2004-05-03 - 9:13 p.m.

So, so busy. Working to make mid-May deadline at work. It'll be close.

=================

So Friday was payday. I monitored my bank account all day to make sure the direct deposit went in. It registered, finally, but my balance didn't go up correspondingly - it was about $1000 less than it should have been.

So, I fretted about it all weekend, wondering WTF was going on, and this morning it was still wrong. So, I went to the bank at lunch.

Turns out there is a mysterious $894 charge hold thing on my checking account. Since it hasn't been processed, they can't tell who set it or where it's from. The most they could do was say it will either "fall off" my account tonight, or will be processed as a transaction, and after that they'll be able to tell what it is.

Let's see, last week I used my debit card at the grocery store, at Home Depot, at the auto parts store, and online to buy Donna's b-day present. I can't imagine any of those sites are anything but legitimate. This is a definite puzzler.

Oh, and if it's a charge that gets processed? "There's a form you can fill out," said the lady at the bank. Wonderful. I know debit cards don't have the same protections as genuine credit cards. Bah!