Hi There! For those that are first time visitors my name is Sue aka "The Zookeeper." The Urban Zoo is my pet name for our home, family, and life. Last week I wrote my first Thursday Thirteen entry , and this second edition "The Basics Part Two is a continuation of it. As the weeks go by I will start writing out more specialised lists. Here goes edition #2.

1. I consider myself a bargain hunter, and I LOVE to go to garage sales, church bazaars, and flea markets. I will also participate in the online equivalent over at Ebay on occasion.

2. I am a plant fanatic! I like to rescue sickly, and dying ones, and try to bring them back to life.

3. I have a morbid fascination with death, I have several books on the subject, and documentaries. I once considered going into the funeral business.

4. I have many skeletons (not in my closet for the most part). I collect them, mostly South American art. There is a skull on my desk ( I call him Murray), and a 5ft skeleton named Skelly that stands beside it. I usually dress them up for the season. Right now they are wearing baseball caps, in December they will don Santa apparel!

5. I collect many things, rocks from haunted locations (bagged, and labelled), Angels, religious iconography, books, alien kitch items, teddy bears, tins, and other assorted bric-a-brac. These are my treasures.

6. I wear lots of hats (one at a time of course), I suppose I collect those too, along with handbags that I change constantly. I like vintage, and unusual stuff. This used to either frighten or delight the folks at my old office.

7. I LOVE maps ... ok so I guess I collect these too!!! I should have just started this meme out as things I collect and gone from there. I particularly like to compare older maps to newer ones. I also pin cushion yet others with places I must see at some point.

8. My fave movies are horror, and suspense. I love a good, scary mystery. These will be the focus of a future Thursday Thirteen.

9. My one absolute guilty pleasure that my Dad would be so disappointed in me with is ... every weekday at 3pm I watch General Hospital. My Dad hated the soaps, used to say they'd rot your brain!

10. I consider myself to be globally aware. I do keep up with all current events around the globe. Mostly via radio, as I work on the blogs, and other computer related stuff.

11. My biggest international concern at this time is global warming. I think it should be a concern of everyone's, and I do try to do my part.

12. Sometimes I greatly fear for the world I will eventually be leaving to my children, yet other times I see these fantastic rays of hope through the eyes of a younger generation.

13. I have been blessed throughout the years with some really good friends. I strive to be as equally a good friend, and I hope that I am.

Wow! This stuff just flows ... I think I'm going to start working on next weeks!

Thank you for stopping by, and allowing me to share a bit of myself with you. Please do leave a comment, and have a terrific rest of the week! Happy Thursday!