Passports Away!

Yesterday afternoon, my Canadian passport renewal application was dropped off with UPS and is now on its way to Gatineau, QC, for processing. Kent also stopped by a post office to apply for his US passport. Mine should be back in three-four weeks, his in six.

I feel a little naked at the moment. The renewal process requires I submit my existing passport and my birth certificate. I have copies of my long-form birth certificate in my files (leftovers from my green card processing) so I can still return to Canada if desired but not having all of my documentation immediately accessible makes me feel a little vulnerable.

( Idle musings about guarantors... )

Passports Away!

Yesterday afternoon, my Canadian passport renewal application was dropped off with UPS and is now on its way to Gatineau, QC, for processing. Kent also stopped by a post office to apply for his US passport. Mine should be back in three-four weeks, his in six.

I feel a little naked at the moment. The renewal process requires I submit my existing passport and my birth certificate. I have copies of my long-form birth certificate in my files (leftovers from my green card processing) so I can still return to Canada if desired but not having all of my documentation immediately accessible makes me feel a little vulnerable.

( Idle musings about guarantors... )

Maryland Court Says State Cannot Bar Same-Sex Couples from Marriage Protections

While this is a significant victory, it's only from a circuit court in Baltimore. The chain of appeals will take a long time to complete so I'll save the celebration for a positive ruling from the state's highest court.

( Full press release from Equality Maryland here. )

Maryland Court Says State Cannot Bar Same-Sex Couples from Marriage Protections

While this is a significant victory, it's only from a circuit court in Baltimore. The chain of appeals will take a long time to complete so I'll save the celebration for a positive ruling from the state's highest court.

( Full press release from Equality Maryland here. )

Canadian Electoral Gastronomics

Advice to Canadian voters: Don't eat your ballot.

Of all of the things I've fantasized about doing in a ballot booth, I can honestly say that eating the ballot has never occurred to me.

Canadian Electoral Gastronomics

Advice to Canadian voters: Don't eat your ballot.

Of all of the things I've fantasized about doing in a ballot booth, I can honestly say that eating the ballot has never occurred to me.

New Horizons under way

I was hugely relieved to hear that New Horizons, the Pluto fast fly-by probe, was successfully launched yesterday.

I've been fascinated by photos returned by planetary probes since I was old enough to read about the early probes to Mars & Venus. I was too young to understand the importance of Pioneer 10 & 11, but was utterly absorbed by the Voyager 1 & 2 photos of Jupiter & Saturn, then the later images of Uranus & Neptune. With dwindling resources for planetary missions and huge gobs of money being sucked up by the shuttle program, I always wondered if we'd manage to get photos of Pluto in my lifetime. While we still may not get there soon enough to see an atmosphere, unless there's a disaster we should see something.

Not having the plutonium generator blow up on the launch pad or upper atmosphere was a nice thing too. That whole Cosmos 954 thing 20+ years ago was a little too close to home.

New Horizons under way

I was hugely relieved to hear that New Horizons, the Pluto fast fly-by probe, was successfully launched yesterday.

I've been fascinated by photos returned by planetary probes since I was old enough to read about the early probes to Mars & Venus. I was too young to understand the importance of Pioneer 10 & 11, but was utterly absorbed by the Voyager 1 & 2 photos of Jupiter & Saturn, then the later images of Uranus & Neptune. With dwindling resources for planetary missions and huge gobs of money being sucked up by the shuttle program, I always wondered if we'd manage to get photos of Pluto in my lifetime. While we still may not get there soon enough to see an atmosphere, unless there's a disaster we should see something.

Not having the plutonium generator blow up on the launch pad or upper atmosphere was a nice thing too. That whole Cosmos 954 thing 20+ years ago was a little too close to home.