Nicole and I took the kids out to Longs Park on Sunday afternoon. We had a good time just relaxing, goofing off at one of the playgrounds, and hanging out at the petting zoo. Yes, I said “the petting zoo.” At a park!

This is just one of the many reasons why I love Lancaster County.

Popularity: 37% [?]

I took Katie with me this morning (she’s almost a bigger Ron Paul supporter than I am; she says he’s her “favorite President ever”) out to my local polling place. Now I think it’s weird that the State government is using a religious institution’s building to run a government function, but hey–I’m one of those weird “separation of Church and State”rs. Outside the building was a table where a guy had a sample Republican ballot, as well as this handy-dandy little reference card:

FYI: 100% of the identified Ron Paul supporters (three of the four candidates in each list) are “NOT ENDORSED” by the Republican Committee of Lancaster County, PA. Those candidates are listed at RonPaulPA.com.

You know, this just seems odd to me. I can see a special interest group endorsing certain GOP candidates before the GOP primary, but why would the GOP itself be endorsing particular candidates before the primary election?

Why should their a priori endorsement matter to me? Isn’t that a little bit backwards?

Sorry, I’m just a little bit angry about this. If they’d given reasons for the endorsements (or lack thereof), I might feel better about it. But when they do something like this, aren’t they implicitly saying “those candidates aren’t ‘Republican’ enough”? Fine, make that claim… but support it if you want me to take you seriously!

Just handing over this card, though… party officials are literally dictating to area residents how to vote?! How would it look if your county’s Democratic party was telling all the Democrats to vote for Obama? That’s what this looks like to me.

The purpose of a primary is for me to tell you who to vote for, “Party Officials”; not vice-versa.

Ooh… it just burns me up!

Popularity: 33% [?]

Ten years ago today, the term “weblog” was first coined. In honor of this anniversary, here’s a “true weblog” of a few links related to our family’s new hometown—Marietta, PA (not to be confused with Marietta, GA):

• Marietta, PA
  Yup, I moved to a small town with its own website. Would you expect anything else from me?
• Susquehanna Valley Chamber of Commerce
  See that photo above? I pass by that sign coming home each night.
• Marietta Factsheet (Wikipedia)
  Just in case you want to know what the latest census figure were.
• Marco’s Restaurant and Motor Inn
  Love the food and the atmosphere here. Wish they had a web site.
• Borough of Marietta, PA
  Okay, now it looks like this is the official web site. (Added May 13th, 2008.)

Popularity: 11% [?]

I know I haven’t posted much (at all) since our OBX vacation. I’ve got a few more design/development projects in the works (which, quite frankly, are taking far longer than I had anticipated) and Nicole & I are looking at homes in the York area. In other words, busy, busy, busy!

I’ve got a few ideas planned for near-future posts, and I’m always tinkering with the blog’s design. It’s a bad habit, actually; I’m never content with how it looks, so I spend all my time polishing the layout instead of writing. Meanwhile, my wife’s favorite blog post here continues to garner a disproportionate amount of my blog’s traffic. Perhaps I should listen to my wife more often…

Popularity: 9% [?]

This three-bedroom rancher positioned just North of the Mason-Dixon line (outside of Littlestown, PA) sits on 1.09 acres of land with easy access to:

• Gettysburg, PA
• Hanover, PA
• Westminster, MD

There’s a cool 8′x8′ two-story clubhouse in the back of the property, and a linden tree that’s perfect for climbing. The wooded backyard is a great location for summer cookouts, Frisbee golf and Spaceman Spiff types of adventures, while the wood–burning stove in the living room is just the thing to warm you back up after a killer snowball fight.

So… any takers? There’s one catch: you’d have to let me come over from time to time so I can reminisce.

Popularity: 8% [?]