I was in Tucson, AZ last week. The day we got back here, it sleeted and rained. Whee. I like warmth, lots and lots of warmth. That's why my husband and I are moving there this year. That and because of the lizards. They're cute and there's plenty of them. Oh, and I like the cacti, like this one

Now all I need to do is find a house in AZ, clean up & sell the NJ house, and get a job in AZ. No problem

The mouse invasion at work continues unabated. Every now and then someone screams and the rest of us play prairie-dog and spend a few minutes looking around. Once we all realize that someone saw a mouse and freaked we sit back down feeling somehow let down grumbling that it was "just a mouse". I suppose a homicidal Yeti would be more interesting, but also messier. I've never seen one of the mice. For some reason they stay away from me.

I have an exciting weekend planned. I'm going to the dentist on Saturday morning and spending the rest of the wekend cleaning my house.

Well, I still feel like crap. I've had a cold for the past couple of weeks. We were supposed to go to Dracula's Ball last weekend, we had tickets and were in Philly, but I felt so awful I wasn't able to go. This is nasty case of the ick. And of course I'm paranoid and think its the Avian Flu.

Also, a general question to ponder: Lately I've noticed that most Sci Fi/Horror movies seem to focus on people being ripped in half and/or having their intestines pulled out. I wonder why. Odd.

My husband and I went to the Body Worlds exhibit in Philly this weekend. Really cool stuff. If you haven't seen it before go to: BodyWorlds The only downside was that they'd already taken down the Horse and Rider. I was looking forward to that one, but the Archer was great. The blood vessal family was good too. Check it out if you're in Philly in the near future.

Iceland's gourmet food: Slatur - sheep's blood pudding rolled in lard and sewn up in the stomach. They consumed half-boiled lamb's heads called Svid, seal flippers, rotten shark, and pickled ram's testicles. Visitors and locals alike can eat like a Viking during special events in February in restaurants, homes, and community centers throughout Iceland.

They're serious. A friend of mine went to Iceland on vacation. He went to a big open air market and noticed some guy eating something and obviously enjoying it. So my friend asked the guy what he was eating.

This was Mistake # 1

So the guy says, "I'm glad you asked! This is our national dish. Do you want a bite?" My friend knew it was rotten shark, but he figured, why not? and said, "Sure."

This was Mistake # 2

He took a bite. He said it tasted so bad he didn't really believe his senses. He asked himself, "Could anything really be this bad?" So he took a second bite just to be sure.

This was Mistake # 3

It really did taste that bad. Something in the neighborhood of urine. The preparation of this dish starts with finding a dead shark on the beach. Its hard to improve on initial decomposition, but it can be done. Bury the dead shark in the sand for 3 months or so and then dig it up and eat it as is. Yum!!!

I went to a Basket Party this weekend with my Step-Mom. Yes, a Basket Party. Don't know what that is? Be grateful...but if you're curious. Its just baskets, you know what I mean. You can buy them for $1 or so just about anywhere. But these are magic baskets hand woven by elves in PA. Oh, and they'll cost you a months pay or so. I'm not kidding. They're Longaberger baskets and people collect them. A basket for your newspapers costs: $129.00 for the basket, $33.00 for the liner, $23.00 if you want a divider, and the lid is $45.00. The Woven table lamp is $350.00.

I think it may a cult of some sort. A very scary cult. Hey, if you love baskets, go for it, but I'd rather waste my money on other things. Of course I had to buy something because my cousin was the one hosting it.

Check it out: www.longaberger.com Live in Fear longaberger

My bat tattoo is now officially done. I posted a picture of it in my file. Once its done being scabby, I'll have another picture taken.

Evil Co. strikes again. They're changing the phone reps to a pay-per-call salary. Its an in-bound call center, so the reps have no control over how many calls they get. This doesn't effect me yet, but evil clouds are on the horizon. Fuckers.

I think its about time for me to win a Powerball lottery. I'm ready for the easy life!

Work has been hell. They've piled some new work on me and even my manager claims she didn't know about some of it. That's not unheard of. It happens all the time.

I'll be finishing up my tattoo this weekend. That's something to look forward too.

I'm glad its a new year. Last year was pretty rough, so I'm hoping for a better deal this year. The trees were taken down just before Xmas. My husband took the day off from work to keep an eye on the whole thing. They brought in a big crane and my husband says he felt nervous every time he saw a big piece of tree swinging the air. I'm just glad its over with. However, the squirrels are VERY angry with us. And I don't just mean the squirrels running around my brain. I mean the real ones. Oh well, until they pay the mortgage they don't get a say.

Well, the tree guys should be coming this week to take our two trees down. Hopefully once that happens we won't have any more problems, so we can clean up this mess, sell it, and move to Arizona. The desert sounds good right now. So does dessert.

Hey, did you know there was a rooster who lived for 18 months after getting his head cut off?