Seriously, sometimes I look out at my backyard (tiny as it is) and wish for goats. Or at least one feral pygmy goat to wander into it, like the chicken did down the street.

Tom, offer your neice & nephew (and other neice) rain checks. A day at the zoo or something. They'll probably love to have special time with their uncle to look forward to.

How adorable is this? It's a post from the sweet kid who played Anne Frank. One more reason to love the people I work with.

OK, that was unreal.

This was my third time to caucus. In 2000, there were 3 people from my precinct. In 2004, 10 or 12.

This year? 111

Just anecdata based on what was going on with our group and the other precincts meeting at the same school, plus what I've seen on some local blogs, but Obama seems to be doing VERY well in Seattle. Our precinct chose 6 delegates for the district meeting (I'm an alternate), and we ended up with 4 Obama, 2 Clinton. Others in the gym seemed to be even more skewed to Obama--4-1, 5-1, etc.

From reports on caucuses from Slog (granted, a very self selecting audience), it seems all of their precincts went for Obama too.

I did not caucus. I am a bad bad person.

I don't know what our final tally was, but our first count was strongly Obama.

I held Annabel up to the window where the people were lined up to come in (we were smart and came at 12:45 instead of 1:00) and told her that this is what democracy looks like.

Thing is, it was kind of a pain in the neck. DH got semi-drafted as precinct chair because he admitted to having done it before (4 years ago, with ten people, when we could actually have a conversation and hear ourselves think). So he, the Obama precinct captain, and the most outspoken Hillary voter had an informal conclave on how to make rules designed for a dozen people or so work for over a hundred. On first count we had several undecideds and a little clump of Kucinich supporters, and it ended up with the Obama and Hillary people each trying to cajole the Kucinich people to their side to get the last delegate, with the Obama group prevailing in the end.

With the numbers being so large, it just didn't feel like a regular caucus--you just couldn't have a thoughtful dialogue. It ended up being more about sound bites and talking points, which is sad. But OTOH, it was cool to see that many people gathered around to make their voices heard. We had several precincts in the gym where we were, so I think there were 400-500 people in the room. And when DH dismissed us, he said, "Have a great four years--with a president who isn't named Bush!" THAT got a big round of applause.

Extremely random question: There's this photo of Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of THE big-name leaders of Modern Orthodox Judaism in the US, marching on Selma with MLK Jr. [link] I've seen this photo a million times, because a copy of it is framed in just about every even vaguely liberal Jewish school I've ever seen. My question, which has been bothering me for years: in this picture, all the people in the front few rows of the march are wearing what look like leis. Why?

t edit: nevermind. Google gave me an answer. They were a gift from Rev. Abraham Akaka, a minister from Hawaii.

That sounds neat, Susan. I suspect that a caucus would cause me to lose my mind, however. Everytime I hear them described it reminds me of quaker meetings for business (but with less consensus) and that makes me start twitching.

I'm a really effective EX-quaker, I have to say. Much as I still like and admire them, too many of the core parts of quakerism are things I definitely no longer believe or practice.

Thanks, all, for the birthday wishes.

Okay, I just emptied my savings to pay off a credit card. Someone tell me I did the right thing before I have heart palpitations, because this has been my only cushion in case of emergency for two years.