Have you seen the commercial for Lifelock yet? If not, this is a service you need to look into. I am not sure how many of you know that I was almost a victim of identity theft. When we lived in Aurora, they was a person with the same name as me giving out my phone number and address to creditors. I had to fight for 2 years with American Express’s lawyers that I was not the Lisa they were looking for. Heck, I never ever even owned an American Express. I had to put a freeze on my own credit reports (which means no more instant credit when you want to get $15 off your purchase if you sign up now at certain stores like Kohls). I also know people who have had their identity stolen. Unfortunately, it happens more often than you think.

I ask if you have seen the commercial, because in the commercial, the president of the Lifelock actually puts his social security number on the side of a tractor trailer truck. I know, it is quite a bold move. He also has his social security number right on the top of the Lifelock website in a huge font and bolded. That is how sure he is of his company. If his identity is not being stolen and he is putting his information out there for the world to see, just think what Lifelock can do you. Normally, people try to hide their information as best as possible. Lifelock will ensure that your identity will never to stolen. Let’s say if something would slip through and it did happen, Lifelock has a million dollar guarantee. Yes, I said a million dollar guarantee: They “will pay up to $1,000,000 to cure the failure or defect in our service, per member, per lifetime for all incidents in the aggregate regardless of circumstance”. How many companies do you know are that confident in their service?

How does Lifelock work? First, they set fraud alerts on your behalf with the credit bureaus. This is done, so you are notified anytime anyone tries to use your credit (including yourself). However, these fraud alerts are only good for 90 days. They go back every 30 days and reset the fraud alert for you. You don’t have to worry about forgetting to do this. They also request that your name be removed from all those annoying preapproved and junk mail lists. They keep making these requests for you as they expire also. This is another way that identity can be stolen, so why not stop it at its source? Plus, junk mail is just annoying anyway. Look at it this way, you are probably saving a few trees by getting your name off those lists. They also order credit reports on your behalf from all the major credit bureaus once a year and have them sent directly to you. Lastly, they have an awesome program called WalletLock. If you lose your wallet or if it gets stolen, a specialist will help you contact each credit card, bank, or document issuing company to cancel your accounts. They will also help you complete the paperwork to replace your lost documents. This includes your credit/debit cards, driver’s license, social security card, insurance cards, checkbook, and travelers checks.

I know you are probably saying that you could do most of this yourself and save yourself the money. Honestly though, do you do it? I am on top of things I forget to do a lot of these steps. With Lifelock, you are buying peace of mind. In a world where identity theft can take away everything you own, you definitely need that peace of mind.

If you are thinking about going here, don’t. I just spent the last couple of days there, and I was not impressed at all. The hotels are severely overpriced for what you get. Stars don’t make a difference. The four star we were suppose to stay in originally was worse than some one star hotels I have been in. I will be going into more detail over at My Road Less Traveled By later today about what I thought about the specific places we ate and stayed. Everything just seemed really expensive and overpriced. It is a great town I think if you are there to party, but for anything else, I wouldn’t recommend it at all!

The Monster at the End of this Book ranks as one of my top ten books of all time for kids. I love this book as a child and was super excited when my sister bought this for my daughter. Madison and I often read this together with her giggling at all the funny ways Grover tries to get you not to turn the next page, because he is afraid of the monster at the end of the book. (Spoiler here) What Grover doesn’t realize is that he is the monster at the end of the book. The closer you get to the end, the more upset and scared he gets. By the end, he really needs to go on some carnival cruises, because he gets that worked up.  It is a great book with humor and suspense and a happy ending.

I actually first saw this at BlogWorld. I stopped and talked to a couple of guys at their booth. I was impressed with the software that would allow you to blog offline. They also had a ton of features that I really liked. Unfortunately, I did not get any of their advertising pens or even their business cards. I know several people who use this software to blog who talk highly about it. However, my experience has been not very good.

I can download the software. However, when I try to run it, I get an “Out of Memory” error message when it tries to access my blog. I contacted their support in November about this error. They had me run quite a few things to see if they could fix it. They had me send the log to them at (I think) the end of November, and I have not heard anything since. Now, I understand if they can’t figure out why I am having this problem. I just wish they would get back to me. At this point, I cannot recommend that you use this product. I have no real happy with their customer support. However, it is only in beta and it is free, so I can’t expect too much.

I did like our local paper till about 3 weeks ago.  We actually got both the Chicago Tribune and the Daily Southtown for the longest time.  The Daily Southtown was part of the Sun Times conglomerate, and they decided to merge it with The Star paper.  Now, I have been through changes before with the Southtown, and I am usually willing to give change a chance.  However, this time, I was disappointed.  Not only did they change the look, there was less news for me to read.  There was no waiting to see what happens.  The paper made it clear that this was the new look and the new paper.  I canceled it.  Note to newspapers:  even when you merge, you shouldn’t completely change everything!

This is one of Madison’s new favorite shows. It is on Toon Disney, and I swear it is one of the weirdest cartoons I have ever seen. However, Madison absolutely adores it.  She actually goes around singing the theme song all the time for this show.

You can tell from the title that this is not about Alabama land for sale. Instead, Pucca is the main character. I think she is in love with Garu, and she spends the entire cartoon chasing him around trying to kiss him. Garu is trying to become the ultimate ninja and like any boy does not want anything to do with Pucca. He spends a lot of time hiding from Pucca. Abya is Pucca’s friend. Bill calls him the Bruce Lee wannabee. He is always trying to do ninja moves, but something funny happens like his pants fall down. Ching is Pucca’s other best friend, and she walks around with a chicken on her head.  The show is basically about these friends and their adventures together (and Pucca trying to give Garu a kiss on the check).

If you want a fairly cute cartoon for your kids to watch, this is a good one.  It is cute even though mommy doesn’t really get the point of it.

I decided to use Bluehost for my hosting last January because of the many great reviews from other bloggers I know. They have not disappointed me. They have this cool live chat feature that you can use to contact them 24/7. I have used this several times and walked away happy. I never once have felt that I was being read a script (though I probably was). Tonight, my site was a white screen. All of us know how that strikes terror into our hearts. I had heard wonderful things about their phone support, so I decided to call. It was about 7 PM CST, so it was definitely off hours. The first thing that impressed me was that the phone system immediately told me what number in line I was. Granted, I was number twenty, but at least I knew where I stood. While I was holding, the system would interrupt the music to tell me that number 19, 18, and so forth to talk to a customer representative that was based in the United States. Now, I don’t want to sound mean, but I hate talking to customer service people who don’t have a good command of the English language. It just annoys me. I also hate being talked to off a script. Most of the foreign customer service people do that. It is like nails down a chalkboard for me. I like only have to explain my problem once and have the person understand me. When I got my customer service representative, he spoke perfect English and had my site back up in less than 5 minutes. I forgot to even ask why it was down, because he asked me about my toilet paper post and we started talking about that. My hosting is up for renewal in January, and I know I am sticking with Bluehost. I have always been impressed by their customer service, and I am even more so now. (I have an affiliate badge in my sidebar if you want more information about their hosting packages).

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