Mmm

Its the first day of fall, and after today there are only 2 workdays left in the week.

I can go home after work tonight and get a jump on homework. I'm adapting well to things this semester and as usual, found myself doing more than necessary (i.e. causing more stress than necessary). Almost 1 month down and 2 more to go. Having yesterday off from work definitely helped me to feel a bit more grounded. I'm hoping tonight to go for a walk in the cool fall air with Brian - its been a while.

This weekend we'll be building a float for a halloween parade and will go apple picking. I'm looking forward to cider donuts and baking pies. I'm looking forward to sweaters, and colored leaves, and hiking, and pumpkin guts up to my elbows. I'm looking forward to sitting in a candlelit room drinking tea and snuggling with Brian while we gaze at our new "woodstove" and talk about life. Later on I'm looking forward to gathering with friends (even if it is fricken cold out) in a similar atmosphere.

This is what living in New England is about, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. :)

So I'm a big dork, but

I've been pondering what to do about a few issues we have with our den. One, we can't fit as many people in there as we'd like to. A large chunk of the room is taken up by our bunny cage.

Two, our bunny house smells. Our last one in Framingham had a similar problem - they would pee by accident outside of their litter box (spray over the edge) and the wood would get soaked. The smell would never go away. We replaced the wood floor a few times, but we couldn't do that every time it happened (it was a 4x6 foot sheet of plywood - awkward and pricy to replace all the time). When Brian built our bunny condo here we tried something different - the floors are plywood BUT its covered by carpet that's backed by rubber (it was a runner you'd use in an office building or something). Of course, they peed on it. The wood underneath is probably OK (i.e. that's why we got that kind of carpet) but now the carpet is smelly. Its going to be a pain to replace it too.

So I was thinking on the way home in the car - what if we sucked up the cost and bought one of those fancy bunny condos? We looked at this before, but you can't find them retail (and most rabbit cages have a wire bottom and/or are pretty small - that's the reason why I wouldn't go with a multi-level ferret cage). If we took out the bun house that's there we could move the couch back a few feet. We could put a purchased bun condo on the large wall that doesn't have anything against it now (assuming pushing the couch back would allow the space for this). Then we'd have more room in front of the couch for peeps, and we'd have a cage with a plastic bottom that would be easy to clean if they had an accident.

I start googling - drool http://www.leithpetwerks.com/ . I think one of the 2 level condos would serve our needs. We could also finally pet-proof the room and let them run around in it when we are around to supervise (utilizing the dutch door as we plannned to - closing the bottom to keep out the cat but having the top open to still be social if one of us was elsewhere in the house. These condos are expensive though - they also need to be shipped (and the thing weighs around 70 lbs). I'm wondering, for our noses (and my allergies) and for our movie night sake, should we just suck it up?

I need to discuss with Brian of course, but it gives something to research at least!