Yoga Pants

Am I the only one who really likes the new fashion trend that has all those young women wearing yoga stretch pants everywhere and in all seasons?  It adds just a touch of positivity to traveling through airports.

New Parental Names

The kids have give me and the wife yet another set of names:

Hers - Squinchy
Me - Imaginary Squinchy

I won't go into details here but they can be viewed as non-loving nicknames.  At least hers.

They have given each other names too which they use in conversations with very annoying low forced voices.

London's name is Roger, Adrienne's name is Alfred and Atticus' name is Chloe.

Newton, North Carolina Post Office - Getting your passport

So since we are doing this epic trip this summer in the RV and planning to go to Canada, it is time to get the three kids passports. To figure out how to apply for passports I went to the site travel.state.gov and followed the directions.  For an individual getting his or her passport for the first time, one must go to either a passport office or a Passport Acceptance Facility that handles the applications.

So I did a search for a Passport Acceptance Facility near me on the travel.state.gov website. It showed me the results below:

So I thought it would be no problem to take the children to the Newton, NC Post Office Passport Acceptance Facility on a Monday to submit their applications for their passports.

So I leave work and meet the wife and three children at the Newton Post Office at about 3:30 PM.  The nice lady in the Post Office kindly informed us that the person who did the passport applications was not there today and that he took appointments.  We had to schedule an appointment for this coming Thursday.

It would have been nice if the travel.state.gov website actually made mention that we needed an appointment to get a passport application submitted.  I guess I should not be surprised that when dealing with a government agency I would have my time wasted.

So if anyone needs to know:
If you want to submit your passport application at the Newton, NC Post Office, you need an appointment.  Call ahead in plenty of time and don't expect that you will be able to get just the time slot you need.  They were pretty full.  The person who accepts teh applications is not at the Newton Post Office but on certain days.

The Hickory, NC Post Office accepts walk-ins for submitting passport applications but there is often a significant wait.  The travel.state.gov website doesn't indicate that the Hickory Post Office accepts walk-ins.  Lots of room for improvement with that site on this front.

Life out of Control

Right now my life feels out of control for the following reasons:

1. Business is very difficult.  We were making lots of money now not.
2. Taking extended vacation this summer with the family - will be gone for at least a month.  Lots of planning.
3. Three children in five different sports.  Every night and weekend there is something - practice or games.
4. Multiple properties to consider and manage - takes lots of time and even more money.