Visa

I renewed my passport for my China trip. The good news is that passport renewal has gotten much faster: I got the new one about 10 days after mailing in my application. The bad news is that the new passports are hideous. Where the old passports look dignified and old-fashioned, the new passports bear a chip that allows them to be read through your pocket, quotations from the likes of Lincoln, and pictures of cowboys and cacti. I think my collection of souvenir pigs is less tacky than this passport.

Though the Chinese visa I picked up this week is considerably less ugly than my passport, the application process put a different form of patriotism on display: A video of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony plays on a loop on large-screen TVs in the waiting area of the visa office. Apparently listing my occupation as "science writer" raised a red flag, because I had to write an sign an affidavit stating that I wouldn't do anything work-related while in China.

Peachy

This belated entry is brought to you by my Comcastic internet service.

For Labor Day weekend I went to Colorado for Niffer-bur's wedding reception. It was the first time in four years that I'd found a good excuse to visit Colorado in the summer, and it wasn't just summer: It was peach season. Colorado's peaches seem to be a well-kept secret, but believe you me, they are delicious. It could just be because I experience them closer to the tree there, but I generally don't even bother buying peaches anywhere else, to spare myself the disappointment.

Delicious peaches don't grow just anywhere in Colorado, but fortunately they do grow close to my grandparents' place on the Western Slope (i.e. the third of the state that's west of the mountains). Of course, peaches weren't the only or even the best reason to visit my grandparents for a couple of days, but they were a significant side benefit.

By the way, Mr. and Mrs. Niffer-bur's reception was lovely, even though no peaches were involved. In addition to the groom's family and a few people I'd met in college but since forgotten, I was introduced to a style of swing dancing Mr. Niffer-bur and his friends invented as undergraduates. Good times.