So my CapitalOne VISA card kept getting declined in the past couple of days (I don’t use it often, you see). The first thing that failed was an Internet purchase — so I thought maybe it was a faulty cart or something, but then I tried using it at a brick-and-mortar joint — no luck there, either! Go home, called CapitalOne, and they asked me if I had attempted charging $800 and $500 worth of stuff from Nordstrom’s Direct. I’m not a Nordstrom’s kind of guy, and Kelly doesn’t use this card, so I’d have to say that I certainly didn’t try to charge that sort of stuff.

The cool thing was that the charges never actually posted to my account — they were only authorized, and then CapitalOne blocked the actual charges, and locked my account. So, maybe all those commercials with the pirates and barbarians and such actually are somewhat true. It didn’t take but 10 minutes to get my account closed and a new one opened, but it will take 7-10 business days for me to get a new card. Ah well, I’m just happy I didn’t have to go through all the business of disputing charges and such.