The positive side to the story is that my family learned about credit freezes. Many times identify thieves will use your information to apply for new credit. This way they can have the new credit card sent to their address and by the time the victim finds out, it’s normally too late. If you put a freeze on your credit with the 3 credit reporting agencies, Experion, Trans Union and Equifax, then they will not give out copies of your credit report to anyone new. (This will not affect any companies you currently have credit with.) Reputable lending companies won’t give out new loans or credit cards without access to your credit report.

You can freeze your credit online, by phone or by mail. Here are the credit freeze links for each of the credit reporting agencies:

• Equifax
• Trans Union
• Experian

You can temporarily lift the freeze if you do want to get new credit because you are buying a house or you’d like a new credit card. In Massachusetts there is a $5 fee per credit reporting agency for each time you place or lift the freeze. In some states, the fee is $10. IMHO, $15 is a small price to pay to know that no one is taking out a mortgage in my name that I don’t know about!

My father’s story has a happy ending – the police caught the thieves and the case is being prosecuted by the DA.

I sometimes blog about technology issues for real estate agents. A few weeks ago I blogged about ways to back up your smart phone. Two days later an agent contacted me. She had read the blog post and thought it was a good idea but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. That morning she got the black screen of death on her smartphone. If only she had backed it up when she read the article.

Making a household inventory is a smart idea, so set aside some time, grab your digital camera and this free software and get it done!

You don’t have to own the home you live in to qualify for the free energy audit. Renters are welcome to use the program as well.

This is a win/win situation – you can save money, lower your energy usage and the audit is free!

As you can see, our peach tree has produced so many peaches this year (this is only a small amount of the peaches we’ve picked) that we’ve started to jar them to enjoy during the winter.

We’re enjoying cucumbers, cherry peppers, jalapeno peppers, cherry tomatoes and one of my favorites, string beans. This year we’re also having great luck with basil. The jars in the back are sun dried tomatoes (bought since it’s too humid here to dry them ourselves) sandwiched with our fresh basil under oil. This makes a great snack with a nice hunk of bread. The top jar is full of seeds from our amazing dill plants. Unfortunately our favorite organic farm didn’t get a good crop of pickling cukes this year, so it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to make pickles.

We’ve also started jarring gardiniera or pickled vegetables – a great Italian appetizer. There’s nothing like opening up a jar in the dead of winter and enjoying the taste of fresh vegetables that we grew in our garden.

Talk about low carbon footprint for our organic food!

Even with this summer’s almost continuous rain, our garden is still doing well. Our big excitement right now is our plum trees. Last year was the first year we were able to taste any plums. 2 plums to be exact. Wasps laid eggs in the small plums and ate them from the inside out. This year we research kaolin clay (the base for Kaopectate) and mixed the powder with water to create a barrier so the wasps would decide to lay their eggs elsewhere. As you can see from the photo, it worked! We have a plethora of plums.

We’ve taken to calling them “plurries” since they are small plums but bigger than cherries. They may be small, but they taste just as delicious as those plums from my childhood and I’m having a ball eating them while the juice drips down my arm!

PHOTO GALLERY: The bee’s knees — Stoneham Educational Foundation hosts Trivia Bee – Stoneham, MA – Stoneham Sun

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I was very excited to be this week’s Social Media Blog Carnival judge. All in all it has been a very interesting and educational experience but I must admit that I was a bit underwhelmed by the number and quality of some of the entries. The biggest ah-ha that I had for my own blogging was that most of the posts weren’t visually interesting and IMHO could use some more fun in how they were written. The good news is there were some interesting topics mixed in with the spam (nice try, but I won’t be giving you any love!)

This Week’s Social Media Carnival Winner

PicktheBrain’s post 20+ Must Read Education Technology Blogs for Teachers, Students, and e-Learners is my choice for the best educational post this week. Although not the most exciting post to read, it is full of good information about what blogs to read if you’re interested in e-learning.

Second Place

Anna Farmery’s A Disposable Company? The Business of the Future? is a very interesting read. Anna brings up the question – is “long standing” a good thing in a business? Yes, I know this isn’t technically a post on social media, but I’m the only judge for this week and get the final say. (I think the power’s going to my head!) If PickTheBrain is unable to fulfill the responsibilities of this week’s Social Media Carnival winner, then The Engaging Brand Blog will be entitled to all of the perks (?) of winning.

Honarable Mentions

David Miller’s How to host a WordPress blog for free. David does a good job spelling out how (and why) you should host your own WordPress blog.

HazardousPaste’s 12 Reasons Why Facebook’s New Design Sucks. There’s nothing like a good rant, especially when the rant is backed up by solid examples.

Tired of sitting on the sidelines and think you’ve got a post that could win? Submit your best blog post from the last 2 weeks in an upcoming Social Media Carnival and see you around the campus!