I Suck At The Avengers

Avengers assemble!

Today has been quite the busy day. After all, today is election day for the town of Norwell. The biggest item on the ballot, other than my name... and my ego, is the budget override. For anyone curious, in Massachusetts, a statute known as Proposition 2.5 (two and a half) was passed in 1982. The statute gets its name from the maximum percentage that a municipality is allowed to increase its annual taxes by. Thus, a municipality cannot increase its annual taxes by more than 2.5 percent. And naturally, there is a way to circumvent that statute. That method: an override, which allows the town to increase the percentage over 2.5%.

For those who are interested, the override did end up passing. More taxes = fun! And as a side note, I apparently did win for my bid to be a library trustee. Go me. So in terms of the library, I guess the override will help make my elected position a little easier. Although truth be told, the library is like the Rodney Dangerfield of Norwell. It gets no respect as evident from the fact that it is the only department that had its budget slashed away at by the Selectmen. No other department had that done. I'm guessing none of the three Selectmen use the public library. Hopefully the newly elected Selectmen will.

Anyway, voting aside, my parents sprang a little surprise on me today. Calling me bright and early in the morning, my parents invited my family to dim sum. My relatives have been visiting for the week. As it was their last day here, they wanted to go out for some dim sum. And like I enjoy saying: you win some, you dim sum. Or maybe it's: you dim sum, you lose some? Eh, whatever.

As the dutiful son, I naturally had to go. And nothing is more relaxing than getting a two year old daughter and a two month old daughter ready to go at the spur of the moment. Fun fun. We ended up eating dim sum at the Grand Chinatown located in Quincy. The food was good. I enjoyed it a lot better than the China Pearl, but I may be biased only because my two year old daughter (Briana) had her 100 day party there. Don't ask. The worst part was finding parking there. Who knew it would be so busy there on a Saturday?

When dim sum was over and my duty was fulfilled, I headed back home only to spend what seemed like hours mowing the lawn. Luckily for me, my friend (Marc) came just at the right time. Incidentally, my friend (Christine) also had stopped by a few minutes before Marc. I didn't get to chat much with Christine, but she was coming from some party somewhere nearby and decided to drop off some Tupperware. I didn't get the full scoop. I'm sure Karen would know better than me.

Marc and I, however, had plans for the night. Those plans: the Avengers. Now, I suck at the Avengers. Okay, so maybe not really. It was definitely fun hanging out with just Marc tonight. It was like a geekfest, considering the fact that we both enjoy comic books and things of that nature.

For me, it was also the first time I got to watch any movie in 3D. And no, I don't consider the Hannah Montana concert that I watched in 3D a movie. And yes, I watched the Hannah Montana concert because my niece (Kaleigh) wanted to watch it. (Sure, I did.) I must say, IMax 3D is pretty neat.

Needless to say, the movie was awesome. Of course, how could it not be? Joss Whedon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame directed the movie and wrote the screenplay. He can't do any wrong... even if he created Dollhouse. Plus, it's the Avengers! Earth's mightiest heroes!

All in all, it was a good busy day. I definitely had a blast eating at Bertucci's for dinner again for the second straight day and watching the Avengers with Marc. The geekfest was a nice way to end the night.

I Suck At Getting Nomination Papers

It's official. As of this morning, I began my political road to the White House. I think I was actually the first person to see the Town Clerk at town hall this morning. It wasn't because I was excited to begin my political career. I just happened to be up early thanks to my newborn daughter (Bridget). So why not take a trip down to town hall when the office first opens, right?

The reason I went to town hall in the first place was to get nomination papers. Now, I suck at getting nomination papers. Truth be told, I probably would not have even gotten nomination papers were it not for the fact that I was encouraged earlier in the week to run for an elected position. That elected position: Board of Trustee for the Public Library.

Apparently, my name came up as a possible candidate for trustee. It's a weird feeling when you hear that your name came up among people who are outside your circle of friends. It can either be a good thing that people think so highly of me or a bad thing that people don't think so highly of me.

After speaking with one of the current board members to figure out what was involved with being an elected trustee and how much power I could usurp and wield, I decided to give it the old college try. Apparently, the position has a term of three years. I have underwear that is older than that. So three years should be nothing.

Of course, now I have to figure out the actual process to becoming an elected official. It seems that the first step is getting enough signatures of certified residents so that my name can even appear on the ballot. That should be fun considering that I know so few people in the town. Wish me luck on that.