The next couple of sunsets are supposed to reveal a spectacular night sight: crescent moon hanging in the sky just above a brilliant Jupiter and Venus.

Here is a link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081128/sc_space/spectacularskyscenemondayevening

I have been having some technical difficulties getting my links to work lately (I know . . . I know), so you'll have to copy and paste that into your browser and click ENTER on your own. But it is a good little article with a lot of details about what you can see including Jupiter's moons and such (with binoculars).

I think we can all relate to losing tools. I have no clue where 90% of all the screwdrivers I have ever owned might be right now. For all I know they might be . . . floating in earth orbit.

"Oh great!" That's a quote from NASA astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper ( http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/stefanys.html ) who lost her toolbag in space last week. Most guys I know would have probably used stronger language, then again she knew she was on a live voice-feed to mission control.

Heidemarie is a captain in USN and holds a Master's Degree in mechanical engineering from MIT. But on the job site? Just another guy with a toolbag.

One more thing I am thankful for, all the years I spent hanging out with Mike Greenman:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_UbFjUlWnI&feature=dir

(Note: due to technical difficulties in Gordland I am unable to make links that ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING, but if you copy and paste that into your browser you will view a 4 min. feature about the Attractive Girls Union's un-going negotiations with Mike Greenman, a sad, sad case.)

1. A November evening in Chicago

2. Grant Park

3. Barack

4. His rational side (no-drama Obama)

5. But also the other more spiritual side (that his heart is in the right place)

6. Being on board since ‘07 and the feeling that . . . I may have helped

7. Sarah Palin, for being entertaining

8. And making it slightly more obvious McCain’s judgment might be (just a bit) off

9. Phone calling to Iowa (during a tornado warning)

10. Door-to-door in Indiana

11. On a bright, balmy Saturday-before-the-election (November 1)

12. Beautiful spouse for being who she is

13. Sharing moments

14. But having her own goals for her year

15. Including a little job change that has a lot of meaning for her

16. Snow in Colorado to ski through or over

17. And come inside from

18. A bowl of chili at a ski lodge

19. Beer bottles cooling in a sink, covered in scoops of snow

20. Betting with my wife

21. When she loses

22. Especially on New Year’s Eve

23. Decent eyeglasses used for reading (go Lasik!)

24. Roofing shingles

25. That no longer jump onto our lawn

26. A freshly painted room

27. Doing the painting myself (yeah, I enjoy it)

28. Sharing painting with my son, college-age

29. At his house we bought

30. Together

31. Sitting quietly next to him while he examined a real estate map of his college town and discussed ideas

32. With our real estate guy, who ended up driving us around

33. A freaky rainstorm later in May that prevented us from ever reaching college-town, resulting in an eight-hour drive for nothing, but that eventually meant we arrived instead a week later, when we actually found his house where the sign had just been put up a few hours earlier

34. Weird stuff like that

35. Watching college-age son paint a room, on his own, better than I could have

36. Paint brushes that are decent quality

37. A yellow-handled hammer & a rechargeable drill

38. Used redoing the closet, a creation that appeared in my head when I had no idea how to actually carry it out

39. A little worktable assembled from sawhorses and a piece of scrap wood

40. Porch swing and a gin & tonic, as the summer sun goes down

41. Things within walking distance

42. Like a Cheeseburger in Paradise (restaurant a la Jimmy Buffet)

43. Or Mother Bear’s, the local pizza place

44. Live music (yeah, even bad live music isn’t really that bad)

45. D.C.

46. Tour of the Capitol building accomplished by Senatorial intern

47. A college-age friend from home

48. Any fine dinner

49. And especially a certain Italian outdoor table

50. At a restaurant in DC that I can’t afford unless I have an expense account

51. Having an expense account

52. Just about any outdoor table anywhere

53. Boddingers, a British brew currently my fav

54. The perfect foam at the top of the glass

55. Cappuccino machines, yeah I like the pressure-brewed espresso machine itself, especially the gleaming actual Italian ones

56. Cappuccino itself, when it’s done right, which is . . . quite a bit of foam, but not too much milk

57. Chicago condo purchased by a relative & the view from 68 stories up

58. Middle son relocating

59. Back to home where his job is more user-friendly

60. And he has dinner at home occasionally

61. Every time he arrives home safely

62. From a motorcycle ride

63. Oldest son’s life close-to-home

64. Living in a rental house only a mile away

65. And saving it when a fire stared

66. And finding a girlfriend, who is sweet and fun

67. Our current economic “downturn”

68. Reminding people that the simple things in life are best

69. And those that cost nothing (or next to nothing)

70. Are, so often, best of all

71. Hope

72. That the downturn doesn’t last very long

73. Determination

74. By which I mean my college-age son’s attitude, about . . .

75. Just about everything in his life, actually

76. Bicycling racing and training

77. Taking classes

78. Making decisions that affect the future

79. Coming home after a trip

80. Homemade soup, something I am pretty good at from time to time

81. Spouse cooking at home

82. Especially, of course, homemade brownies, or a pie

83. A coffee grinder at home

84. A favorite mug with coffee (I add half-and-half coffee cream)

85. A second mug on the way to work (full enough that it needs to be gingerly bounced by hand when going over the bump at bottom of driveway)

86. Iced tea in summer: quarter-glass of strong brewed tea, some water, at least a tablespoon of sugar (I know . . .) then brimming with ice

87. Buying ice for drinks (I always buy ice, at the store, considering it one of life’s little luxuries)

88. Buying live concert tickets

89. This year we saw just: Alicia Keys (ironically on the same rain-filled day from #33 above)

90. Baseball when your team is in first and it lasts all summer (and then some)

91. Cubs in the baseball playoffs

92. Geovanny Soto, named NL rookie of the year at catcher

93. But especially Mark DeRosa for being the type of player I would imagine myself, maybe, to be in my wildest dreams

94. Exercise, especially . . . outdoors

95. Where this year I have relied on a whole lot of walking using a gravel path that runs near airport and golf course a half-mile from my house

96. Also weights indoors

97. Where this year I have done a lot of pull-ups as well, thinking it is good for my back and builds core strength

98. All things moon-y or celestial

99. You thought I forgot?? Shakira, for her heart, in trying to rescue the children of Colombia, and for Despedida (that should have won the Oscar)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_3B2QMQNEY

100. Yeah, for the rest of her, too

I am trying to complete my current thankful list, for 2008. I have done one both of the previous two years and I find it enjoyable to review all the things that have happened. I am almost done, so maybe tomorrow's post.

Well, Bears played the Packers yesterday. It was awful. Awful. Awful-awful. I can't say anymore.

In the thin space above I have archived the highlights of the game for Bears fans.

Last night I went to a wine party. Not because I really really like wine. I'll drink it occasionally. The last occasion was my birthday when beautiful spouse made a favorite meal of Beef Bourginone. That has wine right in it, so then you might as well drink some too. That's the French way, by the way, some on your fork and the rest in your glass.

No beef bourginone at the wine tasting, however. Just some cheese and crackers and chips. That's not that French, but it's OK, because the wines weren't French anyway. They were mostly German with some Hungarians and Romanians. Kind of like the Axis powers of WWI.

We started with whites. I swirled my glass to look for cling. I sniffed at the top of the glass. Smelled like wine.

Then I tasted. We had little scorecards to write down things about the wines so that we could remember what we liked. I made a smiley face.

Next came the second wine, another white. Swirl. Sniff. Sip. Smiley face.

Some of the others at the party had come as couples. The wine-guy encouraged them to share a scorecard. He didn't say why, but I could imagine that he had been at some tasting parties where he could have finished up by handing out cards for divorce attorneys. But in my case beautiful spouse wasn't there. Which was strange because she actually LIKES wines. But she had gotten another invitation for the same evening, an engagement party for a nephew's bride. This allowed her to use the party invitation as an excuse for not going to the wine tasting, and (you'll be shocked . . . prepare yourself, now) also use the wine invitation, which HAD arrived first, as an excuse for being unable to attend the nephew party. Therefore, the evening found her safely ensconced on the living room couch at home. Watching old movies.

Since I didn't go as a couple I had my scorecard all to myself. I am pretty good with scorecards. Of course they are supposed to be for baseball games. Single to left, I draw a diagonal line standing for reaching first base, with a numeral 7 standing for left field. A strikeout is a capital K. But what do you do with a wine sip??

I swirled toward the right, so I wanted to draw a little spiral with a 9 next to it. (That's right field.) Glancing around the room I noticed nobody else was keeping score the right way. They were all writing down scores of 1 to 5, but we hadn't even scored yet! Some of them were even using decimals! That's just plain wrong.

Unbeknownst to the average wine taster, the wine guy had started with the wines that are not so good so that when you get to the better ones you immediately start reaching for your wallet. I had to start using double smiley faces. Then it was time to move to the Reds. That's like heading in to the playoffs. We were all encouraged to rinse our glasses and cleanse our palates. By eating crackers.

By the time the first red was poured I felt like a season ticket holder. I knew how to swirl. I was sniffing with the best of them. I could even read a wine label. Unless it was in Hungarian. The reds tasted good. Of course by this time I had already "tasted" about two and a half glasses of wine. Actually everything tasted good. I restrained myself from licking the outside of the glass. I got some more chips instead.

Soon it was time to reveal our hand. Which bottles is everybody actually going to order?? I had mentioned to beautiful spouse that I would get three bottles. The problem though is that he only sells cases. That's twelve bottles. With about eight people ordering there is sometimes a bit of subtle pressure to increase your order to fill out an entire case. "So, that's ten bottles. Anybody want to go one more?" This is followed by a pregnant pause in which all glance around to see who will raise their hands.

The wines were priced somewhere from 20 to 25 dollars a bottle. One was actually $35, but I figured that one is only poured to make you feel better about spending $25 on the other bottles. I raised my hand. That was five bottles, but they were all really good wines. We might even open one for Thanksgiving dinner.

Now I just have to remember which red goes with Romanian turkey.

Rainy, rainy, rainy where I live. But . . . there is a full moon up there somewhere tonight.

It's the Beaver Moon. Little animals. Nice warm fur. Caught in traps.

Something like that.

Yep, I was there. Grant Park on election night. We went into the city on the train, but it was pretty late, about 9:30 p.m. when we got off the train and another half hour later by the time we walked to the park.

I had a ticket to enter Hutchison Field, but couldn't get even a clue how to actually get in. By then there were a lot of people everywhere, and the streets were closed to traffic making it hard to tell in the dark exactly where you actually were.

It didn't matter anyway, because there were jumbotrons around both inside and outside of the actual Field, so we just followed one of the milling crowds and stood and watched CNN on a big screen outdoors. The weather was perfect which I'm sure in years to come will be remembered as one of the wonderful things about the evening.

Earlier that evening we were in Oak Brook with a gathering of work people who were going to watch the results at a hotel. There was some food (also free beer and wine), but we had the "golden ticket" burning a hole in my pocket, so beautiful spouse and I said Hi, but then left the hotel and parked at the nearest commuter train station to catch one of the last trains into the city. The platform was pretty empty and the train was quiet all the way in. We were wearing Obama t-shirts and several others were also. In the city were dozens of railroad police at the station and immediately outside.

Once we got off at Union Station everyone was hurrying to Grant Park, because no one knew the exact timing of anything to come. Most everyone was walking in the same direction and without traffic on the sidestreets we arrived pretty quickly. Then we tried to figure out where to go. At one point everyone started running for no apparent reason, but thinking back I am pretty sure that would have been when OBAMA WINS first flashed across the nation's TV screens. It was about 10 p.m. CST.

The next hour we spent huddled in a crowd, shoulder to shoulder, everyone quietly watching the Jumbotron waiting for the Obama speech. The McCain speech from Phoenix came first and there were some boos at first when he appeared onscreen. But everyone listened, and by the end of the speedch the crowd was applauding his eloquence. I felt slightly vindicated in liking McCain, who I have always felt was a good person. Just didn't want him to be President.

Due to a certain premature prediction of "landslide" (which is still available somewhere on this site) I was very happy that the electoral totals seemed fairly overwhelming. Still, I was surprised when McCain's speech was, in fact, his concession speech. I thought that would be after midnight. Those words brought a tremendous cheer from the crowd and especially African-Americans were emotional at that moment.

Obama's speech was a thing of beauty, his tone and manner so reserved and just ready. My overall impression was that he is ready to lead, that he had confidence that the moment was not going to be any kind of fleeting thing, but that it really wasn't a moment at all. From now on it's his reality. He's going to be our President. I really appreciated his remarks about being a President for all not just those who had voted him in. An when he mentioned a spirit of sacrifice and togetherness, my heart felt lighter. Because that is what I think our current President squandered during his administration when he declared his war was over and he asked people to help their country . . by shopping.

But I wasn't thinking about any other President at that moment, just one, the one I had been hoping for.

After the speech we raced back to the train station, because there was a slight chance we could catch an 11:40 train and the next wouldn't be until 12:40. We both had to work the next day.

1. Expect Hillary Clinton on the US Supreme Court if an opening develops

2. Expect Jesse Jackson, Jr. as US Senaor, taking Obama's Illinois seat (he is currently in Congress) as Obama is the only African-American in the Senate

3. Not sure who will replace Biden

4. Expect an offer to John McCain to join the administration in some capacity

5. Possibly an offer as Sec of Defense??

6. Which, knowing the maverick in him, he might just accept

7. But I doubt it

8. (BTW I think Sarah Palin might appoint herself Senator from Alaska if she gets the opportunity due to the Ted Stevens scandal)

9. I am hoping to see Colin Powell also offered a post (as something, don't know what)

10. And I hope he accepts

11. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bill Clinton as a kind of roving ambassador to the world with no official title

12. Expect at least a couple of Republicans in his Cabinet

13. With a majority in the Senate and House the Democrats will be poised to do some things to enact Obama's plans

14. But I think they will be somewhat scaled back and tentative

15. For instance phasing in the promised tax beaks over a two or three year period

16. Same thing with the Iraq withdrawal

17. One of my question marks is Al Gore

18. I wouldn't be surprised to see him on the Cabinet

19. Maybe in Interior or Energy

20. The world as a whole is embracing the American election with intensity

21. I think they see the end of the "cowboy" era personified by Bush at the ranch

22. (I still think his callous refusal to meet with Cindy Sheehan, the Mom whose son died in the war, will be seen as a true turning point in his presidency

23. Because before that Bush still projected an air of caring about the American people

24. But that action, combined with the inept administration respose to Katrina, changed people's perceptions

25. From "He stumbles over words, but he has a good heart"

26. To "He doesn't have a heart")

27. Still, with all of this serious stuff going on, I think the nation will wonder mostly about the biggest key appointment of all:

28. What kind of puppy will the girls get??

Well, two days left and it's all over. We'll have a newly elected president.

We went to Indiana Saturday to canvass a small neighborhod as volunteers. There was a lot of enthusiasm for Obama amidst the pick-up trucks and small homes. We even did a trailer park. My main impression: a lot of people have dogs, more than you might think, and they are ALL outside.

There were a few growls. Those came from McCain fans who saw the T-shirts we were wearing. But everybody was civil to us.

The day, of course, was unseasonably warm and sunny. It was more like a September day than November 1. We would walk for several blocks, then go back and move the car a few streets over. We had a list of names and addresses, but some people had moved. Part of the list was Recently Registered, but part were people who had voted in the democratic primaries in the past but voted spradically in the general elections. A lot of those people were gone.

I think the most effective thing we did was just come right out and say. "We need your vote."

So. No matter who you support: Tomorrow is the day.

They need your vote.