I got caught up in the Great Passport Backlog of '07 when I sent off my ten-year-old passport to Philadelphia on May 8. I thought I might have it back in time for an island trip in late June, but I had to take advantage of the relaxed re-entry requirements and use a birth certificate. Come mid-July, we were making plans for an August getaway, and the State Department application status page was still making vague promises of a 10-12 week turnaround. The help desk hotline was helpless, so I signed up for e-mail notification and before long was informed that my new passport had shipped. It arrived on August 2, after about 12 weeks, and is one of the new models with who-knows-what biometric data encoded in its covers and a spooky hologram of George Washington across from my photo.

Watch this space for updates as I sail through immigration checks and have my identity stolen faster than ever.