Handcuffs All Around

I returned home last night from seeing the Angels lose to the Yankees 7-1 (what a waste of 6 dozen baseballs that was) to find a letter from Countrywide Home Loans on my desk with a mild expletive scrawled across the top by Amy. It said that our data, along with that of two million other customers, had been stolen by one of the company's senior analysts. The stolen information includes our Social Security numbers, credit history, etc. The letter stated that the company was offering two years of free credit monitoring services. (Insert expletive here)!

Reading the LA Times this morning, the article about this incident stated that Rene Rebollo of Pasadena, Calif., has been fired, arrested (in that order?), pleaded not guilty and is free on bail pending trial Oct. 7. I hope that was worth it Rene.

Countrywide is one of the prime culprits in the whole subprime lending mess that has rattled our economy. I would have never intentionally done business with them, but when we refinanced our house for the remodeling project, the ink was barely dry on the papers we'd signed when we were informed that Countrywide had bought our loan.

Ironically, directly below the Countrywide story is an article concerning the intense security of KFC's efforts to protect the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices in Kentucky Fried Chicken. The yellowing sheet of paper handwritten by the Colonel himself" was placed in a lockbox that was handcuffed to security expert Bo Dietl, who climbed aboard an armored car that was whisked away with an escort from off-duty police officers."

Apparently, our financial secrets don't rate the same security measures as a fried chicken recipe.


By the way, the house is moving along great these days. We passed drywall and exterior lath inspections yesterday, they'll finish the roof and start the scratch coat stucco today, and I'll be installing ceramic tile floors in both bathrooms over the weekend.

New Photo Album

Less than five weeks until moving day!