The kids have been making crazy creations outside today--perfect day out, about 70 degrees.

So I have cast my vote. And it wasn't easy. After four years of easy-peasy electronic voting (which no doubt cost a fortune), this is what I encountered at an early voting site:

1. Waited an hour and forty minutes in line. Got to the door and found out that at least 1/3 of the kiosks were empty. The heck?
2. Oh. The check-in process is hideous...they verbally verify my address, I swipe my driver's license, and sign (three stations doing this).
3. The print, just for me, four pages' worth of ballots on two, double-sided, cardstock sheets. On a very slow, yet expensive-looking (remember, we pay high business, personal, and property taxes, and got nailed with business changes, too) stand-up copiers.
4. What used to require maybe five volunteers now takes about 12. Seriously, because...
5. Someone takes my BLANK ballot, carefully places it in a folder marked "PRIVACY" (why not Private?), walks it to me.
6. I go to one of the many open stations and fill in my ballot with a felt-tip pen, provided.
7. I walk it over to the expensive-looking scanner stations. More volunteers.
8. I do not care if people see my vote, but they did go out of their way to make it private, and I think we have a right to it, correct? So imagine my surprise at the irony...
9. At the scanning station, several voters are piled up, waiting to scan. The Privacy folders are discarded, and everyone gawks at each other's ballots as they feed into the machine. Perhaps the machines were set up backwards.
10. Why did we go all out to cover up the blank ballots, then show each other the completed ones? Why didn't they do time studies in advance so the number of check-in stations and kiosks matched? How much does this cost?

So on our way in, a little girl ran away from her mom, and the volunteer at the door said, "Honey, are you registered to vote?" And I said, "Maybe in Ohio." Only Christy and I found this funny, which made it even funnier.

On my glorious way out of the voting disaster, I passed an Obama supporter who was holding a sign that read "Small Businesses for Obama." Well, I have long been disappointed in the RNC's marketing and education--small businesses bring jobs to the country, and lowering (read: not raising) their taxes will increase worker pay, increase the number of jobs, prevent overseas outsourcing, and keep the business owners from passing the costs on to the employees.

So I wondered why small businesses would support Obama, and I asked her. The woman got completely defensive and started yelling, "Because I LOOOOOOOVE him!!" and waving her sign in my face. She was waving her arms, too, and got the other supporters involved.

I took a look at my sister and we hightailed it to the car. There is no doubt she was just handed a sign and has no clue about small businesses at all, but this is an angry election. So many people have taken the candidates' platforms personally that it won't be over on Tuesday night.

And check out the little worker here washing his car. First there was Joe the Plumber. Now Reagan the Detailer?

And welcome to the 30's! This picture is from Christmas 2005 and was sadly the most recent I had of us together. It was Christmas Eve and the kids were shot out. You'll notice how much we look alike (not) and how she got the thin genes in the family. Jerk.

We really went wild for her birthday and voted together. The line was so long that it made a maze in the library parking lot, they had book carts out for people to Read. In. Line. And they kept bringing out water. There was a Captain O' the Line who really took his job seriously. One man tried to rest for a while (we're talking a two-hour tour here) by sitting on a parking curb. The Captain came out and made him get up. Seriously? The guy nearly went ballistic. There was apparently child care available, too, as the family in front of us had a screamer, and an Obama volunteer came and offered to take the child while they voted. The woman was obviously trying to be helpful, but...um, creepy. Our favorite part of the day was when a fellow line victim (male) showed up in a green shirt, green bike shorts (different green), green (again, different) socks, and some sort of black baby-doll shoes. With the green socks peeking out the top.

It was fun to hang out for a bit, even in a long line. And since we are 9+ years apart in age, this is the last time I will mention hers. Happy Birthday!

After all the Disney birthday excitement, we decided to have a low-key time on the day of the big 5. The kids and I tooled around Hyde Park, checked out the Pumpkin Patch (totally boring...we need to find one with a hay ride and donuts, for sure). Then I got my brain together, bribed them with chocolate to get a pumpkin patch picture, and found a frozen yogurt shop. We had a blast. Even Camden cleaned up his own cup.

Potter and Gramma came over later and we had a fun pizza and cake party. I can't believe he is FIVE!!!

Riley turned five (!) on Tuesday, but Travis was going to be away (#(*)@) so we headed over to the MK for a little family celebration. And it was the BEST, of course! The birthday dinner above was at Tony's on Main Street--a surprisingly good Italian restaurant with a great view. He obviously liked his cake (and just as much a couple days later when we took the leftovers outside...practically a procession just to sit down for this).

It turned out to be a fantastic idea. It wasn't easy getting there, but you can't help but have fun and talk about work a little less while you're there. I still can't believe Riley is old and bold enough for such things as Space Mountain! We pretty much hung out in Tomorrowland.

Reagan announced that we'll be coming back next week for HIS birthday!

This is the view from my desk.

I finally repaired the train table, so they are actually wearing the conductor hats, then coming to me and saying, "Mommy, take a picture." Each kid comes with his very own cheese smile.

The closing week was horrible (I may have mentioned that) and I worked all week, so on Friday I promised the kids I wouldn't work. We went to International, got suicide cuts (great hair place, but why do they do that?), and then had a blast at the kid play area. Cam didn't have a Build-a-Bear of his own yet, so we all worked together to make him one. It was a blast. The bear got a super-preppy outfit, and Riley kind of took ownership of it (shocking).

It appears that the camera got stuck on the wrong setting somewhere between the play area and Build-a-Bear, because everything came out really yellow.

So then I got really sick and we had to race home. I don't have the stomach for this merger stuff. Saturday night we managed to haul ourselves to Mark's 40th birthday party on the beach. The McFall/Gleason family is a lot of fun, and I forget how great the beach is. Morgan and Katie played with the Rs,Tal played with Michael, and I got to sit (Cam was being extremely needy) and hang out like a human. It was fun.

I can't believe it is October. The weather here is amazing--some days it is only 80 degrees. The humidity has dropped (read: must fill the Money Pit pool almost daily) and it is even cool in the mornings and evenings. Summer really flew by this year.

Most of you know that MediNotes was purchased by Eclipsys. What a crazy few weeks it has been!  Here are some highlights:

1. We are ecstatic about the transaction and positive about Clinician's future/legacy. After months of absolutely no marketing, we can't wait to see what this company is going to do.
2. Our dear Clinician is now Eclipsys PeakPractice. We know, we know. PP. We are waiting for the story on this. But we hear it won't be orange.
3. Travis has been gone non-stop for months, and I've been doing relaxing things like negotiating contracts with his new boss (who must think I am a raving lunatic).
4. Some horrible things happened during the merger...I threw up for days. It turned out pretty okay, and Bond Medical ended up with a great team of Clinician (um, PP?) experts. It's going to be great.
5. Travis is helping me work smarter...so I can work less hours per day and have a more normal life. Really! He has been tons more organized, too!

So the month kicks off our family's big holiday insanity--the birthdays start 10/21 and don't really stop. The election has provided quite a bit of fringe drama for the days when we didn't have enough of our own. My dad told Tal that this is a very scary time of year...elections are coming!