkin was much heavier than before. But she still insisted on carrying it.

We walked down our street and back up the other side, then hit a few more houses on the next street before she tired out. I brought her back to our house, and for the last hour of trick or treat she played in the living room and watched other kids come to the door. And, of course, when a boisterous group came up and loudly said, “Trick or treat,” Cordy finally responded with “Twik o Tweet!”

More pictures:

Showing Dora her loot.




Moo, moo, moO, MOO, Moo, moo, moooooo!




Wrestling with daddy before bed.