What's two more?

Due to what was described as a "dangerous domestic situation," a woman fostering a pair of rabbits had to leave her housing in a hurry this past week. Though I don't do much fostering anymore, I have told the head of local rabbit rescue that I'm available in true emergencies. And, thus, new bunnies in the house!

They really hate the camera, so these were the best pictures I could get.

Their names are Zinnia and Dahlia... which I think are boring, so I've been calling them Zorro and Tribble.

They are dwarf/lionhead mixes, which means they are small, have relatively flat faces and short ears, and the hair around their necks grows extra long (giving them a wispy mane). This type of rabbit has never been my favorite... in my experience, they're temperamental and picky. But these girls were originally confiscated from a hoarding situation, so they eat well and, other than being a bit people and camera shy, are calm in their pen.

They will hopefully be adopted or transferred to another foster home later in March. But for now, it's fun having them around.

Beyond 30

A nice side effect of my birthday being two days after Valentine's Day: the flowers still look great!

Somehow Steve always manages to sneak flowers into the house for Valentine's Day and our anniversary... a gesture that's always appreciated.

For my grand ol' 31st today, I wanted to go to the boardwalk, get a corndog, ride the giant dipper and play a couple carnival games. My wonderful brother offered to come along, which was awesome. After said frivolity at the beach, Jim stayed and played Castle Crashers with me, which was also awesome.

You can see me cradling my spoils (a fuzzy green alien stuffed toy) from the boardwalk carnival game in that second picture. I didn't actually win anything myself... Steve won, but he gallantly gifted his prize to his lovely lady on her birthday.

Although my extremely foolhardy side thought that doing a Baskin Robbins taste testing would be the most appropriate way to celebrate this particular birthday, my sensible side (okay, it was Steve, I was totally going to go ahead and regret it later) decided to have some cookies instead for my birthday confection.

And I suppose that's about it. Steve's in the other room making fajitas. I am indeed spoiled and lucky and living the good life at 31.

Sticks and Stripes (with Plaids)

A little public affection ahead of Valentine's Day follows.

There are a lot of wonderful things about Steve. For instance, his fashion sense is impeccable.

 He also brings home strange and fascinating things.

So, that last picture probably warrants some explanation. On a few occasions, Steve has come across "cool sticks," usually at his work up on the UC campus. In one instance, he had me drive up to campus to retrieve a particularly cool stick that was too large for him to carry home on the bus. The stick in the above picture (which I had him place in the soft post-rain ground of our backyard for now) was one he had been talking about for awhile. I admit to not quite sharing his enthusiasm, but clearly this was because I didn't fully appreciate the level of coolness of this particular stick.

Finally the lure of the stick proved too much, and it arrived at our house this afternoon. I'm trying to come up with ways to incorporate it into our decor... 'cause it's admittedly a pretty darn cool stick.

My husband is adorable and awesome. That is all.

Hooligans

Considering the (occasionally drunk and/or high) foot traffic our little house gets, we were fortunate to have made it this long without any vandalism of our beautification efforts. Late one night last week, someone broke two of the pickets in our front fence. Not just cracked them so that we might glue them back together, but broke them messily in half leaving many little bits around our flowerbed. 

Luckily, this damage is easily repaired. Steve and I picked up the required board from the local lumberyard and got started. 

Steve carefully traces and cuts the gothic-style flourish. Our pickets are possibly quite old and aren't the standard shape you can pick up at the hardware store. 

 Re-attaching:

Coat of paint finishes the job:

If we can go another year and a half without further tampering, we'll consider ourselves lucky. It's the price you pay for living in an area with many passers-by, and we love our neighborhood.