Fine Farewell for the "Crocodile Hunter"

Crocodile Hunter Gage?

I heard on the radio that there would be a candlelight memorial for Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter" at the Denver Zoo tonight, and I knew I really wanted to go. With such short notice, I couldn't find anyone else to go with me, they all had other plans, even though a lot of people wanted to come along. So it was just me and Wendy at the Zoo.

I know Australians don't like rabbits, and I even understand why, but I think it's a different kind of rabbit than I am. Whether he liked rabbits or not, I really admired Steve Irwin, and everything he did for conservation and animals all over the world. I think it's a shame that he died so young, and I think the world has grown a little darker for his no longer being in it.

I didn't know how many people would be there, but it turned out to be a pretty good sized crowd. This is shortly after we got there, and a lot more showed up after we did.




It was all put together by a lovely lady called Coco, and her family. She said she just wanted people to have a chance to say "good-bye" to Steve Irwin, and I think that is a very kind thought for those of us who were big fans of his work.

She seemed like a nice lady, seemed to like rabbits, and even had a stuffie of her own in her shirt pocket!




One super nice thing Coco did was set up some posters for people to sign that will then be rolled up and mailed to the Australian Zoo.



In the crowd, I was spotted by the eagle eyes of a nice stuffie named Kane, who came up and said "hi".



Kane told me that he and his human packmate, Joy, just got back from vacationing for a week in Alaska. It sounds like he's had a bunch of great adventures, and I tried to encourage him to start a blog too, but I don't know if he will. Seemed like a very nice fellow though, and it's always nice to meet another traveling stuffie in a crowd.

Eventually, everyone lit their candles, and Coco stood up and gave a lovely speech about what had drawn us all there, the work Steve Irwin had done, and how he had touched so many lives.


She was absolutely right, he will be missed, and I am with her in the belief/hope that his work will continue.

There were lots of very sad children, some crying over the loss of the Crocodile Hunter. But there were also many who, when I talked to them, said they wanted to continue his work. So perhaps some of the next generation of conservationists and zoologists were standing there with us, in front of the Zoo entrance.

All in all, I can't imagine a better farewell for such a kind, and passionate person. Wherever you are, Mr. Irwin, I wish you all the best. You were deeply loved here, touched more lives than you probably knew, and I hope you had a moment to peek over and watch us in Denver, where we were all thinking about you and wishing healing and kindness towards your family.

Thank you Coco for putting this together. It was a lovely way to say "good-bye".

Gratuitous Cuteness

I have a final this afternoon that I'm not sure I'm ready for. So I'm going to go off and study until I have to go to school.

Since I'm stressed out beyond all imagining and don't have time to do a real entry, here is a gratuitously cute puppy picture for you.

The pups are almost completely weaned, nursing more for comfort than nutrition at this point I suspect, and they're becoming independent little monsters doggies all of their own. Voltaire plays with them, and in a doggie motherly way teaches them, but she's starting to want to spend more time with me than she was when they were smaller. So, Voltaire and I have gone back to sleeping on the couch, and the puppies just sleep all over the place, on the floor, in the office.

Last night, Musashi apparently decided to sleep in my jacket. So here's what I woke up to this morning.


Three more weeks and the puppies can go to their new homes!
Anyway, wish me luck on my final! Have a great Tuesday!

Back From Tacticon

We're back home from the convention! It's been a long weekend, but Wendy got some really cool chain mail in trade, and I got a present for Kumo (and one for Wendy too, when she wasn't looking).

I saw Bear and Cat briefly, but I think they were in the middle of a game so they didn't hang around long enough to even snap a picture. It was great to see them, though!

I didn't go to any of the games or anything, instead I just hung out and helped sell chain mail at the TML Mailworkes table. Tom, the owner, makes some really beautiful chain mail, so between customers, I did some shopping of my own.

First, I tried to talk to Tom's armored war dog. He seemed nice enough, but he wasn't very chatty. Strong silent type, I guess.

I checked out the chain mail dice bags, and even though they're gorgeous I don't have any dice and neither does Kumo.

I have three of these mobius balls on my library bookshelf. They're great fidget toys, and I learned to juggle them too!

I thought maybe I'd pick Kumo out a necklace from all the beautiful ones Tom makes, but she only ever wears that one pendant, so I didn't know if she'd wear one.

I wear one of Tom's bracelets as a collar with my ID tag on it all the time, and it occurred to me that Kumo might like a red and black chain mail choker like it to hang her pendant from. So I got her one. She left me a note that she was going riding (since today is absolutely gorgeous motorcycle riding weather), so she hasn't been home to get it yet. I think she'll really like it.

When Wendy wasn't looking, I wandered over and checked out the t-shirts by Pair o' Dice Gamer Gear at the table next to us. They have a lot of really clever, funny t-shirts, and I knew Wendy liked them a bunch. In the end, I was torn between getting her the new "Demand More Cleavage" one...

... or the "Modified Dragon" one.

In the end, I surprised her when we got home with the Dragon. She had no clue that I got it for her and she loves it! It was a good surprise. Alan and Anjanette (the owners and operators of Pair o' Dice) were very nice about selling a shirt to a rabbit, though they did look at me a little weird.

For me, I got a pair of very nice chain mail bracers. Custom made, while I waited, by Tom. They're great! I'll get pictures of them when I get Kumo to model her choker later this evening.

I guess I don't mind that we didn't go camping, though it would've been fun. I hope Mal is having fun on his camping trip (he told me in e-mail that it's all warm and sunny up there, so he and Molokai were going for the weekend). Maybe we'll get to go before Fall sets in. We'll see.

In the meantime, this was a strange way to spend Labor Day weekend, but not bad. Not bad at all.

Too Cold for Camping

Kumo dragged out all the camping gear, since we'd been thinking on going camping this weekend. The plan was that Wendy would drop us off at the State Park not far from the Treehouse on Friday night, and then pick us up sometime Monday afternoon.

However, the weather had other plans.


It was cold and rainy down here all day yesterday, and so far this morning, it doesn't look any different. Kumo and I discussed it last night, and we've decided we're not going camping, even though this might have been our last chance this year.

Kumo is pretty dissapointed, and apparently planning on just sulking around the house all weekend. I'm going to go with Wendy to Tacticon, where she's helping a friend of hers sell chain mail. I think it'll be fun, even just hanging out behind the chain mail table (I'm not much of a gamer) and maybe I can even find a present for Kumo, to make her feel a little better about missing out on camping.
I'll let you know!! Off to the convention!

Rainy Day Ninja

When I got home from running errands this afternoon, I knew Kumo was watching Ivy, but I didn't know where they were. It was raining outside (had been for most of the afternoon), so they had to be playing indoors somewhere.

It was very quiet.

I should have known.

It was TOO quiet.

Doing things around the house, I didn't see any sign of Kumo and Ivy, but I had this weird feeling like I was being watched. Even just walking into a room.


I tried to take my mind off of it, and settle on reading some blogs and doing some work on the internet, but even just sitting there typing, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched.

It was a little feeling at first.

And then it got stronger.


I turned around, but didn't see anything.


Until I noticed Ivy's new toy bunny, Mr. G, laying on the floor. Dressed like a ninja.


I thought I had it all figured out, and that I'd play along. I went back to typing, holding tight to my hostage. Not realizing the danger I'd put myself in by taking one of their number captive.


After a while, I wandered down to the kitchen, to get myself a snack.


Taking my hostage along with me, to get some baby carrots.



When I closed the refrigerator door, I heard "Now, Ivy!!"



And the next thing I knew....


... they were walking away with Ivy's toy, and I was laying hog tied on the floor.

For being a kid, Ivy ties really good knots.

Wendy found me about 15 minutes later, and untied me (snickering the entire time, I might add). I went up to the library to tell the girls exactly what I thought of their ninja game, but Ivy gave me a great big hug and told me I was the best playfriend EVER, and suddenly I didn't have the heart to yell at them.

Rotten ninja girls, with their super powerful girl ninja defense -

They're too cute to stay mad at. Darn it!

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Ninja Fight at Six Flags!!

Okay, so there was only a little ninja fight. But still.

The place where Wendy's dad works rented out all of Six Flags - Elitch Gardens today for their employees and their families. Unfortunately, he couldn't go, but he gave tickets to Wendy's mom, and she brought Wendy and Kumo and I!


Six Flags is really a very pretty park. We were immediately impressed by all the water, fountains, and plants everywhere.


And Kumo was immediately impressed by the chocolate shop.


Kumo started listing off all the rides she wanted to go on, and unfortunately for her, the rest of us were much too chicken to ride most of them with her.

First, she wanted to ride the Mind Eraser.

Um... no.

Then she wanted to ride the Batwing.

Um... still no.

Wendy explained that, while she'd love to, she couldn't ride most of the rides because they make her barf, and that's no fun. Karen explained that she didn't want to ride anything that went really, really high because it's really, really scary.

I explained that I was just a really, really big chicken.

Somehow we ended up in kiddie land, where I was attacked by Wile E. Coyote! And rescued by my daring, ninja sister!!!

After my rescue, we rode the kiddie balloon ride!


But that didn't seem to satisfy Kumo.....

Karen suggested a spinny ride, not in kiddie land, called the Round Up. Wendy pleaded "barf". I pleaded "chicken". And Karen and Kumo rode together while we watched.

This apparently whetted the appetites of these two for more spinny rides. Over the rest of the day they rode a bunch of stuff, including...

...the teacups.



And some kind of spinning ride that I can't remember the name of, but scared me just to watch.



Between rides, we had some onion rings.


Well, Kumo had some onion rings.

I eventually convinced them to wander into the arcade, where we discovered their version of Skeeball - Ice Ball. Much more my speed, and definitely not spinning.


Kumo, in spite of landing a beautiful gutter ball...

... got almost as many tickets as I did!


She traded hers in for a cute princess wandy thing and a ninja sword.

I had to get a ninja sword too, just to protect myself from Princess Ninja Kumo.


She even took on Karen!



After whomping all of us with her cool new ninja sword, Kumo was pretty worn out. That's a lot of activity for someone who's gotten used to sleeping all day. I think the heat was taking it's toll on her too. We rode the carousel on our way out. It's one of my favorite rides, and finally one I could ride with Karen!


Kumo rode too, but seemed a little subdued, riding on her horsie, with her princess wand.


We settled into the car, and went home.



Kumo is now crashed out downstairs, after saying quick "Thanks" to Mandi for coming over to watch the puppies and Voltaire for us. Poor crashed out thing.

We both had a GREAT time and owe a huge thanks to Wendy's Dad for the tickets, and to Wendy's Mom for letting us go with her and riding all the stuff with Kumo. You're the best!! And many, many thanks to our dog sitter, Mandi, who, just by her presence, allows us to leave the house.

It's been a great day, even though I probably should've been studying for my physiology test tomorrow. It was worth it, though. Sunburn and all!

Rainy Saturday & Kumo's Gone to the Dogs

So here I am at the writers group. One of the other members has a stuffie who is blogging. I haven't gotten to meet him yet, since apparently he was out partying last night and so isn't here this morning. But I'm looking forward to making his acquaintance.

Mostly I'm working on my curriculum for the creative writing class I'm teaching late next month. It's through one of the community colleges, and I'm looking forward to it. But I really should figure out what I'm going to teach.

Even though it was a rainy morning, Kumo was up and playing with the puppies when I left.


Anyway, back to curriculum creation.

Bunny Bear Rescue

I got home from school a little late. Some of us went out for coffee after class. Kumo had left me a note to let me know she'd taken Ivy (the little bear she's watching after school now) to the park to play and they'd be back soon. I figured they would, because there was a storm rolling in from the West, and it looked like rain.

Anyway, while I was petting puppies (and counting them all to make sure Musashi hadn't eaten any of his siblings), the phone suddenly rang. It was Kumo. From the playground. Ivy had climbed up on the jungle gym and got scared and wouldn't come down, and Kumo didn't know what to do. I told her "Climb up after her and help her down" and Kumo explained to me that she's afraid of jungle gyms. I asked, "Um, Kumo, aren't ninja known for their amazing climbing ability?" and she said "Yeah! They climb trees and walls. Not JUNGLE GYMS." She sounded very panicked, and rather un-Kumo like. There was a roll of thunder just then, and I knew what I had to do.

I got to the playground just as the rain started, and took in the situation. Ivy and Kumo BOTH looked terrified, and the wind was picking up.



So up I went.


I got Ivy to reach out her paw to me.


And from there was able to get her to put her paws on the bar, and lower herself down...


...to Kumo, who was waiting to catch her at the bottom of the jungle gym.



And then down I came too.


Ivy's doing fine now. We all got rained on a little, and it was a bit chilly, but I got her all snuggled up in the library with a blankie and my toy doggie, Mr. Snugglesworth.


Though she was a little shaken, she bounced back from it as only kids can. She explained to me that she's not afraid of the "climbing up heights", it's the "climbing down heights" that scare her.

Now she and Kumo are coloring, and waiting for Ivy's mom to come pick her up.



Neither the worse for wear, though I think it'll be a while before either Kumo or Ivy go anywhere near that jungle gym again.