A great sadness

My little bunny heart broke a bit yesterday when I heard of the attacks on children both in Connecticut and China.  I understand killing to eat, or even in war, but the level of anger needed to attack so many innocent people is well beyond my comprehension, and I suspect beyond the understanding of most of the victims.

Hug your loved ones tightly every day, especially in hard times.

Sissy's Christmas list

I have a confession... Sissy started on her Christmas list more than a month ago.  I know that seems early, but crafts can take a while to make, especially when you have a long list of people you want to give gifts to.

I realize that some people make Christmas lists of what they want, but Mommy may have forgotten to tell Sissy that.  Starting a couple years ago, Sissy has made a list of what she wants to give people.  The first year was really cute... she was giving out lots of hugs and kisses to everybody involved, and some homemade (by Mommy) crafts to her classmates and teachers. 

Well, the list has gotten bigger... she goes to a larger school now, so she has more classmates (who are getting bookmarks) and more teachers (art, music, both P.E. teachers, her primary teacher AND teacher's assistant are all on the list), along with the principal and one of the lunch ladies.  And some friends from outside of school too.

So yeah, she started on the list a while back, and the crafting started in November.  If all goes well, she'll finish the rest of it this weekend.  Mommy's looking forward to that.    

Emerging from the rabbit hole

I'm a lucky bunny, I haven't taken a bad trip yet.  Of course, I'm less than a year old, so it could still happen at some point.  Our trip was good, but Mommy put the laptop down in a corner when we got there and never turned it on.  She works on the computer, and likes to get away from it when she has time off, but I didn't think she'd leave it off for four days!

We got back home and then she had to take Grandma to the airport and catch up on work during the one day before Thanksgiving.  And Grandma left behind more than expected... she gave Mommy a cold, which was not as cute as the Giant Microbe one pictured here.

And then Thanksgiving and a crafting weekend with Sissy (she's making gifts for her classmates and teachers), so Mommy was barely at the computer.  Which she says is a fabulous thing, and expects to spend more time crafting this upcoming weekend. 

A house with ghosts

I'm a day behind, sorry... Mommy's mother arrived from out of town a couple days ago, so it's been pretty busy around here.  We're going out of town for a few days - with gadgets I should be able to post from, of course.

"Would you buy your dream house if the price was right BUT you also were told it was inhabited by ghosts?"

I think I would buy the house.  I don't know if I believe in ghosts.  I certainly haven't seen any evidence of them.  Would that be a special part of the house tour, the realtor showing you the ghosts?  "Ghost A generally stays in this room and is pretty friendly.  Ghost B is horrifying, but only inhabits this bathroom, and only scares people at night."

Favorite pet

Mommy says I'm her favorite pet, because I believe in sleeping in.  All three cats get up pretty early; they think breakfast should be served about 10 minutes before the alarm rings.

Mr. M and Miss D used to take turns meowing until somebody got up to feed them.  Then Miss J moved in... she can really howl!  The start time varies - if the Aerogarden timing gets messed up, it can start really early - but she can just keep going until somebody gets up.  The other two cats don't even help her most of the time, because she's willing to meow non-stop, even if she starts an hour before the alarm rings.

Despite that, I know Mommy loves them all.  Mr. M curls up under the covers with her on cold nights, and Miss D keeps her legs warm.  If you lean in when Miss J is sprawled out, she'll rub heads with you, which is so cute!

Bravest thing

Oops, I lost momentum there.  On Sunday, Mommy was so busy she didn't even turn on the computer, which makes it hard to post.  Then Monday morning, I couldn't come up with something to write about in the morning, and she had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon, with some follow-up tests on Tuesday.  Oops!  But I'm back now.

The bravest crazy thing Mommy has done was jumped out of a working airplane.  Twice.  She says she would have gone skydiving more, but it's an expensive hobby.

But I think the bravest thing she's ever done was to move across the country when she finished college, away from all her friends and family.  It took a while after she moved here to find the right group of people to spend time with, but she's got some great friends now!

Art with reduced creativity

Sissy's school participates in a fundraiser through Display My Art, which lets parents purchase gift items with their child's artwork.  Conceptually, it's a great idea.

But in practice, Mommy is a bit disappointed in the process.  When admiring this year's artwork - a snowman (last year was a crab) with a four colored background - Sissy mentioned to Mommy that they were required to color the background in four different colors.  Further conversation led to the discovery that each child picked the colors, and drew parts a little differently, but the basic formula for the picture was required:

• Circle head (lid traced by teacher)
• Hat (standard hat shape)
• Eyes
• Carrot nose
• Smile
• Buttons on the body
• Arms
• Scarf (optional)
• Background in four colors

Some snowmen are fatter, some hats are taller, each face is a little different and there's a wide variety of background colors.  (The order numbers for Sissy's class are consecutive, so Mommy looked at a few of them.)  But wouldn't it be much more interesting if they had been told to draw a snowman in that space and given free rein to make something more distinctly theirs?

Changing one thing

There are a lot of little things Mommy would like to change - several involve more sleep and quieter cats in the morning - but one that she is seriously considering is writing these blog posts after her morning tea.  But with the way her schedule works out, she can't always guarantee she'll have time to write later in the day.

Meanwhile, she's trying to find herself a birthday present more than two months early.  Daddy's family celebrates adult birthdays in seasonal batches, with each person buying themselves a gift.  Mommy just found out last week that her birthday celebration is tonight and has been doing a fabulous job of not actually finding herself a present.  She looked through her Amazon wishlist, flipped through the Harry and David gift ideas, wandered around a couple deal websites that she likes... and nothing has clicked.  Who knew that shopping for yourself could be that hard?  (She's ignoring my recommendation to go shopping at Build-A-Bear.)

Any job I want

Well, I'm a plush bunny, I don't have to work.  So let's talk about Mommy's job instead.  For the record, she likes the job she has most days (everybody has off days, right?).  A few years ago, she planted her first edible crop... spinach.  And it actually grew!  (As opposed to the time she killed catnip.  But that was a long time ago.)

Since then, the vegetable garden grows a little bit each year and she's even started reading books about it.  This spring, she read a book called All New Square Foot Gardening, and followed the dirt mix recommendations and planted the seeds in a grid pattern, just like they said to.  It worked pretty well too!

A backyard garden is a small step towards farming, which she would enjoy.  Unfortunately, Daddy's opposed to having chickens (he had some when he was younger), so she can't get fresh eggs in the mornings.

Whew.

That's done.  I've been told that the presidential election process will start again in another two or three years (it starts earlier each time?), but for now, I should be able to sit back and watch how our government is supposed to function.

If there's time before school this morning, Sissy will fill out a chart with the Electoral College vote counts, and do the math to determine the winner.  On the Chicago Tribune's map, only Florida is undetermined, but CNN's map also shows North Carolina and Indiana as in progress.  I guess she'll leave Florida's number unassigned, since she'll be working from the map that's displaying on the iPad. 

First act as President

There are so many good possibilities for a first act as President, I think I would work towards eliminating the Electoral College.  Let each vote count for itself, rather than allowing the Electoral College numbers make one state's votes more important than another.  

You can see a map here for the presidential race, with the battleground states designated.  It's like the media's telling everybody else that their votes don't really matter.  These battleground states have enough Electoral College votes to matter and enough variance in which way the residents vote that they can go either way.

Either way, go vote!

Tomorrow's election

Really, this just about sums it up:

Mommy says that elections aren't supposed to be about who you hate less or voting for "the lesser evil".  We're supposed to have candidates who want to help the people and improve the quality of the government that is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people, rather than fanatic crusaders pushing their own agendas.  Maybe one day it will come closer to the ideal than what it is today.

Daylight Savings Time

Did you know that cats can't tell time?

Did you know they're not particularly impressed with daylight savings time?  Especially the "fall back" part that means breakfast will be served an hour late.

Mommy cheated... she closed the bedroom door when the cats started asking for breakfast 20 minutes before 6 (now 5) in the morning.  She hardly ever closes the door, since the cats usually sleep on the bed.

Opening night went well, the show actually finished on time.  Everybody was very excited about it, and the only prop that was missed was the coat rack, which appeared for the first time last night.  It will probably make it on stage today, as it has been added to the tech notes for the backstage crew.

Busy, busy weekend

It's going to be a busy weekend!  This morning, Mommy and Sissy are going for haircuts... I think they're both chopping it all off.  Then they need to clean up the Halloween decorations (except for Count Pumpcula... he gets to stay outside until the critters eat him or he's ready for the compost bin) and do other cleaning in the house. 

Tonight is opening night at Sissy's play.  I'm keeping my paws crossed that all goes well.  If not, I guess they can fix it before tomorrow's two performances.  Like I said, busy weekend.  Somewhere in there, everybody needs to eat (especially between the two performances!) and maybe even sleep.

Mommy's creating a version of the script that's just tech notes now, so all the props get moved into place at the right time.  Working backstage is a lot of work!

If I could live anywhere...

Is Mars an option?  I'm not particular about where on Mars; until we colonize it and build livable space there, I won't know what the options are.  I do hope that becomes possible in my life time.

Of course, Hawaii would be a good place to live too.  I'm not sure I could get used to the climate, it's really not suited to those of us with fur.

I'm having trouble focusing on my topic this morning... Mommy was stuffing a crochet dragon until a few minutes ago.  Sissy's in a play, and they're having a raffle, so Mommy crocheted a dragon for the raffle basket.  Here he is with Miss D.

A favorite quote

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

From The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Haven't we all taken the road less traveled?  There is no one path to take in life; the paths diverge as we make decisions about what to do or who to be.  My path will never be exactly the same as your path, even if we reach the same destination.

For example, Sissy started first grade at the local public school last year.  Before that, she attended a nearby Waldorf school for three years.  She's not the only first grader at her school, and not the only child to leave a Waldorf school to start first grade elsewhere, but she is the only first grader at her school that went to this Waldorf school.  That is part of her path, and that road is not traveled by anybody else that she knows.

So I ask, is there really a road more traveled?

Happy Halloween!

Mommy really likes Halloween, especially the decorating part of it.  Last year, after talking about it for a couple years, she found plastic pumpkins that can be filled with toys or candies (from Oriental Trading Company, but it doesn't look like they have them this year) and made a pumpkin patch shaped like a Jack-o'Lantern on the front lawn for trick-or-treaters.

We don't get many trick-or-treaters, so she has plenty of pumpkins leftover for this year, all filled with toys (also left from last year).  The photo is of this year's pumpkin patch... pumpkins will be added this afternoon, around when trick-or-treating starts.  Count Pumpcula is guarding it until then.

Introduction

 

As you can see from my photo, I am, in fact, a plush bunny.  My name is Barbara, and I live in a house with many other stuffed animals, 3 real cats (Mr. M, Miss D and Miss J) and 3 people (Mommy, Daddy and Sissy).  By starting a blog, I'm helping Mommy write occasionally (hopefully regularly) and get into a consistent writing habit.  She's got lots of opinions, so you'd think it wouldn't be hard to write regularly!

I have some opinions too:

• in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, I support whoever will grow (and share) the most carrots,
• I think it would be a good idea to share some of those carrots with the people affected by Hurricane Sandy,
• I think everybody should get a hug from somebody they love at least once a day.

That's it for now... I think Mommy's signing me up for NaBloPoMo, so hopefully you'll see a lot more posts here soon!