Monday Bunday: At Home

This is Cadbury's home:


















Dan and I, on the other hand, have higher expectations. As some of you know, we're in the process of trying to buy the house we've been living in for nearly three years now. As much as we'd like to buy in the Montrose or the Heights, it's just not realistic. A little house like ours would cost half a million over there, and we're just state university employees, with salaries that reflect our lowly status.

But this house is just our size, and it has a studio that we use for exercise and music. I'd like to upgrade the lighting so I can paint back there, too, away from the hazards of bunny fur, which tends to stick to slow-drying oil paint. We like the community here, and we save a bundle of money and stress by not having to drive to our jobs. When the rail line goes in, we may find we don't have to drive at all any more.

Anyway, we're almost there on the home purchase. We've signed the contract, my loan is locked in at a laughably low rate, and now we just need the appraiser to agree that the seller's price is fair. He won't be able to factor in the intangibles, like being able to go home for lunch each day, and not having to buy a new car. Lenders don't put a dollar value on community, or on having lectures, performances, a library and a state-of-the art fitness center just a short walk away. They don't care that we spend our days surrounded by friends who are our co-workers and our neighbors. These things don't enter into the financial bottom line.

These things matter to us, though. So wish us luck, folks, that the appraiser agrees with us that we're getting not just a fair deal, but a bargain.

Monday Bunday: Best Foot Forward

It's important to always put your best foot forward.

In keeping with that theme, today is the running of the 114th Boston Marathon! My friend Sarah will be running it today - she qualified as opposed to being a charity runner. Not to dis charity runners in the slightest, but qualifying for Boston is pretty darn special.

Go Sarah!

And may all the rest of you put your best foot forward this week!

Announcement!

Hey, everyone, check out my contest-winning story at Every Day Fiction today! It's only 238 words, and long-time readers will be familiar with bad boy Vince, the main character.

There is also a blog interview where we talk about my writing at Flash Fiction Chronicles.

I've cross-posted this at my writing blog and at my main author site, which I'm going to be transitioning to over the next few months.

Monday Bunday: Cilantro

It's springtime, and we're watching our plants grow!















Guard your herbs carefully. You never know who else might have their eye on them!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Monday Bunday: Easter Aftermath

Resting after a very busy Easter. Delivering all those eggs is hard work!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Hoppy Easter

It's show time!















Anybunny looking?















Now, where am I going to hide all these eggs?














Caught in the act!


















Happy Easter, everyone!

New Office, New Mousepad

As the result of recent space issues in my building, many of us have been given new offices. The one I was put into didn't have a desk with a keyboard tray, so for the first time since starting this particular job, I had need of a mousepad.

Luckily, I knew just where to go for what I needed: Potentially Crazy! And here is the result:















Do I now have the coolest desk ever, or what?

Now go on out there and buy your own. Alice has lots of great bunny products for you to choose from!

Monday Bunday: How Does Your Garden Grow?

This weekend, Cadbury went to check on his garden.
















He was a little concerned that the soil wasn't properly aerated, so he worked on that a little, loosening things up so his plants would grow.
















Here he is posing with one of his chard plants, soon to be ready for bunny salads!















Yay for Farmer Cadbury!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Monday Bunday and Weekend Recap

Rabbit. Top View.

It's been eventful weekend at the House of Cadbury. First, there was the memorial last Thursday for our neighbor's son. Then on Friday and Saturday we had to deal with further rodent problems. We did what we could on our own on Friday, which was our Spring Break day from the university. We had a professional come out on Saturday and we think the situation is now under control, thank goodness! On Saturday night, Dan and I went to a family party, which was fun once I got some food, but we were out quite a lot later than we expected.

In writing news, I've incorporated a lot of new edits into my web-pubbed/self-pubbed Steal Tomorrow site. And I also won a little contest over at Everyday Fiction's Flash Fiction Chronicles. They're making quite a fuss over me, asking for bio, photo and a guest post, and they're going to send me a book and maybe other stuff too, for all I know. I'm amused at all this because the story in question is only 238 words.

Anyway, it's all good, and now the weekend is over and it's time to head back to work.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Death and Community

Last week, the son of a neighbor-friend committed suicide. This post isn't about that, as sad and frustrating as the event has been. Rather, this is a story about community.

Our friend lives a couple houses up the street from us and is a professor at the university. His son was a student and a member of a fraternity. From the moment our friend got the news, the university community came together to help. Fellow faculty members got him sedated and took him to the home of another professor in our neighborhood. Grad students offered to take over his classes and have stayed at his house in shifts so he wouldn't have to be alone. Those of us who live in the neighborhood have paid visits, taken him out for coffee, offered to walk the dogs, and made sure all the little details of life have been taken care of.

The memorial service was today at the university chapel, and the place was standing room only. Afterward, we attended a reception at a professor's home here in our neighborhood. There were a lot of faculty members I didn't know, since I primarily work with staff, but when they found out I worked for the university and lived in the neighborhood, their eyes lit up and I knew they saw me as a member of the club.

I mention all this because I don't think I've ever seen a real community in action before now, and I find it fascinating. I've sensed the community spirit since Dan and I first moved here, and we all banded together in mutual cleanup after Hurricane Ike, but this is different. This is the community coming together to care for one of its own in a way I never saw in the suburban churches and neighborhoods of my youth or the workplaces of my pre-university years. This is community as family and protector, community as provider and loving friend. This is a warm blanket on a cold winter night.

We humans lost something important when we left our tribes and villages for the cities. We have gained in myriad ways, and I'll always be a city girl, but our ancestors knew something that we've lost sight of: we need our community. We need each other.

Pixel: 1992 - 2010

We had to say good-bye to my dear friend Pixel today.















He was eighteen years old and had been in decline for a couple of years due to chronic renal failure, which is always fatal.

I had him since he was a kitten. He used to climb my bedspread and sit on the edge of my bed, triumphant at his grand accomplishment. As an adult cat he was shy with strangers, but a lovebug with me and Dan. He was playful until almost the end, still willing to chase a catnip mouse as recently as two weeks ago. His final decline was rapid and painful to see.

He leaves a big hole in my life, but eighteen years together does that. It was a longer relationship than I've had with my husband!

Pix and Tidbit were great friends, as you can see here:













When we moved to this house two and a half years ago, Pixel cowered in his carrier, scared to come out, while Tid waited patiently at the carrier door for more than a day. Sometimes she'd poke her head in, sometimes she would thump at him, as if to say, "Hurry up!" Most of the time, she just laid there, waiting.



















I like to think they're together again. No doubt she's been wondering what was taking him so long.

Monday Bunday: A Piece of Hay

It cracks me up when bunnies do this - start at one end of a single strand of hay and slowly make it disappear. I don't know why it always gives me the giggles, but it does.

Have a happy Monday, everyone!

Monday Bunday: Time Passes

Time passes, friends, and in recognition of this simple fact, Cadbury would like to draw your attention to a very fine calendar:
















Yes, it's Alice's bunnies!


















What great photos! Even if your day isn't going as planned, you can look at this calendar and smile.


















But don't just take Cadbury's word for it. Go get your own, right here.

Have a fine week, everyone!

Bunny in Need: Pancakes

It has recently come to our attention that there's a bunny out there who needs help. His name is Pancakes, and he's a cutie and a fighter.

Pancakes has an abscess that got out of control, and it looks like he may have some dental issues as well. His first owners didn't know what to do and gave him to someone who also didn't know what to do. Meanwhile, the abscess kept growing. Now Pancakes is in a loving home with people who are determined to do everything they can for him, but they've already nearly lost him once and need to keep raising money for vet bills and medicine.

Pancakes' long-term prognosis is excellent, and a lot of people have sent money to help with his care, but more may be needed. Please go read his story and donate if you can. Or go to bunspace, friend him, see his pics, and offer encouragement. Everyone needs a kind word now and then, and one of the things I find most hopeful about humanity is the way people will rally around strangers and animals in need.

Keep fighting, Pancakes!

Monday Bunday: Sunshine Bunny

Someone spent some time relaxing in the sunshine this weekend!















With a rainy Monday in the forecast, he knew he needed to soak up those rays while he could!

Have a bright sunshiney week, everyone!

Of Mice and Men...and Cats and Rabbits

A few weeks ago we started noticing a bad smell whenever we used the oven. Although the oven and broiler appeared clean, I wiped them down. I flipped up the stovetop and scrubbed underneath all the burners. Nothing I did seemed to help. Finally Dan got in on the act and was able to pull the oven away from the wall.

A hole! We concluded that a mouse was getting into the house, but if it was in our oven, where was it?

Dan got out his tools and went about the unpleasant business of taking the oven apart. What he found was a little mouse nest in the insulation between the oven and the panel underneath the stove burners. Fortunately he found no actual damage, and no dead mice - only droppings and urine. But he also found a little stash of acorns.

So...is my cooking not good enough for a mouse, that it felt compelled to bring its own food? Or are toasted acorns a rodent delicacy? (They had cracked and cooked in the heat.)

Anyway, the hole is now repaired, the oven insulation pored through and interior surfaces scrubbed with baking soda, so I should be able to resume baking as usual. All of this, however, calls into question the usefulness of our cat.

Pixel is eighteen years old and has long considered himself "retired" from such bothersome duties as chasing vermin, but we suspect our rodent visitor may also have been eating his food. Poor old gato. In his youth he would slip outside and catch squirrels and now he can't even be bothered to defend his food bowl.

Interestingly, it was Cadbury who alerted us with a thump two nights ago that the mouse had chewed through Dan's first attempt at blocking the mouse hole. Now if only Cadbury could catch mice...

Monday Bunday: Having It All

There are just some days when you want it all. It may not be a realistic aspiration, but it's important to dream big, especially when you're a small rabbit.

Have an ambitious week, everyone!

Monday Bunday: Post-Valentine Check-In

It was another busy weekend here at the house of Cadbury. I wrote three new stories, one of which I sent off to a contest, the other two are here and here.

My Saturday long run was cold, but at least not windy. After three weeks of excellent garage sale luck, I struck out this time. That's not surprising, though. It's actually pretty unusual for me to find stuff I like that's small enough to carry home and also worth the trouble. But plotting my routes around garage sales has really helped renew my interest in these outings. I've been doing this for ten years now and I find myself struggling for new route ideas.

Cadbury has some cilantro, parsley, and lettuce sprouting in pots on the porch, and I'm anxiously checking my potato bed each day, hoping the rain didn't ruin them. I meant to plant chard this weekend but ran out of time, due to a late start on the Sunday shopping, then household chores and baking, and a long spin and weight session. Well, there's always next week.

Don't worry, Cadbury. You'll get your chard!



















I'm not worried. I like hanging out under this chair, though. The world is a scary place and I feel safe here.

Happy Monday, everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!


















What have we here?














Are you sure you didn't intend these for someone else?


















Okay, then. Happy Valentine's to you, too!

May everything come up roses for you today, friends!

Fats: Hard to Say Goodbye

Some of you may remember that last year Fats, one of the bunnies of Potentially Nervous was ill. With the excellent care of his bunny mom, Alice, he rallied for awhile and returned to upstate New York, where he played in the countryside that he loved.














He recently lost his fight, though. We'll miss his big personality and big fluffy self.


































If you haven't already done so, this is a great time to hop on over to Potentially Nervous and see some pics and videos of Fats and Alice's other amazing bunnies. You can also go to Alice's store and get a bunny screen saver that includes fun pictures of Fats. It gives me lots of smiles, and who doesn't want that? Bunnies Bustin' Out All Over