One more week

Well, it’s been a not-so-quiet week here in Lake Wobegon. Client activity is ramping up, for one in particular. They’ve been anticipating a certain event for, oh, about two years now, and it’s finally coming.

Just when I’m going on holiday. Ha!

Only one more week until I hit Hawaii’s shores. Great stuff.

Not much else to report, although it does seem that the media have come around—finally—to the fact that Hillary Clinton doesn’t have a shot in hell at the Democratic nomination. I initially wondered why she hadn’t dropped out by now, but I’ve been reading a few things that make sense.

First, there’s the matter of her debt. She’s loaned her campaign something like $6 million recently, and she might be sticking around to fundraise for it. Second, conceding now would mean that Obama is the nominee, and then he would face two likely defeats—in West Virginia and Kentucky—which would call him into question as a candidate. (Those states don’t really matter, delegate-wise, because they’re so small; Oregon is the only contest left that could have an impact, and Obama is expected to win that handily.)

Third, she may be jockeying for a VP nomination. I don’t think that’s likely, for a number of reasons.

Word on the street is that Obama will declare victory after Oregon. Good. Then we can all get on with our lives, maybe.

Anyway, we’ll see how it all shakes down.

Back to the trip, I ran into a former colleague of mine, also an American expat, in the lobby this morning. He marvelled that this would be my first trip back home (it’s been 16 months) and remarked that I was in for a culture-shock moment.

I suspect that I am. Should be interesting.

Thank you, Tar Heels

Nine days to go. Nine. Niiiiieeeeene. Single digits, baby.

Looks like my man Barack Obama laid the smack down in North Carolina, a decisive victory.

Indiana is apparently still too close to call, some three hours after polls closed there (or is it two? I can’t tell because they, like Queensland, don’t acknowledge Daylight Saving Time), although at this time Clinton holds a razor-thin lead in the Hoosier State.

Hillary is addressing supporters in Indianapolis at the moment, but I can’t be bothered to go over to the television on the wall to watch. She’s probably talking about how North Carolina isn’t one of the “states that matter” or some such patronising (elitist?) bullshit.

I was hoping it was a concession speech—not just for Indiana, but for the whole damn thing. It’s time to bow out, Hillary. (Actually, it was time after Super Tuesday, but whatever.)

It’s time for this to be over.

UPDATE: It looks like there is one county holding out in the Indiana race, and it’s Lake County. That’s where Gary is, and if you know Indiana, Gary is within spitting distance of Chicago. It’s also heavily African-American. Lake County usually waits until absentee ballots are cast, which is why we’re still waiting. CNN is reporting Hillary over Obama 51-49, with 91% reporting. Gary just might put Obama over the top there.

It’s coming

A week from Friday.

That’s when I leave on my globe-circumnavigating holiday, a.k.a. the Ed Hoover World Tour ’08.

To review, the destinations are thus:

• Honolulu
• Dallas/Fort Worth
• Washington, D.C.
• London
• Paris
• Amsterdam
• Hong Kong

The countdown begins. Two weeks from this moment I will be at Starplex Amphitheatre Smirnoff Music Centre Superpages.com Centre in Dallas watching Radiohead, in only their eighth show of the tour. Giddy up. I hope my video-calling feature works, so the poor saps back here who can’t go to the concert can get the full effect of what they’re missing. Ha ha!

I know I’ve been shit at blogging recently, but rest assured I will document my trip fully, and will include pictures from the aforementioned destinations—taken with my awesome new camera.

So now I count down the days and try to concentrate at work. Ha.