what are you doing right now?

[minnesotapaintlady]

Carrot and I went to the zoo today and took a couple of family members along as our free guests.  Tomorrow I think my aunt and I are going to try early voting. Neither one of us have ever done it before, so not certain how it all works. I thought you needed to have an absentee ballot ahead of time, but nothing she read indicated that.  We'll see.  We both want to just get it done with in case something happens that we can't on Tuesday.

[raeoflyte]

Shouldn't part of drivers Ed be for the parents who are doing the bulk of the driving hours with newly minted permitted drivers - especially since it's also the kids very spins behind the wheel? What makes knowing how to drive personally the same as being good at teaching someone else?

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Took my rings in to be resized and repaired.

They are going to lower the setting of my diamond on my engagement ring so it quits banging into stuff and is more secure.

They got the rubies bent back into shape on my grandma's ring and will replace the one that fell out.

$450 for my wedding bands and $297 for grandma's ring.

Money well spent IMO. I'm very attached to these and I feel naked without them.

Should be ready in a week.

[taz157]

Nov 2, 2024 17:05:09 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Carrot and I went to the zoo today and took a couple of family members along as our free guests.  Tomorrow I think my aunt and I are going to try early voting. Neither one of us have ever done it before, so not certain how it all works. I thought you needed to have an absentee ballot ahead of time, but nothing she read indicated that.  We'll see.  We both want to just get it done with in case something happens that we can't on Tuesday.

Early voting in my county was October 24-31. There were 3 places we could go. I went on my way home from work on the 30th while DH went on the 31st. For both of us, it was easy to get in and vote. Hardly any lines even though plenty of people there. If we went to the main election place for our county, it tended to have more people. Also, we didn’t need an absentee ballot for either of us. We just needed to provide our name, confirm our address and give the month and day of date of birth.

[taz157]

Nov 2, 2024 17:06:00 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Took my rings in to be resized and repaired.

They are going to lower the setting of my diamond on my engagement ring so it quits banging into stuff and is more secure.

They got the rubies bent back into shape on my grandma's ring and will replace the one that fell out.

$450 for my wedding bands and $297 for grandma's ring.

Money well spent IMO. I'm very attached to these and I feel naked without them.

Should be ready in a week.

With both DDs, I could wear my engagement or wedding ring for the last month/weeks of pregnancy due to fingers swelling. I hated taking them off, but I would have been devastated if they were cut off. I felt so much better when I could put them on!

[daisylu]

Started spaghetti sauce 3 hours ago. We were going to catch up on Found tonight.  FIL shot a deer so DH ran off to help him work it up an hour ago (it isnext door). He'll show up in an hour or so after many beers. I'm going to eat a delicious meal (French bread in the oven) and maybe take a nap. 

[soupandstew]

Nov 2, 2024 17:05:09 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Carrot and I went to the zoo today and took a couple of family members along as our free guests.  Tomorrow I think my aunt and I are going to try early voting. Neither one of us have ever done it before, so not certain how it all works. I thought you needed to have an absentee ballot ahead of time, but nothing she read indicated that.  We'll see.  We both want to just get it done with in case something happens that we can't on Tuesday.

From what I see online, you and your aunt are good to go, no absentee required.  These are the hours I found

Sunday, November 3 -- 9 am to 3 pm

Monday, November 4 -- until 5 pm



Read More: Everything You Need To Know To Vote In Minnesota: Early Voting, Deadlines & More | wjon.com/vote-early-in-minnesota-election/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

[Pink Cashmere]

Nov 2, 2024 15:19:46 GMT -5 empress of self-improvement said:

I voted last weekend. In and out. Which was great because my usual polling place is a tiny little early childhood education building with shit for parking. Decided that was as good a reason to do it early. Plus it's not like I'm going to change my mind on who I'm voting for.

Today was supposed to be a do nothing day for me as well. Then I decided to mow/mulch my leaves. Well, what made it to the ground so far anyway. Plus I needed to uncover the drain in the front rain garden. Cleaning it in cold rain absolutely sucks. I hate trees. In particular I hate my neighbor's trees that she's too cheap to pay to have trimmed. I'm hoping an ice storm takes them out one of these years. Preferably landing on her house, not mine. I hate leaves and fucking pine cones

Leaves, ugh! We only have one tree, and as soon as I sweep the leaves from that tree off the deck, a thousand more fall on the deck.

Our neighbors have a lot of trees. There are a gazillion huge trees in my neighborhood, because it use to be woods and they didn’t cut down all the trees when they started building houses here, which I think is good. Well, at least as long as the trees aren’t on MY property lol. Some properties, you can just barely see the house from the street, because there are so many trees in their front yard. 

Anyway, my closest neighbors’ dozen or so trees each, mean that our front yard gets blanketed with leaves during fall. Our neighborhood association’s rules require that we clean up the leaves from our yards, but Mister only did that the first year we were here. I don’t care enough to do it myself, so if the neighborhood association ever says anything, Mister will have to deal with that himself.

It does look neater for the leaves to be removed, and I’m pretty sure it helps with leaves not clogging up drainage systems, but in my uneducated opinion, the leaves falling off of the trees is an instance of Mother Nature doing her thing, and leaves covering the ground during winter serves a purpose for insects (and I admit that, because even though I hate bugs, I have to acknowledge that they serve an importance purpose IRT me being able to eat) and other creatures, and they help replenish the soil as they break down, so that things can grow come spring, even if they aren’t always the things we want to grow. 

Even at my other house, I didn’t rake up all the leaves in my yard that fell from my neighbors’ trees. But once I learned a little about trying to grow my own vegetables over the last few years, I really started understanding a little about how Mother Nature really works in some ways and how it’s often best to not interfere just because we can. 

[saveinla]

We dropped off our ballots at the library last week.
I got a text that my ballot has been received and counted.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Nov 2, 2024 16:59:54 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Nov 2, 2024 16:50:32 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

TD and I just dropped our ballots in the box today.  That’s done until the next election.  

I kinda miss going to the polling place, but this is definitely much easier.  

The reason we didn't mind going to the polling place is because we are in a state that wants all of its citizens to vote and makes it easy for them.  Convenient, numerous, well-staffed polling places with no lines made things a lot better than many states have it.  Still, mail-only is not only much easier as you said, but cheaper, more convenient, and encourages much greater participation. 

Interesting, 8 states have mail in voting but the state with the highest voter turnout is MN (no mail in voting).  CO, WA, OR and VT has voter turnout over 73%.  CA, NE and UT has turnout over 66%.  Only HI is at the low end with 58% turnout.  

[Pink Cashmere]

I just saw from a notification from our cameras that the black cat that I’ve only ever seen on the cameras, is still alive and well, and lounging in our driveway right now.

A year or so ago, I saw a black cat on the big street that runs through my neighborhood, dead on the street, I ASSume from being run over by a car. I don’t like to see that with any animal, but my first thought was that maybe it was the black cat I’d been seeing in our cameras and even though I’ve never seen the cat IRL, it made me even sadder thinking it may have been him/her. 

That is not the only cat we have seen in the cameras, there is a black and white one that I’ve actually seen in person a few times. And a few months ago, I saw a cat in the driveway while I was sitting in the garage with the door up. I don’t even remember what that one looked like, but it didn't seem to really be afraid of me, even though it wouldn’t get close to me or let me get too close to it. The 2 or 3 times I saw it, when it saw me, it went and laid under Mister’s Lincoln in the driveway. We could still clearly see each other, but it had plenty of time to run if I walked toward it, which I never did. I dint know much about things like that, but I think that if it was really afraid of me, it would have chosen a better hiding spot, even farther away from me than that.

[jerseygirl]

Voted by absentee ballot. Looked carefully but there wasn’t a place to put date. Instructions said to sign the same as on voter roll ( at ballot center). Couldn’t remember if I used middle initial? But envelope had our middle initials so signed with initial . Hoping it is ok
In 2020 NJ mailed ballots to all on voter rolls and no ballot places opened. So second time
Just thinking my vote really isn’t secret when voting by mail
Hoping voting goes more smoothly this year than 2020 when there was the confusion of the pandemic. And hoping results are known quickly
Then it will be over along with all the ads texts emails etc etc etc UGH

[tallguy]

Nov 2, 2024 20:36:21 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Voted by absentee ballot. Looked carefully but there wasn’t a place to put date. Instructions said to sign the same as on voter roll ( at ballot center). Couldn’t remember if I used middle initial? But envelope had our middle initials so signed with initial . Hoping it is ok
In 2020 NJ mailed ballots to all on voter rolls and no ballot places opened. So second time
Just thinking my vote really isn’t secret when voting by mail
Hoping voting goes more smoothly this year than 2020 when there was the confusion of the pandemic. And hoping results are known quickly
Then it will be over along with all the ads texts emails etc etc etc UGH

It should be.  The signature is to verify that you are a registered voter.  That envelope is separated from the ballot before it is tabulated.  From the King County procedures:

Opening and inspecting ballots

Working with a batch of ballots, we first remove all the security envelopes from the return envelopes. This is the point where we separate the identity of the voter from the ballot inside the envelope to ensure your votes remain private. We then remove all ballots from their security envelopes. Finally, we inspect the ballot to make sure they can be properly read by our scanning equipment. We send ballots that need more review to another workgroup to be scanned.

link

I would be shocked if other jurisdictions do things differently.  Or at least Democratic-run jurisdictions.   

[daisylu]

Well tonight took a hard turn.  Migraine came on out of nowhere as soon as I sat down to eat @7pm. I usually have warning signs. Not today. Took some meds and climbed until bed with ice mask on my head. Better now but wide awake from the caffeine in the meds. So I'm up drinking some Sleepytime tea at almost 1AM.

[toomuchreality]

Nov 2, 2024 23:43:11 GMT -5 daisylu said:

Well tonight took a hard turn.  Migraine came on out of nowhere as soon as I sat down to eat @7pm. I usually have warning signs. Not today. Took some meds and climbed until bed with ice mask on my head. Better now but wide awake from the caffeine in the meds. So I'm up drinking some Sleepytime tea at almost 1AM.

UGH. I hope you get some rest.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

It isn’t funny to see 1:30 am twice in the same morning. 

[toomuchreality]

Nov 3, 2024 1:32:32 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

It isn’t funny to see 1:30 am twice in the same morning. 

I didn't particularly like seeing it the first time. Now I get to do it again.

[NastyWoman]

And I have to wait another 15 minutes to see it for the first time. I intend to miss the rerun.

[finnime]

Good morning, you beautiful albeit invisible people of Y Ma'am. Welcome to Sunday. I hope your day is one that you'll look back on and say, that was great! And that you enjoy a Sunday sundae.

This is a very quick pist before I run to the beach with Franklin the Dog and then go back to the Festival. I'll try to post a picture later today but I may not be able to.

Have an excellent day.

[toomuchreality]

I have one clock that sets itself, so automatically changes, to match the time, according to NIST. I love it.

Yes, I lived all my life without it, just fine. I had no idea how much I'd like having it, when I bought it, 20(?)yrs ago.

[andi9899]

Nov 2, 2024 12:15:51 GMT -5 toomuchreality said:

Nov 2, 2024 11:10:29 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

If you have leftover Reeses PB cups I'll join in! Those are my weakness!

I have a bowl full of Reese's PB cups, I've been trying to get rid of.
Since my heart attacks, my desire for sweet things has diminished, significantly. I have no idea why.

I don't really eat sweets either. I will make an exception for those PB cups any day of the week though.

[andi9899]

Nov 2, 2024 15:02:55 GMT -5 azucena said:

2016 was the first time I'd ever had to wait in line. Early voting was new for us in 2020, I know I week early and maybe waited an hour.

Sure hoping turnout is a sign towards progress but will be tough to overcome red state here in MO.

Abortion ban was also on the ballet. Teens schooled DH on it this week. Apparently part of the rationale for MO to ban abortion is that pregnancies for 13-17 year old teens is significantly down the last few years which has then been interpreted to mean that we will run out of labor. Picture my head spinning at teen pregnancy decrease being a BAD thing 😞

When I was looking for houses I was tempted to move to MO just to vote against Josh Hawley. Some friends of mine have done it for me.

[andi9899]

Nov 2, 2024 17:05:09 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Carrot and I went to the zoo today and took a couple of family members along as our free guests.  Tomorrow I think my aunt and I are going to try early voting. Neither one of us have ever done it before, so not certain how it all works. I thought you needed to have an absentee ballot ahead of time, but nothing she read indicated that.  We'll see.  We both want to just get it done with in case something happens that we can't on Tuesday.

I don't know about there, but here it works the same way, it's just on a different day.

[busymom]

Nov 2, 2024 19:42:51 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Nov 2, 2024 16:59:54 GMT -5 tallguy said:

The reason we didn't mind going to the polling place is because we are in a state that wants all of its citizens to vote and makes it easy for them.  Convenient, numerous, well-staffed polling places with no lines made things a lot better than many states have it.  Still, mail-only is not only much easier as you said, but cheaper, more convenient, and encourages much greater participation. 

Interesting, 8 states have mail in voting but the state with the highest voter turnout is MN (no mail in voting).  CO, WA, OR and VT has voter turnout over 73%.  CA, NE and UT has turnout over 66%.  Only HI is at the low end with 58% turnout.  

      Actually, MN has 3 options to vote now.  You can request a ballot to mail in, you can vote early in person, or you can vote on election day.  

[Opti]

I'll end up voting in person on election day as the early in person voting was only in four locations in my county. My polling place is within walking distance which is a bonus.

[raeoflyte]

Colorado makes voting so easy. Everyone gets a mail in ballot that you can mail in or drop off at a polling center. Then when I looked for early voting places I have several options.

I was shocked to realize not all states do this. The denver/Boulder area are blue but the rest of the state is red - so I'd say we want everyone to vote.

[finnime]

I'm very happy that everyone is voting.

[chiver78]

today's about to get spicy. I wish my front windows was open, so i could eavesdrop haha. I'm standing at my kitchen "desk" to read the Sunday paper online since I never got a paper copy. a cruiser pulled into the driveway across the street, and the officer stepped out to check out the extra SUV in the driveway. he peeked in the windows and took note of the license, which he ran through the laptop inside his cruiser. he then went up to knock on the front door, and after waiting awhile for no answer, called in something on his radio. a 2nd cruiser just pulled up, and it looks like an officer I've seen over there before. he's still talking to my neighbor and her kid. I have to wonder if the kid may be on probation of some sort after whatever all went down the day I had to call the police last summer ('23) when some crazy woman was screaming and banging on the front door when I knew the little sister was home alone.

[jerseygirl]

Nov 3, 2024 7:51:39 GMT -5 busymom said:

Nov 2, 2024 19:42:51 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Interesting, 8 states have mail in voting but the state with the highest voter turnout is MN (no mail in voting).  CO, WA, OR and VT has voter turnout over 73%.  CA, NE and UT has turnout over 66%.  Only HI is at the low end with 58% turnout.  

      Actually, MN has 3 options to vote now.  You can request a ballot to mail in, you can vote early in person, or you can vote on election day.  

Aren’t 3 options available now in every state? Absentee (mail) ballots have been common for a long time. It’s early in person that is ‘new’

[giramomma]

I'm glad I votes last.week monday. Early voting had a two hour wait in libraries by last.week Wednesday. 

I won't get political because it doesn't matter but I think folks are preparing for violence no matter what the outcome is. And.that does freak me out. 

I wouldn't let dd1 drive for Halloween. I know she was mad. But she was going a 5 minute drive from where many of the bars are, she hasn't driven in the dark and kids are unpredictable. 

Given the up tick we've had in gun violence and literally having a high speed chase in almost.our  back yard. I didn't want her out.

That's how I'm feeling about next week. I think many arw.