5 posts tagged “miscellaneous”

I sure as hell am!  Holy hell!  I want to scream into the phone I VOTED, DAMMIT! STOP CALLING ME!!  And the next person who hangs something on my doorknob is going to have their hangtag shoved up their nose, because, DAMMIT, I WAS THE ONLY PERSON IN THE POLLING PLACE UNDER THE AGE OF 50!

Just kiddin'.  But I am grateful that the political ads and the daily batch of postcards and flyers in the mail are done and over with.  I've had about enough of that BS.

In other news, I just did two major DOLTs in two days.  DOLT 1 was burning a batch of cupcakes for the United Way bake sale at work.  Worse yet, I didn't even REALIZE that I had burned them until I came home from work last night.  By then, my dearest hubster had iced them for me.  So, as you might have guessed, I was up at 2 a.m. baking cupcakes and making a fresh batch of peanut butter frosting.  Yeah, I could've sent in the burnt ones.  But who wants to forever be known as "the tool who brought in burnt cupcakes for the bake sale."  Eh, no thanks.

Second DOLT was just a bit ago.  I was trying to pour a bowl of partially frozen chili into the crock pot and, of course, the gigantic bean/beef/sauce popsicle in the middle splashed out of the bowl and onto the side of the crockpot, where it dismantled and poured down the counter and cabinet and onto the floor.  Have you ever tried to clean up about four cups of chili off a floor?  WTF!!  Jon described it aptly:  "Ewww!  What a MESS!"

I am ready for Mexico, can't you tell?  "Donde esta la cerveza, por favor."  That's all the Spanish I need.

1. We leave for Mexico next Friday. First trip ever without the kids. I'm
excited/nervous/excited/nervous. Repeat ad nauseum. Depending on how next
week goes, I will either run on to the plane like a crazy person just giddy
at the prospect of spending five days in paradise with her hubby sans
kiddos, or someone will have to shove two klonopin down my throat and drag
me on to the plane by my hair. You just never know how it'll be. Why? Cuz
part of me can't wait to go, and the other part is worried about leaving her
kids for five whole days. Gulp.

2. Speaking of hair, I got my hair cut. Like, really cut. It is up to the
nape of my neck in a cool 80s hipster stacked bob thingy. It is presently
thrown up in a cheap plastic headband but when I actually take (have) the
time to do blow it out, flat-iron, shine and spritz it up, it looks quite
schnazzy. Additionally, my hairdresser foiled it with three different
tones: a rich brown, an auburn and golden blonde for highlights. She deemed
this little work of art "autumn harvest." Given my complete lack of
consistency and follow up re: my hair, I wonder how long before my roots get
so bad from neglect, the blonde highlights are ashy and dirty looking, such
that I go from "autumn harvest" to "white trash ho-bag in need of a dye
job"? I should take a picture before it gets like that, huh?

3. Katie and her pee issues. Her urinalysis came back from the lab totally
clean. So, we've been referred to the Dove
Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The problem is still a
problem. During her party Wednesday at school, she went to the bathroom
four times. Before school each morning, she goes at least four to five times before we
even get out the door. I try to talk to her about it, but she doesn't seem
to be able to articulate what, if anything, might be causing her to go. I
am not going to push the issue anymore. We see them on the 27th, and I hope
then we'll get some further guidance.

4. Last I heard, my BIL and future SIL have set a date for their wedding:
July 11, 2009. I am so damn excited, and also thrilled because that date is
special for Shawn and I as well. We will be together 17 years on that
date. Weddings are so much fun. And this one is particularly special since
the four of us are in it. Should be interesting to see what Jon does in a
tux.

5. I register for spring classes today. Litigation and Civil Procedure and
Business Law I. Woo-freakin-hoo. Actually the former should be a
breeze--spent the early part of my adulthood as a litigation secretary. I'm
excited about Bus Law, tho. That's one area I'm not all that acquainted
with, so hopefully I'll get a lot out of it.

Ba dee ba dee ba dee, dat's all folks!

This week has been gratefully uneventful.  Especially in light of the fact that I blew my passenger side tire out last Friday night on my way to work.  And then the Phillies got swept.  Ugh.  Sucky sucky sucky. 

Jon had his follow up at the ped for the pneumonia and got the all clear.  Katie has recovered from her virus, but she came home with a pretty yucky cough last night, so we're keeping an eye on her. 

Moi -- I had my first paralegal studies exam and got a 98 (woohoo!) and things are rolling along in my other class, web development.  I am, surprisingly, enjoying the class.  When I first saw that we would be learning how to do nuts-and-bolts HTML coding, I got a little skeered.  I hate writing code.  HATE HATE HATE HATE IT.  Some people enjoy it.  Me?  I'd rather have root canal than write code.  But coding in HTML has been relatively painless, and any web developer worth their salt has to know how to read and interpret the code.  Not that I am aiming to be a developer or anything, I only took this class because I needed a computer class for the paralegal certificate, and I wasn't about to waste 300 bucks on computer literacy (whatev) and Microsoft Word (jah, double whatev -- I used to get PAID to teach people how to use MS Word).  But it's going well.  And, being it's my first true all-online course (which from what I hear is more difficult and demanding than regular lecture-style courses) it's going remarkably well.

Shawn has a newfound addiction:  Webkinz.  Yeah.  You know, for kidz.  For those of you who are not familiar -- Webkinz are adoptable little stuffed creatures with a little code on them.  You go to the Webkinz site, register your animal, and from there you can help care for your little pet in his little online world.  You earn money by doing jobs, playing games, etc.  The pet has a room, which you can purchase items for and decorate it.  The games are a lot of fun, and you can play with other Webkinz users, including your friends if they happen to be online at the same time.  You also have to buy food and feed the pet, too.  Think of a cross between a Beanie Baby and the Gigapet, except you care for the pet online.  It's a cool little world, and there's a value in the experience when children have to learn to care for something other than themselves for a change.

So how does Shawn factor into this?  Well, it really is, honestly, my fault.  Katie got her first Webkinz, a pink pig named Ariel, quite awhile back, but she didn't do much with it online because she doesn't have much tolerance for frustration.  Plus, not being able to read instructions for the games on Webkinz has proved to be a barrier for her.  Thus, she didn't spend much time hanging out on Webkinz.  Last week, Jon got his first Webkinz, a cute little elephant we named Elvis.  In the course of getting Elvis set up in his little corner of cyberspace, I enlisted Shawn's help.  Only thing with that is Shawn LOVES video games.  Many a night I've come home late from work and have found him on the computer playing Bejeweled or Scrabble online.  Well, add the option of earning money (even if it is Kinz Cash and not real dollars) to playing video games and, poof, you've got the online equivalent of crack for the hubster.

It's actually been quite comical for us, and a lot of fun, too.  I've even gotten in on the daily maintenance and care of our two pets.  I logged in the other day to check on Jon's Elvis, and found out Papa Bear had been quite busy, racking up over 4,000 dollars in Kinz Cash, and having bought Elvis quite a few toys and things for his little room.  Oh, and a toilet.  Cuz, you know, fake computer elephants gotta pee and poop, too, right? 

Eh, better than scooping up dog poop I suppose ;0)

I wake up this morning to this lovely little nugget of happiness in my inbox:

From: Bank of America Security Center [mailto:bancofamericasecuriticenter@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 8:30 PM
Subject: Unauthorized Activity

We recently have determined that different computers have logged onto your Online Banking account, and multiple password failures were present before the logons. We now need you to re-confirm your account information to us.

If this is not completed by March 4, 2006, we will be forced to suspend your account indefinitely, as it may have been used for fraudulent purposes. We thank you for your cooperation in this manner.


  To confirm your Online Banking records click on the following link:
  [LINK DELETED FOR SECURITY PURPOSES]


Thank you for your patience in this matter.

Bank Of America Customer Service

Please do not reply to this e-mail as this is only a notification. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.

2007 Bank Of America, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

Now I realize that there have been many unfortunate souls who have been victimized by such scams.  I get these at least 8 times a year.  I especially love the ones from banks where I DON'T EVEN HAVE A DAMN ACCOUNT!!!  Those are especially precious.

But this one -- this one has to be one of the most ridiculously obvious phishing ones.  This one is such an amateur.  Let's start with the sender's email address @yahoo.com.  Ahem. Yeah, I'm sure BofA can afford to have their own email accounts.  Not to mention it says bancofamericasecuriticenter.  Um, yeah.  Whatever.

Secondly, this little line "If this is not completed by March 4, 2006, we will be forced to suspend your account indefinitely, as it may have been used for fraudulent purposes. We thank you for your cooperation in this manner."  Why thank you for the deadline.  I'm so happy to know that you would give someone a three day opportunity to fuck up my life (if this were real). 

Do I really look like I fell of a turnip truck?  Nevermind, don't answer that.

At least this one wasn't rampant with grammatical and spelling errors.  Those are often the biggest red flags. 

But, this post actually has a point -- folks, be not so stupid.  Banks tend not to email people when there is suspicious activity.  They either (a) call or (b) do nothing.  So, a word to the wise, keep tabs on your own stuff and recognize the smell of bullshit dumped in your inbox.

Thus, I redesigned the masthead.  I know, the creativity that emanates from this blog is overwhelming, isn't it? 

I actually had a really cool, St. Patty's day design in my head but -- (a) Jonathan was crawling all over me, and (b) I couldn't figure out how to make a Shamrock brush.  I have the instructions filed away somewhere, but it would require significant effort to find them.  If I didn't have a billion other things that really NEED to be done -- like this group counseling session plan I still have yet to develop for Saturday, and the changing of the poopy diaper my son is running around in right at this moment -- I might actually have the time to do a cool banner.  So, until I graduate and my son stops shitting his pants, this is as cool as it gets.  Carry on.