I put in my calendar a year or so ago that my Croatian identity card was due to expire on September 10, 2012. The document is valid for ten years exactly. I planned to go to Pazin, where my card was issued, before the end of the month, for the new card might take a fortnight to produce. My beloved suggested that I take the pictures for the card in Zagreb to save time in Pazin, where I go only when I must, and where I spend as little time as possible. This is what I just did. The pictures are, well, disappointing. Planning to write a few words about my growing ugliness, I checked my Residua website on the World Wide Web. “Identity card,” were my search words. Presently I found the piece I wrote when I got the card I now have (“Identity Card,” October 24, 2003). I was surprised that the piece was written in 2003 rather than 2002. When I read it, I discovered that the actual expiration date is September 10, 2013. I checked my identity card, and this is the date I found there, as well. Flabbergasted, I immediately sent my beloved a mobile-phone text-message about my mistake. And I concluded it with a few heartfelt words: “What a cretin!” But my growing ugliness remains, and I have two pictures to prove it. For good measure, I will use them a year from now. The way things have gotten, cheating a little is my only option.