Friday 13th
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 1:42 am
Well, it's that day again. I can't say I know anyone who is very superstitious, but everyone seems to be trying to steer clear of bad luck today. 
STORM2K
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Friday 13th
Page 1 of 1
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 1:58 am
Its a significant day for me. I was married on Friday 13th, divorced on Friday the 13th and dissolved two long term relationships on Friday the 13th. It wasn't until later that I realized the significance of the dates. October is not a good month for me. I'm always glad when I get past October.
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 4:54 am
I'll admit.. I'm not superstitious.. but Friday 13th always tends to be an interesting day for me..
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 7:25 am
Just DON'T go to Camp Crystal Lake 
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 8:09 am
sunny wrote:Just DON'T go to Camp Crytal Lake
"Chhh chhh chhh chhh...ahhh ahhh ahhh ahhh."
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 8:10 am
Actually Friday the 13th tend to be lucky days for me. 13 is my lucky number and well Fridays are ALWAYS good
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 8:23 am
me tooKelarie wrote:Actually Friday the 13th tend to be lucky days for me. 13 is my lucky number and well Fridays are ALWAYS good
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 6:47 pm
I have no problem with it. I just closed on our house we have lived in for 13 years today. The owners have never been inside it and have only seen pictures of it. We cut out the agent and sold it by ourself in a week.
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 11:00 pm
Well, I was in a minor car accident today....MGC
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 11:01 pm
They have a Friday the 13th movie marathon tonight on AMC!
Posted: Fri May 13, 2005 11:13 pm
Usually Friday the 13th is a good day for me, but today broke that streak! (please read Front Porch post about a possible closure for 440th Airlift wing... which is MY base)
Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 12:47 am
What does it mean when a black cat shows up at your house on Friday the 13th?
Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 8:47 am
What does it mean when a black cat shows up at your house on Friday the 13th?
It means you have a black cat as a new pet.
Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 11:06 am
Yesterday, I thought I lost my bus pass at a snack shack, but found out 30 minutes later that it fell between a folded up piece of paper in my pocket.
Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 11:21 am
StormChasr wrote:What does it mean when a black cat shows up at your house on Friday the 13th?
It means you have a black cat as a new pet.
Stray animals always seem to find their way to my house...do I have "Sucker" stamped across my forehead?
Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 6:17 pm
stray animals always seem to find their way to my house...do I have "Sucker" stamped across my forehead?
Yes, you do.
Trust me, they have radar for pet lovers--how ya think I ended up with 3 cats!!!! Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 10:34 am
Running out of luck on Friday the 13th
All eyes on inmate on date he often escapes
By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas – Friday the 13th has been Steven Russell's lucky day. After all, it's the date he has escaped prison – three times.
Mr. Russell, a slick con artist and thief whose scams included posing as a lawyer and a judge, was probably the most watched Texas inmate this week. Among his four successful escapes from custody, three occurred on what many people think of as an unlucky day.
"We always keep in mind that since he has a penchant for trying to escape on Friday the 13th, we should step up the surveillance on him," said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "And that is exactly what we are doing."
Mr. Russell, 48, is so confident in his abilities that he once blamed technology when the law reeled him in.
"He was driving a new truck and thought it was the GPS locator," said Dan McAnulty, an investigator for the Harris County District Attorney who investigated one of Mr. Russell's escapes.
In fact, one of the most prolific con men in Texas had been tripped up by his own credulity. A friend flipped, noting Mr. Russell's number on caller ID and turning him in.
That was eight years ago. With one exception – a ruse that allowed him to escape by posing as an AIDS patient and later faking his own death in 1998 – Mr. Russell has been in prison since.
Mr. Russell is serving a life sentence for breaking out of the Estelle Unit on Dec. 13, 1996. At the time of that escape, he was serving a 45-year sentence for stealing $800,000 from a Houston health-care firm. Mr. Russell had concealed his criminal history from the firm and persuaded its officers to hire him as the chief financial officer.
Knows what he's doing
He barely had to open his mouth to walk out of the Estelle Unit in 1996.
Instead, he concocted a simple plan to exit the prison by impersonating a doctor. He dyed his white jumpsuit with ink from green felt-tip markers to make it look like doctor's scrubs. He hung an ID around his neck but flipped it, a trick doctors use to hide their personal information from inmates. The security guard, accustomed to the practice, didn't ask to see the ID's photo side.
When Mr. Russell was arrested 11 days later in Biloxi, Miss., he was with his longtime partner, Phillip Morris.
The two first met in 1995 in the Harris County Jail, according to "I Love You Phillip Morris," a book about Mr. Russell written by Houston Chronicle reporter Steve McVicker.
In the book, Mr. Morris says that Mr. Russell, a fan of books about reincarnation and past lives, believes there is "some connection between me and Steven and the number 13" Authorities say they do not know why Mr. Russell picks that day to forge his escapes.
Mr. McAnulty said Mr. Russell's escapes were motivated by his desire to be with Mr. Morris, who also served prison time in Texas and was paroled to Arkansas in 2003.
"It is like, 'I am going to get out, and I am going to be with Phillip,' " Mr. McAnulty said, describing Mr. Russell's motivation. " 'I will get out. You can't keep me in there forever.' "
Elaborate hoax
Mr. Russell proved that in 1998, when he conducted a tour-de-force escape that drew on reams of falsified medical documents that showed he was dying of AIDS. By losing a drastic amount of weight since his return to prison, he looked the part.
"He was emaciated," said John Moriarty, inspector general for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice whose agency twice located Mr. Russell after an escape. "He was able to gain access to his medical records and slipped in a counterfeit lab report of his blood."
The Board of Pardons and Paroles, led by a man who is now the McAllen police chief, signed off on his condition and sent him to a facility for sick offenders in the South Texas town of Kenedy.
At the urging of another state agency, Mr. Russell secured special release to Houston, where he would undergo experimental AIDS treatment. To garner release, the prisoner posed as a Houston doctor. Later, impersonating the same doctor, he obtained a death certificate for himself and mailed it to the nursing facility in Kenedy.
Three months after his initial medical parole, Mr. Russell was found outside Miami.
Except for his escapes, Ms. Lyons said, Mr. Russell would be considered a good inmate.
Charming, well-behaved
Outside the prison walls, Mr. Russell was charming and well-behaved, Mr. McAnulty said.
"He is a convivial sort of fellow when you talk to him, but he will lie to you, big time," Mr. McAnulty said. "He didn't need to be violent, because he could get whatever he wanted by talking."
According to the book, press accounts and other records and interviews, Mr. Russell first escaped from custody on May 13, 1992. He bolted from the Harris County Jail. On July 13, 1996, he got out of jail by posing as a retired judge over the telephone to have his bail reduced.
Mr. Russell has distinguished himself from most escapees by hatching a plan for what to do once he breached the prison fence.
"There are so many issues to overcome to get over the fence," Mr. Moriarty said. "That is where their concentration is."
In Mr. Russell's solitary cell at the Michael Unit on Friday, supervisors checked on him throughout the day. Friday the 13th wasn't over, but authorities believed they'd gotten through the day without Mr. Russell slipping by them.
"That is the original high-security unit that the agency built," Mr. Moriarty said. "That is a very tough nut to crack."
All eyes on inmate on date he often escapes
By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN, Texas – Friday the 13th has been Steven Russell's lucky day. After all, it's the date he has escaped prison – three times.
Mr. Russell, a slick con artist and thief whose scams included posing as a lawyer and a judge, was probably the most watched Texas inmate this week. Among his four successful escapes from custody, three occurred on what many people think of as an unlucky day.
"We always keep in mind that since he has a penchant for trying to escape on Friday the 13th, we should step up the surveillance on him," said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. "And that is exactly what we are doing."
Mr. Russell, 48, is so confident in his abilities that he once blamed technology when the law reeled him in.
"He was driving a new truck and thought it was the GPS locator," said Dan McAnulty, an investigator for the Harris County District Attorney who investigated one of Mr. Russell's escapes.
In fact, one of the most prolific con men in Texas had been tripped up by his own credulity. A friend flipped, noting Mr. Russell's number on caller ID and turning him in.
That was eight years ago. With one exception – a ruse that allowed him to escape by posing as an AIDS patient and later faking his own death in 1998 – Mr. Russell has been in prison since.
Mr. Russell is serving a life sentence for breaking out of the Estelle Unit on Dec. 13, 1996. At the time of that escape, he was serving a 45-year sentence for stealing $800,000 from a Houston health-care firm. Mr. Russell had concealed his criminal history from the firm and persuaded its officers to hire him as the chief financial officer.
Knows what he's doing
He barely had to open his mouth to walk out of the Estelle Unit in 1996.
Instead, he concocted a simple plan to exit the prison by impersonating a doctor. He dyed his white jumpsuit with ink from green felt-tip markers to make it look like doctor's scrubs. He hung an ID around his neck but flipped it, a trick doctors use to hide their personal information from inmates. The security guard, accustomed to the practice, didn't ask to see the ID's photo side.
When Mr. Russell was arrested 11 days later in Biloxi, Miss., he was with his longtime partner, Phillip Morris.
The two first met in 1995 in the Harris County Jail, according to "I Love You Phillip Morris," a book about Mr. Russell written by Houston Chronicle reporter Steve McVicker.
In the book, Mr. Morris says that Mr. Russell, a fan of books about reincarnation and past lives, believes there is "some connection between me and Steven and the number 13" Authorities say they do not know why Mr. Russell picks that day to forge his escapes.
Mr. McAnulty said Mr. Russell's escapes were motivated by his desire to be with Mr. Morris, who also served prison time in Texas and was paroled to Arkansas in 2003.
"It is like, 'I am going to get out, and I am going to be with Phillip,' " Mr. McAnulty said, describing Mr. Russell's motivation. " 'I will get out. You can't keep me in there forever.' "
Elaborate hoax
Mr. Russell proved that in 1998, when he conducted a tour-de-force escape that drew on reams of falsified medical documents that showed he was dying of AIDS. By losing a drastic amount of weight since his return to prison, he looked the part.
"He was emaciated," said John Moriarty, inspector general for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice whose agency twice located Mr. Russell after an escape. "He was able to gain access to his medical records and slipped in a counterfeit lab report of his blood."
The Board of Pardons and Paroles, led by a man who is now the McAllen police chief, signed off on his condition and sent him to a facility for sick offenders in the South Texas town of Kenedy.
At the urging of another state agency, Mr. Russell secured special release to Houston, where he would undergo experimental AIDS treatment. To garner release, the prisoner posed as a Houston doctor. Later, impersonating the same doctor, he obtained a death certificate for himself and mailed it to the nursing facility in Kenedy.
Three months after his initial medical parole, Mr. Russell was found outside Miami.
Except for his escapes, Ms. Lyons said, Mr. Russell would be considered a good inmate.
Charming, well-behaved
Outside the prison walls, Mr. Russell was charming and well-behaved, Mr. McAnulty said.
"He is a convivial sort of fellow when you talk to him, but he will lie to you, big time," Mr. McAnulty said. "He didn't need to be violent, because he could get whatever he wanted by talking."
According to the book, press accounts and other records and interviews, Mr. Russell first escaped from custody on May 13, 1992. He bolted from the Harris County Jail. On July 13, 1996, he got out of jail by posing as a retired judge over the telephone to have his bail reduced.
Mr. Russell has distinguished himself from most escapees by hatching a plan for what to do once he breached the prison fence.
"There are so many issues to overcome to get over the fence," Mr. Moriarty said. "That is where their concentration is."
In Mr. Russell's solitary cell at the Michael Unit on Friday, supervisors checked on him throughout the day. Friday the 13th wasn't over, but authorities believed they'd gotten through the day without Mr. Russell slipping by them.
"That is the original high-security unit that the agency built," Mr. Moriarty said. "That is a very tough nut to crack."
Posted: Mon May 16, 2005 11:03 pm
An update on the stray kitty. I called the animal shelter today and gave them the rabies tag # and they gave me the info on the owner. I called him and he'd been missing his kitty for about a month. He jumped out of his arms at the vet office near my house. The kitty ran right up to him!
All of us pet owners need to keep tags and collars on our pets. If you can have your name and phone # engraved on the back of the rabies tag. My vet does that when I have our pets vaccinated.
All of us pet owners need to keep tags and collars on our pets. If you can have your name and phone # engraved on the back of the rabies tag. My vet does that when I have our pets vaccinated.