THAT DAMN CLINT EASTWOOD MOVIE: Here's the scene - it's 8 a.m. on a Saturday and Derek comes home from a night-shift at the hospital. All of a sudden, I hear a blast of warbling violins and Mexican noise-makers. Gee, could he be watching "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" yet again? And it doesn't matter what volume he's watching it at, I can hear that racket from ten miles away!

HALF-HOUR COMEDIES: I used to watch these as much as the next person but, without cable, I rarely see such shows anymore. Recently, I had to sit through an episode of Drew Carey and I nearly ran out of the room screaming! You can see the punchlines coming a mile away, you've seen one comedy, you've seen them all. Pap for the masses who become more spoon-fed everyday! I suppose this is fine if you want to shut off your brain after a long day of work, but I'd rather browse the Net, thank you.

DIVAS: If there are four people I hate on this planet it's Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Shania Twain. These four women are so full of themselves, it's awe-inspiring. Zero humility, never suffered a day in their life, and their singing nearly breaks your eardrums, it's so overblown. These chicks make me sick to my stomach!

DOGS WITHOUT LEASHES: I used to walk to a former job through this huge park and I absolutely HATED it when people wouldn't keep their dogs on a leash. I was attacked by a dog the size of a horse once when I was a kid and I guess I've never quite gotten over this. Of course, the dogs in the park were always running way ahead of their master so I didn't know if they were with a person or not. Made for some nerve-wracking walks.

LARGE MACHINERY: Tractors, transport trucks, cranes, dump trucks, these all scare the heck out of me. Walking by a construction site, I nearly have a panic attack everytime. It's really interesting right now as I walk by the largest construction site in the city (our new downtown market) everyday en route to work.

VACUUM CLEANERS: If there's anything I HATE in this world, it's vacuuming. I've hated vacuuming since I was a kid. It just seems like such a waste of time. With two cats and two birds in the house, our clean carpet lasts about 1.6 seconds. It doesn't help that when I was a kid, I refused to vacuum my room and my mother made me write out a hundred times: "I will vacuum my room, I will vacuum my room..."

HONKING HORNS: I can't explain this, but the sound of a honking horn absolutely makes me cringe. It never fails to make me jump out of my skin. Barking dogs, slamming doors, even sneezing to some extent bothers me. I guess you can say I have some sort of "loud-sudden-noise-phobia".

MORNING TEAMS: There's nothing that makes me bristle more than morning teams. Usually a goofy guy and his straight-laced female DJ who does nothing but sit and giggle over the airwaves. They hardly play any music and when they do, they honk horns and gab half-way into the song! They irritate the hell out of me which is one of the reasons I don't listen to the radio anymore.

LIARS: People who build lie upon lie, convincing themselves it's the truth and then expect you to be stupid enough to believe it, too! I've known several people like this throughout my life and I can't believe they think I'm stupid enough to fall for it. What can you do? Just follow along and humour their little pretend game.

PHONIES: Nothing irks me more than phony people! They think they've snowed everyone with their charm and pleasant demeanor and so many seem to fall for their phony act. All I can do is sit back and shake my head. My sweetheart, Derek, and I have what we call "Phony-Dar", meaning we can detect a phony within the first ten minutes of meeting them. See here for a lesson on how to spot a phony and not be suckered into their act!