Why are there so many top ranked answers for how to get the dye out of your or your kids' hands that just don't help? Dishsoap? Baking soda or toothpaste plus lots of scrubbing? Feh. Well, consider that baking soda does provide great cleaning power and abasion, but vinegar is what they use to disolve the dye packs in the first place. I figured, why not use both?

I put a small pile of baking soda into my daughter's hand then sprayed some vinegar on it (I had some in a spray bottle, but you can just pour it). It started bubbling as they do when combined and I helped her rub it semi-vigerously over her hand for a few seconds. A good rinse and pop; there you go!

Left hand clean, right hand still green.

I'm fairly ambivalent about the whole Wikileaks issue. I've long been a supporter of whistleblowing in general as companies and the governement should be held accountable for abuses and wrong-doing and often it's only fully public scandals that allow that to happen (though sometimes not even then).

Anyway, as to whether Wikileaks has done anything wrong, one must first ask if there was anything posted that caused significantly more harm than good (which so far has been a "no" it seems).

But to the point, Wikileaks is expected to release a lot of data about Bank of America very soon. There's a lot of speculation, but more interestingly, there are reports that Bank of America is preparing focused teams to respond to whatever drops when it drops.

I look forward to seeing how slime covered that rock is when it's lifted.

So last night I get a phone call saying they're my bank and asking to verify information. As you should always do under such circumstances, I refused and asked for a number where I could call her back. When she provided it, I looked it up online, but found nothing. So I called the bank at a known number and they were able to confirm it. Phase one complete.

Next I was transferred to the Credit Card Fraud department where they explained that I had unauthorized charges. My wife and I have always used our credit card as a shield for places that we didn't fully trust or online stores. Now that was coming in handy.

The sad fact is that there's nothing you can really do to protect a credit card number other than not use credit cards, but thanks to strong federal regulation instead of bogus "self-regulation", it was a very smooth process.

She read me the last 10 or so transactions and I claimed the ones that were mine and told her that the $300, $400, and $80 charges weren't. Despite that being a lot of money, by law I'm not responsible for any of it.

The charges will be reversed and new cards will be issued though not as fast as I'd like. I'd like to be angry, but at who? There's no telling how they got the number or how long they've had it. At the best, you should try to protect your card as much as possible, but don't take it personally when and if this happens to you.