Packard

I can't remember if I linked to this previously, but compelling images of Packard.

It's Okay

To have an afternoon snack. You are hungry!
To have two mini meals.
To drink five cups of water.
To walk home.
To read open documents as read onlys.
To swear no more wine and then drink some the next night.
To just give up at 4:45 pm on a Friday afternoon after little sleep and a 7am flight (even if it was central time).

Birmingham

Another quick trip. I stayed here. We ate here.

Scallops were disappointing.  The sorbet was fantastic, as was the company.

A Little Niece (or Nephew)!

So Joey is going to be a big brother next year! SOOO excited.  In an otherwise crappy day full of craptastic work stuff, this is good news.  He is going to be the best big brother, and I am so excited to have another little niece or nephew to spoil

Bye Wade Phillips

After another embarrassing loss, Wade Phillips is a former Cowboys coach. 

Though there seems to be confusion and disorganization around this. But still, for many Cowboys fans, and one in particular, this is a happy day in Dallas.

Though I think the most celebrating firing ever was the Fire Millen movement.

Name change

So for the third time, I have a new name: 8 Mile Diaries. I want this to be a journal, a diary, like the one I kept for so many years. But I don't always want it to be an intimate recollection of my daily life. Some things are personally private, and others are outrageously public, when I have something to say or to remember or refresh.

So 8 Mile Diaries it is. And maybe I'll revamp this project or do something else.  But no one needs to know.

Is it 6 yet? Or event 5?

Sparky, RIP

And today Sparky Anderson passed away. RIP.

Detroit lost Ernie Harwell, and now Sparky. Two legends in Michigan, and two men that many people have such fond childhood memories of.

Sparky

First Ernie Harwell was sick and passed away, now we hear Sparky Anderson is in hospice care related to complications from dementia.

Prayers for the family.  1984 is a special year for Tigers fans, and all Detroiters, and the fact that it was 26 years ago does not lessen the impact.  We remember it still, when the city was hurting, "Bless You Boys" was the anthem.  Lance Parris and Kirk Gibson and Jack Morris and Darrell Evans and Chet Lemon and Dan Petry and Tom Brookens and the the gang became the old Detroit World Series champion of my lifetime, and of now nearly two generations.  Sparky was their manager, but also their mentor and life coach.  So many prayers for his family.

1994

That fateful, turning point election of 1994 is in the news again, as pundits wonder if the Republicans will repeat the successes of that year.   Others are pointing out that the experts were wrong that year, forecasting far fewer seats than the Republicans ultimately gained.  Still others are concerned that 2011-12 could be as divided as 1995-96, with a government lock-out and an ultimate Clinton reelction.

But Obama is no Bill Clinton.  He's no Ronald Reagan, either.  He has squandered a great deal of goodwill in two short years, alongside his arrogant partner, Nancy Pelosi, and blandly pointless Harry Reid, who may suffer the same fate as Tom Foley did sixteen years ago.

I was eighteen in 1994, and it was my first election. I voted absentee. In an era before the Internet, I don't know how other than Newsweek and the Chicago Tribune I gained my knowledge of the world.  But I remember becoming engaged in the process that year, and it ultimately switched my major from Business to Political Science. I was a charter member of the newly formed CR club, and it was great to meet like-minded women.  Not all young college students are liberals.  In fact, I know now that many are far more conservatively active than I even was.

I remember driving to see Newt Gingrich in Indianapolis Senior Year, and I remember having about 50+ at my first CR meeting as president.  It was an exciting time that truly formed who I am politically.

So hopefully there will be cheery results yet again in 2010, and indeed it will be a good night.  A very good night.  2008 was a temporary aberration, and 2006 showed the hubris of arrogant Republicans. Hopefully they have learned their lessons in humility and can teach a thing or two to the displaced  Dems. And in particular, Obama.

Election Hype

Before tomorrow's results, here are a few things that will be remembered from the 2010 Midterm Elections:

• Christine O'Donnell upsetting Mike Castle, and her inane comments on everything from contraception to witchcraft.
• The tea party candidates, from Rand Paul to Sharon Angle and Joe Miller to of course, Christine O'Donnell.
• Primary upsets from Delaware to Utah to Alaska. And the third party challenges. Colorado governor.
• Charlie Crist's flip flopping.
• Ben Quayle.
• An interminably long campaign season, that really began with 2009's elections in NJ and VA and Scott Brown's election.
• Comparisons to 1994.
• Sarah Palin's endorsees.
• The emergence of Rubio, Rodriguez in NM, and hispanic/black Republicans.
• Poll after poll after poll...
• It'll be the last time before we'll start talking about the 2012 presidential election,which will begin in about 36 hours...
• Americans are just scared, right, Obama?