Monthly Archives: March 2012

If you ever get something like the email below, don’t fall for it! I know most of you are smart enough to know better….but it has to be said.

I was working with someone today to try to get their compromised email back. They didn’t lose it by filling out something like this, because they know better.

But check out how sleek these scumbags are. After getting the account back, I linked it to their mobile phone number for some added security. Not long after, they received this email. Sneaky! Needless to say, it’s not really from bellsouth. It’s actually from someone using a random verizon.net email.

There’s a reason they say they’ll never ask you for this kind of information. My comments in red.

——————————–
From: Bellsouth Customer Care
Sent: Friday, March 23, 2012 1:25 PM
To: undisclosed recipients:
Subject: Dear Bellsouth Account User!!!

Dear Bellsouth Account User,

Your e-mail needs to be updated with our released F-Secure Internet Security 2012 new version of a better resource webmail spam and viruses (No way I read this does it even make sense!). If you have not upgraded your account, click reply and fill in the columns below to send it back so we can update our database account immediately.

Failure to update will process your Bellsouth account being temporarily blocked or suspended from our network (again with the crappy engrish) and may not be able to receive or send e-mail due to the update.

Fill the column below:

USERNAME:
PASSWORD:
Phone:

We apologize for the inconvenience, we are here to make it look better webmail in 2012. huh?

Bellsouth Customer Care! We really care! Look, the exclamation point proves it!
Case Number: 7650087 Property
Account Security
©2012 Bellsouth All Right Reserved. Just the right is reserved? Not the left?
Seriously people. Try harder, at least.

I went to G-ville last week for Rose’s birthday. I did a lot of work around the house while she was at work, including hanging the cabinet doors back up and priming and painting them. I also ripped the carpet off of the patio, a job I thought would be WAY more difficult than it was. I put some adhesive remover on one corner, let it sit for a while, and went for it. I decided that if that corner came up easily, I’d use the rest of the adhesive remover on the rest of the carpet. But, once I started pulling, i didn’t have to. It was still a workout, but not the workout I expected. After trying to do some handscraping of what the carpet left behind, I decided to rent a machine to do it a lot faster and easier (still a workout). You can see the before and after pictures of all that below in the form of fancy morphs!

Rose had challenged me to make something vegetarian for her birthday. So I looked online and found a couple of recipes. One for creamcheese-stuffed olive carrot penguins, and the other for pizza.

Thankfully the other resident took Rose’s on-call status for her birthday…and then for Fri-Sun as well! On Friday Rose left work a little early and headed home, where we packed up the dogs and took them to Dogwood Park (yes, Dogwood…), where they sniffed a lot and interacted with other dogs. Really nice place.

Saturday we went to lunch at Pomodoro’s, then stumbled across this car show, before going to see 21 Jump Street.

Now, I leave you with cute pet pictures:

I can’t believe it’s time already to do a mardi gras summary. Sigh.

I posted quite a few pictures on our photobucket page, as well as at The Krewe of Bikeus photobucket (for the most part, the Bikeus ones are not in our personal one). This will basically be pulling out some of those and talking about them and whatever was going on. I’ll do my best to not duplicate any of the Mardi Gras Photo Du Jour from bookface, which totalled 43 in all (plus some bonuses).

As always, click the thumbnail for the larger version.

First up, Barkus.

Daisy loves getting treats from random people as they walk down the street, but she hates….HATES….brass bands. Well, maybe not the whole band. But definitely the drums.

Muses:

I loved this float from Muses. No, not because they had an actual stripper in the shadow box, but because of what it represented, the naked cancer scanners that the TSA still hasn’t figured out how to effectively and efficiently use. Brilliant, ladies. I’m surprised Michele Gaudin wasn’t on *this* float.

Krewe d’Etat:

From one of my other favorite parades, which I went to by myself and met up with Amy and Joey while Rose was driving in from Florida. It’s a very satirical parade. Go figure that I would like it, right? That’s Ronal Serpas, NOPD Superintendent, as the head (literally) of this float. I like this photo because all the NOPD detail officers were standing there looking up at it, I suppose trying to decide what they thought of it.

I stayed for a lot of d’Etat, and then headed home to meet Rose. She took a nap, then we left to go see Better Than Ezra at the HoB. After taking 45 min to an hour to get there, we parked at St. Pat’s and rode our bikes, parked half a block away, and walked on in. Tonic, the opening band, was finishing their last song. Just in time! Not really, we had like a half hour set change.

I told everyone that yes, I agree, it will rain Saturday, but Endymion would still roll. They all laughed at me and called me names, like Rudolph. Ok, so it wasn’t that severe. But it did rain, and Endymion did roll. We got out there on Orleans at about noon, and hung out with my parents’ neighbors Gwen and Dennis and everyone at Martin insurance for a few hours. (“It’s not Endymion without Mai Tais!”) Here we are when we first got there:

and then waiting out the rain:

I don’t think I’ve been more excited for the line up of the floats than I was this year. It was a triumphant moment of yes, this is happening, it’s happening today, it’s happening in mid-city, and we don’t have to wait until after Bacchus to see it!

It was at this point that we walked down the street to the Sanchez house and joined that party, and soon after, the parade started rolling! Minus all the feathery maid costumes, which is really alright with me ;). Right before the parade got to us, there was one last shower, and some people across the street took shelter in a portapotty.

I just really like this picture so I’m throwing it in here:

Me, Johnny Sanchez, and Michele Campisi:

Sunday we quickly made a poster based on the EP cover of The Breton Sound, because 2 of them were gonna be in one of the parades. We parked by Loyola and rode our bikes to Amy and Joey’s spot, only to find out that Amy was sick. Of course we still stayed there with Joey and all their peeps, but it was sad that Rose didn’t get to hook up with Amy. We stayed for Mid-City, Thoth, and a few floats of Bacchus, and then went home and chilled. I really only wanted to see Will Ferrell. It’s not that I don’t like Bacchus, but it’s not my thing like Muses, d’Etat, Endymion, and now Nyx are.

Monday we (Rose) did some work on costumes, and then headed down to the Quarter for a bit. We stopped at the Old Opera House to see Russ and Janson.

Who Stole My Chicken? No one, it’s right there! We then inserted ourselves into a second line that looked like it was some kind of corporate meeting that was planned for Lundi Gras, and then headed to Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop for a Voodoo Daiquiri. Then we headed back to the stands at Girod and St. Charles to meet back up with Kelly and Merle and catch Tuck’s. Now, Tuck’s is usually on Saturday, so I always miss it because we start our Endymion partying so early. I caught it once, in 2006, when Endymion was moved to the uptown route because Mid-City was in no shape to host a parade. I’m SO glad Tuck’s was moved. We both loved it, and I will even consider riding in it one year with Rose. I will sacrifice an Endymion to do that.

I mean, how could you NOT want to be in a parade where one of the floats is a toilet, and they throw plungers?!

Hey look, it’s us!

And us again!

Next came Proteus, and finally Orpheus. Somewhere in all that, this crazy s.o.b. showed up and stole my camera and took a bunch of crazy pictures of himself. Then Merle jumped in one.

And I pushed Kelly into another.

We stayed for Orpheus (does anyone know why the big ol’ Jumbotron float that announces what celebrities to expect came AFTER all the celebrity floats had already gone by?), and then headed home to go to bed so we could be up bright and early for Bikeus. As a side note, it was weird seeing Orpheus outside again. We went to the Orpheuscapade from 2008-2010, and then neither of us remember going last year. I find that hard to believe, but I really don’t.

5:15am Tuesday morning we wake up and get ready for Bikeus! I really need to memorize how to get to Pal’s, because my gps seriously crapped out that morning. We got there eventually, passed the royal crown over to Shoeless and Jan, and went on our way to an amazing Mardi Gras day. Everything went so well, from the weather to our course to our costumes to everyone just having a really good time.

As many of you know because of bookface, Rose was the ocean. Y’all, she totally made this costume. From the seagull on her head to the hermit crabs and starfish on her feet. She even dyed the tutu and unitard, or whatever that’s called, herself. She sewed all that stuff on there. Amazing. And I mean real amazing, not amazing like they throw it around on The Bachelor.

Me, I was a baby on a ladder. That’s right. As popular as they are at Mardi Gras, neither I, nor just about anyone else on the planet, had ever seen one as a costume. Will there be some in the years to come? Perhaps. Will they be as awesome as mine? Never. 😉

After a while we left the Krewe of Bikeus to go meet up with the Krewe of Sloth. Here we are drinking and waiting for our food at El Gato Negro:

And here I am next to a really tall guy and a guy with a suit made out of doubloons.

Well, that about wraps it up. Just like Mardi Gras itself, I can’t believe this post is over.