That's got to be an amazing feeling.

It is. Although I've been in this position three times this year, and something keeps coming up where I have to haul out the card one more time. Still, it beats the heck out of that $35,000 combined student loan-credit card debt I was looking at years ago.

So the informational interview went well.

Yay!

And that interviewers like to ask logic puzzle questions?

I sometimes enjoy these when I'm goofing off, but handling one at an interview, under that kind of pressure, would make me freeze.

Could still be weeks before an actual TOOTH is seen, but we are seeing teething.

Amen. We waited almost 8 weeks before the tooth actually started coming in and now it's only about 1/2 way in.

But so cute!

Converse now has a place on its web site where you can design your own Chucks, so I was all excited that maybe I could finally get my pink gingham low tops, which I want desparately, but then the web site wouldn't work.

I think we have too much available credit. I'm in the process of cleaning up our credit reports and I can't believe how much these idiots are handing out in credit. Come to think of it, when I applied for financing for our last furniture purchase (figuring, I'd get the $1200 worth of furniture for 12 months same as cash deal) they actually told me my limit was $15,000. I nearly peed my pants and told them I didn't need that much and I didn't want that much.

Every time I call my three cards to lower our credit limit to what I consider reasonable, a few months later, they jack it back up again. I need to cancel a few accounts.

O's got all his teeth (except for his 2 year molars) but he's still chewy. He chews on his fingers, and me and anything he can get in his mouth.

Every time I call my three cards to lower our credit limit to what I consider reasonable, a few months later, they jack it back up again.

Jackholes.

I just remembered that I did actually completely pay off one card about a year and a half ago. The company's response? To immediately lower my limit to $1200. When I called to ask why this had happened, the customer service rep said snottily, "I don't know what you're talking about. It says right here that that's always been your limit."

Not that I actually needed it any higher, or that a higher limit had ever been anything but trouble, but the whole thing felt like a smackdown for actually paying off the debt and the baldfaced lie and snottiness made me quite peevish.

Jackholes.

Yup. Like the company that I paid off 4K to last year and the bastards kept RAISING my interest rate to like 27%!!! I called them and said, "I haven't carried a balance with you guys this year and paid off $4K--what's with the higher interest rate?" She immediately apologized and said she'd lower it to 9%. I just checked online with my account--it's back up to 16% and I HAVEN'T USED THE DAMN THING IN 6 MONTHS.

It's crazy and weird and makes no sense whatsoever.

I'm sure that's how they make a lot of their money, taking advantage of the fact that most people are just too damn busy and tired to stay on top of it, obsessively check and recheck almost every month, and follow up on every glitch.

Perkins, I tried the Converse site and it worked for me. Pink gingham is, unfortunately, not one of the canvas choices.

That is very sad making. I've seen pink gingham high tops, but that is not what I want.

I'm sure that's how they make a lot of their money, taking advantage of the fact that most people are just too damn busy and tired to stay on top of it, obsessively check and recheck almost every month, and follow up on every glitch.

A lot of their money? That's how they make money. They don't want you to pay off your debt. Your debt is a little money farm for them and they harvest the debt. You pay off your debt and you've just destroyed the crops they harvest.

The economics of the credit world are crazy topsy turvy land, but you should never mistake it for the world of protestant thrift and never-a-borrower-be, and repaying-your-debts-is-a-virtue.