Why isn't the World's Oldest Profession also considered "good old-fashioned fun"?

In an effort to head off the inevitable realization that I am no longer a productive member of society (aka UNEMPLOYED, at least until the Freeloader makes his arrival in October), I agreed to a trip to Silver Dollar City with my dad, step-mom, younger sister, and brother. Yes, indeed - from Las Vegas to Redneck Vegas* I am proving myself to be quite the sophisticated traveler, eh? Hookers to Hillbillies in a span of 5 days - you have to appreciate the poetry of THAT. Furthermore, some National Kids' Fest is going on down there right now - had I known that, I would have never agreed to this trip. I suspect all those "kids" will be in direct violation of my self-enacted Kid-Free Zone**. In a few hours, I will be headed in my car with the Siblings (the parents will drive separately) for a 4 hour drive south. It should be interesting and part of me is looking forward to the alone time with the Siblings - they are 17 and 19. I usually don’t get to spend time with them alone, we are usually all wrapped up in some family gig or another, so it should be fun to see them “on their own” without the parents around “monitoring”. X, in his infinite wisdom, declined to go on this trip. He also astutely observed that “since you are going with your Dad, at least you won’t be spending alot of money”. Yes, a trip with my dad, the Almighty of the Tightfisted, should not prove to be expensive.

In other news, I just caught my first Phish!! I can easily see now why unsuspecting people are caught by the Phishing scams. When I read the message that said someone had changed the email account on my PayPal account, alarm bells went off in my head. Fortunately, part of that alarm (and curiousity) was spurred by all the articles I have read about Phishing. Therefore, I backed out of the email and went directly to PayPal myself. Of course, my account was just fine, but it was still interesting to see how all that can go down so easily.

Have a good week - I return Wednesday so I should have a posting by Thursday.

*A hearty thanks to my friend C who enlightened me to the term “Redneck Vegas” the other night.

** The Zone is temporary, of course - due to shut down in the fall, indefinitely. Sob!