BunnyBlab

A Bear Votes is SaveOurEnvironment.org’s latest message to get out and vote till you can’t vote no more for the environment. And the bears. “And the otters. And the eagles. And the salmon. And the sea turtles. And your grandkids.”

This election on Nov. 7 could be a very interesting one… Pundits are predicting the country’s just full up of those Republicans and that the Dems will take back the government. It won’t be a 2000 election (I stayed up until 5 a.m. to watch Gore give the acceptance speech that never came), but even midterms are important. Especially this year, when there’s so much to fight for.

So register if you’re a procrastinator. Get thee to RockTheVote.com and sign up. Then show up on Nov. 7th and make sure you speak for the candidate who represents your concerns… There’s nothing like a little studying for midterms…

Watch El Magnifico Magiciano. It’s hilarious. Not at all about bunnies, although…

I promised a long time ago that I can bring just about any conversation around to bunnies. For the purpose of this blog, come with me on a journey of conversational paths… El Magnifico Magiciano is all about cloning. Which is making many copies of an object, usually a living thing. In his case, a blond woman. However, bunnies reproduce quickly, too. Although they don’t especially love water in most cases and they do it naturally and don’t make exact replicas of each other… Oh, wait. Neither does El Magnifico Magiciano. Watch the vid to see what I mean. The punchline’s at the end. You’ll wish for a different setting than a warm day poolside.

Got a creative idea for a video? Make it and submit it to It’s Your Show TV. It’s YouTube with a reward… (Thanks to NBC, who apparently realizes there’s more than one medium for TV these days.)

David Bowie and Queen would be so proud…

So my mom was in town this past weekend for a visit. She stayed w/ us in the new digs, which marks the first time she’s stayed w/ me in MA. There was a bunking up together in my tin can apartment in State College (529 W. College Ave., I’ve come a long way since your teeny space and your kitchen that used to let my silverware get so cold in the winter that it stuck to my fingers if I touched it), but that was a few lives ago.

Fun was had, but that’s not my point. My point is that I worked my butt off to get the place in order for her. Paul took a perfectly timed business trip for four days earlier that week and left me alone to clean, organize, etc. He didn’t even recognize the place when he came home. Then the last afternoon (last Thursday), he went to play golf (the poor guy has only played like twice this year! he’s been so busy) and came home after my mom came and said it changed so much again…

I asked Alice what she thought of it the next night (Friday evening), and she said that someone walking in would guess we’d been living there for 2 years. That’s quite a compliment, considering where we were just a week before.

At any rate, now that the house was ready for mom’s visit, there’s not a LOT to do for the party, except to decorate for Halloween (more). And the party’s before Halloween, so come the 31st, I’ll be sitting pretty… now to decide my costume….

If you’ve got suggestions as to costumes for me, comment and let me know. Costumes4less.com seems to be swimming in bunnies (Anya would be terrified and confused why anyone would dress up as one of them). ForPlayCatalog puts a good idea in my head — snow bunnies are bunnies, too. Of course, there’s always pleather.

Vote or suggest others by commenting. What’s your costume this year?

I’ve been spending my previously idle TV time, which I just got back, bc I was using it all to unpack and organize my house, making spooky (and also very cute) decorations for my upcoming housewarming/Halloween party. I still have a few weeks, but am going to squeeze in a little trip to California in there. Why TF not?

So, there are homemade ghosts, spiders that will hang down from webs, and spider webs all over the porch. Those last ones are real, but I also got fake spider webs. And I need pumpkins. Lots and lots of pumpkins. Paul likes carving the jacks, so I’ll paint some (badly) and he’ll do something wonderful and elaborate. It’ll be a real spooky place and I hope to get lots of cute, scared kids on Halloween.

There will surely be pictures.

October’s Bunny Book of the Month, The Velveteen Rabbit, has a special story. Jannine, my dear stepmom, used to read this one to me when I was a little girl. This was one of our first bonding moments. Now every time someone mentions this book, both Jannine and I think of each other. It’s sweet…

For September’s Bunny Book of the Month, I’m going with another obvious book: The Runaway Bunny, a favorite of mine since before I could read. The mother’s persistence has always been very sweet.

Speaking of my amazing Paul, he just finished writing his book today. I’m so proud of him I could just burst open at the seams, if I had any. Check out the earliest draft. He has about two weeks to fiddle with it. Of course, in true writer fashion, he kinda hates it now. “I should have done it totally differently,” he told me two nights ago. I have to keep reminding him that that’s what all authors say when they near the end. There’s usually some sort of “good enough” that a writer and publisher agree on for the sake of “printing the damn thing already.” And Paul’s lucky enough to have planned so well that he still has a few weeks to move, shake, and fiddle it to get to that point.

So stay tuned for the printed and final version, coming to bookstores near you (hopefully!) this coming spring. It’s going to be Quill Driver’s featured title of spring, so that’s pretty exciting. I believe it’ll change the conversation about social media, at least among marketers. I believe it’ll change the world, too, but that’s probably because I’m biased, or so Paul keeps telling me.

So on the 5th, I had a meaningless birthday. It’s the calm before the storm, really. There’s nothing special about 29 other than it’s the one before 30. I’ll probably freak out next year. But I’m steadily in my 20s yet, for one more year.

I’m lucky enough to be with a man 20 years my senior. “Lucky?” you’re asking. Yeah, lucky. He keeps things in perspective for me. Thanks, Love!

It only took me 4 weeks after we officially moved in to get the 3 pieces of the bunny condo cleaned up and assembled. The poor dears, having to dodge in and out of travel cages for shelter (they were free run, don’t cry too hard).

Anyway, “nothing like a good hosing off” is what I always say. Well, not always; just this once. But my front yard, which consists of about 15 blades of grass and a garden along the front of the house but which nevertheless has a sprinkler system for some reason, was awash with, well, water. Remind me not to wear my fleece cloggy slippers from L.L. Bean the next time I do that. Man, those things were uncomfy when they got wet. At any rate, the power washing of the hose got most of the nasty stuff off the cage much faster than a paper towel and vinegar, which was always my only option. Now with my 15 blades of grass and my hose hook-up, well, let’s just say I was thanking the patron saint of houses (or whatever the protestant equivalent would be) that I have a house now. And a hose.

That was 2 weeks ago that I hosed them off and assembled the cages, complete with brand new rug. This is how busy I’ve been that I’m just now getting to post about it. Not that today’s different. I’m currently in a rare hole between my meetings today — all 7 of them.

One day (soon) I’ll have to tell you about how cool PetRock was the weekend before last….

As I was driving down International Drive (or whatever that road in Philadelphia is called where all the flags are — you know, by the art museum there) this past Saturday afternoon, I told my mom I was going to make a page on BunnyBlab and another one on FramesByDana.com of all the flags of all the countries of the visitors to the sites. So that’s a project I’m collecting info (read: flags) for… stay tuned. (So now that I’ve written about it, I am committed to doing it.)

Was in Philly for my brother Brett’s engagement party. The Maley’s are good people and I’m happy our two clans are joining. Sara couldn’t be more perfect for Brett, so we’re all very happy.

Let me point you to Fuzzy-rabbit.com. The explanation about how they changed their condo (made of NIC cubes, btw) is just great. There’s a forum for your bunny questions, if you can’t find the answers on BunnyBlab. It’s just a really cool site. Please go surf!

In the spirit of “there’s a kid inside each of us,” here’s a fun site for the kiddies: Captain Underpants’ Professor Poopypants Name Change-o-Chart 2000. If you wanna know my silly name, I’m now being called Gidget Bananabrains. Well, for the next 10 seconds.

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Okay, time’s up. I’m Dana again. Have fun with the site and be sure to comment to tell me what your name (or your kids’ names) are!

I’ll get the Blab back on track in a few days, but first, I just want to express my surprise that no one shared their “the first time I read Watership Down” stories when I posted the book. C’mon, bunny lovers! How many gallons of tears did you cry during that one?

Hola, faithful readers! As I mentioned, I think, in a previous post, that I was going to move… Getting a three-story, 100-year-old house ready to move in takes a LOT of time. Never having painted a house before (the inside, folks, stick with me), I have to say the LOT of time it took was more time than I thought it would take. But I got done the night before moving day, which was this past Saturday. Needless to say, I didn’t get a wink of sleep on Friday night, because of the packing frenzy. But we did it and I caught cat naps (meow!) on Saturday as those wonderful kids hauled our furniture and other heavy stuff. TG the new couches were delivered on Friday! (“I’ll be over here napping if you need me.”) Although, of course, I was the one directing the destinations of each piece of furniture, so these naps probably lasted about 5-10 minutes.

But we lived through it, although we only found the salt and pepper shaker last night. Paul had a meeting this morning that he couldn’t find shoes for — it’s that kind of move. Some remnants are still at my place, but they’ll be coming over probably tonight. The fancy Internet connection still has some quirks (doesn’t so much work in the master suite quite yet), but we’ll get that ironed out.

All in all, it was an exhausting time. “But what about the bunnies?!” I hear you asking — no worries. They’re in a couple of travel cages with periods of run time (they’ll get free run of the 3rd floor, but probably not until we’ve set everything up and bunnyproofed the wires and stuff). Hops is looking for lots of love; he’s a bit unsure of whether we’re staying here or just visiting. Kayla and Ariel couldn’t care less where they are — as long as they get to cuddle with each other and get their raisins and salads and breakfast. SweetPea is having a BALL exploring the boxes and figuring out new running routes between the misplaced furniture. I came out of the bedroom today to the middle room (I said it’s a master suite, right?) and found Pea in my underwear drawer, which, of course, is not in a dresser, but rather on the floor — the dresser’s still at my apt. Piecemeal moving — gotta love it. But they’re having a great time. Pea and Hops are bunked up together and the twins are in another travel cage.

So we’re basically moved and the bunnies are happy. Oh, and the painting got done on time — miracles DO happen!

Amanda Congdon who?!

Who will fill Amanda’s cute little shoes? Maybe Cali Lewis will. Cali seems to be a brunette version of the blond Amanda. They both chose videocasts, not audio podcasts. They both are cute 20-something girls talking about techie stuff to geeks. They both wear (wore, in Amanda’s case) the tight t-shirts that true guy geeks go gaga over (and some chicks, too, I’m not excluding them!). And they both don’t seem to have any idea at all about the technology of podcasting, just that they can do it. Most geeks don’t care; they just like the scenery.

Anyway, there’s a new Amanda in town. Or not so new, to her audience — she apparently gets over 6 million hits a month. Geek Brief is apparently only 6 or 7 months old. Good luck, Cali!