Heeeeeeeere's Charlie!

I decided it's time for you all to meet Charlie.

Charlie is a bundle of the sofest black and gray fur, a spunky, fearless, personality, and the cutest (albeit seemingly useless) little tail ever. Charlie is my bunny.

Bradford said he had been wanting to get me a bunny for a while and he figured that since he was leaving to the Philippines for two months it would be the perfect time to get me a bunny companion to keep me company while he was gone.

One Friday night, Bradford and I were driving from dinner to go look at some motorcycle pants that Bradford saw on the local classifieds for his upcoming trip (to the Philippines). We came upon this cute little house, got out of the car, and met the owner on the driveway. We started walking to a building behind the house (which I thought was a little odd, but whatever, maybe he keeps the pants in a garage). I immediately noticed all these animals! He had goats and birds and a dog and when we walked into the building there was a whole wall of cages, filled with the cutest bunnies ever.

I, still not catching on to the whole thing, said something along the lines of "Well, while you're checking out those pants I'm going to entertain myself with these cute fluffies." I remember the owner looking at me weird as if saying "what is she talking about" and then Bradford said, "Well, actually, this is the reason why we're here." I looked at him, still not really getting it, and he said, "I spoke with Renee (my landlady) and OKed it with her already. I wanted to surprise you." Boy was I ever! I was still processing it and trying to adjust the reality of not being there for pants but being there for me to pick out a rabbit friend, so the whole thing felt a little surreal at first. Let me just say, I am not very easily surprised, even if I can't guess what the surprise is, I can usually tell that something is up (makes for very anti-climactic surprise birthday parties...). So the fact that Bradford completely and utterly surprised me like I've never been surprised before was almost as good as what the surprise was!
Since that blissful Friday evening Charlie has been a pleasant addition to my household.

He is very playful but kind of picky about his toys. His favorites right now are the plastic grocery sack and old phone book. The grocery sack will keep him entertained for hours while he hops on it, flings it around, burrows in it... I think he likes the way it sounds, and how easy it is for him to move it.

The phone book he has had for a while but liked it better as a bed to sleep on than an actual toy. Recently, however, he has discovered that it is much more fun to shred it into little tiny pieces. When I come home from work the bathroom floor is usually strewn with little bits of recycled paper everywhere. I don't mind though because I like that he has something to do. A bored bunny= a naughty bunny.


I can sit and watch Charlie tirelessly. He is so funny. My favorite thing to watch him do is run and pounce all over the place. Its almost like he thinks something is chasing him the way he runs and ducks and hops around in circles and takes off at any given moment. He is a hoot.

He is also a good snuggler. Even though he is really active, he knows that every now and then a good snuggle is called for. He will cuddle up into my lap, close his eyes (sometimes even nudging my hand if I'm not taking the hint) and sit there contentedly as I pet him and rub his back.

I've had Charlie for a month now and I couldn't be happier. He has grown so much! I especially notice it in his feet and ears. He is currently being litter trained and is doing a pretty good job at it. I love bunnies, and Charlie has been everything I hoped for and more.

Yes, he is sitting in the trash can. Apparently he found out that if he jumped from the phone book he could get to the trash can and then to the toilet seat. One morning I found him sitting in the toilet bowl, absolutely soaked. It was so sad (although he didn't really seem to mind). I guess I forgot to close the lid the night before. I make sure to not leave it open now. I also invested in a lidded trash can because sitting in the trash? That's just gross Charlie.

*Most of the pictures were taken on my cell phone, hence the quality

Smell the Bacon

Is it wrong that this makes me hungry?

I know what I'm having for dinner.

Time to Retire

I'm picky when it comes to purses. I have a hard time finding purses I absolutely LOVE that aren't hundreds of dollars. I'm really good at falling in love with purses, but its usually quickly crushed by shock once I turn over the price tag. I don't like expensive things. Okay, I like expensive things, but I don't like paying for expensive things, nor do I believe that those expensive things justifiably cost what their staggering price tags scream they do.

Back to the point- once upon a time I was in the market for a purse. I searched high and low and couldn't find anything I was satisfied with. My purse at the time had suffered a severe handle fracture and therefore I was in dire need of something to carry around all my chapstick and receipts and gum wrappers in (STAT!) so I decided to find a "go between" (read: a-cheapie-$6-purse-from-Ross-that-I-embellished-with-silk-flowers-I-made-into-pins-to-hide-its-plainess-so-I-had-something-to-cart-around-my-belongings-in-until-I-found-something-I-loved).

It has been 10 months and I still have my go between. Now I need a go between for my go between. I've been doing some projects for my apartment and am apparently just living up to my klutzy tendencies because I got some of the paint I was using onto my purse's flower pins. That, and the fact that the petals are starting to fray and they're looking kinda dingy anyway. *Sigh*

I guess it's time to start the purse hunt again. Wish me luck.

P.S.

I also need to start looking for a new everyday coat... I just discovered a strikingly similar smudge of blue on the elbow of my current one. At least for this I have until it's winter time again.

P.P.S.

Which by the way the weather's been lately means next week.

My "New" Car

Ok, in the world of bloghood I have severely slacked on the postings as of late. Its been over a month, actually since my last post. Sad.

I have much to blog about though, so stay tuned for some exciting tales from my corner of the world.

First off, the long awaited car reveal! The pictures are the only ones I have of my car and were taken courtesy of my blackberry on the day I bought the car. I was so excited and wanted to send pictures of it to everyone in my address book so hooray for excitment or you would only have text and no pictures. I think the car looks kinda funny in the pictures, but, since they are the only pictures I have, they will have to suffice until I take more. If I take more...

After much deliberation, comparing, drooling, refocusing, and deep breaths, I finally decided that the car I wanted, the car I would be happy in, the car I imagined I would still be happy in until I or it died, was a Toyota Rav 4. The trouble with that, however, is that I didn't want to get anything older than a 2006. That meant I'd be skirting up in the high end of my budget, if not beyond, in most cases.

Bradford was very helpful through the entire process and even drove to and back from L.A. within a 24 hour time period to go look at a 2006 Rav 4 he found on eBay for a steal.

Unfortunately, the car in CA was not what we had expected. However, it opened up the door of searching again and through that searching we found a little credit union that had a lot of repos, one of them was a beautiful, silver, 2007 Rav 4, with barely 44,000 miles on it, 4wd, and a free roadside assistant kit that the previous owner forgot about in the trunk :)! After test driving and thinking it over for a day or so, I knew it was the car I wanted.

The nice thing about buying the car was that since it was a credit union, I didn't have to pay any of the ridiculous fees that come with buying at a dealership, and since they'd had the car for so long and wanted to get it off their hands, we talked him down to giving it to me for the blue book trade in value which was $2,500 less than what they had listed it for in the classifieds, and by far WAY less than I could get a Rav 4 for anywhere else. Especially for the year and condition it was in. I was very happy with the purchase and am still thrilled about it. I really like the car.

The only cons I can think of are: the transmission- I would have loved a manual transmission but I was having a hard enough time finding Rav 4s for sale let alone a manual transmission Rav 4. It was weird adjusting to driving an automatic after having driven a manual for so long, but it really isn't that big of a deal, it was just a preference more than anything. I also would have liked a different color. Again, a very minor, relatively irrelevant, detail but if I could have chosen any color it probably wouldn't have been the silver. I also find myself wishing it had some of the fancy gadgets and gizmos that come from newer cars these days like heated seats, navigation systems, and so on but those aren't necessities and if I really wanted to, I could get those things put in.

So, after all is said and done, I love my car, the awful and painful process of finding and buying a car is over and I am pleased as punch with my purchase.

Or rather... the bank's purchase. Ew.