Getting Inked or Not

The prompt for Day 2 of the 20 Days of Chill writing challenge is Inked.

When Gina picked up her daughter after school, Tamara told her mom she wanted a tattoo. "I'm thinking about a spider web and a black widow hanging in the center. 

When her Gina said no way, Tamara brought up the age-old reasoning of every teenager, "but Mom, Jody has one." Jody was a new kid at her school and she was also goth. "Hers is really cool, and she said it didn't even hurt...much." Gina wasn't sure she liked this new friendship and felt Jody might be a bad influence on Tamara.

Her mom responded with the parental logic of, "so if everyone else walked off the cliff, would you follow?" This was typical of many of their mom/daughter discussions, and usually resulted in Tamara huffing off to sulk, and her mom sighing in disbelief at the stubbornness of teens.

"Please" begged Tamara again.

"No! For the last time NO. You are not getting a tattoo" her mom said emphatically. To her it was absolutely unthinkable to "decorate" one's body in such a manner, besides, no one under the age of 18 could get a tattoo without parental permission.

The final word had come down. "No one in this family gets inked! End of discussion!"

When they got home, Tamara marched into the house and to her room where she promptly slammed the door.

Gettin' Cheesy With It

 Well, ladies and gents, it looks like we have a chill in the air. 20 Days of Chill to be exact. The January writing challenge is back in gear, so let's see if I can get motivated. The first prompt is "Gettin' Cheesy With It".

So what do we mean when we say something is cheesy? Cheap, tacky, lacking in taste? 

That's one way to look at it, but I much prefer to take a culinary view, and that is definitely not lacking in taste. On the contrary, it is quite tasty. In addition to it's delectable goodness, here are some interesting and unusual facts about, you guessed it, cheese.

• The calcium in cheese makes it great for your teeth and bones. 

• Cheese can help you sleep.

• Some cheeses are safe for the lactose intolerant.

• The same bacterium causes both smelly cheese and smelly feet. 

• The world's most expensive cheese is made with donkey milk.

• It's not the carbon dioxide that causes holes in cheese, but instead it is tiny flecks of hay in the milk.

• Mice don't actually like cheese. [It is my personal experience that they DO like peanut butter.]

Click here for the full story, and don't forget to visit the other participants.