Well, two years later, I have finally begun renovation on the dollhouse I found in the trash in July 2008.

This week I began reinstalling some of the windows that fell out- and reattached a bit of the molding. I went to Home Depot to peruse the “oops paint” section, and found a lovely dark red for $1 and a taupe/beige sample paint can for 50 cents.

I painted, (as you can see), and was informed by my darling daughter that it is still stupid, just painted a different color.

Today I experimented with landscaping by creating the little bush you see out of packaging paper in a small box. I think I am going to try to invent some grass with furry fabric I have- and a sidewalk perhaps out of foamboard.

Looking at the photos, I see that in two years of storage I did lose a key gingerbreading piece from the top left- and I think I can recreate that with foam board. I wonder how I’ll make a balcony for those third floor doors…

Watermelon purchased in Niagara Falls, New York. (Tops Friendly Markets)

So, do you think this is for real? Not so sure I believe the whole gimmicky serial number thing- but it’s a cute idea on a really beautiful vintage looking label.

I did trace my melon. I went to www.melontrace.com , as encouraged by my friendly little watermelon and I typed in my serial number. Sure enough, it told me everything that was on the label. My watermelon was grown at B&K Farms in Dorchester County, Maryland. That’s cool to know. I like buying fruit and vegetables and knowing where they came from.

However, is the website tracing thing for real? I mean, doesn’t my serial number sound just a little suspicious? 101 001 365 024. Like someone was trying to come up with a number and then just thought oh yah man, 365 days a year, 24 hours a day! I don’t know. How many other watermelons have my same serial number? I think we should go to Tops Friendly Markets on Niagara Falls Blvd. in Niagara Falls, NY and find out. Then again, maybe I’ll just stay home and read my Chuck Palahniuk on the glider.

And eat some Maryland watermelon.

Well, that was a total nightmare. I have no idea what could have been so wrong with my hard drive that the technician could not have transferred information to the new one. He said it kept stopping and to continue to attempt it could jeopardize ever getting my information back.

Hence, I was forced to resort to a “data recovery” business. And let me tell ya- this is scary. First of all, there are a ton of scams and hoaxes. None of them seem any different than the other. I came across a news story about how you will send them your hard drive and then they hold it for ransom until you pay exorbitant amounts of money upwards of $2,000.

A quick search combining any of the company’s names and the word “scam” and you’ll get a laundry list of complaints and possibly lawsuits. Some of these places have even been known to keep your hard drive, steal personal information and never return it.

So, I went with one that was quoted in a news article. The news interviewed them as reputable technicians who were commenting on the scam artists. I had to go with them because I had to pick somebody- and I hoped the news would have at least researched these folks before I sent off my hard drive.

Turns out they were legitimate. They recovered my data on a machine. It took them only a few hours- yet I paid $600. It all comes down to “how valuable is this information to you?” “How much do you want to see your children’s pictures again or the last picture known of your father before he died?”

I got the hard drive back- not nearly as quickly as they boasted. They boasted one day turn arounds. It took them a week to even get to mine. Then 3 hours to fix. Then another week to wait for me to send them an external hard drive and to ship it out. All together- a little under three weeks.  They were nonchalant on the phone about my entire work order- and obviously wanted me to know this wasn’t a big priority.

But in the end- I did get those photos back. I did get my documents back. I am back in business.

However, two days after they shipping my hard drive? Mysteriously, someone with all my banking information started charging all sorts of tech equipment to me and I’ve had to register fraud complaints with my bank. Coincidentally they are in the same state as the repair place.

I called the repair place- they were very concerned- but felt it could not possibly be anyone who worked for them.