First off, shout out to Kimba who turns 21 again today. :)

At the beginning of the year, when my vacation cup is refilled by the corporate gods, I like to go through the calendar and pick one random Monday each month to just schedule off so that I have a three-day weekend.

Today was this month's Monday off.

I slept in a little, answered a couple of e-mails and talked to a friend on the phone for a little bit. Then, I took some books and magazines to the local "used book" store to see if I could sell them.

The girl at the counter handed me a black marker and asked me to mark out the entire "address" section on each magazine and I casually asked "Why?" I never have before and I've even bought magazines with other people's names and addresses on them and didn't think much of it except, "Oh, how cool, that person lives on Mockingbird Lane". She told me that it was for my protection because there is some scam where people can call the magazine subscription place and using info from my label, have the remaining issues of a subscription changed to a new address. No ID is required. There is no verification.

Amazing, huh? I never would have thought of it. It really really scares me sometimes what people will just think up to keep from paying for things themselves. If they put a fraction of the effort they put into scams into a vocation or saving the world..... (sigh)

So, I thought I'd pass it along.

Still no word from the realtor. I sent her a "Hey, did you get my application" e-mail and got an "out of office" automated reply that she's on vacation. Nice of her not to tell me that before she left, huh? I'm really not having a good feeling about this rental.

Now, I'm gonna go to the gym and float around in the pool and pretend I'm at the beach. :)