There's this family owned grocery store on my way home that sells all the staples plus beer so it's my daily stop'n shop. It's located next to a rent-by-the-week motel with crackheads galore so nothing much is unusual in those parts....robbery, shoplifting. The cashier staff consists of the owners plus one very nice lady and her mother. Usually one or more of the kids is hanging around the front hauling your sacks for tips.

The other day, me and the chubby 10 year old boy spotted something at the same time while his mom was checking me out. "It's a MONKEY!" he cried out. Yeah right..scribble on the check. Behind me in line was a biker dude fella explaining to the rest of the crowd that Nico the monkey only cost them 4700 bucks. Hmm. There was a damn monkey crawling around the cab of that old Ford pickup with a large tan tatooed woman inside.

After I put my stuff in the car, I strolled over to meet Nico. He was sitting in his Momma's lap just waiting for an audience. "What's his name?" "Nico". "Hey little buddy...shake my hand." Nico took my hand straight toward his mouth and his little monkey teeth. "UNH uh..." I said. He crawled over the lady to the other side of the cab all stretched out to show off the NASCAR t-shirt he was wearing. Shortly he came back over to try again. I stuck my hand out and touched his hand ( I swear his little hand looked like a PEOPLE hand ) and we bonded. Then, straight to the mouth again.

I wasn't really in the mood to get monkey bit, so I said my good-byes and piled into the car wondering to myself: "Do I look like monkey food, or are they all like that?"

Speaking of monkeys, check our the Snark Sisters' take on Donatella. A little snark is always good for the soul in times of such serious earth shattering crises as we have going on now.

Y'all keep the faith. ^j^