And I do love Fergie's boots.

Back home. NOT ON, NATURE. NOT ON. At least, not in my dad's FRONT FUCKING YARD.

Matilda actually said, "Mommy, you better come over here. I found a snake." Her old preschool had regular let's-greet-nature science classes, so all I can think is that at some point during one of the reptile visits the teachers drilled the "Never, never touch without a grown-up" rule into them all.

Seriously. A rattlesnake (a wee one, but rattling) less than an arm's length from my barefoot 4-year-old. Every time I let myself think about how easily, how quickly she could have been bitten I freak the fuck out. I know to look out for stairs, sharp edges, scissors and knives, double-parked cars with inattentive drivers, intrusively friendly strangers and all the rest of it. But rattlesnakes?

Gah. And we drank up all the gin last night, damnit.

My dad's calling the county's deadly wildlife department (called Vector Control - no wonder we couldn't find it in the phone book) tomorrow morning. That snake is awfully little and, barring some random asshole tossing it over my dad's fence into the yard, it can't have traveled too far from wherever it was hatched. Which means siblings and possibly parents and who knows what kind of reptilian extended family. DO NOT WANT.

bon bon, where?

Kings/Got Sushi, on Reseda. Nearish to Mandarin Deli.

I'm at the Residence Inn. They've got a sweet setup downstairs-- the game on a projection screen in front of the pool, with a firepit and grill running. Would be nice if I was interested!

JZ, I don't think baby rattlers have rattles, so Matilda's close encounter might not mean a nest nearby. It could even have been mimic, though Vector Control will know.

In any case, scary! Glad everyone is okay and unbitten.

My cousin's lips were on TV. (E*Trade baby. They film a little kid saying the lines, and superimpose the kid's lips over the baby's to make it look like the baby's talking. No clue who the rest of the baby is, but the lips are my little cousin.)

The sister of a friend of ours went on a date or two with Keith Olbermann. He was a real odd duck, evidently, and very hard of hearing.

Now, I'm not sure if I want to know more or not.

Hil, that's hilarious. I love the way they do things like that in commercials. I had a shipmate in the Navy whose hair was used in a Breck commercial, but only from the back. The face was another girl entirely.

JZ, I don't think baby rattlers have rattles, so Matilda's close encounter might not mean a nest nearby. It could even have been mimic, though Vector Control will know.

Hmmm... still not sure. The snake wasn't touching the tip of its tail to the ground (Wikipedia says there's one snake that mimics the rattler, but it has to basically clap its tail on the ground to make a fake rattle), and it was between 1 and 2 feet long, so nowhere near full-grown but definitely big enough to have been born and gone through at least one shed cycle and started a rattle.

The really good thing is she knew not to poke at it, which is how most people get bitten.

Poke it or step on it.

Rattlesnakes are pretty common in California. When I was working military police at Miramar, the first round in our weapon was always snake shot. We'd come across at least one a week. Usually run over by a car on the road.