I got up 2-1/2 hours ago. I've made a pot of tea. And downloaded a cookbook. My computer has been in my lap for 2-1/2 hours. The house is no cleaner.

Here's the rest of my story from last night.

Friend M had to relocate for a job. She wasn't able to sell her condo, got a renter, bounced checks, wouldn't move out, yadda yadda. The real story is after all this:

She contacts an old friend of her brother's who is apparently an in-an-out-of-jail motorcycle gang type. She pays this shady character $2500 to convince the deadbeat to move out (!), and he immediately starts making noises about beating the guy up or kidnapping him and letting him wake up in Mexico or somewhere (!). So she starts freaking, "no no no no no violence" and the guy then says that he's been surveilling the guy from a van and has observed that he's dealing drugs from her apartment. (Her 14th floor apartment, btw - must have been some van.) So the new plan is to turn him in to the cops and get rid of him that way.

Only there's a hitch. Because "the police don't care about small amounts like that" turning him in will involve, get this, another three grand to bribe a corrupt police officer.

So, naturally, she wires the guy the money.

An aside: at some point in all this, the deadbeat does actually get the hell out of town. No more is known on that issue.

However, at some point during all this, Mr. Shady Enforcer - who, recall, is a long time friend of her brother's - has somehow added himself as a signatory on one of her credit cards. And then has somehow hacked into her email. He sent some nasty emails to her friends, signed from her, but the real kicker is emails he sent to himself, also supposedly from her.

In these, along with a lot of lovey dovey crap, "she" carefully and clearly explains that she has wired him the first $5500 that she owed him for loans in the past. And that, "as they discussed" since she didn't have the rest of the money, she was adding him to her credit cards so that he could charge things to pay off the remainder of her debts to him and her brother's.

And this is where it stands. She's got the credit card company investigating that part of it, but the rest?

Seriously, yo. WTF?

Timelies all!

All I can say Brenda is yikes.(although wtf works well too)

Holy crap, Brenda! Note to self: avoid sending significant sums of money to shady characters.

Note to self: perhaps a career as a shady character would have been a more profitable plan.

Haha! An interesting point. Note to self: See if can get friends of friends to send self thousands of dollars.

Friend M apparently has a problem with her brain being missing.

Note to self: Consider joining with Laura and forming Shady Characters R Us.

Friend M apparently has a problem with her brain being missing.

I have this theory that it's because she's from Miami that things seem reasonable to her that to any normal person are clearly DANGER WILL ROBINSON. It's the only thing I can figure.

Note to self: Consider joining with Laura and forming Shady Characters R Us.

It does seem to be pretty lucrative.

You would think that being from Miami she would be more alert for scams. It is really hard to have sympathy for that level of stupid. There was no part of this that sounded like a good idea.