Citizenship: Oath Ceremony Scheduled

Today I received a letter that I've been scheduled for the naturalization oath ceremony!

September, 25th, 2012, 11AM, at the Delco Activity Center.

I was encouraged to invite guests, and I really hope some would be able to join me, even though it's on a Tuesday. I am supposed to report there at 11AM, and the actual ceremony starts at 2PM. I haven't been to one of these before, but here is one explanation I've found to the question how long these ceremonies last:

It really depends on the actual size of the Ceremony and on when the Judge shows up. All the applicants for naturalization first have to present their Notice. You need to complete the questions on the back and sign it before you get in line. An Officer will check the answers with you and at some point someone will take your greencard and any re-entry permits that you have. You will be seated, it may be assigned seating in groups according to a particular digit in your A# or it might be first in-first-seated. It depends on the seating arrangement and other logistics, staffing etc. 

You'll sit and wait until everyone is seated. There may be preliminary speakers, the judge usually says something they hope is inspiring, then the Oath, the Pledge, the Anthem, they should play a video message from the President, and finally, they hand out the Certificates... Some ceremonies have Passport agents there to collect passport applications. Some ceremonies have folks there from non-partisan voter registration, either the Board of Elections employees or a group such as the Laegue of Women Voters to supply voter registration forms, help you fill it out and hand it in.

Oath: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/usc...00b92ca60aRCRD

And here you can find some photos from the oath ceremony at the Delco center from two years ago.

Dyeing Wood

Pet toys are not cheep.
The purpose of pet toys is to get destroyed.
When you add those two together... well, it kinda doesn't make sense to pay big bucks for something that will be shredded into pieces.

So, I started making bird toys myself. I got different kinds of beads, ropes, chains, bells, links, wood blocks,... bunch of parts to cover the basics. It cost me about $60, including shipping. To that I added old toy parts I already had, and shreddable material like egg carton box pieces, wrapping tissue paper, paper cups, straws,... and so far I already built over 20 toys!

I still needed more wood pieces, and I calculated that it would be cheaper get wood by foot, cut it to different sizes, drill holes. A quick trip to hardware store, and I brought home bunch of pine slats of different thickness and shapes, adding to 6ft, for just over $3.

Now, plain pine wood is kinda boring. Birds do see colors, and usually like more colors that are similar to colors of their feathers. So, to continue this DIY toy project, I tried to color the wood myself. Of course, the color has to be from all natural, edible source. I considered coloring with vegetables, but knowing from dyeing Easter eggs that only good color I got was purple from red onions, I decided to try something else. Koolaid!

I got unsweetened Koolaid packages; orange, lemon-lime (green), cherry (red), and tropical punch, which came in a blue package but is actually just darker red color. I mixed each package with 1 tsp of lukewarm water, 1/2 tsp of rice vinegar, 1/2 tsp of rubbing (Isopropyl) alchocol, and 2-3 drops of corresponding Wilton gel icing color.

And voila!

I string these on some cotton rope, maybe with beads in between, and I got a toy for fraction of the cost of those in pet stores.