Fixated by the TV in a Flooded Disney Land

Still in front of the TV. Republican Senate, Republican House, and maybe a Republican President. Tom Daschall’s already gone, what are the Democrats going to do now? And what good are the Greens doing anyway?
This is all so very strange to watch, especially from across the world.
I don’t think we’re going to know who’s president any time soon.
Venice is difficult to put into words. If Disney Land built a new theme park and then flooded it, you’d probably have a close facsimile (with less churches and more rides). Picturesque doesn’t do the city justice, it’s absolutely unreal. It’s a little New Orleans, a little Italy, and a lot of shopping.
We spent yesterday wandering the streets blindly. The city is ideal for it, because there’s no way you can navigate while walking the streets anyway. If you want to know where you’re going, you take the canals. All the roads change names and numbers every couple of hundred meters anyway.
Mary and Tiff love it. I’m comfy wandering the streets, and the various churches are nice, but all in all it’s a little too touristy and a little too crowded. Like Neuschwanstein and certain places in Rome, this place has more English speakers in it than Italians.
St. Mark’s was the highlight of the cathedrals. Like all the others here, I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside. The cathedral was built to house the remains of the Apostle Mark, supposedly swept away from Egypt and brought back to Christian safety in Venice. The panels above the main doors tell the story. Like everything else here, half of the more interesting aspects of the church cost money to go see. We think we spotted Mark’s little relic box (I forget the actual term), but we had to pay money to get closer to the altar. The treasury cost extra to see, of course, as did access to the second story and the tower. What was free was the exquisite gold mosaic ceiling (difficult to hide) and, of course, the outside architecture. The building is an interesting mix of what I think is Romanesque and Gothic. It has a rose window on the north (or south?) end of the transept, rather than the east of the Nave (where you typically would find it). That entire side of the church sports more gothic design than the rest of the building, and was obviously the last to be completed. It gives it an odd side-to-side transition, rather than the radiating out from the alter like you get in some older churches, or the expansion from the nave and transept like you’d find in others. I’d love to hear it’s history, but I’m not going to get that yet.
Several other churches had little machines that charged to light the well painted ceilings (typically Baroque or Renaissance oil paintings). I had to give in and drop a Euro into a couple of them, but after a while I stopped caring.
We saw another saint, mostly whole, in one of the other churches. For some reason, one of his/her items was a pair of spurs. I imagine there’s quite a story there. The saint’s name was like Sammo or Sallo or some such, I don’t really remember. Looked like a recent one, though.
I hope to visit St. Sebastian today. We’re also going to see our last art piece today. I don’t have its name handy either, but you’ll hear about it tonight.
Our British friends invited us again to give them a call whenever we’re on the island. Tiff and I think we might. The lake district they live in is only about 3 hours by train from London, and we really can’t afford to tour around London this trip anyway. We still have some time to figure it all out, but that may be an exciting alternative.