Monday, January 30, 2006

Who Knew Bunnies Would be so Popular?

Well, this was unexpected. A site called Cute Overload linked to my post about the bunnies we had in the backyard last May.

And now I've had well over 2000 visits, way more than I've ever had in a day before. I mean, my normal average per day is about 10.

Apparently, people like pictures of bunnies.

I appreciate the traffic, and please, bunny-picture-people, have a look around. I have lots of cute pictures of my dogs and cat as well. Here is Cricket, the one who found the bunnies. This is Xena, who, like Cricket, would have been happy to eat them, but she is afraid to go outside. This post features both Cricket, Xena, and Bailey, my shih'tzu with bad allergies who itches all the time.

When you're done being overwhelmed by the cuteness, I'd like to clear up a few things. First, this all happened last May, so there's no point in telling me to stop bothering the bunnies. They are long gone.

Second, the mother bunny did not reject the babies. In fact, the post everyone is visiting points out that she visited the bunnies again AFTER the incident that is photographed.

Third, although we took lots of pictures, we really didn't handle them much. Maybe once or twice. Most of the time, I just carefully moved aside the grass and took pictures. Initially I used a pair of tongs to move the grass rather than my hands. Later, once they started moving around, I had to hunt around the yard to find their hiding spots.

Speaking of hiding spots, it was pretty obvious that the bunnies did not develop any trust of humans. Once they became more mobile, they hid whenever anyone came into the yard. Then, over a few days, they all disappeared.

We had a second set in late summer/early fall. I took a few more pictures, but never posted them. I don't think we touched that set at all. At one point, we didn't know that they were moving around yet and Cricket got to chase one across the yard. She (the rat-terrier mix) was terribly humiliated to be completely unable to catch a BABY rabbit. Those bunnies were fast!

Anyway, everyone who was worried that the bunnies were in danger -- you can relax. They're probably off doing whatever it is that rabbits do during the winter.

Friday, January 13, 2006

At the Airport

I spent the last week back in Illinois, going into the office like a normal person. It was a little odd to actually have to drive somewhere every day to go to work, instead of just walking up the stairs!

It was good to see my co-workers of course, although I did miss Laura.

Anyway, I've discovered the biggest downside of this whole telecommuting thing...there aren't many flights in and out of Missoula, and all of them go through a hub before getting to Chicago. I can fly through Salt Lake City (Delta), Minneapolis (Northwest), or Denver (United). I think I could also take Alaska Air through Seattle, but that is just going backwards!

So, this was my first trip back. I took Delta. Monday morning was OK, though the flight was late getting out and I had to jog through the airport to make my connection.

Today I looked at my itinerary and realized I had about a THREE HOUR layover in Salt Lake City. Won't get home till 9 PM. Argh! Laura suggested trying to go standby on an earlier flight, which was a nice idea but impossible. There are no other flights out tonight.

So, I got bored enough that I ponied up a few bucks for wireless access here in SLC so that I could do a blog post. It's about 6 PM Mountain time now - we'll probably start boarding in an hour.

I really do love the whole live-in-Montana-and-work-from-home thing. Having to travel back like this and spend most of the day in an airport is a small price to pay. But still...maybe Northwest will have a better flight schedule...