On Sunday night, we decided to go on a dinner cruise. It was priced decently (30 dollars per person, all-you-can-eat (2 meals), and lots of entertainment (well, sort of). We got there just a few minutes before it departed and immediately went to the buffet. The food was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. I had prime rib, which always makes me happy.... I must say that the horseradish sauce they have is the best I've ever had. It was amazing.
So we ate and explored the ship. The weather was awesome, it was warm out on the deck, and a little breezy. We went and gambled a little bit, but the tables were too expensive for my liking. The girls did slots for a bit, but we really didn't spend too much time doing that. We decided to go see if there was any entertainment (like was advertised), but apparently they only do shows on certain nights, and Sunday night wasn't one of them. So we bought a couple packs of cards and played some card games in one of the lounges whilst drinking pina coladas. We went and ate our second meal (a breakfast) before looking at all the houses along the coast as we got closer to docking. Some of those houses were amazing.
All in all, it was a really fun night where we got to bond and have some fun. We would do it again if we came back to Florida.
12.31.2008
12.30.2008
Fun in Florida
Here we are in Florida at sea world waiting for shamu to splash the crowd. We've had a great time so far including one of the (if not the best) beach trip I've had. We went to the beach on either Thursday or Friday of last week. Trisha and I ended up with a bit of a sunburn but nothing too out of control.
Adam was REALLY tired on the way to the beach and complained a lot about wanting to stay home. He was ornery until about 45 minutes after we got there. Damon and I rode the 4 foot waves for a while before I went and laid out for a bit. It was a comfy 80 degrees. Perfect. The water was 74 (also perfect). We built a pretty good sandcastle and then went swimming again before heading home. We would have stayed later but Amie had to work that night so we had to be back pretty early.
Well. Shamu is going to make his entrance soon so I'd better wrap it up. Stay tuned to hear about our dinner cruise and our day at seaworld!
Adam was REALLY tired on the way to the beach and complained a lot about wanting to stay home. He was ornery until about 45 minutes after we got there. Damon and I rode the 4 foot waves for a while before I went and laid out for a bit. It was a comfy 80 degrees. Perfect. The water was 74 (also perfect). We built a pretty good sandcastle and then went swimming again before heading home. We would have stayed later but Amie had to work that night so we had to be back pretty early.
Well. Shamu is going to make his entrance soon so I'd better wrap it up. Stay tuned to hear about our dinner cruise and our day at seaworld!
12.24.2008
Merry Christmas!
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (or whatever you choose to celebrate). I hope everyone has/is having/had a wonderful holiday and got everything that they wanted/deserved.
Florida
We made it to Florida! tHE WEATHER HERE IS awesome! The highs are in the high 70s. Beautiful and warm! The flights worked out just perfect. Both Trisha and I went straight from flight to flight and didn't have to try to make different flights or anything, so that worked out perfect. I got in to Fort Lauderdale at about 9:30 AM on Tuesday (the 23rd).
Damon picked me up from the airport, and had to get some more work done before he could take me home (since it was in the middle of his work day). So, I rode around with Damon in his car until about 6 that evening. It was a long day of sitting on my butt. I got about 2 and a half hours of sleep in his car as he was working, and didn't sleep at all on the plane, so I was pretty tired. When I finally crashed (at around 2 AM), I didn't sleep very well because I was so tired. I also woke up a little congested, so I hope I don't end up with a cold.
We're enjoying being here with Amie and Damon and the boys. We've been chilling and haven't done a whole lot, which has been nice.
I went to lunch yesterday at Boston Market. I haven't been there in years (cuz I think they're out of business in Utah). Pretty good food. Especially their mashed potatoes.
We went to eat dinner at Buca De Beppo, and because my birthday was within the past 7 days, we got a free desert and a 10 dollar off gift card for our next visit. They also did a great job embarrassing me by getting the ENTIRE restaurant to sing happy birthday to me. The food wasn't very good, though. It was quite bland. Oh well.
We ate lunch today at Chili's, and then ate leftovers for dinner while playing The Office board game. That was fun (I won!).
Well, It's quite late, so I better head off to bed pretty soon.
Damon picked me up from the airport, and had to get some more work done before he could take me home (since it was in the middle of his work day). So, I rode around with Damon in his car until about 6 that evening. It was a long day of sitting on my butt. I got about 2 and a half hours of sleep in his car as he was working, and didn't sleep at all on the plane, so I was pretty tired. When I finally crashed (at around 2 AM), I didn't sleep very well because I was so tired. I also woke up a little congested, so I hope I don't end up with a cold.
We're enjoying being here with Amie and Damon and the boys. We've been chilling and haven't done a whole lot, which has been nice.
I went to lunch yesterday at Boston Market. I haven't been there in years (cuz I think they're out of business in Utah). Pretty good food. Especially their mashed potatoes.
We went to eat dinner at Buca De Beppo, and because my birthday was within the past 7 days, we got a free desert and a 10 dollar off gift card for our next visit. They also did a great job embarrassing me by getting the ENTIRE restaurant to sing happy birthday to me. The food wasn't very good, though. It was quite bland. Oh well.
We ate lunch today at Chili's, and then ate leftovers for dinner while playing The Office board game. That was fun (I won!).
Well, It's quite late, so I better head off to bed pretty soon.
Announcement
It's official.
Twice confirmed.
I'm going to be a daddy!
That's right! Trisha is pregnant!
Yay!
We're very excited, and I'm pretty anxious/nervous too!
Twice confirmed.
I'm going to be a daddy!
That's right! Trisha is pregnant!
Yay!
We're very excited, and I'm pretty anxious/nervous too!
12.22.2008
Florida
As many of you know, this year Trisha and I decided to head out of town for Christmas and try our luck at a summery Christmas. We're going to Florida! In fact, Trisha is already there, and I'm scheduled to leave tonight at 11:15 PM. I'm hoping that the weather has cleared up enough by then (and that the flight isn't full).
Trisha's sister lives in West Palm Beach, so we're going to stay with them for a week while we soak up the sun. We're both very excited! It is a little weird to know that some of the holiday traditions will not be observed this year. We're gunna miss our family, but getting away from the hustle and bustle while visiting with family who couldn't make it in for Christmas seems like it will be ok. We'll see!
Trisha's sister lives in West Palm Beach, so we're going to stay with them for a week while we soak up the sun. We're both very excited! It is a little weird to know that some of the holiday traditions will not be observed this year. We're gunna miss our family, but getting away from the hustle and bustle while visiting with family who couldn't make it in for Christmas seems like it will be ok. We'll see!
12.19.2008
Birthday
Yesterday was my birthday, and I had a GREAT DAY! Because of the weather, I worked from home, but unfortunately missed a lunch appointment at the best Thai restaurant in Utah. For my birthday, I decided to take a day or 2 off of my diet, so it would have been the perfect time to get the Thai food.
Work was light yesterday, since a good chunk of the stuff I am working on requires me to be in the office, but I still got some work done.
Trisha went to do Roz's hair in the late afternoon, and so I went and tagged along.
After the hair stuff was done, we went to dinner with my parents at Texas Roadhouse. I had a yummy prime rib. I then went home and played Call of Duty with some of my friends online.
All in all, it was a great day. :D
Work was light yesterday, since a good chunk of the stuff I am working on requires me to be in the office, but I still got some work done.
Trisha went to do Roz's hair in the late afternoon, and so I went and tagged along.
After the hair stuff was done, we went to dinner with my parents at Texas Roadhouse. I had a yummy prime rib. I then went home and played Call of Duty with some of my friends online.
All in all, it was a great day. :D
12.15.2008
Wow.. A 10 day Draught.
Wow.. Went 10 days without updating. Sorry about that. :S
I've been so blasted busy with school and work that I've been procrastinating.
Today was the "Premiere" of some videos that a couple of coworkers and I created for our work's online university. These are tutorials that show you how our system works and how to increase your margins, etc. A sample video can be found here. I even created a mock movie intro to the James Bond theme song and the Casino Royal intro scene. That can be seen below.
I also created a spoof of "how to get paid" as an internal joke of the process of getting our paychecks. It was a hoot, and well recepted.
I'm exhausted now that the whole thing is over. It was a lot of work, but it paid off. I think everyone realized how much time and work I put into it. It was a lot of fun too!
I've been so blasted busy with school and work that I've been procrastinating.
Today was the "Premiere" of some videos that a couple of coworkers and I created for our work's online university. These are tutorials that show you how our system works and how to increase your margins, etc. A sample video can be found here. I even created a mock movie intro to the James Bond theme song and the Casino Royal intro scene. That can be seen below.
I also created a spoof of "how to get paid" as an internal joke of the process of getting our paychecks. It was a hoot, and well recepted.
I'm exhausted now that the whole thing is over. It was a lot of work, but it paid off. I think everyone realized how much time and work I put into it. It was a lot of fun too!
12.05.2008
Thanksgiving
I know it's a week late, but I just wanted to leave a quick blog about how my Thanksgiving went. As I mentioned before, I we spent Wednesday night though Sunday at Jenny and Aaron's house. On Wednesday night, we watched some movies and stayed up late.
On Thanksgiving, I got up and went shooting with my brother-in-law Frank. We sighted in his new gun for an upcoming cayote hunt. It was fun to shoot. We also shot is .337 magnum. Man, that felt like someone was kicking you in the hand when you'd shoot it. When shooting the .337 special ammo, it was much better. I also put about 100 rounds through my 9mm.
After I got back, Trisha made a chocolate sheet cake to bring to her extended family's Thanksgiving. The cake turned out quite well, but I didn't get to try any. We went to the Thanksgiving party at around 4. It was just an OK experience this year. There was some drama going on, and we ended up leaving at one point and coming back, and then leaving somewhat early. I only ate Turkey and Celery, so it wasn't really great food for me... Plus Trisha ate some really bland mashed potatoes.
After Trisha's family's party, we went back to Jenny and Aaron's. Aaron had prepared a good spread for us to have. Homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, green bean casserole, yams, the works! I (again) stuck with the turkey and had a bit of green bean casserole. I decided earlier that I wanted to eat more than that, so I bought some asparagas and cauliflower. I roasted the asparagas with butter and parmesean cheese and steamed the cauliflower and then mashed it to make a substitute for the mashed potatoes. Overall, it was a good dinner. After dinner was done, it was quite late, and everyone started crashing. Trisha and I had a tubby together in the giant tub in the master bedroom! That was fun!
We slept in on Friday and went to a movie in the afternoon. We actually saw 2 movies, Twilight and Four Christmases. Twilight was good for the most part. The script and acting could have used some help, but it was enjoyable. Four Christmases was pretty funny too. Of course, parts of it were over the top, but that's typical. Vince Vaughn is just so funny!
I don't remember what we did Saturday.
On Sunday, Trisha had a migraine, and she didn't sleep well for most of the day, so after I woke up, she finally fell asleep. I played COD5 for a good chunk of the day and then helped clean up before Jenny's family came for her birthday party. We left shortly after they got there and went home and relaxed.
All in all, a good weekend.
On Thanksgiving, I got up and went shooting with my brother-in-law Frank. We sighted in his new gun for an upcoming cayote hunt. It was fun to shoot. We also shot is .337 magnum. Man, that felt like someone was kicking you in the hand when you'd shoot it. When shooting the .337 special ammo, it was much better. I also put about 100 rounds through my 9mm.
After I got back, Trisha made a chocolate sheet cake to bring to her extended family's Thanksgiving. The cake turned out quite well, but I didn't get to try any. We went to the Thanksgiving party at around 4. It was just an OK experience this year. There was some drama going on, and we ended up leaving at one point and coming back, and then leaving somewhat early. I only ate Turkey and Celery, so it wasn't really great food for me... Plus Trisha ate some really bland mashed potatoes.
After Trisha's family's party, we went back to Jenny and Aaron's. Aaron had prepared a good spread for us to have. Homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey, green bean casserole, yams, the works! I (again) stuck with the turkey and had a bit of green bean casserole. I decided earlier that I wanted to eat more than that, so I bought some asparagas and cauliflower. I roasted the asparagas with butter and parmesean cheese and steamed the cauliflower and then mashed it to make a substitute for the mashed potatoes. Overall, it was a good dinner. After dinner was done, it was quite late, and everyone started crashing. Trisha and I had a tubby together in the giant tub in the master bedroom! That was fun!
We slept in on Friday and went to a movie in the afternoon. We actually saw 2 movies, Twilight and Four Christmases. Twilight was good for the most part. The script and acting could have used some help, but it was enjoyable. Four Christmases was pretty funny too. Of course, parts of it were over the top, but that's typical. Vince Vaughn is just so funny!
I don't remember what we did Saturday.
On Sunday, Trisha had a migraine, and she didn't sleep well for most of the day, so after I woke up, she finally fell asleep. I played COD5 for a good chunk of the day and then helped clean up before Jenny's family came for her birthday party. We left shortly after they got there and went home and relaxed.
All in all, a good weekend.
12.03.2008
SCAM - Part 20 - The jig is up...
My response:
From: xxxxxxx@hotmail.com
Subject: RE: Yes, I hope you die from AIDS...
Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2008 13:29:03 -0700
--------------------
Dearest St. Topher the Gopher,
I need to first start off this email by thanking you for the humor and enjoyment that you have provided to me and my friends. I really was beginning to look forward to your emails every day. I was able to put on a little show for dozens of people to enjoy, and it's really a shame that this is coming to an end.
Now to move on to the fun stuff...
You are a complete idiot, and that's funny! Your game is up... I know that you are a craigslist scammer living in Nigeria, and I knew it from the very first email you sent to me. I know your name isn't "Chris Scott." You should have used a name that would be a little more convincing, like Kehinde? Kehinde means that you lag behind right? A little slower than the rest? That's just too true...
This whole back and forth was a farce on my part, and I'm not sorry for it. For the pain and misery that you and your friends cause to innocent people, the small amount of joy and large amount of laughter that you have provided me and my friends is the least that you could do.
I hope that the many calls you made to me cost you a lot of money. It really was a waste for you. Oh, and by the way, every time you called me, you were actually calling the local police department here. I only wish I could have recorded those calls as you desperately tried to get ahold of me just like I recorded the phone call when I called you. (By the way, you really have to work on your scamming technique. You didn't even know who I was on the phone!)
I gave you every opportunity in the world to figure out that I was jerking you along, but you were just too stupid to figure it out. From my address that essentially told you that it wasn't a real address, to even more obvious things like the problems sending the money over and over. But, you finally figured it out. You should be proud of yourself for putting 2 and 2 together after only 2 and a half weeks!
I can only hope that you were truely embarrased when you went to the bank to try to withdraw the funds on the fake MTCN number. I'm sure that the bank attendants thought the whole situation was quite funny. I'd bet my bottom dollar that they know that you're a scammer and it's only a matter of time before you're caught and sent to prision. I hope you enjoy being sodomized.
St. Topher the Gopher, you are the scum of the Earth, and I hope that you get what's due to you.
Thanks for the cheap laughs, though.
"Trisha Fielding"
SCAM - Part 19
St. Topher the Gopher has finally responded! Here's what he had to say. Included is the subject of the email.
"RE: I would never wish such a horrible disease upon my worst enemy.What a horrible disease! I wonder if God put it on Earth to wipe out the Except maybe you.????
From: Chris Scott (c_hood40@yahoo.com)
Sent: Wed 12/03/08 11:23 AM
To: Trisha (xxxxxxx@hotmail.com)
Trisha.....
Thanks for the mails.I just want to let you know that i really appreicate the embarassment you make me go through today with the mtcn you have given about three times.I dont know what to think about what are doing .on the other hand something tell me that you fooling me.Because this is the third time you giving me three type of mtcn number that does not correspond.
I just want know maybe there something you want share that i dont really understand,And you know what i also have a very big clash the money gram today about the refrence number you gave me .So i am thinking if you still willing to make the payment i want you to make it throuhg western union.Because that is very easy to check online before going to the bank to recieve any kind of embarassment.I am really stress in sending you this message.
I think you have anything explanation for this.
Thanks
Chris"
"RE: I would never wish such a horrible disease upon my worst enemy.What a horrible disease! I wonder if God put it on Earth to wipe out the Except maybe you.????
From: Chris Scott (c_hood40@yahoo.com)
Sent: Wed 12/03/08 11:23 AM
To: Trisha (xxxxxxx@hotmail.com)
Trisha.....
Thanks for the mails.I just want to let you know that i really appreicate the embarassment you make me go through today with the mtcn you have given about three times.I dont know what to think about what are doing .on the other hand something tell me that you fooling me.Because this is the third time you giving me three type of mtcn number that does not correspond.
I just want know maybe there something you want share that i dont really understand,And you know what i also have a very big clash the money gram today about the refrence number you gave me .So i am thinking if you still willing to make the payment i want you to make it throuhg western union.Because that is very easy to check online before going to the bank to recieve any kind of embarassment.I am really stress in sending you this message.
I think you have anything explanation for this.
Thanks
Chris"
12.01.2008
SCAM - Part 18
Much to my chagrin, T the G hasn't referred to himself as Topher the Gopher.. Yet...
Hello Trisha, Thanks for the mail,so i am very happy for your fast responds.and for what you said in your message that you made a mistake by sending the money to the wrong destination right?and i will like you to know that could you just go back to the bank that you used for the transfer of the money that they should provide you and other refrence number for the transfer! i can't just go to the bank an provide them the former reference number that you gave me. What i will like you to do is that just go to the bank and told the representative that he/she should provide you another refrence number.
Looking to hear from you soon.
God bless you.
Chris...
My reply:
Dearest Topher Gopher,
Thanks for the email. I'm sorry that it took me most of the day to respond to you. The twins have been out of control. Seeing as they're well into their terrible two's (their 3rd birthday is only 2 and a half weeks away!), the teething and breastfeeding has become a constant battle. Do you have any suggestions on how to cope with these children? Surely you have some advice, coming from a saint in the land of Africa who is constantly saving the lives of starving children. Speaking of, how is the work going there? Have you had much of a run-in with any kids or adulterers with AIDS or HIV? I would never wish such a horrible disease upon my worst enemy. Except maybe you. What a horrible disease! I wonder if God put it on Earth to wipe out the adulterers? Some people say that the US government created the AIDS virus to whipe out gays and blacks. I'm not sure. I'd guess that they created crack to whipe out the blacks. It hasn't worked yet.
Regarding the moneygram payment, the representative said I didn't need a new reference number for the payment. Because of your email, I insisted that they give me a new reference number in place of the number that I gave you. After a bit of an argument over the need of a new reference number, the representative gave me a new one. The new reference number for this payment is 24685611. Please go to the bank post haste to see if the payment has deposited. The neighbors that live nearby your house are growing weary of our tents in your front yard. I keep telling them that I'm just waiting for you to send the keys. They told me that they didn't know that you went to Africa to serve a mission. What a nice thing of you to do, to not tell anyone of your good works. That reminds me of a bible story about the old woman and the well. Perhaps you can recount that story back to me? Let me give you a hint: it doesn't have anything to do with a woman falling down a well. I got that answer wrong in sunday school when I was younger.
Good luck to you and God's work in Africa.
You're always in my thoughts and prayers.
Trisha
Hello Trisha, Thanks for the mail,so i am very happy for your fast responds.and for what you said in your message that you made a mistake by sending the money to the wrong destination right?and i will like you to know that could you just go back to the bank that you used for the transfer of the money that they should provide you and other refrence number for the transfer! i can't just go to the bank an provide them the former reference number that you gave me. What i will like you to do is that just go to the bank and told the representative that he/she should provide you another refrence number.
Looking to hear from you soon.
God bless you.
Chris...
My reply:
Dearest Topher Gopher,
Thanks for the email. I'm sorry that it took me most of the day to respond to you. The twins have been out of control. Seeing as they're well into their terrible two's (their 3rd birthday is only 2 and a half weeks away!), the teething and breastfeeding has become a constant battle. Do you have any suggestions on how to cope with these children? Surely you have some advice, coming from a saint in the land of Africa who is constantly saving the lives of starving children. Speaking of, how is the work going there? Have you had much of a run-in with any kids or adulterers with AIDS or HIV? I would never wish such a horrible disease upon my worst enemy. Except maybe you. What a horrible disease! I wonder if God put it on Earth to wipe out the adulterers? Some people say that the US government created the AIDS virus to whipe out gays and blacks. I'm not sure. I'd guess that they created crack to whipe out the blacks. It hasn't worked yet.
Regarding the moneygram payment, the representative said I didn't need a new reference number for the payment. Because of your email, I insisted that they give me a new reference number in place of the number that I gave you. After a bit of an argument over the need of a new reference number, the representative gave me a new one. The new reference number for this payment is 24685611. Please go to the bank post haste to see if the payment has deposited. The neighbors that live nearby your house are growing weary of our tents in your front yard. I keep telling them that I'm just waiting for you to send the keys. They told me that they didn't know that you went to Africa to serve a mission. What a nice thing of you to do, to not tell anyone of your good works. That reminds me of a bible story about the old woman and the well. Perhaps you can recount that story back to me? Let me give you a hint: it doesn't have anything to do with a woman falling down a well. I got that answer wrong in sunday school when I was younger.
Good luck to you and God's work in Africa.
You're always in my thoughts and prayers.
Trisha
SCAM - Related Post "A"
You better check yourself before you wreck yourself.
http://www.kutv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=69919@kutv.dayport.com&navCatId=7
Thanks to David for tracking down this video.
http://www.kutv.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=69919@kutv.dayport.com&navCatId=7
Thanks to David for tracking down this video.
MIA - Ming Ming
As many of you know, we spent the weekend at a friends house for the Thanksgiving holiday. We returned home yesterday evening to find a missing Ming Ming. Even though her wheel was taped to the side of her cage so it wouldn't fall out, she ran it into the ground and the tape security failed. She (again) lept from the 4 foot dresser and was wandering around. We were gone from Wednesday night to Sunday night, and we have no idea when she got out. We turned the entire condo upside down looking for her. Finally, we decided to just sit and listen to see if she would come out of hiding, and if not, pronounce her dead.
I fell asleep at around 10:00 while listening for her in the bedroom. Trisha had a migraine all day yesterday and couldn't sleep until the afternoon, so she wasn't as tired. She was watching TV and looking through her coupons when we heard some scratching. It was at about 12:40 AM and it was loud enough to wake me up.
We were happy to find Ming Ming sitting on my shoes again.
I looked very closely in our closet earlier, and she wasn't there, but apparently, when she wants to be found, that's where she emerges. She had lost quite a bit of weight over the weekend. So we double taped the wheel back on and made sure she had lots of water and food. She drank and drank and drank when she first got back in her cage. We're glad that we found her!
I fell asleep at around 10:00 while listening for her in the bedroom. Trisha had a migraine all day yesterday and couldn't sleep until the afternoon, so she wasn't as tired. She was watching TV and looking through her coupons when we heard some scratching. It was at about 12:40 AM and it was loud enough to wake me up.
We were happy to find Ming Ming sitting on my shoes again.
I looked very closely in our closet earlier, and she wasn't there, but apparently, when she wants to be found, that's where she emerges. She had lost quite a bit of weight over the weekend. So we double taped the wheel back on and made sure she had lots of water and food. She drank and drank and drank when she first got back in her cage. We're glad that we found her!
11.29.2008
SCAM Part 17
You know the drill...
My reply to T the G.
T the G,
Thanks for the mail. I'm sorry for the confusion, I sent the money to the wrong place! Silly me! I'm so ditzy at times. Sometimes I even forget to get out of the tub when taking a bath for hours and hours and hours. It kind of reminds me of Arnie in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. He forgets to get out of the tub sometimes and likes to climb water towers. I'm afraid of heights, so I wouldn't ever do that, but sometimes I don't get out of the tub like him.
I went back to the moneygram at my local grocery store and asked the representative about it. He said that I dindeet sent it to the wrong country! i asked him if I could redirect the money to Nigeria. He said that I could for $100 fee that I had to pay to him directly in cash. I wonder why they wouldn't take a check like they did the first time. sometimes I think the moneygram agents arent very honest. I had to go spend a couple hours on State street to get the money for the moneygram agent. I got that to him. He said it would take up to another 2-4 business days to get the money to you. You should go to the bank and see if you can get the money so you can send me the keys via FedEx courier.
How is the AIDS epidemic in Africa? Have you saved any babies lives? You haven't ever answered me about this. Are you ashamed of your work working with the AIDS babies? I would be so proud of my work there. Just like I'm proud of helping out these crack babies that my homosexual uncles adopted. I try to tell everyone that I meet that I've saved their lives so they know that I'm one of God's chosen ones. You should tell everyone about your work there too! I hope that this mail finds you in good health and prosperity.
You are a great man, St. Toher the Gopher. God bless you.
Trisha Fielding
Scam Part 16
You know the drill..
From Topher the Gopher:
Trisha..
Thanks for the mail,i want to ask you this did you send the money through NIGERIA OR NIGER?because from the message you send to me you mention LAGOS NIGER and did you make sure weather you send the money to LAGOS NIGERIA because the is the right destination that you will used to send the money not NIGER and maybe you can go and cross check from the moneygram.
Looking to hear from you soon.
Chris...
From Topher the Gopher:
Trisha..
Thanks for the mail,i want to ask you this did you send the money through NIGERIA OR NIGER?because from the message you send to me you mention LAGOS NIGER and did you make sure weather you send the money to LAGOS NIGERIA because the is the right destination that you will used to send the money not NIGER and maybe you can go and cross check from the moneygram.
Looking to hear from you soon.
Chris...
11.28.2008
Scam Part 15
My response:
Dearest Topher,
I'm not sure why you haven't received the payment yet. Sorry for the delay in this. I went and spoke to the Moneygram representative and asked him why you hadn't received the payment. I gave him the reference number to make sure that it was right. He said when sending money to such a far destination such as Lagos, Niger, the payments can take up to 2-4 business days to be transferred. I think that maybe it wasn't sent yesterday because in the United States it was Thanksgiving day, which ias a national holiday. I don't think that it counts as a business day. The representative said that it would be there either Monday or Tuesday at the latest. My husband left the receipt at the club which is closed for the holiday, so he can't send you the receipt until tomorrow. I hope that's ok.
Because today is a business day, you may want to go try to get the payment again today. He said there was a chance that it would be there today. If it's there, then maybe you can send me the keys? That would be great. We're excited to move into the house. We set up a tent and are camping out in front of the house just so we can move in as soon as we get the keys.
How is Africa? Have you seen any lions recently? I just watched a movie called Lion King which is about Lions. It's a great movie. You should rent it from blockbuster and watch it when you get a chance. It is probably my favorite movie. It takes place in Afrika. I wonder if it's based on a true story. Maybe you know a lion named Simba.. Do you? Is he a king of lioins, or a Lion King? That would be cool.
Thanks, Topher the Gopher. You are a saint among men.
Good bless you and your efforts to save africa from aids and starvation.
Trisha Fielding
Dearest Topher,
I'm not sure why you haven't received the payment yet. Sorry for the delay in this. I went and spoke to the Moneygram representative and asked him why you hadn't received the payment. I gave him the reference number to make sure that it was right. He said when sending money to such a far destination such as Lagos, Niger, the payments can take up to 2-4 business days to be transferred. I think that maybe it wasn't sent yesterday because in the United States it was Thanksgiving day, which ias a national holiday. I don't think that it counts as a business day. The representative said that it would be there either Monday or Tuesday at the latest. My husband left the receipt at the club which is closed for the holiday, so he can't send you the receipt until tomorrow. I hope that's ok.
Because today is a business day, you may want to go try to get the payment again today. He said there was a chance that it would be there today. If it's there, then maybe you can send me the keys? That would be great. We're excited to move into the house. We set up a tent and are camping out in front of the house just so we can move in as soon as we get the keys.
How is Africa? Have you seen any lions recently? I just watched a movie called Lion King which is about Lions. It's a great movie. You should rent it from blockbuster and watch it when you get a chance. It is probably my favorite movie. It takes place in Afrika. I wonder if it's based on a true story. Maybe you know a lion named Simba.. Do you? Is he a king of lioins, or a Lion King? That would be cool.
Thanks, Topher the Gopher. You are a saint among men.
Good bless you and your efforts to save africa from aids and starvation.
Trisha Fielding
SCAM Part 14
Read all the others first.
Another email from dearest Topher:
Hello Trisha,
Thanks alot for all your mails, i hope all is well with you, your kids and the twins. I will want you to know that i went to the bank today hoping to receive the money from Money Gram, but the guy told me that the refrence number is invalid, i don't know why this has happen, am thinking if you might have made a mistake in typing the numbers, or something else, i will want you to go back to the grocery store and let them know that the money refernce number is invalid, and also is it possible for you to send me the Money gram tranfer slip giving to you at the grocery store, just to verify if the numbers are correct.
I will be expecting your mail as soon as possible.
Thanks and God bless.
Topher...
Another email from dearest Topher:
Hello Trisha,
Thanks alot for all your mails, i hope all is well with you, your kids and the twins. I will want you to know that i went to the bank today hoping to receive the money from Money Gram, but the guy told me that the refrence number is invalid, i don't know why this has happen, am thinking if you might have made a mistake in typing the numbers, or something else, i will want you to go back to the grocery store and let them know that the money refernce number is invalid, and also is it possible for you to send me the Money gram tranfer slip giving to you at the grocery store, just to verify if the numbers are correct.
I will be expecting your mail as soon as possible.
Thanks and God bless.
Topher...
11.26.2008
Let it die?
It has been suggested that I put this scammer out of his misery and tell him the truth. I say we put it up to a vote. The highest vote totals at the end of the week will win.
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 13
In order to ensure you know what's going on, read all of the previous entries related to this topic before diving into this one.
Another email from Saint Topher:
Trisha...
Thanks for the mail,and i will like to tell you that am very happy to hear from you back.and i will be expecting your message concrening the payment that you said by thursday you will make the payment,how is every body over there?.
Looking to hear from you soon.
God bless you.
Chris...
My response:
Dearest St. Topher of Nigeria,
Thank heaven and Allah above that I have finally been able to make this payment. It was an ordeal to say the least. The crack baby twins have been a real handful over the past few days, but I was able to get help from an elderly gentleman in our neighborhood, M. Lester Childs. He loves to watch children, and has helped me out this morning watching little Ngabe and Shaniqua. Those poor little babies. They just cry all day long and give me a headache. I don't know why my uncle and his partner adopted them in the first place. They both work full time and travel around the world selling shower curtain rings. I guess I'm just a little mad because of the extra burden on me and my husband, Xantar.
Well, like I said before, St. Topher, I was able to get down to the Moneygram at my local grocery store and make the payment. I was finally able to drop off the kids to Mr. Childs, the elderly gentleman that lives in our neighborhood that loves to watch little kids. When I finally got to the moneygram at my local grocery store after dropping the kids of to Lester, I was able to make the payment. Sorry that it took so long, cuz Lester Childs was busy watching some other kids before he would watch the kids that I'm babysitting. The man at the moneygram at my local grocery store wouldn't let me make the payment with a personal check, so I had to go back to my bank to withdraw the funds and to give to the man at the moneygram at my local grocery store. I tried to withdraw the $2600 to send you through moneygram at my local grocery store, but it seems that I still haven't received a refund from western union (I hate them!). So, I had to go to another business that is in between my house and the local grocery store where moneygram is. The store does pay day loans for people who need to pay bills before their paycheck gets here. You should really open one of these stores in Africa. It is a great way to help the people there get money so they can buy food so they are not starving and so they can buy AIDS vaccines so they don't have to die. Plus, I bet you'd like getting all the extra money in interest from those people over there.
I got the $2600 (finally) at the pay day loan center so that I could take it back to the man at the moneygram at my local grocery store. When I got back to the local grocery store to make the payment to you at the money gram at the local grocery store, the man took my money and asked for where I was going to send it. I gave him the information that we talked about before but I couldn't remember your dogs name again, so I told him the answer was Fido. Fido is a popular dogs name here in America. Maybe you should change your dogs name to Fido. The reference number that he gave me was 24678694. The man at moneygram in my local grocery store said that you could pick that up at the closest moneygram to where you are with the question what is my dogs name and the answer Fido and the reference number.
Well, I better go get Ngabe and Shaniqua from M. Lester Childs before he gets tired of them and won't watch them again. I'll probably need his help after I get the keys from you while we move into your beautiful house. We keep driving past it and think that it is so great. I can't wait until I can live there and take care of it for you while you're doing God's work in Africa.
God Bless you, Dearest St. Topher of Nigeria.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Trisha Fielding.
Another email from Saint Topher:
Trisha...
Thanks for the mail,and i will like to tell you that am very happy to hear from you back.and i will be expecting your message concrening the payment that you said by thursday you will make the payment,how is every body over there?.
Looking to hear from you soon.
God bless you.
Chris...
My response:
Dearest St. Topher of Nigeria,
Thank heaven and Allah above that I have finally been able to make this payment. It was an ordeal to say the least. The crack baby twins have been a real handful over the past few days, but I was able to get help from an elderly gentleman in our neighborhood, M. Lester Childs. He loves to watch children, and has helped me out this morning watching little Ngabe and Shaniqua. Those poor little babies. They just cry all day long and give me a headache. I don't know why my uncle and his partner adopted them in the first place. They both work full time and travel around the world selling shower curtain rings. I guess I'm just a little mad because of the extra burden on me and my husband, Xantar.
Well, like I said before, St. Topher, I was able to get down to the Moneygram at my local grocery store and make the payment. I was finally able to drop off the kids to Mr. Childs, the elderly gentleman that lives in our neighborhood that loves to watch little kids. When I finally got to the moneygram at my local grocery store after dropping the kids of to Lester, I was able to make the payment. Sorry that it took so long, cuz Lester Childs was busy watching some other kids before he would watch the kids that I'm babysitting. The man at the moneygram at my local grocery store wouldn't let me make the payment with a personal check, so I had to go back to my bank to withdraw the funds and to give to the man at the moneygram at my local grocery store. I tried to withdraw the $2600 to send you through moneygram at my local grocery store, but it seems that I still haven't received a refund from western union (I hate them!). So, I had to go to another business that is in between my house and the local grocery store where moneygram is. The store does pay day loans for people who need to pay bills before their paycheck gets here. You should really open one of these stores in Africa. It is a great way to help the people there get money so they can buy food so they are not starving and so they can buy AIDS vaccines so they don't have to die. Plus, I bet you'd like getting all the extra money in interest from those people over there.
I got the $2600 (finally) at the pay day loan center so that I could take it back to the man at the moneygram at my local grocery store. When I got back to the local grocery store to make the payment to you at the money gram at the local grocery store, the man took my money and asked for where I was going to send it. I gave him the information that we talked about before but I couldn't remember your dogs name again, so I told him the answer was Fido. Fido is a popular dogs name here in America. Maybe you should change your dogs name to Fido. The reference number that he gave me was 24678694. The man at moneygram in my local grocery store said that you could pick that up at the closest moneygram to where you are with the question what is my dogs name and the answer Fido and the reference number.
Well, I better go get Ngabe and Shaniqua from M. Lester Childs before he gets tired of them and won't watch them again. I'll probably need his help after I get the keys from you while we move into your beautiful house. We keep driving past it and think that it is so great. I can't wait until I can live there and take care of it for you while you're doing God's work in Africa.
God Bless you, Dearest St. Topher of Nigeria.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Trisha Fielding.
11.25.2008
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 12
READ PARTS 1-11 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
My response to dearest Saint Topher.
Hello Topher...
Is it ok if I call you Topher? I have a cousin-in-law twice removed who we call Christopher who is also selling a house in Herriman. I wouldn't want to confuse the two of you in my mind and send the deposit to the wrong person, so, if it's ok, I'll call you Topher...Topher.. Did you know about the American actor named Toher Grace? He's great. He's been in a couple movies and even on a TV show called "That 70's show." Since i'm catholic and all, I never watched the show. It glorified premarital sexual relations and casual drug use. I could not condone such a show. I stick to shows like Leave it to Beaver and Happy Days. Those certainly were the happy days. I wish I could live in the 1950's back with The Fonz and the rest of the crew. Life was much simpler then.
Thanks for continuing to be patient with me regarding the deposit. I've been so busy with my babysitting job since my 2nd uncle and his gay partner adopted the crack baby twins that I haven't had much time to venture out of the house. I did do some more research on Moneygram on the internets and found a website: http://www.moneygram.com/. What a novel idea, naming your website after your business. Anyhow, I attempted to make the payment to you on their website, but ran into some problems because their website says they don't sent payments to Niggeria or Niggers. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm not computer savy enough to figure that sort of thing out. I guess I'll have to go to the money gram location at my local grocery store like you suggested to find make the payment. Hopefully I'll be able to make it before this Thursday. Again, sorry for the delay. I hope that you haven't rented the house to anyone else while I've been trying to get this figured out.
You still haven't told me about your work in the motherland (Africa). How are the people there? Do they all have aids and are starving? I wish that I was a good enough person to go to africa and give my time and service to the poor people that need help. But I'm kind of selfish in that respect. I'd rather try to get rich by finding really good deals over the internets. I know that I've found this one, and I don't want to let it out of my sight.
Thank you again, Saint Topher, for your kindness and patience. I promise with every fiber of my being that I'm working on getting the payment to you as soon as possible. Those baby's just need a lot of milk, and I can only produce so much at a time, y'know?
Anyway. God Bless you Dearest Saint Topher of Nigeria (Just in case there is another Saint Topher.) I'm going to tell the archdioces of your good work. Perhaps one day you will really become a catholic church recognized saint and be translated into heaven in the twinkle of an eye during the 2nd coming of Christ.
Good day.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Trisha Fielding
My response to dearest Saint Topher.
Hello Topher...
Is it ok if I call you Topher? I have a cousin-in-law twice removed who we call Christopher who is also selling a house in Herriman. I wouldn't want to confuse the two of you in my mind and send the deposit to the wrong person, so, if it's ok, I'll call you Topher...Topher.. Did you know about the American actor named Toher Grace? He's great. He's been in a couple movies and even on a TV show called "That 70's show." Since i'm catholic and all, I never watched the show. It glorified premarital sexual relations and casual drug use. I could not condone such a show. I stick to shows like Leave it to Beaver and Happy Days. Those certainly were the happy days. I wish I could live in the 1950's back with The Fonz and the rest of the crew. Life was much simpler then.
Thanks for continuing to be patient with me regarding the deposit. I've been so busy with my babysitting job since my 2nd uncle and his gay partner adopted the crack baby twins that I haven't had much time to venture out of the house. I did do some more research on Moneygram on the internets and found a website: http://www.moneygram.com/. What a novel idea, naming your website after your business. Anyhow, I attempted to make the payment to you on their website, but ran into some problems because their website says they don't sent payments to Niggeria or Niggers. I'm not entirely sure why. I'm not computer savy enough to figure that sort of thing out. I guess I'll have to go to the money gram location at my local grocery store like you suggested to find make the payment. Hopefully I'll be able to make it before this Thursday. Again, sorry for the delay. I hope that you haven't rented the house to anyone else while I've been trying to get this figured out.
You still haven't told me about your work in the motherland (Africa). How are the people there? Do they all have aids and are starving? I wish that I was a good enough person to go to africa and give my time and service to the poor people that need help. But I'm kind of selfish in that respect. I'd rather try to get rich by finding really good deals over the internets. I know that I've found this one, and I don't want to let it out of my sight.
Thank you again, Saint Topher, for your kindness and patience. I promise with every fiber of my being that I'm working on getting the payment to you as soon as possible. Those baby's just need a lot of milk, and I can only produce so much at a time, y'know?
Anyway. God Bless you Dearest Saint Topher of Nigeria (Just in case there is another Saint Topher.) I'm going to tell the archdioces of your good work. Perhaps one day you will really become a catholic church recognized saint and be translated into heaven in the twinkle of an eye during the 2nd coming of Christ.
Good day.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Trisha Fielding
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 11
READ PARTS 1-10 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
Another email from dearest "Christopher."
Hello Trisha...
Thanks for the responds, it's nice hearing back from you. Have been wondering why i haven't heard back from you for some days now, I thought you were not interested in renting my home anymore since you didn't reply my message since last week, But i know you still going to say something.i read you messsage believe me i am very sorry for what happen between you and the person you meet at the western union, i think she is wrong for saying that you have been duped, it seems western union cancel the transaction, i think your suggestion is right using Money gram, and also supposing you have send the deposit through western union from either a grocery or a wallmart store, all this might not happen. So sending the deposit through money gram won't be a problem, i will want you to send it from either a grocery or a wallmart store for better convinience. Due what you said about your number being block really got me worried, can i have a cell phone # to call you.
Awaits your mail as soon as possible.
Thanks and God bless.
Christopher....
11.24.2008
Hampster Nights
I feel compelled to tell everyone about my ongoing sleepign problem I've had in the past few weeks. I'm constantly woken up by cute lil' Ming Ming running in her wheel, or drinking from her water bottle, or scratching the inside of her food container to get the last seed of whatever is stuck in there.
For HEAVEN'S SAKE MING MING! Why do you have to be nocturnal? Why do you have to run for hours on end (no exaggeration)?
The reason that the wheel makes so much noise is because Ming Ming is quickly becoming a fatty. She's nearly quadrupled in size. Her wheel bounces when she runs, so it bangs into the rest of the cage. Ugh. In fact, she is so big that we had to tape the wheel onto the hole it's connected to because she'd run and bounce it until the wheel fell off.
In fact, that's how she escaped the other night! After getting out of the wheel, she took a 4 foot dive from the dresser (brave little thing, she is). I found her in the closet on my shoes. She was just sitting there looking at me. Then she realized she was in trouble, so she dashed for somewhere to hide. Thankfully I found her quickly.
Anyway, we keep saying that we're going to put you in the other room, but with her recent escape, is that really such a good idea? If she escapes again, it could become a problem. But this lack of sleep has GOT to come to an end.
I guess I gotta finish cleaning out that room and get a table set up for her. We have to make sure that the room isn't too hot or too cold as well.
Ugh.. Ming Ming.. Why can't you just sleep when we do? Grr..
For HEAVEN'S SAKE MING MING! Why do you have to be nocturnal? Why do you have to run for hours on end (no exaggeration)?
The reason that the wheel makes so much noise is because Ming Ming is quickly becoming a fatty. She's nearly quadrupled in size. Her wheel bounces when she runs, so it bangs into the rest of the cage. Ugh. In fact, she is so big that we had to tape the wheel onto the hole it's connected to because she'd run and bounce it until the wheel fell off.
In fact, that's how she escaped the other night! After getting out of the wheel, she took a 4 foot dive from the dresser (brave little thing, she is). I found her in the closet on my shoes. She was just sitting there looking at me. Then she realized she was in trouble, so she dashed for somewhere to hide. Thankfully I found her quickly.
Anyway, we keep saying that we're going to put you in the other room, but with her recent escape, is that really such a good idea? If she escapes again, it could become a problem. But this lack of sleep has GOT to come to an end.
I guess I gotta finish cleaning out that room and get a table set up for her. We have to make sure that the room isn't too hot or too cold as well.
Ugh.. Ming Ming.. Why can't you just sleep when we do? Grr..
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 10
READ PARTS 1-9 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
Another email that d.bag "Chris" sent me. Apparently he's getting pretty antsy about recieving his much-earned deposit.
Trisha..
How are you hope everything is fine,and i want to ask you maybe you get my last message concerning on the MTCN you gave me?and i was expecting your call since all this day's why?
Looking to hear from you soon.
God bless you.
Chris..
My Response:
"Christopher,
Dearest kind sir, I do so appreciate the patience that thou hast shown on my behalf during this ordeal. I sincerely apologize for the extended period of thyme that has elapsed since the last electronic mail that I initiated.
Following your previous email, I returned post-haste to the place of business of the so-called Western Union. It seems that there has been some sort of error in the transferring of the deposit to you. When I presented the courteous hostess with the MTCN number that I had provided toist thou, a small smirk appeared henceforth upon her face. She told me that perhaps I had been duped. She called me various names such as, "idiot," "stupid face," and "douch bag." The latter, likely, because I called her the whore of the earth.
I refuse the refuse that is Western Union, and I vow with God as my witness that I will ne'er do business with them again.
I hope to sendist thou the payment in question via Moneygram. Receivest thou payments via Moneygram, good sir? Thouest post-haste reply to this electronic mail would be most appreciated.
Thou hasn't responded to my question regarding the work of God in fair Africa. How goest the work? Hast thou decifered the AIDS virus into a cure? Hast thou saved children from the brink of starvation? Hast thou been translated from on high and caught up with the only true God?
Your reply is much anticipated, good sir.
God bless you and your family as you attempt to save the world from thine transgressions.
Repent all ye ends of the earth!
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Trisha Fielding"
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 9
READ PARTS 1-8 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
Sorry for the delay in getting these posts up.. I was busy with work on friday, and lazy over the weekend. Here's the email I recieved back from "Chris."
Hello Trisha,
Thanks for the mail,i am confortable as you comfirm this yourself . That show the trust you have in me.And i will advice you may be you should send the money through Wall Mart, Gocery Store or Through Western Union .I think that is much more easier and faster.and let me now when you are going to send the money.I mean i want you to give me a call as soon as you send the money.Because as i said in my last message i always call your number every now and then.That is why i want you to give me a call as soon as you send the payment.
And i am sorry to hear that about what happen between you and your ex-husband.really meant that.I hope you two can can work thing out so he would understand two of you have his or her own life to life..Once again i am really sorry what happen about you are your husband.
Looking to hear from you soon.
God bless you.
Chris...
11.21.2008
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 8
READ PARTS 1-7 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
Another email from the good samaritan "Chris."
"Hello Trisha, thanks for your mails.And i also recieve your mail this morning And i saw the payment information i now decided to track it online on western union website the answer that it was given is that there is no money found.I think may be you made a mistake with the numbers(3819684492),maybe you should cross check again or you should go back to the western union station that you use in sending the money.And i was trying to call your number yesterday you dont seems to pick up the phone.So when you recieve my massege i want you to give me a call or get back to my mail as soon as possible.
hope to hear soon
God bless
chris"
My response:
Chris,
Thank you for the fastness in which you have replied to my emails. I have tried to track the payment information the westtern unions website to, and I couldn't find it either. I'm so confused! That gentleman out in front of the western union store said that even though I didn't ever go into the western union store that I could track the payment on westernunion.com with the number he gave me. I think I'm going to have to go down to the western union and see if they can straighten this whole thing out.
Sorry that I did not receive your phone call. I unfortunately can't receive phone calls from blocked numbers because of an escalating situation with my ex-husband, Adalpho Heetleer. He calls me from his cell phone when I am at home and leaves threatening messages saying that he wants to put me in an oven! I don't get it! I'm Catholic!
Anyway..
I'll head down to the western union this afternoon.
God bless you for your hard work with the starving children in Africa? How is the work going there? Have you cured anyone with AIDS yet?
Please let me know that you're still interested in renting this house to us. It's very important to me to think that someone of yoru moral caliber still has trust in me. In fact, I'm afrad that my very life depends on it.
Good bless,
Trisha
Another email from the good samaritan "Chris."
"Hello Trisha, thanks for your mails.And i also recieve your mail this morning And i saw the payment information i now decided to track it online on western union website the answer that it was given is that there is no money found.I think may be you made a mistake with the numbers(3819684492),maybe you should cross check again or you should go back to the western union station that you use in sending the money.And i was trying to call your number yesterday you dont seems to pick up the phone.So when you recieve my massege i want you to give me a call or get back to my mail as soon as possible.
hope to hear soon
God bless
chris"
My response:
Chris,
Thank you for the fastness in which you have replied to my emails. I have tried to track the payment information the westtern unions website to, and I couldn't find it either. I'm so confused! That gentleman out in front of the western union store said that even though I didn't ever go into the western union store that I could track the payment on westernunion.com with the number he gave me. I think I'm going to have to go down to the western union and see if they can straighten this whole thing out.
Sorry that I did not receive your phone call. I unfortunately can't receive phone calls from blocked numbers because of an escalating situation with my ex-husband, Adalpho Heetleer. He calls me from his cell phone when I am at home and leaves threatening messages saying that he wants to put me in an oven! I don't get it! I'm Catholic!
Anyway..
I'll head down to the western union this afternoon.
God bless you for your hard work with the starving children in Africa? How is the work going there? Have you cured anyone with AIDS yet?
Please let me know that you're still interested in renting this house to us. It's very important to me to think that someone of yoru moral caliber still has trust in me. In fact, I'm afrad that my very life depends on it.
Good bless,
Trisha
11.20.2008
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 7
READ PARTS 1-6 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
A little while after the phone call, "Chris" sent me the following email:
"
Hello,
Thanks for the mail,so here is the payment information..
Below are the information..
Name: Chris Scott
Address: 2 Gongoaso Street
City: Ikeja
State: Lagos
Country: Nigeria
Zipcode:23401
Question: what is my dog name?
Answer: Kiki."
At first I was confused. Very confused. But after doing some research on Western Union's website, they ask for a name, question and answer in order to send money, so that someone doesn't inadvertantly pick up the wrong money for the wrong overly-obvious-American-named scammer in Nigeria.
I also wanted to see just how populated Ikeja, Nigeria is. I was surprised. Here is a link.
There are 23 banks nearby that will receive his money transfer.
Here is my response to him.
"Chris,
It ws so gracious of you to recieve my telephone call yesterday. Sorry for the delay in getting you your much earned money. Something wonderful happened to me when I got to the Western Union store this morning!
As I approached the store, a well dressed representative of another wire transferring company met me at the door. He told me that he would wire my money to you at HALF the price that western Union would if I payed him in cash! I figured that this ws to good of a deal to pass up (just like the house!)!
So I went to my bank (the guy asked me for a ride to my bank so he could "expidite my order" for NO EXTRA FEE!!! Can you believe it?
Anyways, my bank wouldn't let me withdraw all the money at once, but I withdrew enough for the first 2 months payment. I gave the guy the $2600 dollars and he gave me the following number. He said it was a MTCN number (whatever that is!!).
Here is the number: 3819684492. It is under the name Chris Scott with the question: what is my dog name? The answer I told him is kiikii. Sorry that it's different than you told me. I got there and I hadn't written it down, so I couldn't remember how it was spelled. I'm sure that they'll release the money to such an upstanding individual as yourself.
God bless you, Chris, in everything you do. Please send me the tracking number for the fedex courier as soon as you send the keys! We are getting so excited to move into your beautiful house!
Trisha Fielding"
Well.. Here goes.. I'm hoping he responds saying that he went to the bank and that the answer to his question wasn't right, so I can send him on another leg of this wild goose chase.
We'll see.
A little while after the phone call, "Chris" sent me the following email:
"
Hello,
Thanks for the mail,so here is the payment information..
Below are the information..
Name: Chris Scott
Address: 2 Gongoaso Street
City: Ikeja
State: Lagos
Country: Nigeria
Zipcode:23401
Question: what is my dog name?
Answer: Kiki."
At first I was confused. Very confused. But after doing some research on Western Union's website, they ask for a name, question and answer in order to send money, so that someone doesn't inadvertantly pick up the wrong money for the wrong overly-obvious-American-named scammer in Nigeria.
I also wanted to see just how populated Ikeja, Nigeria is. I was surprised. Here is a link.
There are 23 banks nearby that will receive his money transfer.
Here is my response to him.
"Chris,
It ws so gracious of you to recieve my telephone call yesterday. Sorry for the delay in getting you your much earned money. Something wonderful happened to me when I got to the Western Union store this morning!
As I approached the store, a well dressed representative of another wire transferring company met me at the door. He told me that he would wire my money to you at HALF the price that western Union would if I payed him in cash! I figured that this ws to good of a deal to pass up (just like the house!)!
So I went to my bank (the guy asked me for a ride to my bank so he could "expidite my order" for NO EXTRA FEE!!! Can you believe it?
Anyways, my bank wouldn't let me withdraw all the money at once, but I withdrew enough for the first 2 months payment. I gave the guy the $2600 dollars and he gave me the following number. He said it was a MTCN number (whatever that is!!).
Here is the number: 3819684492. It is under the name Chris Scott with the question: what is my dog name? The answer I told him is kiikii. Sorry that it's different than you told me. I got there and I hadn't written it down, so I couldn't remember how it was spelled. I'm sure that they'll release the money to such an upstanding individual as yourself.
God bless you, Chris, in everything you do. Please send me the tracking number for the fedex courier as soon as you send the keys! We are getting so excited to move into your beautiful house!
Trisha Fielding"
Well.. Here goes.. I'm hoping he responds saying that he went to the bank and that the answer to his question wasn't right, so I can send him on another leg of this wild goose chase.
We'll see.
11.19.2008
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 6
READ PARTS 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
In preparation to call the guy, I got my phone callerid to spoof the West Valley City police chief's message as I sent it to him in an email. My good friend, David, suggested that I should record the call. What a brilliant idea. Thanks David!
So I called the guy. It went completely different than I expected. I didn't expect the connection to be as bad as it was. There was a bit of a delay, so it was difficult for either of us to complete a sentance without interrupting each other. On top of that, I couldn't understanded a damned word he said. Towards the end of the conversation I realized that if I just waited for his complete sentance, paused and responded with a yes or no, he would get the picture. It was a 6 minute call. It was obvious that he didn't know which one of his scammees I was because he kept asking for my name and whatnot. Wouldn't it be obvious that if I were calling about the deposit who I would be?
To confirm who I was, he wanted me to send him an email so he knew who I was. He said he would send me the payment information via email and then I should text message him the confirmation.
The call was 6 minutes long, and I'm not going to edit out any of the silence or anything. The call cost me about 1 dollar.
We'll see what that says. As far as the audio goes... as far as I can tell, blogger doesn't let you upload audio files. So, below you'll find the message imbedded into a video. This took a lot of work to get this done. Sorry for the delay, and sorry for the crappy quality. It's the best I could do with my limited resources.
In preparation to call the guy, I got my phone callerid to spoof the West Valley City police chief's message as I sent it to him in an email. My good friend, David, suggested that I should record the call. What a brilliant idea. Thanks David!
So I called the guy. It went completely different than I expected. I didn't expect the connection to be as bad as it was. There was a bit of a delay, so it was difficult for either of us to complete a sentance without interrupting each other. On top of that, I couldn't understanded a damned word he said. Towards the end of the conversation I realized that if I just waited for his complete sentance, paused and responded with a yes or no, he would get the picture. It was a 6 minute call. It was obvious that he didn't know which one of his scammees I was because he kept asking for my name and whatnot. Wouldn't it be obvious that if I were calling about the deposit who I would be?
To confirm who I was, he wanted me to send him an email so he knew who I was. He said he would send me the payment information via email and then I should text message him the confirmation.
The call was 6 minutes long, and I'm not going to edit out any of the silence or anything. The call cost me about 1 dollar.
We'll see what that says. As far as the audio goes... as far as I can tell, blogger doesn't let you upload audio files. So, below you'll find the message imbedded into a video. This took a lot of work to get this done. Sorry for the delay, and sorry for the crappy quality. It's the best I could do with my limited resources.
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 5
READ PARTS 1, 2, 3 and 4 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
This is my response to our dear friend "Chris," who is being so thoughtful and trusting to let us rent his house while away in Africa.
I thought that since I don't think he's reading or understanding my email, I would respond to his email as closely as he wrote to me.
"Chris,
THanks for your reply, we are veryy willingness in this rent. Thank you for deciding to les us live in your house. I'm glad that you have found our application very setisfactry and accpable by your family. We promise to take good care of the house so that you might be glad when moving to the house at the November 27th 2008. because you find our application accepted. We are ready to rent the house now, and because of your advice to a responsible person like me to be able to afford a Security deposit of a two month upfront rent fee now to secure the property because many people have been comming to you in respect of the house. Will you email me a Lease Agreement form which I will fill and sign and send it back to you? THen I will be glad that you like to send the following document to me via the Fedex courier service to the address I send to you and the tracking number will be sent to me so that we can possible occupy your house.
Please, Chris, you can trust me. I won't dissappoint you, I promise you that I will love the house. The address which you will be sending the keys and the document to is 544 Nt. Real St., West Valley City, Utah, 84119.
My husband Xantar will be calling you shortly so you can forward on how to make the payment and your payment information.
God bless you, kind sir.
Trisha Fielding"
This is my response to our dear friend "Chris," who is being so thoughtful and trusting to let us rent his house while away in Africa.
I thought that since I don't think he's reading or understanding my email, I would respond to his email as closely as he wrote to me.
"Chris,
THanks for your reply, we are veryy willingness in this rent. Thank you for deciding to les us live in your house. I'm glad that you have found our application very setisfactry and accpable by your family. We promise to take good care of the house so that you might be glad when moving to the house at the November 27th 2008. because you find our application accepted. We are ready to rent the house now, and because of your advice to a responsible person like me to be able to afford a Security deposit of a two month upfront rent fee now to secure the property because many people have been comming to you in respect of the house. Will you email me a Lease Agreement form which I will fill and sign and send it back to you? THen I will be glad that you like to send the following document to me via the Fedex courier service to the address I send to you and the tracking number will be sent to me so that we can possible occupy your house.
Please, Chris, you can trust me. I won't dissappoint you, I promise you that I will love the house. The address which you will be sending the keys and the document to is 544 Nt. Real St., West Valley City, Utah, 84119.
My husband Xantar will be calling you shortly so you can forward on how to make the payment and your payment information.
God bless you, kind sir.
Trisha Fielding"
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 4
READ PARTS 1,2 and 3 BEFORE READING THIS POST
"Chris" sent me the following email this morning.
"Trisha...
Thanks very much for your reply and also i can see your willingness in this rent.We have decided to let you live in our house. As we have found your application very setisfactry and acceptable by my family So as we shall be giving you our house,pls again take care of the house so that i might be glad when moving to the house at the November 27th 2008.because we find your application accepted. However if you are ready to rent the house now,then that will not be a problem but we will advice you due to a responsible person like you, to be able to afford a Security Deposit of a two month upfront rent fee now to secure the property ,because many people have been comming to me in respect of the house. And also i will email you a Lease Agreement form which you fill and sign and send it back to me. And also we would like to send the following document to you via the Fedex courier service to the address you send to me and the tracking number will be sent to you, so that you can possible occupy our house,Pls once again,I am giving you this on trust and do not dissapoint me and i promise you that,you will love the house. So i am with the below document here with me. Please send the address which i will be sending the keys and the document to.Please kindly give me a call as soon as you get my email..+2348025932084.let me know when you are ready to make the payment, so i can forward on how to make the payment and my payment information.Here are the contents of the document that i will be shipping to you
1) Entrance and the rooms Keys
2)Paper/Permanent house form(Containing your reference details)
3)The house documetary file.
4)Payment Receipt.
So please do get back to me today so that I will let know the next step to take concerning the payment. I await your reply ASAP.Regard and God bless you!!! You can call us on how to make payment for the shippment of the Keys and Document to the house and kindly forward me your mailing address where you want the document to be sent to? Hope to read from you
Chris"
Do I want to call this joker? Hrmm.. I guess it's nice that I work with a VoIP company where I can spoof my callerID if needs be.
11.18.2008
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 3.
READ PARTS 1 and 2 BEFORE READING THIS POST!
If you remember from the last post, we had just established that I really wanted to screw around with this guy that is trying to scam me. Below is the email that I sent to him.
I added some spelling and grammatical errors to make it sound as innocent as possible. The phone number I sent him is for the police chief in West Valley City, just in case he calls.
Now, we wait.
"Chris,
Thank you for your quick response to me mail in getting me the rental application. It is much simpler than many previous landlords have had me fill out before. I appreciate it very much. I hate filling out complex forms asking silly questions about my job history and rental history. It goes a lnog way for you to show that much trust in me. I trust you just as much!
Here isthe answers to the rental application:
1) Your Full Name : Trisha Fielding
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number : 544 Nt. Real St., West Valley City, Utah, 84119. Phone: 801-963-3255
3) Are you married Yes
4) How many people will be living in the house 6
5) Do you have a pet Yes. 6) Do you have a car Yes.
7) Occupation Day Care. My husband is a bouncer at a club.
8) What is your religion Catholic, although, you can't legally ask me that. Check the fair housing act of 1974. I don't really care though.
9) When are you planning to move in : November 27th would work great for us.
10) How many years lease will you be signing : 2 year lease.
I'm guessing that you'll want 2 mnoths rent sent to you for each year of lease that we're signing plus the pet deposit. If I did my math right, I'll need to send you $5400. Is that right? THis is such a goood deal that ki want to jump on it as soon as i possbly can.
i can mail a check to you in the mail today away if you send me an address.. Hrmm.. I"m not sure that it will get to africa soon enough for us to move into the house by the 27th. Maybe there's a way that we can send you the money faster. Ha ha ha! I just did a google search for fast ways to send money. There's a company that will send money to you directly. There's a place called western union that will do it for a fee. There's a location right by me. I haven't ever heard of it before... must have just sprung up overnight!
Can I subtract the fee from my deposit to you? I know it's a lot to ask, but, with the economy how it is, money will be a little tight if I have to pay more than $5400. The fee for that is $85. So, I'll send you $5315 if that's ok. Can you find out what info I need to send you the money from the western union company. Since this is such a good deal, I want to do it as quickly as I can before someone else beats me to it!
Trisha Fielding
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 2.
READ PART 1 (BELOW) BEFORE READING THIS POST!
If you remember from the last post about me not yet knowing that Trisha had written to the scam artist asking for more information and letting him know we were interested. Let's pick up the story from there...
So last night, I deleted the email thinking that everything was done and done with Mr. Scammy. I had posted some video games for sale on craigslist last night under Trisha's email address, so I wanted to check her email this morning to see if anyone was interested. When I checked her email, I saw an email from "Chris Scott." Interesting...
"Hello , Thanks for the response back to my mail, its really nice hearing from you that you shall be promising us that our house will be well taken care of and i really think you are the right person to rent my house and i will like to let you know that the house has been available since we were out of the house.. The programme will be running for 5yrs but as for me and my family, we will be staying up to 4yrs and half months and i think with this it's possible for you and your family to stay up to 3yrs or 4yrs or as you decide and also all the furniture are already moved out so the house is empty as at now and you are to movein with your own furniture. I will like to let you know that I traveled down to Africa with the keys so am really sorry for not being able to show you the inside of the house, please let me know if this is okay with you and also that the house is ready anytime as from now if you will like moving in this month. And the below is the final question that you must answer to qualify for this the rent of my house...
RENT APPLICATION FORM
1) Your Full Name :
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number :
3) Are you married
4) How many people will be living in the house
5) Do you have a pet
6) Do you have a car
7) Occupation
8) What is your religion
9) When are you planning to move in
10) How many years lease will you be signing
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that I can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.
Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the key to you, please am giving you all this base on trust and again I will want you to stick to your words, you know that, we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods hand, so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this. Await your swift response
Thanks and God bless..
Regards..
Chris"
Oh, "Chris," you scalleywag. What a clever and insightful email you have sent me. Your "Rent Application Form" is so easy to fill out! I'm so thankful for that. Idiot.
I especially love the part when he asks what Religion I am. Good old Fair Housing Act of 1974. (It makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale, lease, or rental of housing, or to make housing unavailable-because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.)
I guess he wouldn't know that, being from Africa and all.
So, now is the debate. I know it's a scam. He thinks I'm an innocent, willing participant. How far should I take this?
The answer? As far as he'll let me.
To be continued...
If you remember from the last post about me not yet knowing that Trisha had written to the scam artist asking for more information and letting him know we were interested. Let's pick up the story from there...
So last night, I deleted the email thinking that everything was done and done with Mr. Scammy. I had posted some video games for sale on craigslist last night under Trisha's email address, so I wanted to check her email this morning to see if anyone was interested. When I checked her email, I saw an email from "Chris Scott." Interesting...
"Hello , Thanks for the response back to my mail, its really nice hearing from you that you shall be promising us that our house will be well taken care of and i really think you are the right person to rent my house and i will like to let you know that the house has been available since we were out of the house.. The programme will be running for 5yrs but as for me and my family, we will be staying up to 4yrs and half months and i think with this it's possible for you and your family to stay up to 3yrs or 4yrs or as you decide and also all the furniture are already moved out so the house is empty as at now and you are to movein with your own furniture. I will like to let you know that I traveled down to Africa with the keys so am really sorry for not being able to show you the inside of the house, please let me know if this is okay with you and also that the house is ready anytime as from now if you will like moving in this month. And the below is the final question that you must answer to qualify for this the rent of my house...
RENT APPLICATION FORM
1) Your Full Name :
2) Your Full Address & Phone Number :
3) Are you married
4) How many people will be living in the house
5) Do you have a pet
6) Do you have a car
7) Occupation
8) What is your religion
9) When are you planning to move in
10) How many years lease will you be signing
Looking forward to hear from you with all this details so that I can have it in my file incase of issuing the receipt for you and contacting you.
Await your urgent reply so that we can discuss on how to get the document and the key to you, please am giving you all this base on trust and again I will want you to stick to your words, you know that, we do not see yet and only putting everything into Gods hand, so please do not let us down in this our property and God bless you more as you do this. Await your swift response
Thanks and God bless..
Regards..
Chris"
Oh, "Chris," you scalleywag. What a clever and insightful email you have sent me. Your "Rent Application Form" is so easy to fill out! I'm so thankful for that. Idiot.
I especially love the part when he asks what Religion I am. Good old Fair Housing Act of 1974. (It makes it illegal to discriminate in the sale, lease, or rental of housing, or to make housing unavailable-because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.)
I guess he wouldn't know that, being from Africa and all.
So, now is the debate. I know it's a scam. He thinks I'm an innocent, willing participant. How far should I take this?
The answer? As far as he'll let me.
To be continued...
We're moving? What? Wait. No we're not. SCAM Part 1.
Let me start by saying that I hate people.
Trisha was browsing craigslist last week and stumbled across an incredible rental opportunity. I wish I still had the link, but i'm pretty sure that it was removed (you'll see why). The rental was for a 4600 square foot, 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom house in Herriman for $1300 per month. Incredible, I thought, but didn't really think about how good of a deal that would be, simply because we cannot afford $1300 bucks a month.
Trisha, being resourceful, reached out to some family members that are also looking to move into a place and thought that perhaps we could split the cost. I'm not going to get into the thousand other reasons that I didn't want to do this deal (moving in with family, etc.).
So Trisha emailed the guy back to get more information. No harm in that. This was the email he responded with:
"Hello,
Thanks for the email. I Chris Scott owns the house and also it is situated and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my Family to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take a very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the possible tenant will see the house as his or her own.
HOUSE ADDRESSES 14767 S Tangle Hill Rd Herriman UT, We are renting a beautiful 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom, fully finished basement home in Herriman Utah. It has upgraded kitchen, jetted master tub, fireplace, LR, FR, Den, DR, loft with bathroom and walk in closet. Many more upgrades, 3 car garage. It has great mountain views and in area that offers, tennis courts, club house, community pool, basketball courts that are all INCLUDED! I am flexible regarding the length of the lease. 6 mo., 1 yr., 2.yr, 3yr. etc. are all acceptable. I never increase the rental amount for good tenants..... All credit considered, all types of pet allowed and Additional monthly charge of $50 for pets.....You can drive down there to take a look ate it.We have left the US and we are currently in the West Africa for a program called 'World Conference Against Racism Youth Summit, Empowering youth for combating racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which is Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria and will last for 5yrs. It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that I found myself is very hard for me to explain. If you will be the right tenant to our house, we will get the keys and documents of the house sent to you via courier services as soon as all terms are settled.I will be online through out to get back to you as soon as you are able to get back to me. I would want to know how soon you would want to move in as I will be taking a 2-month upfront payment for the house. I am asking for $2,600 and I believe we should be able to help ourselves. I am accepting $2,600 including utilities because I want you to take a very good care of the house while I am away.
I am looking forward to hear from you ASAP so that i can forward you an application to fill out and discuss on how to get the house for rent over to me so that I can get the keys and papers sent to you via FedEx or ups e.t.c, also are you ready to rent it now or when Await your reply. I will be willing to send the inside view of the building if you demands for it.
I could let you remain in the house till I come back if you are a good tenant and you can reach me on +2348025932084
Thanks and awaits your mail as soon as possible
Chris Scott"
Ok. So, prior to me reading his email, Trisha (unbeknownst to me) responsed back letting him know that we were interested in the place and some other information letting him know our situation. Since Trisha doesn't use the computer very much, she hasn't been exposed to the millions of scams out there. After she had written back to him, she let me know about the email he sent and his situation. As she told me about him moving to Aftica, it started to all come together. 1300 bucks is WAY too cheap for something of that size. And then I read the email.
So, it became immediately clear to me that it was a scam on the 8th word of the email. Literally. There was an extra space after the name "Chris Scott." That gave it away for me. That told me that this was a form letter and he had just pasted in his name. Simple. Stupid. Then after reading the remainder of the paragraph, it just became more and more clear. The horrible grammar and spelling. Obvious? To me, yes, but I can see how this could play on one's heart strings, and with the current economy, a good deal is hard not to jump at. He didn't (to this point) mention anything about wiring him money, so it really isn't *that* obvious.
To prove to Trisha that it was a scam, I did a couple Google searches. This is the first one that I found. So the house was up for sale for $527,000. Yeah.. that confirms that the $1300 a month was just silly. Trisha still wasn't convinced, so I searched for his phone number (as was listed in the email). One result. The result happens to be a Craigslister that found that it was a scam. The person posted the email with the EXACT same response except a different name, address and description (as can be seen on the previous link).
That's what I thought would be the end of the story.. But this is TO BE CONTINUED...
Trisha was browsing craigslist last week and stumbled across an incredible rental opportunity. I wish I still had the link, but i'm pretty sure that it was removed (you'll see why). The rental was for a 4600 square foot, 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom house in Herriman for $1300 per month. Incredible, I thought, but didn't really think about how good of a deal that would be, simply because we cannot afford $1300 bucks a month.
Trisha, being resourceful, reached out to some family members that are also looking to move into a place and thought that perhaps we could split the cost. I'm not going to get into the thousand other reasons that I didn't want to do this deal (moving in with family, etc.).
So Trisha emailed the guy back to get more information. No harm in that. This was the email he responded with:
"Hello,
Thanks for the email. I Chris Scott owns the house and also it is situated and also want you to know that it was due to my transfer that makes me and my Family to leave the house and also want to give it out for rent and looking for a responsible person that can take a very good care of it as we are not after the money for the rent but want it to be clean all the time and the possible tenant will see the house as his or her own.
HOUSE ADDRESSES 14767 S Tangle Hill Rd Herriman UT, We are renting a beautiful 6 bedroom, 5 bathroom, fully finished basement home in Herriman Utah. It has upgraded kitchen, jetted master tub, fireplace, LR, FR, Den, DR, loft with bathroom and walk in closet. Many more upgrades, 3 car garage. It has great mountain views and in area that offers, tennis courts, club house, community pool, basketball courts that are all INCLUDED! I am flexible regarding the length of the lease. 6 mo., 1 yr., 2.yr, 3yr. etc. are all acceptable. I never increase the rental amount for good tenants..... All credit considered, all types of pet allowed and Additional monthly charge of $50 for pets.....You can drive down there to take a look ate it.We have left the US and we are currently in the West Africa for a program called 'World Conference Against Racism Youth Summit, Empowering youth for combating racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education, the program is taking place in three major countries in Africa which is Sudan, Ghana and Nigeria and will last for 5yrs. It as been a very sad and bad moment for me, the present condition that I found myself is very hard for me to explain. If you will be the right tenant to our house, we will get the keys and documents of the house sent to you via courier services as soon as all terms are settled.I will be online through out to get back to you as soon as you are able to get back to me. I would want to know how soon you would want to move in as I will be taking a 2-month upfront payment for the house. I am asking for $2,600 and I believe we should be able to help ourselves. I am accepting $2,600 including utilities because I want you to take a very good care of the house while I am away.
I am looking forward to hear from you ASAP so that i can forward you an application to fill out and discuss on how to get the house for rent over to me so that I can get the keys and papers sent to you via FedEx or ups e.t.c, also are you ready to rent it now or when Await your reply. I will be willing to send the inside view of the building if you demands for it.
I could let you remain in the house till I come back if you are a good tenant and you can reach me on +2348025932084
Thanks and awaits your mail as soon as possible
Chris Scott"
Ok. So, prior to me reading his email, Trisha (unbeknownst to me) responsed back letting him know that we were interested in the place and some other information letting him know our situation. Since Trisha doesn't use the computer very much, she hasn't been exposed to the millions of scams out there. After she had written back to him, she let me know about the email he sent and his situation. As she told me about him moving to Aftica, it started to all come together. 1300 bucks is WAY too cheap for something of that size. And then I read the email.
So, it became immediately clear to me that it was a scam on the 8th word of the email. Literally. There was an extra space after the name "Chris Scott." That gave it away for me. That told me that this was a form letter and he had just pasted in his name. Simple. Stupid. Then after reading the remainder of the paragraph, it just became more and more clear. The horrible grammar and spelling. Obvious? To me, yes, but I can see how this could play on one's heart strings, and with the current economy, a good deal is hard not to jump at. He didn't (to this point) mention anything about wiring him money, so it really isn't *that* obvious.
To prove to Trisha that it was a scam, I did a couple Google searches. This is the first one that I found. So the house was up for sale for $527,000. Yeah.. that confirms that the $1300 a month was just silly. Trisha still wasn't convinced, so I searched for his phone number (as was listed in the email). One result. The result happens to be a Craigslister that found that it was a scam. The person posted the email with the EXACT same response except a different name, address and description (as can be seen on the previous link).
That's what I thought would be the end of the story.. But this is TO BE CONTINUED...
Please welcome, Ming Ming Featherbottom!
As you can see, she's a cute lil' thing. This was taken with my brand new camera that I recieved in the mail yesterday. I'm totally stoked about it.
She's getting tubby! She was so small when we got her. Dunno if she's trying to bulk up for winter, but the hour of treadmill running that she does in the evening times isn't burning all of her calories. She's cute though.
This second picture gives you a better idea as to why her last name is Featherbottom.
11.13.2008
Blog Genderanalyzer.com
Oh the things that technology has brought us! Check out http://www.genderanalyzer.com. Put in the URL to your blog, and it will quickly assess your blog and determine whether it was written by a man or a woman.
My results: We think http://www.nixlife.info is written by a man (73%).
I ran this yesterday and it came back with a result of 60% sure that it was written by a man. I guess writing about El Pollo Loco and how many people share a name with me is "manly." Hrmm.
Interesting results:
http://philandgailfamilyblog.blogspot.com (family blog) = written by a woman (84%).
http://fireteeth.blogspot.com/ (David's blog) = written by a man (51%), however it's quite gender neutral. (Yeah, he's pretty femme though, so this isn't that much of a surprise). ;)
http://thecrazycrandalls.blogspot.com (Heather's blog) = written by a woman (66%).
http://randbfielding.blogspot.com (Brandon's blog) = written by a man (77%).
http://themanyadventuresofus.blogspot.com (Heather and Reed's blog) = written by a woman (52%), however it's quite gender neutral.
http://nunleyfam.blogspot.com (Britta and Nun's blog) = written by a woman (78%).
My results: We think http://www.nixlife.info is written by a man (73%).
I ran this yesterday and it came back with a result of 60% sure that it was written by a man. I guess writing about El Pollo Loco and how many people share a name with me is "manly." Hrmm.
Interesting results:
http://philandgailfamilyblog.blogspot.com (family blog) = written by a woman (84%).
http://fireteeth.blogspot.com/ (David's blog) = written by a man (51%), however it's quite gender neutral. (Yeah, he's pretty femme though, so this isn't that much of a surprise). ;)
http://thecrazycrandalls.blogspot.com (Heather's blog) = written by a woman (66%).
http://randbfielding.blogspot.com (Brandon's blog) = written by a man (77%).
http://themanyadventuresofus.blogspot.com (Heather and Reed's blog) = written by a woman (52%), however it's quite gender neutral.
http://nunleyfam.blogspot.com (Britta and Nun's blog) = written by a woman (78%).
Good Eats...
One of my favorite places to go to lunch while I'm at work is called El Pollo Loco (The crazy chicken). It's a chain fast-food restaurant that's a bizarre mix of KFC and Taco Bell, but higher quality food.
Because I've only been there while dieting, I've only had their chicken and side salads, but that's enough to keep me coming back for more. I hear that their burritos aren't great, but they have some rice bowl type things that are good. Haven't tried them (being packed full of carbs and all).
They also have an awesome selection of salsas that you can put on your stuff. My favorite is the Avacado Salsa. Yum.
I go to the one in American Fork, which is about a 10 minute ride from work to get there, but when going with work peeps, it's not far at all. Not sure if there's another location in Utah. I'll have to check.
Anyway. Give it a try if you're in the neighborhood.
Because I've only been there while dieting, I've only had their chicken and side salads, but that's enough to keep me coming back for more. I hear that their burritos aren't great, but they have some rice bowl type things that are good. Haven't tried them (being packed full of carbs and all).
They also have an awesome selection of salsas that you can put on your stuff. My favorite is the Avacado Salsa. Yum.
I go to the one in American Fork, which is about a 10 minute ride from work to get there, but when going with work peeps, it's not far at all. Not sure if there's another location in Utah. I'll have to check.
Anyway. Give it a try if you're in the neighborhood.
11.12.2008
11.10.2008
The weekend
This past weekend was (like all weekends) too short. What a cliche to say that, but it's true.
Friday started with work and then off to Duggle's house for a Magic night. Haven't had one of those in a while, and it was good and fun.
David slept over at our house because Cassix was out of town with her family. He slept on the couch.
On Saturday morning, Trisha and I had to wake up at the crack of dawn (9:30 AM) to go return some equipment from the flopped fibromyalgia study. We were told to meet at Valley Fair Mall by the something Bagel Cafe. We drove around the mall for 30 minutes looking for such a place, and never found it. When I spoke to the person that was supposed to meet us (today), she told me that she made a mistake when looking up meeting places. Apparently, there is a Valley Fair Mall in Canada (link). The bagel place she was intending for us to meet at was approximately 980 miles away.
After figuring out that the lady must be smoking crack, we went back home. We watched the BYU game (Go Cougars!) and then went to Jaren and Kellie's to babysit.
We love babysitting Livie. She's so easy to babysit, and even though she's wild and has a free spirit, she's sweet and well behaved. I played Lux DeLux for most of the time (risk type game), while Trisha entertained Livie. She fell asleep eventually and Trisha took a nap with her.
We played Rockband 2 with everyone when Jaren and Kellie returned and ate some good food.
We stayed up WAY to late (2:30 AM) and slept in way too late.
We missed church again :(, so we watched some TV and cleaned the house. At least we got something productive done. I was really sick in the afternoon though. I cooked myself eggs for breakfast and for some reason, eggs have been giving me the most extreme heartburn. It makes me nauseous because the acid builds up so bad. I hate it. I just have to remember to take my heartburn medicine whenever I eat eggs.
Dexter was especially good this week, btw. Gotta love Dexter.
Friday started with work and then off to Duggle's house for a Magic night. Haven't had one of those in a while, and it was good and fun.
David slept over at our house because Cassix was out of town with her family. He slept on the couch.
On Saturday morning, Trisha and I had to wake up at the crack of dawn (9:30 AM) to go return some equipment from the flopped fibromyalgia study. We were told to meet at Valley Fair Mall by the something Bagel Cafe. We drove around the mall for 30 minutes looking for such a place, and never found it. When I spoke to the person that was supposed to meet us (today), she told me that she made a mistake when looking up meeting places. Apparently, there is a Valley Fair Mall in Canada (link). The bagel place she was intending for us to meet at was approximately 980 miles away.
After figuring out that the lady must be smoking crack, we went back home. We watched the BYU game (Go Cougars!) and then went to Jaren and Kellie's to babysit.
We love babysitting Livie. She's so easy to babysit, and even though she's wild and has a free spirit, she's sweet and well behaved. I played Lux DeLux for most of the time (risk type game), while Trisha entertained Livie. She fell asleep eventually and Trisha took a nap with her.
We played Rockband 2 with everyone when Jaren and Kellie returned and ate some good food.
We stayed up WAY to late (2:30 AM) and slept in way too late.
We missed church again :(, so we watched some TV and cleaned the house. At least we got something productive done. I was really sick in the afternoon though. I cooked myself eggs for breakfast and for some reason, eggs have been giving me the most extreme heartburn. It makes me nauseous because the acid builds up so bad. I hate it. I just have to remember to take my heartburn medicine whenever I eat eggs.
Dexter was especially good this week, btw. Gotta love Dexter.
New Camera
That's right folks. I won the auction I was trying for. After 5 days of looking and 3 days of bidding and losing, I finally won an auction for the camera I was looking for. I settled on the Canon Rebel XTI (same as pictured previously in my blog). I got a killer deal on it, and I'm REALLY excited to get it.
When I get it, I'll make sure to post some pictures of Ming Ming for all to see. She's getting chubby. Like father like hapster. ;)
When I get it, I'll make sure to post some pictures of Ming Ming for all to see. She's getting chubby. Like father like hapster. ;)
11.08.2008
11.04.2008
Hampster Name
So, the name that won the primary was Hampster face with 5 votes, Little bunny foo foo (or Foo Foo for short) came in a close 2nd with 4 votes.
Trisha chose the incumbant name (Ming Ming) so the winner of the primary is now going up against the incumbant.
For more information on the incumbant, click here. This is a short, but powerful speech made by Ming Ming letting you know just how sewius this election is.
Trisha chose the incumbant name (Ming Ming) so the winner of the primary is now going up against the incumbant.
For more information on the incumbant, click here. This is a short, but powerful speech made by Ming Ming letting you know just how sewius this election is.
11.03.2008
Election time
I'm excited to vote tomorrow, and want to be sure that I vote intelligently, so I am doing some research on each of the candidates for which I can vote for.
Each candidate had the opportunity to write a 200 word synopsis of their "qualifications" for the position they are seeking.
As many of you know, Dell "Superdell" Schanze is running for Governor of Utah. As an informed voter, I read his "qualifications." I have to post them. They are THAT rediculous.
"Qualifications: SUPERDELL is your only choice because YOU didn't file. Huntsman took away your freedoms and raised taxes more than any governor in the history of Utah. Springmeyer has admitted that he doesn't care about the constitution. The definition for the word insane is voting for the same people while expecting change."
"There is no question that Dell Schanze is different. There are only 3 people on the ballot and SUPERDELL is the only one that is NOT socialist. If you are unsure, then fill your heart with love, completely open your mind and pray to God earnestly. You can't afford to get this wrong and will be held accountable for your choice."
WHAT THE EFF?!
For the full kit and caboodle, check out this link: http://elections.utah.gov/racepdf/142740228/Candidate/156975250.pdf
Each candidate had the opportunity to write a 200 word synopsis of their "qualifications" for the position they are seeking.
As many of you know, Dell "Superdell" Schanze is running for Governor of Utah. As an informed voter, I read his "qualifications." I have to post them. They are THAT rediculous.
"Qualifications: SUPERDELL is your only choice because YOU didn't file. Huntsman took away your freedoms and raised taxes more than any governor in the history of Utah. Springmeyer has admitted that he doesn't care about the constitution. The definition for the word insane is voting for the same people while expecting change."
"There is no question that Dell Schanze is different. There are only 3 people on the ballot and SUPERDELL is the only one that is NOT socialist. If you are unsure, then fill your heart with love, completely open your mind and pray to God earnestly. You can't afford to get this wrong and will be held accountable for your choice."
WHAT THE EFF?!
For the full kit and caboodle, check out this link: http://elections.utah.gov/racepdf/142740228/Candidate/156975250.pdf
Obama may have just earned my vote...
I was just enjoying my dinner and watching a bit of Monday Night Football when alluvasudden during half-time, a short interview of the Presidential candidates began. When asked about what changes he would like to see happen in sports if he became president, Obama stated that he would love to see a playoff system in college football!
I think he just earned my vote!
(Screw the BCS!)
I think he just earned my vote!
(Screw the BCS!)
Biggest loser - Final Weigh in
Over the last 2 weeks, because of my trip to Costa Rica (and the trip to leatherbys upon my return), I gained 8 pounds! Last Monday I was notified that they were going to end the competition early because the majority of the participants had fallen off the wagon. I also found out that there was a sleeper among us. One of the guys who had initially weighed in with us was doing extremely well. He hadn't been weighing in weekly like everyone else, but that wasn't required. I had heard some rumors that he was over 20 pounds. Since he weighed less than half what I started at, his weight loss percentage may have surpassed mine, especially with my recent gain.
David lost 22.1 pounds in the end, a whopping 10.4% of his body weight. When hearing that, I was crushed. "All of this work, and I didn't even win!" I thought.
With my weight loss total at 42 pounds at last weeks weigh in, I was only at 9.7% weight loss. I've worked really hard this week to get back on track. Finally it was time for me to weigh in.
I stepped on the scale...
I had lost 7 pounds this week. A total loss of 49.3 pounds. 11.3%! I won!
Yay!
I got a really nice 4th Generation 8GB iPod Nano. I'm loading it up with music to give to Trisha tonight!
She's going to be very excited!
David lost 22.1 pounds in the end, a whopping 10.4% of his body weight. When hearing that, I was crushed. "All of this work, and I didn't even win!" I thought.
With my weight loss total at 42 pounds at last weeks weigh in, I was only at 9.7% weight loss. I've worked really hard this week to get back on track. Finally it was time for me to weigh in.
I stepped on the scale...
I had lost 7 pounds this week. A total loss of 49.3 pounds. 11.3%! I won!
Yay!
I got a really nice 4th Generation 8GB iPod Nano. I'm loading it up with music to give to Trisha tonight!
She's going to be very excited!
The weekend
I had a good weekend this past weekend. It started a little earlier than usual, and I gained an extra hour, so it was especially good.
Halloween was pretty crazy. We had 7 parties/options for the night:
1. Aaron and Jenny's party
2. Nathan and Emily's party
3. Chillaxing with Amandizzle and Duggle
4. Visiting Sandra and Roger's (to see all Trisha's nieces and nephews) (and take the little ones trick-or-treating)
5. Visiting my mom and dad's (to see all my nieces and nephews)
6. An ex-coworker at Mstar invited us to go to a party
7. Heather and Mike were throwing a halloween/Mike's birthday party
Because of the high number of options, and some recent anxiety I've been dealing with, I was extremely indecisive as to what we were going to do. I worked at home on Friday, and at mid-day, still hadn't come up with a plan for the evening.
At around 3:30 I came go a good stopping point with work, so decided to run with it. Trisha and I finally decided that we weren't going to do any parties or anything and that we would go see a movie, and then catch up with Amanda and Duggle after their party was over and play some rockband or something.
We decided to go see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist which started at 5:05. We packed up all our rockband stuff and left the house. When we were driving, we got a call from Jenny and Aaron inviting us to go to their party. They had invited us earlier, and we really wanted to go, but with so many other parties, especially family parties, going to a drinking party where we didn't know very many people was less tempting.
Aaron and Jenny had shown some interest in purchasing Rockband 1 from us so we could buy the new rockband set with the wireless guitars. When Trisha originally went to the store to get rockband 2, we didn't have a buyer for rockband 1, so we just bought the game (not the entire set with the wireless instruments).
When I was talking to Aaron on the phone he mentioned that they would indeed purchase rockband 1 so we went back to the store and purchased the rockband 2 set. Trisha went in to Toys R' Us by herself to get it (my mistake), and was tempted to buy the extra wireless guitar (so we would have 2 wireless guitars). She gave into the temptation and now we have the entire set.
After the stop at Toys R' Us, we had to stop off at Duggle's house to pick up a piece of the rockband 1 equipment so we could deliver it to Aaron and Jenny's. By this time, we had missed our movie time (we would have missed it anyway because of the horrible traffic), so we decided to go to a 7:15 showing of the same movie. After we left Duggle's, we realized that we didn't have the microphone with us (another component of Rockband 1), so we had to call Jaren and Kellie to see if we had left it at their house. Luckily we had, but now we had to drive to their house to get the microphone before the stop at Aaron and Jenny's. When we got there, we saw Livie in her cute lady bug outfit and Kellie's cute haircut. (Trisha chopped it off last week).
So, finally, we had everything we needed and we headed to Aaron and Jenny's to give them the stuff. We got to their place at 7 or so, but their party had not yet started.
While we were at their house, I did a tiny dry ice bomb. I only put an average ice cube size amount of dry ice in the 2-liter bottle and water. Because of the small amount, the bottle expanded, but did not pop. It was fairly dark by this time, so it was a bit of a trick to get it to go off. If you unscrew the cap wrong, you could set it off, so the preferred method of detonating it is to hit it with something heavy enough or sharp enough to persuade the exposion. We initially tried hitting it with some long sticks. The sticks broke, and the bottle would not pop. So then we found a heavier board with some nails in it. With the weight of the falling board itself, the nails still didn't pop it; they just bounced off. I finally got it to go off with a heavy swing and a direct hit with the nails. Ahh.. The fun of dry ice bombs.
We left Aaron and Jenny's at around 7:30, so we missed our movie time again. We were both pretty hungry at this point, so we stopped for dinner at Chili's. I absolutely love their mushroom jack fajitas with steak. I order the same thing nearly every time. It was really salty this time, so it wasn't great, but good nonetheless. Trisha had some honey BBQ ribs. They looked really yummy.
After Chili's, we decided to make an appearance at Trisha's Mom and Dads house since it was so close and since Douglas and Amanda weren't done with their party yet. We went over there and got to see Madison, Leslie, and Gracie, in their costumes and see pictures from Sandra and Roger's recent trip to Cancun. Looks like somewhere I'd like to be.
Eventually, Duggle and Amandizzle made it to Sandra and Roger's as well. We hung out there for a little bit, then went to Duggle and Amanda's house to play our new Rockband 2. Taunie and Angela came over a little later. We got Rockband 2 all set up and played it until late into the night. We decided to sleep at Amanda and Duggle's and I eventually went to bed at close to 3.
The next morning (7:15 AM) we went to breakfast with Trisha's Grandpa. He goes to breakfast every Saturday and invites all his kids and grandkids to come eat with him. We try to make it, but don't make it often enough due to the whole "crack of dawn" thing.
After breakfast, we headed back to Duggle's house and some friends came over for some Magic. Drew, Mike, David, Douglas, and I played Magic from 10-2:30. Then we played rockband for a little bit and I took a nap. Gotta love naps.
After the nap, we cooked dinner, played a little more rockband, and then Trisha and I went home.
We stayed up a bit and watched TV and whatnot to try and take advantage of the extra hour we were getting. I slept in until 10 (the new 9) and watched some TV. Trisha woke up a bit later and had a sore throat and a stuffy nose. She's still having the same nausea that she's had for 3 weeks now. Ugh.. Wish there was something I could do.
Sunday night I went to our annual family feud. Since Trisha wasn't feeling well, she stayed home to rest. Each year we get together to talk about our plans for the holiday season. We generally set our yearly tradition "in stone," but I never remember what the schedule is for holidays, and there is generally some change in the schedule every year that was a deviation from the "set in stone" plan. All the noise and commotion of having the kids there, plus the confusion and misunderstandings results in a heavy dose of anxiety for me. No one wants to hurt anyone's feelings on purpose, and generally no one wants to back down either, so there's a hint of contention that I hate confronting. It's likely a normal thing that large families deal with as they grow, but I hate the anxiety it causes. I doubt I'm the only one that feels it.
In the end, this year for the holidays is going to be a bit different. We have the opportunity to visit Amie and Damon in Florida over Christmas break. I'm going to take full advantage of the opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle this year. We're going to try to catch a last-minute cruise and visit with Amie and Damon, who are going to be away from family too.
After the meeting, I went home and cooked an amazing (if I may so) alfredo to have with chicken. Trisha made some noodles for herself and some broccoli for both of us. We then watched some TV for a bit before we headed to bed.
And that concludes the recap of my last weekend.
Halloween was pretty crazy. We had 7 parties/options for the night:
1. Aaron and Jenny's party
2. Nathan and Emily's party
3. Chillaxing with Amandizzle and Duggle
4. Visiting Sandra and Roger's (to see all Trisha's nieces and nephews) (and take the little ones trick-or-treating)
5. Visiting my mom and dad's (to see all my nieces and nephews)
6. An ex-coworker at Mstar invited us to go to a party
7. Heather and Mike were throwing a halloween/Mike's birthday party
Because of the high number of options, and some recent anxiety I've been dealing with, I was extremely indecisive as to what we were going to do. I worked at home on Friday, and at mid-day, still hadn't come up with a plan for the evening.
At around 3:30 I came go a good stopping point with work, so decided to run with it. Trisha and I finally decided that we weren't going to do any parties or anything and that we would go see a movie, and then catch up with Amanda and Duggle after their party was over and play some rockband or something.
We decided to go see Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist which started at 5:05. We packed up all our rockband stuff and left the house. When we were driving, we got a call from Jenny and Aaron inviting us to go to their party. They had invited us earlier, and we really wanted to go, but with so many other parties, especially family parties, going to a drinking party where we didn't know very many people was less tempting.
Aaron and Jenny had shown some interest in purchasing Rockband 1 from us so we could buy the new rockband set with the wireless guitars. When Trisha originally went to the store to get rockband 2, we didn't have a buyer for rockband 1, so we just bought the game (not the entire set with the wireless instruments).
When I was talking to Aaron on the phone he mentioned that they would indeed purchase rockband 1 so we went back to the store and purchased the rockband 2 set. Trisha went in to Toys R' Us by herself to get it (my mistake), and was tempted to buy the extra wireless guitar (so we would have 2 wireless guitars). She gave into the temptation and now we have the entire set.
After the stop at Toys R' Us, we had to stop off at Duggle's house to pick up a piece of the rockband 1 equipment so we could deliver it to Aaron and Jenny's. By this time, we had missed our movie time (we would have missed it anyway because of the horrible traffic), so we decided to go to a 7:15 showing of the same movie. After we left Duggle's, we realized that we didn't have the microphone with us (another component of Rockband 1), so we had to call Jaren and Kellie to see if we had left it at their house. Luckily we had, but now we had to drive to their house to get the microphone before the stop at Aaron and Jenny's. When we got there, we saw Livie in her cute lady bug outfit and Kellie's cute haircut. (Trisha chopped it off last week).
So, finally, we had everything we needed and we headed to Aaron and Jenny's to give them the stuff. We got to their place at 7 or so, but their party had not yet started.
While we were at their house, I did a tiny dry ice bomb. I only put an average ice cube size amount of dry ice in the 2-liter bottle and water. Because of the small amount, the bottle expanded, but did not pop. It was fairly dark by this time, so it was a bit of a trick to get it to go off. If you unscrew the cap wrong, you could set it off, so the preferred method of detonating it is to hit it with something heavy enough or sharp enough to persuade the exposion. We initially tried hitting it with some long sticks. The sticks broke, and the bottle would not pop. So then we found a heavier board with some nails in it. With the weight of the falling board itself, the nails still didn't pop it; they just bounced off. I finally got it to go off with a heavy swing and a direct hit with the nails. Ahh.. The fun of dry ice bombs.
We left Aaron and Jenny's at around 7:30, so we missed our movie time again. We were both pretty hungry at this point, so we stopped for dinner at Chili's. I absolutely love their mushroom jack fajitas with steak. I order the same thing nearly every time. It was really salty this time, so it wasn't great, but good nonetheless. Trisha had some honey BBQ ribs. They looked really yummy.
After Chili's, we decided to make an appearance at Trisha's Mom and Dads house since it was so close and since Douglas and Amanda weren't done with their party yet. We went over there and got to see Madison, Leslie, and Gracie, in their costumes and see pictures from Sandra and Roger's recent trip to Cancun. Looks like somewhere I'd like to be.
Eventually, Duggle and Amandizzle made it to Sandra and Roger's as well. We hung out there for a little bit, then went to Duggle and Amanda's house to play our new Rockband 2. Taunie and Angela came over a little later. We got Rockband 2 all set up and played it until late into the night. We decided to sleep at Amanda and Duggle's and I eventually went to bed at close to 3.
The next morning (7:15 AM) we went to breakfast with Trisha's Grandpa. He goes to breakfast every Saturday and invites all his kids and grandkids to come eat with him. We try to make it, but don't make it often enough due to the whole "crack of dawn" thing.
After breakfast, we headed back to Duggle's house and some friends came over for some Magic. Drew, Mike, David, Douglas, and I played Magic from 10-2:30. Then we played rockband for a little bit and I took a nap. Gotta love naps.
After the nap, we cooked dinner, played a little more rockband, and then Trisha and I went home.
We stayed up a bit and watched TV and whatnot to try and take advantage of the extra hour we were getting. I slept in until 10 (the new 9) and watched some TV. Trisha woke up a bit later and had a sore throat and a stuffy nose. She's still having the same nausea that she's had for 3 weeks now. Ugh.. Wish there was something I could do.
Sunday night I went to our annual family feud. Since Trisha wasn't feeling well, she stayed home to rest. Each year we get together to talk about our plans for the holiday season. We generally set our yearly tradition "in stone," but I never remember what the schedule is for holidays, and there is generally some change in the schedule every year that was a deviation from the "set in stone" plan. All the noise and commotion of having the kids there, plus the confusion and misunderstandings results in a heavy dose of anxiety for me. No one wants to hurt anyone's feelings on purpose, and generally no one wants to back down either, so there's a hint of contention that I hate confronting. It's likely a normal thing that large families deal with as they grow, but I hate the anxiety it causes. I doubt I'm the only one that feels it.
In the end, this year for the holidays is going to be a bit different. We have the opportunity to visit Amie and Damon in Florida over Christmas break. I'm going to take full advantage of the opportunity to escape the hustle and bustle this year. We're going to try to catch a last-minute cruise and visit with Amie and Damon, who are going to be away from family too.
After the meeting, I went home and cooked an amazing (if I may so) alfredo to have with chicken. Trisha made some noodles for herself and some broccoli for both of us. We then watched some TV for a bit before we headed to bed.
And that concludes the recap of my last weekend.
10.30.2008
Heaven on Earth?
My mother just sent me an email possibly confirming the presence of heaven on earth. It's a restaurant (not even sure where it's located, and too lazy to google it) by the name of Heart Attack Grill.
10.29.2008
Another gadget...
I'm a gadget guy. I love new gadgets, even if they're not especially new to the market. I need a better camera to take pictures of family and events as well as my travels. The 2.0 Megapixel camera in the iPhone is nice and all, but I need something with a much better quality.. Perhaps I can invest in one with my tax return. My brother-in-law, Douglas (aka Duggle), has a Canon Rebel XTI. I played around with that last night, and I like it a lot. If I can get a good deal on one, I may spring for it.
If you have a similar camera for sale, let me know!
Follow my blog!
I have added a "followers" link on the right of my blog. Feel free to become a follower and get updated whenever I update my blog!
10.28.2008
New Links
You can now access my myspace profile here: http://myspace.nixlife.info
You can now access my facebook profile here: http://facebook.nixlife.info
You can now access google here: http://google.nixlife.info (it's better than the real google! ;) )
You can now access my facebook profile here: http://facebook.nixlife.info
You can now access google here: http://google.nixlife.info (it's better than the real google! ;) )
New URL
I decided to buy a URL for my blog, and just got it all set up to work. There's a slight problem I'm working through that will allow it to work with and without the www portion of the URL. But for now, the URL of my blog is:
http://www.nixlife.info
Enjoy!
http://www.nixlife.info
Enjoy!
Trisha's New Hampster
I added a poll on the right to help Trisha and I decide the name of her new pet hampster. Vote early. Vote often.
Gas selling below $2 in some areas
Incredible!
It's about effing time! Now when is this going to start affecting me? And it had better not skyrocket to over 4 bucks a gallon ever again!10.27.2008
Costa Rica Pix
Some of the "lower class" homes in Costa Rica
The front of the Catholic Iglesias in Palmares
The sign out front of the church. Built in 1902. Wow.
One of the stained glass windows in the church. Beautiful!
Steve, a mormon Bishop in a Catholic Church. (?!) ;)
Another beautiful Stained glass window in the church.
This is the Costa Rican Temple.
First, Fernando made some "original artwork" on the bathroom mirror to distract me from the old "tissue in the air conditioner" trick.
This was my view out the back window during training.
A large butterfly.
Costa Rica - Day 3/4
Sorry for the delay in getting my day 3 post up. I was so tired at the end of the day and knowing that I had to wake up in 4 hours to go home, I figured I'd update it when I got back (or at the airport).
So Friday started out like the others.. Wake up and have some breakfast at the hotel. Huevos, queso, arroz con frijoles, agua. Then we embarked on the drive to Palmares to finish up our business. We decided to take a shortcut that we had taken on the way home the day before that had saved us 15 minutes or so. The problems is that there wasn't a way for the shortcut to go the opposite direction. Because of some barricades and one way streets we got pushed way out into BFE (or is that BFUSA) just to get turned back the right direction. We spent 20 minutes just to get turned back the right way.
I neglected to mention before that the family we were visiting to do business with had a chicken in their backyard. I had asked one of the guys if they used it to eat eggs or if it was a pet. He wasn't sure and thought that it was his grandpa's chicken, probably for eggs. I asked if it had a name, and he just laughed. We'll come back to the chicken in a moment.
When we got to their house/business, we immediately started back with the training. We quickly dived in and made some good progress before lunch. We had some other meetings we wanted to go to in the afternoon, so we were trying to leave before lunch. I'm glad that we didn't. The day before, the wife of the business owner had overheard Steve talk about how (on his mission) he loved arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) a flagship dish in Costa Rica. Because she overheard them talking about it, she decided to make some for us! Oh man. Amazing. We had the Chicken and Rice dish with a nice green salad, refried black beans (my new favorite), fresh squeezed passion fruit juice, and homemade (virgin) pina coladas! Best pina colada I have EVER had. It was made with fresh coconuts and real coconut milk. Simply amazing.
After lunch we were talking about where she had gotten some of the ingredients and as it turns out, their "pet" chicken that we saw out back was the main course! At least, that's what I think. When the chicken out back was mentioned, everyone laughed because I had asked about it the day before, and I swear that I couldn't see the chicken out in the cage anymore. Because I don't spean spanish, I'm not 100% sure that it really was the chicken or not, but either way, it was pretty funny
One thing that I noticed about Costa Rica is that there are dogs EVERYWHERE. Every restaurant that we went to there was at least 1 dog there that just waits around for scraps. The dogs are surprisingly well behaved, however. They weren't aggressive, and they didn't approach you at all. I wonder if rabies is a problem down there.
After lunch, we finished up training within an hour or so, and the business discussions were at a breaking point, (plus Latin Americans like to leave early on Fridays) so we decided to go and explore a bit. When we were leaving Palmares, we decided to stop at the local Catholic iglesias and take some pictures. I will post all of my pictures in a seperate entry later today. The stained glass windows were breathtaking.
When we were driving back to the hotel, we passed a huge "flock" of what we initially thought were turkeys. They were huge! There were about 15-20 all black "turkeys" that were all gathered at this one point. As we passed them, I noticed that they were all gathered around a dead horse. They were not turkeys. They were vultures. Then the smell of rotting flesh entered the vehicle. Wow. Gag.
Fernando then told us a story of a friend and he driving through another part of Costa Rica years ago on a long road trip. They were driving and saw a vulture on the road eating roadkill of some kind. The friend (who was driving) thought it would be funny to try and run over the bird. He sped up and aimed the car at the bird. The bird, being large, attempted to fly away, but couldn't get enough lift and smashed into the windshield, it's head breaking through. They slammed on the breaks in fear (and because they couldn't see). The bird then opened it's eyes and vomited rotting meat onto the driver, pulled its head out of the windshield and flew away. The guy was covered in it, and was puking continually for the remainder of the 3 hour journey.
When we got back, we chilled at the hotel for a bit. Fernando checked out that morning because he was going to spend the night at his sister's house, so he chilled with me in my room until Steve and I left. Fernando, being the trixter he is, left me a couple surprises that I discovered upon my return later that night. He ripped up a bunch of tissues and stuffed them in the air conditioner, so when I turned it on, bits of tissue flied everywhere in the room. He also made and original smiley face drawing in the bathroom. I'll post pictures later today.
Steve and I left to go to the flea market in central San Jose. On the way to the flea market, we stopped to see one of his Missionary companions. We visited him at his business, which looked like a home, but was strictly for business. He is an accountant.
As we were driving around San Jose, I saw my first brothel ever. It was a "gentlemen's hotel." There were several that we saw throughout the city as we were trying to find the flea market. I also saw several prostitutes. I had never been to a place that I could say, without a doubt, that the girls were prostitues. We eventually found the flea market and found a parking place. We walked a few blocks to the flea market and went inside. The place STUNK. There were parrots and parakeets everywhere and a couple butchers. So, the combination of smells was not pleasant. I got a couple presents for Trisha (flip-flops, 2 t-shirts, and a little puzzle/jewelry holder). I also got my brother a shot glass (I get one for him everywhere I go) and a little hand carved warrior guy to match the ones I got in Mexico.
We got to the flea market at about 5:15, and they close at 6 PM. During our parusing, we got seperated. We didn't explicitly set a meeting point. They started closing everything down at 5:45. I was basically done at that point, so I walked towards the street corner where we had entered the market. The door was already closed and padlocked, I walked around for a few minutes until I found a door that the security was closing. They let me go out the door there, but at that point I was a bit turned around. I knew that the market was an entire street block, and figured that if I stayed on that block, there would be no problems. I stood at the corner for a few minutes and realized that I wasn't on the right street corner. I walked around the block (there were THOUSANDS of people walking everywhere). When I got the far side, I saw that there was 1 door that they were ushering people out of. I figured that I'd see him come out this door at some point, but it was kitty corner from where we had entered. I waited there for 5 or so minutes and the sidewalks started to clear a bit as the busses were leaving the area. I decided to walk around the block one more time to make sure that he wasn't on the far side where we had entered. He wasn't there. I waited there for about 10 minutes and eventually a guy that had helped me at one of the shops came and told me (in spanish) that my amigo was looking for me back at the "exit" corner. I walked back that direction and we found each other. While I wasn't scared that anything would happen to me, or anything like that, it was still a bit unnerving being there amidst thousands of people not understanding a word they were saying and not knowing if I had made a wrong turn somewhere and being in the wrong place. In the end, he did go to the corner where we had entered, but because I was a bit turned around, I was 1 corner away from the right corner. Then he went back in and searched inside until they made him leave.
As we were walking back to the car, we passed an icecream shop called Pops. We went in to get a treat that Steve talked about on his mission. Coconut icecream. Holy crap. I have a new favorite ice cream flavor. Of course, even if I could find it in the US, it wouldn't be as good as there because of the amazing fresh flavor. It was amazing. I would seriously take it over Haagen Daaz now. So good.
We got back to the car, and tipped a kid who was trying to sell stuff on the street for "watching" our car.
After the flea market, we went to have dinner with another one of Steve's missionary companions and his family. We met them at a grocery store in San Jose and then followed them to their house. Their house was beautiful as well. Apparently, when the Costa Rican temple was built, he spent his life savings remodeling their house to have it ready so visitors could stay with them during the dedication. In the end, no one stayed with them, but they've had the opportunity to host some members since then. We got to their house and I met their family. The father's name is Esteban. The wifes name is Veiria [sp?], pronounced Bee-ree-uh. They adopted 2 kids 8 months earlier. They are great kids, Andres and Diana. They really were a great family. She cooked us a homemade meal of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken (like we had for lunch)), platanos (fried plantaines), picadillos (a soft shell taco), and a cole slaw with cilantro type salad. We had fresh squeezed lemonade from lemons in their back yard. The platanos with the arroz con pollo was my favorite. It was SO good! She made us a traditional spice bread for dessert.
We met with them and they caught up on their lives. I couldn't understand much of what they were saying, but I picked up pieces along the way. Andres loved my iphone. I played games with him on it for a while to keep him occupied. Diana wanted me to read to her from a book about flowers. I did my best to read the words in spanish, even though I didn't know what they meant. At the end of the meeting, Esteban told me (with Steve translating) that I would always be welcome in his home and was grateful that I could eat dinner with them. I really had a good time there and would love to visit them again.
After we left their house, Steve drove me around to see the local chapels there and where the mission home was located. It was dark, so even though I could see them, I would NEVER be able to find my way to where they were. Then we went back to Pops and had some more coconut icecream. Mmmm..
We went back to the hotel and I packed my things and called Trisha on the phone. I was SO tired and had to wake back up in a few hours, so I went right to bed.
I woke up at 4:45 and finished packing and got ready for the trip home. I went down and had breakfast (same thing as before). We left the hotel, dropped off the rental car and went to the airport. There was more of a line than we expected, but we made it to our flight without any real problem. I had a crappy middle seat on the way home, but the lady next to me was nice enough to let me put the arm rest up so I wasn't as squished. I watched the rest of Incredible Hulk and some arrested development.
I wasn't looking forward to the 5 hour layover that we had in Dallas. There was an earlier flight leaving, but it was very close to leaving when we landed. We ran to make it through customs and security and barely made the flight home. I got an exit row with an open seat next to me. I watched more arrested development on that flight. I absolutely love that show.
So, that was my trip to Costa Rica. I found out this morning that I will probably be returning there sometime in the next month or 2. That should be fun!
So Friday started out like the others.. Wake up and have some breakfast at the hotel. Huevos, queso, arroz con frijoles, agua. Then we embarked on the drive to Palmares to finish up our business. We decided to take a shortcut that we had taken on the way home the day before that had saved us 15 minutes or so. The problems is that there wasn't a way for the shortcut to go the opposite direction. Because of some barricades and one way streets we got pushed way out into BFE (or is that BFUSA) just to get turned back the right direction. We spent 20 minutes just to get turned back the right way.
I neglected to mention before that the family we were visiting to do business with had a chicken in their backyard. I had asked one of the guys if they used it to eat eggs or if it was a pet. He wasn't sure and thought that it was his grandpa's chicken, probably for eggs. I asked if it had a name, and he just laughed. We'll come back to the chicken in a moment.
When we got to their house/business, we immediately started back with the training. We quickly dived in and made some good progress before lunch. We had some other meetings we wanted to go to in the afternoon, so we were trying to leave before lunch. I'm glad that we didn't. The day before, the wife of the business owner had overheard Steve talk about how (on his mission) he loved arroz con pollo (rice with chicken) a flagship dish in Costa Rica. Because she overheard them talking about it, she decided to make some for us! Oh man. Amazing. We had the Chicken and Rice dish with a nice green salad, refried black beans (my new favorite), fresh squeezed passion fruit juice, and homemade (virgin) pina coladas! Best pina colada I have EVER had. It was made with fresh coconuts and real coconut milk. Simply amazing.
After lunch we were talking about where she had gotten some of the ingredients and as it turns out, their "pet" chicken that we saw out back was the main course! At least, that's what I think. When the chicken out back was mentioned, everyone laughed because I had asked about it the day before, and I swear that I couldn't see the chicken out in the cage anymore. Because I don't spean spanish, I'm not 100% sure that it really was the chicken or not, but either way, it was pretty funny
One thing that I noticed about Costa Rica is that there are dogs EVERYWHERE. Every restaurant that we went to there was at least 1 dog there that just waits around for scraps. The dogs are surprisingly well behaved, however. They weren't aggressive, and they didn't approach you at all. I wonder if rabies is a problem down there.
After lunch, we finished up training within an hour or so, and the business discussions were at a breaking point, (plus Latin Americans like to leave early on Fridays) so we decided to go and explore a bit. When we were leaving Palmares, we decided to stop at the local Catholic iglesias and take some pictures. I will post all of my pictures in a seperate entry later today. The stained glass windows were breathtaking.
When we were driving back to the hotel, we passed a huge "flock" of what we initially thought were turkeys. They were huge! There were about 15-20 all black "turkeys" that were all gathered at this one point. As we passed them, I noticed that they were all gathered around a dead horse. They were not turkeys. They were vultures. Then the smell of rotting flesh entered the vehicle. Wow. Gag.
Fernando then told us a story of a friend and he driving through another part of Costa Rica years ago on a long road trip. They were driving and saw a vulture on the road eating roadkill of some kind. The friend (who was driving) thought it would be funny to try and run over the bird. He sped up and aimed the car at the bird. The bird, being large, attempted to fly away, but couldn't get enough lift and smashed into the windshield, it's head breaking through. They slammed on the breaks in fear (and because they couldn't see). The bird then opened it's eyes and vomited rotting meat onto the driver, pulled its head out of the windshield and flew away. The guy was covered in it, and was puking continually for the remainder of the 3 hour journey.
When we got back, we chilled at the hotel for a bit. Fernando checked out that morning because he was going to spend the night at his sister's house, so he chilled with me in my room until Steve and I left. Fernando, being the trixter he is, left me a couple surprises that I discovered upon my return later that night. He ripped up a bunch of tissues and stuffed them in the air conditioner, so when I turned it on, bits of tissue flied everywhere in the room. He also made and original smiley face drawing in the bathroom. I'll post pictures later today.
Steve and I left to go to the flea market in central San Jose. On the way to the flea market, we stopped to see one of his Missionary companions. We visited him at his business, which looked like a home, but was strictly for business. He is an accountant.
As we were driving around San Jose, I saw my first brothel ever. It was a "gentlemen's hotel." There were several that we saw throughout the city as we were trying to find the flea market. I also saw several prostitutes. I had never been to a place that I could say, without a doubt, that the girls were prostitues. We eventually found the flea market and found a parking place. We walked a few blocks to the flea market and went inside. The place STUNK. There were parrots and parakeets everywhere and a couple butchers. So, the combination of smells was not pleasant. I got a couple presents for Trisha (flip-flops, 2 t-shirts, and a little puzzle/jewelry holder). I also got my brother a shot glass (I get one for him everywhere I go) and a little hand carved warrior guy to match the ones I got in Mexico.
We got to the flea market at about 5:15, and they close at 6 PM. During our parusing, we got seperated. We didn't explicitly set a meeting point. They started closing everything down at 5:45. I was basically done at that point, so I walked towards the street corner where we had entered the market. The door was already closed and padlocked, I walked around for a few minutes until I found a door that the security was closing. They let me go out the door there, but at that point I was a bit turned around. I knew that the market was an entire street block, and figured that if I stayed on that block, there would be no problems. I stood at the corner for a few minutes and realized that I wasn't on the right street corner. I walked around the block (there were THOUSANDS of people walking everywhere). When I got the far side, I saw that there was 1 door that they were ushering people out of. I figured that I'd see him come out this door at some point, but it was kitty corner from where we had entered. I waited there for 5 or so minutes and the sidewalks started to clear a bit as the busses were leaving the area. I decided to walk around the block one more time to make sure that he wasn't on the far side where we had entered. He wasn't there. I waited there for about 10 minutes and eventually a guy that had helped me at one of the shops came and told me (in spanish) that my amigo was looking for me back at the "exit" corner. I walked back that direction and we found each other. While I wasn't scared that anything would happen to me, or anything like that, it was still a bit unnerving being there amidst thousands of people not understanding a word they were saying and not knowing if I had made a wrong turn somewhere and being in the wrong place. In the end, he did go to the corner where we had entered, but because I was a bit turned around, I was 1 corner away from the right corner. Then he went back in and searched inside until they made him leave.
As we were walking back to the car, we passed an icecream shop called Pops. We went in to get a treat that Steve talked about on his mission. Coconut icecream. Holy crap. I have a new favorite ice cream flavor. Of course, even if I could find it in the US, it wouldn't be as good as there because of the amazing fresh flavor. It was amazing. I would seriously take it over Haagen Daaz now. So good.
We got back to the car, and tipped a kid who was trying to sell stuff on the street for "watching" our car.
After the flea market, we went to have dinner with another one of Steve's missionary companions and his family. We met them at a grocery store in San Jose and then followed them to their house. Their house was beautiful as well. Apparently, when the Costa Rican temple was built, he spent his life savings remodeling their house to have it ready so visitors could stay with them during the dedication. In the end, no one stayed with them, but they've had the opportunity to host some members since then. We got to their house and I met their family. The father's name is Esteban. The wifes name is Veiria [sp?], pronounced Bee-ree-uh. They adopted 2 kids 8 months earlier. They are great kids, Andres and Diana. They really were a great family. She cooked us a homemade meal of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken (like we had for lunch)), platanos (fried plantaines), picadillos (a soft shell taco), and a cole slaw with cilantro type salad. We had fresh squeezed lemonade from lemons in their back yard. The platanos with the arroz con pollo was my favorite. It was SO good! She made us a traditional spice bread for dessert.
We met with them and they caught up on their lives. I couldn't understand much of what they were saying, but I picked up pieces along the way. Andres loved my iphone. I played games with him on it for a while to keep him occupied. Diana wanted me to read to her from a book about flowers. I did my best to read the words in spanish, even though I didn't know what they meant. At the end of the meeting, Esteban told me (with Steve translating) that I would always be welcome in his home and was grateful that I could eat dinner with them. I really had a good time there and would love to visit them again.
After we left their house, Steve drove me around to see the local chapels there and where the mission home was located. It was dark, so even though I could see them, I would NEVER be able to find my way to where they were. Then we went back to Pops and had some more coconut icecream. Mmmm..
We went back to the hotel and I packed my things and called Trisha on the phone. I was SO tired and had to wake back up in a few hours, so I went right to bed.
I woke up at 4:45 and finished packing and got ready for the trip home. I went down and had breakfast (same thing as before). We left the hotel, dropped off the rental car and went to the airport. There was more of a line than we expected, but we made it to our flight without any real problem. I had a crappy middle seat on the way home, but the lady next to me was nice enough to let me put the arm rest up so I wasn't as squished. I watched the rest of Incredible Hulk and some arrested development.
I wasn't looking forward to the 5 hour layover that we had in Dallas. There was an earlier flight leaving, but it was very close to leaving when we landed. We ran to make it through customs and security and barely made the flight home. I got an exit row with an open seat next to me. I watched more arrested development on that flight. I absolutely love that show.
So, that was my trip to Costa Rica. I found out this morning that I will probably be returning there sometime in the next month or 2. That should be fun!
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