Cruise = Good; Crooks = Bad

The cruise pretty much went without a hitch. Never missed a plane, didn't get left on shore in any strange places, and I was completely appalled by centuries old buildings and landmarks tagged with foreign graffiti.

I was also impressed with how smart all the little Italian kids were. I mean, only a couple of years old and they were already speaking Italian.

However, when we got home, we started checking our expenditures and having a weak dollar right now really puts a hurtin' on the ol' bank account. Anyway, as Lisa was checking her account she noticed a pretty hefty discrepancy on a check she wrote right before we left. The check was made out to the local paper for $26.65. When we got home the same check had cleared for $489. Apparently, when Lisa mailed it through her work, some one took the check out of the envelope, washed the ink off the check and rewrote it for $489. The dumb thing is that it was written out to a specific person with the memo line filled out with "rent payment."

Needless to say, the day after we got back, Lisa and I spent a good portion of it closing the checking account, opening a new one and filing a police report. So much fun, but at least the trip went well. Good thing we had enough money in the account so it didn't screw us while we were gone and good thing the crook didn't get too greedy with the forgery.