A To Z Blogging Challenge: Z Is For Zoomania

Zoomania- meaning...a passion for animals.

If you've been visiting my blog for very long, you already know I have a passion for animals. They're just too cute not to. Am I right?

Let me share some of the reasons I like animals...especially rats

They wear hats for you.

Celebrate their birthday's with you and share their cake. 

Pose for Easter Pictures.

Wear Santa Hats.

Give you Christmas Presents.

Play Santa for the kids.

Snuggle with their duckies.

Love kids.

I can't think of any better reasons. 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: Y is For Yawning *rats of course*

If you like rats, then this post is for you. Is there anything cuter than a rat yawning? Probably not, so with permission from the owner, I've shared some of Rat Logic's pictures from their fb page. Enjoy. 

A To Z Blogging Challenge: X Is For Xylography (‘the art of engraving on wood’)

Now wood engraving is wonderful and I think it can be beautiful but every time I see a piece of wood these days I can't help but think of an article I read a while back titled,  Plaster, Wood, and Sand in My Grated Cheese?

I don't think an article has ever effected me the way this one has. After reading this and finding out all the gross things that are in my pre-shredded cheese, I haven't bought anymore pre-shredded cheese again and I guarantee that you won't want to either. 

Frankly, I was skeptical so I looked on the back of a package of shredded cheese I had in my fridge and started Googling the different ingredients and sure enough...wood, sand and plaster in my cheese. 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: W is For Waxing Horror Story

So this is one of the funniest stories I've ever read. I have no idea if it's true or not since I found it on a joke site but I had to share it with you...

The first thing you should know is that hair removal is not my friend. The particular talent of removing unwanted hair has eluded me.
True story.

All methods have tricked me with their promises of easy,painless removal - the Epilady, the standard razor, the scissors, the Nair, the EpilStop, and now.....

'The Wax'.

 My night began as any other normal weekday night. I came home from work, fixed dinner for my son and we played for a while. I then had the thought that would ring painfully in my mind for the next couple
hours: maybe I should use that wax in my medicine cabinet. I set up my boy with a video and head to the site of my demise, um, I mean bathroom. It was one of those cold wax kits. No melting a clump of hot wax, you just rub the clear strips in your hand, peel them apart, press it on your leg (or wherever) and ignore the frantically rising crescendo of string instruments in the background. No muss, no fuss. How hard can this be? I mean, I'm not the girly-est of girls but I'm mechanically inclined so maybe I can figure out how this
works..........................You'd think.

 So I pull one of the thin strips out. It's two strips facing each other, stuck together. I'm supposed to rub it in my hand to warm and soften the wax (I'm guessing). I go one better: I pull out the hair dryer and heat the SOB to ten thousand degrees. Cold wax, my ass.

 (Oh, how that phrase will come back to haunt me.) I lay the strip across my thigh. I hold the skin around it and pull. OK, so it wasn't the best feeling in the world, but it wasn't bad. I can do this! Hair removal no longer eludes me!

I am Sheera, fighter of all wayward body hair and smooth skin
extraordinaire!

With my next wax strip, I move north.
 After checking on the boy and verifying that he was, in fact, becoming one with Bear and learning all about smells, I sneak into the bathroom for The Ultimate Hair Fighting Championship. I drop my panties and
 place one foot on the toilet. Using the same procedure, I then apply the wax strip across the right side on my bikini line, covering the right half of my vagina and stretching up into the inside of the right ass
cheek. (Yeah,it was a long strip.) I inhale deeply. I brace myself.
RRRIIIIPPP!!!!

I'm blind! Blind from the pain! Vision returning. Oh crap. I've managed to
pull off half an inch of the strip. Another deep breath. And RIIIP!
Everything is swirly and tie-dyed? Do I hear crashing drums? OK,
coming back to normal again. I want to see my trophy - my wax covered
pelt that caused me so much agony. I want to revel in the glory that
is my triumph over body hair. I hold the wax strip like an Olympic gold
medallist.

But why is there no hair on it? Why is the wax mostly gone? Where
could the wax go, if not on the strip? Slowly, I eased my head down, my
foot still perched on the toilet. I see hair - the hair that should be
on the strip. I touch. I feel. I am touching wax. I look to the
ceiling and silently shout "nooooooo!!" And realize I have just begun
living my own personal version of "The Tar Baby."

I peel my fingers off the softest, most sensitive part of my body that
is now covered in cold wax and matted hair, and make the next big
mistake - up until this point, you'll remember, I've had my foot on the
toilet. I know I need to move, to do something. So I put my foot down
on the floor. And then I hear the slamming of the cell door.

Vagina? Sealed shut.

Ass? Sealed shut.

A little voice in my head says "I hope you don't have to potty anytime
soon. Your head just might pop off." I penguin walk around the bathroom
trying desperately to figure out what I should do next. Hot water!
 Hot water melts wax! I'll run the hottest water I can stand and get in and
 the wax should melt and I can gently wipe it away, right? Wrong. I
get in the tub - the water is slightly hotter than is used to torture
prisoners of war or sterilize surgical equipment.

And I sit.

Now the only thing worse than having your goodies glued together is
having them glued together and then glued to the bottom of a tub. In
scalding hot water. Which, by the way, does not melt the cold wax. So
now I'm stuck to the tub.

I call my friend, C, because she once dropped out of beauty school so
surely she has some secret knowledge or trick to get wax off skin. It's
never good to start a conversation with "So my nether regions are stuck
to the tub." She doesn't have a trick. She does her best to suppress
laughter.

She wants to know exactly where the wax is on the ass - "Are we talking
cheek or hole, here?" she asks. She isn't even trying to hide the
giggles now.

I give her the run-down of the entire night. She tells me to call the number on the side of the box, but to have a good cover story for where the wax actually is. "You know that if we were working the help line at
 XX Wax Co. and somebody called with their entire crack sealed shut we'd just put them on hold then record the conversation for everyone we know. You're going to end up on a radio show or the internet if you tell them the truth.

"While we go through various solutions, I have resorted to scraping the
wax off with a razor. Boy, nothing feels better to the girly goodies
than covering them in wax, sticking them to a tub in super hot water and
THEN dry shaving the sticky wax off!

In the middle of the conversation (which has inexplicably turned to
other subjects!) I find the little, beautiful saving grace that is the
lotion provided with wax to remove the excess. I rub some in and start
screaming "It's working! It's working!" I get hearty congratulations
from C and we hang up.

I successfully remove all the wax and notice, to my dismay, that the
hair is still there. So I shaved the damned stuff off. Hell, I was
numb by that point anyway. And then I put the box of wax back in my
medicine cabinet. Never know when a mustache might start to come in.

Tonight, I attempt hair dying.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: V is For Visiting Other Blogs

If you like visiting other blogs and reading book reviews, then I have a couple for you. 

I reviewed this book for I Smell Sheep and you can find my review at their link. It's one of my favorite series and authors. If you like paranormal romance and/or shifters, this is a must read. 

if you're looking for a little vampire action in your romance reads, then this could be the book for you. I also reviewed this for I Smell Sheep. So if you like reading book reviews just click the link to take you there. 

So do you like visiting book related blogs or reading book reviews? 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: U is For Unusual Rat Behavior

Seeing a picture of my little hairless rat, you might think she has a skin problem or her cage mates pulled all her hair out but she's just hairless. 

But the fact is some rats will do what is called, barbering to other rats. This means that they will clean them so much and so roughly that they actually pull their hair out. They will even do it to themselves. The most common reasons are mites or other parasites.

You can find my article about barbing below.

Unusual Rat Behavior: Barbering

A to Z Blogging Challenge:T is For Twitter Wednesday!

Welcome to another Twitter Wednesday, where I pull some of the funniest tweets from my Twitter feed and post them here for you to read. As always I have left off the names and @'s so no one gets mad. :)

Stop buying your kids playstations and xboxes and maybe they won't be fat asses. 

kids need two things...food and clothes...everything else is extra. 

I tell my wife that she is the love of my life and I tell my girlfriend she is the best sex of my life.

I can't sleep and I need to!!!! Ack gonna write until the words make no sense 

That's right!! Retired hop-scotch champion;)

Sometimes I feel like spelling everything wrong.

I just dropped a frying pan, into the garbage can. It went right in, I didn't even have to grow a fin.

It's amazing how religion can take brilliant, kind people and direct them to do terrible things and lose empathy.

If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking, and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?

I will tell the truth on Thursday instead of Tuesday cuz I'm rebellious like that

I'll jingle you like the keys in my pocket. Yes?! That's my analogy

You can attack the premise. You can blow the premise into smithereens. And people will still be talking about the invalid conclusion.

As I leaned against the wall in the elevator, it occurred to me that an ass is just a pillow attached to your backside. And I smiled.

I think, therefore I’'m dangerous.

My tweets are la creme de la crap.

Complimentary drinks are like all other drinks, except they tell you that you look good before making you feel great

Hallo fast website! Excellent can keep hold of my sanity now whilst I edit the epicness that is my website :D

I thought I was the perfect parent--and then I had kids.

I mainly go to airports for the strip search

You're hostility makes me laugh. 

I take my irresponsibilities very seriously

I propose a toast to the booze for making life seem tolerable.

All aboard!! Choo..choo!! Shkka..shkka..shkka. Help me!! C'mon!!!!

Passing out a lot of insincere "good mornings" today.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: S is For Samples

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to samples like these at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.

This week I received: 

A sample of Secret clinical Strength Deodorant. 

2 samples of Prilosec OTC. 

A coupon for a free 20 oz coke *I got from turning in my points on Coke Rewards*

So did you get any freebies this week?

A to Z Blogging Challenge: R is For Raturday!

Welcome to a new weekly blog post I'm calling, Raturday! I've seen Caturday and while that's really cute, I think the rats needs some photo time so everyone can see how cute these little animals are. I've gotten permission from Rat Logic's fb page to share their pictures on my blog. So get ready to smile because these are cute. 

*click on pictures to enlarge*

Vampire Trouble by Sara Humphreys Releases on July 1st!

Have you read Sara Humphreys?

Vampire Trouble by Sara Humphreys is going to be available July 1st. Have you pre- ordered it? Have you read any of her other books?

Disclaimer: I'm a member of Sara Humphreys street team and help spread the word about her books.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: Q is For Quite Cute

Lucky and I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter.

*click picture to enlarge*

Lucky is my 1 year old rat and he loves to pose for pictures *as long as I give him a treat*. Hope everyone has a great Easter. 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: P is For Pictures *of rats*

Welcome to a new weekly blog post I'm calling, Raturday! I've seen Caturday and while that's really cute, I think the rats needs some photo time so everyone can see how cute these little animals are. I've gotten permission from Rat Logic's fb page to share their pictures on my blog. So get ready to smile because these are cute. 

*click on pictures to enlarge*

A to Z Blogging Challenge: O is For Onions and Peppers

It's funny to me now but when Ken and I first met, I did not like sauteed peppers and onions. I don't know what it was about onions that I hated but I really did hate them. Now I make this with just about anything and Ken loves to eat the left overs with eggs in the morning. So Just start with a green bell pepper and a sweet yellow onion.

Add some butter *not margarine* to your sauté pan. 

Slice the peppers and onions into chunks and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn. 

In about 20 minutes they will be browned really nicely and the onions take on a really sweet flavor which is something I was not expecting at all. I love them now.

A to Z Blogging Challenge: N is For Naughty Neighbors

Some of you who frequent my blog probably have seen this video I took of my neighbors yelling at each other. Yes, you can't see really well what is going on but it doesn't matter because if you turn the sound up, you can sure hear what is going on. Yes, the fun never stops around my neighborhood. I've had more neighbors like these people than I ever thought possible. I have neighbors right now that love to come out of their apartments and cuss at each other, yell and scream and cry. I really should take more video. lol

A to Z Blogging Challenge: M is For Mental Health in Las Vegas

The whole Mental Health agenda seems to have been dumped and not given any real thought here in Las Vegas. The amount of people who need help because of mental illness here in Las Vegas is staggering and the facilities just aren't here, the doctors are not here and it seems the help is not here. 

We have 1 state hospital for the mentally ill and then a smaller psychiatric hospital that only has a small number of beds, not nearly enough to house all the people who need help. When someone here in Vegas gets arrested for trying to kill themselves or is acting strange and says they are suicidal they are first taken to the ER because in most cases you need a doctors note in order to get a bed at the psychiatric hospital. After going to the ER and being evaluated you are usually admitted into a room in the ER while the staff waits for a bed to open up in one of the psychiatric hospitals. Now if you have insurance you might be able to go to a facility other than the state run hospital if they have a bed open which most times they do not, so mentally ill patients wait in rooms in the medical hospitals for days, sometimes a week or more and if they are on suicide watch they could be drugged and strapped to the bed so they cannot leave. 

Now if that isn't bad enough, the state psychiatric hospital is being accused of 'patient dumping'. What they say happened is the facility bought greyhound bus tickets and bussed patients out of state with no medication and no family to meet them when they got to their destination and were told to call 911 once they arrived. 

If you'd like to read my article about this just click here. 

A to Z Blogging Challenge: L is For Love of Candy!

Hello, my name is Mary and I'm a candyholic. lol I don't think there's a 12 step program for what I have. I don't actually eat a whole lot of it, I leave that to others..I just like looking at the pretty candy colors in the glass jars. I mean, who wouldn't smile after seeing a huge canister of pretty candy colors?

Candy jars on my living room shelf...

The right one is just half full because I do like my gumballs. I really like the way gumballs smell. Yes, I need help, I'm sniffing my gumballs.

More candy on the Living room coffee table. One is hard candies and the other is Pastel Buttercream mints. Some people call these mints butter mints and others call them after dinner mints. I call them melt in your mouth mints. 

My grandson came over and he saw the bowl of mints on the coffee table and grabbed one...then grabbed another one before anyone could stop him. He's just a year old and it was pretty funny the way he just grabbed one at a time when I thought for sure he would be throwing handfuls of them all over the place if he got his hand in the bowl. 

And let's not forget my gumballs. They might be in a jelly bean dispenser but they are definitely gumballs. lol Oh the pretty colors..