Rabbit at the Door

The morning Johnny passed away nearly two weeks ago, I stepped out the front door to head off to work and there was quite literally a rabbit on the doormat. It hopped off into our side yard, munching grass and leaves as it went. I attempted to grab it, but it eluded me and escaped under our neighbor's hedge.

Coming out to look, Steve agreed with me that it appeared that the rabbit was living under the hedge. There were some dirt piles that seemed inconsistent with our usual gophers.

We watched for the rabbit every day since then, but did not see it again. Our neighbor reported a sighting, but that was it. Until today.

Steve came home to have lunch with me and as we were leaving to take him back up to campus, he spotted the rabbit in the side yard. We managed to corral it in a precision pen up against our neighbor's house. Bribing it with raisins and yogurt treats, I managed to get close enough to grab it. Steve helped me load the bunny into a carrier and I brought it inside.

Being such a ridiculously frequent customer at my vet (quite literally everyone there knows me), they squeezed me in between appointments to take a look at the rabbit we had caught. They could tell me that she is in excellent health (other than being skinny), is an adult (at least 1 1/2 years old) and has not been spayed.

The last thing I really need is another rabbit, but what do you say to one that shows up on your doorstep? My vet said this rabbit was the luckiest around to have ended up at our door. Flattering, but do I really need six bunnies? Of course not. But of course she's stretched out looking all comfy and happy in our kitchen (pictured below). [sigh] I really like her. We'll see what happens.


(I didn't fix the red eye in this picture because she actually has red eyes)

The Weather Turns Nasty

This past weekend we had a pretty impressive storm for this early in the season. A couple bouts of hail, high winds, lightening and pouring rain. I know it's nothing for anyone who lives with "real" winters, but I thought the hail was impressive:

The Christmas Dilemma

I starting thinking about my Christmas list and shopping a few weeks ago and have been trying to get started. But I find I’m suffering from a distinct lack of enthusiasm this year. I used to consider it a challenge to come up with great gifts and gave it a lot of thought and effort. I always hated the actual shopping part, but I gave it my best. But this year I just can’t seem to get into it.

I think the primary reason actually stems from me spending the past year retrieving, unpacking, sorting and putting away (or at least attempting to) Steve’s and my belongings that were being stored at my parents’ house. It’s been a tremendously intimidating amount of stuff.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my stuff. I enjoy being in a busy, cluttered environment. I like my walls to be coated in pictures and all the bookshelves filled. But it’s become really obvious that the consumption has to stop because, simply put, we have no more room.

Steve and I are extremely lucky. We have everything we need and most of the things we want (as do all the people on our gift list). It’s hard to come up with gift ideas and requests these days. Most of our desires at this point in life are big ticket. The top three things on our wish list currently are a new TV, camcorder and a house. We are saving toward these goals. We’ll probably get the TV sometime in the next year, put our CostCo Amex card rebate toward the camcorder, and I’m confident we’ll be in a house sometime before 2050.

Seriously, though, it’s hard to come up with things that can show up wrapped under the tree. And I have to say that I honestly believe that I could be perfectly happy in life never getting another gift from anyone. Well… except Steve. Husbands are always on the hook.

Anyway…

It seems to me that Christmas gifts are for kids. Kids have lots of things on their lists and love opening presents. It’s enjoyable for everyone to see a kid light up at getting that toy they’ve “always” wanted. I get that. But we’re not kids anymore, and we don’t have any of our own.

The best part of Christmas for me has always been the decorations. I like shopping for them, putting them up and walking/driving all over the place to look at them. They evoke this warm fuzzy feeling in me from the wonderful Christmases I’ve had with my family. Especially since moving away to Santa Cruz nine years ago, everybody getting together is really a rare occasion. Few (if any) other times of year have my grandparents, parents, brother and me (and Steve of course) in the same place at the same time. And it’s one of the few times of year Steve and I have an extended visit to Southern California that allows us time to see friends.

So I suppose my point is, I don’t want anyone to feel unloved and unappreciated by my shopping reluctance. I really wish gifts weren’t part of the holiday equation at all, but since they are, I will do my best. Ultimately, I can’t wait to spend time with my family and friends around Christmas. For me, that’s what it’s all about.

Random Flowerness

For no particular reason (other than I thought my arrangement turned out well), flowers received in our veggie box recently:

Kiwi on the Couch

Kiwi's favorite place to be is up on the couch with me and Steve. She's a climber and will take flying leaps up on to the couch, or our laps if they happen to be there. She loves to sit next to us and be petted.


She will also nap with me. Pardon my rear in this picture, but I dozed off on the couch, so Kiwi got comfortable and took a nap too.


She's a year old this month, and though I'm sure Steve wishes I hadn't brought home another rabbit, I really love having her around.

Farewell Johnny

Johnny passed away sometime last night. He had been sick, but had been doing much better. His death was sudden and unexpected.




Johnny was a clown of a bunny. A troublemaker, through and through. He was extremely sweet and loved his girlfriend Lola more than anything.


Steve, Lola and I will miss him. He was a joy to have around.

Buster and his Favorite Toys

Buster particularly favors two toys at the moment. The first is a plastic and metal ball that I fill with hay. He can roll it around, pick it up in his teeth and throw it, and get rewarded with his favorite activity of all: eating.











The newer toy that has really caught his eye is this willow tunnel. It's safe for him to eat...


... and he enjoys running through it.



But there's always time to relax after a hard evening of mischief.

Halloween Wrap-Up

We were fortunate enough to be invited to two Halloween parties this past weekend.

On Saturday, we attended a dinner gathering hosted by a friend and co-worker of Steve's, Katie. We carved pumpkins (enhanced by attendee Alex's gnome costume)...



... and had lots of excellent food, drink and conversation.

On Halloween, we went to a dinner hosted by Abbie and Torrey (and Torrey's wonderful mother) in Santa Cruz. We hung out while Torrey frightened neighborhood children with an excellent performance as the undead. Rather than frightened, many of the younger kids just couldn't figure out why he didn't talk. One little girl asked if she could pet him and said "nice zombie."

Pirate Abbie and Zombie Torrey:


Nearly as scary as Zombie Torrey, Lumberjack Steve in the doorway:


He's a lumberjack and he's okay.

All right, if you're not a Monty Python fan that might not make any sense, but we decided a plain lumberjack costume was too boring. He did a fantastic job walking in impressively high heels and reminding people that it's rude not to look a lady in the face while you're talking to her. There are plenty more pictures where that came from, but I think one is probably more than enough for most of my blog audience.

Keeping up with the cross-dressing theme, I got to wear a costume I've wanted to wear for years:


Walking to our car after the party on Saturday, I heard a drunk college kid yell "hey, it's Indiana Jones!" I was quite pleased. My shadow looked like it came straight out of the movies. Good stuff.

Thank you to Katie, Abbie and Torrey for making it a wonderful weekend.