Election Fever and Other Things

Tomorrow sees the vote to determine who gets the hospital pass from George Bush (note, for those who are not familiar with this Rugby terminology it relates to getting passed the ball in a situation where there is no opportunity to escape a bone-crunching tackle - thus even though you now have the ball it would have been better if you didn't). With the US now > $10 trillion in debt and the US on the brink of a recession I'm almost wondering if the winning candidate will look back in a couple of years and wish that the other guy won.

I found out today that Best Buy's main competitor, Circuit City, is closing 150 of its 700 stores which is one of the first visible signs that the crisis in the financial sector is finally having an effect on consumer spending. We'll find out tomorrow who gets to try to sort out the mess, and it will be a big relief not to have to endure any more political radio ads for a while. You have to hear the ads to believe them really, its not politics as we know it in the UK that's for sure.

The other over the top thing here at this time of year is Halloween, which is almost the biggest festival of the year; odd for an allegedly Christian country. There is even a good number of people at our church who celebrate Halloween which I find hard to reconcile. Lots of political tie ins too this year, especially in Minnesota where the local Democrat is ex Saturday Night Comedian Al Franken and kids were dressing up as Al Frankenstein which I have to admit is pretty funny.

I heard that the UK nearly beat Minnesota to snow this year, we actually had the first snowfall on Oct 26th but the weekend just gone was about 23C which was just glorious. There is always something to do in the garden though and at this time of year it is certainly leaf raking.

You do get great colours just beforehand however

On a lighter topic Andy got me some tickets to see Yael Naim for our anniversary at a little venue in Minneapolis (probably seated no more than 300 people), definitely one of the best concerts I've ever seen and a super talented band. Her best known song is 'New Soul' definitely worth checking out and she also does a great Britney cover