Odds and ends

Sam on the lam
Yes, Sam went on the lam yesterday morning. We were doing our usual morning outing and Sam decided he wanted to leave the yard. There is a small space where the two halves of the gate come together. If you scroll down in this post, you'll see what I'm talking about.

Once outside of his area he panicked. He ran to the next door neighbor's back door but it was closed. (Sam seems to always need to have the door open when he's outside. If there's enough room for him to sneak by and get inside he's fine.) I came around and he was meowing away at me. He was obviously very upset. He was sizing up jumping the fence when I caught up to him and picked him up. Sam was very relieved when we got back to our yard. He stayed very close to me for the rest of the time we were out.

Panned Pansies
I planted some pansies out in the from yard, some in pots and a few in the hanging baskets. They have now or are in the process of withering away. A couple of the ones in pots I brought into the house but they still have all dried up. I think the direct sun is just too much for them. Or maybe being in pots or the baskets there is not enough moisture for them to survive. Whatever the case may be I will not be planting any next year. The Petunias are doing great and that's what I'll be planting more of next year.

Not in my wallet
The other day I canceled my Capital One credit card. I was trying to see if Sam's vet visit in June was on my statement (it turned out it wasn't) when I noticed a change in the interest rate for the card. Suddenly the rate was at 10.90% up from the 5.99 it had been previously. I had had a hold put on the card in March because of what was supposedly "suspicious activity" when in reality I'd just gone to Philly to see the Tut exhibit.

I called and asked about this. I was told that in my February statement there was information about the increase. The customer service representative said that she'd been with Capital One for three years and the rates hadn't increased at all. In that time the prime lending rate had gone up. I said that didn't justify raising the interest rate 5%. So I canceled.

I did a little research afterwards. If the notice came in the February statement (which I have no reason to doubt, my fault for not looking closely at all that stuff) the rate increase happened with the April statement. If you're going to essential double the interest charged people seems to me there should be a little more time so people can try and pay off their debt.

Now am I cutting off my nose to spite my face? Well sort of. My one lone remaining credit card has a rate 3.25% higher than Capital One. So maybe I won't use my one remaining one as much which is something I'd been planning to do especially if I want to buy a new computer in the fall. Also Capital One knows that it still has the lowest rates and that most people would just take the increase. I wanted to show that that wasn't the case.

I'll see if it was a mistake or not but right now I don't think so.