Zombie Thursdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . There's only a week and a half left to get your Christmas shopping done! I've barely started, but hopefully I'll think of some good gifts to buy in the next week. How are you all in the Lurkdom doing on your shopping? Are you behind on your shopping? Fear not! If you have any zombie lovers in your life, then I have the perfect gift guide for you! Zombie Hunting Permit This is a great stocking stuffer! Made by some lovely people on CafePress, this (faux) hunting license gives authority to your little zombie killers to go out and take down some undead walkers. The permit is actually printed on a 3x5 vinyl sticker, so it is perfect for applying on your car, notebook, or anywhere else you might want this little guy. The permit costs $5. Munchkin Zombies Munchkin is the perfect card set for the gamer in your life. It is so much fun on its own that the only way it could possibly b...

Sometimes I think the world likes to mess with me. Like having these enormous hips and no about 2 inches of torso* or when I want milk, all cartons are frozen blocks of white. No matter, I can accept it. I really can't accept there's a day dedicated to squirrels. You can read my reasoning on it here . Today I'll play devil's advocate for the furry front. Reasons We Should Appreciate Squirrels Credit They sometimes eat insects and other rodents. The nuts they hide in the winter a lot of the time just become seedlings. They have incredibly fluffy tails. That's all I got. My squirrel paranoia is too strong. Now if this was Chicken Apprecation Day**... If you're an avid squirrel lover, read what the NWF says about how to celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day. Then, you can go to What On Earth and buy some squirrel merchandise . * This might be a slight exaggeration on my part. ** May 4th. _______ Last.fm hit of the day : The Exile by Vernian Proces...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Are you still recovering from the holidays? I feel like I am, but unfortunately the holidays aren't quite over yet. We still have New Year's Eve and Day, belated Christmas parties, gift exchanges, holiday returns, and snatching up all those post-season sale deals at the stores! It's exhausting. So today, I have a simple video to share with you all. The holidays can be distracting, but make sure you never let your guard down... that's when the zombies strike! **Special thanks to my friend Shae for sharing this with me before Christmas. It was posted on Facebook, but I wanted to share it with you all here!**

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Merry Christmas! I have a special holiday treat for everyone today! Normally, I stick to the realm of non-fiction writing. I feel like I lack the creativity to write a fictional story with a plot and characters and all that stuff. I like to cling to my research books like a loser and then make up outrageous hypotheses that may or may not have any validity to them. I've had an idea for awhile now to re-write a Christmas classic as a zombie story. This concept is, of course, not new territory at all. You may remember that last Christmas I shared with you all a book of re-written Zombie Christmas Carols . But I decided I wanted to work on the most famous Christmas poem of all-- The Night Before Christmas! Much to my dismay, I recently saw a book at Borders that was just that, The Zombie Night Before Christmas . I thought, "oh no! Someone else has already done this, and...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . We're just a little bit over a week away from the big day! How is your shopping going? To be honest, mine has been not good. Lack of time, lack of money, lack of ideas... yeah, I'm not looking too good. If you're having trouble as well, today I am compiling a list of some awesome gifts that you could get for the zombie lover in your life! Because we all know that everyone loves zombies, so these gifts cannot fail on December 25th-- Build-a-Zombie Calendar! Probably one of the most popular and most bought gifts for the holidays is a calendar! Even though we all have crazy smart phones and iPads and whatever else, everyone still needs a good old fashioned calendar to put on their wall. This calendar provides twelve months of date keeping PLUS twelve paper zombie crafting projects, enough to help you build your own horde. The patterns and paper are included, but you'...

Thanksgiving is this week, a time when people get together and eat way too much food with family that they may or may not enjoy hanging out with for prolonged periods of time. It's a day chock full of football and it's the official kick off to the holiday season. Gas stations will jack up the price of gas and a lot of people will be in the air. Credit (minus rainbows and lollies). If you grew up in the U.S., you learned all about the Plymouth and how badly the pilgrims were in over their head. You learned that the local Indians* helped them that first year. Supposedly they had this nice happy feast after harvest, blah blah blah. There were rainbows in the sky and everyone was full of free love and had lollipops. Actually, that last part might be more awesome if historically accurate. Besides these things, what is Thanksgiving really? The nice folks at dictionary.com define thanksgiving as "the act of giving thanks, especially to god." This totally explai...

It came to my attention that it's National Chocolate Day. This is important because: I'm a girl. I write. I stress. All three are important parts of a chocolate addiction. But, Alicia, why are you telling me this? Because now you can make your own zombie chocolate pops! Credit I know, not the most appealing thing in the world. The detail is pretty cool, but I'd be wary about eating gray chocolate too. Of course, that never stopped me as a kid from eating any colored chocolate I found in those sample buckets in the candy making aisle*. One thing that's awesome about the zombie pop is the detail. The nose is missing. Besides, you know how I love the tack. This goes on the top of that list. Edible tack=awesomeness. (By the way, this entry is done without the aid of caffeine so I apologize for all rambling.) *a hem* But what if I no longer eat chocolate because human tastes that much better? Credit You've recently turned into the living de...

It's the Monday before Halloween and as work yet again kicks my ass, let me introduce you to my neighbors across the way and they're Halloween decorations... I'm not sure what's better: the gargoyle or the reaper. Have an awesome Halloween display? Send it to me! _____ Last.fm hit of the day: Horror Movie Baby by The Texas Drag Queen Massacre

If you've lurked for a while, you know I have this thing about lawn ornaments . They're usually tacky and totally filled of awesome. Halloween is no exception to this, especially since in recent years, we have to outfit every marketable holiday with lawn stuff. Words escape me on this demon clown lawn ornament. Really. I'm hoping you guys will do better. I want you to either caption this picture or explain how it got on this lawn being ridden by an ass. Maybe a prize will be in order for the best*. *Yes, I know I owe CDs. I've been having technology fails and will send them out shortly. I promise. _______ Last.fm hit of the day: Graveyard Tree III by Koffin Kats

According to my local Fox affiliate, today is " Embrace Your Geekness Day ." This is awesome because I'm so swamped at work, I couldn't think of what to blog.* I'm 23% geek. First, if you're not sure if you're a geek or not, you might want to take a test . It's long, so make sure you have time. It turns out, I'm not extremely geeky. If you end up being more geeky than I, you should congratulate yourself with a trip to Think Geek. If you're trying to figure out what the difference is between Geek and Nerd (something I constantly struggle with), check out this Wiki that d supplied a few weeks ago. Whether you're a geek or not, we've all had a moment of true geekery. Mine involved the official Aerosmith tribute band, an after party, and iambic pentameter. What's been YOUR most geektastic moment? *Especially since I'm in the middle of formatting and editing narrative for a proposal. ________ Last.fm hit of the...

Zombie Thur sdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Ribbons, ribbons, ribbons! Every organization and society has a colored ribbon representing something-- pink, yellow, red, blue, and on and on. When and why did this whole ribbon thing start? I have no idea, but like anything where people can proudly display a ribbon or ribbon shaped magnet on their car without actually doing any sort of real work to combat whatever issue they are representing, the idea has clearly spread faster than the upcoming zombie plague. ((Which is not to say that they're aren't individuals who do actively support causes, and they do so much more than just sport a ribbon!)) Well, add grey to the list of ribbon colors now! And what does it represent? Zombie Awareness Month! Much like my cynical post from back in February about the dubious "I Love Zombies Day," the old Grinch in me is showing his ugly head. The first place where I heard abou...

According to Twitter, today is National Grilled Cheese Day. This is awesome for so many reasons. Cheese is dairy. Dairy is good for you . Grilled cheese is one of the 3 things the Friendly's in my hometown can make accurately. Picky children around the world can eat their fill. You can find a lot of different ways to funkify (yes, funkify) your grilled cheese sandwich here . My favorite type of grilled cheese contains cheddar and a spicy cheese with tomatoes. Any type of bread will do. What is yours? _____ Last.fm hit of the day : Sex Beat by Fear Cult

Zombie Thursdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . Today is National Grammar Day !  I really love grammar.  Like with anything in life, I will admit to not always using perfect grammar, but I definitely try to set a good example for those around me. I think my love and understanding of grammar came from two highly dedicated grade school teachers, Mrs. Schmidt and Mrs. Hawkins, who taught me the importance of speaking and writing well. Sure, at the time I bitched about all the essays they made me write and all the books I had to read. However, as an adult, I see how truly important grammar is. As a group on Facebook illustrates, grammar can even save lives--   “Let’s eat Grandma!” versus “Let’s eat, Grandma!”   See? In one case, Grandma is not going to have a very pleasant meal time. In the other, Grandma is being invited to gorge herself on brains. The importance of grammar is so obvious.   My absolute favor...

Before my full-time temp job, I worked part-time at a local florist. I had gotten the job because I knew how to turn on a monitor. I started working shortly after my honeymoon and would still be there if it wasn't for our suck-ass economy. I learned enough in 18 months to become a junior designer - a feat that would be much more impressive if there were more than me, the owner, and her dog. The job was great. My days were short enough that I could get writing or laundry done in the morning without waking up too early. The dress code was casual - as long as it wasn't offensive, I could wear it. More than half of the year was spent in velour pants just because. My boss, even though a flake, was fun to work with. It sucked when it was the holiday season because the tempo of the store went into triple-manic mode. My boss didn't handle stress well and her brain would shut down. This mean miscommunication would hit hard; we would spend most of Christmas Eve and Valentin...

Zombie Thursdays is a weekly feature with guest blogger, Miranda. You can read more about her here . February is a short little month filled with many holidays. In fact, February may be the most festive month of all! First we celebrated Groundhog’s Day, an odd, but cute little holiday. Next was arguably the best one of all-- my birthday! It was also George Romero’s birthday as you may have learned from last week. Throw in some presidents’ birthdays, and a leap day and you have one packed month! This weekend most of the world will be celebrating another holiday that revolves all around love! No... I’m not talking about stupid Valentine’s Day. I’m referring to “I Love Zombies Day.” Yes, apparently February 13th is to become the official day to celebrate the love of the undead. I first heard about this somewhat dubious holiday via Twitter. Twitter, like most of the interwebz, isn’t always the most reliable source of information. Anybody can say or post anything online (often with...

It was brought to my attention that tomorrow is Squirrel Appreciation Day . I have mixed feelings about this, as I sort of fear a squirrel uprising where they will overtake the world. Yes, this is irrational, but I've seen the Eastern Gray Squirrel in action and it's not pretty. Reasons Squirrels Will Overtake The World 1. They're small enough that they can sneak into places and nibble on important wires. 2. They have aggressive tendencies, especially when it comes to feeding, that would help push squirrel power to the fore. 3. I believe that Harvard is doing experiments on them. 4. They're nests are indestructible. 5. They work in packs. And just like a sea of rats, there is no doubt that these little critters will. fuck. you. up.

That's right. For my final post of the day, we're seeing more of my favorite holiday - Tacky Christmas. I can see that you're very excited. That's a good thing because this post contains all things Christmas. Reindeer Trees Santa All non-Santa photos are my tacky Christmas display. Hubby is playing Santa in the photo from last year's holiday party. I'm a fan of the purple mittens that Santa is sporting. Tomorrow is Zombie Thursday. I'm hoping that Miranda will make it Christmas themed.

See how it's hanging askew? That's not intentional, but the side with the poinsettas is so heavy from wire that the wreath naturally hangs at an angle. I tried tying the ribbon off balance to correct it, but no such luck. It just adds to the tackiness, I tell myself. Close ups! See me in that last close up? That's me being artsy.

As a child, one of my best friends was Jenny. She lived with her mother and grandmother  a street and a half behind me. (Her back door was on a side street that ran off the street behind mine.) Her house was on the town line, making her neighbors across the street from a different town. In this town, around the corner from Jenny's house and her across-the-street neighbors, was Emerson Street. Because of one Christmas-loving resident, Emerson Street would glow in the sky like an airfield on the horizon during the holiday season. Since I was smaller than Phantasma, I would go check out the house every year.And every year, since holiday decorating technology advances, the decorations grow. Now the house, front, and back yards are a mix of old and new. Also the epitome of tack. But I'd be lying if I said that I didn't love it. There's a hidden beauty in it's tackiness because you know that they put thought to where everything will land from the Santa that pro...

My request from yesterday has been answered. Riz has sent me pictures from her tacky Christmas display. Riz has her display in her office cubicle and has told me that her entire office is embracing tacky this year. This is a mega win. Riz loves the colors pink and green and loves them more if they're combined. I can't help but think of Friendly's and their Watermelon Roll every single time I see them together, but that might mean I can't get ice cream off my mind. (Given the way the pants are fitting lately, that is definitely the case.) Despite my new math skills, Riz has made pink and green her signature colors and it's evident in her display. You can see hints of it here with her Christmas tree and flashy reindeer with removable feather ruff. I love how Elvis is serenading the Santa from Futurama and the reindeer. The emo tree isn't digging the live Elvis Christmas special, which is totally okay because I don't think if you're truly emo you ...