Hi Tiddler – loved your last entry. I wrote this big long comment and then it went into the internet ether when I was trying to figure out if I could post it anonymously, so until I get that figured out, I’ll put the short version of my comment here: Glad you weren’t seriously hurt with those fire incidents!
Regarding the humor thing, that’s tricky. While it’s a bad habit to put yourself down, it’s not a bad thing to laugh at yourself, I think. Most folks find it quite endearing. I’ll admit that sometimes I think people are a little too charmed by my flake-outs, and thus don’t ever take me seriously, and/or keep me around strictly for entertainment value, 
so I guess my choice for a goal would be to have fewer incidents, rather than making fewer jokes about them.
Besides, I’ll bet when you made that comment about the butcher, people weren’t thinking “flake,” but rather, “genius!”