Yes We Can!

It is 11pm on Election night. I spent the day at precinct 927 in Denver, Colorado. This was a voting place in a Town-Home club house. Most of the 500 some odd voters had already voted either by mail-in-ballot or at Early Voting. We had 64 voters (one lady was 97!); 5 poll watchers including a former Colorado first lady, Dottie Lamb; several Denver Election workers; the city councilwoman who brought us sweet rolls; a couple of UCD students doing a survey; a couple of other young people troubleshooting the election and 6 poll workers. The Election Commission is paying us for our time (a little better than minimum wage) and even gave us lunch this time. I spent the last two weeks working at an early voting center. I am very tired because I traded shifts and worked a number of doubles so that I wouldn't go 'under hours' during these two weeks. But it was worth it. I like working during the elections, I have done it for years. Even though there are always some problems, it is an American institution.
Tonite Senator McCain gave a very gracious speach when he conceeded the election. Senator (President-Elect!) Obama's speach was very inspiring. I sent a text to my daughter Becca who is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Albania. She texted back that she was watching the speech as we were. Rachael, her sister here in Colorado also called us and woke up Ismaat, our 10 year old Granddaughter, to hear President-elect Obama speak. Ismaat has been excited to watch the election. As she says, "This is a historic election." I will sleep well tonight.

I VOTED TODAY!

I have been working at one of Denver's 13 Early Voting sites since the 25th. Yesterday, a reporter from the Rocky Mountain News came to our site. This is a photo of several of the judges that I have been working with. We are open from 11 am to 7 pm each day. Today we served about 300 voters. Each voter comes in and checks in with the Registration judges. They are hooked by computer to the master poll book for the whole city. Then the voter is handed a paper ballot that corresponds to their precinct in the city. Denver has decided have as their election model, paper ballots this year. Because of the HAVA (Help America Vote Act) each center also has some touch screen voting machines. I voted using the machine. It was easy. There is a paper backup for these machines. I am worried about the time it will take Denver to process all of those paper ballots, even with 9 fast scanners working. Some of those ballots will have to be duplicated because of stray marks on the ballot or miss-marked ballots (people who marked with 'X' instead of the little line between the arrows. It was faster. I had my 'cheat sheet' with my choices ready. I am done. I think I will also be working at a polling place on Election Day. I have been an Election Judge during every election for about 30 years. I enjoy doing my part to keep our democracy.
If you haven't already - VOTE!!!!

Election

I have now switched hats and am in Election Mode. I am working Early Voting for two weeks before the elections. Then I will be a judge on Election Day in a precinct. In order to not go under hours at my job at the airport I traded days with other agents and will be working every day until the 11th of November either at DIA or for the election. Most of my days out at the airport will be doubles! I really will be ready for one of our "girl's days out"! that I have with my friends Kathy and Elenna (when she can make it).

Cookie Cutter Collector's Club

This past few weeks have been about cookie cutters. I have been working on an index for a newsletter that ran for 21 years. I finally finished it, all 200 pages of it! Then I was asked to talk at The Brass Armadillo, a local antique mall. I talked about collecting cookie cutters. This past Sunday was the Fall Meeting for our local cookie cutter club. We had a great time. I know that it seems to be a strange collectable but we have a lot of fun and I have friends across the country. More on this later.

Photos from my talk at the Brass Armadillo.

Barak Obama in Colorado Springs

Yesterday morning David and I received an invitation to go hear candidate, Barack Obama at a private event in Colorado Springs. Since I had the day off and David didn't have to go to work until the afternoon, we RSVP'd that we would attend the speech.  We picked up our tickets outside the gym where the event would take place and while in line to enter the arena, we received green dots which allowed us to sit behind the candidate during the speech. (You can even see me in the photo from "thedenverchannel.com")
Obama spoke of the need for all Americans to perform public service of some kind. He spoke of expanding the military and it's benefits, of setting a new "energy" corps and doubling the size of the peace corps. He called for all middle school and high school students to volunteer at least 50 hours a year and for college students to get a government grant if they volunteer 100 hours each year (that's only 2 hours a week)
To read more about the morning see these news reports:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/16768499/detail.html#

http://cbs4denver.com/politics/Obama.Visit.Springs.2.761994.html

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=94923&catid=188

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_9763668

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/jul/02/obama-visiting-springs-today/

I am a PCVP & RPCV

I am so proud. I am now no longer a PCTP (Peace Corps Trainee Parent) I am a PCVP (Peace Corps Volunteer Parent)! I am also an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer). Daughter Becca has started her PCV experience in Peskopi, Albania. She was sworn in a week ago at a ceremony in Elbasan. 

Her Dad and I were volunteers BK (before Kids) back when Peace Corps was still in it's first decade in the lovely country of the Philippines.
Becca is truly a 21st century volunteer.
We had a small portable typewriter and used carbon paper to send letters to our families back in the states. She took her laptop computer with her and is connected by dial-up to the internet. We get email letters from her and are able to read her blog. This morning I saw her latest update just minutes after she posted it.
We had to take a jeepney into town (half-hour ride) in Davao to make an international phone call from the phone company office (or the phone booth at the Apo View Hotel) and we really needed to make an appointment to do it. To make a call from our second site in Bohol, we had to take a 5 hour boat ride to Cebu City to make that call. Becca was given a cell phone by Peace Corps for security purposes. She can call us (an vice-versa) from that (of course international rates apply) I can send her a text message for only 15cents! I just got off the phone with her calling from her computer using Skype. That only costs her 2cents/minute to call our phone and will be free computer to computer when we get our Skype account!
I sent my film home to process and didn't even see some of my slides for 2 years. Now she has a cute little digital camera that she can upload photos from directly to her blog and her online photo album so we can see them almost immediately. Her camera even takes short video clips!
We had a shortwave radio that we picked up in Japan on the way to the Philippines. Becca took one with her. Our neighbors had television and we were able to see some US programs on them around many commercials and blackouts. Becca has inherited Mike's television (He is a PCV who just finished his assignment in Peskopi. She is taking over his rented house.) She told me that she even gets CNN!
Read more about it on her blog. See the link on the right.

Baking without an oven

Do you remember going camping? Did you ever use a "Dutch" oven to make a cake. When I was a Trainer for Girl Scouts Mile Hi Council, I used to help with the Dutch oven training. So the next Christmas I asked Santa for my very own Dutch Oven. I was picturing one that would hold a single round cake pan but Santa brought a much larger one. My Dutch Oven will hold a 12" pan. My folks used to live in New York where they would go over to the Revere Factory Outlet and buy 2nds. They gave us several frying pans that didn't have handles. They work perfectly for deep dish pizza and the 12" one works in my Dutch Oven. We took it on several trips with the "Wilderness Kids", a group for families in the Colorado Mountain Club. I remember making pineapple upside down cake for the whole group (5 families) the weekend that we went to the Great Sand Dunes. There are a number of cookbooks that give directions for baking in a Dutch Oven. Think of it - biscuits, cakes and bread while camping! Makes my mouth water.