Preparing to make history

I just got all fixed up for voting tomorrow, identifying the candidates who will be on my ballot in my wee little town. I had thought I'd probably get more information in the mail, like I did in the past in California, but all I got was from the GEO at University of Michigan.

It took a while to figure out who was running for congress and for the house in my town. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there is just a Republican on the ballot for state representative here.

Anyway, I'm ready. Now just nine more hours to wait. Hopefully the lines won't be too crazy first thing in the morning here. I'm inclined to agree with folks who are arguing that states that don't allow for early voting are effectively doing the same as charging a poll tax for people who want to vote in person, if you have to stand and wait for several hours to cast your vote.

Ah, a friend just sent helpful information -- there's a website that will show you your ballot ahead of time if you're a Michigan voter, and links to lots of information. It's PUBLIUS. I'll never get over the whole romanticization of ancient Graeco-Roman civilization as the original seat of democracy in light of its profound inequalities, but never mind the name. It's super useful.

I just love killing those animals.

"Yes, yes, I understand, we have the equivalent of Joe the Plumber in France, it's called, 'Marcel, the guy with bread under his armpit,' oui," says the Quebecois comedian Sarah Palin believes to be Nicholas Sarkozy.

Bubb Rubb and Lil Sis

You s'posed to be up cooking breakfast or something, by then, so that's like an alarm clock: woo WOO!

And the REMIX VERSION, hilarious but with some nudity involved, just as a warning.

It's coming . . .

So soon, so soon. Are you as nervous and excited and hopeful and distracted as I am?

Yes We Span campaign

Yay! My American expat friends in Hungary made Yahoo News.

I'm reading and thinking about families and domestic space in ancient cities. I started with Ancient Sippar (c.1750-1595 B.C.) in Babylonia, and now I'm reading about families in the height of ancient Rome (200 B.C.-A.D. 200). . . There's a reason I'm not an archaeologist, but I have to admit that some of this stuff is fascinating. Andrew Wallace-Hadrill's article on Domus and Insulae in Rome sent me to Google when I read the line that the Antiche Stanze exhibition was of an extensive area of housing that emerged in the late 1940s when the new metro station was being installed in front of Termini (Wallace-Hadrill 2003:10), and that it had been demolished and all that is left is the photographs and private notebooks of an archaeologist. And sure enough, there's an online Powerpoint presentation with a few photographs. . .I love the interwebs.

Fall pleasures

I think I'll be able to harvest my sweet potato plant pretty soon! I'm not sure what really to expect, since it's the first year I've grown sweet potatoes. But I love them, and I'm pretty excited.

The drive home from Ann Arbor is prettier every day. Despite the gray. I don't know if I'll ever quite get used to the breathtaking beauty of the autumn in the East, having grown up on the West coast. Or, for that matter, to the delicious smell of the air in the fall. It's . . .pregnant.