Compromised

Alex and I got up early Thursday morning and hit the road for the University Orientation at 7 a.m. About half way I stopped for gas, and my debit card was rejected at the pump. When I went inside to pre-pay, it was rejected inside, too. Luckily I still had my credit card in my wallet; I thought I taken it out when we paid it off. When we got to the school I called Eric to let him know we'd gotten here and he asked me about a strange transaction he'd seen in our bank account. He drives me crazy checking account activity; sometimes he calls me when I'm on my way home from shopping to ask me about a purchase I've just made. It paid off this time, though. My card was rejected because someone apparently cloned it and withdrew $300 from an ATM in England. I spent a grand total of fifteen minutes on the phone with the bank, reporting the fraud, having my debit card deactivated, and getting a new PIN for my credit card so I could get cash out. The fraud has already been confirmed and the money credited back to our account. The bank's phone number is now stored in my cell phone. The moral of the story, kids, is to keep a close eye on bank accounts and keep relevant phone and credit card numbers handy. There are no depths to human greed or ingenuity.

Epic fail

Just in case anyone is wondering, roofers and migraines go together like toothpaste and OJ. If that's surprising to anyone, I'm happy for you. This migraine has been hanging around for a couple of days, mostly in the periphery thanks for my herbs and the occasional dose of Excedrin.

I knew it would be persistent yesterday when I dropped a gallon of concentrated laundry detergent next to the litter boxes. I was trying to move it to a higher shelf. If I'd been another inch taller (or gone to get the step ladder) I could have done it, but I bumped the edge of the shelf and it fell out of my hand. Basically I tossed it backwards over my shoulder. Of course the lid broke and it spilled, mixing nicely with the litter on the floor around the boxes. (Clay, anyone?) It also spattered detergent about 4' up on wall and 2' up the adjacent wall. Needless to say, it was a real booger to clean up. In the middle of the process the sub-contractor came by to find out if he could put the dumpster on the right side of the driveway. I'd just gotten him squared away and gotten back to work when the phone rang. I can barely remember the last time I had so much fun. The roofer/migraine combination, while annoying, is a little more preferable because I didn't cause it. I will be very glad when they're done.

Back to normal? Not quite yet.

The Boys all left yesterday morning, and three of the four made it home safely. We haven't heard from Danny yet, mostly because he's on an overseas flight. Instead of everything settling in for an extended period of nothingness (or boring, according to Alex), I have another full week. Today we're supposed to be having the roof fixed, but it's 8:00 and so far there are no roofers here. It was damaged in the hail storm a few weeks ago, and while I was at work the other day a crew showed up to stack packages of shingles on top of my roof. I should perhaps to go take a picture before they come. Anyway, I have laundry and shopping to do while they work (assuming they show up today). Tomorrow I have a field trip with the girls from work. We're going to tour the plant where our coffee is packaged. Wednesday I'm working. Thursday morning, bright and way too early, I get to drive to Western IL University with Alex for orientation. He'll do some placement testing and get his class schedule set up, and apparently I get to do parent seminars or something. The paperwork has been pretty vague. That will be an overnight trip, and no, I'm not staying in the dorm. Alex is; I've got a hotel room booked. We'll be back Friday evening, and Saturday I have to go to the farmers market since I didn't make it last Saturday. It was pouring rain and there wasn't anything I could think of that I absolutely needed.

The point of all this minutiae is that July is fairly busy this year. The good news is the only excitement booked for August is taking Alex to school at the end of the month and the subsequent remodel of his room for my office (with his blessing). When I was a kid, I thought that once I was out of school, summers would seem longer, but they're not. They're flying by as fast as they always have.