You’ve heard and seen the months of annoying campaign ads. You’ve endured constant polling calls. Now it’s your turn to impact the election. Whether you’re voting for McCain or Obama, just make sure you vote!

I won’t tell you who I’m voting for in about 6 hours when the polls open, but if you look closely at this post, I think you’ll figure it out.

Fall is finally here and Oktoberfest has begun in Munich. Even though I’m not a beer drinker, it’s a fun fall tradition and who could say no to a huge plate of traditional Bavarian food! I’ve never been to Munich, but you can check out the photos from when we went to Oktoberfest at the (now closed) Hofbrauhaus.

Then take a look at the real thing coutesy of Yahoo! News.

Now that the Beijing Olympics are over … well, they were pretty much over after the first week really, but that’s besides the point … you’ve probably seen all that you want to see about the 2008 Summer Games. However, take a look at the Olympic website for a really cool archive of all past Olympic Games, both Winter and Summer. It shows all medals, torches, logos, major stories, number of participants and much more.

Check it out here.

I haven’t posted much about the Olympics this time around partly because the Summer Games don’t interest me as much as the Winter Games. Unless you live in a cave, you have most certainly heard about the most interesting story to come out of Beijing. Of course, I’m talking about Michael Phelps. Everyone hoped he would beat Mark Spitz’s record and win 8 gold medals at these games. Yesterday, he did it. Oh, and did i mention he also set a world record in every single race except one where he “only” set an Olympic record?

There’s not much I can say that hasn’t already been said too many times over, but if you want to relive all 8 of his exciting races, visit NBC’s site for video of each and every race.

What sites am I following to keep up with the Olympics? Mainly, I’m checking out www.nbcolympics.com. Besides Olympic news and updates, it also features a huge amount of streaming video. I’d rather be watching it on TV in HD, but it’s a good way to catch on random and more obscure events.

I’ve also been checking in on the official Olympic site at www.beijing2008.cn. It might not be accessible from some places because one of the side effects of the Olympics being in China is that the official site is in the .cn domain. The Chinese domain is blocked on some networks because a lot of hacking and attacks tend to come out of China.

There are so many ways to make free money in this world. Unfortunately, I never think of them first. I say this because a guy in New Zealand tried to sell his soul on an online auction site. After the site said he couldn’t continue the auction, the owner of the Hell Pizza chain offered to buy it for $3800! ($NZ5001) The deed of ownership will be hanging in one of their stores.

Check out the whole story on CNN. And by the way, if you want to make an offer on my soul, let me know. I’ll give you a good deal!

Maybe it’s the same part of me that makes me find Jay Leno’s Headlines so entertaining, but Photoshop Disasters is the funniest site I’ve seen in ages. It’s the type of site that makes you laugh out loud at your desk. It’s a collection of the most horrendously botched photo editing jobs that appear in commercial stuff. It really can’t be captured in words. You just need to check it out!

Check it out now at http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com.

A few posts ago I promised a brief review of the restaurant that I went to in Lancaster last weekend. The restaurant was an Amish buffet called The Family Cupboard. You can also order meals, but we went for the buffet. Most buffets are basically a smorgasbord of mediocre food. We were leery that this would be the same. We had picked it out randomly from the Internet.

When we walked in and saw that there was a fair number of Amish/Mennonite folks eating there, we became more confident that the food would be good. As it turns out, it was really good. I went back for three plates plus dessert. There was a delicious meatloaf, buttered noodles that were clearly homemade and definately from a PA Dutch/German recipe. These sat alongside glazed ham, stuffing and seafood, pasta lima beans and on and on. The salad bar was your usual salad bar. I was glad to see it was all fresh and crispy, but what really made it special was a delicious house dressing.

For dessert, there was Turkey Hill ice cream as well as an assortment of desserts, but but what really caught my attention was the pies. I had a piece of pecan pie (my favorite) which wasn’t so great, but I went back for another piece and selected shoo-fly pie. It was delicious!

You can view their menu and get directions at FamilyCupboard.com.

Here in New Jersey when we think of a delicious breakfast, the mind immediately conjures images of a diner. I’m particular partial to a bacon and cheese omelet, with hash browns, some toast and a bottomless cup of diner coffee. However, sometimes you don’t have time to spend in a diner. That’s where my second favorite breakfast place comes into play. I like just about anything from McDonald’s breakfast menu, but the item that most people associate with McDonald’s breakfast is the Egg McMuffin. It was created by Herb Peterson in 1972. After 36 years and more sandwiches sold than he ever imagined, I’m sure, Herb passed away at the age or 89.

Some people’s legacy is on a headstone, Herb’s will live on on the McDonald’s menu board.

Read his obituary on CNN.

In an attempt to slowly start trying to get caught up with life, I’ve started posting stuff on eBay again. Check out what I’m selling and feel free to bid on something at members.ebay.com/aboutme/michaelgatti.

Whether you agree or disagree with the opinions of these people that are protesting the presence of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, you have to check out the pink protest sign on the right side of the photo. For those of you who don’t know HTML, that’s a close tag, like what you’d put at the end of a war. haha

Clicking the photo will take you to Flickr, but you can see even more of this great photographer’s stuff at Daily Dose of Imagery.

Every so often you find a website that is absolutely hilarious. Maybe it’s the stress, but I couldn’t stop laughing at this site. It’s got a crazy long URL (www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com). You’ll no longer need to wonder how many 5 year olds you can defend yourself against. I went to a birthday party for a five year old yesterday. I felt very comfortable knowing that if they rose up, I could’ve fended them off!

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I like the cold weather. I enjoy getting all bundled up and going out in sub-freezing weather. Sometimes I don’t even get bundled up.

However, even I have a limit. After reading this interesting article about Yakutsk, a city in Siberia, I’m pretty sure it’s WAY past my limit!

Read the piece in The Independent.

For the past thirty years, I’ve spent my New Year’s Eves with my grandfather watching the ball drop in Times Square. This year, however, I was able to send a message to those brave souls that will spend the evening watching the ball drop in person.

You can too. Read about it at CNN.com then go do it right here.

When you you hear about Cheyenne Mountain Complex, you probably think about a super secure military facility, men & women of our Armed Forces protecting us from attack from the sky, and maybe even the TV show Stargate SG-1 (a personal favorite of mine).

On this special day every year, the men and women of NORAD that serve 2400 feet under the ground add a very special mission to their other critical tasks.

As they have for the 52 years, NORAD will follow Santa Claus on his flight around the world. This year it’s greatly enhanced by teaming up with Google Earth to make it fun and educational. (But mainly fun!)

Track Santa at noradsanta.org.