Mind Dump

Mind Dump

I woke up on this fabulous sunny Wednesday morning to a phone call from my bank letting me know about fraudulent charges that were being made on my account. Not EXACTLY the way you want to start your day, but at least they caught it within a day. We found out what online companies the 'offender' used to make their purchases and we decided to do our own 'sleuthing'. We called the first company (who will go unnamed) and I was SHOCKED that they gave my husband (very willingly) the name and address that the orders were shipped to. But WAIT, there's more ...

My husband did an online search for these people and not only did he find them, but he found pictures and virtual tours of the their street! We could see their house, yard, cars, etc ... Good thing they didn't live around here, or he would have called one of his many police officer friends and had them on this person's doorstep at the crack of dawn. Now THAT's an even worse way to start your Wednesday morning.

So, my question is ... WHY would you ship something that you bought illegally to your home???

Ummm. HELLOOOOO?

The good news is ... everything is fine now. The companies stopped the shipments before they went out so, unfortunately for these people, they won't be receiving any of their purchases. Things are back to normal here on the ranch (or as normal as we get) and the police are handling everything from here.

NEXT ...

I decided to share one of my favorite recipes for Curried Chicken Salad with all of you fine folks. I don't believe that cooking is an 'exact' science, although now that I've said that, I'm sue I'll get more than one email from a culinary student who 'strenuously objects'.

Curried Chicken Salad

1 rotisserie chicken (chicken removed and cut into cubes)

2 tbs curry

1 cup mayonaise (maybe a little less depending on what you like)

1.5 cups chopped celery

2 cups grapes cut in half

pecans

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients and enjoy :)

This was what I made today for lunch. I eat it in a bowl on top of a nice lettuce leaf for presentation purposes and my husband eats his on bread. I'll leave this one up to you.

NEXT ...

I picked up a Real Simple magazine at the grocery store the other day and got a chance to sit down and read some of it last night. I don't know WHY I haven't bought a subscription yet. It is ridiculous. It is by far one of my favorite magazines. Anyway, they have a great article with organizing tips in it. 99 to be exact. Some of the tips I wouldn't do and some I loved. For example: using a wooden ladder as a magazine rack. Or using colorful ribbons from gifts to tie together sheet sets in your closet so you don't lose any of those pesky pillow cases to the 'closet monster'. Plus they look so stinkin' cute.

NEXT ...

I read something the other day about our area (the tri-state) and how we are 'oversaturated' with 'photographers'. Apparently per capita, we rival So Cal! Which I can't believe! There are more people taking up photography as a profession here than in So Cal? That's insane! Anyway, I found the article interesting. It talked a lot about how differentiating yourself is more important than ever. I really need to remember WHERE I read that and post it. I'll put it on my list of things to do.

NEXT ...

I am getting ready to create a 'partnership' with a couple of artists here in Cincinnati that I am SO incredibly excited about. I'll have a full post about this VERY soon along with some of their work, their website, and what we will be offering.

NEXT ...

We got our carpets cleaned yesterday. Whoa did they need it (my opinion). The guy who came over to clean them said that this might have been the 'easiest' job he's ever done - apparently we are neat freaks. Who knew? Still, I definitely noticed a difference. I was also fascinated with watching him. He said he has never had anyone so interested in watching him clean carpets before. I followed him around most of the morning. I love the smell of the carpet cleaning solution that he used. I felt like I was on one of those Febreeze commercials.