and ………………….. we’re back!

I’m sure you’re all clamoring for an explanation of why the site was down for several days, followed by a weird message about the account being suspended, followed by a three month old version of the site, and now finally the entire up-to-date site being back online.  Well, you’re not going to get that explanation.  Now the complete one, anyway.  Suffice it to say the server I had been using was suddenly unavailable to me, including my online back-ups of the site.

I had a hard drive back-up, but it was outdated (hence the few days where May 11th was the most recent post).  After scrambling to find a new host, I began piecing together the new content from my draft copies of the articles.  It was slow and imperfect.  But then ValueTactics reader Licher turned me on to google’s cached pages, which contained everything I needed to complete the restoration with high fidelity.

🙂 Thanks, Licher! 🙂

Now on to the [now bi-]weekly review:  In the last two weeks I got $13.76 in free gas.  The nominal gas price is creeping up again, so my percentage of free gas will likely soon fall from its 18% average.  To find out how I get free gas every time I fill up, check out the free gas tactic.

Other News
Some news only ever so tenuously related to the site is that I completed moving my home office (or “junk room” as my wife lovingly refers to it) to make room for our upcoming family addition.  This was the same clean-out project during which I noticed my pile of card activation stickers.  Going through some old stacks of paperwork I also found something very interesting.  It was a series of letters leading up to (and including) the cancellation of a credit card I had back in 2003-2004.  The reason?  Delinquent on payments :-/  That’s right.  I broke every rule back then and apparently had a credit card account closed on me.  I was completely irresponsible a decade ago, but now I manage to keep track of ~20 credit card accounts and a dozen points programs.  Take this as proof that you can become organized if you really decide to!

Now you’re updated. Go employ some Value Tactics!