Free Coffee at Starbucks!

If you are in the U.S. and are reading this, you can go to your local Starbucks and get a free coffee for voting today. Sadly for us, this offer does not apply to expats voting absentee. I even asked! ("No," said the barista. "We're not doing that here. But I would like to know who you voted for.")

Apparently, there's some other offers you can exploit in the U.S. if you voted. For a list, go to my friend Kavita's blog at www.bellevueblogette.com.

Here's a picture of me (voted absentee in Illinois) and fellow expat Tanya (voted absentee in Nebraska) enjoying our NOT-FREE coffee from Starbucks. We should look sad-- sincer we had to pay for ours-- but we're not. We hoping/thinking/wishing that our candidate will be the new president-elect tomorrow. And that put a smile on our face.

Where in the World Will You Vote?

Today, a very special message from my good friend Gwyneth Paltrow. I mean, obviously we know each other and we're good friends, since all Americans in London know each other. We're both Americans in London! We both have children! We have so much in common! We meet all the time for lattes in North London. She said the fact that I live South of the River doesn't bother her. That's why I love Gwyneth. She's so open minded. 

In any case, I got sent this video from Democrats Abroad almost two months ago, but I'm just getting around to posting it now only because I finally sent out my absentee ballot request yesterday. Since I'll be voting Democratic in Cook County, Illinois, I expect they'll be sending me back two ballots, just to make sure that Obama gets elected. Just like they did for John F. Kennedy in 1964.

If you are an American living abroad and you happen to be reading this blog, please remember to request an absentee ballot for yourself. The website www.votefromabroad.org couldn't make it easier to get an absentee ballot. 

I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican (I happen to love a lot of Republicans, I'm just not one of them), just make sure that you vote.

Thanks, Gwyneth, for your contribution to MarathonMum today. See you next week for a soy milk latte.

Super Duper Tuesday

Yesterday was Super Duper Tuesday. Why was it Super Duper, you ask? Because:

• We voted in the Illinois Presidential Primary. Isn't the Absentee Ballot a beautiful thing?

• It was also Pancake Day, a joyful British tradition (see above). 

First, the presidential primary (with photo to follow). Even though we haven't lived in the U.S. for nine years, we still get to vote. We also get to file annually with the IRS, so if anyone complains about the first statement, I retort with that salient fact. Thing One, Thing Two and I have been discussing the presidential race frequently, talking about the positions of the candidates and who they are. One afternoon before the Iowa caucuses we sat down with a big newspaper spread showing pictures of all the candidates. I pointed to the Republican side of the spread and said, "We don't care about that side. We're Democrats."

Thing One is most impressed with Barack Obama's environmental positions, and because Thing Two does whatever Thing One does, he feels the same way. The feminist in me made sure that they understood that there was no reason why a woman couldn't be president. 

So yesterday before we went off to our Pancake Day party, we sat down with my absentee ballot and I showed them how it worked. It was like our very own "Super Duper Tuesday" (as the BBC called it) polling place. I also had to explain that it will be a long time before we know who the next president will be.

Following the voting, we set off for the party, where the boys got to flip and eat traditional British pancakes, which are more like crepes and do not resemble American pancakes at all. Pancake Day is a big deal in England-- all the supermarkets have a large display of ingredients because they assume nearly everyone will eat one that day. 

The boys had their fill of pancakes at the party, followed by general merriment and joy. And that, my friends, made for a Super Duper Tuesday.