I Rode My Bike To Work. On National Ride Your Bike To Work Day.

Remember when I said I was getting better about blogging? Yeah. My good buddy, Em, is staying with us for a few weeks, and I've lost all capacity to talk to humans in person and virtually, simultaneously. It's either one or the other, and the person who's actually in front of my face wins.

This is also in front of my face.

We took her to the vet last weekend, just for a baseline and for him to check out the newest addition to dawrighthouse. All is well with Roo! She's a healthy girl, and it's OK that she's big. We all just hope she's finished growing. Guess what kind of bunny she is? A Giant Lop! If ever a name was appropriate, it's that one.

Meanwhile, Em and I have been eating our way around dinner in between my work shifts. Sometimes I drink my calories instead of eating them.

We have some exciting events and hikes planned for the next few days, if we don't die of (1) diabetes, (2) heart disease, or (3) heat stroke.

TGIF, people!

Books n Things

I *think* I'm back in the swing of blogging again. I've missed the creative outlet (<--not sure how creative I am on here, but it feels like it) and the general sense on my end that I'm keeping up with my peeps, even if the comms are virtual.

BTW introverts ain't got no problem with virtual communication. :)

I'm back to the ol' summer tradition of riding my bike to work. I started it up and then had to take a week's pause because of the dental surgery. The thought of, how did she say it, "blowing out all the stitches" if my heart rate gets high was enough to make me enjoy riding in the air conditioned car on my commute. I should be up & at 'em soon and the goal is to ride three days a week.

Yesterday I met a friend for lunch in Cherry Creek and as I walked by this house I had to take a picture. Look at the fountain! There was one on the other side of the front steps, too, and the landscaping was so beautiful. I live in squalor. They would scoff at my potted plants.

I was on quite the reading streak before All The Summer Jobs started and before everything with Loo Loo Bean. I've got a variety of recommendations for you.

The Last Neanderthal by Claire Cameron

The Last Neanderthal is a novel that parallels the lives of two women. Girl is a neanderthal coming of age in a time when her species is (unbeknownst to her) dying out. Modern day archeologist, Rosamund, is tracking the find of her lifetime, the bones of two bodies that appear to be a neanderthal and the more modern homo sapien, together. But she is under a deadline because her baby will be due soon. Cameron juxtaposes the lives of two women who are, and yet are not, very different. I particularly appreciate the level of detail she uses when describing Girl's life and adventures; she taps into the human and also realistically portrays, for lack of a better word, the animal in her. I ended up getting some books that Cameron listed in her acknowledgements and will write about those soon. This book is not too science-y to read; the plot is intriguing and the two story lines will keep you flipping the pages. This is one that I will read again.

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

Not to sound like a sensationalist downer, but I thought this was a timely read. It seems like every day, multiple times a day in fact, the news is full of senseless violence. Politics, religion, ideology, nationalism, and prejudice are explainable phenomenons, though. How do we account for the fact that, according to statistics, one in every 25 people is devoid of a conscience altogether? These are people we interact with in a variety of capacities. These are people who affect our every day lives directly, apart from the news, apart from the political chaos. Stout has been a therapist for years in addition to teaching at Harvard. Her book lays out modern, typical examples of the sociopaths we are likely to see in our jobs, schools, and communities. Then she lays out tips for how to deal with them effectively. Again, not to sound like a sensationalist downer, but one of the reasons I decided to read this book is to help me keep some things in mind when dealing with my students. Not that I think they're sociopaths. Not that I think they're not, either.

Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall

OK, so this book is pretty science-y, but I recommend it if you're interested in how space exploration has become a part of our daily existence. Randall is a researcher who specializes in the study of dark matter, and her book helps the lay person, the non-scientist if you will, understand how what is not visible affects the world just as drastically as the things that are visible. I read this book a few months ago, so a lot of the details have been replaced with Milton knowledge, but I remember that it doesn't include as many details about dinosaurs as the title suggests. It's like 90% about dark matter, and 10% sprinkled in about the dinosaurs. But still, it was a good read. I'd also recommend this one for a friend or a kid in your life who is into space stuff.

More books to come! I'm in the middle of a loooooooong Michener novel with a couple of other books on the side.

And we're still getting to know this goofball.

Happy reading!

TGIF, people!

This is not the sign you want to see on your way to get travel vaccinations. Just sayin'.

The Kangaroo Behind the Couch

Meet Roo.

We named her Roo as in Kangaroo, because that's what she looks like in profile, and because, well, Roo is a big girl. She is about the size of a baby kangaroo, about 8+ pounds. She looks and acts like a fluffy combination of a baby bear, a puppy, and a rabbit.

This is what happens when we swing by the Dumb Friends League "just to look and see if they have bunnies." Massive eye roll.

Roo is a year old and she is a stray. Well, she was a stray. She is very at home now. We figure that she either wasn't a stray for very long, or she was handled well as a baby, because she is very social. This means she's used to people, used to being handled and talked to.

She is every bit as fat and fluffy as she looks from these pics. And she's a handful. Literally. Roo is not a delicate flower. She is all up in our business and we figure it's just a matter of time until she hops up and joins us on the couch.

Last night G was laying on the floor while I was binge watching my way through the latest season of House of Cards (it's out on Netflix!) and she was hopping all over him. She was all over his face and his neck, and he was laughing so hard I couldn't help myself. I joined in. For a while all three of us were giggling and wrestling on the floor. Let me tell you how long it's been since we've done that.

Years, people. Years.

Roo's favorite activity is eating. She is what they call a resource hog - she'll eat and eat and eat until all her food is gone. Then she'll try the ol' poor me, poor lil bunny routine in order to get more food. These bunny parents weren't born yesterday, though, so that trick doesn't work on us.

They said she likes fresh fruits and veggies very much, particularly leafy lettuce, so we're going to give her a couple of weeks to settle in to a healthy routine, then we'll reward her every now and then. I caught her looking side long at G's pizza last night, though.

Things are starting to liven up over here at dawrighthouse. Did you wonder if - ok, when - we were going to get another bunny? For the record, the last week is the longest we've ever gone between buns. Loo Loo's last days really threw us for a loop (<--- see what I did there?) and she was a tough little girl to get over. Not that we're over her. She was, and is, sorely missed.

But other bun buns need good homes and good parents, too.

And now we're stuck with Roo.

A Little Typhoid Fever for Breakfast

Hello, loves. Thanks again for all the prayers and thoughts and texts about Loo Loo Bell. The house has been very quiet. It has been so weird to dive into All The Summer Jobs without her glaring at me from the hearth.

Life has started to move on. Yesterday we had an appointment with the travel doctor to review our shots and meds for the upcoming Africa trip.

A few years ago we got all shot up before going to South Africa (like, all shot up) and most of those shots are either good for life or at least a decade, so luckily all we need this time around is another dose of Typhoid Fever. 

There is an option to take this one orally instead of via shot, so you know G was all about that. You take one pill on an empty stomach, with a large glass of water, every other day. And, voila! No Typhoid Fever. I'm trying to block out the fact that I essentially had a disease for breakfast today.

Otherwise, we loaded up on Malarone (no Malaria, thanks), antibiotics, bug spray for our clothes and for us, and some travel pills to take to ease the stomach into such a different diet. All this stuff worked like a charm during the last trip, but Tanzania is very different from South Africa, so we're crossing our fingers there won't be any surprises. Regarding our health, anyways. Other surprises are welcome.

Loo Loo Bean

Unfortunately, we lost Lucy yesterday.

Thanks so much for all of your thoughts and prayers, and for loving her (and making fun of her) with us over the years.

2 Surgeries in 2 Days

Things have been pretty rough over here the last few days. Lucy has had another one of her emergency stomach episodes and this one was a close call. In the 16 years that we have owned rabbits, Lord help us, we have become experts in the range of issues they can present. In Lucy's case, she is perfectly healthy except that every now and then her stomach will become blocked. This is a mysterious process and comes out of nowhere. It also creates a quick and serious ripple effect that will shut down her GI system and lead to organ failure if it's not addressed within a matter of hours.

Which is why it's a very big deal whenever she (1) stops eating, or (2) acts just a little bit "off".

Long and tearful story short, she has been in and out of the hospital this week as they've tried to stabilize her GI system in order to perform surgery on her. Luckily, her beloved vet is doing the surgery tomorrow. Luckily, she is stabilized and is back to her sarcastic, disdainful self while she - unknowingly - waits for the procedure.

There may even have been a couple of bites of fresh strawberry and fresh banana. She's basically the rabbit equivalent of the 6-year-old getting her tonsils out and eating nothing but ice cream for days.

There is good news here. If the vet is able to find a blockage in her stomach (it doesn't show up on X-rays or scans and is therefore probably something like a chronic hairball or fibrous object that has been in there for years, possibly even her whole life) and remove it, she'll be back to a completely normal bun bun.

There is scary news here, too. Rabbits are prone to a big problem with surgery because anesthesia is very tricky for them. It's entirely possible that the anesthesia will be too much for her. Also, she's just about 6 years old, which is middle aged for a bunny. While she's definitely not old, she's not a young, spry lil thing either.

So. That's tomorrow. Please say a prayer to our God who loves animals.

Why did I say two surgeries? Well, remember my Tooth Drama? Which is important enough to be capitalized like the proper noun that it is? I've had a CT scan and a series of appts to see how well the CADAVER BONE inside me is helping my own jaw bone grow back. Looks like things are stable enough for them to insert a stint into the new bone today.

Let's reflect on that for a minute, shall we?

I'll have you know I've already requested the ol' nitris oxide.

The stint will go into the bone - again with the Lord help us - and will set for a few weeks, at which point the new tooth/crown can be attached to it and, voila! No more meth head West Virginia trailer park nonsense up in here.

All this is to say that G is going to have a delightful few days ahead of him as I recover. As we recover. I'll be laid up. And Lucy will be laid up. I'll be medicated and will have follow-up appts. Lucy will be medicated and will have follow-up appts.

You might want to say a prayer for all three of us.

You might want to say an extra one for poor G, or as I now refer to him, Florence Nightingale.