A night for the record books…

Holy crap, what a freaking night! Not only did we elect our first African-American President ever, but we did it with record numbers! I mean, shit, last I heard, L.A. County had an 83% voter turnout this year. Amazing!

And even cooler than the turnout and the positively epic results was the totally electric vibe in the air last night. Seriously, everywhere Christine, Ryan, Laura and I went in our pursuit of election night freebies — and as you can see from the pics of Tiny O, we made the rounds! — the winds of change were in the air, baby.

People were excited, happy, smiling, it was like everyone in the country got out there and voted for change and then went out there and scored some free food to celebrate. And what a celebration it was!

We were actually mid-way through our happy hour priced meal at the Daily Grill in Burbank when the news came over the airwaves. Our man had won…and even the McCain-Palin-loving chatterboxes at the next table could not dampen the spirits in that joint.

I swear to God, tiny bar food hamburgers never tasted so sweet as they did at that moment…wow. And though we were stuffed to the gills by the time the bill came, we still had enough room to swing by Krispy Kreme on the way home — we hit Ben & Jerry’s before we ate — to score some free donuts.

And as we ate our piping-hot donuts and listened to Obama’s kick-ass speech on the radio on the drive home, we knew that no matter how bad our heartburn was in the morning, we were gonna wake up smiling…

Rock on, President-Elect Obama, rock on!

A thank you note from Barack

OK, I know he probably sent these messages out to everyone, but when I got this e-mail from President Elect Obama — Ha! That is so awesome to be able to type!! —  just a few minutes before he took the stage in Chicago, I gotta tell ya, I got more than a little verklempt.

So, sit back and enjoy what I think just might be the best thank you note ever. Rock on, Mr. President-Elect!

Tomas-

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history. And I don’t want you to forget how we did it. You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign. We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing, all of this happened because of you.

Thank you,
Barack

Free food on election day!

I’m sure all of you are gonna be out there voting today, but just in case any of you need a little nudge towards the old ballot box…I have two words for you, and they aren’t “Hope” or “Change” or even “Sarah Palin”. The keywords for today are: free food! Or, as I like to call it…one vote, one donut.

I’m sure there are gonna be tons of local free food events on this historic election day, but the main one’s I’m concerned with are those being offered by Starbucks, Krispy Kreme and Ben & Jerry’s.

Let’s start with Starbucks. They will offer a free tall coffee today to anyone who flashes their “I Voted” sticker. And, because this is apparently illegal in California — due to some archaic voting law — the coffee fiends from Seattle have opened up free coffee day to everyone. So, you actually don’t even have to vote to get free stuff…cool! But you should still totally vote!

And for those of you looking for something sweet to go with your free coffee, Krispy Kreme is offering the super cool donut pictured above and Ben & Jerry’s is offering a free scoop to anyone who votes. Not bad!

So, please, please vote today…I don’t even care if you vote for freaking Nader — well, actually, I kinda do — but this is a once in a lifetime election, amigos, do you really wanna be the one to tell your grandkids you skipped voting because you didn’t wanna wait in line? Hell to the no!

So, get out there and vote your asses off…and, as always…go, Obama! Oh yeah, and for the love of God, please, please remember to vote “No on 8”. Future generations will applaud you…seriously.

Halloween pumpkins for Obama!

Halloween night wouldn’t be complete at our place without watching a classic scary movie that we haven’t seen before — this year it was the Claude Rains version of “The Invisible Man”, last year it was the original “Cat People” — carving our pumpkins, and roasting up some salty-ass pumpkin seeds.

And when it was time to get carving, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind what I was gonna carve on my pumpkin’s shiny, orange face this year…the Obama logo!

As you can see from the pic on the bottom, I left out the rising sun on my first pass at the logo, but once I realized what was missing, I quickly grabbed my carving tool and made it right!

Keeping with the political theme, we contemplated carving an elaborate “No on 8” logo on Christine’s pumpkin. But, in the end, she opted for a more traditional, scary-faced pumpkin instead. I think he kinda humanizes the Obama pumpkin next to him. So, it was a good choice.

Oh yeah, and, for the record, “Cat People” is a much better movie than “The Invisible Man”. I mean, the invisibility effects and stuff were really cool — especially considering the movie was made in 1933! — but, overall, it was a bit of a snooze. I’m just saying…

Happy Halloween, amigos! And, as always, go, Obama!

Obama-Biden magnetic bumper stickers!

By this time next week the race for President of the United States will be almost over and Christine and I will be either dancing in the streets at midnight or moving to Canada. But whatever happens, we’ll always have the rocking Obama-Biden magnetic bumper sticker that arrived in our mailbox today!

Our neighbor turned us onto these cool magnetic bumper stickers months ago — back when they just said Obama — and we finally ordered one for ourselves last week. The coolest thing about these guys is that they don’t stick at all, which means no gross sticker goo on your car. Yay!

And as you can see, even our tiny Obama — still winded from his last-minute campaign jaunt up the coast — is excited about our new bumper sticker. Seriously, he was up all night trying to get Christine and I to drive him to Nevada to help secure votes. Man…that dude is persistent.

So though we don’t have the time to road trip it to Nevada like some of our friends, you can rest assured that we will be driving the hell out of our car this week to show this bad boy off. And if we change the hearts and minds of a few die-hard McCain supporters along the way…all the better!

Go, Obama!

Obama resoles his shoes…

That old lying, hate-mongering, Republican VP candidate, Sarah Palin, might call herself an “intellectual”, vow to name her next son Zamboni — I’m not kidding, she actually said that! — and spend almost $5,000.00 a day on fancy designer duds, but when it comes to keeping it real, no one, and I mean no one, can beat our man, Barack Obama.

As you can see in the super cool pic by Time’s Callie Shell above, Obama saves his campaign money by having his shoes resoled rather than buying new ones. Yep, while the McCain campaign runs to Neiman Marcus three times a day to keep Sarah Palin looking “fresh”, Barack Obama runs to his cobbler. Awesome!

Seriously, can you think of another modern-era politician who would do something that freaking practical? Man, just when Christine and I think we could not love this dude any more…we do! Wow…

Thanks to our friend Danielle for the link to Shell’s rocking Obama campaign pics. To see more of these beautiful shots for yourself click here.

And, as always…go Obama!

On the road with Obama

With the election just a couple of weeks away and getting crazier by the minute, Christine and I decided to take our brand new Barack Obama action figure on a quick campaign push up the coast to Northern California.

The fact that we were both itching for a fun, weekend road trip might have had a little something to do with it too, but either way, Jedi Master Obama came with us and as you can see from the pics below, the little plastic dude had a blast.

Not only did he get to cross the Golden Gate bridge during Fleet Week — and see the Blue Angels performing above us on the drive back! — but Obama also got to tour the rocking Charles Schulz Musuem in Santa Rosa, judge a surfing contest in Capitola, check out Sista Monica’s soulful outdoor gospel choir in Santa Cruz and best of all, Lil’ O got to wrap up his journey with some tasty hot wings at the Burbank Hooters.

And with stops at Taco Bell and the classic Bob’s Big Boy in Toluca Lake thrown in for good measure, well, I don’t know about you guys, but that kinda sounds like campaign heaven to me!

If you’re interested in seeing the full, unedited version of Lil’ O’s “rainbow tour” of the California coast, check out the Flickr set here, but in the meantime, enjoy the pics, remember to vote on November 4th, and, as always, go Obama!