Thirty seconds to myself? Time to blog!

Okay, it's more than thirty seconds, and I have Dan to thank for it. It's bedtime for Abby, and while that usually means I'm upstairs reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" four times in a row, tonight it means I'm comfy on the couch because Dan offered to do the bedtime routine. Unfortunately, I hear some serious screaming. I may be pressed into service soon. But regardless, he gave it a shot and kept her happy for quite a while, and that's a huge load off my shoulders.

A couple Abby things I want to document for posterity:

About a month ago she got the hang of the word "hat." Suddenly any item which she could hold on her head became a hat. One day Dan was driving her around and he looked in the rearview mirror; she yanked off her bib, tossed it on her head, and said, "Hat!" Dan said, "Just because you can put it on your head doesn't mean it's a hat!" She pulled of the bib, gave it a look, put it back on her head and with a level stare at Dan, said emphatically, "Hat."

She's started crossing her arms. When I do it, she'll do it, and then give me that brilliant, "I am so cute" look. But today she also started doing it when she was angry, and it's SO hard not to laugh. You tell her no, and she'll throw whatever she's holding and then cross her arms. Hilarious.

I swear there was something else, but I can't remember it. Oh well.

On the non-Abby front, I've been contemplating presidential candidates this past week. I find myself getting more and more political the older I get. It's a frustrating endeavor, getting political, because there's always that feeling of "my vote doesn't matter" or "what can one person do" and "things will never change" that pervade the whole arena. But on the flip side, if everyone stopped thinking that and started flexing their voter muscles, can you imagine how different things would be? Honestly, I don't get people who don't vote, especially if they also complain about the state of things. If you don't like it, then do something about it! And if you vote for someone and they lose, well then you get griping rights when things go to pot the next four years or whatever. But it's such a privilege to be able to make your voice heard. People die for that right in some countries. Heck, people died HERE so WE could have that right.

Anyway, I digress. The point is, I've been trying to figure out who I'd like to back. I'm actually at the point where I could see myself joining a campaign, volunteering a little, wearing the t-shirt, you know? But for whom? It's a three-way tie right now. There's Romney, who won the Iowa straw poll and as far as I can tell looks good on the issues, but his website makes you watch videos to hear his stance on everything, and I hate videos, so I haven't figured out all his positions yet. There's Brownback, who I've heard fantastic things about, and he came in third in Iowa, so that's a pretty good showing, I'd say. I don't honestly know a lot about him yet, but what I do know I like. And then there's Ron Paul, who I love for making the health freedom one of his big issues. He recognizes the evils of CODEX and how the FDA is getting WAY out of hand, and no other candidate is even talking about it. But his stance on Iraq and national security is a little iffy, so I still need to check into that.

*sigh* Which way to go, which way to go...