Bradyriffic, right? If you hadn't guessed this is a picture of the new house. Erin took it. The new house was born the year after I was, and the year before Erin was, so we are all of the same generation. More new house pictures to come, I/we have just been too busy to do it. My telephone tech support job went the way of the lion badge. It started out fine, I made a few friends and a few dollars. I got a second part time job (to help make up for the time I was out of work, and to help pay for all the house stuff we need) and everything was running smoothly. I'd go answer the phones from 6:00am to 3:00pm, then go to my other job from 4:00 to 9:00. Then my first job, the phone job, got all wonky, and sent everybody home for a week and changed the hours. So I would be working from 8:00 to 5:00, would have to quit my other job and would have to sit in traffic for an hour each way. So I left that job and held on to the part time job. James always said, you leave New York and bad things happen. It's crazy -- I've gone from having one good paying moderately satisfying job for five years straight to hopping from job to lousy paying job sprinkled with varying degrees of insanity. Maybe Jimmy was right. I'm happier here in many ways but the whole "decent job/lack of decent job" thing is harshing my mellow. The part time job is at a coffee shop, part of a GIGANTIC chain of coffee shops, can you guess which chain? You're correct! It's actually a great place to work. Seriously. The people (customers and employees) are super-chill, the pay is the same as the phone tech job, I get free coffee. I come home from work tired and satisfied and without even a twinge of feeling like I licked some emotional toilet for 8 hours. Depending on how things go I might try and get into some sort of manager training track. I'm also doing some freelance stuff for the company I worked for in New York, and have a few lines on a few other gigs, knock wood. We'll see what comes. So, this person, Maria Vargas, bought themselves a ticket on LanChile airlines, going from Sao Paulo, Brazil through Lima, Peru to San Salvador, El Salvadore and then back again about a week later (after making a small $13 purchase). What does this have to do with me? Nothing, except for the fact that to fund this nice trip Maria Vargas somehow used my bank account. My card was never lost or stolen and I am pretty careful about my account numbers and such, so it was a total mystery. My bank credited me back the money and all was well. Until they sent me a letter stating that they had determined that "no error has been made in this instance" and they considered the matter closed and they were going to revoke the credit for the money (this is $1096.50 we are talking about. That ain't hay). I called them, somewhat bewildered and asked them what the hell was up. They said the "investigators" needed more information, like if I knew a "Maria Vargas" (this was how I got her name, BTW, from the bank) and if I had filed a Police Report. I don't know any Maria Vargas and I hadn't filed a report. They said file the report and call us back with the number and the credit will not be reversed. Great. I made the report, called them back with the report number within maybe 2 hours. Then yesterday I was checking to see if the direct deposit had gone through for my coffee job and I see that my bank has revoked the credit. Nice. I called them, pretty pissed off, and asked them what the Sam Hill is going on. The guy asks me, essentially, the same questions that the last guy asked me, if I knew Maria Vargas and such. I asked them why they were accusing me of, exactly. The guy says "Mr. Vargas, we are not accusing you of anything." Oy. Finally the guy tells me to call back with the name of the officer who took the police report, and their phone number. How this will prove anything about anybody, considering that the police report contains precisely the same information that I gave the bank, is unclear. But I am willing to jump through a few hoops when I am potentially getting screwed out of ~$1000. What, exactly, the "investigators" are doing if it does not entail looking up the phone number of the police department where they are checking the police report is also unclear. I'll let you all know how this winds up, and if I end up getting a lawyer. I can't imagine that they don't end up giving us back our money, but it is sort of starting to look like that is how they want to play it. I can show them my passport, take a lie detector test, etc. Again, we'll see what happens. Have you done a Google search for The Cupcake That Cried Wolf lately?