Some asshat has stolen my credit card number and gone on a spree. Whee. I’m thinking back to when I may have used it last. I haven’t made many purchases since I’ve been between jobs, so the trail should be easy to follow. Just an occasional restaurant meal or drinks. I figure lunch at Crazy Fire was the last time.

Now that I think of it, something funny happened at my last Crazy Fire visit. As I was paying for my meal, something suggested to me that the cashier might try to do something with my card. I didn’t see anything overt occur and he only held it for a minute, but I don’t usually have that kind of feeling when I pay for things. A minute is all it would take, of course.

The fraud message we got from one company used Kelly’s name, so its likely her card info was stolen, perhaps at a restaurant or other physical transaction. Anyhow, Crazy Fire is likely safe, but every Starbucks in Raleigh is now a suspect. (Just kidding, sweetie!)

A friend once interviewed for a network security position at a big-name credit card company. He said such companies write off billions of dollars to fraud every year. That was a few years ago, of course. I have to say the fraud prevention algorithms now in use are pretty good. We got our call less than 24 hours after the first fraudulent purchases were made.

I hope we can still find out where our card was used. You know, living vicariously.

I begin a three month test-drive of my new job starting Monday, when I’ll travel to Annapolis to start a contract with a certain open-source network management company as a Consulting Systems Engineer. Should everything go as planned I’ll come onboard full-time this fall.

I’m glad my six-week unplanned vacation is coming to an end. I’m excited about the work, the product, and the company. I feel I have something to prove after being unceremoniously laid off and I fully intend to prove it.

Let’s get started!