So ...one migt ask oneself...how does one end up with a hamster named Jack and a rabbit named Arthur. The answer is actually quite simple--one is s sucker! Actually, the answer is not quite that simple :) Yes, one is a sucker, "rescuer of animals" "defender of the underdog" ....okay, and maybe a sucker. One ends up with a hamster named Jack in the following way. One day, one gets a phonecall from a co-worker who needs to get rid of this one-eyed thing her kids have...and after several serious attempts of standing one's ground and repeatedly saying no...one ends up with a one-eyed hamster who otherwise would have met his fate in a field somewhere in less than five minutes. And once one gets the hamster, and he only has one eye since he lost the other in a fight with an evil hamster....one names him the only logical name possible which is Jack....because he also has red hair and reminds one of a pirate which is one's favorite thing...pirates that be :) So that is how one ends up with a one-eyed hamster named Jack....and thus begins a quest to find a Pirate Ship Habitrail complete with a water bottle that says "rum", complete with scull and crossbones of course because one has heard tales that there is such a thing. And naturally a one eyed pirate hamster named Jack deserves to have a ship :)

And when one has a hamster named after a pirate....and one also loves knights...well...the following happens. One takes one's 17 year old "baby" who is getting ready for college and who is...along with her sister...the love of one's life...to the Agricultural Fair to "look" at cows, and sheep and ride some rides and eat funnel cake, because one's baby is leaving for college soon and one wants to make the best of the time one has left. And the two unsuspecting mother and daughter happen upon a bunny exhibit, with a little black bunny who comes up to the cage....gets picked up....cuddles up to one's neck....and it's all over. And he reminds the mother and daughter who are trying to talk themselves out of buying this rabbit of the black Knight in Monty Python...but Monty is not a good name and then the mother and daughter figure that if one has a pirate hamster one ought to have a knight rabbit and the obvious choice becomes Arthur as this is one's favorite Knight. And after some funnel cake, lots of water, getting lost in the funhouse, almost getting kicked of the carousel for changing horses repeatedly :) ...one's thoughts keep going back to the little bunny ...and that's how one ends up with a bunny. On one hand one could say....sucker...on the other one could say....going to the fair $50 with food and games--one cute little bunny $10--one really cool bunny house $70....having a bunny named Arthur and spending time with one's "baby" ---priceless :) 

I say the phrase "in my world" a lot. I also spend a lot of time driving, I prefer Pink Floyd's The Wall on long trips on I 95. For anyone who hasn't spent time on I 95 in Northern Virginia, say, on a Friday afternoon going South...or at this time of year ...going anywhere...the experience varies between feeling like Mario Andretti and hanging on for dear life in one's car, or spending a lot of time moving five miles an hour reading license plates and counting the leaves on the trees. The good thing I guess is that there are still trees to look at, which normally you don't get to see when 95 is in it's Indy 500 phase. So I spend a lot of time thinking, in between listening to the wall, and turning up my Bagpipe music just to tick off the guy next to me who's music is annoying me :) and who just happens to be in a convertible, and who just happens to think he is "all that" and who just can't understand why a woman in a Volvo Stationwagon blasting Pink Floyd or Bagpipes isn't gushing all over his car and his bad choice of music :) And those are the little moments when I think...in my world:?

In my world, my chariot may be old...but it is surrounded by steel and could plow over your little pretty chariot. In my world, wearing chainmail is perfectly normal...in any social circumstance. In my world, I would have a dragon....and yes I would pay the farmer for the occassional missing cow. :) In my world, women would say...."hey nice sword--is it new?" instead of "oh I love your shoes". In my world I would have a castle. In my world, I would shop at a store with a name like "Castle's R'Us" and there would be sales on Tapestries and all the essentials to keep your drawbridge from fundtioning properly. In my world, everyone would say things like m'lady, because I like that. In my world, one would be allowed to invade the neighboring cubicles or companies...wherever one may work and plunder for staplers and pens...and then maybe sign a peace treaty after one has agreed to make an offering. In my world, talking like a Pirate would be normal, and expected in certain situations and one could take one's vacations learning how to be a Pirate ending on a deserted Island with Captain Sparrow and a whole lot of Rum!!!

There's more in my world....but one must go back to the real world...where's my sword??

Just a general thought, something random that comes to my mind every once in a while. This is the Irony of growing things...plants I mean. We grow them, because we like them. They make our homes look nicer, our yards prettier....our lives better they say. I find growing things to be one of the most ironic parts of my life. This comes to mind every time I step foot into my house, a house that is over 100 years old and surrounded by trees. Therein lies the blessing, and the problem. It does not have central air, I have two air conditioners and living in Virginia, as long as I remember to turn them on, they keep the house cool even during unbearable conditions such as yesterday when we broke some kind of record for the hottest day in June since....I am not sure. The blessing about the house is that it is surrounded by trees...I love trees...ask me again in the fall....but my abundance of trees keep my house cool--they also keep my house dark. Good for me, bad for my plants. So what does one do in a case like that....one heads on a quest to find plants that don't require a lot of light. And one takes a chance, which generally does not work. And inevitably, one replaces the plant with another after it becomes apparent that it is to quote one of my favorite movies, "no longer mostly dead, but all dead." 

Then comes the irony of my outside. Beautiful old home, beautiful old porch...places for flowers in the front, vegetables in the back. I admit shamefully, I know little about flowers...very very little. It often does not become apparent to me when I begin to grow things from seeds in the spring, if the little green life coming from the soil is a flower or a weed. At times it does, as things progress, and at times I think the weed is pretty as well, so I leave it. And I have food for the birds, look at my flowers and live in perfect harmony with nature enjoying my porch....until word spreads around the mosquito population that I am outside...generally five minutes later or so...and I must go back inside as bugs are very fond of me. And this being Virginia, there are very few times when one can sit outside in the summer without the feeling of passing out from the heat. The true irony however, are vegetables. My ex mother in law, a wonderful woman who has been very good to me and is very close to me still, who I love as a mother....has a need to make me grow tomatoes. We have the same conversation every spring.....I am bringing you tomato plants.....I don't want tomato plants...you dont? ....no I don't...I hate tomatoes....I am allergic to tomatoes....oh okay. And so the conversation ends, and a few weeks later on her next visit, she brings me...tomato plants. Southern women must grown things..I am German, not southern, though I am from Bavaria....so I guess that includes me as well. I have tried to grow vegetables I like, from green peppers to squash and I have failed. However, my tomatoes grow at an incredible rate. I am good with tomatoes. So I grow them as I do the flowers and the weeds, because it makes her happy, it makes my friends happy, it makes my birds happy and in the end...that makes me happy :)