I thought it rather odd when I was logged off AIM at 11:30 last night. "You have been logged off the AIM service because this screen name has logged on from another location."

Well, of course I changed my password. I'd had that password for a good ten years, so it was time to change it anyway. But I didn't really think someone had my password - more likely, my laptop at work had somehow awakened and automatically signed me on.

When I came in to work today, everything was as I had left it. I opened the computer, and that's when I first noticed something odd - as it started to wake up, the clock read "6:37 AM".

A few other little things caught my attention. My iTunes was not paused in the middle of the Dream Theater medley of Zeppelin covers, as it had been when I left. Instead it was stopped, patiently waiting to start a new song on command.

Then, the kicker: there were seven or eight new sites in the Netscape history.

So here's what I know: someone with a key to that room (as there was no sign of forced entry, or theft) opened my computer at 11:30. They visited, among other sites, an Eminem site, a Gamecube site, the Art Institute Online, and several car sites. In a feeble attempt to cover their tracks, they restarted the computer, started up the applications that had been running, and closed the computer.

Why they didn't think to clear out the Netscape history, or why they thought I wouldn't notice that the terminal was now empty, I have no idea.

I suggested to Max in his guestbook yesterday that he should be thankful for having an exciting job filled with intrigue. Now I'm beginning to see his side of it.