This is it folks. I hope everyone gets out and votes today (unless you’re voting for ____, then feel free not to bother – don’t want to offend anyone, so I’ll just leave the name blank). Ron and I did the dutiful expat thing and mailed in our absentee ballots a few weeks ago. We both did have to do some research on the non-presidential items that were up for consideration in Maryland. One of the questions was worded poorly, so after voting then discussing it with Ron, I realized that I voted opposite of what I’d intended. Oh well, they really should write these legal questions for a much lower denominator (namely me). I think I at least managed to vote for my presidential choice.
Thanks to Allison and Don (Ron’s sister and brother-in-law) allowing us to share their Direct TV through some miracle of computery things (Slingbox on their end, a Mac Mini on ours), we have been able to catch a lot of the debates and coverage. It’s covered here on our local satellite TV, but the added benefit of the Slingbox is that we can record and watch it whenever. So along with the debates and the complete coverage on “Saturday Night Live” we feel fairly well-informed.
So, aside from counting down this election with the rest of the world, Ron and I are doing well. Ron’s getting ready for the wrap up of his database course in a month, including lab work and a research paper, plus the final. I’m still doing my writings and walk-abouts. Did some wandering with a friend yesterday and managed to get more lost than I ever have before. But the end result was we made it out fine with no incidents (despite being lost in a neighborhood with narrow streets, an over-abundance of men, an adorable stray brown sheep and three maps, all of which left this neighborhood area blank). We had a great lunch in the Naguib Mahfouz Café in the Khan and we showed each other some shops that we’d found separately. I bought a few trinkets here and there until I reached my limit of being vocally barraged and practically ran out to the main street to catch a cab home.
(Typical Khan shop -- patience is key.)