A Fuzzy Houseguest

Since Steve and I were down to 4 from our longtime rabbit capacity of 6, I decided that we could take in a foster rabbit. I asked Steve what he thought of the idea and he shrugged... which for him is as close to a ringing endorsement as you get. So I e-mailed the director of The Rabbit Haven to see about finding a rabbit that needed a place to stay.

The director told me about a rabbit that she was caring for personally. Apparently the rabbit's owner (a young man) died suddenly two days before Christmas. His parents, understandably distraught and not terribly interested in learning how to care for a rabbit, had been keeping the rabbit in a cardboard box. They reached out to the Haven for help.

The director tries to use her space for medical needs rabbits (since she's the expert) so this rabbit needed to be transferred out to free up his space for an incoming sick bunny. I agreed to take him.

Steve and I picked up the rabbit on January 8th. The rabbit turned out to be a 4 year old spotted dwarf mix. His name was Ari. He does not care for holding still for pictures, so below is the best I could do without harassing him too much.



We don't much care for the name Ari (and he doesn't seem to respond to it), so we were trying to think of another name for him. After describing Ari to my mom, she suggested "Sharky" (short for Leopard Shark, of course). I think it's a fitting name.

Sharky tends to nip if you do something he doesn't like. While most rabbits really don't bite, our very first rabbit Buster was a nipper for the entirety of his 8 years, so it's nothing new for us. Sharky also likes to tear up his flooring. His litter box habits aren't exactly perfect yet either, but he's showing improvement, so I'm hopeful he'll come around.

With his personality "quirks" (the nicest way I could think to say it), he'd be a difficult rabbit to adopt out. Particularly due to his biting tendencies, he'd have to go to a rabbit-savvy home without children... which sounds like us, I suppose. I'd venture to guess there's a pretty good chance he'll be a permanent resident. I can see Steve rolling his eyes as soon as he reads this. But, hey, for the low, low price of living with 5 rabbits, you get to have... me! Well... nobody ever said life was fair.

Long Beach Aquarium

When we were down in Southern California for our Christmas break, we decided to go to Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific. We saw on their website that they had half price admission later in the evening and were open later than usual for the holidays.

First, Steve and I relived our first (dating) anniversary by going to Parker's Lighthouse for dinner. I didn't actually remember that he'd taken me there on our first anniversary... but he did... anyway...

Walking to the aquarium after dinner, with the Christmas lights still up in the harbor:

Touring the aquarium at night was awesome. The lights were low and the crowd was light. Perfect conditions for me. Not so great for pictures, though, so please forgive the less than ideal lighting to come.

It also seemed that some of the fish were more active. This giant sea bass was staring at me and actually swimming around to follow our movements:


Perhaps he thought I looked tasty.

I thought the king crab looked delicious myself:

Steve and I pondered whether it was odd to pay to marvel at the fabulous sea creatures at the aquarium after eating them at the restaurant. Anyway...

Here I am checking out more fish:

Impressively full tropical tank:

Steve petting a shark in the dark (in the Dr. Seuss portion of our tour):

It's pretty difficult to see what's happening in this picture, but it's Steve pointing at a tiny tank that most people overlooked. That tank was, of course, full of sea sponges:

One of the coolest things at the Aquarium of the Pacific is the touch tank for jellyfish. You actually are allowed to (gently) pet moon jellies, which is something I'd never seen offered before. It was really cool. So, naturally, we didn't get a picture of it.

For some reason, I've really started to enjoy aquariums as I've gotten older. I'd probably become a member if we lived closer to one (Monterey Bay Aquarium is still a bit of a drive to do often enough to be cost effective). We'll definitely go back to the Aquarium of the Pacific the next time we need something to do in Long Beach.

Christmas 2011

As per our usual Christmas routine, Steve and I joined my family at my grandparents' house in the Pasadena area. In an attempt to contribute and take at least some of the responsibility away from my family, Steve volunteered to prepare all of the food (I did help... a little...).

We prepared clam chowder for Christmas Eve (one of my family's traditional meals for the holiday), which was pretty easy since we had purchased it from CostCo in San Luis Obispo on our drive down. As an aside, the chowder is made by Splash Cafe, and is the most amazing chowder in existence. Period.

Breakfast on Christmas Day was another tradition: sausage and sweet rolls from Federico's Bakery.

Steve confidently preparing breakfast:

Then we moved on to opening gifts and hanging out.

My grandparents' amazing tree:

Mom and my brother Jim serenade us with Christmas carols:

My dad and brother really know how to pose for a picture:

No holiday is safe from technology (or my brother's photogenic nature):

Then Steve and I moved on to making dinner, a much more involved process than the previous meals. Steve selected a menu (with some input from me) of garlic green beans, smashed potatoes and prime rib.

Steve coats the prime rib ends in butter (I guess it's supposed to prevent the ends from cooking too fast... or drying out... or something... my eyes glaze over and everything starts to sound like the adults in Peanuts when cooking is discussed):

Steve applies a spice rub (mostly garlic salt, I think):

Gorgeous prime rib... the real reason I could never be a vegetarian:

Steve carves the finished product:

And, finally, Steve and me with the Christmas tree:

We had a nice Christmas, and are always appreciative to my parents and grandparents for hosting us. We were fortunate enough to have a chance to visit with other family and friends as well. Steve even got a chance to get his exercise in by rowing with his brother Lee and dragging me to play tennis with our brother-in-law Richard and Richard's nephew Randy. All in all, we had a great time. And now, I'm sure, Steve is stuck making Christmas dinner forever more. My vote will be for prime rib again... it was truly epic.

Goodbye to Lola

We had to euthanize our rabbit Lola last night. Despite the best efforts of our wonderful rabbit vet, her condition was worsening and it seemed cruel to allow her to suffer, since our vet said it was becoming increasingly unlikely that she would recover. She was 6 years old.

Lola was a grumpy, standoffish and clever rabbit. Steve and I both had a lot of affection for her... her attitude provided us with a great deal of amusement over the years.

One particularly strange little quirk was that she hated the sound of coins rubbing together. It wasn't metallic sounds in general, just coins. I always organized my coin purse in the car so as not to annoy her. The things you do for those you love.


Above is the last picture we took of her, on her last night at home. Her ear is wrapped to prevent her from pulling out her catheter, which the vet was using as a last ditch effort to rehydrate her. In her last days with us, she was uncharacteristically affectionate and attentive to us. Perhaps her way of saying goodbye... or just trying to be sure we knew she was hurting. She took her various medicines like a champ and fought hard. She is already greatly missed.