Interesting new scam....or maybe not new...through services like Craigslist

Here's the deal.  I'm out of the country, visiting Nigeria on urgent business.  I can't be there to have you sign a lease, but I need a renter right away.  You send me the first months rent, $800, to my address in Nigeria and I'll send you the keys to the house.  When I get back, we can sign the lease.

This is a bit of a new twist on a classic scam.

I was talking to a real estate agent today and this is what he told me.  Sounds crazy right?  But he gets calls about his properties all the time from people that saw an add on Craigslist for a property at about half the going rent.  They drive by to look at the house and then see his sign.  They call the agent/property manager, fortunately, and not the number or email in the Craigslist add.  They've been duped, almost.  Some are not so lucky.

The Internet is not nearly as safe as you think it might be.

A Blurb in the Life of a Single Father...

At risk of SGG seeing this before she gets back from Sacramento, since I am apparently in a writing mood, I published the 2009 posts of this blog, and all my favorite photos from 2009, into a book on Blurb.  I called the book "Life, Laughter, Love, and Lunacy in 2009".  Right now each of those words feel redundant as if they are all the same all rolled together.  The book is 234 or  so pages long.  SGG doesn't know I actually published it yet.  My son was amazed at it and loves it.  He thinks SGG is going to flip over it.  I hope so.  It was a lot of work.

I like it so much that I think I may do the same with the rest of the blog and pictures.  I got the largest version of the book and it turned out fantastic.

SHHHH!  Don't tell SGG!  It is a secret.  It is for her Birthday.

Spring is in the air....

....and up my nose, all over the house, the blue car is now yellow and the yellow one is more yellow...so on and so forth.  The back yard needed major work so Brandon and I tackled that Saturday.  I feel like dirt and pollen is still caked in all my air ways.  Were the water warm enough, I would have headed straight to the beach to get cleaned up.

Sunday, today, is brisk with blue skies and no humidity.  It reminds me of Monterey, California...and absolutely no chance of fog.

I am going to jump around for a bit here...so hang on.

My son made 1 A and 4 Bs for his fourth straight Honor Roll report card.  :-)  All indications are he will do even better this last quarter.

We had an IEP eligibility meeting a few weeks ago.  They changed his IEP from Emotionally Disturbed (ED) to Asperger's.  This is a good thing.  All the faculty agreed that Brandon was doing incredibly well.  It was in fact the first time that I had met any of his teachers this year....which is a welcome change as I usually know them all pretty well by the end of the first week of school.  Brandon will be going back into the AVID program next year too!  He is VERY excited about that.

I've been working on the Atkin's Diet and exercising more and more.  I feel great and there are some areas I can't believe the difference in.  I like to play sports and one of the first things I noticed was how much easier it is to sprint in softball.  Another thing is jumping in basketball.  My legs feel like they used to.  I love the Body For Life workout and right now the diet and exercise is just what I need.

I'm feeling sort of Kindle-y all over.  After hearing from a couple of friends first hand about the Kindle, I finally got one.  After reading the manual, and yes I always read manuals (manuals help me understand how I can put the product to use in ways that weren't imagined by the maker), I grabbed several classics that I always intended to read and Isaac Asimov's "Foundation".  Rather interesting to be reading that for the first time in 2010 on electronic ink and electronic paper, i.e. Kindle.

Sad as it is...it has taken me two weeks to complete this post.

Volleyball is just about here again and I can't wait for that...because that means summer is here again.