Laid up, sitting here minding my own business, playing on the blogs, and other favorite sites, and I get a call from my bank.  They ask if I've spent $512.00 at Flowers.com.  I said no, I didn't.  Then they mention other transactions, like $1.00 at I-Tunes, nope, not me, another for something they said was Beta-Max $ 36.05.  Again not me. 

I'm now sitting straight up in bed with my heart pounding.  I feel so violated.  Thank goodness THEY caught it.   The bank says they're now going to switch me to another department, and guess what.....I get disconnected.

I try and access my account and the transactions stopped on 7/24.  I know we just bought a Wii, for the kids, at Target on 7/27 and that hasn't showed up on my account yet.

So I call the bank back, and I'm given to the Fraud Dept.  I sit, and sit and sit, waiting for them to stop saying, "Your call is important to us, someone will be with you shortly....", well, I 've waited so long I have to go to the bathroom now, so I put it on speaker...with the hopes if they come on the line, I can yell WAIT, don't hang up!.  No such luck....back to my seat and wait some more.  

Their fraud dept., when they finally got on the line with me, told me they refused the other charges, one being from Cologne, Germany.  And they'd cancel my card and send me a new one in about 10 days, with the pin following behind in a couple more.

I'm trying to figure out how they got my number.  I would figure a restaurant, but this time, I think it might have been a website I ordered cologne (funny, huh) from in Walla Walla, Wa.  I haven't received it yet and their 800 number, which says all their order takers are busy taking other calls, it then says you have to leave a message, and they will return your call.  It sounds legit, and their website had the little golden lock secure symbol, but it was a website I had never used before.

So I'm sitting here wondering, how, how did they get my number?

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Since I had surgery last Thursday to re-fuse my heel and cuboid, I've been stuck in the turret, which would be my upstairs bedroom, complete with mini fridge, and of course, my trusty laptop.  The connection to the outside world at my fingertips.

Coming this Friday will be the much anticipated Simpson's Movie. Where, if you visit the website, you can turn yourself into a Simpson's character.

I've had a love hate relationship with the show.  I found it quite humorous in my twenties, before I had kids.  Now, I just hope my kids see the show and their antics, as a public service announcement, on how NOT to act.

It's hard to believe the show got it's start in 1987 on the Tracy Ullman show, with 30 second snippets.  I personally remember Matt Groening's work, called Life in Hell from the Reader magazine, back in the early 80's in Chicago.

So, I look forward to getting out of the house, hopefully on Friday, to see the new movie.  The only movies I seem to see lately are with my kids.  Anything else, I wait 'til it comes out on video. 

Will you see The Simpson's Movie when it comes out, or wait for the video?  Or maybe not at all.  You either like the Simpson or you don't.

Someday, I  hope they do a full length movie of Futurama...bite my shiny metal @ss.

We sit in parking lot style traffic sometimes, and we take a gander at other cars license plates.  We see "catchy" phrases made by their owners.  Some I get, some I don't.

The best plate I've EVER seen is a toss up between two cars.  Both were when I was living in Chicago.  The first was a Jaguar, cruisng by the Merchadise Mart,  with the plate:  PNS NV ~ wow, totally awesome.  The second was coming down the I-94 (as we Chicagoans know as the Dan Ryan) on a 4 door, midnight blue Mercedes, the plate was IXL N XTC.  Totally HOT, except the guy driving the car looked like greasy euro trash.  Maybe he was a gigolo!

Me, I had a personalized plate in Chicago (it was cheaper than a vanity plate, by a lot of bucks) that consisted of letters and numbers, simply:  DIAN 33 (the 33 was how old I'd be when I was fully vested in the AD Agency I was working for, but it turned out it was how old I was when I met my husband)

It's fun to see what people have drummed up in their imagination.  Today I saw one one on a Volvo wagon that said,  DOGG MUM, and I couldn't figure out if it had something to do with "DOGMA"  or just a good ole fashion dog lover. 

On my Jeep, I have one, I got it really because I liked the symmetry of it, not quite perfect, but none the less, still good symmetry.  But NOBODY gets it.  The plate reads GET*TED (*=star)

I was at the video store awhile back, and someone did get it.  They said, your plate, it says get started, right?  I said, yes, you're one of the few who "gets" it.  He asked me why I had it.  I told him, I'm so darn stuck in my past, that I'm trying to get started living in the present.  He agreed, and said, sometimes we all have a hard time living in "the now".   

So, have you seen any great plates out there?

When I started reading this story today, I barely got past the first paragraph:

"Chopped cardboard, softened with an industrial chemical and flavored with fatty pork and powdered seasoning, is a main ingredient in batches of steamed buns sold in one Beijing neighborhood, state television said."

Made of cardboard, *CARDBOARD!  (nothing less than what's in Slimspa, after a home test of the product)

Y'know, the Chinese are known for making anything and everything, cheaply.  I am guilty of buying such products, though buying American is still tops with me, when I can...

This paragraph got me too:

"Squares of cardboard picked from the ground are first soaked to a pulp in a plastic basin of caustic soda -- a chemical base commonly used in manufacturing paper and soap -- then chopped into tiny morsels with a cleaver. Fatty pork and powdered seasoning are stirred in."

 Glad to know the cops shut it down, but if there's one doing this, I'm sure they're are more.  EWWWW! 

I guess with desparate times comes desparate measures.  What's next?

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As a monther of  two preteen girls, I was not amused when  I woke up this morning and saw these CNN headlines as a part of my morning routine.

The first one, was about two girls ages 12 and 10 (the age of my kids) kidnapping a 1 year old baby.  Here's the link .  Can you believe it?  I find this disturbing.

The other one, and I just saw it,  was and 11 year old girl picked up for DUI.  Another one of those: Can you believe it?   Here's the link to this one . But this one had a interesting twist at the end.  They wouldn't mention her "blood alcohol" but they mentioned, and I quote, they "declined to release the girl's blood alcohol level but said a blood test at the hospital showed it was higher than .02, the legal limit for minors."  THE LEGAL LIMIT FOR MINORS.  *WHAT*  I mean WHAT!

There's a legal limit for minors, is that just a sip off daddy' beer?  They're kidding, right?  Isn't  "legal limit for minors" an oxymoron? 

Anyone else as perturbed as I?

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We are aren't we, all of us, tainted about hearing this story of Al Gore's son, because we know whatever happens, he'll *SKATE* too.

Big hype news, but this is *nothing* compared to the Libby story, I know.  But I suspect Al's son will get nothing for the unprescribed meds.

 "... a deputy smelled marijuana and searched his car, finding less than an ounce of pot, but also the prescription drugs Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall. "

Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall.  Boy that sounds like a party, *NOT*!  Adderall, isn't that an ADD drug?.  Just shows drug abuse knows no bounds, doesn't it?

Will anyone care? I mean, except the media....

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After reading this today in TBC, I started to wonder, when was the last time it rained?

The story mentioned we wouldn't have a nice flow of water down the river, especially by Beach Park or Yokuts, for the 4th of July.  It's gonna be 106 on the 4th.   Where are people gonna cool off on this Holiday? 

I know this is due to the Water Project and those pesky smelt, but for a moment I thought of the rain.  Did we *NOT* have any rain this season?  I can't remember any.  

So when was the last time YOU saw rain here?  Last year?

The story also mentioned if we wanted to *SEE* water, there's other places to see it.  Gee, you think? The problem is, it's a big picnic holiday and since there's no water for some people to cool off in, how much you wanna bet there'll be more loss of life on the deadly Kern River.

Let's hope, because this is not a Holiday Weekend, it won't be a big deal. 

REMEMBER:  STAY OUT STAY ALIVE.

And here's to Mother Nature, may she bring us some rain, too.