oh wow bob...that is crazy! what in the world????
i was just getting ready to show you guys some new small bathroom things that I found, but that is a little bit more important. Glad R was there to pull the plug! I hope it wasn't a nude shot of you on the couch with paint dripping off your body!

on a serious note though...I haven't had any warning emails lately about any new viruses or anything, but doesn't mean there isn't a new one. I would take the computer to the police or somebody! who do you report hackers to anyway.... never thought about that!

St Elmo's fire - normally occurs on the wings of aircraft, but sometimes travels down the passenger aisle!

bobbi, you definitely need to report this to the authorities........they will probably want to do some forensic investigations on you computer to try and determine the location of the hacker. This is a serious problem and the FBI have a task force investigating these events.......it reality it's nothing more than an attempt to steal money from you and since it's undoubtedly across state or national lines, it is a Federal crime. Chances are; you will need to take your computer to an expert to get a clean slate...... most likely it will require a format of the hard drive to make sure you get rid of it.

Folks...... just a word to the wise.... never, never leave any of your personal financial information on your hard drive. Get you a flash drive or an external disk that you can turn off when you're not using it...... and bobbi disable the camera when you're not using it.

Eztia, fantastic! Such beautiful images!

that is some interesting information about st. elmo's fire......i never knew.

STK, tell me more about financial stuff being on my hard drive...how does it get there exactly. if i merely look up stuff online in my account does it get stored in my computer somehow? Or do you actually have to download it to your computer?

Hi again Dudes and Dudettes! I haven't had the time to read thru today's posts, but I'm commenting to tell you GET YOUR FINANCIALS OFF THE HARD DRIVE!!! Really, really, truly! Get yourself one of those stick thingy's, the removable ones, and move all your financial info onto it. My God, we could have lost everything! And, if you have a file where you keep your passwords, move it over too. It only takes three seconds to do this, if you don't know how I'll tell you. Just plug the stick into the computer and drag and drop the files you want to move. So incredibly worth it! And then don't forget to move the files from the hard drive into the recycle bin, and empty the recycle bin.

Don't mean to scare anyone, but actually I do.....

i have no idea what is on my computer and what is not....if anything besides pics???

MP, do you have a password file? A place where you keep all your stored passwords? Or an Excel spreadsheet with your budget/bills/account numbers? Do you clear your internet history before you close your browser? Any tax information that would have your social? Do you have an up to date virus program and a secure firewall? Run your virus scan when you get home tonight, and check for updates to your anti-virus program. Does J have any of your passwords? Change them! Basically do EVERYTHING you can to protect yourself!

We have McAfee anti-virus and firewall, and they got in anyway!

if you do banking on line, it should be secure. You access your bank and the bank supplies the security. If you do your taxes with Turbo Tax, it is connected to your investments, but only if you ask to download your tax info.

Take a look at the new dilemmas. Pathetic posts and jokes. If the moderators don't do something about this, the site will crash and burn. I am afraid it will become like all on-line sites where anyone can access and comment.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/my-new-light-lamp-dsvw-vd~405401

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/girl-wall-art-dsvw-vd~405415

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/girl-wall-art-dsvw-vd~405415


This really annoys me. Grrrrrrrr

judyg, your post "put it on barbie's head" was hilarious! I did see the barbie wall art post too...

judy, I think English is not their first language. And now that I have seen another post, I think they are just cluelessly lost, and not a joke.

o k, handymaM, you are much more considerate than I. I just got a bad feeling. Will back off. Thanks for your input. My Grrrrr is just a grr. :>)

k...should be covered, smothered, etc.....just like waffle house hashbrowns! :)

just changed all my passwords anyway and I have all the other stuff...firewalls, pc protection etc.
no passwords are in a file on my computer anywhere...no budgets, no sheets! just school papers...lol don't think anyone can get much info from that.

G'day all.

Bobbi, that is really scary about your computer. Definitely report it to the FBI as Kutchie says. Betcha you never would have thought you would be contacting them. When I get scam emails I always report them to the company supposedly sending them and as well we have a Government watchdog here that we also report them to. Surely the US would have a similar watchdog. I would also alert McAfee, they need to know too to increase their security. Good you do have McAfee they are pretty much top dog in their field.

I'm absolutely fascinated by your ball lightning and St. Elmo's Fire. Never heard of it before - well I thought St. Elmo's Fire was a movie. Remind me not to fly in the US.

thank you for the info..... much appreciated!

hey roo....of course i'm getting ready to get off of this houzz.....so i'll say good night and maybe i'll be able to chat later tater!! xo
hey judyg......didnt mean to ignore you darling! :) quit growling btw....have a glass of vino xo to you too

I've got a bit of a dilemma here myself and not sure where to go with it and Bobbi's episode now has me wondering. I was waiting to see what happened before I posted anything. I did a reply to this dilemma

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/need-help-for-entry-home-please-dsvw-vd~300963

and you will see from the comments that she asked me to email her. I did so simply asking how could I help and got 3 duplicate replies asking would I help her. Emailed back yesterday again asking what help she needed and haven't heard a thing since. Reading the top of her thread, I'm maybe now reading her comment about liking "your site and photos" as meaning my personal ideas books, but instead of posting on my profile page she has put it on a general discussion. Have a feeling English is second language so that could be the problem too. What do you all think?

BTW, what do you think of the new format here? Bit confusing but I guess we will get used to it.

Had a dummy spit this morning too, but I was polite

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/how-large-of-a-light-can-i-put-here-dsvw-vd~403962

Meant to ask too are ladybugs those little orange beetles with black spots? We call them ladybirds here, so cute and no one harms them. Never seen them en masse, do they do any damage???

Roo, that discussion you posted above? Serra deleted all her comments! So we can only see yours now!

And for the lady who's English is a second language - she sounds like a spammer. Watch your email carefully! If you got 3 duplicate replies she phishing and it sounds like she caught you! Be careful! Don't download any attachments she may send you, ok?

Gosh Bobbi thanks. That Serra was a male, I'm glad you told he he had deleted so I've now deleted my replies. He was so up himself, he really made me angry and then came back and told me it was an open forum and I shouldn't be so sensitive, which is why I told him he HAD to be sensitive.

Ok, I just got an email from the other bird saying she was doing her baby son and daughter's bedroom and bathroom and wanted to know furniture layouts etc. She enclosed an attachment that I only opened, didn't download but it was really weird couldn't make sense of it at all. Wanted me to attach photos of how to arrange her room, etc. I'll delete everything from her and put a block on anything further. Just in case I will use her Houzz post to tell her to post on Houzz as I'm not able to attach photos on email. I took the duplicate replies to be a glitz, each of them had the same time on like she had hit the send button 3 times.

Now I think about it, the first post she placed has no finality to it at all, she has not responded to any questions so I might drop Emily a line.

Serra was a male, huh? Odd name for a man. Some people just can't get enough of themselves and their own words.

Good idea to block this person, she should know better than to ask for personal emails! If she didn't know better before she'll know now. It's better to be safe than sorry with stuff like this. Even tho it may very well be harmless, who wants to take the chance???

So what have you been up to? We're wrapping things up here, the only things left now are the yards which we'll do today. We have permission (blessing?) to take Miss H to the flea market tomorrow, woo hoo! We haven't seen her in almost a year now, I wonder how much she's grown. She'll be 3 next month.

I think it was another English second language person. He put up photos of these metal lights for the poster that were way beyond her budget and then came back saying that she could get cheap (spelt cheep) tin but they wouldn't last and went on about lifetime investment and how it was cheaper in the long run - hence my comment that lifetime didn't come into it when designers and decorators were constantly coming out with new trends and encouraging people to update and have the latest.

Unfortunately, I can't block the person as I don't have her on my contact list so probably better not to go that way, if she comes back I will just leave her in the junk box for Hotmail to delete. I emailed her back and told her to use Houzz and also asked what had happened about her entry way as nothing seemed to have been finalised with that. That might put her off. Hotmail have just changed their whole system again, I wish they would stop, but strangely when I was replying to her a little box came up at the bottom with a totally different name asking if I wanted to be friends on FaceBook. That finished it.

Today was a bit of a looser day after chasing moths all day yesterday, but I think the population is significantly depleted. At least I have the most beautiful clean and tidy pantry, so tidy it is almost empty. Just did a bit of gardening, I have all my hydrangeas to prune back, the only time I hate them, it is such a chore and seems to take forever, so I usually do 1 bush at a time.

That is great you get Miss H tomorrow, hope you have a great day. How far from you do they live? Just hope she remembers you, that would be really upsetting. Just maybe the wedding might be mellowing things, lets hope.

I will also email Emily now.

Oh, I forgot, bay leaves repel moths, use double sided tape and attach them to the top of each shelf in the pantry.

Going back to sleep now. I've been overtired everynight this week and can't calm down enough to sleep! Weird. I will talk to you later, have fun with your hydrangeas and good luck with your moths :))

Oh, thanks for the bay leaves, just spent $20 on more sticky things to put right through the house.

Know what you mean about calming down. I'm getting about 4 -5 hours sleep but when I wake I just can't quite reach that calm level to go back. Too much on your mind, I know that is my problem. Concentrate on emptying your mind and just think sleep, that sometimes works for me.

I think I'll do just that. And watch the latest episode of Criminal Minds! We used the sticky traps too, when we first moved in here we had a bad moth infestation but it's over now, yea!

Talk at you later, roo!

JudyG – This is just another confirmation for me, that’s it’s easier to start a website, than to administer it professionally afterwards! AARP (and other major websites) also build in easy ways for any user to “report” other people’s posts; AARP has a drop-down when do click on “report”, to categorize the offence; i.e. “advertising”, “attack”, “derogatory”, etc. The other problem is that I think advertising rates a website can charge, are probably based on the number of hits to the site, or perhaps some combination of hits & time spent on the site .. so website owners are disinclined to do anything that would cut down on traffic, which includes some amount of “policing”.

Roo – Be very careful .. did you actually send e-mail to a personal e-mail address this person posted? Ever think that acting naïve & like English isn’t your language, is a great way to fish for people’s personal contact information? That could be a special e-mail address the person set up for this .. but by contacting them, you’ve given them your e-mail address!! On AARP, posting a personal e-mail address publicly isn't allowed, and any time you get a private message with someone's e-mail address in it, it's probably spam.

I seem to be asking more questions than answering them, in my responses to the Design Dilemmas I read!

roo, yes, ladybugs and ladybirds are the same thing. I've heard some people here call them ladybirds. I had never seen them en mass like that until about 10 years ago. A friend of mine was giving a baby shower and the day of the shower she started noticing ladybugs in her house. By the time the shower started, they were everywhere. She had to station someone by the food to keep them out and they kept swarming to the corsage she had for the little mother to be. She went to her attic afterwards and it was full as was her parents' house next door. Since then, I see more and more of that this time of year. Maybe it's because our winters are so mild, they hibernate rather than die off. Oh.. and no, they don't cause any damage except to baby showers..*L* MP told me to grab them for my garden. Such a wonderful idea! My own little spotted aphid eaters.

Creesy, yes they are very friendly for the garden which is why I wondered about them. We don't see many, only occasionally one or two, maybe our milder climate is kinder to them.

Well now I am wondering about this poster, I just got this email back from her. I'm not too fussed about her accessing my email address, with all the spam that comes through, that isn't hard to get anyway and it isn't in my name.

"thank you for your help , yah you sure of all put i want to tell you when i ask in houzz alot of people help me put i didnt find exactly what i need and i like your taste in decor thats all , about entrance its wonderful rug that you advice orange and white color rug

thanks alot"

Am I being a bit soft or what. She has a Yahoo email address, nothing obscure.

HMMMM, handymaM, I think houzz has a new joker, afterall. At it again! :>)
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/living-room-dsvw-vd~405430

Just noticed judy's growl. Stop it! You're scaring the normals!

Houzz has normals?

bobbi, just a couple. We don't want to scare them off before we bring them over to the dark side. ;)

Speaking of the ladybugs made me think of this new bug I started seeing last year that is ladybug 'like'. Love Google. It found it for me and they are called Kudzu Bugs. Take a look. Btw... is kudzu all over or is it just a southern delight?

Just to change the subject for a minute.....I heard on the news, that a baby born this year will have a life expectancy of 150 years! This is the first time this has happened. When my grandmother was born in 1899 her life expectancy was something like 35 years, but she lived to be 89.

bobbi, that's amazing, but it would really depend on the quality of life. If you're spending the last 50 years so doped up on meds you're not conscious and lying in a bed in a nursing home, that's not quality.

Thank you Creeser, I totally agree with you. That's not 'living'. But imagine if you could live to be 100 and in good health! That would be wild, because then 60 would be the new 20 :))

Bobbi, there was a news item here on this the other day basically we could live to 100 or more, the next generation 120 and it will continue to improve after that. Trouble is if we are all orbitting Pluto by the time we are 90, space will become very crowded and unless the World continues to be populated there will be no one and no money to look after us. If population continues at it's present rate, and greenhouse emissions continue then climate change will kill us all off anyway.

As well there was a feature on the low carb or no carb diets (I think the Aitkins is one??). Following them can take 30 years off your life, if the body can't get what it needs not getting any carbs then it starts to eat itself up.

And talking climate change, we had a really bad tornado today 81 people were injured, 2 seriously. Never had anything like that before.

Bobbi - Where did you see that prediction of life expectancy; sounds a bit extreme to me! I can't remember their names, but there was a couple a while back who'd show up on the talk shows, about "life extension". Their theory was also that people could live well over 125 years .. but I don't think they addressed all the parts "wearing out". I know 2 people who had to have joint replacements redone after 20 or 25 years. Unless these researchers can show that the human body is actually healthier & stronger, I'm not that impressed if science can keep us alive & semi-mobil artificially twice as long.

Judy, I think there are a few people thinking they are being helpful by adding photos of rooms and ideas to the Houzz library - thinking of the Barbi hat and the baby wallpaper too. Just not understanding how things work here.

Orbiting Pluto??? That's crazy! Yes, there's been a lot of good/bad talk about the Atkins diet. The thing is, it's actually the basic diabetes diet, although diabetes allows more carbs. If you have a lot of weight to lose, the Atkins diet is the easiest way to do it. Yesterday I lost 10 pounds of sweat after we got hacked! hehehe

Astraea, I saw it on the tv news. You know how every once in a while they throw us a 'happy news' bone? That was once of them.

Bobbi, they were saying though that while people do have a good immediate response to the Atkins diet it doesn't last and people pile all the weight back on and more. The diabetes diet would be far more balanced.

I have never followed diets, I prefer to let commonsense reign and take everything in moderation with a good dose of exercise. Just have to get the dose of exercise happening properly. If you take all the fads and food scares over the years, we wouldn't be eating at all.

I agree with you Roo. Common sense, everything in moderation. Cutting carbs cuts the bloat and immediately your clothes fit and look better. But a diet restricted to meat, eggs and cheese can get boring in a hurry! Especially if you don't even like eggs (me!). And have an acute addiction to chocolate! Although sugar free chocolate isn't bad, and now there's a low carb sugar free ice cream that's good too.

You know, speaking of excersize, the thought of doing all the projects in one week sure seemed like a good idea at the time! But now that we're coming to the end of all these projects it's harder to get motivated. I'm achey all over from up and down the ladder and painting and scrubbing.....I have a feeling R will be happy to get back to work so he can get some rest!!!

roo, I totally agree with you on not following diets and just following common sense.
bobbi, my grandmother passed away at 99 and was in great health until the end. A month before she died, she complained that her chest felt funny at night. One of my aunts took her to the doctor and he told her it was her heart. Nothing he could do, that it was just wearing out. Body parts aren't meant to last but just so long. She was in such good health all her life (only went to the doctor twice in her life), that this news actually took us by surprise. My cousin and I really had the mind set that she'd outlive us all. *L*

bobbi, dark chocolate is good for you. Probably not if you eat a pound of it a day, but still...*L*

Bobbi, the fact you are aching means you are not getting enough variety in your exercise. Stretching is another thing we readily overlook. Doing lots of stretches when you get out of bed really gets the body moving and keeps it supple. Stretching your legs now with lunges will relieve the muscles and stretching your arms by pulling one arm across your body with the other arm will stretch your shoulders and relieve aches from scrubbing. So often we overlook this, yet we see athletes warming up and doing it all the time. We just don't stop to think that a rush of a particular exercise the body isn't used to is no different to running a race.

Actually being in really good health and not going to the doctor is not a good thing. Regular health checks will pick up on things long before the warning signals. If for example, creesy, your grandmother had a cholesterol (sp??) problem, it meant her heart would have been working harder to cope with the build up in her arteries. Had that been picked up and treated, then her heart would not have had to work so hard and wouldn't have worn out as quickly. A neighbour of mine was always healthy, never even got a cold, and was always bragging he never went to the doctor, why should he, he was never sick. He retired at 70 and moved to his holiday area to begin his retirement life and was dead in a few months ............ he had liver cancer and by the time he got symptoms it was in the final stages and he passed within weeks of the diagnosis. Liver cancer is one of the most treatable of cancers so had he had regular health checks and blood tests done, it would have been picked up in early stages, treated and if not cured, at least would have given him many more years of life.