Every Wednesday, YA Highway asks their readership a simple question to answer on your blog. Once you answer, you link your blog in the comments for other readers to hop on board. This is Road Trip Wednesday. Today's Topic : The house is on fire and you've only got time to grab five things. What are they? I live in a pretty questionable house that has tons of religious artifacts and questionable wiring**. Example: a lamp works where there are no outlets because it's hard-wired onto another wire. Somewhere. The grace of god is probably the only thing that keeps my house standing. So because of this, I go through periodic bouts of fire paranoia--that thing where you're convinced the house will burn down in the middle of the night***. Thanks to this, I have a plan in place. The cats. Much easier said than done, this will take the most time to do. Have you ever tried stuffing two cats into a carrier? The laptop bag. This always includes t...

I'm still digging out from my two shortened weeks where work drama and air travel threatened to destroy my sanity. Hopefully with the dawn of a new week and a fresh perspective, my blogging schedule will resume. Call me "Charlie." In the mall where you can find Speed Boat Tigger, you can also find this Technicolor carousel. At first glance, it seems harmless. In fact, it tell you that it's FUN. Newsflash: it's not. Once you hear the eerie call of this world's Charlie the Choo-Choo , you totally understand why Claudia y Inez Bachman/Beryl Evans made the locomotive so entirely creepy*. The carousel is located in the middle of the mall, but when there's no other mall noise (including Muzak), you can hear the robotic voice pretty close to the entrance saying "Welcome to Arsenal Mall" or playing it's organ grinder music. Look at the face in the center, doesn't it look sadistic? I haven't seen a child scream in fear yet, but ther...

In addition to squirrels taking over the world, they're evil. I can prove it. Note the red eyes. Yes, it's albino, but that doesn't change it's true nature. The menacing eyes glare at the photographer while it curls an arm around well, erm... something . The bushy tail isn't meant to be cute - it's a threat.