Passport Questions SMC 03/20/10

Good Morning bloggers,sorry I missed you last week, I was in Birmingham with Linds for a conference she attended. For all of my old Roly Poly customers that read you will appreciate the fact that just for fun(and no pay) I went to visit my old friends at their downtown store and worked for two days through lunch! I had a blast and actually hadn't forgotten a thing...almost. These were the guys, father and son, that were my regional developers so they trained me, babysat me, and listened to my griping when things didn't go the way I thought they should. Long story short, I will probably never be able to pay them back for all they did for me over those two years. They are truly one of the greatest families you would ever want to work with and I will do anything for them to this day that I am capable of. It was great to see and spend some time with them.
I told you all a few weeks ago that I would tell you about my nephew Tanner boy on his birthday. Well tomorrow he turns 4! I know I said it then but I have to say again that time flies. It really drives me nuts, I need to freeze all of them now before I wake up one day to go to their weddings. Tanner boy is far and away the entertainer/comedian of the family. I can't even begin to tell you some of the pure crap he comes up with that is hilarious. I tell Linds all the time that I really believe he is the next Chris Farley. He will do practically anything to get a laugh or a smile. The cool thing about him is he doesn't have to try..it comes naturally. I would bet a large amount of money that if you were around him for at least 5 minutes you would be smiling and want to take him home with you. He also knows exactly how to play up to anyone, especially his Aunt Lindsey, to get just what he wants. He can play her like a piano. He is so far the most loving to all people of the three kids. He freely gives out those "I love yous" at the most random times that will just make you want to eat him up! I also should mention that it helps his case that he is honestly one of the cutest kids you will meet to go along with that personality. His party isn't until tomorrow and my sister is worried about rain ruining it because he is going to have an inflatable outside. But what makes Tanner so special is it doesn't matter the time, place, or circumstance he is going to have a good time and be happy...he is very literally the happiest kid I have ever been around and I bet if you met him he would make you happy too.
I do want to touch on one thing travel related today before I let you go, passports. As you know when it comes to the government, making decisions, and then us being able to interpret them, well I just won't go there right now. I am going to try to give this to you in the shortest way I can. In the end you need to go to http://travel.state.gov/ and interpret it for yourself but here is my best stab at it. If you travel anywhere outside the U.S. by any other means than a closed loop cruise, you have to have a passport. According to the law, as of June 1st 2009 that was going to be changed to effect even cruising....it ain't being enforced. As of today, and only God knows when they will start enforcing it, you can get on a closed loop cruise with an original birth certificate and valid drivers license. I highly recommend not going this route however. Reason being, if anything were to happen to you on the trip or a family member back home and you needed to be flown back to the States, you are screwed...plain and simple. Knock on wood I haven't had this come up yet, but it most likely will one day, I would hate to be in the shoes of a client that has unexpectedly lost a loved one or had a child get hospitalized while on a cruise and have to sit on a ship for 4-5 days because they couldn't catch a flight and get home immediately! To define closed loop cruise that is what 90% of you are going on. It just means it starts and ends at the same port of call. Like I said above go to the government web site and read thoroughly for yourself, don't take my word on it. Have a great weekend, Jeremy