Bunny Update

I just went by Munier's house to check on the bunny. He seems to be doing fine and is getting bigger by the day! ALSO, I discovered that there are at least TWO baby bunnies in there! Yippee! He won't be an only child! I plan to check on them again tomorrow to make sure they are being fed and will try to remember to take my camera.

Procrastination is my middle name

I know I promised many humorous tales of misadventure, and that I have not delivered on that promise. But I am a busy woman! Do you think I just sit around all day? My life is just too hectic for me to find time for blogging.

My typical evening starts with walking the dog, then I feed him. Next I fix my own supper. After that I pick out a DVD to rewatch for the 80th time because I'm too cheap and lazy to get cable. But don't think that I just sit there and watch the DVD, oh no! I'm way too busy for that! The DVD is just on to have some background noise. But I guess I do have time to sit down and watch the DVD while I eat my supper. Just for a minute. And oh look, is that stray hair on my leg? Let me go get the tweezers and pluck that sucker. Well, since i have out the tweezers, i might as well check my eyebrows. Yep, they need plucking too...lets just go in the bathroom and do that. Hmm, the candle in the bathroom is totally used up. Now where did i put those spare votives? Oh here they are in the closet...I think i'll use the blackberry scented one. So let's go back in the bathroom and put it in the candleholder. Wait, I used that same scent the last couple times, lets get crazy and switch it up. Go back to the closet to see what else is there. How about Tropical Garden? Yes that sounds good...lets take it to the bathroom. It fits nicely in the holder, but it is pink. It doesn't match the bathroom. Take it back to the closet and get the blackberry one again. Ok, now that that all-important task is complete lets go finish dinner. What?! Lucky ate my dinner! Little punk. Let me fix another dinner. Oh wait, that plant looks pretty droopy...I better fill up the watering can and water it. Hmm, while i'm at it, i wonder what the plants on the patio look like. Holy crap! They're really wilted - better water those too and pronto! Eeek! A spider!!! Where's my Raid?? Die Mofo! DIE!!! Pew, it stinks in here now. Smells like Raid. I better light a candle or two. Or five. Ok back to fixing my dinner. Now lets sit down and eat it. Just for a couple minutes though...I'm way too busy to sit and watch this DVD for more than 10 minutes. Hahaha! I love it when Jack Black teaches those kids to rock. Uh-oh...an hour later and I watched the whole movie. I can't waste any more time. But I do need background noise...Do I have time for another DVD?

That is by no means the end of the evening, but you get the idea of how the rest of the evening is going to go. So now you see that I am a very very busy woman with many important things to do and so you will be understanding when i am slow to post humorous misadventures on my blog.

Lucky is in the Doghouse

So, I have two faithful readers and I may have already told them about the bunnies that live in Munier’s back yard. They live under the shed and feed upon the lush herbs the previous owners planted next to the shed. These bunnies have lived there for years and they regularly hop around the yard and sun themselves in patches of clover.

Saturday afternoon Munier and I were standing in the backyard, he was watering the plants and grass and I was chatting with him. Suddenly I heard a faint but urgent “peep peep peep” and looked over. There was Lucky, next to the shed with “something” in his mouth. “Oh my god he’s got a baby bird and its still alive!!!” I thought. Actually I may have blurted it out loud. So I pointed at him said “LUCKY DROP IT!!” and started for him. He took off like a rocket and I chased him. Dammit, we left the door open! He ran in the house with whatever “It” was in his mouth, with me hot at his heels yelling “LUCKY DROP IT! DROP IT!!” He took off up the stairs, and when he reached the top he stopped. He calmly looked back at me, then tilted his head back and GULP, whatever it was, was gone! He swallowed it WHOLE! Lucky is a very small dog, so it had to have hurt going down.

I went back outside and reported what happened to Munier, who said “you know it was a bunny.” I said “No it wasn’t. It was a bird probably. How do YOU know? You didn’t even see it!!” And then we got into a big ole “Yes it was/No it wasn’t” fight, and all along I KNEW it was probably a little bunny, but I wanted to be in denial about it. I was pissed that Munier wasn’t allowing me that.

So later Munier goes back inside and I don’t remember what I was still doing outside but I look over at Lucky and damn if he didn’t have something else over by the shed! I yelled “LUCKY NO!!” and this time he did drop it and ran away. I went over to whatever it was to inspect the carnage, and there on the grass was a teeny tiny little baby bunny about the size of an egg. He was kind of slowly wriggling his tiny arms and legs around the way babies do, and his little eyes weren’t even open yet. I didn’t know what to do. I looked to the area where I thought Lucky had pulled him out from under the herb box, but there was no hole there like I thought. So I didn’t know where he had got it from. And there was a little wound on him! I didn’t know how badly he was hurt and he was too young to walk yet, so I made the decision to pick him up. I carried him over to the door and called in to Munier to come look and help me. By now it was well after dark and we discussed what we should do and went back over to the shed with a flashlight to see if we could find where he came from. Finally, among the herbs, I found a little nest. That is where Lucky was finding the babies! We made the decision to just put him back in his nest and check on him again in the morning, but we were worried that his mother would reject him now that he had dog and human smell on him.

This was all very disturbing for us, and Munier wouldn’t even talk to Lucky for like a day and a half.

I’m happy to report that I checked on the bunny early Sunday morning and the nest had been re-covered over so it was apparent that the momma did come back and take care of her baby. I couldn’t see him though, so there was a little lingering doubt. It ate away at me all day so finally in the afternoon I took a twig and move the cover off the nest just enough to see the baby. And there he was safe and sound and wriggling around like always. Later that evening though, when I let Lucky out to pee, an adult bunny (the momma?) was in the yard and I didn’t see it. Lucky of course chased it, but it got safely away behind the shed. So I will check on the baby again this afternoon when I get home from work to make sure he is still being cared for by his momma.

You filthy English-types! I fart in your general direction!!

My sister just sent me this link that tells you what Monty Python character you are. This is me:



French Guard
I'm French! Why do think I have this outrageous
accent, you silly king-a?!


What Monty Python Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Update on Tsunami Aid Benefit Concert

In my previous post about the Tsunami Aid Concert of Hope, I mentioned that you could download the performances from Connect.com. At the time however I lamented that the Madonna performance and the Stevie Wonder/India Arie performances were not available for download. I'm happy to see that the Madonna performance IS now in the dowload list. Unfortunately, the Wonder/Arie duet is still missing, the best performance of the show in my opinion. Maybe if I wait a little longer, that one will be available as well.

Uglydress.com

This website was pointed out to me by alert internet explorer and good friend, Ms. X. It is really too good to keep just to ourselves. It must be shared. The girl who maintains this site appears to be exactly my age (information I have inferred from a couple of different references she has made) and her commentary is hysterical. I wish she was my friend.

Anyway, the girl in the Patriotic Prom dress looks exactly like my friend Suzanne, but she swears it is not her. I have my doubts.

Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope

Did you happen to catch the Tsunami Aid Concert on Saturday night? It was actually quite good considering it had to be thrown together without much time to prepare. I also found the commentary and film footage between performances to be quite moving. I cried several times, but then I'm a giant sap about that kind of stuff. You can download individual songs or the entire album at the Sony music store Connect.com. This concert included a really great duet with Stevie Wonder and India Arie, and another one with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters. Actually, I thought all of the performances are worth downloading (with the exception of one country singer – I’m just not a fan of country music). I am quite disappointed though that the Stevie Wonder/ India Arie duet is not included in the download list. Nor is the Madonna performance (yes, I am a fan, much to the dismay of some of my Music Snob friends).

Rub-a-dub-dub

I have another question about men that I hope someone can give some insight to. It has to do with their bathtubs. My friend, who happened to be my roommate in college, and I were talking about this today and recalling that another of our roommates had a boyfriend who would leave the tub black. She always thought he was just disgusting (and truth be told, he was), but I think that it might have been attributable to this strange phenomenon that I have noted about many men. I have noticed that some men, no matter how well their normal personal hygiene is, turn their tubs black. And some men don’t. I have pondered over this for years. It has long been my hypothesis that the blackness is coming from the bottoms of their feet, but WHY I cannot fathom. My friend recalls one year when her 18-year-old nephew was staying at her parents’ house. He showered every day so he was not excessively dirty, but yet he would turn the tub black in less than a week. In his case, the blackness was also accompanied by grit or sand! She says it was as if he had gone off-roading without a vehicle. And the answer cannot be that it is because they don’t scrub their tubs often enough. My friend scrubbed hers at least once a week, but the guy would make it black again in a matter of days. Also, I personally have let two months go by without scrubbing my tub, but yet it never showed any black smudges. So what is the answer? Any thoughts?

Note to Self

Note to Self - Do not wipe self to excessiveness. (9/13/04)

Note to Others about this Note to Self: This is not MY Note to Self. It was a lesson learned (and written) by someone else and that is all I'm going to say about that.

Wet was I thinking??

Mom always told me to NEVER ever use hand dishwashing soap in the dishwasher. EVER. I should only use automatic dishwasher detergent. Well, one day, not long after the The Great Waterbed Incident, I discovered that I was out of dishwasher detergent. Remembering Mom’s advice about not using regular dishwashing soap, I knew better than to fill the little soap cups in the dishwasher with Dawn or Pamolive. Instead, I put one teeny tiny drop of Pamolive in there. Just one. And it was teeny. I started up the dishwasher and then went about my business. After a reasonable amount of time for the dishwasher cycle to be finished, I came back to check on the dishes. The sight the greeted me in the kitchen continues to haunt me to this day. The entire kitchen (eat-in size) was filled with frothy suds about two feet deep. This was before the Foam Dancing craze, or my roommates and I would have just invited some friends over and had a party. I don’t even remember what it took to get that mess cleaned up. But I do remember that afterward the kitchen floor sparkled like a fine-cut diamond.

Posting Images

I wish to post a gif or bmp image but have only found instructions on how to use Picasa/BloggerBot, which appears to only allow jpg images. Can anyone tell me how to do this?

Thanks!

The Great Waterbed Incident, Epilogue

The aftermath.

Well, the last we heard, the water leaks had made their way all the way down to the fourth floor. Also, the next day when we drove by outside the building we could see a large wet spot on the side of the building running down from our apartment. The apartment itself was in a shambles for close to a month. When the carpet (which had previously been brand-new and a beautiful, pristine off-white) finally dried, there were brown stains all over it. Also, it had been installed on top of parquet flooring that had been there since the building was built in the 50’s or 60’s. The water damage caused the wood parquet to buckle up so that there were humongous bulges in the floor, raising the carpet up. And we could do nothing about it because we were waiting for our renters’ insurance company to decide whether the damage was covered or not. Finally about a MONTH later they finally told me that nothing was covered. Fine. At least now I could hire the carpet cleaners myself. I was shocked that every stain came up and the carpet was pristine off-white again. Also, I was lucky that within a month or so after that the buckled parquet flooring underneath the carpet had gradually fallen back down into shape. Within 3 months you couldn’t tell that anything horrible had ever happened there. Except for the fact that my bed frame was still on the floor with just a blow-up air mattress in it.

The Great Waterbed Incident, Part II

So, as I said, I was anxious to sleep in my own bed instead of on the floor so I decided to go ahead and fill the bed right then. But I also had to go to work quite early in the morning and it was already very late and I was exhausted. So I decided to hook up the hose to the bed and take a nap for an hour or so on the couch, then get up and check on the bed. I figured it would take the bed two hours to fill. So I went to sleep and then woke up an hour later, as planned. I immediately sensed that something was wrong. Very very wrong. My bedroom was at the end of a very long hallway in the apartment. As I approached the hallway in the darkness, I saw it. A large dark semi-circle shaped area on the floor, spreading out from the beginning of the hallway. “That’s not…” I thought as I stepped on it. “Gasp! It is! It’s water!!” I quickened my pace down the hall toward my room, each step creating a splash larger than the one before it as the water became deeper and deeper. I entered the room, the water depth now well over my ankles. The simultaneously noted several things. The mattress of the bed was completely deflated and laying useless in the frame, and half of the bed had collapsed onto the floor. My alarm clock was floating on the water, but still plugged into the wall. Fearing electrocution I quickly unplugged it and ran from the room. I was now in panic mode. I paced around the living room for a while going “ohmygod whatdoido, ohmygod whatdoido.” Finally I gathered enough wits about me to call the building management emergency number to report what had happened. A woman at an answering service answered and I guess she didn’t really listen to what I was telling her because she said “Yes, some other residents have reported a leak as well. We’ll have maintenance look into it.” I said “No, I’m telling you that my waterbed exploded and the “leak” originated from MY apartment and there is about 8 inches of water flooded in my bedroom right now!!” Finally she grasped the urgency of the situation and said she would have someone come up right away. A maintenance man finally showed up, assessed the seriousness of the situation and brought in a wet-vac. By this time, the water had spread all the way into the living room so that now the entire apartment was sopping wet. It took the man a couple hours to suck up all the water. I went back into the bedroom and noticed that the force of the water had moved several heavy things all the way across the room. Such as a steel toolbox filled with tools and a small wooden nightstand. I also noticed that the windows (which went from floor to ceiling) were cranked wide open, with no screens in place. I was so grateful that the cat wasn’t in the room when the bed exploded because he surely would have been washed right out the window, which I remind you was on the 10th floor.

The Great Waterbed Incident, Part I

This story is one of the highlights of the many episodes of my life that over time I will chronicle in this blog. This is a long story and so I am going to break it into chapters. Probably it will be in two parts, but possibly three. Here is Part I:

Back in the 80’s waterbeds were pretty popular. In the early 90’s the fad was waning but some people still had them. I was one of those people. I had just moved into a 10th floor apartment in a high-rise and was faced with the task of reassembling my beloved waterbed. When I purchased it a couple of years prior, the men who delivered it assembled it for me and then filled it. I could have called them again but, being a student at the time I was always broke and I didn’t want to pay for the service. Instead, I entreated my roommate’s boyfriend (who claimed to have previously worked for a waterbed delivery company and therefore had experience assembling them) to put it together for me. He came over on a Sunday afternoon and set to work. Several hours later he was still working on it. I noted to myself that it only took the guys who put it together the first time about and hour and a half to finish, but I said nothing since he was doing me a huge favor. Finally, around two in the morning he finished and the bed was ready to be filled with water. In hindsight, I should have waited until the next day to fill the bed, but I had been sleeping on the floor for days and was anxious to finally sleep in my beloved waterbed.

Stay tuned for Part II...