blue artichoke

In your comments, you guys reminded me of how much I too love breakfast for dinner, so tonight I'm doing it! We're going to have banana pancakes with peanut butter syrup and strawberry jam (weird, I know. I'm looking forward to trying it out. Hope it doesn't suck); eggs and soy sausage links. And gingerbread for dessert, as always. I made the Fourth Gingerbread of Christmas. This one is really good, but isn't quite as light and spongy as the First Gingerbread of Christmas. This latest is the understudy, if for some reason the First Gingerbread is unable to perform.

The year is drawing to a close, and at the risk of sounding like your dad, you're running out of time to check your credit report. Six or seven years ago, my identity was stolen, I guess. Someone changed the birth date associated with my social security number and took out several credit cards. I found out only when I was denied cell phone service for my very first cell phone. It took me a full year to sort it out; the whole ordeal was very frustrating. Now I vigilantly check my credit report every four months, through AnnualCreditReport (they allow one free credit report per year for each of the three reporting agencies, or three free reports per year). If you haven't checked your credit report at all this year, check all three. Do it now! Seriously. For the last six years or so, there has been at least one credit card reported that doesn't belong to me every time I check my credit report. This stuff lingers. I nip it in the bud by disputing the account right away, before too much damage is done, and it is usually easily cleared up. I checked my credit report today and, finally, no unusual or fraudulent accounts! Hooray! GC's credit report was clean, as always.

Your credit report is free; if you want to know your credit score, you'll have to pay. I don't bother with that. Credit scores are tricky, because they measure how well you can get yourself in debt and then how fast you can get yourself out. I'm sure I have a bad credit score, not because I'm a credit risk, but because I've never been in debt or taken out a loan. Anyway, you don't need to waste your money paying for your credit score.

By the way, the Thai food last night was OK. I had tofu ghung (veggies in a garlic sauce). It was good enough, and I'd order it again if I had to eat Thai, but I'm in no hurry to go back. In fact, I forgot my leftovers on the table, but I did manage to bring back the fishy-oyster smell with me. It was in my clothes and my hair. I had to change my clothes as soon as I got home, but kept getting whiffs from my hair. Yuck.

Getting to Know All About You: Shower in the morning or at night?