Forget what the mouse is doing while the cats away, do you ever wonder what goes on in your home while YOU'RE away?? Only recently, when the snow turned to mud in our dog yard, did I have a way of tracking the expeditions of Canyon when we left the house. Before muddy paw prints gave away her secrets, I wondered why certain pillows turned up in other rooms, how the rugs on the third floor got thrown into the wall and why it always looked like someones curious nose had peeked in every trash can in the house. After practicing my deep breathing exercises (basically looked like the K-9 Jackson Pollock painted every surface in our house with mud), I traced her journey one evening while we were out to dinner. In a few short hours this busy girl (who sleeps at our feet when we are home, rarely ever leaving our side) managed to hit just about every surface in our home with MUD...four sofas, three guest beds (with clean lines, of course), two sets of wood staircases and every rug in our house. The only thing I could do (after I stopped crying, that is) was clean up the mess and head to the Home Depot the next day for a few bags of wood chips to soak up the mud. Clearly, it's going to be a long spring!! A few years ago, however, in our other house we came home to a very different scene...a window was wide open on one side of our home and the kitchen door on the other...it looked like our alarm system (with loud barks and sharp teeth) scared whatever dared to come in our home far, far away. Not that I'm paranoid or worried that Canyon will sneak our booze when we're away, I do feel a need to have a little extra security at home while we're away, even if for just a few hours. Meet Vivint (www.vivint.com/tv) one of the coolest security guards you'll ever meet. Rated by Consumer Reports as one of the most economical and technologically savvy ways to protect your house and loved ones, Vivint costs $99 to install and as little as $39/month. By downloading a free app to your smartphone and/or tablet, you can pop into your living room from anywhere in the world at any time (or anywhere you place Vivint's cameras included in the program), adjust the cameras angles by pressing a few buttons on your smartphone, turn lights on, close your garage door, lock your front door or set your DVR to record your favorite program. So whether you're keeping an eye on your teenager, watching your house while you're on the beaches of Hawaii or recording CSI on the fly, when you leave home you'll never have to worry about anything you've left behind!
