Credit card fraud happens

Well, I almost went 50 years, but credit card fraud smacked me today.

I was minding my own business running errands most of the day today - to the Toyota dealership for my 25,000-mile maintenance; to the full service car wash that I like on the north side of town; to every TJMaxx, Marshalls and Ross in the area looking for a particular kind of black socks...

...and I ended the day with a quick meal at a Golden Corral so I could read the newspaper.

Fully gorged and insufferably pleased with my accomplishments (except for the socks), I checked the cell phone to see a VM left by Chase. "Fraud Protection Services," the recorded voice said. "Call us right away."

So I did, and after negotiating the menu screens, the friendly fraud guy said, "We noticed a lot of activity on your account today." I agreed - because 3 CC swipes in a day IS heavy activity for me.

But no, the fraud guy said, more like 6 or 7. Huh? We reviewed each one and when he came to "Macy's for $181," I knew something ridiculous had happened today. It became over-the-top when he mentioned I had "spent" $3 at McDonalds. Those who know me know that I go to McDonalds approximately once a decade.

So, quicker than it takes to write this blog, the friendly fraud guy closed the account, ensured that I wouldn't be liable for the $200 or so that "evil fraud jerk" had charged, and I'd get a new card in a few days. No big deal for me; those who know me know I carry cash and use it far more than credit cards.

Of course, it still begs the questions: Was it the Toyota dealership or the car wash that stole my CC number and manufactured a fake card? Should I care, never patronize those places again, tell them anything?

And perhaps the most intriguing question of all: Why did the evil fraud jerks go to Macy's and McDonalds...and not Best Buy or Fry's?

Renovation Revelations

While many were relaxing and watching the endless parade of bowl games of the holidays...I somehow found myself at Ryan's house in Lincoln, Nebraska completely renovating his only bathroom. Oh joy!

Luckily, Ryan has a tenant in the basement with a bathroom, else we would have been very, very smelly after a week.

Ryan, I and Tom (a very capable assistant) did our best to occupy, simultaneously, approximately 50 square feet of bathroom space for a near-complete demo and restoration. Only the original 1929 tub remained; Ryan liked the sculpted border and it could be successfully reglazed.

There were really only two significant pain points during the enterprise. One is that evil force known as drywall. You can't just put this stuff up; you then must tape it. And mud it. And feather. And mud again. And again. And again. And of course, once that's all done, you have to sand. Whoever invented drywall should be sanded to death.

The other no-fun piece was the beginning of grouting the wall tile. Silly us, we mixed the grout a bit too dry. This is because nobody has the magic recipe for grout vs. water and no one wants to even speculate on what that recipe is. By nobody, I include every grout company on the planet. Their instructions are comical: "Mix grout with water." We first went with the "peanut butter" consistency theory, which supposedly gives you a grout that is wet but not too wet. Unfortunately we went just a smidgen too far into "cookie dough" territory, with the result that when we tried to trowel the grout onto the freshly tiled wall...it promptly slid off into the bottom of the tub.

Luckily, two important steps saved us: First, of course, we added more water; and then Ryan produced a grout bag from which we could inject grout into the joints just like icing a cake. I highly recommend that particular method for wall tile for the approximately zero times I will ever be doing this again.

Amazingly, the actual physical pain (lower back) was pretty low for this multi-day event. I think my obsession with lower back stretches at the gym paid off. And in the end, Ryan has a pretty nice bathroom (and a major surprise for his upstairs tenant when she returned from break).

As we've discussed before, Ryan and I talked about doing this full time with fix-n-flips. It is kind of appealing to me...as long as I don't have to tape and sand drywall.