A FRIDAY FUNNY

A man walks into a dark restaurant & takes a seat at one of the back tables.  After the waitress takes his order, he notices a group of women at the table next to him.

Leaning over to chat with them, he asks, “Would you like to hear a blonde joke?”

“Well, before you tell me,” one of them says, “you should know that I’m blonde, six feet tall, & a professional body builder. The lady next to me is blonde, six-foot-two, & a professional wrestler. And the woman next to her is blonde, six-foot-five, & the kick-boxing champion of the world. Now, do you still want to tell us the joke?”

After thinking about it for a minute, the man replies, “No.  Not if I’ll have to explain it three times.”

FREE BOOK FRIDAY

This week’s Free Book Friday selection is Up Words for Down Days, a collection of fun & uplifting quotes by Allen Klein.

To enter the giveaway for this book, simply leave a comment to today’s post that includes the code FBF—for “Free Book Friday,” of course—to let me know you’re interested in the drawing. (U.S. residents only for the prize, please, but everyone is welcome to chat.)

Winner will be announced during our Happy Sunday post on…well, you know, Sunday.  Winner is responsible for contacting me with her mailing information—i.e. I will not be contacting you—so be sure to check back in or you might not even know you won! :whhhat (If prize isn’t claimed within 14 days, another name may be drawn or item may be tossed back into the goody bag to be re-used for a future giveaway.)

On more than one occasion, & by more than one acquaintance, I have been accused of being slightly Obsessive-Compulsive.  Some of them were teasing.  Some were not.  And some were probably trying to tell me something serious, but used a teasing tone for fear I’d go medieval on their asses. :angeldevil

And, yes, I admit it…I do have some slightly obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

Like the fact that there are many instances where I believe there’s a place for everything & everything should be in its place.  Oh, my desk & office are a disaster area, & you can catch me about ten times a week flipping out because I can’t find a damn thing in all this mess! But when it comes to dishes being put away or my promo items being organized…there is a place for everything & everything needs to be in & stay in its place! :devil

Or how I have a tendency to buy things that I like in bulk.  Like liquid soap.  I found a pink grapefruit fragrance I love & traveled around to every store in a fifty-mile radius buying every bottle I could find.  I found a type of tea I like & did the same.  And of course I have to have just about every new romance that’s released, whether I think I’ll get around to reading it in the near future or not. :cantputdown   I mean, really—that isn’t even close to being the relevant!

But you might find it interesting to know that scientists actually believe everyone has a touch of OCD…it’s only the levels of obsessiveness & compulsion that vary.  So there! :tpspspspt

And here is where my touch of OCD comes in handy:

You know I’m working on a new Harlequin Desire set in Charleston, South Carolina, right?  Well, I just finished a vampire romance set in Las Vegas, so the rapid switch to a completely different geographical area isn’t an easy one.  Which means I need to research!  And by “research,” I mean start reading books & watching TV/movies with a Southern slant.

The first thing I did was jump on the internet & do a search for Southern-set movies, television, & romances.  (Which wasn’t as easy as you might think.  You can find anything on the world wide web, my shiny white buttocks! :mad )

And what did I do then?  Did I have to make a list & run to the nearest bookstore, or hop over to Amazon or BN.com & start ordering?  No, I did not.  I simply went to my obsessively, compulsively organized book lists, then dug into my obsessively, compulsively organized TBR boxes, & within minutes I was reading a Southern-set romance. :dancing

Ha!  That’s right—for once, my OCD paid off.  Take that, Mr. Tax Man, who asks me every year why I need to buy so many books!  They’re research, dammit!  Because I never know what the heck is going to crop up—case in point! —& I need to be prepared.

Okay, yeah…that last part is probably definite OCD.  But in this case, that’s a good thing. :gotcha