Alrighty people, I know there are much much more important things going on, but tomorrow is Selection Sunday and the stupid NCAA decided to expand to 68 teams in the tournament when 65 (really 64) was perfect, so we’ll have less time to pick teams. Also, I won’t be around for part of it, so … I dunno, I thought about not doing it this year, but I am kind of curious how 68 will change things. And really, we don’t want K to have the reigning Know-Nothing March Madness Thingie previous winner crown for two years, do we? So watch for it, people!
Test
Test – from the WordPress app for my phone
Valentine
I’m not really much into Valentine’s Day. I mean, we already celebrated our anniversary, why do we need another holiday? And I’m not sure what’s objectively worse, Mother’s Day or Valentine’s or New Year’s or whatever, but in my experience, Valentine’s is the worst day to eat out in the whole year. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had nice experiences, but overall, it’s just not worth it. There are better nights to go out. I think Valentine’s is fine for kids and maybe I’ll give the rabbits a piece of carrot but y’know, whatevs to the rest!
Having said all that… I’m pretty excited about this Valentine’s because Watson is playing Ken and Brad on Jeopardy, starting tonight! I’ve been waiting for this since June! :D
But lest you think I’m a total grinch, I thought this article in today’s Washington Post about a couple celebrating their 80th Valentine’s was sweet.
On Public Schools
“The problem is not public schools; it is poverty.”
I feel like that line alone says so much. I mean, I knew that poverty was part of the problem, but still, that it might be the major factor in our schools, and to say it so starkly — that the more well off the population of the school, the better the school is, so all these reforms that we are always hearing about aren’t all that useful.
“And as dozens of studies have shown, the gap in cognitive, physical, and social development between children in poverty and middle-class children is set by age three.”
Ouch. Read Got Dough? How Billionaires Rule Our Schools. [via Longreads, which is pretty much full of interesting things to read.]
Medical
Fluffleupagus turned six months old on January 8th, and in anticipation, we scheduled her for a spay yesterday. The vet kept her overnight (I think it’s standard with Fluff and Hellspawn’s doctor), and we picked her up today. Hellspawn really missed her all night. He was all freaked out, wondering what we’d done to his girl Fluffa.
She has a crazy shaved area and wound on her underside and a little hairless patch on her arm from the iv. 
So she’s stuck in her cage for a week or so, which is fine for now, but I know she’s gonna hate it once she starts to heal more. She’s used to having the run of the whole house, not some itty bitty cage. At least Hellspawn is in there with her.
Oh, and while she was at the vet’s office, they did another fecal float, and she has coccidia, so she’s going to have to take antibiotics. Last time they tested her, in November, she tested negative, but maybe it was a false negative. We’re going to have to start them both on medication in a few days after she heals a bit. Poor girl, one thing after another.
At least she’s eating!
Crown
I just got a temporary crown. Not the “yay I’m the Queen” type either. Way more blech. But there were four cracks in one of my teeth and evidently, that means crown. And now I have to go back in two weeks or so and get the actual crown. Until then, I’m not supposed to chew on that side of my mouth too much. And for the first time ever at the dentist’s office, I was told not to floss (around the tooth with the temporary crown, but still). :p
Okay, seriously, I don’t remember much of what happened in 2010 after July, now. But obviously the most significant thing was our bunnies! We picked up our little baby Flemish Giant bunny Fluffleupagus on September 18th. 
And then we (well mostly I but whatevs) were really concerned that our poor girl was lonely while we were at work all day, so on November 7th, we went to RabbitEars and picked up Hellspawn, who we think is a Mini Lop. (Okay, we didn’t think anything except maybe smushy faced lop. The vet thinks he’s a Mini Lop, much better source of information than us.)
She’s basically the sweetest bunny ever (although she’s chewing up our carpet and we have to watch cords around her, she’s destroyed quite a few ’cause we’re not always conscientious and we didn’t wrap all our cords). 
He doesn’t look like it, but he’s the biggest grump ever! When he’s upset (or by this time, it could be habit, we’re not sure anymore), he jumps on our bed and pees. Just one spot, surrounded by 2 (or 20) poops, so we know it’s him!
She still jumps up on our bed now and then, but he’s currently banned from the bed; we’re too scared to test him. (We’re well trained. :p) On the other hand, when we adopted him he basically had perfect poop habits, always in the litterbox, except when angry, but little lady Flufflela is a bad influence and now we pick up poop all the time. Good thing the little poop balls aren’t gross except for when they’re soft.
By the way, bunnies can be litterbox trained. When misa and neb got their bunnies and told us about that, it was a game changer. We were talking for a long time about getting a dog, and afterwards it became maybe a dog and a rabbit (or two), but now (years later) that we have Fluffa and Hellspawn, we’re pretty settled — I don’t think we’re getting a dog anymore. I’m not claiming zero pee mistakes, but pretty close. Also two bunnies is not much more work than one, except when they’re not bonded. When they were still working on becoming buddies, it was so. much. work. They kept peeing in and near each other’s areas (we were keeping them separate) as a territory marking sort of a thing and it was awful. Now that they are chums, it’s not too much extra work at all. So worth it.
Advice Worth Listening To
Really enjoyed Jeff Bezos’s commencement speech at Princeton — thought provoking, and not boring, about choices and choosing.
When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.
<via kottke>
Glad it’s Friday, I Guess
This morning, I woke up, and for a second I really thought it was Saturday! I thought I’d set my alarm by mistake; I even started to think of what I wanted to do. Soooo disappointed. Hot chocolate for breakfast to make up for it! Actually this is the first time since Trader Joe’s that I haven’t had a chocolate covered cherry for breakfast. Or three.
Ode to Trader Joe’s
Trader Joe’s is Evil. OMG, I don’t know how my sister goes to Trader Joe’s all the time. A new one just opened nearby and we went and you know what we bought? Chocolate covered cherries, chocolate covered blueberries, and chocolate covered espresso beans. And in fact, if memory serves me correctly, when I go with my sister to TJ’s, I always make her buy chocolate covered something. And now it’s walking distance away and the first thing I ate when I woke up was chocolate covered stuff. Uh oh. Hopefully the novelty wears off. But those chocolate covered cherries are so delicious.
