Must. Get. More. Creative.

I guess a close-up shot of canning rings taken with a smartphone isn't really very difficult to guess, is it? No matter, I loved the picture, and I love all the cool camera apps you can download nowadays. I still use my DSLR, but rarely, and only when I want to shoot from a distance. (Although some of the long shots I see on Instagram are pretty impressive.)

The Vice-Presidential debate has been analyzed, scrutinized, sliced and diced. Memes have been created and shared, polling continues and Martha Raddatz won, with Joe coming in a close second.

Best tweet of the night:

Fortune smiled on me yesterday, as I continued to make progress on my granddaughter's Halloween costume. When she asked if she could be Rosetta this year, the first thing I did was search for a pattern. Having last year's bride's dress and veil under my belt, I thought I could handle six yards of pink tulle.

AND I DID!

Thankfully I gave myself more than one day to finish the project this year. I worked on it Monday and Tuesday, took Wednesday off for my cousin's funeral and sewed again most of yesterday (with time out for a walk because IT WAS SO GORGEOUS OUTSIDE). By the time the lights came up on the debate stage, I was sitting down with a threaded needle and a fancy pink satin dress, ready to hand-sew a length of marabou feathers to the neckline.

I still have to make a pair of fairy wings. Have I ever made fairy wings before? No, I have not. But how hard can it be? If you can read, you can sew make fairy wings, right? I don't need to ship the costume until Monday, so if I run out of time today, I still have the weekend to finish. Because …

I have to work at Democratic headquarters this afternoon and I'll be busy in the kitchen both before and after that gig. Today is my husband's  birthday – the last one of his 60s – and he never wants gifts. I gave him a book a month or so ago, and he said that would be his present. He's such an appreciative eater, though, that making him a special birthday meal is a pleasure. Here's the menu:

Outback's Walkabout Soup

(a cheesy onion creation that is no longer on their menu)

Grilled Beef Burgers

Frozen Mixed Vegetables

Pecan Pie

I let the crockpot do most of the soup work, and I'll make the pie as soon as I hit the publish button. The rest isn't any more difficult to prepare than any other weeknight meal.

Despite not sticking with my running plan, I feel like this week has been very satisfying. I've done some good things, some kind things, some fun things and some necessary things.

I've also done some sewing. Heh.

The debate continues

I watched it.

My blood pressure, normally in the 120/80 range was most certainly elevated as I listened to Candidate Romney's lies. My chest was tight watching his smirk. I actually yelled at the television a couple of times.

Thank goodness for Facebook, or I wouldn't have gotten through it. (Feel free to send a friend request if you haven't already. I like friends! If you click on the Facebook badge on the right you'll get to my page. I think. Heh.)

The highlight of the evening for me came afterward, when my 15-year-old granddaughter texted me:

"Romney is killing me …"

She watched the debate for extra credit in a class which she's already acing. And vowed to never watch another one unless she needs the extra credit. But we had a good back-and-forth conversation about it and she felt President Obama did a much better job.

That's good enough for me. Candidate Romney doesn't have her best interests in mind or at heart. President Obama does and has and will. Yes We Can. Again.

The post-debate analysis will go on and on and on. I'm glad there are four debates this month, at least they'll focus on something new after the next one. (It's a graphic designer's dream is to have something as cool as 10/11/12 to work with when designing items for an event like this.)

I don't update my status every day on Facebook, but threw out several last night, and this one this morning:

I bet the Amish don't even know it happened.