I'm not an ardent McCain supporter, as if you haven't noticed. I'm still torn about whether I should hold my nose and vote for him against Obama, or whether I should vote my conscience and, unfortunately, "waste" one on Bob Barr. The thing with Bob is that, although we agree in principle, we have very divergent views on facial hair. I can't handle that mustache and am having a very difficult time justifying a ratifying vote.

Caprese salad or Insalata Caprese is famous enough to have its own Wikipedia entry, and serious food lovers wait all year for fresh tomato season so they can make this salad, literally translated as "Salad in the style of Capri." Of course the traditional salad trio of tomatoes, buffalo mozarella, and fresh basil leaves is just a starting point for Caprese Salad lovers.

Tomorrow is my daughter's last day as a shift manager at our local coffee shop. There was no resignation letter. Technically, she is not resigning --she's just not going to be on the schedule since she'll be in Vancouver for her second year of college. The rule is as long as she works once every six weeks, she maintains her employee status. Last year, her manager called her every six weeks and paid her a couple of bucks for the call to maintain her active status. That way, she was able to slide right back into the job without a lot of fuss.

Today I was looking for something to Distract me. Yes, that is "distract" with a capital "D". My own blogroll had been read and I had reached the end of my usual internet haunts. It was BlogHer's Canadian blogroll to my rescue. Here's a sampling of some of the much needed distractions I found there today. Much has been said about Canada's performance at Beijing Summer Olympics. wants to know what you think.

Women consumers influence 80% of all vehicles purchased in the United States, and buy approximately 50% of all new and used cars and 40% of all trucks sold in the US. And yet, according to Marketing2Women, http://m2w.biz/fast_facts.php 74% feel misunderstood by automotive marketers.

Shortly after the BlogHer 08 conference, I met fellow Seattelite Debbie from Delicious Baby. We talked about a bunch of stuff that's relevant to travelbloggers including what makes me, in my role as the contributing editor for travel, pay attention. Debbie suggested that I post my guidelines. What makes me stop and take notice? What makes a travelblog leap off the travel list here on the BlogHer site and on to my own blogroll? (And did you know, I see every new blog that's added?

Various media outlets are reporting a 16-year-old student has died after a shooting at a Knoxville, Tennessee high school. On MSNBC.com: Knoxville chief deputy Bill Roehl said a suspect was taken into custody Thursday morning after the shooting shortly after 8 a.m. at the Central High School cafeteria. Authorities haven't released the names of the victim, who died at University of Tennessee Medical Center, or the suspect. Roehl said no other students were injured.

Right now the blogosphere seems relatively quiet. Many people are watching the Olympics or they are preparing for the upcoming Democratic and Republican National Conventions. While the plethora of blog-worthy news items never seems to dissipate, what I will be doing in the little spare time I have during this quiet time is reviewing some of the Blogher members listed in the Race, Ethnicity & Culture section.

Over the next three days, an exciting and unusual event is unfolding in the sky. First, two swift planets, Mercury and Venus -- combined, these signify artistic communication -- unite in Virgo, the sign of the craftsman. This would be nice enough by itself, due to the ease and idealism it brings. But there's another huge factor in the mix -- Uranus! It's impossible to predict what will happen when the Awakener is stimulated by faster planets, but do watch for completely surprising, even shocking events.

It's amazing what people will do to get out of work. I heard tale that there are laaaaaaaaaazy women out there who love having their cervix manipulated in order to have a catheter shoved through to their uterus so an embryo that was created out of an egg that they had surgically removed from their body can be transferred back. All just to get out of that 8 a.m. staff meeting. You know that kind of woman also is the type who looooooooooooooooves to waste time with things like having mammograms or colo-rectal exams. Slackers.

Last week, I asked people to point out great feminist writing on the internet. Liz Henry suggested two posts that address racism and feminism, On Feminism, Part 1 and On Feminism, Part 2 by The Angry Black Woman.

Over the last few weeks, the Internet has been abuzz with sci-fi fan reaction to writer Orson Scott Card's most recent posts for the Mormon Times (Science on gays falls short and State job is not to redefine marriage) about homosexuality and gay marriage. Though he has been outspoken on the issue of homosexuality as far back as 1990, it has only recently attracted great attention.