OK, Wells Fargo isn’t really stealing my money. At least, I doubt it. Jen ahd I have had a joint checking account with the bank since 2005. And in that time, we’ve had several issues with overdrafts. I believe I do a pretty good job of keeping the checkbook balanced. And each time we’ve been hit with overdrafts, I’ve implemented new methods to help keep track of the account balance. And still, every couple months, it happens again. The most recent round of overdrafts happened yesterday. Fortunately, we have overdraft protection on the account, thanks to the Wells Fargo credit account I opened for this very reason. (Though there’s probably still some kind of fee involved, it’ll just be connected to the credit account instead of the checking account.) As it stands, we have no money in the bank. This is especially discouraging, as our finances had been riding high lately due to cash infusions from several sources. But now we’re back to zero. This has happened more times with Wells Fargo than any other bank I’ve ever used. I’m not one of these corporate-conspiracy cranks. I really don’t think Wells Fargo is taking my money. But something is off, and I’m not sure what to do. I suppose that one of the bank’s employees could try and track down the error. Most likely, it was caused by an ATM transaction I missed. The difference between what I was showing in the checkbook and the amount of money that was overdrafted would equal about the same as a typical ATM withdrawal. But I’d really like to just start all over again with a new accoun. I’ve been considering opening an account with a local bank. Sure, the local bank may not have the world-spanning reach of Wells Fargo. But you can e-mail the bank’s president right from the website. That’s pretty cool. And I’ve noticed that throughout my banking history, the larger the size of the bank, the more problems I’ve had. Of course, switching banks comes with its own set of hassles. Between me and Jen, we’d have to get three direct deposits changed, and that’s likely to take weeks. Still, I think now’s the time. Before Wells Fargo has a chance to take any more of my money.

Tags: money, Wells Fargo
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Earlier this week, Jen asked me to print about 600 photos from my iPhoto. I printed out the first 100 here at home, before I realized how expensive the project would become. For example, 100 sheets of 4×6 photo paper cost about $12.00/package. Ink cartridges run about $40.00/each, and this many pictures would require several of them. Given these pricey conditions, I decided to find an online photo lab that could do the printing instead. A Google search brought me to Winkflash. The site’s pricing looked good, so I signed up. I made several attempts to upload my photos to the Winkflash site. Because I’m a Mac user, I was forced to use the site’s Java-based upload tools. These tools suck. They are slow and they do not work. I tried at least five times to upload my files using these Java-based services. Each time, the Winkflash site either timed out or gave me a “proxy error.” In Winkflash’s defense, I didn’t bother to contact the company’s tech support, and they do provide a toll-free support phone number right there on the upload page. But I don’t want to talk to anyone. I want to upload my photos. Winkflash touts the ease of use of its “Transporter” application. But Transporter is Windows-only. And yeah, I have a Windows box here. But I don’t want to transfer all these files to that machine, just to transfer them again to Winkflash. So I’m done with Winkflash. I’ve moved on to another site, and I’m in the process of uploading my images to that site now.

I will report on my experience with that site when I’m done with it.

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Today is our four-year wedding anniversary. Remarkably, we’ve both managed to get this whole week off from work. So we were able to do whatever we liked today. We decided to head out to Pismo Beach in the early afternoon. The drive there was uneventful, but we were surprised to learn that the city is now charging people to park in municipal lots. It’s only $0.75/hour, and it’s only enforced from 10 AM to 6 PM. But it’s still annoying, especially when parking used to be free.

We walked out on the Pismo pier and sat for awhile, enjoying the scenery and sounds of the ocean. I didn’t take many photos, mainly because I’ve already got plenty of photos of Pismo Beach. Then we walked for a little while out on the beach. We saw this cool sandcastle:

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Tags: Applebee's, California, Flickr, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo
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Another video made with footage from our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Music in this video is by Colin Gazeley. You can also see another short jellyfish video here.

Podcast: Download (18.7MB)

Tags: California, jellyfish, Monterey, podcast, YouTube
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We spent our Independence Day afternoon at my sister’s beautiful new home in Atascadero. We lounged in the pool for awhile, played with the dogs and enjoyed some fine outdoor cooking.

If you look really close at this photo, you can see an orange dragonfly sitting on one of the plants. Don’t see it? Click here for help.

Chela showed some patriotic flare with this red, white and blue bandana.

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Tags: Atascadero, California, dog, Flickr
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