Pushing Boundaries and Voting - LJ Idol and Presidential

I had a wonderful run this morning, a good 15-minute mile pace with a 4 elevation. Made me happy, and made my right hip sore by the end of my 45 minutes. *sigh* I'll be walking a bit slower today and I'm quite sure I'll twinge now and again reminding me that I overdid it a little bit. But, to get anywhere, you have to push boundaries. That's true on the treadmill, in the swimming pool, and in life. I'm sure I'll be fine by the time I'm back on the treadmill tomorrow morning. 

After my main 30 minute run, I started a second run, this 
time through the northern mountains of Italy. Lots of 
fun tunnels and narrow roadways. 

It's a "day off" for me today, and I have bills to pay, "Ogre Juice" (alkagizers) to make for the coming week, and a desk full of paperwork that has to be taken care of. Oh joy! LOL We had a quiet Halloween, as I had anticipated. We didn't have any goblins or ghouls come to the door, and were able to settle down and watch "Miss Marple" without interruption. So much fun! 

I need to get a batch of Alkagizers made today, but that's 
all of the kitchen work I need to do. I did find a new soup 
recipe I want to try, but not for another week or so. I'm 
totally stocked because I cooked ahead for Chickie's 
jury duty schedule. 

Because we had anticipated a possible two weeks of jury duty for Chickie, my refrigerator is full of lovely soups and stews, so I don't even need to do any cooking today. It's a day of luxury. So unexpected, and very welcome. 

I'm so sorry, but I think hand-made holiday cards will 
be impossible for me this year. I will take a serious 
hunt to find the nicest fun cards I can for all of you, 
my dear friends, and hope you can forgive me. 

I've come to the conclusion that hand-made holiday cards will be impossible for me this year. That causes me sorrow - I adore making my cards for all of you. But here it is November, and when I'm making cards, I usually start them in the summer months. Time simply hasn't been there this year. So I'm going to start a hunt to find something commercial, but incredible for all of my friends. I can't spend a total fortune, after all, I just bought a treadmill for several thousand dollars. But, I'm sure I can find something I'll be happy to send, and I hope all of you will understand that sometimes (rarely) life simply gets in the way. This will be one of those rare times. 

I'm delighted that I live to write again. I don't think I've 
ever made it this long/far in LJ Idol in the past, and 
I'm totally thrilled. I couldn't have gotten this far without 
all of your votes, and I hope that you will continue 
reading and voting for as long as I can participate. 
New prompt will be released later today. 

So I'm going to wrap this up and get moving again. Thank you to all of you who voted for my Prayer this time around. I'm honored that you thought enough of my thoughts to put in your vote. I didn't win, but I certainly didn't lose either. Instead, Xeena won with a VERY well deserved win for a beautiful composition, and we have a write-off between two others for who gets "kicked off the island" this week. The new prompt will be posted later today. I'll have to make sure to check in and find out what malicious idea our moderator has in his head this time - LOL. 

No matter who you vote for (or have already voted for), 
someone else will have a different opinion and will have 
voted the opposite. It's called democracy, and it actually 
works, despite the stumbles. Someone will be happy, 
someone else will not be. But, we need to keep the 
anger out of it. Be disappointed, but don't be angry. 
It's the way democracy works - someone wins and 
someone loses. 

Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Please be kind to people - emotions are running a bit high right now with the election only a few days away. No matter who wins, someone will be happy and someone else will be disappointed - even angered. I'm looking ahead to Thanksgiving, by which time I hope all of the pent-up emotions will be laid to rest with the roasting of a very large bird. Enjoy your day - Slava Ukraini.