Full Name:  Melissa Jo Puzio

Date of Birth:  April 13, 1974

Astrological Sign: Aries

Location:  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Ethnic Background:  Mostly Polish, Ukrainian and Irish, with some Czech and Scotch-Irish thrown in there somewhere.  Basically your Slavic/Celtic mutt. More Slavic than anything else.

Religion:  Liberal Catholic.  Depending on what Pope Rat does next, I may soon be an Episcopalian or Ukrainian Orthodox.  I might be a Cafeteria Catholic, but at least my childhood parish is pretty moderate.

Politics:  Just your mainstream, slightly left-of-center Democrat, but compared to most of my family, I'm a frickin' Marxist.  The closest I get to believing in Socialism is my demand for National Health Care and subsidized child care, based on need. Socially liberal, fiscally conservative, I'm for equal rights for all law-abiding citizens, pro choice, legalization of some drugs and decriminalization for possession of most of them, the right to bear arms without being a extremist NRA gun nut, and I support sensible enacting of affirmative action, welfare and environmental protection.  While I believe in the spirit of the death penalty in the sense that people who genuinely commit brutal crimes (torture, graphic rape, child molestation, terrorism that targets civilians or terror for terror's sake...Not that a political agenda erases culpability.) deserve death, but I do not trust our fucked-up judicial system to mete out such punishment.  How is a convict supposed to be proven to be guilty without reasonable doubt when the defense lawyer falls asleep at the trial?  Then again, that is Texas, the National Laboratory for Bad Government.  :)=  Lately, it seems as if the wackier the other side gets, the more liberal I become.

Hobbies:  Surfing the internet, reading my e-mail, designing web sites, writing fan fiction, posting to my favorite message boards, reading vampire and mystery novels, drawing, painting, ice skating, rollerblading, singing, listening to music (mostly 70's and 80's heavy metal, classic soul and 80's electronica and new wave), downloading songs to my IPod, singing Karaoke, watching sports on TV, hiking and power walking, wine tasting, dancing, debating politics, playing with my cat, Willie, shopping, driving, mini golf, shooting pool, daydreaming, crossword puzzles, card games, Monopoly, collecting hockey memorabilia, jewelry, foreign coins, and stuffed animals, teaching my relatives computer skills, dressing up for Halloween, and volunteering at Animal Friends and the Animal Rescue League of Western PA animal shelters.

Favorite Things:  Rare steaks, good red wine, raspberry cafe mocha latte's, Stolichnaya, Belvedere, Zhyr, and Jewel of Russia Vodkas, Chinese chicken and broccoli, Sree's Indian Food, my great-aunt's Ukrainian dishes, Godiva raspberry starfish, tigers, penguins, snakes, polar bears, diamonds, vampires, faeries, hockey, football, pro wrestling, Pilsner Urquell Beer, tiaras, vampire contact lenses, Scarecrow fangs, black velvet, satin, and lace gloves, Goth-Inspired dresses, shoes of all kinds, popcorn, bubble wrap, Victoria's Secret lingerie, Coach purses and accessories, manicures and pedicures, tattoos (though I don't have any), Prescriptives, Loreal, Smashbox, and Bed Head makeup, Diet Dr. Pepper, cranberry juice, and Swarovski Crystal figurines.

Favorite TV Shows:  The Sopranos, The Simpsons, Six Feet Under, Big Love, Forever Knight, La Femme Nikita, Kindred the Embraced, Married With Children, Sex and the City, Homicide - Life on the Streets, Beavis and Butthead, Classic Looney Tunes, The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, The Golden Girls, WWE Monday Night RAW, Law & Order SVU, Criminal Intent, and the original Law & Order, Pimp my Ride, Dead Like Me, My Name is Earl, The Office, American Idol, Monk, House, Dirty Jobs, Most Evil, Countdown With Keith Olberman, Real Time With Bill Maher, What Not to Wear, Miami & LA Ink, CSI, Dateline NBC, Mythbusters, Cathouse, DR. 90210, Judge Judy, HBO documentaries, How it's Made, Flip That House, Ask Dr. Baden, Bones, America's Got Talent, The Osbournes, Celebrity Fit Club, Flavor of Love, Hardball, Saturday Night Live, VH1 Music Videos, E! True Hollywood Story, The Academy Awards, How Do I look? , anything on the History Channel or National Geographic, all those forensics shows on Discovery Investigation, Split Ends, Clean House, Dress My Nest, The Price is Right, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud, Merv Griffin's Crosswords, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, ice skating competitions, and football and hockey games.

Favorite Authors:

Fiction:  Laurell K. Hamilton, Janet Evanovich, Jackie Collins, Karen E. Taylor, Nora Roberts, Susan Johnson, Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne, Jeanne Kalogridis, Trisha Baker, Rosemary Laurey, Emma Holly, Robin Schone, P.N. Elrod, Nancy Kilpatrick, Lynsay Sands, Susan Squires, James M. Thompson, Michael Romkey, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Anne Rice, Angela Knight, J.R. Ward, Kerrelyn Sparks, Anya Bast, Claire Thompson, Shiloh Walker, Heather Graham, Susan Sizemore, Mary-Janice Davidson, Nancy Baker, Marjorie M. Liu, Kresley Cole, Nigel Bennett & P.N. Elrod, Tate Hallaway, Jeaniene Frost, Delilah Devlin, Lynn Viehl, Evangeline Anderson, Erin McCarthy, Jaci Burton, Tawny Taylor, Nicole Mack, Lisa Valdez, Kathryn Smith, Yasmine Galenorn, Joey W. Hill, Karen Chance, Susan Krinard, Amie Stuart, Michelle Bardsley, Raven Hart, Diane Whiteside, Melissa MacNeal, Devyn Quinn, Sasha White, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro.

Non Fiction:  Bishop John Shelby Spong, Bishop Kallistos Ware, Sister Joan Chittister, Al Franken, Bill Maher, James Carville, Paul Begala, Kevin Phillips, Howard Dean, Jim Jeffords, John Dean, Richard Clarke, Frank Rich, Morgan Spurlock, Michael Moore, Al Gore.

Favorite Athletes:  Jaromir Jagr, Martin Straka, Darius Kasparaitis, Sergei Federov, Alexei Kovalev, Aleksey Morozov, Oleg Tverdovsky, Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Malkin, Chris Pronger, Pavel Datsyuk, Marc-André Fleury, Jerome Bettis, Kendrell Bell, Joey Porter, Max Starks, "Fast" Willie Parker, Jason Gildon, Troy Polamalu, Hines Ward, Jeff Reed, Heath Miller,Ben Roethlisberger, Oksana Baiul, Irina Slutskaya, Sasha Cohen, Mao Osada, Shae-Lynn Bourne, Viktor Petrenko, Evgeni Plushenko, Alexei Yagudin, Elvis Stojko, Phillipe Candelorio, Natalia Mischutono & Artur Dimitriev, Oksana Grishuk & Evgeni Platov, Aliona Savchenko & Robin Szolkowy, Jana Khoklova & Sergei Novitski, Maria Totmianina & Maxim Marinin,Irina Lobacheva & Iliya Averbukh, Gwendal Peizerat & Maria Anissina, Ruslan Goncharov & Maria Grushina, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Martina Hingis, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Daniela Hantuchova, Evegeny Kafelnikov, Marat Safin, Andy Roddick, Andrey Davidenko, Lleyton Hewitt,Shawn Michaels, HHH, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Chris Benoit, Sean Waltman, Chris Jericho, Edge, Christian, Lita, Trish Stratus.

Basically my favorite athletes are hockey, tennis, and football players, figure skaters, and pro-wrestlers.  Most of them are those that work the ice.

Pet Peeves:  Slow drivers in the passing lane, fundamentalist religious nutballs, extremists of all stripes, overpopulation, global warming, unnecessary wars, single-issue voters, people who run dog fighting rings, hypocrites, rampant purple prose in romance novels, white zinfandel, mornings, decaf, bright light, tanning, sinus headaches, writer's block, pleather: fake fur is okay, but fake leather is ugly - I'm a carnivore, so I can't complain about animal clothing, grills:  Bling is for your ears, fingers, necks and ankles, not your teeth! , migraine headaches, pollen, PMS, being unemployed, all beans except for green-beans and the black ones on nachos, overcooked steaks (If they are done anything more than medium, I get physically sick), humidity, bad grammar, bigots, and/or Neocon Republicans.  Though I am an unrepentant liberal, I have no problem with Eisenhower, middle-of-the-road Republicans and Libertarians.

And just because I can...A little eye candy for us female hockey fans: