A Carload of Burritos

If you were to look at my most recent credit card statement, you would think I had tried to recreate that old Tom Green sketch where he goes to a Taco Bell drive-thru and orders enough burritos to fill the convertible he's driving. I was shocked to find an erroneous charge of $96.30 from my local Taco Bell. Now that's a lot of tacos! There was a second (and accurate) charge on the date in question for $9.30, so I'm guessing the cashier punched in the incorrect total first, tried to cancel the transaction, but pressed the wrong key. I've already called the store and it looks like they will be posting a credit to my account tomorrow.

I've been a big supporter of all the places that let you pay by credit card these days. It's a lot more convenient than carrying cash around and fumbling for pocket change at the register. However, I've never accidentally forked over an extra hundred bucks when paying with cash. But, not to worry...I won't change my preferred payment method over this. I've been using credit cards for a long time, and I can't recall any other time I've had something like this happen. I'll just be a little extra vigilant in reading over my statements each month in the future.

Anyone else have a similar experience in the past?

No more LAN parties for me...

MSNBC headline: Man dies after 50 hours of computer games. (Feel free to insert a relevant World of Warcraft or general LAN party joke here.) Anyway, I feel a little better after reading this article about the comparative amount of time I spend playing computer games, and a little worse knowing that a guy younger than me actually dropped dead from said activity!

One of the big stories today is that Peter Jennings' death from lung cancer has inspired a number of people to quit smoking. Perhaps the passing of this obsessive gamer guy will shed some light on the epidemic of computer gaming addiction! :-)

Liquid Goodness

So today the Starbucks in the lobby of my office building finally opened. It's been looking like it could open any day for the past few weeks. In fact, one day last week they were calibrating the machines and a pleasing aroma of freshly-ground coffee filled the air. It was torture because the smell hit me as soon as I walked through the front door, and I thought they had opened. Anyway, I think having such a conveniently-located Starbucks could be dangerous. First off, you can't get by there without spending at least two dollars. Secondly, I really don't need all that extra caffeine. In fact, I've been cutting back on caffeine and soda in general lately, so after a half a cup I'm already feeling euphoric yet slightly anxious. It's just a matter of time before the vein in my neck starts throbbing...oooh, there it goes! I'm also a big fan of their crumb cake, which, thankfully for my waistline and wallet, they did not have this morning.

Has anyone noticed that they seem to be able to squeeze a Starbucks into just about any place? Every Target and Safeway around here has one. I used to tell people that we had a Starbucks in the basement of our house. At the rate they're going, maybe someday we will!