PERHAPS I SHOULD START CHARGING

I must have a friendly face. Or one that says I'm a bitch, because whenever I go to an event, people are always asking me if I can take their picture. That probably happens to a lot of people, but it happens to me in some weird places.

Take Monday night for example. After saying goodbye to Kelli and Stephen who were in the midst of a "discussion" about the location of some French Quarter joint, I headed to my car on Poydras. As I pass in front of the Arena, I'm touched on the shoulder from behind.

I turned to find a smiling couple, with the guy holding out his camera to me. "Can you take our picture next to the big thing of Chris Paul on the pole?" Sure. Amazingly, we had to wait in a line. A father and his kid and then a couple of older chicks took pictures before us.

An even stranger request was made of me during the first quarter of the game. While Kelli and Stephen stopped by the concession stand for some nachos, I waited by the steps of our section and watched the first few minutes of action. (We were late because of the ticket fiasco I talked about yesterday.)

As I'm watching Aaron Brooks (can't believe I cheer for a guy with that name now) dribble the ball up the court, I realize the lady who has stopped in front of me is talking to me.

Me: Oh, sorry. What did you say?
Lady (holding a tray of snacks): Can you take my purse strap and put in up on my shoulder?
Me: No problem.

So, there I was at the Hornets-Rockets game taking hold of some strange woman's purse strap and moving it from her left elbow to her shoulder. She seemed satisfied. (That's not what Ted said.) That just doesn't happen every day.

Why do people keep asking these favors of me at events? Is it because they know I crave attention? Or are they trying to get mentioned in The Gene Pool?

THE TINA CURSING CORNER

My mom tells me about her day when I wake up. "My morning was ruined. I come from tanning all ready to go to the dentist. And then I get that phone call. The fucking dentist does that all the time. I knew my appointment was cancelled. Fucking happens with my hair, too." (The appointment was moved to Thursday.)

We then start watching House. Her phone rings. "There's fucking Sue. Cancelling again." She takes the phone call and returns to the couch. "The dentist threw out his back. Now, my appointment is tomorrow, and now instead of 10:30, it's 11:45. Fucking ridiculous."

So, we're watching House.
-- Mom: I never understood why Taub ain't a plastic surgeon anymore.
Me: He wants to help people.
Mom: What?
Me: Yeah. To save lives.
Mom: Bullshit.

-- Two scenes later, Taub reveals why he switched jobs (spoiler alert!). "Yeah. I told you. He lost his fucking license."
-- House says something sarcastic. "That's an arrogant motherfucker."
-- House figures out the medical mystery based on the patient's appendix. "Fucking appendix."

FOUR CORNERS
A closer look at The Gene Pool World.

-- Over the past two months, I've been compiling all my top lists from this site in the form of monthly calendars. At first, I was doing it slow and steady. Then, I got a head of steam and completely caught up Sunday night.

I have three copies of each month. One for the office, one for my desk at home and one for my backpack. Sick, I know, but I like to have them handy for a quick reference to make sure I don't repeat a topic and to know exactly when a certain list was posted.

-- I think I may becoming slightly obsessed with Kelly Clarkson. I have all four of her albums and am currently rocking the new one in my car. If that wasn't enough, I had a realization Monday while watching Clarkson sing on SNL with Tina.

Me: Damn. This is the third time I've watched Kelly perform recently. (Counting on my fingers) Right now on SNL. Wednesday on American Idol. And last week at the . . ."
Tina: At the what?
Me: Oh boy. It just dawned on me that the third one was a dream. I was with Jelly at some sporting event I can't picture now, and Kelly was the surprise singer of the national anthem. Clearly, that wasn't real.

-- From Friday to Tuesday, I didn't have e-mail access. Apparently, there's this message toward the top of the e-mail screen that prompts you to change your password and tells you how many days you have left to do it. I never saw this. My e-mail password expired, and Marcus had to send an e-mail to IT to get me a temporary password.

It seems that I was the only one to have this problem. In my defense: 1) There was no mention at the new-e-mail-system meeting I attended about changing the password every so often. 2) There was no separate e-mail sent to me about this. If so, I would have opened that e-mail and made the password change. 3) It's in small print at the top of the screen. Why would I look up there for that when I'm not expecting anything to be there? I'm just checking my inbox. 4) There was no office discussion about this. Nobody mentioned changing their password.

-- JRap and I had our annual baseball preview lunch Monday at Venezia's II. So what if the paper cancelled MLB predictions this year in order to save space. I only picked the Phillies to win last season. Whatever. We did discuss possibly doing a mini preview for nola.

I had the spaghetti and meat sauce. It was a large serving. When I got home, I put the leftover box on the kitchen counter.

Tina: What is that?
Me: Leftovers.
Tina: Of what?
Me: Spaghetti and meat sauce.
Tina: Great. I just started making that.

Let's see, I had spaghetti and meat sauce for lunch Monday, for dinner Monday, for lunch Tuesday, for dinner Tuesday and for lunch Wednesday. There's a lot of Tina's still left. This might be a good time to mention that this item is in no way a complaint.

NEW DYNAMIC DUO

The Saints signed free safety Darren Sharper on Wednesday. I'm not sure if I like the move from a football standpoint (experience vs. him being old), but I am excited about the addition for another reason. You realize what this means for the Saints' secondary?

At free safety, we have Darren Sharper. At strong safety, we have Roman Harper. I've been tossing around nicknames for a few hours. Harper boys? Harper twins? Should we drop the "H" since for only one is it capitalized and just call them the Arper Amigos? I think I like that one.

Speaking of the Arper Amigos, I may have figured out why Arper Amigo No. 1 (that's Roman because he was here first) had so much trouble with dropped interceptions last season. I pulled up his profile on the team's Web site.

His eyes are practically closed in his mug. Maybe his eyes are always like that, and he can't see the ball well. That's an easy correction. Hey, Arper Amigo No. 1, open your eyes, man.

PARTING SHOTS
Somehow, my status on AIM says "I am useless." I tell Jelly I didn't type this. (I have my theories as to how it got there).

Jelly: Maybe it can read your mind.

Paula has joined us on the desk the past few days.

Paula (sitting in Marcus' chair): D, I hope you don't mind me sitting here.
D: Nah. Usually, I have to look at Marcus. That's about as bad as it gets.

THE DAILY TOP LIST
My favorite five TV show catchphrases.

5) I love it when a plan comes together. The A-Team.
I never saw this show, but Marcus has used this line so much (and made it a part of the T-P vocabulary) that it was one of the first lines I thought of when compiling this list.

4) These pretzels are making me thirsty. Seinfeld.
Shout it to the streets.

3) This is the big one. You hear that, Elizabeth? I'm coming to join you. Sanford and Son.
A line for every generation.

2) How YOU doin'? Friends.
No. I've never tried it.

1) Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis? Different Strokes.
Should be in the Thesaurus as a synonym to huh.