Adventures in Passporting

I've been putting this chore off for a bit.....getting my passport.
I just don't like dealing with bureaucracy and forms.

So first off I had to go find out what I needed in terms of paperwork to apply for a passport.

* Driver's license or some other form of ID.  Check!
* Birth Certificate.  Check!  Wait.....not check.

What they use to give you in the state of Virginia where I was born can't be used now for a birth certificate.  It was fine back in the day for applying for a SS card and getting into school as a child, but no, it's too old and dated and doesn't have a raised seal.

If I was going to VA soon or lived there getting a birth certificate would be a piece of cake.  I could have just gone into any VA DMV office, filled out a form, paid $14 and bingo, bango, gotten a birth certificate on the spot.
Problem is I am not in VA so you have to mail away to the Vital Statistics Dept. in Richmond and wait for them to do the search, print one out and mail it off to you.  Which might take up to 2 months?
And then I still have to apply for the passport and wait for that to get back to me too?  bleh.

So I spent the BIG MONEY and used a service.  They insisted on overnight UPS too. ugh.
So the UPS guy is at my door wanting a signature and then hands this mangled mess of an envelop e to me.......

I won't show you the birth certificate because well, that's personal info.  But I can assure you that even though it was still in one piece it looked as mangled as the envelope it was in.
So we had to press the certificate under a stack of heavy books....luckily we have quite a few of those in Hubs library. ;-)

Back to my list of what's needed.......

* Obtain  a passport photo.
So I had three options here-photo from Rite-Aid, photo from CVS or photo taken at PO where the application had to be turned in.  I went with Rite-Aid as it was the least expensive option after using a coupon and my 20% Wellness discount.
They had a new cashier take it with supervision.  The photo looked a little too big to me but I paid and left with it.

Get to the PO to put my application in and the lady says that photo's too big!  FYI-from the top of your head to your chin can't be any longer than 2".  She had a template of an oval of a head that is the correct size and yep, this photo was waaaay too big!
So I paid another $15 for her to take another photo. sigh

I stopped in at Rite-Aid and let them know their photos don't meet the requirements and showed them the difference between the photos they took and the extra one from the PO that I got to keep.
So I got a refund of the $5.94 I spent.
Photo done.  Check!

*  Fill out the application.
That was easier said than done.  I had to fill the paperwork out THREE TIMES before I got it right.
Left stuff off the first two times and didn't catch it before printing it all out. ugh.
Three times the charm though.  Check!

Made an appointment to put the application in/take the photo.
The process was pretty quick but I had a scare when I handed her my birth certificate.  It's suppose to have a raised official seal on it.  Hubs and I couldn't find a raised seal when we inspected the document when it arrived so I thought maybe VA doesn't do a raised seal on their birth certificates(It does have a watermark though).

The PO lady kept rubbing the certificate feeling for a raised seal(there were several places on it with seals).  I started panicking but then she turned the certificate over and there was a larger seal in the middle on the back that was raised.  Thank the Lord!

I paid $110 to the US State Department and $50 to the USPS.  I am out $210 between those checks and the $50 paid to the service for the birth certificate.

So now we wait......
And when the document arrives this large nosed beast will be able to get back into the country when and if she leaves it.

Sluggy

Frugal Friday......The July 27th Edition

Let's see what frugal wins we had this past week...........

* The only grocery shopping so far this week has been a trip to Maine Source last Friday.  I  got some good produce deals-cabbage and bananas .49¢ lb., yellow squash and tomatoes for .99¢ lb., asparagus $1.69 lb. and sweet corn for .33¢ an ear.  I also picked up a 25 lb. bag of onions for $14.99, a 6.73 lb. bag of ground chuck at $2.39 lb. and 2 packs of roast beef deli meat at $7.99 lb.
The store had a $5 off wys $50 coupon so along with the good prices I saved an additional $5 too.

*  I found money!

1¢ in a Rite-Aid parking lot on Saturday.

*  And speaking of Rite-Aid after we hit a brew pub to celebrate Eldest son's birthday I hit two different Rite-Aid on the way home and picked up all this free candy......

8 bags of Jolly Ranges and Twizzlers varieties that double dipped with a Buy2/Get $1 BC weekly Deal and a Buy2/Get $2BC monthly Deal.  So every 4 bags on sale for 2/$3 cost me $6 in BC and gave me back $6 in BC.
I did 4 bags on each of two cards and rolled $6 of BC on each of those cards.
If the kids don't want this, look for it to come to a Giveaway Box near you.  ;-))

*  I baked Eldest son a birthday cake............

Here he is pretending to blow out his candles so I could take a photo. lolz
I could have bought a cake from the local bakery or the Weis Markets bakery department.  I had a cake mix and frosting in the stockpile and made his favorite type of cake(German Chocolate)so no additional $$ spent.

*  Also on Friday I hit the Bread Outlet since we were down to our last loaf of bread;
3 packs of hamburger rolls(for bbq and burgers), 3 loaves of bread and 2 boxes of chocolate donuts later I spend down my WAM by $10 instead of putting it on the c/c which is usually how I pay for groceries(to keep track-c/c charges are paid off monthly).

*  I received a Target mailer/ad with this coupon on it..........

It was a Back To School ad but this coupon can be used on anything in the store, not just typically BTS items.
I can send for a $50 Target gift card using c/c points for free and pair it with this Q making it an even better deal.

*  More garden goodies got picked on Thursday.......

75.8 ounces more of zuke and Summer squash.
There will be more zuke and squash on next week's menu I think.  ;-)

What frugal wins did you have this week?

Tell us all about it.

Sluggy

Little Stuff Not Worth a Whole Post

Just some stuff rattling around in my head, in my drafts and on my camera that's not worth a whole post by itself but swirl them all together and you come up with a big ball of randomness.

*  This chocolate bar was seen at Bob Evans.........

Pigs N' Taters-milk chocolate with crispy bacon flavored bits and potato chips
Have you ever seen or had this candy bar?
Would you eat it?

*  Here's an image from an actual form in an admission book for an old soldier's home that I came across while doing some genealogy research.............

"Insane Persons And Habitual Drunkards Will Not Be Admitted Under Any Circumstances."
I guess I am shit out of luck when I get too old to take care of myself and need to go to the home. ;-)

*  Book seen at Olllie's recently........

"The Business of Broadway-An Insider's Guide to Working, Producing, and Investing in The World's Greatest Theatre Community"
My comment.....Yeah, if you have money you want to invest and LOSE, go ahead and throw it at Broadway! lolz

*  Another product seen at Ollie's..........

"Fancy" oatmeal.  Under the name "Miller's Batch" which is really just Quaker Oats Company.
From their website...."Expertly milled and flaked to perfection, our organic oats are sourced from a single farm in the golden prairies of Saskatchewan, home to some of the best quality oats in the world...."
The label is all fancy with a serial number or something.
Sort of reminds me of a Portlandia episode.........

Expertly milled and flaked to perfection, our organic oats are sourced from a single farm in the golden prairies of Saskatchewan, home to 

*  After we went out to eat for Eldest son's birthday Hubs let me hit two Rite-Aids I don't frequent.
I found the double dipping candy bags so I rolled $6 in Bonus Cash on two of my Wellness cards.....

*  I saw this on FB and thought I should send it to Hubs since his Masters is in Medieval Literature.......

The Ten Tell-Tale Signs You are Middle-Aged.......
1-You don't Sunderstand what young peasants are talking about.
2-You struggle to read Chaucer in weak candlelight.
3-You hate rowdy taverns.
4-You constantly worry that you might have the Black Death.
5-You don't know or care who Blondel is sleeping with.
6-You tell your wife that Crusaders seem to look younger every year.
7-You struggle with new technology such as the heavy plough and the longbow.
8-You find Gothic architecture too modern.
9-You keep forgetting who the King is.
10-You dream of buying a second hovel in France.

Only a medieval scholar or a history geek will find this funny. lolz

*  This product was found at the grocery outlet I go to sometimes........

It's a breakfast sandwich of two waffles with southern style pulled pork, egg and cheese inside.  Sort of a play on a McGriddle but with a different pork rather than bacon or sausage inside.
I bought a box, it was rather cheap.  The consensus here was "meh".  Pulled pork needs sauce but bbq sauce isn't a friend to eggs and cheese.
Would you try this?


*  While noodling around in my genealogy I found I am cousins with this guy you may know of.........



We are 9th cousins 1 x removed through our shared Huguenot ancestry.  We share Abraham Soblet(Sublett)and Susanne Briant-my 7th GreatGrands and Tim's 8th GreatGrands.  Their children, Pierre Louis Soblet and Anne Soblet were siblings and are our respective direct ancestors.

We are both related to Joan Crawford, Jessica Chastain, Brandi Chastain, the Everly Brothers, etc. through this line too.

Ok, that's it for another jaunt around Sluggy's brain.  It stopped raining for awhile so I am heading out to the garden to find any veggies that need picking.

What odds things have you done, read or seen lately?
Any strange facts you want to tell us about?

Sluggy

Around the Backyard

We have been in a rainy weather pattern that just won't go away!
I've been telling Hubs for weeks now that "Gee, we could sure use some rain!  It's been pretty dry here so far since May."
Well this past weekend the rain started and this front just won't leave.
The meteorologist this morning said we are due for another 7 DAYS or longer of this on again/off again rain.
Lots of flash flooding around here, mostly to the West and South of us, and more will happen until this front leaves.  The ground is saturated now and if we get much more I may loose lots of veggies.
Eek!

The rain let up for about a half an hour so let's take a walk around the backyard today at Chez Sluggy 

I actually took these first three shots on Saturday........

The profusion of morning glories

Many vines are on the bird feeder poles and trying to climb higher.
I don't even bother to plant these anymore......they just grow back every year from the seeds that drop from the previous Fall.

You might be able to make out the pollen grains on this flower.
You'll notice that we have again been invaded by Japanese Beetles this Summer.
They LOVE morning glory foliage evidently, as well as my Japanese Eggplant plants.

Here is a shot looking over the garden from the left corner......

And here is a shot from the right hand corner......

Here's one of my basil plants.  I am trying to stay ahead of the blossoms to pinch them off so I keep getting more leaves.

One of three eggplants almost ready to pick from 2 of my plants.  The other 2 plants got swallowed up by tomato and squash plants and can't get any sun.  I figured only a few squash would survive the Spring and actually grow but I was wrong.  Now everything is so crowded together some shorter plants don't have a chance.

 A few of the yellow squash not quite ready to pick.....

A couple tomatoes looking good.  Notice the leaves of a hidden basil plant to it's left.......

I see you there Mr. Zucchini, trying to blend in and hide from me until you are a massive size. lol

Here's one of my barrels with the lettuce in it.  It's Simpson black seeded lettuce.
Usually by late July the lettuce is done because of the heat but not this year!
I can't seem to kill these three lettuce plants!
Two of them have gotten so large they look like vines!  And they need support to keep them from falling on the ground from the barrel.

My entire green beans crop.
Only ONE of my bean plants survived the chipmunk invasion.
I may get six whole green beans this year, all from this one plant.  I'll let them go to seed and maybe start then indoors next Winter/Spring and see if I can have a better outcome next season.

And in the front we have about 12 tomato plants which are doing fantastically well.  Trying to stay ahead of pinching off some blossoms there too.  The plants get the best sun of the entire yard so these plants are almost five feet tall at this point.
With all this rain these plants are toppling over a bit so we'll need to tie them up some more.

Some Amish paste variety(like a Roma)growing out there too.  I can't wait to try those.

And all this rain(and now the tomato plants falling over)isn't thrilling the Coleus and Petunias.
Once the tomato plants die back they'll get more sun and nutrients.....

And here is what got picked this weekend--
On Saturday.......

And then on Tuesday........

I also picked 2 more ounces of lettuce for the nephew to take home but didn't photograph that or add it into our harvest count yet.

So far I've picked 170.9 ounces of veggies, or 10.68 lbs. from our garden.
Go me.

I just wish the rain would stop for awhile so I can enjoy my yard a bit more.  I really do like being out there near the garden.

What's growing in your yard?

Sluggy

And the Winner Is.....

Random dotorg helped me pick the latest Giveaway Winner.
And the winner is........

violinistaJuly 22, 2018 at 9:08 AM
Since I was homeschooled as a kid, a lot of our vacations were taken during the off season, so summers were a time to just relax; I remember it being a lot like what older generations reminisce about (even though some might call me a "millennial"): riding my bike freely around the neighborhood, running around with the neighborhood kids for hours, reading a lot of books, or just lazing around on the hammock:)

Congratulations Gaby!

Please email me from the email address you supplied within the next 48 hours of the time stamp of this post with your full name and mailing address and I'll get this box of goodies out to you.

Thanks for everyone who played this time and check back in 2-3 weeks as I'll have another Giveaway up on the blog.

Sluggy