Hoppy Hallowthanksmas

Hallowthankmas: The period of time starting in late October and ending on New Year's Eve, so named for the commercial tendency to put up Christmas displays before Halloween. Not to be confused with Christmahanukwanzakah.

Japan Adventure: denied

Sadly, Auntie Kenno flies to Japan tomorrow sans Foo. But we're hoping in between work & sake bombers, she'll see fit to keep us updated. Safe travels and sayanora!

Urban bon mot: hollywood marriage

hollywood marriage
A measure of time equal to approximately one month.

"Hey, do you know how long it takes to acclimate before making an Everest summit bid?"

"Yeah, about a hollywood marriage."

Urban bon mot: bootsy

bootsy
Bad or wretched. (n)
A word that originated from "The Town"—Oakland, CA

"That flight outta Juneau was hecka bootsy, man!"

All good things must come to an end

Sadly—Bunny's big Alaska adventure must come to an end today. Sure, saying goodbye to Silverbow Bagels and the Mendenhall Glacier will be tough, but it's her new pal she'll miss the most.

Au revoir ami d'ours...au revoir.

Urban bon mot: dotcomrade

dotcomrade
An [Internet] acquaintance; someone you chat with but have never met.

"So who's this NrdPowr32 guy?"
"I dunno. Just a dotcomrade of mine."

Foo Field Report (some narrative spice):

Getting to Juneau
Making their way thru Seatac Monday morning, Bob and Bunny arrived at their gate to hear an odd announcement:

"For those of you unfamiliar with this gate, we board from the rear of the aircraft..."

While this should have perked up Foo's furry little ear and Bob's usual flight paranoia, strangely, it did not. The big surprise was finding out the plane was a 737C, the 'C' standing for combination or CARGO! What looked like a normal plane was actually cargo up front; passengers in back. Mama Foo likes to think of it as a flying mullet.

A bouncy flight thru arctic storms, a dangerously close to mountain peak descent, and a wind shear-filled-crabbing-sideways-wing-dipped-landing in Juneau, had our heroes more than a little bug-eyed. This, of course—a normal landing in Juneau. Small wonder the FAA is testing its new GPS landing system at this scary strip of tarmac.

[Pause here for boring day spent in conference room]

At 4pm, our motley crew scurried out, changed clothes and raced to see the sights before a 5:30 Alaskan sunset. Out to Mendenhall Glacier where Foo made lots of friends and spied many a bald eagle. Thankfully nary an ursine showed up to make Foo's acquaintance.

Our duo drove out to Auke Lake and Auke Bay and enjoyed the view despite low cloud cover and fading light. A Mongolian BBQ dinner at Wild Spice with a Cookie Dough gelato finale would find Foo hare-o-tonic (as opposed to catatonic) and asleep by 9:00pm.

Tuesday morning found Foo and Bob sipping lattes at Silverbow Bagels at 6:30am. More adventures and a little schooling on Mendenhall Glacier later...

The Foo has Landed (Juneau Adventure)

The Bunny Bon Mot goes Urban

The next time you find yourself in a situation where you don't understand a slang word, don't get snarky—just bust out your pimped-out Sidekick.

Translation: Visit the Bunny Blogs daily for your urban word-of-the-day.
..................................................
tops
(Aussie, Irish, Scottish slang)
Fantastic. Wonderful.

Ahh she's tops mate. Reeaaal tops.

Funny, this doesn't look like Alaska

Delays out of San Jose, a first class upgrade, a sketchy Juneau weather forecast, 4 meal vouchers, one hotel room and 12 hours later—Foo finds herself only as far as Seattle.

Juneau Foo

Foo field report: en route to Juneau, Alaska. Although rumor has it Foo will be stuck in Seattle for the night.

Noteworthy: Alaska is a unique state at the northern most point of the United States. Although not connected to the lower 48's—Alaskans seem to like it that way. If not for the fact that they couldn't possibly defend themselves, they would be their own little country.

You know you're an Alaskan when 40 seems balmy.

Adventures at the Dentist

Normally I wouldn't consider a trip to the dentist blog-worthy, but when a routine teeth cleaning turns into 7 visits culminating in a mouth splint as the grand finale, I'd say that's worth writing about.

Let me clarify something right now. Yes, I brush my teeth. Yes, I am familiar with—and quite fond of dental floss. I'm even enamored with my dentist who tells the same bad jokes and hums an impressive repertoire of easy listening tunes while drilling out bits of my teeth.

This whole thing started back in August when I enthusiastically shoveled a forkful of scramble into my mouth and chipped my front tooth in the process—a bent fork tine the culprit for my disfigurement. After hours of assessing the damage with my tongue, I finally called and made an appointment. Monday morning couldn't come soon enough.

Sure enough, the day arrived and at 8:30am I'm reclined and ready. By 8:45 my smile is restored and I'm given the thumbs up to attack apples with abandon. So when a teeth cleaning was highly encouraged at 8:50 (of which I was reminded I was 8 months overdue), I agreed with something akin to enthusiasm.

Before I bore you to tears, I'll cut to the chase: I grind my teeth. I clench my jaw. Apparently I'm so stressed out that I grind out fillings with relative ease. I'm so stressed out that I've created enough fissures to host a compound of cavities. Given my zeal for dental hygiene, it was a rather depressing report card from Dr. Warden, who had notably stopped humming Whitney Houston to give me the update.

Last Thursday marked the last of the drilling and filling. Now it's on to the mouth splint, a device I'm certain will conjure up distant memories of being shamed into wearing a headgear because my two front teeth couldn't agree on a direction.

Oy.

Pumpkin Patch Foo

Just 14 days until Halloween...
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). For Pagan Foo, it's more about wearing a tarty nurse costume and the perfect excuse to buy $75 worth of candy when $5 would do.

Bon Mot: quotidian

quotidian \kwoh-TID-ee-uhn\, adjective:
Occurring or returning daily.

Like brushing your teeth, a quotidian bunny
bon mot is a good thing.

Let's get to the root of it: Quotidian is from Latin quotidianus, from quotidie, "daily," from quotus, "how many, as many, so many" + dies, "day."

Bon Mot: impervious

impervious \im-PUR-vee-uhs\, adjective:

Ms. Foo is tremorproof, fireproof and impervious to even the most powerful tornado—well, at least in her bunny brain she is.

• Not admitting of entrance or passage through; impenetrable.
• Not capable of being harmed or damaged.
• Not capable of being affected.

Let's get to the root: Impervious comes from Latin impervius, from in-, "not" + pervius, with a way through, hence penetrable, from per-, through + via, way.

Bento Bunny

Try as I might, I've never been able to embrace raw fish as a way to titillate my tastebuds. Watching Bear Grylls chomp into a live trout on "Man vs Wild" hasn't helped further my cause, yet I'm still curious as to what the hub bub is all about.

Perhaps my Midwest roots prevent me from making sushi a lunchtime adventure. Heck, it's only been recently that I've expanded into the wild and wacky world of fruits and vegetables. Who knew all that colorful sustenance was lurking in the outer rims of the grocery store. "Hello edamame! Nice to meet you Mr. Radish—you're looking rather tangy today."

However, it's Friday which means one thing: pan-fried buns with the boys. Futomaki is the furthest thing from our minds.

"Thank goodness!" says poor Mr. Fishy.
"Is it time for lunch yet?" quizzes Mama Foo.

Bon Mot: slake

slake \SLAYK\, transitive verb:

After a rather rough week, Foo was slaked into submission.

• To satisfy; to quench; to extinguish; as, to slake thirst.
• To cause to lessen; to make less active or intense; to moderate; as, slaking his anger.
• To cause (as lime) to heat and crumble by treatment with water.
• To become slaked; to crumble or disintegrate, as lime.
  
  Let's get to the root: Slake comes from Middle English slaken, "to become or render slack," hence "to abate," from Old English slacian, from slæc, "slack."

If Foo were a Spiritual Axiom

Tahoe Footos have been posted

(psst: click on the picture to see the gallery)

Peaklet Bagging in Tahoe

Aahhh...Tahoe in the Fall: the crisp mountain air, the quivering golden leaves of the Aspen trees and the siren song of one last run up the mountain before the snow hits. This idyllic scenario blown to bits the day before with a respectable dumping of snow in the Sierras.

But what a difference 24 hours makes. Early morning surveillance would reveal clear skies and optimal conditions for a frontal assault up Dick's Peak—a mountain top clearly begging to be bagged by a threesome and a finger puppet named Foo.

Our summit team would consist of 4: Mama Foo, Irish "Annie" Colleen, "Bobcat" Bob and our mascot—Ms. Foo herself. Sadly, we would have to leave Dave and Steve behind at the Waffle Hut to ponder how to expend their overabundance of carbohydrates.

The bullet: 4" of snow to trailblaze, 8 solid hours and 12 miles of rocky terrain to hike, 1 sunburned neck, 3000' vertical gain—and a wise decision to bail at Dick's 9500' Peaklet instead of the summit which hovers a skosh under 10000' at 9974'. Safety tip: getting down the mountain safely is just as important as getting to the top.

But Bunny will be back to bag this peak, even if it's the last notch on her belt. To be continued next Spring...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Word from our ham radio expert (Les in Palo Alto) came late last night, "Did you know the Sierras had the largest accumlation of snow on this date in recorded history!?" It was hard to disagree as we watched the snowflakes dance madly against a whitecapped Lake Tahoe; wind thrumming an angry tune.

Earlier in the day, 4 of us would tackle the Susie Lake Trail, an 8-mile hike through beautiful country. Although, I'm not willing to fully commit to this adjective as we were shrouded in fog cover and cloaked in snow flurries for much of the hike.

Today, weather and snow-depth permitting, we make our second assault on Dick's Peak.