Don’t miss this opportunity. It only comes once every four years! We’ll be stuck with our President for a while, and if you didn’t take this chance to make your voice heard, you could regret it.

AND, besides that, many places have other important ballot initiatives for you to sound off on. Should gambling be allowed near your home? Should marriage be allowed for everyone?

PLUS, there are Congressional-level and lower elections we need to be concerned with. Sometimes these touch us much more personally and more quickly than the Presidential election.

I understand if you may be disgusted with all the debating and arguing, I sure am. But it’s time for the big pay off. Cast your vote. Negate the vote of someone you disagree with. Make your citizenship count.

Make your voice heard! Get out there and vote, Tuesday, November 6!

Just to be clear.

I’ve been watching this silly debate about our President’s citizenship, and I’m certain there’s nothing worth debating. I did a good bit of marketing work for the Office of Personnel Management, and I’ve seen the forms that need to be filled out when one applies for a government job. I’ve got confidence that when Obama first came to Washington, his paperwork was well worked through. His birth certificate, passport, resume and urine sample have all been screened. They have already gone down in his PERMANENT RECORD.

The silliest argument of all that I’ve heard is that people don’t trust the certificate that has been shown because Obama’s birth certificate is a CERTIFICATE OF LIVE BIRTH. Well kids, take a look in your scrapbook, safe or underwear drawer. Wherever you keep your important papers.

I’ve got a Certificate of Live Birth, too. Not only that, I’ve got a COPY. It’s issued one month after my birth and it has a raised seal from the DC Department of Human Resources. (Accordingly, I updated my About page.)

Take a look. I’m curious. Who out there is holding an original BIRTH CERTIFICATE?

I’m blaming this on government double-speak. Why call something a “certificate of live birth” when you’re really talking about a birth certificate?

“It’s our duty as parents to take you to places like this, because when you’re grown up and you’re a garbage truck driver, you won’t be able to afford to do these things.”

That’s what the mother behind me was telling her son as we were waiting in line for the tour of the Mount Vernon mansion. Her husband had been reading a Mt. Vernon guidebook to the family of four for the previous ten minutes. The pre-teen kids were rolling their eyes, but were laughing.

Mt. Vernon, the plantation home of George Washington, is in remarkably good shape. There are still original pieces of furniture there that our first president used. The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association has preserved the plantation the way it was about 200 years ago, so you can see the mansion, slave quarters, gardens and farm from 1799.

1. You will need a full day to visit Mount Vernon. They have a nice food court and a full-service restaurant on site to make your day more comfortable.
2. Before you go, check the Calendar of Events on the website to see if there is a special event you can take advantage of while you’re there.
3. Start your visit at their new orientation center, then proceed to the tour of the mansion. During the summer, lines can be long to get into the mansion, but the tour isn’t long.
4. Use your time waiting for the mansion tour to study the map. After the tour of the mansion, it’s up to you to decide what parts of the plantation you’d like to see, and it’s a bit spread out.
5. There is LOTS of green space for kids with energy to run around, and the Mt. Vernon staff is pretty liberal about letting kids run. Enjoy.
6. There are some fabulous views of the Potomac from the back of the mansion, a wonderful place for photos.

There are a couple of cruise lines that will take you there by boat, a trip which adds to the fun. We took the Potomac Riverboat Company from the Torpedo Factory dock in Old Town Alexandria. The open-air boat has plenty of seating, an air-conditioned level and a snack bar. Yes, there were even rest rooms on board. A tour guide provided a narration of sights along the river that corresponded with our visit of Mt.Vernon. The boat left Alexandria at 10:15 a.m. and returned at 5:30 p.m. Once you get to the dock at Mt. Vernon, you can either walk up the hill or take a shuttle bus. I recommend taking the bus, regardless of your energy level, since this will drop you off at the new orientation center, and you’ll be able to see a great little film that’s been put together about George Washington, and experience Mt. Vernon in the ‘right’ order.

Keep in mind that Mount Vernon is privately owned, and there is a reasonable admission fee.

Miraculously, I was able to text Twitter updates for much of the morning, so Mom and Dad could keep tabs on us from Pennsylvania. That was nice.

We took photos to fill in the blanks. Luckily we set our sights on the back of the Mall, after following updates on television and the innovative project http://twitter.com/carfreejan20.

I’m grateful we followed the advice we heard and used all the technology available to get updates.

It was discouraging on the way home to meet a father and his daughter from Illinois that ended up watching the ceremony on a TV in Starbucks, and to hear from purple ticket holders that weren’t granted admittance.

That was some launch party! What a great time. It was nice to see the front yard of the nation used for music and celebration again. And it was a surprise to see the Obamas and Bidens in attendance. I certainly hope that our new neighbors come by often.

Obama visited The Washington Post today, and it stirred up two city blocks and untold numbers of office workers, who quickly got word of who was in the area. The Post’s neighbors are accustomed to VIPs darting in and out of the building. Condoleeza Rice was here earlier this week and no one batted an eye. But they had to lock down the block for Obama, and everyone knew what that meant. So people just poured out of their offices waiting for him to appear. And the POTUS-elect strolled through the newsroom shaking hands. No one got any work done.

W had his big press conference yesterday and the press gave him some face time. But why did SO MANY front pages choose to give him the same kind of face time? Is there a conspiracy in the layout departments of our nation’s newspapers? What gives?