A to Z Blogging Challenge: Z is For Zeal

I have a zeal for many things like animals, books, music and but I also have a real zeal for cooking and trying new things. My motto is, I'll try anything once...twice if it's kinky. ;)

So when I was given a coupon for a free box of this new Fleischman's Simply Homemade Bread mix, I was pretty excited because all you do is mix and sugar and yeast that comes in the box with a cup of warm water, wait for it to activate (about 3 minutes). Then mix in the pouch of powdered mix, let rise and bake. I mean, how easy is that?

After mixing it all together, I put it in a pan to raise. (Yes, this pan has seen better days and as you can see has been used many, many times over the past 20 years. But it's my favorite pan because it works so well. 

After it is baked for 20 minutes I cut into it and this is what it looked like. It was so good too. 

Do you have a zeal for something?

Have you tried this bread mix?

I really had a lot of fun participating in the A to Z Blogging Challenge and met some great people. I hope you'll continue to come back and visit. 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: Y is For Yogies

If you have a pet rat or even if you don't this will make you laugh. This rat got a hold of a canister of Yogies, which are yogurt treats for rats and other small animals. Rats love these things.

Not only do rats like Yogies, but they love yogurt. Here I am sharing my yogurt with my boys. 

Brodie loved yogurt. Yes, before you ask..I do share my food with my rats and no I've never gotten sick from it. lol But you should have seen the look on my mom's face one year when she came over for Christmas and my first rat, Romi came running across the back of the couch, jumped down next to my plate of Christmas dinner, snatched a piece of food and sat there and ate it. 

My Bookmark Obsession and A Giveaway!

I have an obsession with book swag.

I have so much, it won't fit into one picture. lol 

I started collecting bookmarks about 10 years ago and then a few years ago all the authors started sending out bookmarks and postcards with whatever book I won and I accumulated many, many more than I ever thought I would.

My husband doesn't get why I keep all of these but I love bookmarks.

I have piles upon piles of them. I keep them stored in freezer storage bags so they don't get dusty, dirty or folded. 

I do keep out a few to actually use as bookmarks in my books though.

My favorites are my signed bookmarks, bookplates and post cards though. 

I have many, many signed bookmarks, post cards ect and love getting them.

I'm not sure that authors know how much it means to us readers that they take the time to send along a note or a signed bookmark when we win a book from them. I also have many signed books that I really love. 

Some of the signed bookmarks, postcards and notes I have are from Kate Douglas, Tempest Knight, Deanna Jewel, Cora Zane, Cassandra Curtis, Lori Foster, Ashlyn Chase, Sam Cheever, Heidi Betts, Alison Paige, Kate Walker, Cheryl Dragon, Joey W. Hill, Tilly Greene, Lorelei James, Debbie MaComber, Tawny Webber, Stella Cameron, Susanna Car, Jenna Petersen and many more. 

I lost count after 1000 so I know I have more than that now.

Now for the Giveaway!

Would you like to win a signed bookmark or postcard, plus all the swag you see here from my personal stash?

What I have for you is 3 signed pieces of swag...from Cheryl Dragon, Angie Fox, and C.J. Ellisson. Also there will be a refrigerator magnet from Erin McCartney, a door hanger from Heidi Betts, and bookmarks from Tory Richards and Lizzie T. Leaf.  The Lizzie T. Leaf bookmark has the cutest little doggie charm on it. 

If you'd like to win this swag pack, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post with your email address so I can get in touch with you if you win. Giveaway ends on May 8th.

Sorry, US only. 

Update: Contest is now closed.

A To Z Blogging Challenge: X is For X Factor

I watched this show, the X factor the first season and even the second season but I won't watch it again and this video from the show pretty much shows why.

The judges on the show are not there to help the contestants, they were there to bicker at one another, poke fun at each other, try and one up the other judges. Instead of being a judge and doing the job she was being paid to do and tell one of these contestants which one she thought should go home...Nicole left it up to America's vote- knowing full well that shows like this and American Idol are nothing but popularity contests and the person who has the most friends and most people calling in for them is going to get the votes, not necessarily the person with the most talent.

Nicole Scherzinger didn't do her job and left the vote to America who decided that the guy was the one who was going to stay, Marcus Canty stayed and Rachel Crow was voted off even though she was 1000 times better than he was.

I don't watch this show anymore.

A To Z Blogging Challenge: W is For Welding

When my younger brother and I were kids our grandfather had a welding shop. He made all kinds of things including decorative fences, window coverings and golf clubs. Papaw as we called our grandpa, taught my brother how to weld when he was younger and he never forgot. So a couple of years ago my brother started making these Horse Shoe Tables by welding the Hose Shoes together. 

Billy makes them and sells them now. I think they came out pretty good. 

They are the perfect size for small planters and knick knacks. 

I remember watching the guys in papaws welding shop wearing those big bulky masks that the only thing you can see is the light coming off the welds you are making. His shop always smelled of burning metal and I liked it. 

If you would like to buy one of these Horse Shoe tables you can contact Billy at medmanbill@yahoo.com for pricing.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: V is For Verification

Word verification to be precise. 

I despise word verification....turn it off. 

When I first started this blog I had no idea what I was doing..I had word verification turned on and had the settings so that anonymous people could make comments. Thankfully a friend of mine emailed me and told me that the word verification was going to make me lose visitors and subscribers because a lot of times you can't make out what the words are and have to enter it several times. Well people are going to get fed up and just not comment on blogs with word verification. 

I said I had it on because of the spam comments I was getting. He told me to turn off the setting that let anonymous people make comments. So I did and for quite a while I had no problems. Then for a while I started getting spam comments from people who had blogger profiles and turned word verification back on...big mistake. I actually had 2 people unsubscribe because I had word verification turned back on. 

But as you can see from my picture above, it really can be hard to tell what the words are and people who visit your blog are usually visiting several other blogs and don't want to have to take an extra minute just to but in a capcha or word verification. 

I stopped commenting on some blogs that still have word verification, it's just a real pain. 

My advice..turn the settings off so that anonymous people can't make comments, turn moderation comments on if you have to so you have to approve each comment before it's posted ....but for the love of a ham sandwich, turn word verification off!

A to Z Blogging Challenge: U is For Unicorns

Here is a couple of Unicorns from my collection. The little dragon hatching from the egg is what my husband bought for me when I was pregnant with my daughter 21 years ago. I bought those two Unicorns about a month later.

I used to have a huge collection of Unicorns but when moved 6 times in 10 years because of hubby's work and a lot of them broke or got lost but these two always found their way with me. 

These two are my favorite from this collection. I've started other collections but they always seem to fizzle out. 

Things like:

Stamps- I started and after a while got bored with it. 

Dragons- bought two and it got expensive so is two statues considered a collection?

Bookmarks- Yeah that's more of an obsession at this point. I have about 1000 of them now. 

Pens- Yeah there's another obsession (maybe I need to see Dr. Phil) I have about 100 Author swag pens.

Unicorns- I still have 10 Unicorns and I do consider that a collection. 

Books- I have about 2000 books on my shelves at the moment. Hubby thinks I'm a few books away from being on an episode of Hoarders. 

Added: Here's a blog post I made with pictures of some of the books in my collection. Book Collection. 

Do you collect anything?

A To Z Blogging Challenge: T is For Twitter

To my fellow A to Z'ers. I may be a little tardy in replying to comments because my younger brother is coming in today from out of town to spend a couple of days with us. But I will be back replying and visiting very soon. :)

A friend, (CaroleDee) once told me I should write a Twitter Tutorial, for all of you out there that don't understand the basics of Twitter. So I thought I would just give you all some of the basics. 

Here's a screen shot of my Twitter Home page. Up in the left hand corner under my name is where you would compose your message (Tweet) and send it. 

On the right hand side under where it says tweets, is where you can see all the tweets the people you follow have made. 

I'm @scarymary66 on there if you want to add me.

Twitter is essentially just like fb...it has a Twitter feed where you can see what the people you are following are tweeting about and on your page you can send out tweets about anything you want, or you can add a hashtag like #rats and the Tweet will go to a page where everyone else has made tweets with the same Hashtag.

Home= your page and Twitter feed page.

Notifications= Where you can see who has added you to a tweet or mentioned you and this is where you can reply back.

Now if you hover your curser over one of the Tweets you will see other things pop up at the bottom of the tweet.. You will see the words...   Reply  Retweet   Favorite  More...

Clicking on Reply lets you reply to the person who sent the tweet.

Clicking on Retweet lets you tweet that same message to your followers.

And if you click on favorite, that means you like that post. 

Clicking on More... you can embed, mute, block or report or send the Tweet via email. 

If you click in the Expand, the details of the tweet will appear and this is where you would click on 'details' in order to find the url of the tweet that you can then copy and paste for things like rafflecopter contests that ask for the url of the tweet you posted. 

                                                              Hope that helps a little.

A To Z Blogging Challenge: S is For Sebaceous Cyst

Info pulled from Medline Plus- http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000842.htm
"A sebaceous cyst is a closed sac under the skin filled with a cheese-like or oily material. Sebaceous cysts most often arise from swollen hair follicles. Skin trauma can also induce a cyst to form. A sac of cells is created into which a protein called keratin is secreted. These cysts are usually found on the face, neck, and trunk. They are usually slow- growing, painless, freely movable lumps beneath the skin. Occasionally, however, a cyst will become inflamed and tender."

When I was 4 years old I developed a small round bump on the left side of my face. My dad thought it was a pimple and tried several times to 'pop' it. Because of my dad's constant picking at it and squeezing it, the darn thing became inflamed and very sore so my mom finally took me to the doctor who said it wasn't a pimple and sent me to UCLA hospital. *We were living in California at the time and that's the hospital I was born at*

I remember seeing several different doctors and then sitting in the center of a large room with at least 10 doctors in chairs sitting in a circle around me explaining to my mom what they wanted to do to get rid of this lump on my cheek.

One doctor said he wanted to make an incision in my scalp all the way around my ear, pull the flap of skin over, exposing the lump underneath and remove it. That would have left a huge scar and thankfully my mom said she wanted to hear other options because that sounded extreme for such a small lump.

They finally decided to make a small incision right next to the lump on my left cheek and remove the lump that way.

I was 5 years old when I went in for the surgery on my face and when I came out I had a 3 inch incision on the left side of my face. They told my mom that it was a Sebaceous Cyst and they think they got it all and it shouldn't come back.

Fast forward 5 years to when I was 10 years old...the lump on my face returned and my mom took me to the doctor to have it looked at and of course they decided to have it removed once again. When I came out of surgery I was told he went in through the same old scar but had to make it a little bigger...so now I had a 3 1/2 inch incision on the left side of my face, which left a vertical 3 1/2 inch scar on the left side of my face.

I had names like scarface while in school because of it, but I got through it and didn't think much of it until about 3 years ago when a small lump formed on my left shoulder...yep you guessed it..another Sebaceous Cyst...only this time a little while after noticing it, it started to get really big, inflamed, and hurt like you can't imagine.

I don't like doctors so for 2 weeks I just dealt with it until I went in the hospital with a Irregular heartbeat one night. I spent a couple of nights in the hospital in the Cardiac Care Until on the heart monitors while they figured out what was causing my irregular heartbeat, which turns out is no big deal, just something I have to deal with. But while they were doing the work up and checking my lungs ect...the ER doc saw the bandage hubby had put on my shoulder and asked what it was from. I told him that I had big pimple on my back and had some Neosporin on it and just covered it with a bandage, he asked if he could look at it and when he pulled the bandage off he gave me a look like, Oh you have got to be kidding me. He said, "A little pimple, huh? That's more like a huge abscess that needs to be drained and you'll need some antibiotics for. You were gonna have that looked at right?"

I was like yeah while I shook my head no...lol He laughed at me and said since it was so big it was gonna be painful and let me tell you...it was.

He numbed it up, which hurt like a mother and then drained it and told me it was a cyst that had gotten infected and turned into an abscess. When he got all the infection out I started feeling what he was doing and he said this was the part that was gonna hurt and he started popping small pieces of fat inside the hole he made in my shoulder, he said this would help it heal. Then he packed it with gauze, which was going to have to be removed in two days and repacked so the infection could drain out and he put a dressing on it.

The whole time he was doing this my heart monitors were going off like crazy, my heartbeat was all over the place and they saw the irregular heartbeat that I had been feeling for a few hours before going in there.

My advice to you...if you have a small bump under your skin..leave it alone and have a doctor check it out. If it turns out to be a cyst, have it removed before it gets infected because an infected cyst is painful as all get out.

Youtube

I finally was able to figure out how to upload a video to Youtube without that green line going through all my videos so now I have been uploading all my ratty videos I've taken. lol I also added this one of the guy who used to live across from me..He would ride his really loud Harley into the apartment courtyard, start it up in front of people's bedroom windows at 3am and didn't care.


Lucky when he was a baby.


These are 4 ratty brothers I had 4 years ago. This is Ares, Jasper, Brodie and Hades. They've all passed away now but as you can see in this video, they were a playful bunch.

Oh and if you're wondering what I had to do in order to get rid of the green line going through all my videos on youtube..all I had to do was upgrade to the new youtube. That was it. Upload times are much faster for me now too. What used to take 45 minutes to upload a 2 minutes video, now takes 6 minutes. Who knew..

A To Z Blogging Challenge: R is For Rats!

If you know me at all, you had to know I would not pass up an opportunity to show off my rats and try to convince all you non rat lovers out there that rats are great pets! This is Lucky, my little three legged rat. I got him when he was still a tiny baby. A friend of my daughter who works in a pet shop called my daughter and told her that this little guy was going to be snake food or euthanized because it was against their policy to sell rats that are disabled. So she wanted to know if I would take him, which I did and he's such a great little guy. Just look at that face!

He kisses everyone as soon as they put their hands near him. He's so affectionate and loves to come out and play. 

This was Ares. I just lost him last month and he was 3 1/2 years old. That's old for a rat. He was a sweet old guy. I adopted him and his three brothers and they were such a bunch of characters. 

Here are two of Ares brothers, Jasper and Hades. I lost Hades just a couple of months ago..he was 3 years old when he passed away. They might not live a long time but they sure to give us a lot of love in the small amount of time they are with us. Hades and Jasper slept like this all the time. These two were my two biggest rats. Jasper was the biggest at 3 lbs and 19 inches long. 

Of course I had to throw in a funny picture of these two. Jasper doesn't seem to mind that Hades has fallen asleep with his foot on his face. 

This was Fang. He was my cuddler. He spent so much time sitting in my arms, on my shoulder or sleeping on my chest. He always wanted to be held, so much so that sometimes when I opened the cage door to clean the bathroom corner he would take that opportunity to jump on me and sit on my shoulder until I was done and could sit and hold him for a while. If you want a pet that will love you unconditionally, want to cuddle and sneak over to play with your hand...a rat is what you want to get.

And this is Marbles. One of his parents was a hairless rat and so he is half hairless and has patches of hair that are missing because of his mixed parentage. Some of his hair is curly, some is straight and some is gone. He's a nibbler. He says hi by grabbing your finger and nibbling on you, just like he would do to another rat in his pack. 

As you can see, I think rats make great pets and think people who have never thought of owning one should give them a chance. They are not dirty vermin, in fact they are quite clean. They groom themselves several times a day just like a cat does and they pick one corner of their cage to use as a bathroom, which makes keeping the cage cleaner for longer much easier. 

If you would like to learn more about rats, I have written a few articles that you might find interesting. 

Rats: Debunking Common Misconceptions

Rats: What is Popcorning?

How To Clean Your Rat Cage

Video of Lucky

I had to post this, he was so funny this morning.

Lucky video 

A To Z Blogging Challenge: Q is For Quirky Facts

This post is all about quirky facts...

Did you know that a rats teeth never stop growing and they have to gnaw on things to keep them from over growing?

A cockroach can live for nine days without its head before it starves to death.

Seventy percent of the dust in your home consists of shed human skin.

Armadillos, opossums, and sloth's spend about 80% of their lives sleeping.

One reason some bugs have powdery wings is to avoid predation by sticky tongues.

Seaweed extract keeps the ice cream crystal-free -- i.e., creamy.

The main ingredient in Worcestershire sauce is Anchovies.

A lot of mass produced foods get their pink, red and purple colors from crushed bugs that feed on red cactus berries.

Canned mushrooms are allowed to have up to 19 maggots per 100 grams of mushrooms (that's drained weight).

Two out of every three couples turn their heads to the right when they kiss.

There is a secret train platform known as Track 61 beneath The Waldorf-Astoria, New York (with a rusty but intact armored train car still on it), which was used in the 1940s to privately squire VIPs—namely President Franklin Delano Roosevelt—into the hotel.

Women with hourglass figures, especially heavy on the butt, tend to be more fertile.

Headache is the most common reason to avoid sex but you will be amazed to know that sex helps in curing headache. Endorphins released during sex naturally reduce the pain of a headache.

Approximately 10% of all single people in the United States have tried an online dating service.

Most recent research indicates just about 9,000 romantic couples each year take out marriage licenses, then fail to use them. 

Every rat has that one special spot they like to be scritched... it's that scritching spot that sends them into an adorable trance like state of absolute boggle-eyed bliss. Often accompanied by rampant (and painfully cute) reflexive licking.

Did you know any of these quirky facts?

A to Z Blogging Challenge: P is For Pen Names

I read quite a bit, I have many books on several bookshelves and when reading as many books as I do it can get confusing when an author writes under 2 or three different pen names. 

Here are just a few authors I like that also write under other names...

Jayne Ann Krentz, aka Jayne Castle, aka Amanda Quick

Kinley MacGregor is also Sherrilyn Kenyon

 Jessica Bird is also J.R. Ward

Kim Harrison is also Dawn Cook

Meg Cabot is also Jenny Carroll

 Katie MacAlister is also Katie Maxwell 

Nora Roberts is also J.D. Robb.

Stephen King is also Richard Bachmann

Shayla Black is also Shelley Bradley

Oh and my favorite pen names that I didn't know about until recently and a friend told me about it, is Ann Rice writing a dom/sub-bondage series under pen name A. N. Roquelaure. She also wrote 2 other novels involving BDSM and the darker side of romance under the pseudonym Anne Rampling.

I realize there are any number of reasons for having a pen name and the one I see the most is that the author wants to write different genres of books for different publisher's and it's easier to do so under a different name. 

Another reason is that they have a day job in which their boss and co workers know nothing of their writing persona's and they want to keep it that way. 

While I kinda of understand that last reason it also makes me feel like they are ashamed of what they write and don't want their peers to know they write romance or whatever it is they write. I'm probably wrong and they aren't ashamed at all, but that's what it looks like to this outsider. 

I thought it was funny that I had been reading two different authors for quite some time and then after a while I went to one of the authors websites and found out...they were the same person writing under different names. It's hard to keep all the different names straight because there are so many authors that do it and just when you think you know what their real name is, you find out that all of their writing is under a pseudonym because they don't want to use their real name.  

When I first started writing articles I could have chosen a pen name but I chose to write under my real name. I wanted everyone to know it was me. You can find my articles here.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: O is For Outside

This is my daughter and myself back around 1999 in Red Rock, Nevada. I used to go hiking, go out to eat, go to the Hotels on the Las Vegas Strip or Downtown and a lot of other places with my family. 

And then the slight case of Agoraphobia I had back then slowly progressed to the point that I am at now. As of right now I've come out of my home one time in the past two years. I don't go outside anymore. 

Outside has become a dirty word around here. I know my family doesn't do it on purpose but they do make fun of me for not going outside and it does hurt. I have tried going outside, just to check the mail or take a look at the construction that's going on across the alley from my building. But I start shaking, get dizzy and feel sick when I go out, so I just don't go out if I can help it. 

My brother and husband talked me into going over to my dad's house for my 43rd and my dad's 80th birthday's this past February. It was actually hard to go out the door, that first step was the hardest and I could not wait to get back home. I had an upset stomach for most of the day after getting home that night. It would be nice not to be like this but the only therapy my doctor said there is for Agoraphobia is exposure therapy..essentially you have to do what makes you scared..ie..go outside. 

What is Agoraphobia?

Agoraphobia is being afraid of being out of ones comfort zone, most times that would be their home and fearing a loss of control or a panic attack in a place where they can't easily get back home. The more panic attacks they have in a given situation the less they expose themselves to that situation.

My Agoraphobia started out slowly and for years I just dealt with the symptoms of panic attacks, dizziness,  paranoia and scared feelings in the places I was going to.

When I went grocery shopping I would routinely vomit on the ground next to my car, after getting the groceries inside my car and getting ready to leave. I could keep it together while in the situation and would not fall apart until I was home or in my car and could relax a little. Most times after being outside running errands I would come home and be sick the rest of the day with stomach problems, the shakes or panic attacks. 

When our car broke down and found out it was unfixable, we sold it for scrap and at that point I started staying home more. It was easier to use my own car when I had to go somewhere but I can't use public transportation because of my panic attacks. 

I know it's wrong but I'm more comfortable in my home and can have everything I need delivered, I don't need to go outside. 

I know I'm not alone, I even had an author tell me that she battles Agoraphobia. She writes at home and like me can have things delivered...she doesn't have to leave home either. 

For an outsider looking in that doesn't suffer from this condition, it's probably hard to understand. I can only hope that by sharing my story I can help someone else who thinks they are the only one to have these feelings. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge: N is For Nightwish

This happens to be one of my favorite songs by this band and I think they made this when their lead singer, Tarja quit the band to do some solo work and they were looking for a new lead singer. Frankly after hearing this song, I didn't think they necessarily needed another lead singer...this song is so awesome.

Yeah, it doesn't hurt that the two singing are flipping hot!



This song is with Tarja back when she was still with the band. She has new songs out now that she is doing a solo career and they sound really good.


And this song is with the new singer Anette.

I like both female singers and I do still listen to Nightwish but it's just not the same as it was when Tarja was with the band. Frankly, my favorite song and the one I listen to the most these days is the first one, the one without either of the ladies.

Have you ever listened to Nightwish?

Which song did you like the best?

A To Z Blogging Challenge: M is For My Hair

I've had long hair my entire life, with one exception. When I was 5 years old my dad cut my long hair off and I had shoulder length hair until it grew back out. 

Right now I can curl my hair up on the table next to me if I wanted to. 

I don't regularly cut my hair but when I do need a trim I just do it myself by flipping my hair over the front of my head and cutting straight across. 

I did have to cut about 2 inches off not too long ago because when I sit down, I sit on the ends of my hair and if I'm not careful I try to straighten my head forward after sitting and pull my hair really hard because I'm sitting on it. lol 

I've heard people say that I must go through a lot of shampoo and conditioner and the fact is I don't. I probably use as much as you do. I don't blow dry my hair, I let it dry naturally and then use a straightening iron if I need to which a lot of times I don't because I use a good Shampoo and Conditioner like Pantene. 

I've only had short shoulder length hair one time in my life and I didn't care for it. I like having my long hair because so many woman don't have long hair anymore. I also really like long hair on men, I don't think there's anything sexier.

What's your favorite hair style? Have you ever had long hair?

A To Z Blogging Challenge: L is For Las Vegas

I've lived in Las Vegas for 25 years and people who don't live here usually think that the only thing to do here is to gamble or see the shows at the Hotels, but there's a lot more to Las Vegas than just the Casinos. In the picture above, that's me standing next to a donkey at Red Rock. Red Rock is just a little drive out of town and if you're going to head up there make sure to bring some bread with you for the donkeys. If you stop your car on the side of the road and you have food, they will come right over to you for the food and stay to let you pet them. 

We also have a Zoo. It's not real big like the LA Zoo but as you can see here we have Ostrich's. This one scared my daughter when he stood up...lol 

We also have several really nice parks. This one is Lorenzi park, which is one of my favorite's. If you bring bread, crackers or something to feed the ducks and geese, they will all come over to you to get some food. It's a lot of fun for the kids.

We also have museums. This one is at the Natural History Museum. My hubby and I took our daughter there and it was really amazing with all the dinosaur bones they have on display.

But if you really want to go on the Strip, do it at night so you can see all the lights. This is our Lady Liberty statue.

To me, it's so much more exciting on the strip at night. I think it's all the lights that you wouldn't see during the day. 

The fountains at the Bellagio. They are much more magnificent at night. 

This has been just a sample of the things you can do and see here in Las Vegas. It doesn't all have to be about the casinos and Hotels. Bring the kids, there are things here for kids as well as adults. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge: K Is For Kangaroo Mouse

The Kangaroo Mouse is a small rodent that you can find in places like Nevada, especially if you plan an overnight fishing trip anywhere along Lake Mead. It is small like a mouse and has large back feet and a tail. So I'm going to tell you a story about an encounter my husband and brother had with these Kangaroo Mice when they went fishing one day/night.

My husband and brother both love going fishing and since we live so close to Lake Mead, that's where they usually go and for the most part their stays are quiet and uneventful...except for this time. 

They go to their spot early in the day, hauling in all their gear and munchies. Set up their poles, built a fire and sat back talking and eating. As the sun set Ken, my husband said he heard some skittering around the camp site but they only had a small lantern lit and couldn't see very well around them, they just assumed it was some squirrels, birds or lizards running around. 

My brother Billy, said a little while later he heard something jump into the paper bag that they had brought their bags of potato chips in and then scurry back out again. He figured it was a squirrel or something and went to light another lantern. 

A little while later they said they saw something small running past them just out of view and while they were looking for it, they saw not one, not two but three more small furred creatures scurry around them and while they were trying to figure out what they were...one jumped into the potato chip bag...snagged a chip and ran off with it. 

So Ken lit another lantern so they could see what it was that was running and jumping around them. He got his first good look at the little creatures when one of them jumped on his leg, stopped, looked at him and took off. 

Now because Ken has been in a house with hamsters, rats and gerbils ...he didn't freak out when a small furry rodent stopped on his leg to check him out. Instead, he reached into the potato chip bag, pulled out a couple, threw a couple of them in front of him and held one in his fingers, waiting to see if anything would come and take a bite. 

He didn't have to wait long until several Kangaroo Mice were running all over their camp site, picking up chips, taking a bite of the chip he held and running off only to come back and get another bite and run and run and jump all over everything...including Ken and Billy. 

They said there must have been at least 25 Kangaroo Mice running around checking them out, jumping on their legs and taking potato chips. Ken kept putting potato chips and cheetos out for them and they kept coming back while my brother just watched, more interested in what fish he might catch. 

Ken said this went on for most of the night until they caught their fish and started to pack up in the morning. My brother told me that when they were all packed up Ken took some chips and stuck them into small cracks and crevices that he had seen the Kangaroo Mice running in and out of and leaving some scattered around the camp site for them to find later. My brother got a real kick out of Ken doing this. Ken liked the interaction with the little rodents and I have a great story to tell. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge: J Is For Jerboa

There are several types of Jerboa's. This is an Egyptian Jerboa. If you've never seen these little creatures you are in for a treat.



When I first saw this video I thought it was fake. I thought, how in the world did I not know about this tiny cute animal? He just doesn't look real, does he? This is the Pygmy Jerboa, the smallest rodent in the world. Of course when I found out about this tiny cutie I had to tell others about this little animal so I wrote an article that you can find here.



There's also the Long Eared Jerboa. Their long ears are so cute. In this video he eats a live meal worm, so if that bothers you, don't watch the video.

I don't know anyone who has a Jerboa as a pet, but I think they are pretty cute and if I had a home big enough with enough room for them to run around, I would probably adopt one. They are pretty cute.

A To Z Blogging Challenge: I Is For Insects of Las Vegas

While there are many insects here in Las Vegas, I haven't seen many of them and would much rather look at this gopher that my daughter found when she and my brother went fishing. She fed him chips and peanuts. 

Of the few insects here in Las Vegas that I have seen, I think the worst one I've seen is the scorpion and thankfully it wasn't in my house, is was at my brother's place when he lived in Pahrump, Nevada. 

I woke up, took my bag in the bathroom, turned on the light and it was sitting right on top of my bag. Good thing I didn't reach inside with the lights off. o.o

I put it under glass so when everyone else woke up they could see my find. Yuck! Nasty little buggers. 

I've also seen many, many spiders. I even found and caught a Black Widow spider a few years ago so I could look at her and get over my fear of spiders. Yeah, great idea, I don't recommend doing that. But I looked at her and then put her back outside. Now I can pick up spiders and most other insects without being afraid. Most other insects..just not bee's. 

I don't like bee's. No, that's not right. I have a full blown bee phobia. Bee's, wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, bumble bee's, ...doesn't matter, they all scare the bejuju's outta me.

There are any number of insects that irritate me..the ants drove me nuts last year. I tried all sorts of things and they just kept coming in. Then when I caulked up the entire bathroom...they grew wings and started flying down the vent. I kid you not!

My younger brother thought I was insane when I told him that I thought the huge red and black ants with pinchers on their face were fighting near my bathroom vent and throwing their enemies eviscerated and headless bodies down the vent and into my sink. I kid you not, I kept finding ant body parts in my bathroom sink because it's right underneath the vent and so if an ant tossed a headless ant body over the ledge into the vent, it fell into the sink. Nice...

 I had to put window screening material under the vent so bugs couldn't fall into my bathroom if they got into the vent. If it were up to me, I would just nail a piece of wood to the ceiling and cover the whole vent. lol 

I took the caulking gun to every nook and cranny in that bathroom last year and then when my husband saw my bad caulking job...O.o...he asked our daughter to caulk around the baseboards so I didn't do that too. lol 

Hey, I got the job done, no more ants!

Oh and on a side note...the ants started coming in through the vent again about a week ago, so I badgered and nagged my husband until he took some really sticky tape and permanently taped up the bathroom vent. Problem solved, I haven't seen an ant since. LOL 

Personal Rant, Sorry

I don't normally like to use my blog as a means of airing my dirty laundry but the fact is my younger brother and I have a stalker. Our older half brother whom we stopped talking to over a year ago for good reason. The sad fact is he just won't leave us alone even though we've asked him to. Several times. I have personally told him if he doesn't leave us alone I will make public what he has done to make us stop talking to him and I did so in this blog post.. An Open Letter To My Stalker.

He did not heed my warning and so I made this blog post. Using PTSD As An Excuse For Psychotic Behavior, where I explained what he did and linked a news report of his arrest.

Even holding to my word did not deter this man from bothering us which made my younger brother really angry and so he made a blog page. It's called Convict John Radell AKA Bear Whitebow

My younger brother made it, posted a couple of things on it and then left it alone for almost two months...and then older brother John started making comments on one particular blog post. This one.. Fake Indians

He has now made 19 comments on that post, each one a little crazier than the next. Then last night my younger brother received emails from several porn sites saying, "Thanks you for registering with blah blah and blah..." The only problem with that is he didn't sign up for them. Now we can't prove that older brother did this, but it's a pretty good bet that he did.

I can only hope that older brother gets sent to prison for a while where he can detox from the medical marijuana he is so fond of telling everyone he is taking. I really think that stuff has freaked his brain out to the point he can't control himself anymore.

End of rant...

A To Z Blogging Challenge: H Is For help

At some point in our lives we all need to ask for or accept help from another person. Knowing when to accept help is another thing all together. I remember being a very stubborn 21 year old with a newborn baby and when my mom asked me if I wanted her to come and stay with us to help out...I said, "No, I'm fine, I got this."

I didn't have it, not at all. But was too stubborn to accept help from her. So when my own 21 year old daughter had a baby and I saw she was getting stressed out and had postpartum depression like I did, I offered to watch our grandson so they could go out and get away for a while, over night so they could get a full nights sleep or when ever they needed it just for a little time away.

Me with my grandson, Logan. 

Babies are great but they are also stressful, a lot of work and sometimes you need to be willing to accept help from those around you when they offer it. I learned that the hard way and wanted to make sure my daughter and her boyfriend knew they had help if they wanted or needed it. 

We've watched Logan over night so they could get some sleep and during the day so they could go see a movie and just get out for a little while. 

It's easy to help others so why is it so hard to accept help from someone? Pride? You want to prove you can do it yourself? You don't want to look weak? 

There are a lot of reasons but remember when the help is offered, take it. Most times the people offering are genuinely wanting to help out. 

I changed my Avatar

In case anyone is wondering, yes, I did change my avatar. I had a couple of people think I was a guy because I had Nick Knight from Forever Knight as my avatar and they said it didn't make sense to them that I didn't have a female avatar to represent me. So I thought ok, I've had the same avatar for many years. It might be time to change things up a little.

My my avatar, the picture that gets left behind on some comments used to be this..

And is now this.. I happen to love this picture and saved it to use as an avatar in a forum but I'm gonna use it here.