I came along in late 2003, I think. Invitations were not needed any more. I used my account for reading only for a long time and when I become interested in making my journal more pretty, I discovered that hey, it's 7 now and then I upgraded to plus and there was 15!

We only have grass snakes and rattles in Estonia and this one was definitely the non-poisonous one (although my ability to make the difference was another thing grandmother doubted). I can't imagine it going up the stairs. I was just staring at it and it stared back. then I went to tell somebody that, hey, there's a snake and when I came back, it was gone. the poor thing seemed very frightened.