I always thought highly of him; though his expressions of enthusiasm could be a bit overdone, he was always lovable. I feel so bad for his family and friends. On the other hand, I don't particularly like the attitude of that other wild-life expert, Jeff Corwin, yet find it hard to say why, since I loved Steve. I do watch the programs of both of them to see the animals.

Well gosh, mongo, I think I'll save that post for my inspiration file :) Thank you so much for your kind comments. I respect your opinion greatly, as you know, so it means a *lot* to hear that what I've posted passes your inspection. I actually thought of you as I was arranging the stones on the edges of each linear foot so that the transition from one to the next would be unnoticeable :) We have just fallen in love with rocks (it's hard not to, out here) and I think that even though it's a *bit* idiosyncratic to put rock slices up on your bathroom wall, it will appeal to the Oregonian in possible purchasers :) and may not have to be taken down, as the Sicis glass tile backsplash I did in the kitchen just may be. (That was the first mosaic I'd ever done--no cutting, really, except for top and bottom rows--just arranging every single 1/2" tile for a 16 sf space...I just shake my head in disbelief when I think about the fact I just bulldozed my way through that back in 2004--ignorance was totally bliss--I figured "it's just arranging tiles, what's the problem? :)). O.K., and to your other points (bringing the swelling in my head back down to a manageable level :)): We ended up not using the teak because I saw what my cats had done to some wood furniture and I would have had a huge crying fit if they'd done that to the teak after everything we would have put into it, since it wouldn't be as easy to change out as, say, a tabletop. So we're making a table out of the teak, instead! A really nice side table for our family room. That's project #372 in the queue. But I'm so thankful for the finishing advice you gave and I still have it. I used it to test finishes last summer before we decided. And re the *cougar* mosaic? ;) It needed to be sent to Australia on mesh to be installed with hundreds of others on that Steve Irwin tribute wall, so what I did was make a work surface of the picture glued onto cardboard (which really didn't help that much--I couldn't really see it through the mesh enough for it to make any difference so I had to work from another pic I had sitting up next to the mesh) topped w/saran wrap as you noticed, then taped the mesh on it and Weldbonded the pieces of glass onto the mesh. I would go under the mesh every so often to separate the glued mesh from the saran wrap. Then I packed it (I made it *exactly* the size to fit into a large fixed-price international priority box) within an inch of its life and luckily, not a piece came off during the trip. I did have to back-paint, with various colors of nail polish, many of the vitreous tiles so as to get enough color variation to be able to come *anywhere near* the gradation of Malina's gorgeous face. I still think it looks a bit cartoonish...what was I thinking?! Why didn't I do a tiger or a skunk or something?! But I've completely fallen in love with cougar markings and just marvel at the incredible shadings each one has. I think I may do the indirect clear mosaic-mount sticky contact-like paper thing you refer to for the big accent lines in DD's bathroom upstairs, though--I prefer it to surface-mounted onto paper because you can have some sense of how things are going before you take the mount off. I'll put tiles in a grid, then stick the mosaic mount on the front of them, then install them onto the wall. Have you used it? How do you like it compared to mesh? (And mommielady, you underestimate notre cher mongo :) You'll discover he's a complete treasure of this forum--accomplished in way too many areas for a normal human being and extremely generous with his knowledge (and patient with people like me who ask too many irritating detail questions!). I have a theory I'm working on that he must have been the subject of one of those secret mind-experiments the military did "back then"...like a mental Bionic Man, you know...do I date myself?) (DH just looked over my shoulder and said "The Mongo Identity" -- much more contemporary :))

Fly, Jane's been doing the "populist" thing for quite some time now. She handed over day-to-day control of the research at Gombe a long time ago and started working the public and the politicians. I worked for her about 10 years ago for a while and she never spent more than a few days in any one location (aside from a couple of weeks at Gombe and a couple of weeks in England with her mother here and there) - - she constantly traveled the world trying to spread her messages of conservation, animal rights and public service. I don't know if she is still keeping up that strenuous schedule but I wouldn't doubt it. Lena and others: I agree that Steve was more effective at reaching the masses, and this was largely because of the thrill of watching him in dangerous situations. However, I'm not convinced of the relative benefits of his educational message. OK, so he convinced people in their living rooms around the world that crocodiles should not be eradicated. But does it matter a whole lot whether someone in Ohio believes that? Isn't it more important to make a local impact in that respect? I know, he did that as well (at least with respect to crocodiles), but IMO he could have done so without jumping all over them on t.v. just for the showmanship of it. In the beginning, didn't his show focus on actually being sent out to catch and relocate dangerous animals? Now that I can understand, because he's actually benefitting the animal in the end. But catching them just to show off for cameras reflects a certain lack of respect for the animal IMO. For me, it's a question of quality over quantity. He may have reached more people, but I don't think the message he carried had the anywhere near the level of respect for the natural world that other naturalists are actively trying to cultivate. Furthermore, adding a "do as I say, not as I do" caveat to his exploits did not, IMO, counteract the implicit message that tough guys mess with dangerous animals. If you've ever been to Yellowstone or somewhere like it, you saw that there was always one (or more) in a crowd who had to push the limits, getting foolishly close to the animals. This put the animal in a bad situation as well as the other observers. While people did this before Steve's show came out, I doubt it could be said that his actions did anything to discourage this type of behavior.

I will think it over, it has to be one easily opened and one that allows even tempeture in the house. The real under gravel issue is, I think Bindi is going through his Social puberty, read about it in feline behavioral books ( not sexual, social. It happens later then sexual in gen hits between age of 2 and 4) and the move with the new cat happened right in the thick of it. Bindi isn't even 3 yet. Leopalorn is almost 2 (I do think the purebred in him will tone it down) but I told dad don't expect Leopalorn to always be nice. He'll probably play longer but I'm sure it still happens.