However, in defence of my homeland, I will point out that this does not actually happen when we're not coping with massive natural disasters.

Do all the poisonous animals normally keep them at bay?

That is not cool, Australia. Not cool.

Australia just wants to remind the world that it is still the butchest place on the planet.

Australia just wants to remind the world that it is still the butchest place on the planet.

Totes. If an Australian wants to open a bottle of Fosters and doesn't have an opener, s/he just walks (or swims) out into the street, wrestles a shark, and opens the bottle using the shark's teeth.

We have sharks on the street in NYC, too: [link]

And in Chicago. [link]

I am now seriously craving spinach, feta, and olives. Of these, the only one in my fridge at the moment is olives. Woe! Perhaps a trip to the grocery store is in order.

Cool headline:

German Police Pick up Drunken Owl

An owl that had evidently drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles was so inebriated that it got picked up by police. The bird will be released once it has sobered up.

German police said on Tuesday they had discovered a paralytic owl that appeared to have drunk too much Schnapps from two discarded bottles.

"A woman walking her dog alerted the police after seeing the bird sitting by the side of the road oblivious to passing traffic," Frank Otruba, spokesman for the police in the southwestern city of Pforzheim, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

The Brown Owl didn't appear to be injured and officers quickly concluded that it had had one too many. One of its eyelids was drooping, adding to the general impression of inebriation.

"It wasn't staggering around and we didn't breathalyze it but there were two little bottles of Schapps in the immediate vicinity," said Otruba. "We took it to a local bird expert who has treated alcoholized birds before and she has been giving it lots of water."

The bird will be released once it has sobered up, police said.

I refuse to believe David Oyelowo is old enough to be playing a judge of any type. (No, I haven't watched The Good Wife yet this week.) He's still Danny from Spooks, who breaks my heart every time I think of him.

Nothing like getting a call to pick up your child who has been suspended.

This school kills me. He gets stabbed with a pencil - no punishment for the other kid. He pushes a kid who trips over his feet and falls back against a wall and he gets suspended. He shouldn't have pushed the kid, no arguement there. But where is the consistency?

Now I have to be mean mom. I hate being mean mom.

I have spinach! Jessica and I need to get together and go in search of someone who has feta! Stone soup for the internet age.

Blargh, Suzi. That is no fun.

Today needs to be a serious Day of Productivity for me. All the stuff that didn't get done during my trip, including the website launch. Which would be a lot easier if I could remember my domain registrar password.

I had spinach last night, but I put it into a bastardized pasta e fagioli.