First Bulb of the Season

End of an Era

Today, we euthanized Buster. He seemed to be having difficultly hopping, and it was becoming apparent that things were beginning to shut down. Steve and I agreed it was time. So, I made an appointment with our vet for this afternoon.

(click here to read my recent post about his condition)

I arrived home from work to find Steve waiting for me, petting Buster and feeding him raisins (he loved his treats until the very end). We went together to the vet. Steve's an amazing man. Of course, Buster was as much his as mine.

I was relieved that he didn't suffer much. When we had to euthanize our rabbit Kuipo awhile back, she had a very rough night before I could get her to the vet. I didn't want that to happen again, so Steve and I watched Buster very carefully, trying to find the proper time (since we knew his death from cancer was inevitable). And I think we got the timing right. He didn't suffer, but it was clear that it would be downhill from here and he didn't have long left.

We got Buster in 2003. He was 8 weeks old at the time. He died today at age 8. It is bizarre not having him around. He was such a fixture in our lives. He was our very first rabbit. He had a large repertoire of words he seemed to understand. And he adored us. Right to the end, begging to be petted.

(click here to see my post when he turned 5, which has the first picture taken of little Buster, as a baby bunny)

I know we did the right thing at the right time, and I'm grateful that things worked out that way. It's just hard.

You are Not so Smart

I have been really enjoying a blog I found linked in an article on lifehacker.com. In addition to the catchy and somewhat biting title, the "You are Not so Smart" blog attempts to summarize findings from studies of human behavior in accessible language. I am definitely a armchair psychologist and make no assertions regarding the accuracy and completeness of the content on the aforementioned blog. But I've found it fascinating and thought-provoking to read, so I thought it was worth throwing up a link:

youarenotsosmart.com

Click on "All Posts" at the top and find a topic that sounds interesting to you. My favorites are "The Just World Fallacy" and "The Perils of Introspection." Of course, this is probably because they are in line with my "Confirmation Bias."

Supermassive TV

Since we're debt free and I got a really big year-end bonus, I gave Steve the accounting go-ahead to buy the new TV he has wanted for ages. Patience pays off; the TV he wanted had gone down in price quite a bit.

Before:

After:

It's a Panasonic 42" Plasma. The photo doesn't quite do it justice. I think it's ridiculously large. In some close up scenes, the people on the TV are life-size. It's a little disturbing.

But Steve is happy, so we're all happy. We have yet to watch a movie on it, since Steve has been pretty busy with school work, but I'm sure it will be quite epic.

Birthday Wrap-Up

With my birthday falling in the midst of tax season, I'm usually too tired after work to want to do anything special. This year, in what is beginning to look like tradition since it's what we did last year, we picked up take-out sushi and ate at home. I wanted to watch the Jeopardy IBM challenge (I had recorded all 3 shows) so that's what we did. And it was lovely.

I did also get some gifts that arrived in the mail from my parents.


I was thrilled to find a new toolbox, a small solar-powered fountain pump, a garden kneeler and a Jelly Belly candy assortment that included a favorite from my childhood: fruit gems! I heard from my parents in-law that I have a new pot coming my way, which is perfect since I got a gift card from my brother to the Home Depot that will be perfect for filling said pot with plants. I suppose all these things might not sound terribly exciting, but I was pretty happy about them.

And despite being a one-car household, Steve managed to sneak to downtown Santa Cruz while I was at work and buy me an absolutely fabulous necklace. He is always spot-on with the gifts he gives me, but this time he outdid himself (I really love it, can you tell?). Unfortunately, the length of the chain makes it lie funny on my neck, but that can be fixed. Until that happens, here's a picture of it lying on my other birthday gift from Steve.


In that black case is an iPad (Steve and I agree, iSlate would have been a much better name, but nobody asked us). It was supposed to be my Christmas gift, but didn't quite happen, but it's here now. I still use our desktop computer for writing-intensive tasks like blogging, even though I don't find the iPad as difficult to type on as I would have expected. But, I use the iPad a lot for reading articles online, checking e-mail and making to-do lists. I really enjoy having it. Steve was kind enough to let me begin using it when it arrived, and didn't make me wait until my birthday.

In short, I had a low-key but very nice birthday. 28 feels suspiciously similar to 27, but I'm optimistic that it'll be a good year.

Valentine's Wrap-Up

Steve and I don't do gifts for Valentine's Day, but each year he makes a reservation at a restaurant outside our normal fare. Usually this involves using our entire monthly eating out budget in one night, and this year was no exception.

Our dinner at Gabriella's (French cuisine) was delicious, but lasted way too long. We arrived right on time for our reservation at 6. We finally got out the door at 9:30. The service was extremely slow... I guess maybe they only had one cook? Or they wanted us to linger over our wine and coffee (neither of which we had)? Anyway... at least the food was great. And it forced us to talk. We're more used to intermittent casual conversation throughout the evening, not being trapped at a little corner table watching a candle literally burn down to a sad nub over 3 1/2 hours.

Anyway... we took some pictures of us all dressed up.

Is that camera positioned properly yet?

That's better.

Great smiles, but that flash is just so bright.

Death's Door

You can't avoid loss in life, but when you have pets that experience tends to come around somewhat frequently. Since Steve and I have had rabbits, six have died in our care.

First was Ruby, a rabbit that I brought home from the shelter knowing she was very ill. You could tell she had once been a beautiful rabbit, and was a very gentle and peaceful sort. She was covered in dirt and obviously not well. I brought her home, gave her a shower and took her to the vet. We did our best to make her comfortable and she lasted a few more weeks before dying peacefully. I remember spending the evening before she died sitting on the floor next to her cage, petting her as I studied for my midterms.

The next to go was Bun-Bun. I brought her home from the shelter on the day she was to be euthanized. Her kennel card (the ID card on her cage at the shelter) said that she had been surrendered because "daughter doesn't play with her anymore." She became a companion to our rabbit Johnny. She died after a brief illness.

After that, we lost SweetPea, Johnny and Kuipo. We've had rabbits for eight years, so it's not quite an average of a death per year, but pretty close since we didn't lose anyone that first year.

Our first rabbit is Buster, who we got at eight weeks old in spring of 2003. This past week, we found out that he is dying of cancer. His behavior had changed gradually over the last 6 months, but we had attributed it to his age (eight is pretty old for a large breed rabbit). After a strange growth appeared on his shoulder, I took him to the vet. An x-ray revealed massive spread of small tumors throughout his chest. Cancer is rabbits isn't really worth treating... treatment is extremely hard on them, and the cancer always recurs, in my vet's experience.

So we wait. He could have days, weeks, perhaps a few months. We watch him closely for signs of discomfort. He's on pain medication, but it's obvious he doesn't feel like himself. I suspect he doesn't have long.

I've wondered why I do this to myself. Seeing them suffer and eventually die is difficult to handle, since our rabbits are really an integral part of our life. Especially Buster, our very first rabbit. He was there before we graduated college, before we got married, since we were only 20 years old.

But having the rabbits, and losing them, has done wonders for my character and for Steve's and my relationship. They have made me more responsible and infinitely more patient. They have really softened some of the rough edges. And for Steve and me, seeing how we handle loss has been very instructive. We are able to pull together well and comfort each other. We will all eventually lose important people in our lives, and as painful as it is, I feel that losing pets has been invaluable "practice" for the things we will face in the future.

So, not to be overly depressing or anything... this is just been weighing on me since we found out the situation last Tuesday. Buster is really special and his passing will be the hardest yet. But we get through. After all, there are taxes to do.

A Beautiful Beach Day

It's a sunny 80 degrees outside with light winds. A perfect day for the beach. Of course, we aren't going, since the sun and I don't really get along... and it's just so sandy there...

Anyway, the gorgeous weather sure is making our plants happy, especially my favorite little potted one.

No surface unadorned...

I have a problem with blank surfaces. I'm sure there's some deep-seeded psychological reason for that, but since Steve tolerates it (and contributes his own posters/souvenirs/weaponry), I don't worry about it too much.

We are storing the fridge that came with our rental house in the corner of our living room (we are using a larger fridge we own). I felt that it was just so... plain. So when I came upon my collection of bumper stickers, I recalled an idea I'd seen in a magazine.

First, I purchased some inexpensive magnetic vent covers.


Then, I adhered the bumper stickers.


After cutting them out with scissors, they were ready for display.


Ah, much better. One less blank surface to irritate me.