and they're racing

For the past week (and perhaps then some) the media has been fairly well dominated by the two big races being run today - the Melbourne Cup and the US election.

As Bells was saying yesterday, since last year the first Tuesday in November has meant not only the running of the Melbourne Cup, but also a public holiday in Canberra.

Whilst lots of people are pretty upset about this, I'm quite happy to take the opportunity to throw on the pony frock and spend some time with my friends.

Like last year I packed up my pony cupcakes and spent the afternoon at J-Mo's house.

To make the chocolate ponies for on the top I used the very high tech baking-paper/freezer bag (I'm not sure that freezer paper/baking bag would work so well...)method described here, using pics from here and (I think) here as my templates.
Just quietly, I think they turned out rather smashingly!

Since I think everyone should have a pony outfit for Cup day, and since it was little Jelly Bean's first Cup day, I also did some non-cupcake pony crafting last night,
turning this:



into this:


I think I want one for myself now too ;o)

I used this applique pattern, and ironed the pony on with the help of some visoflex (is that what that iron-on stuff is called??)

So, onto that other race.
It has really had so much coverage in the media here that I can't help but be interested in the result.
As far as politicians go, I think Obama is pretty ok - I saw him on Oprah talking about his book, back in 2004 when he had just become a Senator, I think, and thought he came across as a an interesting and genuine guy.

I've read the articles about how he can't lose and articles about why he won't win.
I'll be watching the results from my desk tomorrow -
starting with news.com, The NY Times, the ABC and SBS
Does anyone have other suggestions for good/interesting/fun coverage?

In any case, it's going to be intriguing to see what happens...