earthday in bunnaland: a vindication

Certain private conversations about, and the dearth of comments on, our most recent post: "our dinner with al gore," precipitates this clarification, this vindication if you will. Though the tone (meant more as a catalogue of our commitment to the environment, a précis to impress Al Gore) may suggest otherwise, the post actually contains very few falsehoods. Confessions: we did not actually invite Al Gore; we do not own a loom; Zoe's diaper, although cloth, did not feature any endangered species; and compost piles are expressly forbidden in our complex by-laws (or we would have one). The rest of the post is pretty much true. We meant no disrespect to Al Gore or other like-minded environmentalists. We are committed to our green lifestyle and encourage others to be kind to our mother earth. 

our dinner with al gore

We really wanted to celebrate Earth Day right this year, so we decided to invite a special guest to dinner. We'd never had a Nobel Prize winner in our home before, but we figured since he was going to be in the neighborhood we could at least extend the invitation. So we made plans. We figured that after appearing on "Oprah's Earth Day Event," he could hop on the 57 and drive down (we were sure he'd insist on driving a hybrid), and spend the evening with us. We usually eat dinner around 5:30, so he'd have to leave right after taping. We made a nice sign on recycled packaging paper and hung it on the sliding glass door, which we purposely left ajar so he could smell the compost pile in the backyard.

We made sure to wear the bamboo clothing we purchased at the clothes co-op this weekend (an amazingly versatile, renewable resource - but of course, we wouldn't have to tell him that!) and Zoe wore one of her cloth diapers - the cute one with the little prints of endangered species on it. Biff made wild Alaskan salmon while I cooked up some organic whole wheat pasta with homemade organic pesto and organic feta cheese, and we topped it off with a nice organic spinach salad. Very tasty and all cooked with energy from the solar panel we installed last summer. We figured we'd give him the special seat between the plastic recycling and the loom. When 5:30 came, we were all ready. Everything was perfect, except no Al. 5:45. Still no Al. 6:00. Nothing. What an inconvenience. Our food was getting cold and the guest of honor still hadn't arrived. Dejectedly, Biff took down the framed picture of Al at one of the screenings of An Inconvenient Truth and put it in his place. It just wasn't the same.

There was a somber mood at the dinner table, but we celebrated the best we could. We tried to console ourselves with thoughts of next year, but the Earth will be a year older and we never know what might happen.

Happy Earth Day.

earthquake in bunnaland: it's all yer fault

Growing up in the West, Biff and I remember the good old days of mandatory earthquake drills. Seismologists continually warned us that the "big one" was coming and so we were periodically startled by the shrill whistle of the earthquake alarm and herded under our tiny little desks by faculty reliving memories of being crammed into plywood fallout shelters like this one, that looks like a great place to flip through a book and eat a can of Campbell's tomato soup.

I could never manage to get my entire body under the desk. I had to choose between my head and my legs - and I was one of the smaller students.

So moving to the Midwest we thought we were trading earthquake drills for tornado sirens and twister preparedness seminars. We were wrong. Apparently we live near what the USGS considers the area of highest earthquake risk in the United States outside the west coast: the New Madrid fault. What do you know?

Early Friday morning we felt the tremor. I should say Biff felt the tremor. I was groggy and dismissed it as a figment of her imagination. It wasn't until later that morning, when we assessed the damage, that I realized what had happened. Our office was almost unrecognizable; we're still alphabetizing.


And our pantry? Well, we had to enlist the help of our neighbor, Albert, to help clean up all the glass. He got right in with both hands.


We'll try to post more pictures of the clean up.

volkswagen for sale

A while ago, Biff's friend posted his Volkswagen Bus to Craigslist in Salt Lake City. Bunna happened to be perusing the site (something he does now and again as a diversion from studying), when he ran into what seemed like a familiar seller. Here's the original post:

We thought we could have a little fun with him, so we created a bogus email account and asked a few questions about the condition of the bus. Here's a copy of the sent email from Billy "Bee" Bradford. The questions are worth reading.

He never replied. The bus is still for sale. It looks like Billy "Bee" will just have to find himself another ride, man.

the easter bunny spotted in bunnaland

We saw the Easter Bunny this morning sitting on our couch. Contrary to popular myth, the Easter Bunny is a girl. She's kind of plump, with a round face and a cute little smile - kind of different than what we'd expected. She didn't even leave us any eggs or candy. I was expecting some of those Cadbury eggs - you know, the kind with the carmel center - but all we got was a dirty diaper with a sweet potato center. Mmmmm.  

bunna and biff back from hiatus: mice to blame for interruption

How to describe the general feeling in Bunnaland:

heebie jeebies.

William "Billy" De Beck coined the term in his Barney Google cartoon in 1923:

A dictionary definition:

heebie jeebies:
1. Noun: The physical and psychic reaction to something revolting or disgusting. May be expressed in a shiver, shudder, or the archtypal skin crawling.
2. A passe term used to refer to a feeling of being "freaked out."

The Boswell Sisters' definition:

The Brits would call it "screaming habdabs":


From the loaded traps (burnt peanut butter gets 'em every time),

to the mice behind the dishwasher,

to the little guy (still alive!) trying to burrow through a half an inch of plywood under the sink,

to the nest,

we've been feeling the heebie jeebies. Biff has thrown out everything the mice might have touched - just about everything in our kitchen - and we've been patching up holes like the little Dutch boy to prevent them from returning. We'll see how it goes. 

The CU Sightings crew will be back from sabbatical soon and have a great spring line-up planned, so stay tuned to Bunna and Biff for more of what everybody loves about Champaign-Urbana.

zoe's bright future

Ever since Zoe was born we’ve heard countless opinions about which parent she resembles most: “Oh! Zoe has Biff's eyes!” Or conversely, “Oh! Bunna! She has your eyes.” Perhaps our friend, Marcus, said it best: “She has Biff's eyes and Bunna's hair.” Although the latter half may be true for now, we are, quite frankly, at a loss when it comes to assigning her features any particular parental origin. But it got us thinking. Since she’s only six months old and it’s difficult to determine what she’ll look like when her features start to take on a more permanent cast, we underwent the self-deprecating process of amateur web-based composite portraiture to get a glimpse of Zoe’s future.




The results were, needless to say, shocking and we can only hope that she grows up to resemble one of us—even if it is her mustachioed old man—and not both. It’s the thinning hairline/comb-over that scares us the most. Good thing Biff is the other genetic donor here; she has good hair and she couldn’t grow a goatee even if she tried.

To try and put these nightmarish images behind us we began focusing on Zoe’s other developing characteristics in hopes of finding something of ourselves in her that we could be proud of. That process has not been fruitless. Zoe is a good sitter. I think she got that from me; I’m a good sitter. She can lie on her back and giggle really well. I’ve seen Biff do that—she must get that from Biff. She can wear socks for hours on end. Biff’s good at wearing socks; she must have gotten that from her. At six months she loves to eat books (and, well, anything that comes near her mouth). We’ve both been known to consume lots of books. So, when we really started looking we found so many things that gave us hope. Despite her parents' grotesque facial composite, Zoe future seems bright.

finally some real food - er, kind of

Zoe has been trying to snag food off our plates for the past couple of weeks, so we decided to celebrate her six month birthday by shoving a spoon full of cereal in her mouth. Bunna has been waiting nearly six months for this day, but he can see now that her current mode of eating is preferable and much easier to clean up. Eating solids is like learning to ride a bike - it's going to take some practice. But to her credit, Zoe seems to be a fast learner. About half of what we put in her mouth stayed there. As you can see, she also enjoys drinking out of a big person glass. I think that was her favorite part.

don't tell me what to do, mom!

Zoe is already asserting her voice, or at least silencing someone else's. This one was just too cute to pass up.

bunna and the big 3-0

Today Bunna turned 30. This special day offers us a unique occasion to explain his middle-child complex. Not only is Bunna a semi-forgotten second child - somewhere in between the favorite oldest and the spoiled youngest - he even has to share his February 14th birthday with the rest of the romantically inclined world. Maybe a few pictures can help illustrate. While his brothers were surprised each year on their birthdays with Dad's latest cake design featuring frosting-covered football helmets, basketballs, and even their (or Dad's) favorite Sesame Street characters (fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Dad with a Grover cake. Nice glasses!

Bunna was never so lucky. While he longed for the big red block letter "U" or the Los Angeles Raiders (before they moved back to Oakland) football helmet, he was yearly presented, to his snowballing disappointment, with a pink heart cake. Though the cake was always decorated a little differently - candy hearts here or a maybe some red M&Ms there, the basic pattern was the same: bright pink frosting covering a double-layer, heart shaped chocolate cake (fig. 2-5). Maybe some pictures will help illustrate the extent of the pain Bunna has suffered over the years.

Fig. 2: Bunna's second birthday. We can see here that the basic pattern has been established.
Fig 3: Bunna's third birthday. Note 1981's improvisation: the candy-clustered center.
Fig. 4: Bunna's fourth birthday. As if the shape of the cake wasn't already apparent, it gets emphasized in the 1982 edition with the red candy heart border.
Fig. 5: Although blurry, we can see by Bunna's sixth birthday that the cake has risen to new heights.
This painful past has caused Biff to look for alternatives when it comes to the traditional birthday cake. This year the candles were placed atop Bunna'a favorite: a cinnamon roll. Biff used the heart-shaped cake pan (an unthinkably cruel wedding gift) to store the other birthday goodies. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUNNA!