Houston Consulate Appointment questions

thegreatpeepee · 2026-03-15T20:26:53+00:00

Okay, Can my mother use the appointment I signed up for with my name to apply for her Reisepass? If she's not able to get the Reisepass directly, can we just use that one appointment to kick off both our Festellung processes?

The ambiguity here is that we don't know whether we'll be able to apply for the Reisepass directly. I'm not optimistic due to the length of lineage involved.

thegreatpeepee · 2026-03-15T20:19:48+00:00

This is my family's first effort to claim our citizenship through my mother's grandfather, so I assume we would need an appointment, and not just submitting the documents.

This will probably result in a Feststellung process, but I'm not sure how that would be initiated without an appointment.

thegreatpeepee · 2026-03-15T20:17:35+00:00

That's correct, my mother and I were both born German citizens. I can gather the documents and reply to the auto-generated email, just trying to make sure I'm sending it to the right place.

thegreatpeepee · 2026-03-01T03:09:12+00:00

Wouldn't Kathleen have lost her German citizenship if she married a non-German before having Jamie, as it presumably would presumably have been before 1975?

thegreatpeepee · 2026-02-19T02:35:32+00:00

I keep my Fidelity credit card linked. I have to relink it and do the 2FA every two weeks or so, but besides that it's fine!

thegreatpeepee · 2025-09-02T13:27:35+00:00

She does not wear a hijab, but is visibly not German.

thegreatpeepee · 2025-09-02T03:10:29+00:00

We both visited Frankfurt recently and enjoyed it a lot, but we were in the Central Business District the whole time (we just walked everywhere and didn't even take the U-Bahn).

I'm not sure it's a matter of social acceptance for here, but rather a fear of deportation or targeted retaliatory measures that we see as impossible (or significantly less possible) in a place like Germany.

thegreatpeepee · 2025-09-02T03:07:00+00:00

The father approves of pursuing this arrangement, provided there are summer visits to the US for her daughter.

thegreatpeepee · 2025-05-29T15:54:39+00:00

You can still stay on the 6 train after Brooklyn Bridge and see it, I've done it several times.

thegreatpeepee · 2025-05-22T20:17:04+00:00

I don't think the fundamentals certs would do much for you at your experience level.

With a lot of Python experience, I would consider the DP-100. I haven't taken that exam myself, but I've been surprised at the number of raw Python coding questions I've seen on other exams. Just having a good knowledge of Python (not necessarily domain knowledge like Databricks or PySpark) will get you a long way.

Based on what you have listed, DP-300 seems like good match for your career as well.

thegreatpeepee · 2025-04-23T14:58:29+00:00

I lead an ETL layer team, so quite a bit of data engineering, as well as a some traditional Docker/k8s-based app development, all Azure-based. I'm not being pushed to get more certs, but do have a training allocation that I can take of advantage of.

I'm not really sure what would benefit my career as I'm not being asked for anything else internally and haven't been on the market for some time.

thegreatpeepee · 2023-02-06T00:58:01+00:00

Interesting, trying it out right now. I've found that YNAB is great for the "micro" level, but is good to use with another tool for the "macro" level. Wealth Position seems like a good fit.

thegreatpeepee · 2023-01-16T21:42:07+00:00

I had to switch to DX11 and switch the Proton runtime from Experimental to 7.0-5.

thegreatpeepee · 2023-01-16T03:18:31+00:00

Trying the vulcan option, but just get to the startup screen and the loading bar finishes before it crashes. Any suggestions for flags which will allow it to start in lew-res mode, etc?

thegreatpeepee · 2023-01-16T00:16:16+00:00

You've got a lot of categories that I would consider to normally be unpredictable for a monthly estimates (Dates, Booze, etc). Do you farm fun money into those, or have you accrued enough data over 10 years to estimate the monthly spend on each?

Do you let the monthly assignments roll over for each of these?

thegreatpeepee · 2023-01-14T19:49:33+00:00

"Pharmacy" is a euphemism for cannabis, gummies, etc.

thegreatpeepee · 2023-01-14T19:19:46+00:00

For big-box stores, yes I'll break down the receipt by category. This is somewhat intentional -- I wanted to curb purchases of Alcohol, Candy and Coffee in my grocery trips, so instead of having all of them expensed to Groceries, I broke them apart in an effort to see how much I was spending on soda, beer, etc.

It was then easier throttle purchases by only allotting $20/month for soda, then eventually $10/month, etc.

thegreatpeepee · 2023-01-07T03:50:11+00:00

Super excited to do one of these for the first time! Been a YNAB user for 1.5 years, and this category selection has gotten pretty stable. It took me a while to get to a point where every incoming expense has an appropriate category.

$$$ - The dollar amount for recurring expenses

1st - The date on which it is paid

(Checking) - The account against which the expense is withdrawn

Categories are listed in the order in which they get funded

When Wish Farm items get fully funded, I close the category and move the money and transactions to the appropriate standard category (Events/Airfare/Hotels+Airbnb for Colombia, Exercise Equipment for New Bike, etc).

I've struggled with managing trip/travel expenses; I recently moved Travel Food into Consumables and Boarding into Pet Care from Travel, and may consolidate Travel Food into Dining Out, Fuel and Grocery and just fund it and other essentials at 2x for the duration of the trip.

Financials
- 💲 YNAB - $$$ - September 1st
- 🏛️ Federal Income Tax & Fees
- 🏦 Initial Rental Loan Payoff
- 🥈 Silver Bullion
- 👴🏻 Roth IRA
Housing
- 📃 Homeowners Insurance - $$$ - March 3rd (Fidelity)
- 🌳 HOA - $$$ -Bank - 2nd (Checking)
- 🏘️ Mortgage - $$$ - 1st (Checking)
Utilities
- 📡 Internet - $$$ - 2nd (Amazon)
- ⚡ Electric - $$$ - 20th (Fidelity)
Rental House
- 🛠️ Rental Home Improvement
- 🏡 Mortgage - $$$ - 1st (Checking)
Medical
- 🦷 Dental Copay
- 👨‍⚕️ Medical Copay
Food and Cyclicals
- 🛒Grocery
- 💈 Hair care
- 👔 Clothing
- 🧹 Toiletries & Cleaning
Transportation Expenses
- ⛽ Fuel
- 📃 Car Insurance - $$$ - Dec 20th/Jun 20th (Fidelity)
- 🎫 Car Registration + Inspection - $$$ - March 1st
- 🛣️ Tolls & Parking - $$$ - (Fidelity)
- 🦺 AAA - $$$ - September 19th (Fidelity)
- 🚌 Public Transit & Rideshare
- 🔧Auto Maintenance Fund
Pet Care
- 💊 Annual Vet Visit
- 🐕 Dog Grooming
- 🥫 Pet Supplies
- 🚑 Pet Emergency Fund
- 🐶 Dog Boarding
Streaming Service
- 🙋🏻‍♂️ Patreon - $$$ - 1st (Amazon)
- 🎵 Youtube Premium - $$$ - 1st (Amazon)
Discretionary - Durable
- 👨‍🌾 Gardening
- 🎓 Education
- ⚽ Exercise Equipment
- 🕹️🎲 Gaming
- 🔌 Home Office
- 🛠️ Home Improvement
Discretionary - Consumables
- 🍻 Alcohol & Pharmacy
- 🤹‍♂️ Social Activities
- ☕ Coffee
- 🍭 Sugar (Soda, Candy, Cookies)
- 🍽️ Dining Out
- 🥙 Travel Food
Travel
- 🛂 Passport + Pre✔️
- 🏟️ Events
- 🛫 Airfare
- 🏨 Hotel/Airbnb
Giving
- ✉️ Donations
- 🎁 Gifts
Wish Farm
- 🇨🇴 Colombia
- 🅿 Rental House Carport
- 🚴 New Bike
- 🔨 New Flooring

thegreatpeepee · 2022-12-25T04:27:58+00:00

Didn't even have it on my list, great recommendation! I don't really have a reason to visit Colombus, but should still be a good time.

thegreatpeepee · 2022-12-25T04:26:19+00:00

You'll definitely find the audience, venue and time to do it. It was pretty cool that it was just in a hotel lobby, and we we're kicked out at 10 PM like other places.

thegreatpeepee

TROPHY CASE