Category: Life

My “Instant Pot” Experience

Months ago, my husband and I were watching TV—I think it might have been CBS Sunday Morning—and there was a short segment about this new “must have” kitchen item that was a 6-in-1 gadget replacing your rice cooker, slow cooker, pressure cooker and all those sorts of things. I told Bill that this gadget would be a great candidate for my Christmas list. Long story short: this device was one of the presents under the Christmas tree, and I figured I would share my experiences and learnings so far. Continue reading “My “Instant Pot” Experience”

Losing Faith in Banks

Two of my banks go under, two of my credit cards comprimised. I’m quickly losing faith.

I have two banks. One is a credit union that was based in Fort Collins with whom I had been a member since 1988. It’s name was Norlarco but is no more because it died and was merged with another Denver-based credit union. From what I hear, Norlarco’s board allowed someone to make risky investments in Miami property and that essentially killed it. (Ironically, when I was wanting to buy a home in Los Angeles they told me they couldn’t help me unless it was in Colorado. I guess I didn’t grease enough palms!) The biggest pain has been changing my checks and all of the settings for all my various auto-payments, from utilities to Netflix. Ugh.

Last year I opened an account at Washington Mutual because I neede the convenience of a local bank here in New York. As everyone knows, that died and got sold to JPMorganChase.

Now my drama continues with credit cards. I was notified last month by my credit union that due to an internal security breach all their debit cards were comprimised and would have to be replaced. New card just showed up in the mail. New PIN for me to memorize.

Last night I just got an e-mail from USAA (a credit card issuer) stating that there’s been a security breach, and they are going to have to replace my credit card.

This is crazy! I’m just about ready to start stuffing money into my mattress!