Raen, my favourite beach in Australia (apart from Whitehaven in Qld) is in NSW, Sharpes Beach in Lennox Head, where I used to live. Here's a link - hope this works: www.tropicalnsw.com.au/lennoxhead/album.html

Cheeky, you're thinking of visiting? Alright! We'll roll out the red carpet for you, mate! Although even the carpets are too hot to walk on right now... Thanks for your photos of Vancouver Island, the first one in particular - to try to cool off I imagined myself rolling around in that gorgeous snow!

TraceyBee you would have been here in our winter in July. Though we really don't get much of a winter. Re the kookaburra, they're sometimes not as cute as they may look. We used to have one that used to dive bomb our lounge room window every morning at 5 am - this happened for a few weeks every year. I think it saw its reflection and attacked. But the annoying thing was, it then used to sit there and laugh at me! Bloody bird, I swear, I was starting to wonder what kookaburra soup would taste like!

The milk baths sound lovely, Yogi, or should we call you Cleopatra???!!

LOL iMissEthan, re the porpoise spit! Was Muriel's Wedding a popular movie there? Two of the cast, Rachel Griffiths and Toni Collette went on to be Oscar nominated in other roles, I guess Muriel was their stepping stone to success.

Raen I heard about the fires near you - take good care mate, and we'll pray for rain. Maybe we can all do a raindance. We could all do with a good soaking.

Aw you guys are really sweet, but I am in no danger whatsoever. I live in a very very built up area and it's only a 60 second sprint to the sea, so I think I can run for it if the fires come to close anyway. ;) But please do pray or whatever your spirituality entails for the poor peeps in the Karingai area north of Sydney because those fires have been burning for a few days now.

In good news no houses or people have been in direct danger so far as I'm aware but it must get a bit edgey for all the families living in bushland areas around the outer bits of Sydney at this time of year.

Fires freak me out. I couldn't imagine living near the forest fires each summer, let alone last summer's San Diego fires or what's near Raen.

yogi, as many times before, I'm with you on the controlled climate. Even though I grew up in Chicago, spent "spring" breaks in Wisconsin in 3 feet of snow & rainy England, and there's that Russia fun, when it is single digits, I'm not happy. I love a bit of something brisk, and if it's not windy I can handle the cold, but today? I thought my lungs would collapse when I walked for lunch. Ugh. I can handle it (see: figure skating & home) but not always with a smile.

I guess it just doesn't get that cold in the coastal suburbs where I live. It can get down to zero (Celsius) over night in the depths of winter, but most of the time it gets to at least 17 degrees celsius during the day. But that would probably be the overnight low where AussieGirl lives. We have weather a bit like California or San Diego I've benn told, only wetter than SD.

Had friends who were evacuated from the "Old Fire" which raged in San Bernardino at the same time as the San Diego "Cedar" fire was burning. I live in West Los Angeles, and saw only smokey skies myself, and ash on my truck. Now the danger is the winter rains causing floods and land slides in that burnt-out area. We need rain because of water shortages, but fear what it will do to the land. I'm sure many of you saw the headlines about the 14 people, many children, killed in the Waterman Canyon church camp disaster. Heartbreaking.

Raen – [whisper] I live in Canada [/whisper]. It’s OK, though. I spend a lot of time in Europe during the summers and I’ve honestly given up correcting people, nor am I at all offended when people think I’m a Yank. I sound like one…so it would follow that people would think I am one. The only alternative is festooning myself with Canadian flags and looking like a big ol’ tool. I have a theory that actual lines of separation in N America run north-south rather than (like the border) east-west. I have much more in common with an American from Washington State than I do with a Canadian from Nova Scotia, who has more in common with an American from Maine. Etc. That is my theory anyway. :) Glad to hear you are safe from the fire. We had huge forest fires here in August and I drove through a town that had been burnt down – the whole town, including all the businesses and the sawmill. The houses were just black holes in the ground with campers there where the people were living. Now everyone has left and the town is gone forever. It was sad…and the landscape was apocalyptic.
AussieGirl – Yeah, I’ll come and annoy you all with talk of shrimps on barbies etc. Heh. Actually, I am excited as all get out about it, but sort of afraid of nature. I feel able to reason with bears/wolves/cougars. Poisonous snakes, jellyfish, and giant reptiles…not so much…:) Australian nature seems very, very hostile. An Aussie friend told me the reason the beaches up north are so deserted is because you might get eaten by a ‘saltie’ if you go to one. I still don’t know if he was having me on or not…!
And as for Muriel’s Wedding – I think you would be surprised by how many non-Aussies have formed most of their idea of Australia based on that film. I always laugh at how Australian movies are always full of bright clothing and wacky behaviour (Strictly Ballroom, anything by Baz Luhrmann etc.) and Canadian movies are always so dour and full of grey and rain…
Oooh, less than a month til my next Probst fix…*sigh*

Eeek! Cheeky you mean Vancouver, Canada! I'm such an utter, utter twit. Damn when I'm stupid I'm stupid!

If I were any redder I'd be blue.

And it is true that there are lots of sharks and crocodiles but they sign post any crocodile beaches, and you never swim alone in inlets and near river mouths and stuff. There are sharks in the water here at Manly but they rarely ever come near people and the ones that do are not usually agressive. You'd be more likely to see Blue Bottles which are quite common and sting you but they aren't dangerous. Anywhere that the Box jelly fish would be is also sign posted as far as I know. Basically anywhere in far north Queensland that is not really safe for swimming will have local communities who warn you.

There are some places which are safe and guides etc will take you there I guess.

And if you are sensible you won't get bitten by snakes or spiders. Walk loudly in bushland and avoid dusk, never lift rocks up in the garden and check underneath park benches and stuff like that for spiders. Always always wear shoes in bushland etc.

Yeah Cheeky we'll fire up the barbie for you! People here used to joke about that Paul Hogan ad, you know where he says, "we'll throw a few shrimp on the barbie for ya". We changed it to, "we'll throw a few Yanks on the barbie". And you're right, we do have the world's most poisonous everything here. I have these spiders in and outside the house, redbacks they're called, and they're everywhere. They don't kill except if they bite babies or old people, but their bite is extremely painful, intense pain. And that's just the spiders. Raen has an especially deadly type of spider in her area, the funnel web. They're hideous, and aggressive. And they kill. Then of course, we have the snakes, and in the water, the blue bottles, the box jelly fish, and the sharks - hey, why do think Aussies are such great swimmers???!!!!! Ha!!

And up north, you can't go swimming between Oct and March (right in summer when you most need to, it's bloody hot up north), because of the stingers. But if you wear panty hose in the water, they can't really sting you, so you often see a lot of the male lifesavers etc wearing panty hose on the beach. Now that's something you won't see anywhere else in the world! And then there are the crocs, lookout, but we've got Steve Irwin to take care of wrestling them. But anyway, don't let all that scare you off coming here, there's lots of great things too!

Skycatcher we heard about the canyon disaster here, and all the children who were killed. A terrible thing, it was so sad to watch. The news here is pretty good, we are kept up to date on most things that happen in the US and the world.

skagirl I lived in Chicago many years back. Actually in Wilmette, just north of Evanston, but I also lived on Sedgwick right in Chicago. I loved it, it was the first time I went to the US, and couldn't believe how wonderful Americans are. I've since been back to the US 6 times, and lived in Chicago again, Dallas, and Montana. Not to mention travelling all around the US. The American people generally are a great lot.

Raen wear your shoes to bed so that you'll be ready to run if you need to!

And Cheeky, I too am counting down the days to getting my next Peachy fix.

I've never even seen a Funnel Web, but I'm very cautious of any spidery type situations. I've seen loads of redbacks but they won't kill you straight away you have time to get to the hospital and the antivenom stuff is readily available.

This morning, in Ottawa, it was something like -27. Or, -33 with the wind chill.

On the bright side, it means the canal will be frozen soon. And I get to
go skiing tomorrow!

Zron, bbbrrrrrrrr! But enjoy your skiing.

Some more Australiana for you septics (the bold print is the Australian translation):

American and Strine
7UP Lemonade
Lemonade Lemon drink
Cheerios (a cereal) Little sausages
Thong - g string Summer footwear
Rubber - condom Eraser**
Cookies Biscuits
Biscuits Scones
Cricket - an insect Sports game
Sidewalk Footpath
To go (ie food) Take Away

** Boy, did I get some strange looks from my son's 4th grade teacher when I said that he had forgotten to bring his rubber to school that day!

And a couple more: "porkies" - lies, derived from rhyming slang, pork pies.
Whats a "bison"? To you, an animal. To us, it's something you wash your hands in!

So there you go Cheeky, learn all that and you should be able to fit right in!

Went to see "Love Actually" last night, and the gorgeous Colin Firth. He is good.

It's kind of strange, as much as I love Colin Firth, I have yet to see that movie. Wait, now that I think of it, not so strange as all our babysitters are on January break from college.
Cheeky, from way upthread: I do live near Boston, and your bf is right, it's a great town. But I'd still love to be farther north. Not much farther--perhaps an hour or two--but those are vital hours when you're travelling to ski country as much as possible. Well, and these days there are shrieking toddlers and preschoolers in the car, so that ups the ante even further. (We actually went on our honeymoon to the San Juans and Vancouver Island and adored it. Loved loved loved Victoria. Drove up to Whistler, but as it was summer, we remained uinimpressed.)
That said, it's been unbelievable bitter cold around here. I shudder to think what it's been like up in Zron'sneck of the woods. The skating has been wonderful, however. The lake is friz solid, and I've been out for some good long sessions on the ice. I much prefer pond skating to rink stuff. My husband and I have vaguely thought of getting these big, long 'clap skates' with hinged blades that make distance skating even more fun, but we haven't yet gotten our act together.
And okay: Funnel Webs? Just No. I've love to go to Australia and NZ some day, but now I'm a bit more apprehensive than I was before.

Funnel Webs are deadly but if you're careful you'll be fine, Hildy!

It's so funny to think of water outside being frozen solid, I just can't imagine that it can be that cold and you have to keep getting on with life. I'm practically dead if it is colder than about 10 degrees celsius. It hurts to breathe. It is kinda fun how you can see your breath, though.

It'd be funny to people who live in colder climates to have to be so paranoid about the sun. The ozone layer is so thin here on a hot day you can be badly burnt after half an hour in the sun. Tourists sometimes get blistered because they expect to have the same kind of experience as in the European sun. I remember being out in the sun all day in Paris and it was quite a warm day and I hardly even got burnt.

In day care centres we don't let the kids out without a hat and we sunscreen them before they go out in summer.

Didn't mean to scare you off, Hildy and really, you'd be okay here if you were just sensible, ie wearing proper boots when hiking, swimming between the flags (so a gorgeous, sun tanned lifesaver can watch over you), know what kind of spiders are dangerous etc. Really, we live with all that every day, and we survive just fine.

But like Raen said, I don't think I could survive the cold where you all live. I really don't think I would live through it. I lived in Montana and Chicago only from March on, and while there were blizzards etc, it was the tail end of winter and I knew warmer weather was on it's way. So I take my hat off to you all! Actually, I'd better keep it on, with the sun blazing here. They also have a rule here in schools, no hat - no play. The State I live in has the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world, so we're very serious about sun protection.

Raen – It’s OK, really. If there’s something most Canadians are used to, when abroad, it’s being assumed to be American. I once thought an Aussie was a Brit (and you should have seen the look on the woman’s face, too!) so I am not immune either…:)

And I just want to say thanks to our Aussie posters for trying to reassure us about nature and killer spideys and all but…ummm…not sure it worked. Only an Aussie could say this with what I assume is a straight face:

“Funnel Webs are deadly but if you're careful you'll be fine, Hildy!”

and this:

“I've seen loads of redbacks but they won't kill you straight away you have time to get to the hospital and the antivenom stuff is readily available.”

So completely unconvincing!

Actually this reminds me of a somewhat hilarious incident that happened last summer to my sister. She and her boyfriend were camping in the Rockies and awoke one morning to a grizzly sniffing around their tent. Apparently her boyfriend started crying and hid his head under the covers, while my sister stared out the tent window at the bear. After a few seconds she notices a group of 5 or 6 people had stopped to watch and she says she heard a distinct Australian accent say: “If there’s a killing, we’ve got in on videotape!!” with the same tone of excitement Raen just displayed. Fortunately, she was not eaten. Although the incident was videotaped and has probably been shown to a number of excited, bloodthirsty Aussies.
Aussiegirl – Yeah, lets BBQ us some Yanks. Can we start with Andrew? ‘Cause he was…dumb but so painfully hot. I wouldn’t mind a Savage BBQ. And next up is Probst. And then…look out Hildy! :)
I think I’m having second thoughts about my Oz vacation. I feel it would be cheaper and yet quite similiar to just visit the zoo and jump into the croc tank while spectators pelt me with poisonous insects and reptiles. What I really want to do in Australia is see the country – see that red landscape…the strange trees etc. Could you just exterminate all the scary creatures? Thanks.
Hildy – if it’s skiing and winter sports you want – get thee to the west coast! I’ve seen those ‘mountains’ out east…! And glad you liked the Island and Victoria. Victoria is beloved by Americans. To me it just seems like fake England but the Yanks loooove it. Go figure. I haven’t traveled a lot in the US but my British relatives go on and on about Savannah GA as if it were paradise or something. And now I want to go and see it.

And for the Aussies – frozen ponds are cool because they don’t freeze opaque – they freeze dark black, and if you are a neurotic and fear-filled child as I was, you can’t skate on them, even when your brain knows they’re frozen solid to the ground, without a tiny smidgen of fear that you’re suddenly going to splash through into the icy depths.

Zron – Oooh! I just looked at the forecast for out east…holy windchill form Hell! And now I must do my British Columbian duty and throw you a smug look…
*throws a smug look Zron’s way*
Yeah, we may be dizzy little hippies out here, but at least we’re not freezing! I am supposed to be in Mtl. right now – my lungs are stinging just thinking about it. Glad not to be.

Hope you all had a good weekend - is the official ASS announcement today...? I seem to remember someone saying something about the 12th...could be wrong, tho.

raen this is for you: http://www.salon.com/mwt/comics/barry/2004...ing/index1.html

CheekyLotusEatr said:



Hee! That's pretty funny -- I used to live in England, and you could tell when people liked you, because they said they thought you were Canadian, no, never thought you might be an American, etc. If they hated you, it was "get out of the way, American tourist scum!" I may possibly have been the only person in England who considered (pre-911) festooning themself with American flags to prove the same point. Of course, I've been told by Americans (Southerners, though) that I look Canadian, so who am I to say? Which brings me to what CheekyLotusEatr also said:



Have you even read the book Nine Nations of North America? It pretty much says the same thing, in a bit more detail: that there are lines that run east-west, yes, and lines that run north-south. It's an older book, from the 70s, I think, but fascinating.

I totally agree with you on that, though. Mr. Blevins is from Eastern Canada, and I recognize in him a lot of things he would have had in common with my raised-in-Minnesota grandfather. (Unfortunately, they never had a chance to meet.) I feel totally at home in Vancouver and utterly out of place in Cleveland and New York. And I don't understand why they heat/cool their buildings so drastically in Toronto, and it drives Mr. Blevins nuts that he can't get away with a t-shirt and a ski parka here, because he needs an intermediate 'indoor but not boiling' stage of clothing. It's a lot of fun to think about little things like that. But then, I'm weird. (-:

AussieGirl I'm technically from Evanston (not the part near Northwestern). Wilmette is scary but had my favorite WALK/DON'T WALK sign near their high school - it said "WALK"/"DON'T WACK".

I don't think it did huge box office, but it was a low budget movie, so I'm sure it was thought of as a success. It's at the heart of the quirky Aussie movies that all came out around the same time - Strictly Ballroom, Muriel's Wedding & Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. They all fit in my "sit down and watch if you see them on TV" category, but only in their non-edited format. Priscilla is the worst when it's been edited for basic cable.

Rachel Griffiths is on a very popular HBO show Six Feet Under. Do you get that in Australia?

Oh, if you like Colin Firth you have to see Girl With A Pearl Earring. If I didn't like him before (which I did which you could probably guess from my screen name) Girl would have totally convinced me. He was amazing in it.

I read the above as "I've seen loads of rednecks.....", so you see, we have our dangers too. But I don't know if they've developed an antivenom for rednecks yet.

Hee! I think it's called an education. (The antvenom is applied to the dangerous creature in this case.)

Oh, it's not so bad. Only a few people freeze to death every year.

As is the case everywhere, the most dangerous situations arise at the intersection of Climate Street and Stupid Boulevard. Snowmobiles, for example. Every year, without fail, some peckerhead decides that his bad ass Bombardier can easily cross that little bitty ten-foot stretch of open water in the middle of an otherwise frozen river. And every year, the river wins.

(And then there's barbed wire fences at forty miles an hour. Ouch!)

My personal favourites are actually the rocket scientists who decide it's a bright idea to turn use a blowtorch to thaw their frozen pipes. That would be the pipes in the wall, of their house, which is made of wood. They always seemed surprised when their houses burn to the ground. It's like "Wow! Fire really works! Who knew?"

Oh my stars! Ha! People are strange when you're a stranger etc.

Snowmobiles, that just reminds me of Mr Plow. (The name again is Mr Plow.)

Heh. "Now we just sit back and play the Waiting Game. Oh, the Waiting Game sucks, let's play Hungry, Hungry Hippo." (Never got the reference, but it was funny nonetheless).

And is this where I post that it was 80 in LA this past weekend? I took my dog (and my neighbor's little fat bastard of a dog) on a hike and we were all just panting from the heat! Bwah!

(Of course, I wasn't laughing last month when the office building I'm in was swaying so much from the San Simeon earthquake that people were complaining of nausea).

Aw, it's not the dog's fault he's fat.

You're right, Cheeky; it's his overindulgent owners. He's actually not bad when he's cleaned up and not peeing on my newly cleaned carpet.

Okay, first she threatens me with cannibalism, then she mocks my admiration of a lovely city! I can see where cheeky gets her name! ;-)
But really, I didn't like Victoria b/c it seemed like a fake England, I just thought it was a lovely, nicely sized, nicely placed town surrounded by gorgeous scenery. We actually drove around Vancouver Island a little. Drove up to some town known for the murals they painted all over town. (I think that was Vancouver Island. Might have been a San Juan of some sort, however.) In Victoria, we stayed at a place called the Swann Inn and really just liked the place. And yeah, I will admit to one cream tea.
As for Savannah, well, I don't think it's All That. But then again I am a Yankee and therefore prejudiced. Yogimay be able to give you a more objective opinion.
And as for Western mountains, I hear you! Lived in Wyoming for a year and loved the skiing, but I felt, well, land-locked. I need to be on an edge.
Not the edge that involves working in office towers that sway, however. B/c I'm a big, fat chicken. I'd rather freeze my All Star Survivor off in the subzero cold, whence we are heading once again later this week.

Hildy - I think I just make fun of Victoria because I am from here - I feel like I can...! And no shame in cream tea...it's sort of a ritual for Victoria visitors - go to Empress, have cream tea. Done. And the town with the murals is Chemainus. There's a nice river there that we swim in during the summer, but other than the river and murals it's a very sleepy place. In fact even with the river and the murals its a very sleepy place.
And as for the cannibalism...it was Aussiegirl's idea...I'm completely innocent...:) It's not your fault you belong to a tasty nation.

Lawdog - I just love dogs. Hopefully your gruelling hike worked off some of its blubber. :)

*looks smugly at Zron, 'cause it's my job* How's the skidooin' up there eh?

skagirl Wilmette scary? It was really nice when I lived there, nice houses, cobblestone streets, even the El train stations sounded nice (ie Linden) but that was back in 1981. A shame if it's changed too much. LOL re "Don't Wack".

iMissEthan yes, we get Six Feet Under, but I haven't yet watched it.

LOL Skycatcher re the rednecks! I think from now on when I see a redback spider, instead of running off screaming, I'll think of redneck and laugh my head off!

Cheeky, I am really sorry if we have turned you off Oz, really it's a great country. By the way, everything I said about the creeepy crawlies I did say with a straight face. They're deadly, but with common sense can be avoided, and there are hospitals nearby quite used to treating stings and bites etc. However the crack about throwing a few Yanks on the barbie, well, okay, I laughed, just a little.

Sorry to hear about people freezing to death there, Zron. Over here we have had people collapsing like flies from heatstroke, and quite a few died.

Lawdog, hope there's not a whole lotta shaking going on! We had an earthquake here about a year ago, (very rare in Australia, although back in 1989 there was a bad one) just 3 on the Richter scale, but it was my first experience of it, and it scared the shit out of me. Of course I had no idea that it even was an earthquake till the next day's news item, just this feeling of "what the hell was that?????"

Thanks AussieGirl, I've been through several earthquakes, including San Francisco in 1989, but this was freaky just because it was the first time I've experience one in a tall office building. They are designed to sway, and sway they do. Wildly. I don't get sea sick and I felt queasy from the motion. Unlike SF in 1989, I didn't have any concern for my safety, but I admit that I pictured my very old house flattened with my pup most likely under my bed. Fortunately, it was actually a very mild rolling quake according to my neighbors and when I got home, my dog seemed no worse for the experience.

aussie girl scary in the sense of WASPy WASPs everywhere, not gangs or whatever. Plenty of drugs, yea, but that was a result of too much money. Sadly, New Trier had one of the highest suicide rates for high schools in the late 80s.

LawDoggy, I have been meaning to get in touch with you. My friend & her soon-to-be husband will be moving to LA this summer - I think she said she'll be working in Century City or Circuit City or Carson City, making pretty good money. What are some hip-ish neighborhoods in that aren't ultra swanky but can handle their 3 dogs (Stupid, Humpsalot & Sweety, as I call them)? I think they're looking to actually get a house.

LD, that's exactly how Pool Boy described the quake. He was in a tall office building, too. He talked about nausea also. Interesting.

As a SoCal native, I'm kind of embarassed to admit that I panicked a bit, but in my defense, I was really thinking about my dog, who really hates earthquakes (we had a small but nasty sounding one in the middle of the night when he was a puppy, and he was not at ease when we were crouched in the doorway, as evidenced by the puppy piddle). The tall building thing was particularly freaky since the actual earthquake was (a) relatively short and (b) far away from us (200 miles?). But our building swayed for a good 2 minutes. My best friend (also in a tall building) called his boyfriend at home, and the boyfriend said, "Really? When was it?" and my friend said "Right now! We're still shaking!" Weird.

I picked up the phone to call my neighbor to see about my place and to check on news reports, but the phone was dead (briefly), so I'm thinking 8.2 and right here. Uh, not exactly. So much for experience. But did I mention that it was 80 last weekend?? It gives new meaning to Shake and Bake.

Skagirl, we do have a Carson and a Culver City (in addition to Century City), so which is it? Culver City and Century City are generally considered "Westside" and Carson is "South Bay." And it's a good thing that they will be making lots of money, because they'll need it. A little house in my hip but recently affordable neighborhood near downtown was listed (and sold) for about $500,000. 1000 s.f., no closets, carport (not a garage), not much yard. And needs work. It only gets worse as you head west from me. I saw a townhouse/condo in West Hollywood (good location for your friends, as far as location, anyway) and it was just under $1M. The master bedroom had a balcony; it was about 5 feet from the neighbor's master bedroom balcony.

Anyway, West Hollywood is always hip and not ultra swanky, what with The Gays. Venice is on the verge of becoming tragically hip, but there are still some dicey neighborhoods "keeping it real." (I guess). West Adams is farther away but has some cool old homes and has been on the upswing for 5 years now. Hancock Park is boring and expensive, but some cool homes with huge tracks of land. Well, for LA, that is. Los Feliz (near me) has great homes and is drawing some of LA's better restaurants these days. Hope that helps!

Miss Alli, is that the same Pool Boy who blames you for the Vikings? Is the State of Wisconsin going to investigate whether you stopped watching the final minutes of the Packers game? Because I think Brett might have to find an ag job after that last pass.

Yes, Pool Boy who blames me for the Vikings. I don't think I could affect the Packers, as I was not rooting for them. He remains convinced that I put a permanent whammy on the Vikings by walking away from the game at the end. And don't try to tell him otherwise, because he will. Not. Believe. It. He'll tell you he's kidding, but . . . he's not. He believes. I killed the Vikings.

But yes, that last pass from Favre was . . . unforgivable.

In December, we had high winds in NYC, and 55th floor office was swaying so much that we all got sea sick. I have been in some big earthquakes, so I admit that we lacked that sort of intensity, but it was still a visible swaying, and we did have considerable duration. I've been in that office for six years, and I've never experienced anything like it. I felt like I had to hold on to my desk. I guess that's the way they make buildings these days.



I'm almost afraid to mention it in light of the freezing and heatstroking going on, but I have escaped the frigid NYC weather for a short little visit to South of the Law Dog territory. I am neither baking nor freezing, and I feel pretty darn guilty about it - between moments of extreme happiness and bliss, that is. It was 75 degrees today, and I do believe I have a nice rosy tan to show for my three hour hike. I'll have to put on make-up to hide it when I get home so I don't get smacked on the street by some chilled passerby with sunburn envy.



There is certainly no shame in enjoying a creme tea. If it were not so full of calories and the fact that I have a billion responsibilities, I would have one every day. Even still, I meet friends for a nice hotel tea on any occasion I can convince them to join me. It's one of the great joys of life. Also nice - wine a beautiful cheese selection at 4 PM. It's worth working through lunch to enjoy - no need to be a tourist in Victoria - or NYC for that matter. At home and work, I have little collections of tea pots and cups, so I always have a nice tea tray, even if it's with a peanut butter cracker. It makes me happy, and it doesn't take any longer to put tea into a nice cup. I used to visit a friend who lived on a sheep farm in Wales. Her eighty-plus year old father and I would spend days together eating bacon sandwiches and drinking tea out of china cups. He said that a china cup always makes the tea taste better.

It's interesting because I think most folks tend to think that they can bring bad luck to their team by watching. For example, I know for a fact that I killed the Padres in 1998; I went to three post season games, and they lost all three, including Game 4 of the Series. Oh sure, you could argue that Ken Caminiti was hepped up on painkillers and more, that Kevin Brown has a history of playoff failures, and a small market franchise against Steinbrenner's wallet is doomed to fail miserably, but 0-3 with me in attendance? Pretty conclusive. Mark Gallegos wouldn't even take my case.

That said, I'd remind Pool Boy that my pathetic Chargers won three games all season. The equally pathetic Raiders also won three games. Both of those teams beat Minnesota (and handily, in San Diego's case). I think this evidence suggests that advancement by the Vikings was denied by fate or Providence or some other force beyond our reckoning. Honestly, can a serious contender have doubled the win totals for the league's two worst teams? Hardly. Indeed, it would have been easy money to bet on the seemingly hapless Cardinals that day. Thus, Pool Boy must conclude that it was beyond your control, and whether you watched, left, blew raspberries at the TV, you were not a proximate cause of the result.

LawDog - I'm in Culver City, and the two houses on my street that sold recently were 3 bdrm/2bath types, for $475,000, and they are only '50 suburb-type houses, nothing special. Culver City is only a mile or two inland from Venice Beach, and that area changing dramatically. Heck, even Julia Roberts has a home in VB now.

BTW - did you remember to mention our 80 degree temps last weekend? Oh, yeah, you did! Wouldn't want to rub it in or anything like that, would we.

Earthquakes - I have a cat, well actually I have 3, but Sweet Bear was in the Northridge quake with me, and still hasn't relaxed. She tenses up when a neighbor starts up a vaccum cleaner. 'Course, I'm not much better. I really hate those big quakes. The little ones are kinda fun, but the big ones are terrifying.

The problem with earthquakes is that you don't know when they are big or small. The 1989 SF earthquake started very small, just the usual shaking, but it got consistently worse over the next 19 seconds, until it stopped suddenly. Due to the Series, I was home, thankfully, as the courthouse where I worked sustained serious damage; the less serious plaster facade damage, though, was incredibly scary (according to friends) and I had enough fright for one evening.

So I have to admit that the small ones are enough to get my heart racing.

Pool Boy will not be dissuaded, because he is a nutball. Lovely in a hundred ways, but a nutball.

Aussiegirl - I was kidding! You haven't put me off ... my words were meant as a humourous tribute to your toughness and lack of fear in the face of large numbers of lethal creatures and weather. :)
I still plan on making an ass of myself in your great country...!
Oh, and you should read this:
http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/australia.shtml
In fact, everyone should read it, as it's hilarious.

I remember one earthquake when I was a little girl. I was eating breakfast and looking out the window at our in ground swimming pool. One minute it was still, the next, it was a tidal wave. Half the water in the pool was emptied out and a mouse drowned before my eyes. It was one of the strangest sights of my life.

But I remember the aftershocks being even more worrisome. I woke up early every morning for (it seemed) months because my bed was shaking violently. I was sure it was ghosts, which (at that time) seemed infinitely more frightening than earthquakes.

Laughing so hard, Cheeky, that was hilarious! It's great news! I live in Brisbane, and now I'm apparently so close to the Bahamas I can go their for weekends! By the way, if anyone wants to know who Banjo Patterson, Con the Fruiterer, Ian Thorpe are, or what Tim Tams are, either Raen or myself can fill you in.

By the way, Australia has 20 million people in it, as of a couple of weeks ago, and the article said only 19 mill. So it seems we have lost a million Aussies on the way! That's a million Aussies let loose on an unsuspecting world! Too bloody right, mate!

Yogi what the hell was a mouse doing in your pool when you had this earthquake? LOL

Yogi, why would you abandon this lovely weather to go enjoy 75 degrees? Why this morning it was almost 8!

Thanks for the advice LawDog & SkyCatcher. My short term memory impedes remembering which city, but I passed the info on to her.

That Australia thing is hysterical, but it's two years old, from Jan. '02. That probably accounts for the population discrepancy.

Yee-hah - NYC in single digits. How fun it is to see the ridiculous individuals too concerned about how their hair looks to wear a hat freezing themselves outside.

I'm crazy like that. Yikes - 8 degrees in NYC. I truly will feel bad for a few moments before I go hike my beloved mountain again and enjoy the clear blue sky.

Of course, ImissEthan, I will wear my hat.

I frequently go out with my hair still wet in NYC, hoping that it dries on the walk to work. I can't find the time to blow my hair dry every day. As I get older, I spend less time on hair and make-up, though I realize it should be the reverse. But I do think I would find the time if it was 8 degrees outside.

I bought a new belly dancing hip scarf. I hope Mr. Yogi likes it. It's black with silver coins and beads. It makes lots of tinkly noises when I dance. I also learned a couple of new moves. Gotta dance!



Oh Aussie Girl, there was a big woods behind our house rising up a hill behind the pool (hence the fire danger that occurred the next summer with fire at the top of the hill) so the little mouse was nosing around near the pool, when the earthquake made our swimming pool turn into Krakatoa, East of Java (sp.?) and the mouse got caught in the wave and it and drowned. It was an amazing sight. Right before my eyes while I was eating a bowl of cerial.

Southern California - love the weather - hate the natural disasters. Though I have also lived through a hurricane that dropped three towering pines through my house and twelve on my property in Georgia, several tornados in Texas, and of course a major terrorist attack in NYC, so maybe it's just me?

Hee, I'm one of those people who the very second I put a hat on, I get hat hair. But when its cold enough, I will wear one - the colder its gets, the less concerned I get about appearences. DC is still in the warm 20s but we are expecting snow! But just about an inch.

Hee, when the Detroit Pistons were heading toward their first championship, and were running into a roadblock called the Chicago Bulls, I discovered that if I missed the first quarter of the game, they would win, but if I watched the whole game, they would lose. Needless to say, there was plenty of nervous thumb-twiddling, and late dinners scheduled for that playoff series.

Wow, all this Australia talk is making me homesick for the 10 months we spent down there in the mid-70s. It was there I gained a love for good Chinese food, fresh fish, Monty Python, mass transit and AC/DC. We dodged redbacks all the time in the backyard of our rental house when we went to pick lemons from the trees, and we had big-eyed opossums chowing on our passionfruit vine that wound around our side steps.

The lingo's a lot how I remembered it. Weren't the Salvation Army people called "salvos"? And "lemonade" down there is really like Sprite or 7Up. Wow, that makes me thirsty. I could use a nice ice lollie right now.

I remember when Lower Michigan got an earthquake in the mid-80s. We were sitting in our apartment in Ann Arbor, our walls started to shake hard for about sixty seconds, and then it stopped. We thought it was the train that passed by our house, but it turned out it was Mother Nature having the shakes.

ETA: Couldn't watch the Packers game, and glad I didn't. Oh well, if they had to be beaten by someone, I'm glad it was the Iggles! Go Iggles!!!

Oh, tell me about it. I broke out my heavy duty Chicago coat this morning for the first time since I moved here. Which is warm as all hell, but it's so big it's like I'm lugging around a separate entity. I'm surprised I didn't get doublecharged on the bus.

Sad thing is, this is still child's play compared to Chicago. But I think I was switched at birth and there's someone in LA or Miami bitching about the heat, because I have NEVER gotten used to the cold!!!

As long as I'm poking my head in here (slow day at work; exploring some new threads), for those of you who don't know me from TARCons or NYC TWoPCons, hi! I'm The Last Dodo, a 31-year-old actor/writer/singer/executive assistant/kitchen sink in NYC. Or, you know, just "Hey you".

One of my favorite DC things was the reaction to the weather. Schools closed at the threat of snow, one inch meant "optional day" for the government. And the city completely broke down in 1996 with that early January 54 feet snow.

And while I have cute knit caps I rock big short crazy hair & thus cannot wear knit hats. I'm a total loser.

DC, the land where one inch is threatening and six inches are huge.

I was there from 92-95, and the CBS local affiliate weatherman got caught with his pants down (literally) at a public park the day before the Storm of the Century (March 93), was busted and never heard from again. At least in TV weather. Although he was fired for having public sex, I think a case could be made about what kind of weatherman is outside naked when his own station is predicting over a foot of snow?