let your love shine down

Yesterday was a really beautiful day. I woke up and got to the polls when they opened, spent two hours between standing in line and voting, came home to a wonderful dachshund and increasingly spring-like sunny weather, got two venti gingersnap soy lattes, went record shopping where I snagged The Jam and Fontella Bass, had lunch with Randy, took Nicky for a car ride to Selby's, went to dinner for beers while watching the exit polls with Nevada and Kelly, and came home to Obama winning the presidential election as well as Peters and Schauer winning their campaigns. Whew! Somewhere after getting lunch with Randy, I was upstairs watching the sun set through the upstairs window, and I got pretentious. The window was filthy, but the sunshine came in anyhow and made the filth look hopeful. It was a beautiful moment. This is the best I could do to capture that. I love the United States of
America, and I love democracy. They're both beautiful things.

yesvember

I took Nicky to the groomer this morning, and when we came out, I noticed this stencil painted on the ground next to my car door. I'm not sure what it's all about, but the fellow in the stencil looks smart. So does Nick, for that matter. And did you see the MSU game-winning 48 yard field goal we kicked with only 17 seconds left on the clock? Nice. That combined with the warm, sunny weather, a trip to the coffee shop with my Fred Perry and MacBook, and a dachshund that smells like vanilla, makes for an excellent first day of November.

nick casts the shadow

And here's a picture of Nick from earlier in the afternoon, just because he's cute. There were some fellows working on the porch all day, which tested Nick's nerves, so we went out to the backyard for him to sunbath a bit.

nick or treating

Nicky isn't too thrilled when he hears a lot of noises outside or when people come to the door, so we decided against staying home to battle the trick-or-treaters. Instead, we went to Huntington Woods, had pizza, and followed a little girl around the block as she got candy. I got to carry her candy bag between houses, but she never offered me any. That's gratitude.

crafty little guy

Today at work, I had to attend a class on being awesome. We started the exercises by creating stuff out of pipe cleaners. I made a fly, a bunny, and this little dachshund. Here he is, pictured with the artist's muse.