Sunday Ketchup for Lunch

Ah, I've been away from computer land -- the move, the new house, and prepping our current home for market has been all-consuming, with the usual weekly workload (prepping today for this week's CCS classes, freelancing, etc.) and our stealing one movie night just to get away (Stephen Frears' The Queen, which was excellent).

The torment of dial-up-only access will soon end, as our new Windsor home offers a choice of three possible high-speed providers, but that's still at least a month and a half away... though there's light at the tunnel's end on that matter, at last.

Anyhoot, a few ketchup items I meant to post earlier this week.

* Yep, election day came and went, and we all woke up Wednesday morning (and especially Thursday, once the Democrats had secured a majority in the Senate, too) to a somewhat new reality. Let's see, now, what happens. I'm cynical per usual about the President's claims to bipartisan compromise and partnership (what's he pushing in this final stretch of the Republican-dominated sessions? John Bolton's official installation at the UN -- a recess move Bush made when that was the only opening he saw to putting Bolton at the United Nations -- and his push for fucking tax cuts for the wealthy being made permanent -- do your worst, Fearless Leader!), but hey, we'll see. The Democrats got their votes of confidence from the voting public; let's see if they can do something positive in the next two years. It was heartening event, the first in over a decade.

In VT, our Republican Governor James Douglas was reelected (like NH, VT govs only enjoy two-year terms of office), but he lost veto power with the Democratic sweep in every other key niche of power -- so, again, some ground gained there, too.

* The biggest charge for me on election night was seeing a number of CCS students so passionately engaged with the process that they were still up working until almost 2 AM, habitually checking the election news (via internet news) and reporting to one another and yours truly every time there was something to latch onto. A good number of CCSers voted, though I've heard a number of tales of voter troubles here in VT -- the majority tied to the VT Department of Motor Vehicles failing to follow through on the tie-in of state driver's license renewal & voter registration, which reportedly compromised a number of folks being able to vote at all (with one amigo reporting two attempts, neither yielding results).

More later today -- have a great Sunday --