This pretty much sums it up.

"I'm reminded every single day that I am not a perfect man. I will not be a perfect president. But I can promise you this: I will always tell you what I think and where I stand. I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you when we disagree. And, most importantly, I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your own democracy again."
--Barack Obama

I don't think I could explain better why my vote is going for Barack Obama. After the arrogance and closed-door policies of the last eight years, this is a refreshing take on what government is supposed to be: by the people, for the people. I may not agree with all of Obama's policies, but his spirit of openness and inclusion is something that's sorely needed. I also appreciate that his entire 30-minute infomercial focused entirely on his policies and platform, and didn't mention his opponent a single time. Again, what a refreshing change!

That being said, I still respect McCain and would have been much more on the fence had he not chosen someone soooooooo conservative as his running mate. It damages his reputation of standing up to his party, and probably lost him support from many middle-of-the-road voters.

We're down to five days left. Go out and vote on Tuesday, even if it's not for Obama. It's your choice.

Is it over yet?

I'm so glad we're down to a little over 2 weeks before the *^#@& election! Campaigns and candidates stopped saying anything new, relevant or positive long ago, and I'm totally sick of it. My mind's made up, so stop with the freaking ads!

As usual, Ohio is a battleground state, so of course we have the two presidential candidates in town all the time. I just got an email from work saying that Michelle Obama will be in town tomorrow at 11:30am and John McCain/Arnold Schwarzenegger will be in town on Halloween at 5pm (costume party, anyone?). Both of those events are non-ticketed, which means the throngs of people coming to them should make my commute from work just hellish. Not to mention the rolling road closures. Yet another reason to hate election season. Maybe someday Ohio won't be seen as so crucial and everyone can just go away.

I also just finished my annual enrollment at work, yet another annoying, complicated process. Why health care insurance is tied to your employer completely boggles my mind. In any case, we made the big change of going to a high-deductible health plan this year. If my math was right, we'll come out ahead, and get to keep any money we put in our Health Savings Account (HSA). It's a scary change, considering we now have a $2520 deductible before anything is covered, but the cost for the plan is so much lower ($15 vs. $114 per pay) that it still makes sense. I truly believe this is where all health care plans are going...more self-funded, with encouragement to do so by employers. Nationwide is contributing $1100 to my HSA next year, which is a pretty darn good incentive to go to a plan like this. And actually, I like the idea of having my money sitting there, earning more money, and just being used for me instead of everyone else. Check back with me this time next year and we'll see how it actually turns out.

One last update for the week.

It's been a busy week with finding out the sex of the new baby and all, but Lauren also had her 2 year checkup yesterday. She is 38.5" tall and weighs 37 lbs. Still off the charts for her age, but not to quite the degree she's been in the past. Just a flu shot at this checkup, and they don't see her again for a whole year! Woo hoo!

We're all psychic.

Y'all are some pretty smart cookies. Maybe we should all go into the prognosticating business. The doctor confirmed that the new Bilek is in fact a boy. I didn't really need the doctor to point it out. It was extremely obvious on the ultrasound screen. Little Mr. Bilek apparently is not very modest. He looks great, everything is formed right, and he's just the right size. And now I get to go shopping :)

One day to go.

So last night I finally consulted the Chinese Birth Chart to determine the sex of our next child. Everyone and their brother swears by this thing, and according to the site I found, it's accurate 93% of the time. It works by figuring out your age at the time of conception, and the month of conception. Apparently if you put those two together, you get a certain result. Silly me. I thought all along it had to do with whether the father passed on an X chromosome or a Y chromosome. In any case, here's what it shows for a 30 year-old who conceived the child in June (look in the 30 column):


Note the percentages. Those represent the chance of each option happening. Apparently I hit the boy jackpot, since none of the other ages have that kind of ratio of boys to girls. We'll find out tomorrow just how accurate this thing is.

In other news, I'm not watching anymore debates. Last night was just too painful and boring and stereotypically political. Do these things really change anyone's minds, or help them decide if they haven't already? God help us if they do.

Veep debate=somewhat entertaining.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY BELOW. DUH.

For once, I actually watched a vice-presidential debate. Usually, I opt out of watching these things because usually, VPs don't really matter that much. Of course that's what I thought before Dick Cheney decided he could change the Constitution's definition of the VP's responsibilities, but that's a whole different story. The real reason I wanted to watch the debate last night was in the hopes of catching a trainwreck in the form of Sarah Palin. You know, collapsing into incoherent sentences and running off the stage at some point. Alas, that didn't happen, but it was still pretty darn good.

I'll admit that I really knew nothing about Joe Biden going in, other than the fact that he's a longtime Democratic senator from Delaware. After watching the debate, I was thoroughly impressed. The guy is smart, calm, and he actually answered the questions posed to him! I'm sure that means he's a bad debater by every definition of the word, but I hate when politicians are asked a direct question and they say everything but what could be construed as an answer. Not Joe. Good for him.

Palin, on the other hand, has just been too entertaining lately. I agree with the pundits that her recent interview performances set the bar so low that she really just had to utter a complete sentence to look competent, and she did manage to do that. My favorite line of the night from Palin: "John McCain is the man we need to leave...uh, lead." I know, honest slip-up, we all do it, but Chris and I were laughing hysterically on the couch. The one thing that grated on my nerves was Palin's passive-aggressive tactic of smiling and making a joke about how she must not know how things are done around here, instead of directly criticizing one of Biden's points. If I heard one more folksy colloquialism come out of her mouth I might have been driven to drink. Our leaders need to be professional, not folksy. That's one of my pet peeves with GWB, too. Heh heh.

In the end, it wasn't all that I'd hoped for, but I did learn a lot about both candidates. And it cemented my view that there is no way in hades I'm voting for McCain with that crazy woman as his VP pick.

Please tell me that at some point my life will return to its normal routine. It seems like since the trip to Myrtle Beach, we haven't had anything resembling normal. Not that it's all bad. Sure, the week without power was bad, but celebrating Lauren's second birthday wasn't. Watch for a post on the birthday festivities later.

The Bileks made the trek down from Minnesota for the birthday party, and spent a whole week having fun with their only grandchild. Chris and I appreciated it because we changed very few diapers and got out to see a Blue Jackets game. My mom also got a week's vacation from providing child care, although I have a sneaking suspicion that she's having some severe Lauren withdrawals at this point.

So what's next? We find out the big news next week: boy or girl! This is really exciting, but it also scares the crap out of me because it means I'm halfway through this pregnancy. What?!?! When did that happen? Did I mention I haven't done anything to prepare for the new baby yet? I'm interested to know what you think. Will it be a boy or a girl? Take the poll on the right to let me know. I'll be sure to let you know whether you're right after our appointment next Thursday (10/9).