Banks--ugh

It took me three hours to get the bank stuff straightened out, and it's still not fixed. I've got a ton of automatic withdrawals coming out on Friday, and a direct deposit I cannot stop. When I called BOA last night, the lady I talked to "zeroed out" my two checking accounts, but where the money went--I have no clue. I just know when she did that, the main account went negative and my overdraft protection kicked in. So that means $100 taken out of my credit card, and a $10 fee. No one could answer my question about the roughly $200 that was in that account before the "zero-ing". If I don't see it back tomorrow, I'm going back to talk to them again.

I still don't know if I'll have any cash to access while overseas. Youngest Daughter won't have any to live on while I'm gone. Spouse won't have any either. This is fun. NOT.

Now the next step is to cancel all the direct deposits and re-do them with the new account numbers.

Update

Thank God for small favors: although they stole Spouse's rings, our old SLR cameras, a Russian nesting doll featuring Boris Yeltsin and other Soviet leaders, the change we were collecting for missions (God's going to get them for that!), and my carved wooden box from Poland, the only thing they got that was of any value was the set of gold flatware that my mom gave me when I was 13.

Some special things they did NOT take, for which I am very thankful. They missed Spouse's newish Nikon. They missed my wedding and engagement rings; I keep those in a cupboard by the sink. And they found, took apart, but did not steal, my great-grandfather's piccolos. They threw the pieces on our bed and dumped the contents of our dresser drawers all over the room.

I can replace the flatware, Spouse's rings, and his watch. The cameras were old and just sentimental pieces at this point. But my rings were specially made, and the piccolos are over a hundred years old. Those things are not replaceable.

We canceled our credit cards, froze the bank accounts, and signed up for additional identity theft protection (they stole our bank checks too). The bank is expediting new cards because I leave for Kosovo on Friday and won't be back for two weeks. It would be tough to be there for that long without a cent to my name!

According to the police, who showed up three hours after Spouse called them, these thieves don't usually return to the same place to rob it again. They grab what they can carry, and if they get checks, they run to the nearest little store and try to cash a bunch of them. The police said it's likely we will never see our stuff again.

Son's friend is on the watch for any pawn shops that have my goldware. That is so sweet of him, but I'd be really surprised if he finds any.

I told my dad I hope these jerks get leprosy. I said "jerks" but I was thinking something else--however, Dad's a pastor and I didn't want to swear in front of him.

"Thanks, you're the best"

That's what the lowlifes who broke into our house today wrote on our wall, as they trashed the place and stole anything they thought was of value.

Well that was scary

Youngest Daughter was on her way home from a trip to Europe today, and when her flight landed in BigCity airport she suddenly had an allergic reaction to something, complete with difficulty breathing and swelling in her mouth and nose. She frantically called Son, who lives close by, and he called me to tell me about it. He called off work and was driving to the airport. All he knew was that paramedics were on their way.

YD had the foresight to take some Benadryl right away, so by the time the medics got there she was already starting to feel a bit better, but she was upset and shaking, and still sounded like her throat was swollen when she called me. We decided she should stay the night with Son rather than try to take the scheduled two flights home tonight.

I had to go to the UniTown airport and pick up her suitcase from baggage claim when the return flight that she would have been on landed, and tomorrow I'll drive to HomeCity to pick her up. We were able to get her on a non-stop from Son's airport to HomeCity, thankfully. I called to tell him I had the suitcase, and he said YD conked right out--probably thanks to the Benadryl and the stress she went through. Poor kid.

She has an allergy shot visit Wednesday, so we'll be talking to the doc about this episode. It sure gave us all a good scare.

Draft day

Today's the NFL draft; my team doesn't pick until around 6 p.m. so I guess I'll watch a movie in the meantime. Or clean. Watching a movie is more likely, because I can work while it's on. Today I have to review a paper and read an MS project, in addition to working with a student on statistical analysis of his project results. So far he's got nothing significant.

This week has been chock full of meetings, one right after another. I had planned to get a lot of stuff done but didn't manage to finish much of anything on the list.

Spoke too soon about the midterm grades--got an e-mail yesterday asking for an appointment. Sigh.

Is it May yet?

Finished grading two sets of midterms and one set of homework assignments. The grades have been up for 12 hours now and I haven't yet gotten a plea for a regrade. That's a minor miracle! But I am SO ready for the academic year to end. Seriously.

I was at the Uni's president's house this morning for a breakfast presentation on sustainable manufacturing. ROTC Army cadets did the valet parking, and the one who jogged up to my truck had a huge grin on his face when I handed him the keys.

So the presentation is all about green energy, and ends with a challenge to buy wind energy from the local utility (I was intrigued to hear the Uni Prez say he wasn't sure that deal wasn't a scam) and of course drive energy-efficient cars, etc (the presenter did acknowledge that the Prius isn't for everyone). Afterwards, as I was waiting for the cadet to bring the truck up, the woman standing next to me got all embarrassed because she had driven there in an SUV, and she said she felt so guilty when it rolled up. I just smiled, because I saw the truck coming right behind her SUV. Someone behind me made a crack about all the SUVs and pickups.

When I walked to the truck, the cadet jumped out, held the door open for me, and said "Beautiful truck, ma'am!"

Yes. Yes, it is. :-)

I don't want much...

Just a pair of cotton pajamas that don't have balloons, weird flowers, or--good grief--Hello Kitty on them.

You may be a rightwing extremist if...

1. You are against abortion, or
   
2. You own a gun, or
   
3. You are a veteran.

1. Check.
2. Check.
3. Unfortunately not.

Seems I am a rightwing extremist. How long before I get my assignment to the nearest Proactive Correction Facility?

Attend a TEA party today!

Unfortunately, I can't because I have to meet with a bigwig right at the time my local TEA party is scheduled to take place. I will participate virtually by listing all the things I could have chosen to do to stimulate the economy with the huge amount of taxes we have paid this year.

What is really staggering is that I paid more in federal taxes this year than I made in salary in 2004. Another staggering fact--my youngest daughter, who has a very part time job at a local bookstore, had to PAY state taxes. That's right--she OWED. She had an AGI of $503 and she had to pay state taxes. That is just incredible.

Okay here is the list: instead of paying federal and state taxes I could have (pick one):

• Paid off the loans for my truck and Son's car.
  
• Paid off Eldest Daughter's student loans.
• Bought a big CD (or put the money in retirement accounts).
• Put a down payment on a 4 bedroom house on 40 acres of land.
• Replaced all 20 windows in our HomeCity house, put on vinyl siding, remodeled the kitchen, and installed air conditioning.
• Paid cash for new cars for ED and YD.
• Visited India, Australia, Israel, and Ireland for a month each, with plenty of money for souvenirs.
• Paid YD's first year at BigCollege, including money to fly her back home whenever she wanted to come.
• Bought an RV and traveled across the country for the entire summer.
• Supported 10 missionaries for a year.
• Paid cash for the piece of land I want, and still have money left over to hire an architect.
• Paid off my parents' home equity loans.
• Donated to the PAC for any candidate against Big Government, Big Spending, and More Taxes.
• Paid ED's rent for almost three years.
• Paid Son's rent for almost three years.
• Bought a herd of goats and started an artisanal cheese business.

Taxed Enough Already? Been there, done that. Time for a tax revolt.

I can't help but wonder

what John and Abigail Adams would have thought of this.

Absolutely appalling

Penn State should be ashamed.

Department of "Didn't you already ask me this?" department

Student: I have a doubt in the calculation of confidence interval. To calculate it we need the sample size but we do not know the sample size. So how do we calculate the confidence interval. Also to calculate the sample size what should be the value of standard deviation that we should take?

Me: We use the dataset itself as the sample, so the sample size is however many instances are in the data. Obviously we assume that we don't have the full population and are always working from a sample (that should tell you which tables you should use to calculate the interval, and answer your question about the standard deviation).

Student: So to calculate the confidence interval around the mean we should take the value of n to be equal to our data items which is 1200 and the value of standard deviation to be the value what we have got for 1200 items which we even have to calculate earlier. Is that right?

Me: Yes, you are right about the n and the standard deviation.

Student: Similarly for the sample size calculation we will use the value of standard deviation what we have calculated earlier for 1200 data items. Is that right?

Me (sotto voce): ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH