Now I've gone and done it

  Well we did it. My wife and I are now US citizens officially. We even have the certificate to prove it :| . It was a very long morning all told with the queuing, more queuing, boring ceremony, still more queuing and finally a bit of queuing to finish it all off. Mad props to my wife who did all that standing in line in her nice grey open toe highish heel shoes as opposed to me who did it in his usual comfy work shoes. Overall though not much has changed, we can now vote, we can get a US passport (which we have an appointment for next week) and we filled in a fair bit of paperwork. Other than that life is carrying on as normal for us.

  We stayed at a cheap hotel literally right around the corner from the auditorium the ceremony took place at so getting there in the morning was very easy. It was just a matter of walking a single block and crossing the road twice. It wasn't a bad place for the price (despite some online reviews that said it was rundown) and we got a free cheapo breakfast as well. Yay for bargain hotels. We also went out to dinner the night before to a chain Chinese restaurant that was pretty good food if a little too much "ambiance" as they put it. In other words 2 minutes after we got there they turned the lights down so low my wife with her less than perfect eyesight could not read the menu so I had to peer at it and find some stuff for us to eat. I don't think we were the only ones who noticed how freaking dark it became either since there was laughing and WTFing from a couple of other tables as well.

  The really strange thing about the ceremony was the big deal the judge and other officials were trying to make it out to be. For us it was a quick 3 month process, which isn't going to change out day to day lives, so that we can carry on living as we already have. We've been here over 14 years now so it really didn't seem to be as big a deal to us as they wanted to make it seem to be. I suppose for some people it might be depending on when/why/how they are becoming citizens and the generally shittier parts of the world you come from. Coming from the UK though things didn't change drastically for us when we came to the US (other than earning a decent wage) so it really isn't that much of a big deal. Now though we can vote for which idiot we want to be our idiot though so that is a potential "upside"

  Also I need to post the next 3 days worth of Lego Star Wars advent stuff for all you waiting for them with baited breath. For day 19 we have a Tie Fighter Pilot minifig.

  Then day 20 had a very small if recognisable Tie Fighter that I don't think the minifig is going to fit in to.

  And on day 21 we get a neat little version of a ship everyone should know.