Just found a great site for all my family and friends around the world, worried about the election (and four more years of a man-chimp with his finger on the button).

Quite a lot of people just want you all to know that we're really, really sorry and if we had the choice we'd have two men called John calling the shots.

Which may not be such a long-shot, even after all this time. The Moderate Independent reports that Ralph Nader, the man that may have given George W. Bush the White House in 2000, is putting a bid in to get votes recounted. One blogger mentions the research of Dr Stephen Freeman that shows the immense improbability that the difference between exit poll numbers and 'counted' votes happened by chance. One chance in a quarter of a billion.

Seriously; we're talking the chances of winning the jackpot on a 6-from-49 Lottery (think New York's State Lottery, or Britain's National Lottery) and then winning double-or-nothing at a Vegas roulette wheel. With every scrap of the winnings. Six times.

Listen : Underwear Goes Inside The Pants - Lazyboy ... Amerika (Jam & Spoon So Kann's Gehen Mix) - Rammstein.

Ah yes. I promised my sister that I would put a picture of her wedding on the blog as soon as she sent one. It's trimmed down a bit...

...but there you are. Congratulations to Wendy and Dave Wootton. No longer living in sin!!!

Listen : Brace Yourself - Brides Of Destruction ... Lovenest - The Wedding Present (I was quite happy with myself for these song choices).

Did I really miss that many weeks without posting on the blog? Hmmmm...

So, what happened. Four hurricanes hit the country. They may have been gentle reminders to all Floridians that God / Gaia was pissed off at them. I quite liked the fact that three of them were reminders not to vote for Bush (Ivan, Charlie and France's)... OK, you know this is sarcasm. Bush won his first election fairly a few days ago, but pundits on the TV are saying that Kerry's strategy was a failure.

Yet both candidates got more votes than any winning President in past US history.

If you make it to the 100m Finals at the Olympics, when nobody thought you'd get past the preliminaries because your running style was awkward, and then got beaten to the gold medal by less than two-tenths of a second, people wouldn't be saying "that was a disaster... he needs to radically rethink his entire running technique after that silver medal performance..." and yet that's what these expert pundits on the news are now doing.

Blah, blah, everyone's an expert. Here's another example, and it shows that you should make up your own mind instead of investing too much in the opinions of those on TV. When the US Dollar slipped against European currencies in late 2003, so-called "experts" in the financial sector were saying that it would rebound by the end of 2004. £1 in Britain would return to be worth $1.60 in the US instead of $1.80. Guess what? These experts that are paid a six-figure salary to predict trends got it wrong. British tourists still get an absolute bargain when they come to the States to shop because the dollar's so weak. It's still a dollar-eighty to one pound sterling.

The same with the election. Kerry didn't do bad at all. In fact, he posted the second fastest time in Olympic history (if we carry that analogy over), but got beaten on the day. He got more votes than Clinton, Bush the first and Reagan. So I'd say he did something right.

So, for the next four years, I'll be watching the figures. Unemployment, currency rates, promised spending amounts. Bush won by a whisker and if he fucks it up this time like he's done in Iraq, we'll let him know it in no uncertain terms.

Roll on the next election...

Listen : Lola Stars And Stripes - The Stills ... Kill The Poor - The Dead Kennedys ... Freedom Of Speech Won't Feed My Children - Manic Street Preachers.

Obscene question of the day: What's the most money you've ever spent in one month?

I don't mean on a credit card or borrowed cash. How much of your own hard-earned savings have you ever shelled out in the space of one calendar month? The month of August isn't over yet, but we're over the $1,000 mark. By a few thousand. Add a bit more. OK, we spent three years' savings this month.

I've handled more in my life... I worked at a London rail station for a few years and pulled in over £100,000 two days running. Mind you, most of that was in credit card transactions and it was right before Christmas so maybe not. Never mind. I've never spent more than a few hundred of my own moolah at any one time. Until this month.

But hey, what's the use of having it if you're never going to spend it?

Beth's old Honda is seven years old, so we have been thinking of small SUVs for some time now. It was either going to be another Honda (the CR-V) or a 2005 Subaru Forester 2.5X. Thanks to the side impact rating in Consumer Reports, the Subaru won out. We fell in love with the Pearl Blue one on the lot and ended up buying it. Nearly fifty percent down and financing for four years.

As you may know from reading these web-log entries, we've been looking for a house. The breaking point came when we looked at the house with Duct tape keeping the bathroom tiles on the wall. So we looked at a plot of land for sale and we liked it enough to put in a bid. The bid was accepted, so we had a choice. Finance, or savings? Well, paying outright means we have one less bill to worry about. If we do see a house we like in the interim, we can sell the land... but we want to build our dream place, and owning the land gives us a sense of freedom. Including the closing costs and filing the deed at the Courthouse, that took the biggest chunk out of the savings.

I don't feel bad about it because it's what we were saving for anyway.

Oh, then the window wouldn't close on the Civic so we needed that put back on its tracks. The people at Burne Honda said they couldn't see it for a week but Beth had a word with them and it was done by mid-day the next day. She's great like that. The boys at the garage noticed the rattle under the car we've had and saw a loose plate near the exhaust so they fixed that into place for us too. Then they gave us a 10% discount for the parts. Nice one, gentlemen.

Listen : Float On - Modest Mouse ... Tax Loss - Mansun ... Dollars & Cents - Radiohead...

I am absolutely thrilled silly to announce that we bought some property.

Oh,hang on a moment. We didn't buy that. This appears to be the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park. That's the Hyde Park in upstate New York (and not the Hyde Park across the way from Buckingham Palace, or the Hyde Park just down the road from King's Cross in Sydney, which is not the same as the King's Cross in London. That would be London as in the capital of England, not London in Ontario's Canada).

Sorry... where was I?

Oh yes. Hyde Park, NY. Birthplace and burial place of Franklin D. Roosevelt, home to the ex-filthy-rich Vanderbilt family (the grandkids squandered it all) and home to some of the East Coast's finest vinyards. I recommend the Clinton Vineyards where you can wine taste for $5 (and get a happy buzz into the bargain... very civil). Beth and I spent a week there for our third wedding anniversary and it was very nice. I feel I should say that big props go out to my crew at the Journey Inn on Route 9, but I'll leave that kind of talk to those with a love for the streets. Or something. As we were leaving the Vanderbilt's 50,000 square foot country cottage (yes, they really knew how to slum it back then) we saw someone having their picture taken with a 'For Sale' sign. So we asked if they'd take our picture too. Hey; if they ever lose the deeds to the property we have a photo record right here that it's all ours!

Other fun things we did on that week: a train and taxi ride to New York City's new Planetarium at the AMNH, a visit to the
Spaceship Discovery Science & Technology Center (where they have two astromech 'droids called R2-D2 and R2-She-2) and a great time by the Hudson River. Going back to the Spaceship Discovery place; I have to congratulate Floyd Holt for all the hard work and dedication he's putting into science to make it fun and accessible. Even if it make a Trekkie like me wonder how much one person can like a Starfleet uniform. Well done, sir!

Then we came home and started looking for real houses. It was last Thursday that the realtor took us to see two houses. The first one was going for $133,000 and it is a shambles. The owner died so it became an estate sale and the loving kids decided to rip the guts out of the house before selling it. All appliances: gone. Carpets: gone. A window frame: completely ripped out. Floorboards: look like a werewolf used them to sharpen his claws. Tiles in the shower: lovingly held together with Duct Tape. I kid you not... blue tiles and lashings of silver tape to give the whole thing structural integrity. Ugh. The second house was nice enough, but too close to a main road and there's a lack of parking.

That's when Richie (he's our realtor) asked us to look at a lot that was going for sale. Eighty feet (25 metres) wide by 130 feet (40 metres), right next to the park, quiet road, stunning view. We put in a bid of $29,900 and it was accepted within the hour. Beth and I are, subject to contract, the proud owners of a patch of real estate. Our house will be built within the next two years (as soon as we get our savings back up again to pay for it all). It's not as big as the Vanderbilt Estate, but it'll do nicely for us.

Listen : Our House / Night Boat To Cairo - Madness ... Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead.