Years ago, when I was going somewhere for four days, the entire preparation stage consisted of throwing two pairs of boxers and a toothbrush in a bag, finding a spare button-down and a t-shirt, hitting the bank, grabbing a half-gallon of off-brand spiced rum or some other swill, and heading out.
Now, I go anywhere, and it is like planning to invade a sovereign nation, complete with checklists:
Itouch- check
Laptop- check
Camera- check
power cables- check
earphones- check
cell phone-check
toiletries-check
vitamins and aspirin- check
credit cards- check
And I don’t even have kids. I just remember it all being a lot simpler than this. At any rate, some parting pet shots for you all:
Lola wants to know if you voted. See you all later.
jeff
One of the reason I try not to travel. Ever.
Conservatively Liberal
Technology has made our lives easier? Hell, when I travel I have a ton of electronics that I take, what with the wife and kids needing their plug into the world…lol
Have a safe trip John.
Josh Hueco
OT…but CNN’s live stream has Obama voting right now. It must be wicked awesome to vote for yourself for president.
Punchy
you gettin hitched?
Ugh
It’s incredible the differences in voting lines. I live in DC so the result is not in doubt, but my wife and I went to our polling place in NW at about 8am and were in and out in less than 5 minutes, no line at all. Then we drove down 16th and saw at least three lines where there were literally hundreds of people lined up waiting to vote. Even in DC they don’t know how to allocate voting machines, I guess.
rob
I’m 50 and I still pack the old way. It does bite you in the butt sometimes, but I figure I can buy what ever I forgot when I get there.
Garrigus Carraig
@Punchy: lol that would explain the vitamins and aspirin.
Comrade Stuck
Lola, what a sweetie. Wish I could reach thru the tubes and pet her. Ford and Scarboro make my teeth hurt. GO MUP!!!
Barr and Nader will be watching the election returns from the Funhouse this evening. Barr will sweep the place for bugs and the Clinton’s, and Nader will whine about everything. We will celebrate their un-win and expect Mccain to join later on.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
So is it still boxers, John? Briefs? Boxer briefs? Dental floss?
(Hey, if presidential candidates get these questions, so can bloggers.)
Eric U.
does anyone know if there actually is a legal requirement in Pennsylvania to show ID before voting? If we had always done that, it wouldn’t bother me, but since it’s a Republican diversion from their criminal voter disenfranchisement it annoys me to no end. It’s been so bad this year, some republicans deserve to go to jail. The guy in Wisconsin comes to mind.
JL
@Josh Hueco: Did you have the sound on. The cheering was great. Does anyone know if the repubs are filing suit for Obama campaigning at a polling site?
kommrade jakevich
Don’t forget the nose hair trimmer.
And for the love of Christ, don’t lock Tunch in your bedroom.
Mild blog pimping: I’m trying to load a few pictures of my polling place right now but they’re rather boring. Guess I should get ready for work instead. If McPalin win I’ll need the cash to bribe the Christian Soldiers.
Doug
You are just getting old. Before, when you headed out, your only responsibilities were to maintain the bare minimum level of hygiene to make hooking up theoretically possible and to maintain a reasonable supply of alcohol.
At least that’s how it worked for me. Now I have responsibilities — mostly stemming from hooking up, then falling in love, then having a family. Damn that minimal level of hygiene!
Brian J
What’s going on on in Pennslyvania? What’s this about some guy in Wisconsin?
It all sounds so strange to me, because I was under the impression that ACORN, Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright, and Barack Obama were all plotting to steal the vote from the hardworking middle class of America for their gay Hollywood liberal socialist Islamic terrorist friends. One of my conservative friends yesterday said that early voting left open the possibility for a lot of fraud. So, my friend, you have a lot of explaining to do.
gbear
You forgot the battery chargers for your camera and phone.
Voting on the west end (the brewery neighborhood) of St. Paul was amazingly quick this morning. I showed up about 45 minutes after the doors opened and parked right in front of the entrance. Apparently there was a crush of voters waiting when the doors opened and it took some of those folks almost an hour to get thru, but the voting officials set up a couple of tables and increased the voting capacity by about 50% (thank god for paper ballots).
I was in and out of the building in 15 minutes. This doesn’t mean that voter turnout in my neighborhood will be low, it’s evidence of how many people in my neighborhood will volunteer to be at the polls and make sure they run awesomely. I heart St. Paul.
greynoldsct00
Kinda had you figured for a boxer guy.. now we know for sure
gbear
@Josh Hueco:
You can always write yourself in. ;)
Billy K (D-TX)
What’s an "Itouch?"
OH! You mean an "iPod Touch!"
John Cole
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse: Of course, boxers. Little kids wear diapers, grown men do not.
This blog has now officially reached an all-time low.
Shinobi
I voted, it took about 45 minutes and I was there just as the polls opened. The polling place people had no idea what they were doing. There were 2 lines for 2 different districts but the way they set it up you didn’t find out you were in the wrong line until you got into the voting room. (The guy in front of me in line put up signs.)
And then I had to help them reposition the electronic voting machines so everyone waiting in line couldn’t watch you vote. (Not that I think there is going to be much variation in my predominantly black suburban Chicago district, but y’know we wouldn’t want all 3 McCain voters to feel intimidated. )
JL
@John Cole: Depends!
RSA
My wife and I voted on Friday, and to celebrate the occasion (well, okay, it was Halloween), she dressed up as a nun and I put on a pair of devil’s horns. It gave the poll workers a laugh.
Conservatively Liberal
Some stupid redneck (guessing by the drawl) was on Washington Journal (C-SPAN) claiming that a guy he knows has voted twice today (for Obama, of course!) and was going back for a third time. He said that he doubts that the guy will get caught.
That pegged my bullshit meter and broke the needle off. If a wingnut knew of one person who was doing this, they would have them turned in immediately. So get ready for the flood of wingnut alligator tears regarding non-existent election fraud. RedState is in the front with allegations that voting machines in Pennsylvania were set up with votes already on them for Obama. Of course, this was via Hot Air so you know that it is wingnut seasoned fiction.
Walker
I am in Central NY (Lansing, just outside of Ithaca). My polling place has only one machine, and there was still no line. I was in and out in less than a few minutes.
I must say, that while you don’t get a paper trail in NY, there is something satisfying about yanking a huge mechanical lever to cast your vote.
The Moar You Know
@John Cole: Go commando. Less to pack, more freedom for Godzilla to run free as nature meant him to.
dave
Yes, but only the first time voting. And the list of stuff you can bring that is considered ID is pretty long – Social Security cards and utility bills count.
John S.
Standing here on a 2 hour line in S. Florida…
Johnny Drama is well and truly fucked.
Dave
John, you can’t even imagine how much more complex it is when you have kids…
At my voting place in Maine, it was packed when the polls opened at 7:00. But the lines moved steadily (we use paper ballots and optical scanner machines) and my wife and I were out by 7:30. We checked the line as we left; it was just as packed as when we arrived.
Comrade Tudor
Lola Mae says you had better vote. That’s what her mom has just gone to do right now.
BTW, the boxers meme is too funny, considering Lola is one.
bago
See, it’s mostly about clothing sets. I have my snowboarding set, I have my respectable citizen set, I have my crazy burning man set, and then the core set (containing the tech toys with chargers). You can significantly lighten this set by only carrying one transformer for your laptop and doing everything else through USB.
kommrade jakevich
@Billy K (D-TX): We hope.
Punchy
@Ugh: Pretty sure your precinct is for rich crackers who trend R. The lines you saw were for the Darkies, who tend to vote D and probably have to share 1 voting machine and a backup "system" consisting of used chads and butterfly ballots.
Beej
When I headed out for my 3rd job after college, I packed up everything I owned in the back seat of my car and took off. When I left that job 5 years later, it took a moving van and 4 movers to take me to the next job. That was when I knew I had officially become an adult. It was not an altogether pleasant feeling.
TheFountainHead
I voted this morning, right in front of a 19 year old kid who had been dragged out of bed at 5:30am by his parents, because they threatened to ground him if he didn’t vote.
If I’m ever a parent, that’s the kind of parent I want to be.
Dork
Omit "plotting to", and add an "ing" to steal and you’ve got Hugh Hewitt, K-Lo, and Malkin’s talking points for the next 3 days.
OT:
Places are going to run out of ballots. I’m sure of it. This amount of voters in my area is just sick. I dont think anyone could have anticipated this level of participation.
Brian J
This is the last post I will make before I get ready for work and check my iPhone incessantly before heading off to work and returning at about 9:00 or 10:00 PM.
I just want to say, again, that this is what pisses me off more than words can describe when I hear Republicans complain about voter fraud. When any election rolls around, there are always complaints about funny business going on. I’m not talking about isolated incidents of uncoordinated goons causing trouble, which is bound to happen on both sides. I’m talking about large scale dirty tricks, like busing senile people and forcing them to vote one way with threats and intimidation, having dead people vote, and having liberals of all types vote a few times, under different names and addresses, especially in swing states. Republicans complain about this as if it was so easily detected, but my question to them is, if it’s going on, why don’t they do anything about it? If a person is robbing your house several times, and you have proof he’s doing it, why wouldn’t you turn him in? Why wouldn’t Republicans, if they have such irrefutable proof that people are breaking the law during elections, turn these people in? Why don’t we hear anything more than isolated incidents when it comes to this stuff, even after U.S. Attorneys look into it?
Might it just be that there’s nothing to it? Nah, that would be too easy an explanation.
cgp
Voted in Michigan, and while I’m no super-genius to be tell you that McCain is going to lose badly here, it looks like it will be under-estimated. Turn out was really, really good.
Bootlegger
You know your older when you’re heading out the door with something nagging the back of your mind, that your forgot something, but you were careful so you ignore it. Then halfway to the airport you remember what it was. Doh!
Bootlegger
@Beej:
Word.
First move after graduation, back of the Cimarron. Next move, with one kid, an overstuffed UHaul. Next move with two kids, a moving van with two families in it. Last move a year ago, a full van with five handlers (those dudes were a riot). I ain’t moving again.
Litlebritdifrnt
Ground game report from here in NC. The campaign is using my office again today, volunteers have been streaming in all morning, phone banking, canvassing, delivering door hangers. The enthusiasm is infectious.
On my drive to work this morning the parking lot of the polling place was full of cars (and its a huge parking lot) did not see any lines out the door though.
Dennis - SGMM
Put on Scarborough for the first time ever. He says that McCain is campaigning in Indiana today. I don’t recall a presidential candidate ever campaigning on election day. Reeks of flop sweat to me.
cleek
no USB, Ethernet or phone cables ???
50 and raining here in NC. awesome weather for standing in a line.
Juan del Llano
Regarding your list: hey man, I hear ya. But you know what’s analogous? Moving!
I hate moving, and I’ve done a lot of it. When we moved to New Mexico, we paid to haul 3,000 pounds of crap from Merryland. Total suck. I kept remembering all the moves I made when I was in my early 20s: throw all the dirty clothes into the back seat of the Ford, and there was still room for the dog (a German shepherd) and two guitars. Of course I was single then, but even if I weren’t today, I could never get away without packing all the computer gear, books, and tools, not to mention the better clothes.
The poor old dog is dead, but there would still be the idiot cats, and they don’t get along. Gotta love being on the road, though. Quintessential American thrill, worth most any sacrifice…
jeffreyw
Headin out to vote now.
Damn Chatzy.
jcricket
We just need to go all vote by mail. Solves pretty much every problem people will be mentioning today (lines, weather, ID checks, distribution of machines, touch screen problems, lack of paper trails, lack of ballots). Plus it’s proven to at least mildly increase turnout and it lets voters use educational materials (esp. important in places with long ballots with lots of measures). The nature of it is distributed (not everyone returning their ballots to a single location or on a single day) which makes it that much harder to disenfranchise large groups of people.
Of course this make the battle for better (more open, statewide or national databases, simplified rules) registration procedures and laws that reduce the ability for mass challenges that much more important.
Couple of simple things and you could make the whole election process itself a non-issue (which would be nice).
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
I heard he was supposed to go to Colorado and Nevada. Hmmmm.
kommrade jakevich
@Bootlegger: And you know you’re O.L.D. when the thing you forgot is your pants.
Dennis - SGMM
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII:
Could be, I was busy cooking breakfast for the family so I was listening from the kitchen and could easily have misheard.
Pastafarian
@CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII:
I believe Obama is campaigning in Indiana today, to continue the momentum on GOTV efforts. McCain is supposed to go to Colorado and Nevada.
Neal
The wife and I walked a block and a half over to the Smyrna Baptist Church in Tampa and voted this morning. Got there about 5 to 7, took about an hour. The line was impressive.
I must say it was quite a release to fill in that bubble for the MUP.
The Other Steve
Now that I’m back to doing computer consulting instead of working for the man…. I keep very little at wherever I’m working. A small fan and a box of kleenex, I guess.
So my ipod, headphones, chargers and so on I keep in my Timbuk2 messenger bag. I have this Caselogic universal MP3 case I bought to keep chargers for ipod and cell phone in, along with usb cables and such. And my headphones(Sennheiser noise-cancelling) came with a case already.
So I’m always ready to go.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
Pastafarian, that was Dennis, not me. I’m the one who said I thought he was supposed to go to Colorado and Nevada today.
Cheers!
Added: both candidates are staying fairly close to home.
Bill H
You have nothing, not within handgrenade distance of my wife in terms of getting ready for a trip. For a three-day weekend trip she will start packing two weeks in advance. For a two-week vacation she starts stacking shit together six weeks in advance, and three weeks before the trip packs it all into suitcases and takes it back out again at least once and usually more than once for practice. For that trip she takes three suitcases and I take one carryon. If I decide to take an additional shirt, I have to leave an existing one out.
South of I-10
I haven’t voted yet, but according to reports from co-workers, everyone had to stand in line, with the time varying from 10 minutes to an hour. I am going to vote in an hour or so, will report back then.
In other news, the 4 year old says that she will be voting for me and for Barack Obama in the Pre-K mock election.
The Other Steve
I went to vote this morning… got there at 7am, took about an hour to get through the line. You sign your name, they give you a slip of paper and then you turn that over to someone else who gives you a ballot. She marks the slip of paper with a number and puts it in another box just to keep track of how many people voted. I was #228. That means there were 227 people who voted ahead of me which sounds about right.
I can’t say if this is normal or not, as I’ve never gone to vote at 7am before. I usually would take time off in the middle of the day or wait until evening.
But the Sec. of State says they are anticipating an 80% turnout, which has not happened since 1956. I guess absentee voting was up about 50% over previous years. That is around 15% of registered voters instead of 10%.
jcricket
Regardless of whether Obama wins Indiana, Georgia, Arizona, Montana, North Carolina or North Dakota – his gains are huge in those states and help Democrats down-ticket now and organizing for the future. In Indiana alone it’s like a 20 point swing towards Democrats compared to just 2004 (not that long ago people!).
But I agree, for states where the polling is either tied or within a couple percent, it’s all about GOTV, GOTV, GOTV. It could be the difference between a "moderately large" Obama win and a huge landslide.
I also hope those in blue states get the message that every vote matters in setting the narrative. I’m already hearing things like "Obama is poised to win CA with the biggest percent margin since FDR won in 36". More stories like that, coupled with record turnout are important!
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
If I go away for 2 days, I have to take six shirts, just to feel like I have a real choice of what to wear. I think it comes from being dressed up as a Shirley Temple doll for the first several years of my life with absolutely no choice in the matter. My mother made me look like a damned fool. While other third graders were wearing blue jeans, I didn’t own a single pair and was instead going to school in heavy plaid polyester dresses with matching coat and hat. UGH!
Comrade Scrutinizer
@John Cole:
Boxers are for wimps. Real men go commando.
Laura W
@cleek:
Sorry to hear that. Over here in WNC mountains it’s headed for mid-60s. Breezy, warm, and all kinds of bright yellows and oranges against a turquoise sky with the occasional fluffy white cloud drifting by.
Just made my black cat put two huge Obama buttons on her collar for the obligatory memorial photos.
I’m clearly high.
The Other Steve
I realize that my state is not the most populous, but I’m hearing stories of polling locations with over 1,000 people in line.
Why can’t these states open up more polling locations?
Ours is over at the library, and there are about 15 booths to mark your ballot. It’s a small conference room. You don’t need much more than that.
Seems to me like you should have one polling location per 3,000 voters or so.
gbear
I’ve only need one set. Old fat out-of-town guy.
However, there is a bear bar subset if I’m going to San Francisco. I like SF.
My last move, I hired a truck with three helpers and then asked friends to help too. It’s easier to get friends to help when they know they don’t have to carry the heavy stuff.
I managed to fill up a 16 ft truck with stuff that was in a 400sf apartment and a storage locker. The truck guys were impressed. I don’t even want to think about moving again.
Incertus
@The Other Steve: Because that would make it easier for people to vote?
Sorry–I’m really trying to keep the cynicism down to a moderate roar today.
jcricket
Too free-form for me there. I’ll stick to briefs. Gotta keep the junk under control down there. Plus it means your pants last that much longer with the layer of clothing between your swamp crotch and them.
This is a result of negligence/laziness (simply failing to plan), deliberate voter suppression techniques by the GOP and the complexity of actually training volunteers/getting machines certified/etc (the average poll worker is 72!).
The answer is – no more polls. Everyone votes by mail. Provisional ballots issued at county offices for the few who register within a month from the election.
Problems all solved, almost no problems created (and they are small if there even are any).
RoonieRoo
Voted in early voting because we remembered the longish line for the primary voting in our very, very small little town in Texas. I’m just enjoying the day and the hubby is picking up some champagne for tonight. We’ll be celebrating President Obama.
Or if the unbelievable happens then we’ll just be getting drunk.
tim serbo
voting report from upstate manhattan: i arrived at PS 187 in washington heights at 6:20 to find about 200 people already lined up on the sidewalk outside the school. mostly couples on the way to work, everyone studying their new york times or chatting quietly. parents of kids from the school walked up and down the line, hawking brownies and donuts to raise money for school activities. i sprung for a brownie. little discussion of the contest itself, though i did chat with the woman behind me about GOP voter intimidation tactics. a little kid, asked by a grownup about her electoral preference, hollered "Rock Obama," which drew a big laugh. despite the lines, i was only the 25th voter in my electoral district (76). breezed through sign-in, voted for BHO on the Working Families ticket (the only way a new yorker’s vote counts for anything), withheld my vote from charlie rangel, and walked out feeling better about my vote than i ever had before. saw my friend steve waiting in line (which by now stretched around the corner), gave him a big wave, said "it’s a great day for america." which it is. total time: one hour.
Shey
Voted! I was voter 57, short wait lines, friendly people. Good times. Maybe this can atone for voting for Bush four years ago.
ksmiami
Aargh – I hate getting through airports (esp. Reagan) with my technology and kids in tow. One day I am just going to become so frustrated that I will strip naked passing through security. Don’t worry I will make it into a youtube video :)
kay
I’m an appointed poll watcher in rural Ohio. Ordinarily, I’m a poll worker.
I’m "roving" because we only have two poll watchers for the whole county.
Not good, so far. I’m frustrated with the poll workers.
They don’t understand the ID requirements and they’re shunting all and sundry to provisional ballots. I’m calling the Bd of Elections and reporting this, and have now done so outside all three precincts I visited.
I knew it was bad, from my experience as a poll worker. I didn’t know it was this bad.
If Republicans insist on initiating elaborate ID rules, can they at least LEARN THEM? Can they APPLY THEM PROPERLY and UNIFORMLY?
I’m going back out. Don’t accept a provisional ballot until you find one person who knows what the hell they’re talking about.
Stand there until you get your questions answered. Don’t capitulate at the first "no". Chances are, the poll worker is wrong.
If it’s close in Ohio, expect litigation.
Litlebritdifrnt
Interesting just got a return call from someone that one of the volunteers had called telling us all to "pray because god will be on the right side" or something anyhoo, she then said go look up Judges Chapter 5 verse 12 so I did and here is what it says:
"Awake, awake, utter a song: Arise, Barak, and lead away your captives"
I thought that was cool so I thought I would pass it along.
Svensker
Last time I did that, it was the passports and tickets. Double d’oh.
We live in an incredibly red pocket in the suburbs of northern New Jersey. I am happy to report that there was absolutely no line to vote. Heh.
Tsulagi
That’s the way I go. Gives you more incentive to be careful wiping your ass.
Sorry, mom.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
"I didn’t vote for Obama today."
jcricket
Uh, no. SASQ.
It’s part of their strategy.
Solutions: Everyone votes by mail. Statewide registration databases that are regularly audited according to the state’s rules. Strict limits on mass registration challenges. Wider and more open registration opportunities (any time you interact with a government agency). Automatic felon re-enfranchisement after their incarceration is complete. Provisional ballot pickup if you moved to a county too late to sign up for voting by mailing in advance. Centralized and secure vote counting facilities (no more than one per county). Federal regulations regarding vote tabulating machinery and security.
jeffreyw
Back from voting. Nice day for it here in southern Illinois. My polling place is a small one room one time church now township meeting hall. The ladies inside were chipper and pleased that the voting was heavy for the time of day-I was number 95 or so. Not sure how many voters are registered to vote here, but the number on my voting receipt is 301, so I put the total at something like 320.
Chatzy sucks.
Just Some Fuckhead
Hopefully those captives include some of McCain’s fellow prisoners.
CIRCVS MAXIMVS MMVIII
@Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse:
Dammit, you made me cry!
That was beautiful. Thank you. ;)
Eural Joiner
Just back from Columbia, South Carolina voting – my district always leans (heavily) democratic for whatever good that does us (zilch) on the presidential scene.
Usual voting time: 5 minutes (mostly parking and walking in!)
Today: 3 hours! We got there at 6:50 AM and there were already over 1000 in line in front of us! It was crazy. But cool.
Especially heavy AA turn-out so if that holds for the rest of the state we may see a much closer run than expected here.
Tymannosourus
@TheFountainHead:
There are 19 year olds that can still be grounded?
Garrigus Carraig
Voted in the County of Kings. Took an hour. No one in my district has a job, apparently.
Walker
@Tymannosourus:
If he is still at home, they can do anything they want to him. And if he doesn’t like it, he can be evicted.
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
Walker
Granted, I grew up in NC, not SC. But there is no way on earth you can convince me the SC would ever go for the Democrat. Georgia and NC, I would believe, given the out-of-state influx over the years. But not the home of Myrtle Beach.
Punchy
I hate those "I didn’t vote for (whomever)" stories. Cuz the person ALWAYS really has voted FOR the person, just in some cryptic way. Like they’re playin me as a chump.
TheFountainHead
Word.
So your offspring pressed the button, but you trained the damn thing to press the damn button. In a sense, you not only voted for the guy, you did so in an unnecessarily elaborate manner.
But I guess the sentiment is nice, or whatever…
Just Some Fuckhead
It was only beautiful if you don’t have kids or weren’t there. Little bastard was prolly pestering him senseless to "vote" (play with the machine).
Brick Oven Bill
Enough with the dog pictures. They defile this fine web site.
passerby
Good morning all juicers,
FYI: For those like me who don’t subscribe to cable TV, MSNBC is live streaming today. CNN always offers the stream but, for some reason it’s jumpy on my pc, so I’m happy to have MSNBC.
Was just barely able to sit thru Joe Scarb and Mika (?) [ is she always that smug? ] and I was reminded why I don’t watch TV (except during football season).
Does Champagne go with popcorn? I stocked up on kleenex because, which ever way it turns out, I’ll be using it later.
I voted on the 18th. C’mon everyone, let’s take our place in the March of History. VOTE.
Comrade Stuck
Good luck at the polls. And everyone remember to vote early and OFTEN. Well, not really, but saying it drives the wingnuts crazy.
BWAA HA HA HA!
*Teh Assrocket is seeing visions of phantom black hordes swamping the polls with phony votes to steal the election for Obama. Of course, the party of purity only wants to question every dem voter, just to make sure they are good Americans, that have crossed all their B’s, and are willing to stand in line till Wednesday.
Krista
What, no love for the boxer briefs and the lovely things they do for a man’s butt? Bah.
WRT travelling, I’ve gotten pretty good at travelling light over the years. I did a two-week trip in Europe with just my purse and a carry-on bag. And when we went to New York for a week (to get married), we shared one medium-sized suitcase, and had our wedding finery in a garment bag.
The secret is to stick to one base colour. Black is best. Then, bring only other neutrals: charcoal, camel, and jeans. That way everything goes with everything else, and you only need to bring two pairs of shoes: one for walking around and one for dress. Ladies, if you then want to inject some colour, just bring a few scarves or some snazzy costume jewelry. And roll your clothes, don’t fold them.
Oh, and I’m going to be presumptious and will speak on behalf of most of my country: thank you for voting for Obama and what will hopefully be a more peaceful world.
Comrade Kevin
@Brick Oven Bill:
You defile this website.
Krista
Also.
Comrade Stuck
Why do you hate Amerika BOB?
passerby
@Krista
I caught that too, also.
Which makes Palin absolutely right, at least about one thing.
Can’t help but, wonder who all the GOP pundits are actually voting for. Hell, I can even imagine John McCain voting for Obama (in his mavericky type of way) : D
Bill H
Yes.
greynoldsct00
@Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon):
NOW we’ve bottomed out
Jeff
Funny how that right does not extend to a woman’s body or gay sex between consenting adults.
greynoldsct00
@Jeff:
Wingnuts only care about their own privacy
Delia
Voted two weeks ago. The goopers have not figured out how co-opt Oregon’s system yet.
More dog and cat pix, please. Less Brick Oven Bill.
Comrade Tax Analyst
I read that piece an hour or two ago. Wonderful stuff. Recommended Election Day Reading.
Comrade grumpy realist
John, make up an Absolutely Useful kit (toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, whatever) that contains all the stuff you would really really like to have, then keep it just for traveling and grab it some time during your packing.
Much easier than wondering "did I remember to pack….?"
(Getting spare chargers, cords and alarm clocks and making up an Absolutely Essential electronics kit isn’t a bad idea either.)
(I travel on the "as long as you have cash, passport, and your ticket, everything else can be purchased" theory. Much peace of mind.)