Thanksgiving 2008 and Celebrity Sightings

I spent Thanksgiving at Mike and Maggie Schabel's house in Parma, OH.  We were joined by Bob, Kathleen, and Joe.  We ate most of the usual food associated with Thanksgiving.  During the festivities, we completed choosing names for the family gift exchange.  In addition, we called Aunt Rita.  She seems to be doing fine.  It was a nice and quiet affair.

In other news, Bob and I saw Sarah Vowell at the Cleveland Public Library Auditorium on November 16.  It was so crowded that we were standing in the lobby watching her on a television screen.  It wouldn't surprise me if her talk appeared on either local Public Access cable (Cleveland) or C-Span 2 (Not Available on Time Warner Basic cable locally).  She was quite amusing even when she was reading from her books.  I haven't read any of her books, but maybe I will someday.

Seeing the Love Chef on Live with Regis and Kelly this week, (The show title will be underlined when I use a different browser that supports underlining.  I am presently using Apple Safari.) I was reminded that I saw the Love Chef at Parmatown Mall approximately 15 years ago. I didn't talk to him, but I can say that I saw him in person!    

In closing, I hope that you all had a nice Thanksgiving!

The Election Went Smoother than Expected.

Bob and I went to vote at the Brooklyn Heights United Church of Christ on West Schaaf Road at Broadview Road in Cleveland just before 10:00 A.M. today. (The village of Brooklyn Heights is about a mile away down West Schaaf Road.)  There weren't too many campaigners outside the polling place.  In the hallway, a man asked us for our names.  After finding our names, he told us our precinct (We knew it, but the service was appreciated.).  Just inside the polling room, a lady asked us for our precinct.  She then pointed us to our table, which wasn't too hard to find.  After confirming our identification, we had to wait a few minutes for a voting booth.  I was offered a pen and clipboard, but Bob was able to use a booth.  I carefully double checked my ovals because the ballots were being placed into an optical scanner. After voting, I removed the ballot stubs and placed both ballots, one at a time, into the scanner.  Since the ballots didn't come out of the scanner, they were acceptable. (Bob and I expected the ballots to come out when the scanner was finished processing them.  I guess we were so used to handing our ballots to the poll workers.).  I then went home.  Including a five minute walk each way, the whole experience took us only 30-35 minutes.  Based on the long lines for early voting (Before Election Day, which was new to Ohio) and at other places nationwide today, we expected it to be more of an ordeal.  Even the self scanning went smoother than expected.  Other than the polling place and the ballots, voting was totally different this election.  Even the primary eight months ago didn't offer all these procedural changes.  This will be an election to remember.  This post will be continued at a later date.

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