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Identity was COMpromised, not STOlen.

Paul called me last night to tell me I had to go into the branch right away and I listened to a rather heart stopping message over the phone.  I joined a steady stream (700 people) into my bank branch today; we all had our debit cards compromised and needed to get replacement cards.  The people I dealt with were sympathetic, efficient and intelligent; I got my new card, and said goodbye to a password I’ve been using for 15 years. I also changed my address and phone number with the branch.
As it turns out, not one of the people with compromised cards had money taken out.  The crooks had not been efficient enough to swiftly turn around the cards.  Guess they were all out getting high.
The ATM at the Mohawk station at Canada Way and Edmonds, I believe, was the offending machine; the pull on the card ‘felt funny’ and made an odd noise, sort of a brushing noise.  Don’t use gas station ATMs.  Unlike bank ATMs they don’t have cameras, and they are much easier to hack.  If you do have an odd experience with an ATM, especially if it isn’t a regular machine at a financial institution, change over your debit card. I dodged a bullet this time but I’m not going to do that to myself again.
Last night I watched a movie that has been on the lifetime list for quite a while, and then a movie I’d never even heard of.  The first is Hitchcock’s quite compellingly creepy and icky Dial M for Murder; Dmitri Tiomkin score, Grace Kelly in a ravishing array of gowns (the red lace number just about stopped my breathing) and lingerie – and the silky smooth, repellent Ray Milland as the villain.  He does “psychopath” so well that it’s hard to believe it’s acting….  I told mOm that he was like grease poured into a perfectly tailored suit.  Great movie, and the set dec is so precise and interesting I kept stopping the show to take a look.  And oh, those gowns.  The back projection (remember back projection?) is so bad that it’s amusing to think I could put together something more compelling with my bloody Mac.

The second movie is a 1940’s Ernst Lubitsch film-of-a-stage-play called The Shop Around the Corner.  HOLY COW…. Jimmy Stewart in 1940 was HOTTER THAN JOHNNY DEPP.  Hotter  than George Clooney.  Hotter.  Like really, much hotter. Hotter, hotter, hotter.  Anyway, it’s worth seeing. Best part: Jimmy Steward has to show off his legs to get the girl.  Second best part: Frank Morgan (Wizard in Wizard of Oz…) plays the shop owner.  That voice!

I am now at the Augur Inn and I’m supposed to be working, so perhaps I should.  It’s time to review  the little book for the list of jobs…..

mini apartment warming

So the pre-game warm up was attended last night by Melissa (who arrived on her motorcycle, causing happy sighs), ScaryClown (who immediately sat down in the ‘comfy chair’), LTGW, Rob of Nine, Robby the Bomb, Brian C., and most and happiest of all, Brother Jerome, who wasn’t invited but got a message from Brian C. and showed up with Thirsty Beaver beer! And took me to dinner at Himalayan Peak, where we ate awesome Indian food. Me Happy.

I can’t tell you how relieved I am that this work week is over and that I only have another week of hellish torture before my colleague comes back from a well deserved vacation and I can go back to sitting at my own desk and filing my nails (as….bloody….if….).

Hm. Anyway, I’m back at the Augur Inn, where I arrived at nineish this morning and got to work vacuuming in Dr. Filk’s old bedroom. I paused long enough to natter at Paul about the hellacious mess the ceiling painter left (there’s white paint tracked over the entire downstairs, ground into the bedroom carpet and some of it ended up (how???) on the panelling across the hall) and have a brief discussion with him about replacing the carpet in there (we decided against it) and made a horrid and unsuccessful attempt to get black wax out of the carpet and collected some breakfast, thanks Keith, and now a brief blog and back to it. I will run the vacuum over it AGAIN prior to pulling out the wetvac, but I don’t need to get the floor in there any cleaner before the painting is done and the trim is on.

So I’ll go back into the kitchen and continue to clean. I may get to the bathroom today, we shall see. There is one picture I will have to take, even if I never post it.

Brian C., may he blessed and adored, grabbed me by the neck and told me that I’m going to the open mic at the Railway Club today. So I have a deadline for getting out of here, which is good. I am thinking of dropping in again on my way through for the Dunnett Spit tomorrow at 11:30 at the Boathouse in New West. I should be good for a couple of hours.

Zeek! is very poorly. He limps, he’s very subdued, and we spent about fifteen minutes today making him a nest, which he refused to get into until we turned our backs on him. He’s resting in it right now. I think he’s got something metabolically wrong with him. His fur feels greasy. He doesn’t appear to be in pain and he’s eating and drinking.

Paul got new used appliances (another $400, ka-ching, but it had to happen).

My spidey sense tells me that this is the year we get a century flood. Snowpack is at record levels – it’s still snowing in the interior – and if we get a sudden flood it will do interesting things to the house market – there will be a good chance our house will still be on the market at that time. Here’s a quote from the Environment Canada site.

On June 10, 1948, the Fraser reached a peak elevation of 7.6 metres at Mission. Before the waters receded, over a dozen dyking systems had been breached and more than 22 000 hectares, nearly one third of the entire lower Fraser Valley floodplain area, had been flooded to this depth. The floodwaters severed the two transcontinental rail lines; inundated the Trans-Canada Highway; flooded urban areas such as Agassiz, Rosedale, and parts of Mission, forcing many industries to close or reduce production; and deposited a layer of silt, driftwood and other debris over the entire area.

Happy Easter

Wonder what the Pope is up to?

In world news, bird flu continues to simmer away in Indonesia. There have been 81 reported cases and 63 deaths, which is a 78 percent kill rate, folks. Across the globe – and this is what has been reported to the CDC so YMMV – it’s 61 percent. This spike above the kill rate for what has been reported globally is likely accounted for by farming practices, medical infrastructure and how long it takes to get critically ill folks to hospital once they start having breathing troubles. The last girl who died in Indonesia had gone into multiple organ failure and was turning blue by the time she was admitted, and that was probably after a jolting ten hour truck ride.

Just remember the magic mantra. If you don’t get sick yourself, you can save other people by pouring weak tea and water into them; if they start bleeding from orifices and turning blue, make them as comfortable as you can and go on to the next one, cause they ain’t gonna make it.

Elsewhere, Warren Buffett has plunked a lot of money down on a railroad, Burlington Northern to be exact, and it’s supposed to be the first time that he’s done that.
Jumping Jimmy Christmas how many times do we have to run over this same old ground?

This is really weird.

Check out the mileage maniacs.