Sandy shores here we come. . .

We went to Atlantic Beach, we have never been there before.  We usually go to Oak Island or somewhere close to that.  We chose Atlantic because it is near Beaufort.  Our trip centered around a ghost tour we wanted to do with Big T.  He has been studying NC history and ghosts and lighthouses. The tour we wanted to take was a walking tour through historic Beaufort that would take us right by Black Beards' house.  We ended up not taking that tour because they took Black Beards' house off the tour.  It has been purchased as a private residence.  That was a big let down for us all, we were all looking forward to that.  The tour we did was great though, it was centered around the Webb Public Library building.  It is one of the most haunted buildings in eastern North Carolina.  There have been many paranormal investigations done by professionals, some have been on the Discovery channel.  This building is the only one with an intact basement in the county.  I don't think I got any paranormal pictures but I will have to check once I get them loaded on the computer.  We learned to sword fight, how to load and fire a cannon, and what medical treatments the pirates received on board ship.  This was quite fun and educational too.  We learned about Agnes, the original owner of the property this building was on.  She is one of the spirits that haunts this building.  She is an angry spirit too, she has left marks on several people, including the lady that was our guide. We went into one room "highly" active according to our guide, there she told us the stories of those that had died there and those that had seen Agnes.  Right when we got to a very intense part of the story our guide yelled for emphasis and a very pretty young girl grabbed Sprat.  We all jumped but Sprat was the only one with a close encounter.  I wanted to get a picture of them together but, you know that did not happen.  It was a great tour, we all had fun.

Knitting mysteries. . . .

I went to a used book store today with the family.  This is not a local store so I was excited to see what they had.  I really should have gone by myself.  I could not find what I was looking for but I found something I didn't realize I wanted.  Big T got a book on strange tells of the Civil War, it tells of strange phenemenon during the war.   Big T also got a book on Black Beard, he and hubby are going to share that one.   Sprat got a Mad magazine, I guess he figures he can waste his time till school starts.
I picked up one of my knitting mystery books, "Skein of the Crime" by Maggie Sefton.  I know they have the cookiest names for the books but, I really like the characters.  I have already read, "Knit One Kill Two"  and "Fleece Navidad" and "The Killer Stitch."  These we're really good.
I was looking for the new James Patterson book.  I only found it in hard back.  I guess I will have to wait or check it out at the library.  I have to finish my Jack Reacher first though.

What is everyone reading??????

What has everyone been reading this summer?  I am looking for some new books to read.  I have a little break till school starts and I have to start reading text books.   I am still in my book club but I read this months book so fast I am looking again.  I have one of the "Jack Reacher" books  and I am reading it now, should be finished with it soon.  I enjoyed the distopian books Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.  I was not sure I would like them, but they were very interesting.  I read some Maggie Seftin books, they are mysteries that are set around a small town in Colorado.  They are centered around a group of women that knit and crochet.  Each book has a recipe and a knitting pattern.  I loved these.  I may have to pick me up some more of them.  Happy reading to all.

Summer School is done . . .

Took my last test yesterday and class is done.  I did want to share something I found interesting with this class in security.  The last chapter dealt strictly with risk.  It even had one section for social networking, Facebook.  Here are some of the things you need to be aware of, as far as security goes, while using Facebook.  This next part is out of my book, Security + Guide to Network Security Fundamentals, by Mark Ciampa.

"Social Networking sites like Facebook, are popular with attackers for several reasons:"
They provide a treasure trove of personal data.  Your profiles contain employment history, where you have lived, birthdays, spouse and child information.
Users are generally trusting.  Someone joins the network and after several weeks you are sharing most everything with them, including when you are going out of town.  How many times have you seen people post things like, "On our way to the beach for a week, loving life."  I have to say that one I could figure out with out the book.  You think that only your friends can see what you post but, who ever your friends have friended can also see what you post.  I have had people comment on something I posted that I did not even know.
"Consider carefully who is accepted as a friend."  I do not accept people as friends if I do not know them face to face.  Sometimes this is bad because I have a terrible memory and people I went to high school with have tried to friend me and I have not done it because I don't recognize the name or their face.  Attackers pray on this in the hopes that you will think you know them and accept their friend request.  I have had this happen and I know I did not know this person.  I pulled up their profile and they had 3 friends that made me very suspicious so I did not accept the friend request and blocked that person from asking again.
"Disable options and then reopen them only as necessary.  Users should disable options until it becomes apparent that option is needed, instead of making everything accessible and restricting access after it is too late.  Many attackers engage in Facebook scraping by gathering personal information from a user's Facebook site that may appear to be harmless yet may be very valuable."  Here is a good example, if an attacker is trying to steal a password they could very easily find out your challenge password answer to the question, What high school did you attend?"   This course gave a lot to think about.
Per the book, you should limit who knows when you are online, who sees your profile, and pictures.
This is just the tip of the iceberg that we went over for this class but, I thought this needed to be shared.  I want everyone to be safe on the net.

Tax Free Weekend Ending. . . . Really?????

Is tax free weekend really ending?   Did anyone really get that great of a deal during tax free weekend?   I got rather ill last year when I went shopping for school stuff on tax free weekend.  I went to Staples to try and find some notebooks and pencils.   There were a lot of people in there just throwing stuff in their cart and basket.   I was looking at the mechanical pencils and they were like 3 for $5 on a big sign in front of the display.  What made me ill, was the fact that under that big sale sign was a regular price sticker for those same pencils 3 for $2.  I started looking around and checking their other "Sale" signs and their regular price stickers and 6 of 10 were like that.  I put back everything I had picked up and left.  I hate having to go to Walmart but that is where I ended up getting the majority of their school stuff.  I will never go to Staples, that is low down and a crime as far as I am concerned.  I do not agree with ripping off people in the name of tax free weekend.  I will be doing school shopping just like we do everything else, the Dave Ramsey way, with cash.  We did this last year and paid cash for the kids shoes, clothes, and school supplies.   If you have not heard of Dave Ramsey you need to check him out.  You can get his books at the library, The Total Money Makeover or Financial Peace University.  Even if you don't follow everything he says you might get a tip or two from him that will start you on your way to financial peace.  We are paying cash for vacation this year, it is the first for us.  It is quite exciting to think about.

Getting ready for the Beach. . .

We are trying to get ready for the beach.  We have not been on a true vacation in probably two years.  The kids were busy with sports and camps and we didn't really have the money to go.  We decided last year we were going to the beach and we were going Dave Ramsey style.  That's right, our vacation was not going to follow us home.  We started saving last year, a little here and there.  We are also going to make this an educational trip.  We are going to visit a few light houses and see some other historic sights.  Just for Big T we are going to do a ghost tour or two.
It really takes a lot to get a family of four ready for a beach trip.  I guess I had forgotten all the stuff you have to take, all of the just in case stuff.   I remember going to Florida every year when I was little.  My mom packed everything.   Most of the time we drove that 13 1/2 hours, some trips dad would fly us out.  We never flew commercial, dad had his pilots license and he and his business partner shared a plane.   When we drove we left at 4 am.  I never understood that until we drove to Orlando for our trip to Disney several years ago.  I always thought we left that early so we would get in before dark to get the house ready.  I realized on our trip that dad left that early in the hopes that us kids would sleep a good portion of the way.  I have an older brother and an older sister so you can imagine the arguments that would go on when we were cramped in a car for 13 1/2 hours.  Our trip this year will not be near 13 hours but I would still like to leave early.  The new technology makes things a lot easier for parents now.  We have the portable DVD player for the car so our kids are completely entertained for most of the trip.
On our road trips to the beach, once we were awake, we played the alphabet game.  You had to find the letters of the alphabet in order on license plates, billboards, and buildings.  Q was always a problem and Z was not that easy either.  I have taught my kids that game and we play it when ever we are going to be on the road more than 30 minutes.  We also played punch bug.  Our kids play punch bug and cruiser bruiser for the PT Cruisers.   When I was little we played the true "punch" bug, we did not teach our kids to hit each other when they saw one, we just yelled out.  Ahhh the memories. . . .
I hope my kids will remember our vacations and the times we have done things as a family as fondly as I remember my own.  I hope they will pass on some of these little traditions to their kids.  

I found some old camera cards . . .

I found some old camera cards and decided to see what they had on them.  They are from a couple years ago and they have brought back some fond memories.  They covered  spring, summer, and fall for three years ago.  I found Halloween pictures and football pictures, lake pictures and baby pictures of precious Basil.