22 May 2008 by Brian.

I’m sitting outside a closed Panera Bread at 22:18, listening to some scary music emanate from the car in the parking lot (a car which arrived after Panera closed) and sending you this update…

We recently moved into a new house and won’t have internet access for several more days.  I’ll be back as soon as I can, but it should be within two weeks.  See you then!

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26 December 2007 by Brian.

We recently made a large purchase on our Capital One Visa card. This resulted in our exceeding our credit limit. Much to my surprise, this didn’t prevent us from charging anything on our cards, as we went over the limit by a few hundred dollars by the time we got the statement. In accordance with our routine, we sent a check to pay the balance in full, so as not to incur any interest charges on our balance and then headed off on our holiday travels.

The first sign of trouble came when my card was rejected at McDonalds while attempting to purchase a cup of coffee. “No problem,” I thought as I gave them a different card which I normally no longer use “their card reader is probably just having trouble reading the magnetic strip.” However, I drove to the gas station next door and attempted to purchase gasoline and had my card rejected there, as well. So, I had my wife attempt to use her copy of the Capital One card, thinking that perhaps my magnetic strip was worn out. Nope. She couldn’t use her card, either.

So, to make a long story short, I called Capital One and it turns out that because I had sent a large check to pay off my balance, they’d placed a hold on my account to be sure the check cleared! (Keep in mind, exceeding my balance wasn’t a problem until they received the payment check!) I asked them to temporarily increase my credit limit so I could use the card for the next few days until the hold expired (estimated at 10 days from the time it was enforced), but I was informed that this wasn’t possible. So, I asked for a permanent increase in my credit limit and was told, “No. Nothing can be done for you while this hold is on the account.” I asked if a manager could help and was told that there wasn’t anything that anyone could do to help. I pointed the rep to my excellent credit rating and flawless payment history as reasons for increased credit, but Capital One refused to budge. (I suspect I’m being punished for a failure to incur interest charges on my account, so this last appeal might have worked against me!)

Next time you see a Capital One commercial touting “No Hassles” and asking, “What’s in YOUR wallet?” I hope you can answer “At least one OTHER card in addition to my Capital One card!” Otherwise, you could find yourself stranded while “no one” at Capital One can help you. The rewards might be “no hassles”, but that doesn’t mean you won’t have any.

Just a word to the wise.

If anyone at Capital One reads this, please reconsider your policy on matters such as this. I was blessed to have other options available to me, but other customers may not be so blessed.

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20 December 2007 by Brian.

Not my problem, Santa!

This video was produced by some of my coworkers. It’s a funny take on a rather serious subject. Check it out.

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18 November 2007 by Brian.

Almost all of the American missionaries that I know are self-employed. As a result, they have to file a Schedule C with their tax returns and could really help themselves at tax time if they kept careful records and prepared a return that took advantage of all of their allowable expenses.

This post on business expenses provides some helpful information for those of you in this situation.

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18 November 2007 by Brian.

We received a visit today from a nation that I have longed to visit for many years, Nepal.

Pretty cool.

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17 November 2007 by Brian.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated the list of nations touched by our “Strange Land” community.

I’m excited to be able to welcome guests from: Pakistan, Estonia, Iceland, Luxembourg (I’ve been there), Ireland, China, Russia, Bulgaria, Finland, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, and Columbia.

Thank you all for visiting, please leave comments…we’d love to hear from you!

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10 October 2007 by Brian.

It’s my pleasure to let you know that for the first time (to the best of my knowledge), we’ve had readers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.  It’s pretty cool to consider what a diverse group we are on this blog!

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2 October 2007 by Brian.

Slight change of pace tonight.  It doesn’t have much to do with Biblical worldview, but it does appeal to my sick sense of humor!

If you’ve got a strong stomach, follow this link! You have to respect the hostess’ commitment here, as well as her honesty in dealing with her rather embarrassing eruption.

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19 August 2007 by Brian.

We can add Malaysia and the Czech Republic to nations from which we’ve had visitors!

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26 June 2007 by Brian.

We’ve added a reader from Greece to our community.  I loved visiting Greece, even if guessing what the signs spelled made travel interesting at times!

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