Mellow Weekend
Pramas was sick all weekend and spent two days holed up in the bedroom so Kate and I had a pretty mellow couple of days. No Easter baskets this year, though Kate did color a dozen eggs or so. Kate and I went out to a showing of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, which was way better than the rubber turtle suit movie from 1990. We got outside a bit to enjoy the spring sunshine with the bunnies and I managed to get the yard hacked down to HOA-approved levels before the rains started last night. I didn't do any cooking all weekend, unless you count throwing some frozen veggies, packaged udon and some tofu in a pot. Chris and I finally watched Oldboy, which I'd gotten him for Christmas. Yow, that movie is hardcore. I stayed off message boards and barely checked my e-mail. I helped Kate sort through outgrown clothes and books. Pretty mundane, nothing at all special, but I was able to knock a couple extra things off my To Do list so that's something.
I woke up with a headache and scratchy throat this morning but I just don't have time to be sick. Kate is off school all week on school break and she can't go to Canada to visit her dad until I get her passport situation sorted out (the responsibility for sorting that out lying entirely with me, of course).
I woke up with a headache and scratchy throat this morning but I just don't have time to be sick. Kate is off school all week on school break and she can't go to Canada to visit her dad until I get her passport situation sorted out (the responsibility for sorting that out lying entirely with me, of course).
Labels: personal
If you aren't feeling well, I swear by Zicam. You are suppose to take it as soon as you start to feel bad. So if you don't have time to be sick, rush out and get yourself some Zicam. (No I don't work for the makers of Zicam, I am just a very satisfied customer)
Agreed on the Zicam. I'm also one the echinacea bandwagon, and I still have a stash of Airborne from my New York Comic Con trip. I'm prepared for all-out war on illness.
On not being able to send Kate north until the passport situation is worked out, I thought the Departments of Homeland Security and State had delayed implementation of the passport rules for minors until the end of the year.
Spike
Spike: I thought Kate's citizenship was covered under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, but no. There have been two different border guards who have hassled her about her citizenship status. Even though she was born to two natural-born American citizens who lived in the US all of our lives, she was never given any paperwork when we moved back to the US. In 2000 I thought that was all sorted by virtue of the Child Citizenship Act.
At their own website, they list this FAQ: # Q: Will a child who has met the requirements of this new law need to apply for a passport from the State Department or a Certificate of Citizenship from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in order to become a citizen?
A: No. As soon as the law's requirements have been met, the child acquires U.S. citizenship automatically without the need to apply for either a passport or a Certificate of Citizenship.
I thought she'd met all the requirements, but the border guards are claiming that she has not, that in the last eleven years of crossing the border and living here in the US with me (her biological mother and legal guardian) she's never actually had legal entry into the United States and therefore, until she gets papers of some sort, she can't cross the border. I'm only going for the passport because Certificates of Citizenship applications from 2005 are only now being filled, and because the passport is both ID and permission to travel all in one.