I Have Picked Tomatoes in JUNE

Thanks to global warming,  Idaho's summers have been getting hotter and hotter.  This year we've been averaging a full 20 degrees above average, and everything is running 3 to 4 weeks ahead of schedule.  Even so,

tomatoes in June is pretty amazing.  With rising temperatures, tomatoes can get blasted with heat at exactly the wrong time and not put on fruit.  This year the plants are just really, really stunted.  Some are only a foot tall, though they are so stressed by the heat that they are putting on tomatoes.  We were in Colorado for a family event over the weekend, and one tomato plant was just looking so bad that I thought the extreme heat (107 on Saturday) would finish it off.  Instead, it produced tomatoes.  And toppled over, but hey, there are tomatoes.

And,

there are more cucumbers ready to be pickled.  For normal people, 3 1/2 months of canning pickles might seem like a lot, but I am a pickle FIEND.  A large harvest just means I'm willing to share with Andy.......................:)

The Good And The Bad

While others I know were discussing the "old farmer rules" of planting on Facebook (snow must be off a certain mountain, never before Mother's Day), I looked at how warm the spring had been, the predicted temperatures, and started planting about 3 weeks early--which is pretty much the schedule the fruit trees in the area are on, so it was really perfect.  And

 it is really, really, REALLY working.  We visited a friend's house last night, and his basil is just now coming up--ours is up and going gang-busters.  I could easily start making pesto this week.  But, the downside to all of this is:

 canning season is a month ahead as well.  3 quarts of pickles, 4 pint jars, and 1 pint of dilled green beans.  This is the first year I've ever gotten beans to really grow, and I started them in the greenhouse and they were probably the first thing I moved outside because they just got too big for the greenhouse and any of my containers.  As I've never had good luck with them, I honestly didn't expect them to live.  This, apparently, is the secret, because that little pint of green beans is more beans than I've grown in all other years combined.  Now if they can just survive the over 100 temperatures coming our way NEXT WEEK......

That Made My Morning

I was really excited to wake up this morning to see this:

A hot air balloon ride has been on a friend's "bucket list," and this year she was diagnosed with a scary, advanced cancer.  They've tried several times to do a balloon ride this summer, but they've shown up and the winds were too strong.  But this morning she was up, up, and away!!!

Now if that isn't a great way to start the day, I don't know what is.

I Have A New Zinnia!

And Andy has a new camera, so:

While Shopping For Reading Glasses....

Amazon provided me with a list of "attributes" I could select:

Scented?  Aromatherapy?  Organic???????????  Of course, I guess I'm probably even more surprised that I can't select "gluten-free."

George

Did I sound at all freaked out that there was a mouse under the bed?  Well, it got worse--he got into my closet!

I am not a bold or exhibitionist sort of person, but if it came down to getting clothes out of a closet containing a mouse or going naked, going naked would win--believe me.  I made an unsuccessful dive (which will NOT be mentioned to the physical therapist) to head him off, but I am not the mouser I once was.  Andy stopped what he was doing and we went ON THE HUNT.


Armed with a cardboard box and a plastic lid to slide under it, we found he had taken refuge by one of my old tennis shoes, so Andy slammed the box down over the shoe, slid the lid underneath it, and we hustled downstairs and outside only to find that we'd captured a sheepish-looking old nylon.  Gathering up the shoe and the old nylon, we tried again.  He darted into another part of the closet, where we caught an old hanger.  And the petticoat to my wedding dress got a lovely airing out on the front lawn.  Finally we changed tactics and boxes:

and finally captured George, who is obviously an Olympic athlete of the rodent set.  We opted to skip the fanfare, but it took us so long to catch him that Andy and I both walked out into the nearby field to introduce George into a new vole colony.  I'm sure I'll be spending subsequent years trying to drive George's offspring out of my garden, but at least the house is rodent-free...........for now.

Prabook.org - Identity Theft R Us

So Sunday night I discovered a new "social media" website called prabook.org, and the WAY I discovered it was to find out that someone had created a profile for ME--without my permission or knowledge--INCLUDING date and location of birth, who my parents are (including my mother's maiden name), and they even had a copy of an old resume and had uploaded all the details from that. I immediately contacted them to tell them to take it down, which they did, but they said that since anyone can add information, it could be restored, they would do nothing about it, and they assumed no responsibility for anything about their website.

I know there's a lot of information and public records available online, but the resume they got hold of was from around 1997, so it would have been printed on actual paper and mailed to companies.  It was never emailed or uploaded to anything.  So the copy they have, if not obtained illegally, was certainly obtained in an unauthorized manner via old company files or dumpster-diving.   So aside from supplying more than enough information for someone to have swiped my identity, they're doing it through unauthorized--perhaps illegal--methods.

So, make sure to do a web search on your own name on a regular basis. I had no idea anyone could be quite so clueless, but prabook.org is a real site and their policies are dangerous and inexcusable.

If you have had your profile added without your permission, I got mine removed by emailing contact@prabook.org. You will have to keep checking, because they said whoever put it up in the first place can choose to put it back up even after you ask to be removed.

9-26-15:  Updated to add:  There are a lot of comments coming from the Russian Federation (identity theft capital of the world) to say that Prabook is "just like Wikipedia."  As soon as the journalists landed in Russia for the 2014 Olympics, their computers were hacked.   If ANYONE had needed proof that Prabook is an identity-theft scam, this is it.  Please scroll the comments for the information on how to report this scam.  It is obviously NOT a legitimate business.

If your information has been published without your knowledge or consent, please file a complaint IMMEDIATELY with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov.  
  

To have opened an account or profile in your name IS identity theft in the United States and is recognized as such.  If you find you have a profile on prabook.org that you DID NOT post, report them immediately with the Federal Trade Commission at www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov. 

Your information has been compromised, and protecting yourself by filing criminal reports will assist you if the data thieves try to open fraudulent accounts or use your identity in any way.   

 Protect yourself further by placing a freeze on your credit report with the 3 major credit entities.  This ensures no one may take out a credit card or loan in your name:
     Transunion:  www.transunion.com
     Equifax:  www.equifax.com
     Experian:  http://www.experian.com/