...Did Jon Stewart call it first? _

I wonder how long it will take to find out who our next president will be. I want a landslide. _

I have been obsessed with this game since I stumbled up on it the other day. _

I'm so sick of Joe the Plumber. _

I'm so sick of Joe the Plumber. _

So, our landlord set up a new washing machine for us last weekend. And today I went down to do laundry (my stepdad gave the dogs a bath yesterday and used my hand/face towel to dry them off. I was really frustrated) and the water won't turn on. So I called my stepdad who was unable to give me any real advise, and wrote to the landlord. And now my fit of productivity is over, and I'm going to paint my toenails. _

"Ooo," said my mom, "the mashed potatoes are good, Tori."

"Oh, thanks," says me. "I'm good at mashed potatoes. Besides, you add enough butter and sour cream to anything and it'll be good." _

What is with the rash of people voting early? I understand that if you're travelling, you will want to send your vote in by absentee ballot, but my stepbrother's wife voted absentee on the thought that voting early is best, despite knowing that she will be home on election day. I was under the impression that they don't really count absentee ballots, they just look at the total number of absentee ballots to see if it is a large enough number to make a difference.

I'm pretty excited about voting in a swing state. Granted, I've only ever voted in PA before, which is generally considered one of the swing states, but it's gone democrat enough times that it doesn't seem to be the same. _

I pulled up a Civ game I had saved last night and I played for a very long time (stupid Civ and it's sleep ruining abilities). I think I might be able to get a diplomatic victory. I doubt I will win the Space Race, given that I have less than 80 turns left and I have really only just begun the Apollo Project, but I have less than 20 turns left to complete the UN, and then I should be able to pull that one off. (I like the newer victory types. I got very sick of taking over the world, and building rockets. I want to do the Cultural victory at some point, but that seems harder with the limits to the amounts of wonders you can build with Civ IV.) Stupid game. All I want to do is go in and finish it, and then figure out how to play it better, but I have to work. _

Last weekend at the Ren Faire I had the henna artist next door to our stand do my hand. And this is what she did. I took the picture while it was still bright; there is still color there, but at this point it's pretty much completely faded.
_

This morning, our house guest's baby was almost screaming, and someone joked that he was trying to be a Disney Princess calling the animals. And then we realized that Disney Princesses never have friends who are people. Seriously, have you ever realized this? They are all just friends with the animals. It's not like they have one best friend who is a scullery maid in the palace of their evil stepmother queen, no, they just have no friends. _

I was looking forward to the last weekend at the Ren Faire, and then was woken up at 4 because her stepdad threw out his back and can't go to Connecticut and has to go there instead. I deal poorly with waking up so early, especially when I have to pack. Blah. But at least I get to wear normal people clothes. Blah. I hate morning. _

Jamie and I think they should make Guitar Hero: Lilith Fair Edition for people like us who aren't all that familiar with most of the songs. _

So, not that I am actually looking at buying $50 computer games at the moment, but I was looking into Spore cause it looks interesting. I tried looking at the Amazon reviews, and they are all incredibly low, mostly one star reviews, because everyone is all pissed off about some new security feature (Securom?). I want to know about the game itself, not the anti-piracy issues that people are having. Does anyone have any ideas? And also, does anyone know why they are so annoyed about this Securom thing? _

And my purse has been found. After going through the house pretty intensely (we looked under the couches and in my hamper) Jamie and I tried to track down the last places we had seen it. She's saying "have you seen it since we had pizza?" me: "Yes, I know I had it at the Faire on Monday." "Are you sure?" "Yes, I looked in my bag for our IDs like 20 times, and I remember carrying it when the guard was giving us a hard time about it." And then I remembered that it was probably in the bag that had my costume in it, since we had worked very hard on getting everything out to the car in one run. _

My purse is missing. It's kind of scary. My mom has convinced herself that the guys who are working on the house next door took it while we were all out walking the dogs. We have looked all over the house. _

So, today at the Faire, I went off to see these women called the Aerial Angels who do acrobatics on all sorts of things, culminating in pulling (and knotting) themselves up these giant pieces of silk and then dropping themselves down artistically. They also did amazing things on a trapeze, and then did crazy fire eating stuff. It was a nice change from The Little Mermaid. _

When did the G8 become the G7? Was it over Georgia? _

Wahoo! Libby cookies!

Also, wireless internet! How I have missed you! (I spent several days at my stepbrother's in Vermont, and he begrudgingly has internet, and was gleeful when the wireless router stopped working.) _

I really hate being in a house all alone at night. I always hear weird noises and get creeped out. _