November 5-November 11, 2018

Happy Veteran's Day!  Happy Voting Day!  So glad we voted early. I tried to have Scott request an absentee ballot, but he was a little preoccupied with classes. Not that it mattered here in Maryland. Our county dropped all of our long standing Republican Reps and Senators and went Democratic. So now Maryland is mostly Democratic, although it always has leaned toward that party. And the rest are Independents. But the state decided to keep our Republican Governor, Larry Hogan. He really has been doing a good job, even with a cancer diagnosis during his first term. It looks like people in our county are fed up with the seemingly limited action occurring with all the flooding issues over the past few years and lots of excess building. Guess they wanted to try something new. Especially since they were/are talking/planning on knocking down half of the buildings in old Ellicott City. They still may, but we will have to see what the new government officials have in mind.

Instead of voting, I spent my election day at a Mental Health class. The Sr Center/Office of Aging put on a few free classes on cognition and mental health. I can always use free continuing credit for my OT license, so I signed up for the once a month classes. Their is just a few of us, but the class is very good(and it comes with snacks)! And all free!  And when I am not at work, I am busy trying to get through the online education classes. I have 3 left out of 18. They are a bit time consuming and each comes with an exam at the end that you have to pass, so you actually have to pay attention!

So I was spending my days on the computer during the week. Tom was looking at traveling to Wisconsin this week  for work, but the project was put on hold. Instead, he traveled up to Michigan to spent the weekend with Scott!  Grand Rapids was hosting a comic con event and Tom was taking Scott. They were hoping to meet the character Chekov from Star Trek, and maybe John Rathsenburger from Cheers and the voices of several Pixar characters including the Cars movie. Tom's flight was scheduled for Friday night, but again we had a lot of rain and fog and flights were a bit delayed. Better than the last weekend when it was determined that we had two small tornadoes touch down. One flattened a farm and tore up rooftops of buildings west of us, and another actually took down a huge wall of the Amazon Distribution Center in Baltimore, killing two people. Very sad. Meanwhile in Michigan, Scott was getting his first snowfall in Kalamazoo!  We hear that the Western Michigan University is the 8th snowiest campus in the US!  Michigan Tech in the UP is number one!   Glad we did not send Scott that far north!  Usually in Detroit we didn't see snow until at least Thanksgiving. Poor Scott lost his Raven's hat on the bus, so we sent him another one with Tom. So Tom managed to arrive in the evening in Grand Rapids and Scott was able to pick him up. The roads were slippery but his Jeep seemed to manage, even though the guys report other cars were sliding off the freeway between Kzoo and Grand Rapids on their drive back to school. Tom decided to make use of the extra bed and single room that Scott has rather than paying for a hotel room. The next morning the guys headed out to ComicCon. They decided not to visit with the special guests since they were asking for an extra $80 for a photo op and autograph with the panel discussion admission. But they got a glimpse of him from afar and Tom was amazed he was still breathing!  He said he looked pretty frail, and freezing as he was bundled up in lots of coats!  So the guys spent a few hours wandering around the vendor booths, looking for bundled comic books, but Tom could still not find the one he wanted. So he opted to buy one at the bookstore!  And since the guys had some extra time on their hands in the late afternoon, they decided to go see a movie and have dinner. They enjoyed the OverLord movie (of all things). They said it was wonderful! Who knew. On Sunday, Tom's flight was scheduled for late afternoon, so the guys had breakfast and worked on Scott's research paper.  I think they both really enjoyed the quick visit and trip to Comic Con, but Scott is anxious to finish up this term. He has about a month to go, but will be returning home for Thanksgiving break. 

Allison kept herself busy on Saturday volunteering at GS camp for the day. I think she ran all the stations! And she spent the whole day outside. Although it was chilly and windy, it was not snowing or raining. Allison especially enjoyed making a bonfire with the girls in the evening and enjoying a cookout before heading home. On Sunday, we had Mom B over for dinner after taking her for a perm at the hair dresser. I am looking forward to attending a Thanksgiving luncheon with mom in the coming week. As well as my Birthday!