Donna and I want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a bit overcast, but will be in the 70s here today. We're having dinner with Kristina, Michael and Merissa at Merissa's parents. That will be about a two hour drive north of here, but should be a nice day overall.

I'll try to fill you in on everything tomorrow.

How could I NOT post something about O.J. Simpson today? I'm sure you've all heard about the up-coming television interview and book, "I didn't kill her, but IF I did this is how I did it." (or something like that)

What advise, if any, is the guy being given that he would agree to take part in something like this? It can't be simply a matter of money, since O.J. seems to be leading a pretty damn nice lifestyle despite 80% of the American public thinking he murdered two people. Does he really miss the attention and public focus this much?

I think the folks at Harper-Collins should be ashamed of themselves, but as they are owned by Robert Murdoch's corporation, I doubt they had much real say in the matter. While I don't think I'll be watching the actual interview, I'm sure that I'll read & hear more than enough from other sources to be able to get the main points.

Lastly, I can't believe that anyone, least of all The Juice, thinks that this will change the way anybody feels about him. If anything, I suspect, it would push some of those on the fence over to the "GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY" side.

A few photos from the Veteran's Day tribute

Donna & I attended in Mission Viejo, this past Saturday.

The American Heroes group produces large poster size memorials of U.S. troops killed in Iraq & Afghanistan. Copies are given to family members and the larger posters are displayed in schools, institutions and in public memorials such as this. It was quite moving as you can imagine.

I'll experiment with the "new" Blogger tomorrow, but wanted to just post quickly.

Happy Veteran's Day to my fellow vets! Whatever the period in which you served, you have our respect and eternal thanks for what you have done. For those still in uniform you have our appreciation for a sometimes thankless job, often far from family and loved ones. May you return home soon!

Donna and I attended a local salute to the men & women who have served in uniform earlier. I intend to post some photos tomorrow.

Boy, on top of the great victory of so many Dems yesterday, we get the surprise departure of Rumsfeld. Appeared that some reporters were (rightfully or not) upset that G.W. lied to them (according to how you view his statements last week) about Donald Rumsfeld remaining in his position. I watched both the Presidential news conference this morning and the later presentation of Bob Gates as the Sec. of Defense nominee. Pretty damn interesting television!

I actually spent a good part of last night (until around 11:15PM) and much of today, switching around from CNN to MSNBC, CSPAN, local stations and even for laughs Fox News. Absolutely fascinating stuff all over the place. Great seeing the talking heads switching gears as the results began coming in and even this morning when the announcement was made.

Interesting that while Da Arnold easily retained his office he had no 'coattails' to speak off when it came to state-wide offices. Except for the position of Insurance Commissioner, which went to a Republican (beating a Dem accused of taking large amounts of cash from the insurance industry), Democrats won most of the high-profile spots. Senator Feinstein easily won re-election and former governor Jerry Brown was elected to the Attorney General post.

Back in New York it really wasn't a surprise to see Hillary Clinton easily get re-elected, despite her being hated by some pretty powerful folks. It's on to '08!

Most of the Propositions went down to defeat, but some transportation related ones supported by the Governor and many Dems passed.

On the job front, I appear to have got an "On-Call Librarian" spot here in Orange County and should start training in a week or so. Another interview, for a similar position, seemed to go pretty well also.

Feel real good about today's interview, but we won't know for at least another week. I have two more scheduled this week. On the plus side, Donna will be starting her new job on the 20th.

Since everybody else in the blogosphere has made some prediction I might as well get in my two cents.

I expect the Democrats to be the majority in the House, but by not as much as we'd like to see. It will be difficult, should the GOP members vote as a bloc, to begin any serious investigations on just what has been going on in the Defense Dept. and the White House for the past six years. Also, you know that his Smugness and Master Dick will do all they can to obstruct any type of oversight into their actions.

Sadly, I don't believe the Dems will have quite enough seats to regain the Senate, although it will cut down on the clout of some GOP members. Given some moderates still among the Republicans I think that changes could be brought about unless the split is such that Master Dick has the deciding vote.

Here at Chez Chaput we'll be splitting our votes among Democrats, Greens and the Peace & Freedom Party. Actually, I'm the one going for Third Parties in those cases where I have decided to vote against any incumbent. We're also voting for some of the Propositions & Measure, against others. I won't bore you with which tonight.

Unless things look especially nasty early tomorrow evening (remember the three hour difference) from New York, I don't expect to have any comments until Wednesday. I just know that some of you will actually be interested. :-)

You would think that being 'between jobs' I'd have much more time to blog, but I'm finding that looking for work seems to be taking up a lot of my time.

Had one interview this past Monday, but I'm not sure how it went. I think I'm too old in some cases or come across as too Nu Yawk in others, if you know what I mean. I have three interviews scheduled for next week, both at public and academic libraries. Two are for part-time/on-call positions but I'd like to think that those would be a foot-in-the-door to full-time.

Still waiting to hear from several other places, where I've done phone interviews. Yet another place has informed me that my resume has been passed along to the Hiring Manager, so I'll take that as a positive note. Should I even get an interview at this last place I'd feel that I was moving to a whole different level in my career. I'd like to think of it as a "dream job", but that might put a jinx on the thing. Trust me, I'll let you know if I do get called in and you'll never believe it in a million years!

Quick political comments....

Senator Kerry, please get a professional joke writer next time, okay?

To paraphrase one of those 'man on the street' comments in today's paper: "Kerry's not running for anything, so who cares?"

In all my years in Brooklyn & in Connecticut suburbs I've never the number of election signs endorsing one candidate or ballot measure as I do here in The OC. If you see one sign in a yard, you'll easily see a half dozen in the next one. Surprisingly I have only spotted a couple of bumperstickers on cars, but have seen several people standing on corners twirling banners with the names of candidates.

Speaking of which, the concept of 'spinners' is new to me. Apparently, businesses (geneally real estate agents it seems) hire folks to stand at intersections twirling large signs advertising a sale or 'open house.' You even see them listed as a job in the Classified section of the local papers. Most seem to be young men or teenage boys, but I have spotted a few females. Occasionally they'll where a silly hat or something to further get your attention and I even saw one Santa Claus the other day.

Have I mentioned how much I love California?