Kara is too.damn.cute.

Sail, I guess if Dr. Evil can strike a product placement deal, we can.

Happy New Year, everyone!

I had fun. Went out to a bar with my sister and some friends last night. The bar is called Happy Ending -- it used to be a Chinese massage parlor, and then when it became a bar, the bar owners decided to keep the name.

Then this morning, brunch with my sister and Trudy, which was lots of fun. She wore the cashmere sweater, which is gorgeous and probably worth the aggravation.

Not sure whether it was in in Arizona, but the great bit that I saw was when Irwin was holding a rattlesnake, and he sat down on one low rock in order to place the snake on a second low rock in front of him to display it for the camera, only to discover a second rattlesnake coiled between his feet--within six inches of his bare calves and about 12 inches from his crotch.

Same ep, but that was in New York (timber rattlers). In Arizona he was stretched flat out on his back with his arm up o the shoulder in a rock crevice, hauling out a whole family of diamondbacks one by one and passing them off to his heavily pregnant wife. That was a classic episode.Other ones to watch out for where he's running on brainfarts, the komodo dragon ep and the spitting cobra ep. He claims never to have been bitten by a venomous snake, but he's certainly taken it right in the face.

Incidentally, on the Croc Hunter Diaries (basically behind the scenes at his zoo), you can note that he's actually every serious about safety around dangerous creatures, for everyone else. One guy almost loses his job for getting tagged by on of the taipans (no venom, fortunately). Oh, and you also get to see his daughter Bindi, about three or four, feeding flowers to a Galapagos tortoise and telling a crowd about the tortoises. And then she explains to them that they have to stay behind the rope fence, but she doesn't "Because this is my zoo, and I'm gonna run it one day!"

just like a schoolboy trying to make sure that the pal he'd talked into doing something stupid didn't get in trouble when everything went pear shaped.

Hee. He's exactly like that, isn't he?

There was so much venom running down his face that the wrap-around shades ceased to be helpful. Still he hung on to the cobra, still the cobra spat. He ran out of bottled water, and had to be driven to a nearby village to beg for their meagre water supply to wash his face with, or risk blindness.

No, he had to go to the nearby village after getting sprayed while he wasn't wearing the sunnies at all. 'Twas a foolish thing. He admitted up front that he didn't have the experience with spitting cobras, but didn't bother acting like it.

I always had a couple of problems with Steve Irwin, not least the notion that Americans were getting their impression on Australia from this guy (people kept guessing I was English because I didn't sound like him). And he go himself into legal trouble, for instance, for breaknig laws concernnig approaqching wildlife in Antarctica. But a news article concerning just how much he ploughs back into conservation changed that. I don't agree with all of his approach, but however much of a showman he is in front of the camera, he's put his money where his hyperactive mouth is.

And, when I get home I'll rustle up his quote about his best mate Wes.

I wonder how common church fires are. I bet they're fairly common.

There's an early theological crisis recorded by a Roman author who noted that Zeus seemed strangely fond of striking his own temples with lightning. And I seem to recall a church in Germany during the middle ages where it was the custom to ring the bells during bad storms, until one bishop went back through the church records and noted just how many bellringers had died from being struck by lightning. Apropos of nothing.

Bindi, iirc, was named after one of their favourite crocs. Baby Rob, I presume, was not - but who knows?

Re: burny death - we very nearly started 2006 by burning the house down. I choose to think of this as an auspicious beginning to the year, inasmuchas the conflagration was heard and scented and put out before it had time to become an inferno. (Result of a candle in a table centrepiece full of holly and assorted burnable things being lit around 9pm, burning steadily throughout the meal and then being left in the back room while we drunkenly toasted the new year in the front room. My father is being very "I always SAID candles were a bad idea" about it all. Bless him. And VERY many housepoints for Eva, the lovely German girlfriend of my parent's friends' son, who was the first to realise that there was a fire happening in the back room.

Ooh, Fay, that's scary. Next time, don't forget the marshmallows.

No, he had to go to the nearby village after getting sprayed while he wasn't wearing the sunnies at all. 'Twas a foolish thing. He admitted up front that he didn't have the experience with spitting cobras, but didn't bother acting like it.

Ah well, it has been a while since I saw that. My memory is not the most accurate and does not improve over time. Yet I believe my assessment of "You dipshit, put down the damn snakes, we got the point ages ago," is a reasonable one.

Fay, so glad that you are all safe and well. Holiday fires are so much worse than false alarms, even if the false alarm results in talkings-to by one's boss.

I always had a couple of problems with Steve Irwin, not least the notion that Americans were getting their impression on Australia from this guy

Him and Yahoo Serious. Always leaving bad caracatures of Aussies in American heads...

Andi is cutting up fabric and commencing to sew while wearing her tiara.

Steve Irwin, not least the notion that Americans were getting their impression on Australia from this guy

So you're saying we should go back to Paul Hogan?