All your phone records are belong to us

For $110

The Chicago Police Department is warning officers their cell phone records are available to anyone -- for a price. Dozens of online services are selling lists of cell phone calls...

Other gems:

"To test the service, the FBI paid Locatecell.com $160 to buy the records for an agent's cell phone and received the list within three hours, the police bulletin said."

"How well do the services work? The Chicago Sun-Times paid $110 to Locatecell.com to purchase a one-month record of calls for this reporter's company cell phone. It was as simple as e-mailing the telephone number to the service along with a credit card number. The request was made Friday after the service was closed for the New Year's holiday.

On Tuesday, when it reopened, Locatecell.com e-mailed a list of 78 telephone numbers this reporter called on his cell phone between Nov. 19 and Dec. 17. The list included calls to law enforcement sources, story subjects and other Sun-Times reporters and editors."

Nice, huh?

Weekend report

It was a busy, busy weekend that included much driving.

On Saturday, we drove down to Fort Myers to meet my friend Joel and his fiance for lunch. Fort Myers is lovely; a nice downtown area and lovely buildings. It's too bad it's 2 hours away from work (on a Saturday). We ate at Delicious Things, and everyone came away very happy with the choice. The service was not as good as the food (our waiter at one point left to put up some posters and the other waiter was not all that attentive), but I'm assuming that's an abberation. They're not normally open in the afternoon, but the city was having a huge Arts & Crafts show.

After lunch, we headed back, and were just in time to pick up Ross' friend from the airport and take him to the birthday party. Good food and good company made for a lovely evening. I left the party between the restaurant and the bar, since I was headed to Orlando the next day.

I met my friend Cate (known to some of you as Tangwystle) in Orlando, and we set out in search of a Sweet Tomato (for the uninformed, a very nice chain of restaurants featuring a 50 foot salad bar, and fresh soups, breads, and pastas), a Bath & Body Works, and the 2 non-chain fabric stores I'd been able to locate in the Orlando superpages.

As it turns out, the restaurant and the B&BW were practicaly across the street from each other. Lunch was yummy, and Cate came away with a couple of nice-smelling lotions to take back to Canada, while I came away just smelling of the very runny lotion I accidentally spilled on myself. After much laughter, we set out to find the fabric stores.

Ha.

The first one wasn't that difficult to find, though it was on the opposite side of the street than what I'd expected. Sadly, it was closed.

So we set off up the interstate to find the exit for the second one. Found the exit, but then took a wrong turn. Then another one, then finally the right one, and there it was. Fortunately, the second one more than made up for the first one being closed. *The* most gorgeous velvet I've ever seen in my life.* A whole bunch of linen. And the silks. Oh, the silks. And not just silks, kiddies -- they had silk/wool blends, too. Imagine silk-type sheens with body. Yummy yummy. We also spent a bunch of time costume geeking, and I got a 1530's back-seamed bodice pattern.

And, she brought me President's Choice Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies. Life is indeed good.

It was a fantastic weekend, even if I didn't get my laundry done.

* For reference's sake, it was either a Cisele Velvet or a Pile-on-pile Velvet with a beautiful large, very tudor-suitable pattern.