In the UK, we use credit cards everywhere and for everything (hotels, restaurants, gas pumps, car rental, bars, funeral/cremation service) with zero problems. We use our home bank debit cards to take out cash, and the bank fees are usually cheaper than using a US bank Atm that isn't ours. No problemo.

Cereal: used Chase Visa and Citi Mastercard both extensively this last trip.

LEE! pack your stuff! RIGHT NOW!

I cleaned my room, like a lot today. My mom was here to help, so that was embarrassing, but it got done and I even moved my bed around and changed the sheets. tomorrow we are cleaning off the tops of dressers, side tables and maybe the kitchen counter. CRAZY.

sitting in my computer chair the last two nights, I smell smoke. I thought it was my hair yesterday because I had been at the house of a person who smokes inside, but I showered and today in this chair I still smell it. no one ever smokes here and when I smell the actual chair it does't smell of smoke. wth?

what has changed on the board in the last few months that the posting box auto-corrects like a lot now? or is that my computer and not the board?

You're welcome. I started paying attention to this stuff when my father went ballistic after the rental car charges for one month in Italy also came with a foreign transaction fee of almost $50.

Must be your browser; the board doesn't autocorrect.

Okay, towels are in the wash! I cheated on the linens since the SO already did the guest room and I don't wanna do the master until I can do launder and get them back on. We only have one set of flannels. So I used the time to put away laundry OMG!

Next up: clean mirrors & door glass.

Go Liese! I've moved from the kitchen island to the couch in the living room.

If anyone sees my motivation, send it back please.

I figure if I can use my MC and Visa in Jamaica and Kenya, one should be good with either option most places.

And then I realise I don't visit the First World much.

Report: the Trader Joe's dark chocolate bar with speculoos is so good that it makes me not mind the fact that it's dark chocolate (and, seriously, I don't like dark chocolate; I'll generally turn down chocolate if dark is the only option). I would eat the hell out of that on a regular basis if I could. So I think I'm glad the speculoos is off-limits for me (I ate one tiny piece from Tim's bar).

Totally unrelatedly, Tim made a Pandora station based on the Cocteau Twins, and I feel SO FUCKING OLD. It's like the 1990 playlist of my college radio station. Which, don't get me wrong, was pretty good stuff, but still, that's over 20 years ago. t weeps

LEE! pack your stuff! RIGHT NOW!

I WAS. And then I got to the part where I have to figure out what to do with Perkins' crate, so now I am wallowing for a few minutes.

I gave myself until 9:00.

I love my husband, but his politics are wronger than the idea of a threesome with Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Argh. If Clinton deserved to be tarred and feathered for committing adultery, then Gingrich does as well. Tit for tat.